What do you get when you insert some Resident Evil-like game play into Sesame Street? That’s gotta be the question the devs of My Friendly Neighborhood were wondering when they made their game. It already sold a ton of copies on PC when it released in 2023 and now it’s ported over to Xbox and even made it onto Xbox Game Pass, becoming the most popular new title if data from last week is painting the correct picture.
I was intrigued myself about the game and was very excited I could now play it on my favourite platforms, so let’s dive into a world of felt and sewn-on eyes and hug some friends!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
| Developer | John & Evan Szymanski |
| Publisher | DreadXP |
Things I liked!
- Nightmare on Sesame Street| Let’s start with the most obvious topic: putting a horror twist on a kid’s theme will always be popular it seems, we’ve had a few similar games recently and they all did great commercially. Here the theme is Sesame Street, with the main (human) character arriving on a TV set for what could easily be mistaken with Sesame Street or The Muppets, only something happened and they became decidedly less “friendly”, attacking the player on sight. I wouldn’t call most of the game “horror” though. Maybe unsettling, because of the stark contrast between a kids show and what’s happening here, but it’s not like you’ll see blood or gore.
- Actually a decent story | if you don’t skip reading the optional collectable news clippings, or paying attention to what Ricky the sockpuppet is telling you, you’ll notice that the story and central messaging of the game actually has something meaningful to say about bringing colour and kindness to a world that’s quickly forgetting about it. Gordon himself, the main character, is an army veteran turned fix-it-all, so it hits extra close to home for him.
- Learn your ABCs | I loved how the weapons were letter-themed, with a Rolodex pistol that holds 26 letter-bullets in a single clip, a shotgun shooting scripts and other alphabet-themed weaponry. When you shoot these weapons, the letters have a very satisfying impact and physics-based trajectory after hitting a target.
- Visually well done, for the most part | There are some things that could have used some extra polish, like weird shadows around the bigger puppets you’ll face in Horde Mode or minor visual glitches here and there (which could be unique to the console port). But overall, the game looks great and I really felt like I was roaming around a real studio gone crazy. Every zone (except for the sewers, grrr) was just long enough as well before it introduced something new again.
- It doesn’t overstay its welcome | The main game isn’t that long, clocking in at about 5 hours, even though it felt longer and I used a few guides instead of backtracking to screenshot hints or write down clues for puzzles.
- Lots of extra content | My Friendly Neighborhood has a lot of optional stuff in the main game, that you aren’t required to solve or figure out to see the credits, and after beating the game, you’ll unlock secrets, unlockable cheats and extra modes that all insert some longevity for those who aren’t ready with the game. There’s a Neighborhorde mode, which is just a horde shooter with 4 different levels and 4 different characters with different starting gear, which added about 1 hour of extra play for me. I especially liked having a “Free Camera” mode, which basically has “no clip” cheats on at all times, allowing you to quickly redo some things you may have missed. Which does bring me to my first negative.
Mixed & disliked!
- No “Continue” | I was really bummed out I couldn’t load my finished save file when I beat the game. though there is a New Game + that makes it easier to recollect things you may have missed in a first run. Would have preferred being able to reload a save file before a point of no return near the end of the game, though.
- Inventory Management | My Friendly Neighborhood gets a lot of inspiration from Resident Evil, including the blocked-out inventory management with items taking 1 or more blocks of space in a limited-size suitcase. Sadly, there is no way to upgrade the size of your case here, and some puzzle pieces take up to 8 blocks. Or you’ll have to carry 4 masks, each of a 2×2 size, taking up 16 slots just to solve a single story-required puzzle. I also didn’t like how opening your inventory doesn’t pause the game, which I had to learn the hard way.
- Puzzles & navigation | This is highly personal, but I’m a lazy puzzler. When you give me a collectable hint/note, I’m a happy camper. When you require me to backtrack a few levels to screenshot the order of some pictures or write down notes of my own, less so. My Friendly neighborhood has a mix of those. Combine this with the inventory woes mentioned above and a ton of backtracking through levels that load after opening a door, I can get frustrated. This is nothing new, Resident Evil had the exact same design choices, but that was because they had to work around hardware limitations. When I was getting lost through the sewers and arrived at a key item to progress further into the game, but it was so large that I had to dump half my inventory on the floor, that’s when I got a little pissed. Then, failing to find the location again where I had to use it and walking in circles for almost an hour was enough for me to want to rip some button-eyed puppets apart.
- Grindy Achievements | You can cheat your way through some of the achievements by ending the game soon, in fact, there is even an achievement specifically for it, but there are about 10 achievements that require you to beat the game in a specific way, or in a specific time limit on a harder difficulty. It feels like the game is pushing you to speedrun it, but it’s not a very speedrun friendly game + enabling any of the in-game cheats also invalidates the “finish the game” type of challenges where you can’t heal, can’t save your game, can’t open the extra storage (again, read the above bits to find out why that’s an absolute NO GO for me) or where you are limited to only one weapon. Sure, you can try to combine these and try to go for all of them in a single run, but it feels damn near impossible to me and beating the game 100% would require me to play through it 6 more times, and if I were forced to do so, I’d become decidedly “unfriendly”.
How long did I play the review before publishing? 10 hours
How long to beat the story? 4-5 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 33/43 or 770/1000G
How long to achieve 1000G | about 10-12 hours if you follow a guide, it’ll require multiple playthroughs.
You’ll love this game if you like these | Resident Evil, Amanda The Adventurer
CONCLUSION
Score: 80/100
Nightmare on Sesame Street, err, I mean My Friendly Neighborhood, is an interesting kids show turned horror game that was incredibly entertaining for a single run, despite some outdated game design choices. I’ve made some new felt friends along the way and will certainly remember my time spent on this set, but I don’t have the stuffing required for completing the game across multiple playthroughs.
Prefer to see the game in action? We’ve got you covered:
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.
