Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.25 Update

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted is a thrilling compilation of both classic and brand-new mini-games set in the infamous Five Nights universe. Embark on heart-pumping adventures and survive terrifying encounters with your favorite killer animatronics in a collection of old and new FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S™ experiences. “Where fantasy and fun come to life!”

This is a 2019 virtual reality survival horror video game developed by Steel Wool Studios and published by ScottGames. It is the eighth main game in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, following Ultimate Custom Night, and the ninth installment overall. It presents itself as “The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience”, produced for the fictitious corporative entity Fazbear Entertainment to help improve its public image after a series of debilitating lawsuits, following several incidents and disasters that allegedly occurred at their various locations.

Congratulations, you’re hired! It’s time to get your hands dirty repairing claustrophobic ventilation systems, troubleshooting broken animatronics that could activate at any moment, or spending your evenings cowering in the nighttime security guard office. Get ready to confront your favorite killer animatronics, including the iconic Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Springtrap, The Mangle, Funtime Foxy, and Circus Baby.

But wait, there’s more! Earn super fun prizes like toys, plushies, bobbleheads, and candy, candy, candy at the interactive Prize Counter. And if you’re up for a challenge, collect hidden Faz-Tokens to unlock even more rare collectibles for endless fun. Experience scenes from classic titles that have been updated and remade for a fully immersive experience, including Five Nights at Freddy’s, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location. Get ready for the ultimate pizza party.

GAMEPLAY

The game contains forty playable minigames, which can be accessed from the game’s hub. Many of these minigames recreate the mechanics of the previous games in the series, with their controls adapted to be better suited for a 3D virtual environment. The minigames are divided into groups by game of origin, and sorted by increasing difficulty. In all minigames, losing results in a jumpscare. The original Five Nights at Freddy’s inspires five minigames that recreate each of the game’s five nights (levels).

Situated in a security guard’s office, the player must survive a full night shift by conserving power and avoiding attacks from four animatronics, which can be observed through security cameras. All visuals of the game are updated from 2D renders to 3D models, and all buttons and controls are laid out around the 3D office for the player to physically interact with. For example, the camera feed, which previously obscured the player’s entire screen, is displayed on a monitor on the player’s desk.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 are adapted similarly, with updated visuals and concrete UI. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 inspires six minigames. The Night Terrors minigames adapt the gameplay of its main levels, in which the player must ward off animatronics from entering their bedroom by strategically opening and closing the doors. Some of these minigames allow the player to move by “teleporting” to different locations within view, a common VR locomotion method.

The first level features Funtime Freddy, the second level features Nightmarionne, the third level features Circus Baby, and the fourth level features Nightmare Fredbear. The original game’s “Fun with Plushtrap” and “Fun with Balloon Boy” minigames are adapted as Dark Rooms minigames, in which the player must use a flashlight to locate the animatronic around an unlit area. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location inspires nine minigames. The Parts & Service minigames require the player to perform maintenance on animatronics by opening compartments and swapping parts around their bodies, this time around done on Bonnie, Chica, Freddy, and Foxy.

Vent Repair takes place in a maintenance shaft, in which the player must solve puzzles by flipping levers and pressing buttons while repelling animatronics with a headlamp, mainly Mangle and Ennard. One Dark Rooms game, featuring Funtime Foxy, is also adapted from Sister Location. Winning each minigame in normal difficulty unlocks its counterpart in Blacklight Mode, an advanced difficulty mode that adds visual and/or auditory distractions to each game (e.g. balloons floating around the room, loud music playing, et cetera).

Winning all minigames in both difficulty modes unlocks one final minigame, Pizza Party. Unlike the other minigames, Pizza Party is a maze that utilizes teleporting movement, similar to Night Terrors, and features items from various levels along with many of the animatronics in the game in some rooms. Collectible coins and cassette tapes are hidden throughout the various minigames. Collecting coins unlocks virtual toys that can be played with at the in-game Prize Counter while collecting tapes unlocks audio logs that the player can listen to.

PLOT

Fazbear Entertainment has not become extremely popular, due to several incidents and disasters that allegedly occurred at their various locations over the years, which have been established as urban legends. The problem is aggravated by a horror video game series based on the legends, created by an unnamed indie developer. In an attempt to overturn the bad reputation these rumors gave the company.

Fazbear Entertainment commissioned the “Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience”, a virtual reality game meant to make light of the rumors and convince players that those events were completely fictitious. However, this narrative is contradicted by sixteen cassette tapes hidden throughout the game, which contain logs recorded by one of the game’s developers.

Meant as a warning for future players, the tapes expose a lawsuit happening during the game’s development, involving an incident with a past employee, Jeremy, that put the game’s completion in jeopardy. In addition, the tapes reveal that Fazbear Entertainment hired the unnamed indie developer to create the video game series based on the alleged legends.

Before cutting ties with him; the games were part of an elaborate ploy to discredit the rumors surrounding the company. Most importantly, the tapes warn of a malicious code that was uploaded to the game from an old circuit board. This code takes the form of a sinister character known as Glitchtrap, who appears as a humanoid in a rabbit costume. Glitchtrap is ultimately revealed to be attempting to escape from the game by merging with the player.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted contains four endings, depending on the player’s choice:

• Upon completing all thirty-nine levels and playing the final level “Pizza Party”, the player will enter a dark room with animatronics and a tape. Glitchtrap will appear and gesture for the player to follow him behind a curtain. After doing so, the player will appear on a stage as Freddy Fazbear while a show starts, implying they were stuffed into an animatronic like the original murdered children, while Glitchtrap is seen dancing gleefully in the background.
• If the player follows the tapes’ instructions, they will be taken to a room with handprints and scratches all over it. Glitchtrap will appear on the other side of a door, shushing the player before backing up into the darkness. After this, the player will receive a Glitchtrap plush. Upon completing the secret ending of the Curse of Dreadbear Corn Maze, where they receive a rabbit mask, putting on the mask and grabbing the plush triggers a new conversation between the player and the plush. The player, who is later revealed to be a beta tester named Vanessa, tells the plush that no one suspects anything, assuring him that she won’t let him down, completing Glitchtrap’s control of Vanny.
• If the player fails to follow the tapes’ instructions, they and Glitchtrap will body-swap, with the player being in Glitchtrap’s place.
• If the player completes the Princess Quest level, exclusive to the mobile port of the game, the player’s avatar, the Princess, confronts a monstrous form of Glitchtrap, who distortedly says “I always come back. Let me out.”

After the non-VR version was released, there was a door in a level that led to a snowy Christmas tree farm. In the distance, there is a silhouette of a large building being constructed by Fazbear Entertainment, with a nearby billboard showing that they are now hiring.