Friday Night Funkin' | Guide & How to Play (2023)

📖 Content:

• What is Friday Night Funkin’?
• How to Play Friday Night Funkin’
• Friday Night Funkin’ Weeks
• Friday Night Funkin’ Tips
• Play Friday Night Funkin’ Online!

What is Friday Night Funkin’?

Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm game that is very much similar to Dance Dance Revolution, except that it can be played right on a computer and in the comfort of your own home. The game was originally created for Ludum Dare 47, which is an online competition where programmers create a game (from scratch) over a weekend that follows a certain theme.

Its prototype was officially released on October 05, 2020, their last day of submission for the game. It was later re-released on Newground on November 01, 2020.

It can be played on Newground, Itch.io, as well as Windows, Mac OS, and Linux for free or with an option to donate. 💸

Friday Night Funkin’ was drawn and animated to beautifully capture Newgrounds’ Flash animations while also using graffiti art as their inspiration for the game’s overall aesthetic.

The full game, Friday Night Funkin’: The Full Ass Game is currently in the works via an official campaign. 🎉

Songs for this game were made by Kawai Sprite.

Friday Night Funkin’s Premise

You’ll be playing as Boyfriend. A college dropout, but with big dreams - He’s a (wannabe) rapper who’s fighting for Girlfriend’s heart 💘 There’s only one thing stopping them from getting their Happily Ever After, Daddy Dearest, Girlfriend’s father who was an ex-rockstar 🎸

Daddy Dearest greatly disapproves of their relationship, going out of his way to stop them from being together. He then challenges Boyfriend to a sing-off to give him a chance to prove his worth.

How to play Friday Night Funkin’

“You had me at Dance Dance Revolution, even more so at playing on a computer!”

Does this sound like you? Don’t worry, the wait is over! We’ll be telling you all about how to play Friday Night Funkin’ 😉

Controls of the Game

Bringing back Dance Dance Revolution, the concept is pretty much the same. You hit the corresponding colored arrows as they come down on the screen and time it so that you press it exactly when it overlaps the marker. They can use either WASD or the arrow keys.

Note: Sometimes colored arrows may come with a trail following the initial key press. This means that this is a hold note. Players should hold the key until the trail ends.

To pause the game, you can press either P or the enter key. To toggle the game’s music/playing volume, you can press the - and + key respectively.

You can toggle any other controls in the Options menu.

Gameplay

At the start of each round, there is a health bar at the bottom of the screen. As the round goes on, the more buttons that Boyfriend presses on time, the more the Boyfriend’s icon will move over to dominate the “health bar”.

If the player loses the round, they can either try again or head back to the menu again.

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Scoring

There are 6 ways the game scores your timing when you press the buttons.

1. Sick!!: The highest score attainable. It gives you 350 points. To get this, you have to press the key exactly when the arrow reaches the center of the marker. You’ll know that you got this point because the note will create a splash effect (this update was added only in version 0.2.8).

2. Good!: Seeing this means that you got 200 points. You’ll be given this score if you press the key when the arrow is slightly above/below the center of the marker.

3. Bad: This gets you 100 points. You get this if you press the key a little late after the arrow reaches the marker.

4. Shit: You’ll get 50 points if you see this on screen. You get this if you press the key late after the arrow reaches the marker.

You would think that’s the lowest score you can get, but there’s more! 😂

5. Miss: Depending on how badly you missed, you either get no points at all or -10. If you don’t press the key after an arrow passes the marker, you don’t get points at all. If you press the key way too early or too late, then you get -10 points (Yes, you can get points taken away 😂)

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Looking at this, it might seem better to just miss the note, rather than pressing it too early/late. Note that if you miss any keys, it will reduce the Boyfriend’s health.

The Friday Night Funkin’ Weeks

Weeks are what the levels are called in the game. Currently, there are 7 weeks in the game. Each week has different antagonists and different backgrounds.

So here are small descriptions of each week so you hopefully know what you’ll be up against:

• Week 1: “Daddy Dearest”. The antagonist for this week is Daddy Dearest and you’ll be battling at The Stage. Tracks to be played on this week are: Bopeedo, Fresh, and Dadbattle.

• Week 2: “Spooky Month”. The antagonists for this week are Skid & Pump, and Monster (That’s right, 3 antagonists!). You’ll be battling it out at The Spooky House with tracks Spookez, South, and Monster.

• Week 3: “Pico’’. The antagonist for this week is Pico. You’ll be battling at the Newgrounds Office Building with the tracks: Pico, Philly, and Blammed.

• Week 4: “Mommy Must Murder”. The antagonist for this week is Mommy Mearest. You’ll be battling at The Limousine with the tracks Satin Panties, High, and M.I.L.F.

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• Week 5: “Red Snow’’. The antagonists for this week are Daddy Dearest, Mommy Mearest, and Monster. You’ll be battling it out at The Mall with tracks Cocoa, Eggnog, and Winter Horrorland.

• Week 6: “Hating Simulator”. The antagonists for this week are Senpai and Spirit, where you’ll battle it out at The School. Tracks you’ll be battling it to are Senpai, Roses, and Thorns.

• Week 7: “Tankman”. This is currently the final week of the game. The antagonist for this week is Tankman and you’ll be battling it out at the Restricted Military Zone and to the tracks Ugh, Guns, and Stress.

Friday Night Funkin’ Tips

If you’re already pumped about playing Friday Night Funkin’, we’d like to give you a few tips on the game before you start! 🎮

1. Always start a new week on ‘Easy’ then work your way up.

People normally start on ‘Normal’ then adjust the level of difficulty with each week, which isn’t the ideal way to really get good with the game!

A lot of players recommend starting by conquering the ‘Easy’ level on all 7 weeks, then once you feel like you’ve really gotten used to that level, only then you should change the difficulty to ‘Normal’ then ‘Hard’ 💪🏼

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2. There are two game modes: Free Play and Story Mode

In Free Play, players have the freedom to choose the song they play in and it also eliminates the need for a sequence. Meanwhile in Story Mode, it has the full experience of the game and its characters.

The only downside is that the overall running time for the Story Mode may take less than an hour, so if you’re looking for something you can play long term, this game may not be for you. You can wait for the Full Game, though ✌😁

3. Listen to the tracks beforehand and get to know them before you play.

This is so that you’ll get a feel of the rhythm of the song making it so much easier to play. You’ll be getting an edge if you do this 😉 Kind of like giving yourself a sneak peek on the jam you’ll be crushing!

4. Try to use both WASD and the arrow buttons.

Seeing that both could be used, a big tip is that you use A and W (for the Left and Up arrow) with your left hand, then use your right hand on the right and down button (for the Right and Down arrow). It helps distribute the pressure and allows you to balance it well just in case the arrows come rushing in 😄

5. Need additional practice?

Aside from the tips we gave above, there are some games that you can play which can help you practice on these types of games. Of course there’s Dance Dance Revolution, the game that it greatly resembles. Then there’s also PaRappa the Rapper, which is one of the oldest rhythm games out there. Lastly, there’s Bemuse, which can help you practice keystrokes and timing for playing Friday Night Funkin’

Play Friday Night Funkin’ Online!

There are two sites that allow you to play Friday Night Funkin’ online.

The first way is through Itch.io which was uploaded by ninjamuffin, the game’s developer. On this page, you’ll be able to find the download links for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

You can also play it on the official Newgrounds website, which the development team released it to them back in November 2020.