Friday Night Funkin’ is an open-source donationware rhythm game. Developed by a team of four Newgrounds users, the game has a play style that is similar to Dance Dance Revolution and PaRappa the Rapper, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Flash games popular in the early-to-mid 2000s.

The game revolves around the player character, simply named “Boyfriend”, who has to defeat a variety of characters in singing and rapping contests, in order for him to be able to date his love interest, “Girlfriend”. Gameplay revolves around mimicking the opponent’s notes with timed inputs while trying to not run out of health for the duration of the song.

The game was initially created for the Ludum Dare 47 in October 2020. It grew to garner widespread popularity and became one of the most popular games on Newgrounds, as well as achieving a large following online. A full version backed on Kickstarter titled Friday Night Funkin’: The Full Ass Game is planned for release in early 2022.

Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm game in which the player must pass multiple levels, referred to as “weeks”, each containing three songs. Each week, the player faces a different opponent or opponents. During gameplay, the opponent will sing a pattern of notes (represented as arrows), which the player must then mirror by using the arrow keys or the keys W, A, S, and D. Later songs introduce more complicated patterns, with the player’s pattern sometimes varying from the opponent’s or both singers engaging in a duet. For each week, the player has the option to select one of three difficulties: Easy, Normal, or Hard. As the difficulty increases, the speed of incoming arrows increases, and the patterns of arrows become more complicated. The player’s high score for each week on each difficulty is tracked and shown in the top corner of the week selection screen.

The game contains two modes in which to play. In “story mode”, the player plays through a whole week at a time, including any cutscenes. In “free play” mode, the story mode structure and any cutscenes are ignored, and the player can play any individual song on its own.