FNaF: JR's good pastime?

Now, I’m sure everyone is aware of the upcoming release of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 by Steel Wool studios, and I bet we’re all excited for it, but since it isn’t out, why not try out JRs by Ramenov?
​by Colton Wise

Now, I’m sure everyone is aware of the upcoming release of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 by Steel Wool studios, and I bet we’re all excited for it, but since it isn’t out, why not try out JRs by Ramenov? 

JRs is a FNaF fangame by a team led by Ramenov, releasing on August 21, 2022, featuring redesigns of the original crew: Balloon Boy (now named Balloon Baby), and the Marionette. Personally? I’m not the greatest fan of the designs. I like them, but I just prefer the original FNaF animatronic style more, all those lame FNaF VHS videos made designs like those feel repetitive, but that’s not really too important. What’s really important?

The gameplay. JRs has a very unique gameplay style that changes up things in a good way. Rather than waiting until 6 AM, you’ll have to investigate a few times. What is this about? Well, before the game starts, you meet Paulbear (goofy lil’ guy, I love him.) he explains how there is a ghost that needs to be stopped. See, he mentions how he brought the protag into this limbo between life and death, but that’s beside the point. Paulbear explains how you need to stop the ghost, so you’re sent to JRs (y’know, that location from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator) to run some paranormal investigations during the night. Every night a ghost will possess animatronics, you have to find the ghost via either 1. Flashing lights in the room they’re in, 2. Handprint when an animatronic leaves, 3. The camera cuts out when an animatronic enters (only happens on night 4/Thursday.), 4. The camera moves against your will, or 5. The stability going crazy (only works for Balloon Baby.) 

Now, what is stability? It’s this thing the animatronics possess that makes it so they won’t attack you, you have to keep it up as you progress in the nights. In order to reset stability, you’ll have to call an animatronic up for repair, but ensure that said animatronic is not possessed at all, or else you’ll be doomed. In order to repair an animatronic you must complete this minigame where you throw away the old stability card, and replace it with a new one. It’s very simple but very important. 

After all of that, you’ll make it to Saturday, or Night 6. This is where the game makes a huge change, see, between each night you can get a lore update featuring a character everyone SHOULD recognize, (only the game tackles them differently.) Mangle. Mangle, rather than just being a machine children destroyed, is an amalgamation of parts that slowly forms as you progress through JRs. Night 6 starts out pretty weirdly, actually. It’s now a normal FNaF night, but it starts at 11 PM, opposed to 12 AM. At first, it’s just FNaF 2 minus the toys, (with the exception of Marionette and Balloon Baby) but when you reach 1:45 AM, the game takes a big turn. The old monitor that you used to call animatronics over pulls up, and it shows each of the animatronics with an assortment of parts slowly going into an area censored by a sticky note saying “BEWARE THE MANGLE” in scratchy handwriting. This part genuinely caught me off guard when first playing, and after that, the game takes a major turn for the better. 

Rather than being FNaF 2 but again, it’s a new thing. You know how the camera lights in FNaF 2 are basically useless? This makes them useful. The Paulbear mentioned can be stopped via the camera lights, Mangle’s owl/tail can be stopped via the mask, and Mangle can be stopped via the light. While there are only three threats, they manage to make one of the most chaotic yet fun FNaF fan nights I’ve seen yet. 

Okay, I'm gonna play JRs now. I love it that much.