Video Game / POPGOES

Are you disposed to play POPGOES?

In the year 2023, Fazbear's Fright, an attraction at an American amusement park based on the late 20th century pizzeria chain Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, once well-known for its revolutionary animatronics but more infamous for its mysterious incidents involving the unsolved kidnapping of several children, a patron suffering a partial lobotomy and the disappearance of several night-time staff members, burned down mere nights before it was due to open to the public. An auction was held to sell off the few intact remnants of the disaster, salvaged from the derelict pizzerias that had closed more than three decades prior.

Fritz, a middle-aged man who had once worked at one of the restaurants in his youth, briefly returns to America from England after having learned about the fire and finds himself inspired to create his own establishment with a similar theme. A year later in 2024, Popgoes' Pizzeria opens its doors in an unspecified part of England, and you are in charge of watching over the restaurant during the night.

POPGOES is a video game by Kane Carter based on the Five Nights at Freddy's series of games by Scott Cawthon. Originally announced shortly after the release of Five Nights at Freddy's 3, the game became notable for featuring a team of developers from across the globe and was eventually released on June 26th, 2016, 20 days after its original planned date following several programming setbacks.

Akin to its source material, POPGOES is a point-and-click strategic horror game where the player assumes the role of the night guard at Popgoes' Pizzeria, trying to survive six nights at the restaurant from 12 to 6 by defending themselves from the animatronics that provide the main source of entertainment at the joint, utilizing the security cameras in the building to monitor them as they move around and manipulate the machinery in an attempt to render the player defenseless before making their attack. The game can be found and downloaded from its official Gamejolt page here.

On October 30th, 2016, Kane revealed a new teaser during Dawko's Five Nights at St. Jude's Steam, confirming the existence of POPGOES 2. He has stated that the game would have an entirely new team and it's being made to "redeem" the blatant mistakes that was made in POPGOES. However, on November 29th, Kane announced that the sequel to POPGOES had been cancelled. His explanation can be found here. Kane plans to reveal what was originally planned in the future for the scrapped sequel. Over the years, three spin-off RPG games were released by the name of POPGOES Arcade, one released in 2016 that acts as a prequel to the original, a sequel released in 2018 that would have taken place between the mainline POPGOES 1 and 2, and a remake of Arcade 2016 released on 2020 that acts as a teaser for (fittingly) the reboot of the series. Said remake was rereleased as a commercial game on Steam, with a new DLC expansion titled Popgoes and the Machinist included.

On April 1st, 2020, Kane announced that he would be rebooting the series with a new game known as POPGOES Evergreen, with the all-new character and location designs, as well as a new plot and gameplay. The game is expected to be released in 2022. It can be found on its Gamejolt page here. On August 21st, 2020, Scott Cawthon, creator of Five Nights at Freddy's, announced that Kane had been invited to join the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative project, which gave him official permission to port Evergreen to console and mobile devices and sell merchandise related to the POPGOES series, as well as giving funding to develop Evergreen.

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Provides examples of:

POPGOES

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The game is set in the year 2024, but unlike Five Nights at Freddy's 3, POPGOES does a lot with its futuristic setting. The tech in Popgoes' Pizza is far more complex than anything seen in the FNaF games. There are various 3D printers located around the building, used by Popgoes the Weasel to build Blackrabbit (and used during the day to make things like napkins and forks for patrons), the phone the player uses is actually a children's toy lent to all customers when they arrive, and the place is entirely^note including the player character, who is actually a machine called Strings staffed by robots, with Fritz as the only human employee.
• Accidental Murder: More like PTSD Murder, but when Fritz's daughter snuck up behind him wearing a Toy Bonnie mask(in the POPGOES verse, Fritz is the bite victim and Toy Bonnie is the biter) , he had a PTSD episode that caused him to mistake her for the animatronic, take an axe, and chop her to pieces for his own safety.
• Arc Number: Six. Six Blackrabbit pieces, six 3D printers, six vent cameras, six animatronics (not counting the spoiler characters), etc.
• Bloodless Carnage: Even if you get killed, there's no blood anywhere. Then again, robots aren't exactly known for bleeding, are they?
• Brutal Bonus Level: Good Night, which functions the same as Custom Night, is unlocked after beating the main game.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Gem Stone's sign will always tell the truth. Or, at least, be slightly less negative than regular Stone.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Extras menu shows that each animatronic has a different "Power Color."
  • Popgoes himself is green.
  • Blake is yellow.
  • Sara is blue.
  • Saffron is pink.
  • Stone is red.
  • Blackrabbit is white.
• Dialogue Tree: After every night's phone call, the player is given three questions that they can ask Fritz. These calls can give exposition on some of the stranger aspects around the building, as well as some lore clues. It's explained In-Universe as Fritz being too busy to give you live calls every night, so he records them whenever he has spare time.
• Downer Ending: No matter what ending you achieve, the player character achieves nothing, and Bonnie is never saved. In fact, the "true ending" outright makes things worse; Simon, with Strings's help, is able to escape and murder Fritz, leaving the restaurant (and Bonnie) to rot.
• Expy: Harder to tell than most fangames, but similarities are present:
  • Popgoes The Weasel is one to Freddy Fazbear, obviously. He even has his hat from the auction. Mechanic-wise, he brings to mind most of Flumpty's Gang, where you have to ward him out of a room by shutting it down.
  • Sara and Saffron bring to mind Toy Chica due to their short shorts. They also crawl through the vents and disable one of the ways to lure off animatronics, ala balloon boys. On a similar note, they also jumpscare you from above, similar to The Mangle. They are also Palette Swaps of each other, like the original Freddy and Bonnie in the first game.
  • You have to "play" a children's game with a certain animatronic. Blake likes Simon Says, Plushtrap likes Red Light, Green Light (though Blake makes it more explicit and noticeable).
  • Stone The Crow is visually an expy of Chica (right down to the original version of Stone being an edit of Chica, as shown in the Extras). He also has similarities to Freddy; both are almost always seen with glowing eyes, are seen in hallucinations before they are active, are mildly active in night four but are a truly a threat in night five, and both have more counterparts then the others but specifically a version based, named, and colored after a rare mineral, such as GOLDEN Freddy and GEM Stone.
  • Of course, Black Rabbit is this to Shadow Bonnie. You must also check behind you to see how many units she has and must stop them from reaching a certain number, similar to Nightmare Freddy, albeit they are slight differences.
• Failure Is the Only Option: You need the game over screens of every animatronic in order to figure out how to access the "True Ending".
• Foreshadowing: There are hints scattered throughout the game relating to how the player character isn't human. The first night's phone call stands out in particular:
  Fritz: If you paid attention to my first message, you must have heard me say that these robots can do pretty much anything, yes? Well, I wasn't joking. This place is fully automated and run entirely by them. No human employees as of yet.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: All animatronics take on this trait when jumpscaring you.
• It Was There the Whole Time: Simon and Fritz were both in Fritz's office throughout the entirety of the game. That is, until Simon kills him in the True Ending.
• Jumpscare: It's a FNAF fangame. Of course there's gonna be some of them. Though strangely enough, although most the animatronics appear to attack you, they never actually do, it's just your servers overloading due to being a robot caused by hallucinations. The sole exception to this is Blackrabbit, who does actually kill you if she's reassembled.
• Mundane Utility: What are those 3D printers all around the building being used for? To make napkins and utensils, as well as action figures for the kids to play with.
  • The animatronics themselves don't just stand on stage and perform, they act as employees for the building. They cook, they clean, they take equipment away from bratty children... and one acts as the night guard.
• Offing the Offspring: Blackrabbit's origin: Fritz, victim of the Bite of '87 at Toy Bonnie's hands, was frightened by his daughter Bonnie wearing the old animatronic's mask. Naturally, he responded by chopping her to pieces. Afterwards, in what seems to be an attempt to make up for his actions, Fritz programmed the star of Popgoes' Pizzeria to assemble the limbs of the mysterious Blackrabbit suit, hoping that she would possess it.
• Palette Swap: The Lux animatronics, which are mostly white with glowing joints and eyes.
• Punny Name: Popgoes the Weasel and Stone the Crow. Also, out of the spoiler characters, Gem Stone and Grave Stone, but most prominently Simon, whose name is a play on Simon Says^note and thus may allude to his manipulative nature.
• Red Herring: No, Fritz isn't Fritz Smith. His last name is Glade. "Fritz Glade" is, however, an anagram... of Fitzgerald.
• The Reveal: Many, throughout the endings.
  • Fritz isn't Fritz Smith from Five Nights at Freddy's 2. His name is actually Fritz Glade, which is an anagram of Fitzgerald. This is because he's Jeremy Fitzgerald, the victim of the Bite of '87.
  • Blackrabbit is possessed by Fritz's daughter Bonnie, who he murdered while having a PSTD episode. He programmed the other animatronics to build Blackrabbit during the night, in hopes that she could possess the suit and come back to life.
  • The player character is actually Strings, a bizarre, Slender Man-like security guard animatronic created by Jeremy.
  • Most prominently, Jeremy and the Purple Man are brothers, and Simon — Jeremy's attempt to resurrect his brother in animatronic form — has murdered him with Strings's aid.
• Robotic Reveal: The player character is a robot named Strings, who was built by Fritz to act as the building's security guard.
• Rule of Symbolism: Invoked. Each animatronic in Popgoes' Pizzeria was made as a direct counterpoint to a Freddy Fazbear's toy animatronic to help Jeremy cope with the trauma of his night shifts, with their own assigned Power Colors to give them strength when those colors are invoked, and were made to utilize original props from those animatronics to symbolize that they've conquered Jeremy's nightmares.
• Running Gag: Yes, you can still boop the mascot character on the nose in a logo for a humorous sound effect. (This time, it's on the soda cup by the monitor.)
• SkeleBot 9000: Simon is literally a robotic purple skeleton modelled after his human counterpart, the Purple Guy A.K.A Simon Fitzgerald.
• Spoiler Opening: Beware of reading the few pages of the cancelled tie-in graphic novel, as they immediately spoil information about Toy Bonnie being behind the Bite of '87, and Fritz's true nature.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Blackrabbit is obviously based on Shadow Bonnie, down to the ability to float.
  • Simon's appearance also harkens back to The Purple Guy, due to his synthetic purple skin and Slasher Smile.
    • Mostly because this is because it's a recreation of him as an animatronic by Jeremy Fitzgerald.
• Walking Spoiler: Several. There's Grave Stone, Gem Stone, the Lux animatronics, and Simon, but they all pale in comparison to Strings, a robotic security guard built by Fritz... and the player character.
• Womb Level: The minigames this time around. They have a techno-organic vibe noticeable immediately...and it's eventually revealed to be in the shape of a brain. The Toys are trapped within, and Toy Bonnie's location corresponds to the frontal lobe...
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: When Fritz is sent to the hospital after the Bite of '87, the Purple Guy, later revealed to be Fritz's brother Simon, kills a group of kids in order to gain enough blood to donate to save Fritz's life.

POPGOES Arcade

• Action Command: Usually averted, but the final bosses of 2018 and 2020 both play it straight to varying degrees: 2018's final boss utilizes the mask mechanic to allow the player to guard against the enemy's attack by selecting the proper mask before the enemy launches their attack. 2020 instead quietly allows a player to time an attack with the machines in the background, dealing increased damage if the command is pressed while the lasers are golden. The lasers can also turn purple, and attacking then will result in the boss blocking your attack while dealing a hefty amount of damage to you in return.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The gameplay of Arcade 2016 is extremely simple, with Popgoes only having two possible actions: Attacking and healing. As a result, the only possible strategy is to attack until the enemy's next attack will kill you, heal, repeat.
• Big Bad:
  • Arcade 2016's main antagonist is King Cultivate, the ruler of the lands that he took over from Popgoes and his friends, with Popgoes being determined to reclaim them.
  • Arcade 2018's main antagonist is the Phantom Scourge, a mysterious malevolent power that brainwashed the four kings and the Puppet, with JJ setting off on a journey to free the kings from its influence and put an end to the Scourge's threat.
  • Arcade 2020's main antagonist is Dead King Freddy, an undead version of Freddy Fazbear who seeks to kill everyone in the forest to let them be resurrected as the undead, no longer burdened by the mortality and its limitations. Popgoes and the Machinist, meanwhile, has the Machinist, Dead King Freddy's collaborator who assisted him in trying to kill everyone by creating the machines he used for his plan. After Freddy's death, the Machinist, real name Morse the Mole, took over as the main threat by sending robotic replicas of Popgoes and his friends to terrorize everyone, and kidnapping Manora.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Most regular enemies in Arcade 2020 are being driven mad by machines the Big Bad set up in the area. It's possible to turn off the machines to remove Random Encounters in that zone.
• Charged Attack: Enemies in 2018 and 2020 can charge up to deal triple damage on their next turn.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Of the bosses in 2020, Corrupt/Dead Bonnie is a particularly durable foe thanks to his ability to dig up acorns to restore his health, considerably drawing out the fight. For reference, Popgoes' attack maxes out at 30. Dead Bonnie can heal 95 health with this move and will use it every 3rd or 4th turn.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After defeating Corrupt BB in 2020, he becomes an ally who can improve Popgoes' abilities in exchange for completing his "Hit Lists".
• Dem Bones: Enemies in the Dead Forest in Arcade 2020 are composed of skeletal versions of earlier enemies. The rematches against Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics are also against their "Dead" skeleton versions. The final boss, meanwhile, is the skeletal version of Freddy Fazbear, now known as Dead King Freddy.
• Elite Mooks: After defeating BB in Arcade 2020, "+" variant enemies with increased stats will replace the regular enemies.
• Exact Words: The True Final Boss of Arcade 2020's secret ending (at first), is referred to as Corrupt Bonnie. As in, the spirit of Bonnie Glade whose mind/soul is corrupted from being trapped in an arcade cabinet.
• Foreshadowing: A player's experience in Arcade 2018 will sometimes get interrupted by a sudden appearance by a strange purple rabbit like entity who'll charge at the player character and crash the game. Who do we know who exists in the POPGOES timeline, forcefully stops a player's game in a similar manner ^note See FNAF 2's You Can't, except with more crashing, has a connection to rabbits and the colour purple, and attacks the player in the game's secret ending?
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In-universe, both Arcade 2016 and 2020 can have Blackrabbit start breaking out of the arcade cabinet depending on the player's actions during the respective secret endings of each game.
• Friendly Enemy: The majority of the non-phantom enemies in Arcade 2018 are simply trying to help you get strong enough to take on the real threat.
• Healing Boss: Corrupt Bonnie frequently uses the Dig ability that has him unearth an acorn that heals him for a large amount of health. As such, Popgoes is required to use the damage-boosting items to outpower Bonnie's healing to be able to defeat him. Bonnie retains this ability even after coming Back from the Dead as Dead Bonnie, and his robotic doppelganger also retains his ability.
• Immortality Immorality: The Big Bad of Arcade 2020, Dead King Freddy, wishes to grant immortality to everyone, and to do so, he seeks to murder everyone so that they may return back as The Undead.
• Multiple Endings: Each game has two endings, a regular ending involving finishing the game normally and a secret ending gotten by investigating the game world more closely, usually involving walking through at least one wall.
• Piñata Enemy: Golden variants of enemies have a chance to spawn in 2020 and drop a considerable amount of gold if defeated.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: All enemies in Arcade 2020 have glowing red eyes.
• Sheathe Your Sword: Arcade 2020's secret ending has the player face off against the spirit of Bonnie Glade. Your opponent is just barely holding back, and attacking results in a Non-Standard Game Over when Blackrabbit loses control and breaks out of the in-universe arcade cabinet to presumably kill the in-universe player. You need to let your opponent calm down by beating the crap out of Popgoes for a while so she can free herself from the cabinet and pass on peacefully.
• Superboss: Arcade 2020's "Popgoes and the Machinist" expansion features the Mangle, a mish-mash of robot parts possessed by Freddy's soul. Not only it possesses 2500 HP (which is twice as much as the Final Bosses of both the original game and the DLC campaign), it also inflicts 100 damage with every attack (for reference, the player's health caps at 500 HP), and its Scythe attack can inflict enough damage to be an One-Hit KO even at max health. It can also pierce shields and attack Popgoes even when he jumps. Defeating it unlocks the Scythe ability for Popgoes, replacing the Hook ability in battle and allowing him to pierce shields.
• Token Human: In Arcade 2020, BB is the only human in the World of Funny Animals. This actually makes him the only Corrupt being to not only survive his fight, but also be able to snap out of his corruption afterwards; since he's a human, he is not as suspectible to corruption as the animals were.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: The rematches against the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics grant Popgoes new abilities for traversal and combat.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As twisted as it may be, the goal of Dead King Freddy, the Big Bad of Arcade 2020, is actually a noble one: he wishes to make everyone immortal by turning them into The Undead, something which can be done only by one being directly murdering another...so he decides to murder everyone as a way to render them all immortal as undead beings.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Arcade 2020 allows Popgoes to obtain a variety of special skills, like the ability to utilize ziplines, dig underneath obstacles... and the ability to jump.

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