Has Five Nights At Freddy’s Ruined Horror Games?

There’s no doubt that Five Nights at Freddy’s made a splash within the horror genre with the release of the first game back in 2014, and now its many games, books, and the movie, have cemented the franchise as a household name. Its impact is so strong that mascot horror has become its own video game genre, with plenty of games following in FNAF‘s footsteps in hopes of a glimpse of the series’ success.

Bendy and the Ink Machine, the Poppy Playtime series, and Amanda the Adventurer are just a few of the mascot horrors that have followed on from FNAF, blending child-friendly esthetics and characters with jumpscares and deeply unsettling storylines. Five Nights at Freddy’s pioneered the genre, but now it’s become an oversaturated market that could well be doing more harm than good for horror games.

Horror Games Are Losing What Makes Them Fun

FNAF’s Success Has Had A Major Impact

Five Nights at Freddy’s started as a truly great horror franchise offering a deep, lore-fuelled story that fans are still trying to figure out even a decade later. Big content creators, such as Markiplier and TheGameTheorist‘s MatPat, helped drive popularity of the game over the years, amassing millions of views on YouTube for their playthroughs and lore videos. As popularity grew and grew, series creator Scott Cawthon was given more responsibility to provide more.

Over the years, the franchise’s story has become more and more complex and hard to follow, possibly due to Cawthon struggling to compete with such impressive and far-fetched fan theories on his characters and world. The situation got infinitely more complex with the books and the movie, which throw the timeline into disarray and still have fans arguing over what’s canon and what’s not.

Too Many Games Are Trying To Be FNAF

Poppy Playtime Is One Key Example

Despite this, the immense success of the franchise has seen plenty of other games try to dominate in mascot horror. Poppy Playtime is perhaps one of the most successful, going on to spawn three mainline games, with a fourth releasing next year. Like FNAF, Poppy is also popular with younger children, and has plenty of merchandise as well. Comparing the two series, Five Night Freddy’s general premise followed the idea that its animatronics were possessed by murdered children. When looking at Poppy Playtime, it becomes clear that the toys in PlayTime Co are also children, but more physically, making the toys organically from their bodies.

It’s hard not to compare Poppy and FNAF with their creepy-but-cute mascot characters and this repeated focus on death and murder. To some extent, Poppy loses its originality. Today’s horror games are centered on children’s entertainment industries, with Five Nights at Freddy’s as an entertainment restaurant and Poppy Playtime as a toy factory. Amanda The Adventurer is similar, focusing on a child-friendly setting and child’s perspective. Indigo Park, another new horror game, is set in an amusement park for children with animatronic mascots, perhaps also taking inspiration from the trope.

The Future Still Looks Bright for Horror Games

Indigo Park Shows How It Should Be Done

The oversaturation of the indie horror mascot genre is starting to kill the uniqueness in horror plots and the enjoyment behind the gameplay. Players are encountering similar enemies, jumpscares, and – to some extent – similar story elements. But that doesn’t mean every new mascot horror is a copy-paste of what came before.

Indigo Park has been breaking the mold since its release in May 2024. The free Chapter 1 is currently rated as “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam, with users praising the gameplay and scares. On the surface, it may look similar to Poppy Playtime, but the developer has taken a unique approach to the plot, leaving deep mystery. Although the mascots display consciousness, they are different from the in-game humans, resorting to their animal traits. Indigo Park gives hope to genre fans that mascot horror games can bring back their individual uniqueness without relying on Five Nights At Freddy’s.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Created by

Scott Cawthon

Character(s)

Freddy Fazbear , Bonnie (FNAF) , Chica (FNAF) , Foxy (FNAF) , Springtrap (FNAF) , Balloon Boy (FNAF) , Mike Schmidt

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