Five Nights at Freddies is a popular game that has done well over the years, so of course getting a board game adaptation is something that makes sense and can keep interest and can continue to bring the game to life! Night of Frights! Game is a two to four player game where you get to travel around the venue, playing as one of the animatronic characters who haunt the place.
The game has a board which is divided into rooms. You and the other animatronic players start off in the main dining area with the security camera. This camera can also move, but only when an action card is played to do so. Each player also gets three (or four, if they play as a specific character) action cards. There is a secondary counter where tokens of each player are face down, and once they earn Scare points, they can become face up and then become more powerful in that counter.
On your turn, you must always start by placing two food tokens on the map. These tokens sit in a pile by the board, face down. You need to randomly pick them, and then put them in the appropriate room based on the number on the time. If you forget this step, anyone can shout “party time” to remind you, gaining one food item fortheir inventory. In our group, after two rounds of Party Time, there was no forgetting the food tokens in Night of Frights! Game.
Then, you need to decide what four actions you are going to take. You can pick to take more actions more than once, but if you are in a security camera room, the only action you can take first is moving out. Other than moving to a new room, you can also pick up all food in the room you are in for one action, you can play an action card, or if you are in room one or two, you can attack the guard room, which I will explain in a moment.
When it comes to attacking the security room, you must have your character in room one or two, which are directly by the security room. You will then get to pick tiles from a paper bag, equal to the number of scares you have on your scare table. If you pick out a badge, you have won, however, if you do not, you will then flip your character over and need to gain more scares before you can try again — unless you have maxed out the board, in which case you can fight again if you’d like. If you have failed to fight, you will get to draw up to your hand in action cards, ready to play again.
Action cards have a variety of features like gaining a food item, moving the camera, and hopping to specific rooms (like an odd room or an even room). They aren’t played too often, but when they are, they can really help with getting your scare points. These points are gained by delivering items to a room with the same requirements. Delivering items does not cost an action, which is a nice touch, but you do need to follow exactly what that room wants; two pizzas, three different foods, three of the same foods, etc.
Each character in Night of Frights! Game has their own special ability as well. One character has an extra action card in their hand. Another can move without using an action if they have picked up an item. One character has a special token which means they can keep the cake food item instead of handing it in.
Night of Frights! Game isn’t a particularly long game and is pretty easy to understand and play. The game itself has a bit of strategy around it, as you dot your way around the board and try to make your scare points add up. Once people start drawing from the bag, however, there is sudden pressure for you to also start attacking, and then moving the security camera so that a player must move out of that room becomes very powerful.
We quite liked our time with Night of Frights! Game, including those in our group who had not played Five Nights at Freddies. As someone who is well aware of both the video game and now the board game, I found it to be a neat interpretation of the game.
You can find Night of Frights! Game on Amazon.
Love both video games and board games? Here’s our list of some fantastic crossover games.
