Nerve

Nerves are robotic children used as the primary objective in the Monsters, Inc. Scream Team video game.

Background
Within the Monsters, Inc. universe, human children are believed to be toxic to monsters. As such, for health and safety reasons, child-scaring simulators such as Scare Island use robotic substitutes that can respond to a monster's attempts at scaring it, and scream appropriately. While most such robots are physically attached to their beds, Nerves are able to move freely around the facility, with some even engaging in the same activities as real children, such as rope-jumping or snowball fights.

Gameplay Functions
Each level in the game has eight Nerves hidden within it. These Nerves are color-coded to indicate their difficulty, with blue being the easiest and red being the hardest. Before scaring a Nerve, the player must collect enough cans of Primordial Ooze within the level to fill the section of their Fright Meter of the same color. For instance, the player needs 10 cans to scare a blue Nerve, but needs 100 cans to scare a red Nerve. If the player tries to scare a Nerve without sufficient Ooze, it will laugh and the message "Not enough Ooze!" will appear. Once they have enough Ooze, however, the player can start scaring the Nerve by pressing the Circle button while standing near them.

Once in Scare Mode, the player must repeatedly press whatever button is displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen to fill up the Scream Canister. The buttons will cycle randomly between the Circle, Square and Triangle buttons, but the first button is always Circle. If the player does not press the button frequently enough, or does not press the correct button at all, the Canister will start to empty. The player will exit Scare Mode prematurely if the canister goes completely empty, or if an enemy damages them mid-scare, forcing them to start over. When the canister is almost full, the light on the Nerve's head will turn yellow and a siren will sound, at which point the player must press the X button to use a "Finishing Scare". If done successfully, the Nerve will give one final scream, before falling over and powering down, officially adding it to the "Nerves Scared" counter.

Earning the Bronze Medal from any given level requires the player to scare a minimum of five Nerves within that level. Scaring all eight Nerves awards the Gold Medal. This is impossible on the player's first visit, however, as there is always one red Nerve that will not appear until the Silver Medal is earned, which requires the collection of all 10 Monster Tokens within the level. Some Tokens, and even some red Nerves, are inaccessible without the use of Monster Enhancements such as Trampolines, Speed Boost Arrows and Flingshots, which are each unlocked for every four Bronze Medals the player earns.