Friday Night Funkin'

Friday Night Funkin' Reviewed

We love dancing and music games in our family. Friday Night Funkin is a great free rhythm game where you press buttons in time with music tracks like the classic Dance Dance Revolution machines found in the 1990s arcade. The kids love it because it's silly and retro and I like the fact that it has a fan-made feel rather than the commercial dance games that cost a lot of money.

Review by FamilyGamingDatabase.

How to Play Friday Night Funkin’

The main movement in Friday Night Funkin’ is to follow the colored arrows that scroll up and down the screen. Watch for when stationary markers overlap, and press the matching arrow key (or WASD keys) as soon as you see them overlap. Seems simple enough, but the first few rounds will have you questioning your rhythm.

With every successful match, Boyfriend gets to sing. With every arrow you miss, Boyfriend’s health score drops, quickly hurting his chances of surviving, let alone winning. When you actually get to battle, this is your time to shine and belt out the tunes. If you’re not familiar with music battles, they're similar to any other type of duel competition, but with a twist: your weapons are your words and tunes. You take turns with the opponent, and sometimes you sing together in unison.

You will hear classic songs like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, and the objective is to sustain as many notes as possible, holding the arrows, sometimes for their entire duration. You can add variety, which is recommended, as it will boost your score if performed well. Get it wrong, and you will feel the heat on stage.

Difficulty Levels

Depending on your skill level as a digital singer, you can choose from three levels of difficulty in Friday Night Funkin’: easy, normal, and hard.

The more complex the level, the faster the arrows and the sequences become.

Friday Night Funkin' Game Modes

The demo version of Friday Night Funkin’ includes:

Story Mode. This mode takes you on a music battle journey with themed “weeks” of music, each featuring three or more songs against a pretty unique opponent. To win a week, you must clear all its tracks in a row.

Free Play. This mode lets you practice individual songs so you can get some solo time in the studio to get ready for the more important battles.

Friday Night Funkin' Story Mode

In Story Mode, you will follow Boyfriend on a weekly basis. He wants to win Girlfriend’s heart, but first must prove himself over time. Each week is designed with its own setting, opponent style, and themed soundtrack.

• Week 1: Daddy Dearest, Girlfriend’s rockstar father.
• Week 2: Skid & Pump, costumed kids from the Newgrounds series Spooky Month.
• Week 3: Pico, an old Newgrounds mascot and Boyfriend’s hinted ex.
• Week 4: Mommy Mearest, Girlfriend’s pop-star mother.
• Week 5: A Christmas mall showdown with both parents and a sinister monster.
• Week 6: Senpai, a cursed character in a retro dating sim setting.
• Week 7: Tankman, a military parody character with sharp humor.
• Weekend 1: Pico takes the spotlight against Darnell, complete with animated cutscenes.

Health and Scoring

You have a health gauge at the bottom of the screen with a “tug-of-war” health bar. The more notes you get, the more the bar pushes toward your side. The more notes you lose, the more the bar swings toward your rival. Lose all your health, and the song ends with your head hung low. However, if you survive the track, hold it high, because that will win you the round.

Now, if you know anything about performing in front of people, you know that a good performance is not about “surviving on stage” but about thriving. Each note in Friday Night Funkin’ has a score based on how accurately the note was held. Hit the note perfectly, and expect a “sick” score.

Some songs are easier than others, so take advantage of those to rack up your scores. However, you will be rewarded generously for the more difficult songs.

Strategies and Tips

• Use both hands to manage all the controls. Split the controls between left and right hands to hit simultaneous notes. Imagine dancing with only one foot. It’s not gonna win you a competition.
• Follow the patterns, and focus less on the arrows. When you need to mirror an opponent’s sequence, this will help.
• Follow the rhythm. Every song has a strong beat or melody. Let the rhythm guide your timing instead of relying only on visuals.
• Practice in Free Play. This is a lifesaver when it comes to more difficult songs. Practice them at a lower difficulty to master them.

Friday Night Funkin’ Music

Composed by Kawai Sprite, Friday Night Funkin’s soundtrack will have you moving and grooving in your swivel chair from the get-go. Each week brings a distinct style of music from funky hip-hop to spooky organ synths, electro-pop club beats, and even militaristic chiptune rock. This is a crash course in funk.

You may be familiar with a few of the tracks, like “M.I.L.F” and “Ugh” that became a viral sensation online.

Ongoing Development

FNF is an open-source game with an active development community and plenty of fan-made mods that expand the gameplay. In addition to mods made by avid fans, the developers recently added week 7 to the game and plan on turning it into a 'full-ass game' at some point in the future.

Friday Night Funkin is not available on mobile devices yet, but it will be at some point in the future since the Kickstarter got funded! This version of the game is open-source on GitHub and available under the Apache 2.0 license.

More Games Like This

Rhythm games are great fun to play solo or with your friends. The mechanics are simple, and whether you succeed often depends on your sense of rhythm and visual cues. If you enjoyed this game, you can browse our selection of casual games or try Geometry Dash, another tricky game where following rhythmic cues is essential.

You can also check out fun games like Snow Rider or World's Hardest Game.

Features

• Original music with a range of influences from nu-jazz to Vocaloid dance beats
• Extensive career mode with plenty of unique characters
• Various difficulty modes are available to suit your rhythmic ability
• Cool 90s B-Boy visuals
• Also known as FNF

Release Date

November 2020

Developers

• ninjamuffin99 - Programmer
• PhantomArcade3K and Evilsk8r - Art
• Kawai Sprite - Musician

You can support the developers here.

Platform

Web browser

Controls

• WASD or arrow keys to play
• + and - to increase/decrease the volume
• 0 to mute
• Enter to select
• ESC to go back

License

Apache 2.0

Gameplay Video