Five Nights at Freddy's: Core Collection

Welcome to the Five Nights at Freddy's: Core Collection! This is where it all started, the games that built a whole universe of lore, scares and endless theories. We're diving deep into the original series crafted by Scott Cawthon himself, from the first night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza all the way to the ultimate custom tailored nightmare. You've gotta appreciate the charm of how they were originally made. Some of these ports, have this grainy quality. The resolution might not be crystal clear, but honestly, that kinda adds to the creepy charm in a weird way. What’s awesome is that they’re completely playable; they capture that classic panic of managing power and doors even on a tiny screen. It's less about HD graphics and more about keeping that original heart and horror intact. So grab your flashlight, keep an eye on those cameras, and let's get into it.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Core Collection

Five Nights at Freddy's

It all started with the original Five Nights at Freddy's. The vibe is so simple but so effective. You're Michael Afton, a night guard under the alias of Mike Schmidt all alone in a creepy restaurant with five animatronics that are supposed to be friendly but definitely aren't. The genius is in the limitations: you're stuck in your office, checking these janky security cameras, managing your power and slamming doors shut. You can't just run away, you had to sit there and listen to the silence, broken by footsteps and Freddy's music box tune. It's pure psychological horror, making your own imagination do most of the work. The story was just whispers back then: missing children, the Bite of '87 thing, but it laid this incredibly strong foundation. It felt real, like this could be some forgotten Chuck E. Cheese urban legend. There are two ports of the first game. The first one is complete and the second one looks better but it's just a demo of the first night, plus the dev totally lost motivation to keep working on it. If I recall correctly, both are old 3DS compatible.

Redux (Demo)

 

Remastered

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Then Five Nights at Freddy's 2 had to go and turn everything up to eleven (literally 'cuz there are 11 animatronics ) This one's a prequel with a new location, fancier animatronics and a whole lot more to manage. No doors this time, just a Freddy Fazbear mask you could wear in to fool animatronics and a flashlight to fend them off. This is the one where luck really starts to become a thing, honestly. With so many animatronics on the move, including the old ones looking even more mangled, it gets chaotic fast. Trying to wind the music box for the Puppet while checking for Foxy and making sure Withered Bonnie isn't already in your room sometimes felt less about strategy and more about praying the AI didn't decide it was your time to go. It introduced key characters like Charlie Emily (The Puppet), William Afton (The Purple Guy) and the minigames that started giving us real story hints. It's messy, but in a way that makes its world feel bigger. Also, the New 3DS version claims to be more complete.

Old 3DS

 

New 3DS

Five Nights at Freddy's 3

Five Nights at Freddy's totally switched the formula again. Instead of a packed pizzería, you're in a horror attraction with one real animatronic: the decaying Springtrap. The horror here's different. It's more about tension and dread. Springtrap himself is a masterpiece of concept, a rotting corpse inside a suit, just staring at you from the cameras 'cuz he loves to play with his victims before killing them. The phantoms are cool jumpscare fodder, but they're just there to distract you and crank up the stress levels. The minigames showed us the William's death and the «happiest day» for the kids. It tried to be more story focused and the gameplay is simpler, but the atmosphere is top notch.

New 3DS

Five Nights at Freddy's 4: The Final Chapter

When Five Nights at Freddy's 4 dropped, it changed everything again. You play as William's youngest son (who's name ain't quite confirmed yet), a kid stuck in his room, having visions of Nightmare animatronics chasing him so he has to stay alert to everything around him. This is arguably the scariest one because the threats are right there in your face. And the story… man, the story got deep. The minigames between nights revealed this heartbreaking tale of this bullied kid, his brother Michael, and the tragic Bite of '83. It reframed the entire series, suggesting a lot of the horror is tied to the Afton family. It's a massive shift from the straightforward haunted suits story and showed Scott wasn't done expanding the lore.

Old 3DS

 

New 3DS

Five Nights at Freddy's 5: Sister Location

Sister Location was the biggest departure yet. It's more like an adventure game! We're back playing as Michael, who's searching for his family after all those messed up Fazbear Entertainment's incidents, starting with his sister Elizabeth, who's trapped somewhere in Circus Baby's Pizza World, so he grabs a tech job to find her. You move from room to room, following instructions and listening to animatronics, 'cuz they now can talk to you! The tone has more humor, especially with HandUnit's dialogue, but it gets seriously dark in the fifth night. This is where the sci-fi elements really kicked in, with remnant and sentient AI becoming major plot points. Also, this port is still early, only night two so far, it's a New 3DS only, and guess what, I got softlocked in Baby's room. HELP.

Night 2 Tech Demo (New 3DS)

Five Nights at Freddy's 6: Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator

Then came Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, which is a total bait and switch in the best way. On the surface, it's this cutesy small business tyccoon where you buy animatronics and risk lawsuits, but underneath, it's the ultimate trap: for Michael, and all the other characters. Henry's plan to burn everything down and finally end the nightmare is incredible. Salvaging the scrap animatronics is genuinely frightening, and the lore hidden in the source code and the insanity of the secret Insanity Ending is peak. It was a perfect, emotional and fiery conclusion that tied up decades of suffering. It's a shame they ditch it… Anyways, this port is still a demo so it's currently missing key features like the catalog, office, salvaging modes, saving rework and old 3DS stability. It's shelved for now, but there's hope! Praying the dev comes back to it.  

Early demo (New 3DS)

Five Nights at Freddy's 7: Ultimate Custom Night

And finally, the Ultimate Custom Night. This one's a gift to the fans. 50+ characters to customize your own insane torture challenge, with hilarious voice lines and callbacks to everything, but it's also so much more than a challenge mode. The prevailing theory, which makes so much sense, is that this is William Afton's personal hell, crafted by one of his victims. The whole thing is a nightmare he can never escape, with old foes and even the Mediocre Melodies haunting him for eternity. It was a punishing, repetitive and deeply meta end for the series' main villain, bummed they ditch it again… But at its core, it's a game that works both as a fun fanservice party and a dark, fitting epilogue to the entire saga Scott built.

New 3DS

Five Nights at Freddy's World

Five Nights at Freddy's World is a whole different vibe. After all that intense lore and jumpscares, Scott just dropped this colorful RPG where you collect animatronics and battle in a weird meta universe. It was kinda chaotic at launch, but you gotta respect the shift, it's pure unapologetic fun with deep cuts for the fans, hidden secrets and even some surprisingly emotional moments buried in there. It's not everyone's favorite, but honestly, it's charming. Oh yeah, and get this, a port's is on the works. It looks surprisingly well! No idea when it'll be done, but seems it's coming along smoother than I expected. I'll definitely share it here once something's ready. Pretty wild to see it running on those little screens!

Five Nights at Candy's

While I was writing this, I found out a remake of the first Five Nights at Candy's is in the works too! It's in super early stages tho, it just started last week early, but since I love Mary's story so much, I'm already hyped. It totally belongs in the conversation since it's part of the official Fazbear Fanverse. I'll keep y'all posted when there's anything to download.