Remember that big indie game fad from like six years ago? Five Nights at Freddy’s? Well, it’s still alive and kicking, and while the newest game in the series isn’t due to release for another two weeks, all of the previous titles have now made their way out of the PC market and onto consoles.
Enter the FNAF Core Collection. It contains the four numbered titles in the series, as well as Sister Location, my favourite non-VR FNAF game. This little bundle runs for just under $45 Hoser Dollars on Amazon, which is actually cheaper than buying the digital versions of all five games from the Nintendo eShop or Playstation Store or what have you.
We all know that I’m a big ol’ FNAF fanboy, so why haven’t I purchased this yet? Well… it’s mostly because these games are definitely designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind. You can play them with a controller -I bought and played Sister Location on my Switch- but it just doesn’t work quite as well as it needs to. A mouse is just a lot more effective when you need to direct a cursor around the screen or toggle a large number of buttons quickly. On the upside, the console controls include shortcut buttons for some actions that used to be executed exclusively by the mouse, so the whole control scheme thing ends up being a mixed bag.
I have another major gripe with this collection, though. It’s called the “core collection”, but only includes five of the six/seven core games. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator is suspiciously missing from the bundle, and it’s huge omission, since it’s effectively the end of the original FNAF plot line. Ultimate Custom Night is missing as well, and while it’s less of a problem from a story standpoint since it’s just an epilogue, it’s still a “core” FNAF title and probably should be included.
So while I really would like to have this game case among my collection, I simply can’t justify it. There’s at least one game missing, and I don’t think that console is necessarily the best way to play the games that are included. If an amended version is ever released that does include Pizzeria Simulator, however…