Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy's built the entire jump-scare horror genre on one brilliantly simple idea: the player sits as a night watchman in an enclosed room of a pizzeria full of animatronic mascots and, through a network of security cameras, tracks where the characters that come to life at night currently are as they try to move through the premises unnoticed and get inside. The touchscreen controls mirror the original PC version - switching cameras and closing doors happens by tapping icons at the edges of the screen - and a rapidly draining battery forces the player to choose when they can afford to keep watching and when it's better to close their eyes, shut the door, and wait blindly in the dark. It's precisely this pressure of limited resources, not direct confrontation, that creates most of the game's tension.

Scott Cawthon released the game as a one-time paid app without ads, which at the time of release on mobile was rather the exception compared to free-to-play competitors, and it was precisely the low price together with viral spread through players' reaction videos on YouTube that turned it into a worldwide phenomenon within a few weeks, with dozens of sequels, spin-offs, comics, books, and an upcoming film universe that defined the jump-scare horror genre on mobile for years to come. The low system requirements and simple concept also meant that practically anyone with a somewhat older phone could try the game.

Why play it: For anyone who wants to experience the game that kicked off an entire modern horror phenomenon and doesn't mind rather plain graphics and repetitive night shifts.