The demo for the racing spin-off, Five Laps at Freddy’s, was released as part of the Five Nights at Freddy’s 10-year anniversary back in August of 2024.  While I have watched other people play it, I didn’t get around to playing it myself until roughly 1.5 years later because of my recent delve into PC games.  The game has potential, but is generally quite unpolished.  Below, I will talk about my experience with the game and what improvements I think are needed for the final version.  (Also, forgive my wonky thumbnails, which cut off some of the screen.  My laptop has a weird screen size…)

FLAF is pretty much your basic kart-racing game, like Mario Kart.  As you race around the track, you get items you can use to help you or sabotage other players, like a Fazerblaster to shoot a laser at other racers or a cupcake that seems to provide a boost.  Throughout the race, the game will switch back and forth between day time and the Night Shift, during which everything gets darker.  There is also a battery meter that drains when you use items, and I read that it constantly drains during the Night Shift.  If your battery runs out, an endoskeleton (it looks more like a wolf to me) will jumpscare you, which loses you a bit of precious time.  The whole battery mechanic is a good way to distinguish this game from other kart racers and to add that special FNAF touch.  Though, I’ll admit I wasn’t even aware of how this mechanic worked while I was actually playing the demo, and I only learned about the rules later when preparing for this review.  (I somehow didn’t notice my battery draining at night…and I didn’t make the connection between that and my one jumpscare.)

The demo has a decent selection of characters, including the original quartet from the first game, the unique newcomers from FNAF 2, and Springtrap from FNAF 3.  I was not really a fan of a lot of the character designs, though.  Chica is really cute, and Freddy, Foxy, and the Puppet look fine.  But I didn’t like the designs for anyone else.  A cute aesthetic for this game is a good idea, but some of these designs need some adjusting in order to make them more appealing.  And again, the “endoskeleton” just looks like a floating wolf with no legs, so…not only is it not really recognizable as to what it’s meant to be, it’s also not very intimidating in appearance.

Anyway, there are also four available vehicles (like a cupcake with wheels and the iconic purple car from the Midnight Motorist minigame from FNAF 6) and three courses.  The first course is a bright and colorful grassy level, as expected from such games, a Midnight Motorist level, and The Sinkhole from beneath the Pizzaplex in Security Breach.  The Midnight Motorist level is the most interesting due to it coming directly from a minigame that already revolves around driving a car, and I liked the portion where you must drive along a freeway, especially when the cars become purple and glowing during the Night Shift, resembling the 8-bit vehicles in the minigame that inspired it.

My time with the FLAF demo was fun enough, I suppose, even though I was pretty bad at it.  But this game will need a lot of polish before it’s ready for release, plus it will need more to make it stand out from superior, and already established, racing games like Mario Kart.  Some of these changes should be easy, such as adding a small map of the course while you’re racing so you can see where you are and see branching paths with more ease.  It’s also hard to see where you’re going during the night shift, as the course doesn’t stand out much from the scenery.  Perhaps some sort of glowing border would help to see where you’re going?

I have no doubt the full game will have more characters, vehicles, and courses, but I’d also like the characters to have more personality so I have more of a reason to choose a given character.  Staring at the back of their head and seeing their little drawing with blinking eyes off to the side doesn’t quite cut it.  Voicelines would be nice, and I’d like some unique animations when they do various things, like use an item or crash or cross the finish line.  (One reason I liked Toad in Mario Kart 64 was because his voicelines were so fun.)  Some different facial expressions for those character drawings in the top left corner would be nice, as well, to reflect joy or shock or fear when they’re getting jumpscared.

And of course, different modes, like a grand prix are a must.  For me, I always feel more motivated to play such games if new characters and courses can be unlocked when you complete different challenges.  And last of all, while the Night Shift and battery idea is a good start, perhaps there’s more they can do to make this feel more like a FNAF game than just a racing game with FNAF characters…  Like if there’s a way to add a little more of the chaos that Ultimate Custom Night had?

To finish, the game ran fine for me, so any glitches and whatnot that were present upon the demo’s release seem to have been fixed.  The game is supposed to be releasing in 2026 with 12 characters and 16 courses.  The number of courses sounds good, but with the huge number of characters that FNAF has accumulated, I think we need a lot more than 12 characters!  (We gotta have Roxy, the racing queen herself!)  I read that the game should also be available on consoles at some point, but I have no idea if this will coincide with the game’s release on Steam or if the console release will come later.  I’d certainly be interested in a FNAF racing game if a lot of improvements are made because, as it is, Five Laps at Freddy’s doesn’t yet have that certain oomph to make it special.  I’ll admit that, from what I’ve seen of the demo, I’m rather concerned about what the finished product is going to look like, and I wish they’d release an updated demo to reflect the progress they’ve made.  But I suppose only time will tell if the game will make a triumphant pass through the finish line or if FLAF will flop.