Summary
- The newly-released Willy’s Wonderland game allows players to fight back against animatronics in a 2.5D beat ’em up.
- While the Willy’s movie drew comparisons to Five Nights At Freddy’s, the game deviates from FNAF’s survival gameplay.
- The game is out now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
The Nic Cage-led Willy’s Wonderland movie now has its own video game, but it’s nothing like the Five Nights At Freddy’s games thought to inspire Willy’s. The 2021 movie appeared to share a similar premise to the popular FNAF franchise – although its filmmaker, G.O Parsons, stated any similarities were purely coincidental, and it was inspired by restaurants such as Chuck E. Cheese, with the original idea coming about in 2015 just before the first FNAF game was released – but with one key difference: Nic Cage’s mute janitor could fight back against the deadly animatronic creatures that thought they were hunting him, resulting in an array of violent carnage.
Brazilian developer QUByte Interactive has adapted the Willy’s Wonderland premise into a 2.5D side-scrolling beat ’em up title. In the new game, players can take control of either The Janitor or Liv, a teenager set on burning down the animal-themed restaurant, or team up in local co-op to play as both. While all of the animatronics from the film do appear, such as Tito Turtle, Siren Sara, Arty Alligator, Cammy Chameleon, and Willy Weasel, they will also be commanding further hordes of evil beings for the humans to fight.
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Despite Sharing Similarities To FNAF’s Premise, Willy Wonderland Is Extremely Different
The Two Games Have Very Different Gameplay
As the Willy’s Wonderland movie and game departed from the Five Nights At Freddy’s series by having its human protagonist able to hold their own against the animatronic threats, it makes sense that its tie-in game would do the same. Whereas the original Five Nights At Freddy’s games were point-and-click survival titles in which players would assume the role of a night security guard who would use monitors to figure out where the killer animatronics could attack from, this wouldn’t have made much sense in the world of Willy’s Wonderland.
Willy’s Wonderland‘s Janitor would explore the restaurant more freely while doing their job and restoring it to its former glory. He didn’t serve the role of security, so he would take his breaks playing pinball and drinking sodas – and, at one point, bursting into dance – instead. Therefore, the idea of more of a beat ’em up title does make sense for the movie tie-in, even though it does lose some of the horror influences of the film by having the human characters take on the animatronics with ease through the use of special techniques and powerful abilities.
A version of the Willy’s Wonderland game was released for mobile devices in 2021, but is no longer available. As per a press release from QUByte Interactive, the new title, available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch has been “revamped” and promises more of a big-screen gaming experience. Players can purchase the game now.
