The popular games tab on Itch.io is a great location to look for small, fascinating indies. When I have a lunch break or want to play something different, I always have a brief scour. Since the website's launch eight years ago, the turnover of games has been quite swift, with each week bringing fresh, inventive indies to the forefront.

But one game, Friday Night Funkin', has remained at the top of the charts week after week for several months. It's a beatboxing DDR game in which you use WASD to match the onscreen arrows to some excellent music at the appropriate time, and it's hilarious. Not only that, but FNF has been backed by a rabid fanbase for the past two years. The internet community's enthusiasm for this game has, in a nutshell, exploded.

Fans have modded their own inventions with great results thanks to the FNF's open-source nature, with the top list on Itch.io showing many of innovative fan spin-offs. On Spotify, individual tracks from the OST have been downloaded and listened to millions of times, while YouTube videos displaying modded compositions have been seen millions of times.

It's amazing to watch, and it's well-deserved for such a fun and exciting rhythm game. When I first played it, the one thing that struck me was how much Friday Night Funkin' reminded me of Newgrounds. It was such a hard throwback that I suffered whiplash.

What is Friday Night Funkin?

Friday Night Funkin' (abbreviated as FNF) is an open-source music project.

A donationware rhythm game that was first released at a game jam in 2020.

Cameron "Ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r, a group of four Newgrounds users, created the game. The game incorporates graphical elements from Flash games and shares some gameplay characteristics with Dance Dance Revolution and PaRappa the Rapper. The game is credited with reviving Newgrounds, a site that peaked in popularity in the early 2000s.

The lineup of the game is mostly made up of characters from the Newgrounds site's external media.

The player character, Boyfriend, must compete in singing and rapping contests against a variety of characters in order to date his love interest, Girlfriend. The goal of the game is to use timed inputs to duplicate the opponent's notes while avoiding running out of health for the duration of the song. 

In October 2020, the game was built for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam.

Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game, a full version backed on Kickstarter, is currently in development. 

How to play Friday Night Funkin FNF Mod?

Friday Night Funkin mod is a rhythm game in which the player takes control of Boyfriend, a character who must defeat a succession of opponents in order to keep dating his girlfriend, Girlfriend. The player must complete a series of levels, known as "weeks," each of which contains three songs. Every week, the player meets a new opponent, though some games break from this pattern by include many opponents. During games, the opponent will sing a pattern of notes (represented by arrows) that the player must imitate using the arrow keys or the W, A, S, and D keys. Some songs introduce more difficult patterns, such as when the player's pattern differs from the opponent's or when both singers perform a duet.

Each week, the user can choose from three different difficulties: Easy, Normal, or Hard. The speed of incoming arrows increases as the difficulty level rises, and the arrow patterns get more intricate. The player's highest score on each difficulty for each week is tracked and shown in the upper corner of the week selection screen. The game has two different modes of play: a story campaign in which songs are played in a linear order, and a "free play" option in which any of the game's music tracks can be selected at any time. 

Is Friday Funkin night free to play?

Friday Night Funkin (FNF) is an unblocked, free-to-play rhythm game that can be played in your browser or offline. You are not reliant on a high-speed internet connection with this extension. Play whenever you want for pleasure!