Let's be real: this is the game that made a generation of kids terrified of Chuck E. Cheese. FNAF is legitimately clever—the resource management and strategic elements are solid, and the indie success story is impressive. The lack of predatory monetization is refreshing.

But it's horror. Like, actual horror designed to make you jump and feel unsafe. If your kid can handle that and won't have nightmares, the game itself is relatively tame (no gore, no graphic violence). The bigger concern is the sprawling YouTube ecosystem of FNAF content, which ranges from harmless theory videos to genuinely disturbing fan animations.

The game is now over a decade old and shows its age—the graphics are basic, the gameplay is repetitive, and kids today are more likely to know FNAF from memes and YouTube than from actually playing it. If your tween is begging for it, they've probably already consumed hours of content about it online. The game itself might actually be less scary than what they've imagined.