Friday Night Funkin is an indie rhythm game that has taken over YouTube, Tiktok, and various game modding websites. It features a catchy original soundtrack, stylized art, and presents itself as a love letter to the Newgrounds and Flash game community as a whole.
Being the tribute that it is, Friday Night Funkin contains many different cameos and references to various flash games and other inspirations for the title. With some guest appearances taking center stage of certain levels, and others as background details, some cameos are more obvious than others.
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The popularity of Friday Night Funkin has served as a promo for multiple characters making guest appearances in it. Cameos even go for characters that have appeared in Flash games since the earliest days of Newgrounds. Their appearances however make sure they're shown in a good and funky light.
The first guest appearances to show up in Friday Night Funkin are the dual opponents from the game's second week. These opponents are Skid, the child dressed as a skeleton, as well as Pump, the child with a pumpkin on his head.
Both of these characters are originally from animator Sr Pelo's series, Spooky Month. This series of Newgrounds animated shorts starred Skid and Pump celebrating "Spooky Month" in various chaotic ways, including taking candy from strangers, summoning demons, and doing the spooky dance. The dance in question appears as Skid and Pump's idle animation in Friday Night Funkin.
The third week of Friday Night Funkin has players go up against a character strongly connected to Newgrounds history. This character is Pico, known for his starring role in the 1999 Flash game Pico's School, by Tom Fulp. He has since appeared in multiple Flash games by Tom Fulp and has become one of Newgrounds.com's mascots. Many longtime Newgrounds users may recognize him as the focus of the Pico Day on-site holiday, as well as one of the old faces of the Newgrounds rating systems.
In Friday Night Funkin, Pico still has his gun from Pico's School, but forgoes shooting Boyfriend, and instead battles him with song like all of the previous foes. Like the other songs in the game, the ones led by Pico are beloved by players.
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Week five contains the most character cameos and guest appearances out of any other week. This is due to most of the songs taking place in a crowded mall during Christmas time with each visible background character being a reference to something.
Starting in the far background are:
- Pico - Pico's School by Tom Fulp
- Kenstar - Girlchan in Paradise by Arin Hanson
- Buggy the Bug - Original character by EvilSk8r
- Cool Dude - Original character by Cool Dude
- Blockhead - Blockhead by Michael Swain
- Meat Boy - Super Meat Boy by Edmund Mcmillen
- Chris and Zach - Hellbenders by Christopher Luke O'Neill and Zach Hadel
- Gentles and Guoy - Gentles by Jon Eke
- Sublo and Tangy Mustard - Sublo and Tangy Mustard by Aaron Long
- Henry Stickmin - Henry Stickmin by InnerSloth LLC
- xXsquidwardXx - Persona of xXsquidwardXx
- Hatsune Miku - Voicebank synthesizer program by Crypton Future Media
Close to the battle between Boyfriend and the duo of Girlfriend's parents are:
- Darnell - Pico's School by Tom Fulp
- ZONE-Tan - Mascot of Zone-Archive
- Jason, Chris, and Stan - Nightmare Cops by Tom Fulp, Johnny Utah, Spazkidin3d, and Christopher Luke O'Neill
With Friday Night Funkin still getting updates, and with more content on the horizon, more guest appearances and cameos are to be expected. The game is completely free to play with an active modding community to boot, so there's plenty to enjoy with Friday Night Funkin now, and in the future.
Friday Night Funkin is available on Newgrounds and Itch.io for in-browser play.
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Source: Friday Night Funkin Wiki