Mascot Horror has been on the rise and increasing in popularity since the 2010’s, after the incredible success of Five Nights at Freddy’s. This spawned several other popular franchises, all looking to chase that same feeling of dread, complex lore and cutesy characters filled with trauma looking to take it all out in little ol’ you. Well, having spent years watching other people play and talk about the lore of Poppy Playtime (and considering the first chapter is available for free, a model that clearly is working for the developers!) I finally decided to put on my big boy pants and take the plunge.
We are a nameless, faceless employee returning to the long abandoned toy factory of Playtime Co, once the most prolific toymaker in the world and responsible for making the incredible doll Poppy Playtime (wait a sec!) They market her as a real life doll, able to communicate with children in real time and answer their questions. And her hair smells like poppies too, how nice! None of that is very pressing at this moment though. We’re told that there are people still in the factory, and our job is to go back and find both them, and a large poppy flower.
So back we go, against probably our better judgement, and instantly we are put on edge. A VHS in front of us tells us that we’re trespassing, and that security systems will activate alongside… other things… if we decide to proceed. Well, that’s not stopping us. One quick puzzle later, we get ourselves the main puzzle solving tool of Poppy Playtime; the GrabPack. It’s simply a box of wire with two arm attachments (we only start with one) that we must use to navigate the factory by pressing buttons and switches, as well as a few other functions we don’t have yet.
With this tool acquired, we finally see the main toy of this chapter.. Huggy Wuggy, in all his fluffy glory. Huggy looked extremely uncanny, and put me on guard immediately as I walked towards him. He held a key I needed to use to get myself into the next room – and even as I took it, knowing he wouldn’t move, a breath still caught in my throat. This, more than anything for me, is Poppy Playtime’s greatest strength. Remember, I’ve been following the lore on this game for ages. I’ve seen it played, discussed it to death. I know what’s gonna happen and when. And despite all that… it still puts me on the edge of my seat in worry, and makes me catch a breath in panic.
Another few quick puzzles later and we find ourselves face to face with Huggy – except now he’s got rows of sharp teeth and bloodthirsty appetite. We have a brief chase with Huggy, with one wrong move meaning death by adorableness. I got so stressed during this particular chase that even my smartwatch buzzed, telling me my heart rate had gone far too high and that I needed to move if I could. Fairly funny, in hindsight, but also proof of the kind of atmosphere games like this can have.
Even with my prior knowledge of the layout and knowing what was going on, this chapter took me just under forty minutes to complete. That might not seem like an awful lot of time, and you could fairly critique that, but for me, it means Poppy Playtime doesn’t overextend its welcome. It comes in, sets up the rest of the game perfectly, and then leaves again, all before you know or can really understand what it is that we’ve just played and need to process.
I highly, highly recommend you give Poppy Playtime a go. If Five Nights at Freddy’s was your jam, you’ll especially love this. Poppy Playtime is currently on its fifth chapter release, with at least one more on the way. I’m seriously looking forward to it!
Poppy Playtime is listed on Steam, Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation store fronts with each chapter being an individual download. It is FREE to download on Steam, which you can find here;