Game Review: Willy's Wonderland - The Game

By Manuel

Players: 1-2 (Local Only)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

The Five Night's At Freddy's inspired movie, Willy's Wonderland, originally released all the way back in 2021, but the game based on it is just now hitting consoles. I'm not exactly sure when it first released, but I do know that it began life as a mobile game tie-in that came out far closer to the release of the movie itself. It's now 2024. It's been three years since Willy's Wonderland hit streaming, and also almost a year since the actual Five Nights at Freddy's movie came out. There's no getting around the fact that this is an odd release window for the game, but it's covering all its bases and releasing on just about every major platform. We're going to be taking a look at the version available on the Nintendo Switch today, but I doubt it'll differ much from the others. We have a lot to go over in this one, so let's dive right in!

Being that this is a licensed game, you'd think Willy's Wonderland would put in a bit of effort when it comes to telling the story that it's adapting, but it barely bothers with that at all. You get an opening cutscene of still images that shows The Janitor's car getting damaged, and him eventually ending up at the defunct titular restaurant. Then the game starts. I didn't skip anything, that's pretty much it for story until you get to the end, and even that isn't any better. As far as protagonists go, you only get The Janitor and Liv here, the other characters from the movie apparently not being up to snuff as far as beat 'em ups go. Though you don't have much in the way of playable characters, all the villains are here for you to take on. Each of Willy's friends looks movie accurate, and they even occupy the same parts of the building they did in the movie. Story aside, things are fairly accurate I guess. What doesn't really translate over though are the likenesses of the actors who played Liv and The Janitor. Even though I guess that's to be expected, a big draw of Willy's Wonderland - The Movie is Nicolas Cage himself. Not having him be playable just feels off. Other than that though, the game gets things mostly correct. I doubt anyone will know what's happening if you haven't seen the movie, but at least it feels as if the developers checked it out themselves before putting out this game.

I kind of glanced over it until now, but Willy's Wonderland is a simple beat 'em up. There aren't a lot of bells and whistles to its gameplay, and it reminds me a lot of the early Streets of Rage games. Both Liv and The Janitor play the same, but I like to think that Liv is faster where The Janitor is stronger. I have no real evidence of that, but it did bring me to choose Liv most of the time. No matter who you end up picking, you can punch, kick, jump, block, and perform special moves. All strikes can be linked together to form a combo, and the combos can stretch on for as long as there are enemies nearby to hit. Probably due to the simple animations at work, various combos can be button mashed and still look great. It makes for a simple system that doesn't take a lot to master. Jumping and blocking can be a bit more wonky, but the former can really help you avoid damage from the occasional powerful attacks the enemies can unleash. Besides normal attacks, you also have two special moves at your disposal, a dashing punch, and a spinning attack where you basically T-Pose your way across the screen. These are performed by pressing their own dedicated buttons, and they're cool-down based instead of life-based as special moves in these types of games usually are. That's all standard stuff of course, but you can also mix up things and perform jumping moves, punching downed enemies, and attacking from one side of the screen to the next. The game doesn't feature anything in the way of weapons, but you can smash open crates to get items that either heal some of the damage you've taken, or add to your point total. Each stage ends with a boss, and beating them takes you to the next stage in line. Actually, beating a stage takes you to a symbols-only menu that seemed to always take me back to the main menu. That doesn't matter though, as cleared stages stay open. Oh, and there are no continues. You're forced to restart a stage from the beginning if you lose all your lives.

Even though I think Willy's Wonderland is good simple fun, there are a few things that make playing it rather annoying. Actually, there's one big thing that brings it down several notches gameplay-wise, and that's its poor hit detection. It's really hard to explain exactly what's wrong if you haven't experienced it yourself, but I'm going to try my best. Enemies in Willy's Wonderland don't really feel solid, and you're rarely so much hitting them as you are hitting through them. You're able to essentially punch or kick straight through their character models, and there will always be a point where your blows are no longer landing. Detangling yourself from enemies you're basically stuck in the middle of will almost definitely result in a few cheap hits getting tossed your way, and that just never sat right with me. Then there's the fact that the game isn't exactly a full sidecroller. Similar to other beat 'em ups, you're able to move up and down most of the time too. This can be used to dodge enemies, or to strike them from an angle. The problem with this is that some areas are very large, making the vertical areas far too wide to be useful. This might not sound like a big negative, but then you realize that the hit detection is even worse if you're coming in from an upward or downward angle. Once again, this is a hard thing to explain in writing, but it killed the fun I was having more than once. That's not all either. Let me rapid fire some more issues the game has. Some enemies have special moves that can hit you for more than half your life, you can be locked into enemy combos that seem endless if you're playing solo, your own special moves can be stopped by a single punch or kick from an enemy, and the difficulty just seems all over the place. Simply put, this isn't a very good game.

Though I do have a few more positives to say about the game, I have a couple final negatives to go over first. Sound and visuals are both pretty subpar here, with the visuals looking exactly like the low-effort mobile game models that they are. I guess there was at least some effort put into the core boss characters and the backgrounds, but there's a generic-ness to half the game that I can't help but feel could be due to parts of the game being taken from somewhere else. I don't even have anything positive to say about the sound, as it felt mostly non-existent. I had the sound options turned all the way up, and my TV cranked loud, but I barely heard anything above the mediocre sound effects. The presentation here is just so off that I wonder how long this game could've taken to be developed in the first place.

If you're able to look beyond the wonky story, gameplay, sound, and graphics, Willy's Wonderland isn't the worst game out there. I've already mentioned the simple fun that it offers, but there's more to it than just that. While some of the levels aren't much to look at, they pretty much all draw from scenes from the movie. I hesitate to say that it captured the "spirit" of Willy's Wonderland - The Movie, but I think it did just that for the most part. There are even some locations, like the arcade and dining area, that actually look quite impressive. Then there's the multiplayer that's not only fun, but also makes the game considerably easier. I was only able to briefly try it out during my time with the game, but it worked fine, and was definitely more enjoyable than playing the game solo. None of those positives hides the game's cheap mobile game roots, but I can't bring myself to hate it. There's some fun to be had here, but you have to set your expectations accordingly to get to it.

Part of me feels I'm being too hard on Willy's Wonderland, but if anything I think I'm cutting it a lot of slack due to its price and self-awareness. Not too long before the release of the game we got a press release about it that said something to the effect of "You've seen the trash movie, now play the trash game!" and they really weren't wrong. Willy's Wonderland - The Game isn't the worst beat 'em up I've played, and I'll even admit I liked it if you ask me at the right time. It's also only $4.99 at the time of this writing, and that's cheap enough for those looking for something to waste a couple hours on. If you're a fan of B-movies, and Willy's Wonderland in particular, then grab this now on whatever platform you can. If you're not, then maybe check out the movie first. If you like it, maybe come back here and load up the only game that sees you take on the role of Not-Nicolas-Cage beating up Not-Freddy-Fazbear animatronics! See you in the next one!

Check Out Willy's Wonderland - The Game on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/willys-wonderland-the-game-switch/

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Story: C (Watch the movie instead!)
Gameplay: C
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: C-
Value: A

Overall: C

Pros:
+ A simple beat 'em up that mostly plays like other simple 2.5D games in the genre.
+ Two playable characters, and multiplayer support, give this one a touch of variety.
+ The enemy characters and bosses are all unique and interesting.
+ Captures the setting of the movie well, complete with great stage setups and more.
+ Very reasonably priced for the type of game this is.

+/- The quality of the game makes this a title that'll only really appeal to fans of the movie, or those looking for some cheap lols.

Cons:
- Even though this is a licensed game, there is no story at all to speak of. The characters aren't even named in-game.
- Hit detection is extremely spotty, you'll very often punch and kick through enemies until you end up on the other side of them.
- Graphics feel very dated and barely above mobile standards.
- Not only is the game very quiet in general, turning up the volume only reveals mediocre music, sound effects, and a lack of voice acting.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Here we go again!

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