Hello, folks. Philip Buchanon from Nyctodream Creations here. Formerly known as Nightshade Creations. Five Nights at Maggie's turned five years old this year... Pretty crazy shit, isn't it? Has it really been Five years since the first game was released and had its sequel? I mean, yea, time does feel slower and slower given current events and all that. Especially in 2020, but it's still hard to process at times. Anyway, to celebrate the anniversary of FNaM and the release of the new reboot of the first game, I decided to review and compare the two games. For this review, I will call the classic FNaM that was released in 2016 as "FNaM '16" and the reboot as "FNaM '21". Do not quote me on this by the off chance Manuel decides to make 16-21 FNaM games, especially since as of 2021, I don't think he will. In this game, I will be focusing on the plot, the gameplay, and the horror. Especially the last two. The plot will be the last thing I will cover since, uh, major hottake from me, I don't really enjoy the FNaM series THAT much for their lore. Yea, the new spin on the fnaf formula, the horror, and gameplay is what appeals to me when it comes to FNaM. So, without further ado, let's start with the original FNaM '16, and see how well it holds up today. Since this is probably my 4th time reviewing this game, I am gonna make this quick for FNaM '16.

Five Nights at Maggie's (2016)

Here we are with the game that started it all. Okay, not 100% true. There were 2D versions of FNaM 1-4 and... Okay, I should stress, I will be honest and blunt or harsh in this review when I deem it necessary. So just thought I would mention that, but I saw the original 2D versions and... I thought they looked like shit. Like, no really, they looked like they were MS Paint parodies of the main 4 FNaF games. Now, I know that is rich coming from me since I had and still use MS Paint to make graphics for my FNaF stuff, but these look like... Not good. I am not sure if these were real, but since I remember Manuel mentioning that he made a 2D FNaM one time, I guess this is it. Feel free to check it out if you wish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAXhk88sL-8 Now uh, onto the actual FNaM we will be discussing. So, Five Nights at Maggie's released... Some time in 2016. This game does nothing for me anymore. Like, I don't really enjoy this game much at all. Nowadays anyway, maybe back when this game was new I did, but that's mainly because I was a very young person who had no clear grasp on a concept known as "quality". Like, all that mattered was that if I had a somewhat functioning game, whether that be free or paid, I am happy with it. Nowadays, I am a lot more critical. So, what are my issues with this game? Well, let's start. FNaM '16 is structured as a typical FNaF fan game. You are set in stone in one room, you "need" to check the cameras for your "survival" (more on that later), and need to survive until 6 AM, do this for 5-7 in game nights and you win. Okay, we got that out of the way, now onto the actual gameplay... It's boring as hell. Let me explain, in FNaM '16, you have three hallways entering your office, all equipped with an electronic powered door you can activate to keep the animatronics out, the more doors you close, the faster your power drains, you can check the halls for any potential animatronic coming your way. Thing is, this isn't really challenging. Because your flashlight has unlimited battery, you can just press and hold F infinitely until something comes up in the halls. That and, the power recharges, and since the only thing occupying the power are the doors, meaning as long as you keep the doors open, that power ain't going anywhere. Oh sure, it drains MUCH faster than most power meters in your typical FNaF 1 styled game, but it doesn't mean so much when the power can recharge just as fast as it drains, it recharges the second it runs out too. Besides the small penalty of the doors opening automatically, you don't get much punishment out of it. Especially if you can manage your power well, which, if you are a FNaF veteran, which is very likely, you will. You can check the cameras in this game which... Serve no purpose whatsoever. Like, really, you can beat this game without ever turning on the cameras. Besides minor Easter Eggs of a character who would later reappear as a real enemy in FNaM 2-4, some drawings on the walls changing, things you wouldn't even know happen if you aren't checking the cams out of mere boredom, what urges you to use the cameras anyway? Nothing, just nothing. And honestly, this game kind of discourages it. Remember the air quotes on need and survival when mentioning the cameras earlier? Here is why. For one, the previously mentioned lack of any real use for the cams, two, the cameras contain nothing much to look at. The static filter applied to the cameras mixed with the incredibly dark aesthetics of the restaurant, make it hard for me to see anything in the cams. Not in a scary fear of the unknown kind of way, but the annoying disruptive kind of way. Lastly, trying to get to the cameras and leaving the cameras is clunky and janky. You know how in most fan games, the cameras can be accessed by either scrolling your mouse onto a camera button and that's it? Some try to be a bit more unique and make you have to manually click it, others already having the camera automatically in front of you and so on. Here? I don't know how, but Manuel picked one of the most unintuitive ways to access and leave the cameras. You have to go through a two step process to go to and leave the cams. You have to press a button located to your very right, and double click the camera tablet which is... Oddly just mounted in the wall behind you office? Okay, that makes sense (not). And to leave the cameras, you simply do the process in reverse. This may not seem so bad at first, but when you play it, you start to realise that you are just being prone to animatronic attacks, especially at later nights due to how unnecessarily slow it is to use the cameras. So not only are they useless, they cause more harm than good. Ouch. So, we have one more mechanic to talk about, the seal vent mechanic. You can click on a laptop to then ALSO click on it to temporarily seal the vents. You can also click the bottom part of the laptop to close it, but you have like, NO reason to. And it's not like there is a limit to how often you can seal the vent, no, as soon as the vent is unsealed, you can quickly click the laptop again to seal the vents. It's as if this game is scared to challenge me whatsoever. You can even tell if there is anything in the vent by listening to a very very loud metal clanging, and you can tell if the vent is sealed or not based on the colour of the text in the laptop. So, yea, cameras are not useful for that either. Okay, we are almost done with the gameplay, now onto Night 6 where we face off Cerdi. You know, I didn't bring much attention to this during my previous reviews, but these models do not look good. Like, the lighting in this game is pretty decent I won't lie, but the models are just... A mixed bag. Like, Maggie looks fine, Lola looks okay, Chanchi also looks okay, Guppy looks a little good. But they all have this... Blocky look to them? I know Manuel started to model them out of cubes as seen in the FNaM 2 extras, but they don't bother me TOO much... Except for Cerdi, who in my opinion, has the worst model in the entire game. He just looks like a typical broken hastily made animatronic with a very bland design, especially when compared to Maggie, Lola, and Chanchi. His gameplay isn't that great either. He is laughably the worst animaronic in the game, in Night 6 he is the only animmatronic active. Thing is, he goes through only 2 routes. The right door and the vent. Essentially, you can just do the same stratedgy of checking the doors and spamming the vent button, except it is easier here because you can just check the right door and spam the vent button and that is it. Doesn't help that Cerdi is not very active. From what I experienced, he is as active as a basic animatronic. Making Night 6 unintentionally easy. Okay, finally, we got the gameplay out. Now, onto the story... Well, I don't have an opinion on it. Mainly because the story, in context of what FNaM '16 shows us anyway, is just another typical FNaF story. After you beat a night, you play an 8bit arcade game which is filled with static, funny because arcade cabinets do not produce static. There's a fun fact for ya. Basically, from what they tell you, Cerdi, presumably being haunted lead a few kids to a back room, you play as the 3 main animatronics and follow Cerdi until he presumably kills the kids where they presumably go on to possess the main 3 animatronics. You are Steve Genaro... Steve... Genaro? Manuel Genaro... Wow- Anyway, you play as the guy and receive a letter from Maggie's Entertainment to work as the new hire. After Night 7 I think, Maggie's Magical World was shut down due to the missing kids incident and lack of sanitary shit and because Fazbear Entertainment and CTC Entertainment... Demanded it? Unless they were Maggie's Entertainment's parent companies I don't see why or how they would do that. Honestly, this just feels so tact in out of nowhere and just feels like meaningless fan service. So, yea, that is the story. Without context from FNaM 2-4, this story is just... Uninteresting. That and the following same can be said about the game. There is nothing, and I repeat, nothing that this game does that hasn't already been much better in other fan games, even by 2016 standards. Even at that time there were better fnaf fan game options over this. And in 2021? This game is even worse with how more fleshed out and original fan games are these days. FNaM '16... feels soulless. FNaM '16 does not have a soul, hence after this review, I am very likely not going back to it. There were only a total of THREE things I liked here. The movable credits in the extras menu, the ability to annoy the instructions telling you that you can move the credits until it crashes the game, that's fun. And the low poly 3D uncanny valley models of the environments. Like, you know how some people find low poly 3D or old/ancient things to be creepy? I kind of get that vibe here. But even then, I think FNaM 2 did that just as well. Really, there is 0 reason to play FNaM '16 these days. Play FNaM 2 or 4, play the Five Nights at Candy's series, or better yet the reboot released recently... Which we will be reviewing now.

Five Nights at Maggie's (2021)

Here we are, FNaM '21. I cannot even begin to tell you how hyped I was for this game. Sure, I didn't consider it to be my number 1 most anticipated game of 2020-2021, there was POPGOES: Evergreen and Metroid Dread I was looking more into (even tho the lather very likely wont come out soon). But anyways, FNaM '21 is a continuity reboot of the FNaM series. Meaning, it has a new story, new gameplay, reimagined/new/rewritten/redesigned characters, etc. So, yea, if you were expecting FNaM '16 with better graphics, more polish, and same gameplay... Tough shit. Wasn't there a remake being made by Dr. Kutejikashi called "The Curse of Maggie's" during FNaM 4's development? Was it cancelled? I tried looking them up and found nothing... Oh well. Hopefully someone else can resurface the project one day. Regardless, since FNaM '21 is a full on reboot and not a simple remake/remaster of FNaM '16, we have new gameplay and story. So let's dive into that. The fan game plays like a typical FNaF fan game, you are in a sit n survive the night style game and must survive 6 in game hours for 5-7 nights. Now onto the real differences. For one, the cameras are fixed in a computer screen in front of you, similar to how the cameras are like in POPGOES, or a better comparison, Those Nights at Rachel's since you control the cameras using the buttons on your keyboard. Not the biggest fan of this set up, not bullshitting anyone. This feels clunky and I'd rather be able to control the cameras with a mouse. But hey, this isn't TOO bad, for one, this beats doing a two step process of having to physically go to and leave the cameras, and secondly, there only 7 cameras. If it were 10 or more, I would dislike this but as it is, it's alright. The cameras look dark and washed out which, I am okay with. Cannonically, this game takes place in 1985, CCTVs were not THAT high quality then. That and, I guess the reason Manuel chose the number system because most computers did not have a mouse since it was only starting to become part of the norm. Then again, CCTVs, despite being first developed in World War II, wouldn't become part of the norm until the late 90s so- I am nitpicking at this point, let's move on. You have a vent behind your desk (more on that later) and a big hallway behind you with a manual door you can close similar to FNaM '16 and FNaF 1. Unlike those games, and more akin to Night 1 of FNaM 3, the door does not run on power, and instead can be closed for as long as you wish as long as you keep pressing and holding down the door button. The flashlight has unlimited battery, so you don't need to worry about that either. I mentioned in FNaM '16 I disliked it because it did not bring much of a challenge, but here, I am fine with it because I think and feel that FNaM '21 was designed to have an unlimited flashlight and door in mind. Let's talk about the animatronics. We have the returning characters, Maggie, Lola, Chanchi (who is pronounced "Chan-see" which I thought was cool), Guppy, and Cerdi. No Crackie though... Unless he is an Easter egg character again in which case I had not seen him yet. And we have two new characters, Flower and Hank. I just want to say that I enjoy these redesigns of the characters. I thought they looked just fine in the original FNaM series, but here they look like actual believable animatronics that could exist in real life. I like how some of the characters are rendered wit actual fur on them. I cannot remember a single time where anyone tried doing this for their animatronic models in any fan game whatsoever. So, major points for originality with that part there. Kinda makes me wonder and shudder about the rendering process with these models though, must've been a nightmare. Maggie and Lola actually look closer to a dog and cat, Chanchi looks more like a pig than in the original, and I like the new designs for Hank. Flower? I am not that big on, I mean, she is the least original character in this game. Besides sharing the same name as Flower the Bird from FNaM 4, she is just a recoloured Maggie. Almost makes me think they are siblings. Which I wouldn't be surprised, FNaM was initially inspired by FNaC and Candy did have an identical twin there, which makes me kinda wish that like Candy and Cindy, Maggie and Flower acted the same mechanically. Oh yea, mechanics. Let's talk about gameplay. So, in FNaM '21, things are simple. Maggie and Lola. They become active around Night 1 and would take a direct route to your hall into your office. Once they appear in your hallway, they will go through two phases. Phase 1 being the "far/warning phase" where they will appear on the back end of the hall, but are not dangerous yet. It's more so a warning that they are coming close to you at any second. Phase 2 being the "near/danger phase" where they are essentially at your door and you have a few seconds to close the door on them before they rearrange your guts, you can hear a small audio cue of their metal footsteps walking away when they leave. I like this mechanic, it reminds me of a similar thing happening in FNaM 2, where the animatronics appear in the back end of the hall, but don't pose a real threat to you until they come closer, but to be safe, you CAN close the doors on them. This brings back the element of choice. Do you wish to keep an eye on them until they really come to you so you can quickly close the door but risk other threats getting to you through the air vent? Or attend to other threats but risk Maggie and Lola getting to you while you aren't looking? Oh yea, the vents... Hank and Flower, the new animatronics become active around Night 2 I think. They would leave the stage, once you actually see ON CAMERA that they left, the camera map will indicate where they are. Success in doing so will make them return to the stage. If you fail to go to the camera on time, check your vent and flash your light on it. Make sure you double check, because it is possible that whoever is in there can instantly return. Make sure that Hank and Flower DON'T both go in there though, once that happens. It's game over. Next, we have Chanchi who would shove his eyeless face into the cameras Phantom BB style. You have a few seconds to react, otherwise he will go Foxy mode and run straight to your door through the hall with a spine tingling violin strike accompanying it. That metaphorically caused me to shit my pants the first time I saw that. Seriously, I had not felt THAT scared of an animatronic running towards me since Foxy running down the western hallway in FNaF 1 Seriously, how does a fan game do that? After 7 years, that's amazing, good job, Manuel. It's because of that, that Chanchi ended up being my favourite character in this game because of the mechanic alone. Speaking of, there's also Guppy who acts even more like Foxy than Chanchi does. For one he is a broken animatronic fox (i think he is a fox anyway), and is in an area where you need to keep an eye on him from time to time. Soon enough, he WILL run to your door and you need to shut it just like Chanchi. Honestly, I don't know why, but despite having a more sinister appearance than Chanchi, he... Oddly enough isn't as scary as Chanchi. It might be his running animation, it looks a bit goofy than scary. He has a better jumpscare though, I will give him that. In the trailer, Guppy can be seen waiting at the door similar to how Maggie and Lola do it. Wonder if he was planned to work differently in development...? Finally we have Cerdi who... Honestly is still the weakest part of this game, but he is MUCH MUCH better here than he is in FNaM '16. For one, he has a more unique design than his 2016 counterpart, and he is a hell of a lot more active. He appears through the vent more than twice and is a lot faster. Remember there was a bug at launch where Cerdi would straight up not kill you at all? That was hilarious. It was fixed now though. There was another bug where if you have a save file from FNaM '16, that save file would also carry on in FNaM '21, probably because they share the same save file. I still do not know why this is, maybe because FNaM '16 and '21 share the same save file name? I don't know if it's fixed yet and quite frankly I don't feel like finding out. This only really works on the main nights by the way, when you get to night 6 in FNaM '16, the same does not happen in '21. Sooo, yea. Okay, away from the gameplay, let's talk aesthetics. While yes, due to the objectively better graphics, the janky uncanny valley that the low poly 3D models gave are gone. Now we have more detailed and nice looking environments. But the place is still creepy on it's own right, the places looks dark and stale, as if this was once a place of joy at one point now turned into a shadow of what it once was. Which makes sense as this IS a children's pizzeria at night where in the day it is a place of joy. The only time I felt like that was in FNaF 1. Another great thing Manuel did here. I love the characters redesigns, I like the well done graphics, they aren't as great as let's say what we saw in POPGOES: Evergreen, but still, these are fantastic. The place is terribly quiet, which makes the place feel normal, but as if something is off. Personally, I would've liked the later nights to have more ambient sounds and noises but this is good too. And what happened to the ability to honk Maggie's nose to create a squeak sound? And yea, this game takes up a little more RAM, than all of the previous games individually. But it's not too much RAM at least. I am sure a lot of computers can run this game just fine, even if you have trouble running the official fnaf games (yes computers can get that bad). And lastly, the story of this game... Okay, again, the story is the least interesting part of this game for me mainly due to how little was told in the game, but it is a step up for me than it was in FNaM '16. Though it feels very incomplete. John McAdams is a heavily experienced electronics engineer who opened up Maggie's Magical World using animmatronic characters. Which I guess explains why he would have such high tech things a kids restaurant such as advanced animatronics, hydraulic doors, and cameras as early as 1985. Oh yea, this game takes place in 1985. However, the story goes much more behind than that, there are tapes that show in between two nights that... Honestly, I do not know what they do. I know the first and last tapes in between Nights 1 and 2 and Nights 5 and 6 are meant to tease Guppy and Cerdi, but I don't know what the tape scene between Nights 3 and 4 is supposed to be telling me. Doesn't help that there are no tape scenes in between Nights 2 and 3 or 4 and 5. It's speculated that they are recordings of John's testing with the animatronics going haywire and the Night 5 tape showing that he... Died in the Cerdi costume and is now possessing it as it was meant to be a springlock type thing? That's just speculation I heard but I do not think that is the case. Could be though, you never know, that was a thing in the original FNaM series. What we do know is that he did indeed die some time before the game takes place, as confirmed from the phone guy. What is also confirmed is that these animatronics were able to move during the day, but were stopped in doing such thing after an incident with the owner? So maybe the animatronics are responsible for his death... It's unclear to say the least. He did die in this place and it is rumoured in the restaurant that he is haunting the place. I don't know if he is the reason the animatronics would be going haywire, which doesn't make sense because they were possibly responsible for his death after all so he can't be the cause, or because there really is a bug in their security system which I feel is a cop out. That HAS to be an in universe excuse made up by the management. But in the end it is never explained why... Hm. Are there kids or employees dead in there? We do get to see paranormal activity in Maggie's Magical World. Occasionally the camera will glitch and reveal frames of a demented man in monochrome with the words "It Worked" on screen. Did he die from an experiment but it worked somehow? Is this guy also a egotist since the security door has, what I assume is a 2D drawing depiction of him, saying "In John we trust" as in "In God we trust"? I do wanna know more about this guy not gonna lie. Too bad we only get to know so much about him here, unless there are more secrets we are unaware of. Oh yea, we play as Stephen Caddel. The new nightguard of this place. He chooses to stay and work there because... I dunno honestly. Is he desperate for money? The phone guy says that is the case but does it apply to Stephen here? He even learned by the phone guy that he got fired for tampering the animatronics AI... Which makes me wonder if he could be responsible for the animatronics going haywire... I dunno. Maybe not, I think these are real time calls and not pre recorded messages, so unless he did it earlier and not tell us, he probably did this around Night 3 or 4. But back to Stephen, after Night 6, we learned that the current owner of Maggie's Magical World, Robert Madden, was shot clean into the forehead, with the only suspect being Stephen Caddel because he was the only one there during the night shift.. Wait, was Robert there in Night 6? How did he get past Cerdi? Was he in Cerdi in suit mode? Why did Stephen shoot him? Did Stephen take this job just to kill Robert? Why? Yea, there a LOT of questions and this ending feels like a cliff hanger. Makes me wonder if there will be a FNaM 2 reboot as well that continues this story, or a new story based update? Or a new game altogether that continues the events from this one? I don't know, I read somewhere that Manuel would only do a sequel IF the story needs it. And in my opinion, it does. But right now, it's too early to tell as to what he will do with the game's story. He might make a new FNaM 2 reboot or not, only time can tell. So yea, story is interesting, but feels like an introduction, rather than fleshed out lore. So, yea. Those are my thoughts. Overall, what did I think of FNaM '21? I FUCKING enjoyed this game. This game straight up beats FNaM '16 out the water. The game has some actual challenge, actual gameplay, actual horror, etc. It didn't try to be original for the sake of being original whilst also not being too samey. It took what worked in the fnaf formula, added its own spin, and fleshed it out. The animatronics don't do the same thing, only 2 at most. I like that, if you are gonna make animatronics do the same thing, only 2 or 3 of there are more animatronics. No more than that. I really enjoyed this game a lot, it was worth the hype I had for it. It's not as stressful to manage as FNaM 4, it's not as downright terrifying with the FNaF 4 inspirations with FNaM 2, this game feels just right at home with me. In fact, when it comes to basic sit n survive until 6 AM FNaF styled gameplay, this is subjectively one of, if not, the best game to do it. Yea, I enjoyed Five Nights at Candy's, and Five Nights at Freddy's. But this, was exceptionally well done. I can recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the classic fnaf formula, and I can easily say, that this is the best FNaM game out there.

Manuel Genaro, if you are reading this, thank you for this amazing fan series. Whatever you will create, I will gladly see it either because it interests me or just morbid curiosity. If by the off chance you are planning to make a reboot of FNaM 2, just do not stress yourself out or make the game just because the lore or the fanbase demands it.

As for you, thank you all for reading. This was a lot longer than I wanted it to be. I will see you all in my let's play series, whenever that comes out.

This is Philip Buchanon from Nyctodream saying my goodbyes.