Note: This article was written in October of 2023, before the release of the FNAF movie. There may also have been other changes to FNAF such as the release of Help Wanted 2, which will not be mentioned here. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s. Have you heard of this name? Of course, you have. It’s a horror game with the goofiest-looking animatronic bear. This game has revived the horror genre in modern entertainment by inspiring the creation of other mascot-horror games and mesmerising the internet with its lore. However, unless you were raised in America, you may not have heard of Chuck E. Cheese, the inspiration for FNAF. Or is that really true?

So, Chuck E. Cheese. What is it? It’s an entertainment centre located in America, where junk food such as pizza is served, accompanied by hundreds of classic arcade machines. The spotlight, but, is on the infamous animatronic show, featuring (from left to right) Mr Munch, Helen Henny, Chuck E. Cheese, Jasper T. Jowls, and Pasqually P. Pieplates. These animatronics are put on a stage where they “sing” and “play their instruments” to visitors of the pizza place. Going to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant is an exciting experience for American children, yet, what you may not know is that Hong Kong-ers have also had the chance to enjoy this animatronic show. 

In December 1982, the first Chuck E. Cheese Hong Kong branch opened in Tsim Sha Tsui East, on 96 Granville Road, where Hilton Plaza is now. The building was known as 出奇老鼠薄餅樂園 (sometimes 出奇老鼠開心樂園), 出奇老鼠 being the Chinese name of Chuck E. Cheese himself. Old adverts tell us that there were two other Chuck E. Cheese in Hong Kong: one in Hong Kong Island and another in Tsuen Wan. The restaurant had all five of the essential animatronic characters, as well as a character named “The Warblettes”, as shown in the picture on the right (Chuck E. Cheese Wiki). Furthermore, all the animatronics were given Chinese names and spoke in Cantonese, but, currently, there are no records of their Chinese names

However, there was another pizza arcade which featured Chuck E. Cheese. It was called The Wonderful World of Whimsy. It was the same as 出奇老鼠薄餅樂園; junk food and arcade machines. Surprisingly, there were far more locations which were more accessible to children living in public housing. These locations were: Tai Koo, Tuen Mun, Whampoa, Hong Kong Island, Heng Fa Chuen, and Tsuen Wan. The Wonderful World of Whimsy still actually has a few locations, however without the presence of the beloved rat Chuck.

My main focus for this article is to compare Chuck E. Cheese with Five Nights at Freddy’s. Now that I have discussed what Chuck E. Cheese is and some of its characters, I will explain the horror franchise to you. 

First off, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a game series created by Scott Cawthon, consisting of 10 main games. The first of the games, FNAF 1, revolves around the player taking up the summer job of a night watchman at a pizzeria called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The player character is Mike Schmidt, and he will have to work for five nights at Freddy’s (get it). Every night, Mike stays in his office, while Freddy Fazbear and his animatronic friends attempt to break into the office to capture the player. To survive the nights, Mike will have to check security cameras and close doors with perfect timing.

Hold on. Pizzeria? Animatronics? This plot may seem familiar, and you may start to be able to connect the dots. Precisely. Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on Chuck E. Cheese. But then how do the friendly band members of Chuck’s compare to the nightmare fuel from FNAF? See, Chuck E. Cheese’s animatronics did not always look as refined as the ones now.

As you can see from this picture, this is what Chuck used to look like. 

It is theorised that in FNAF, the animatronics can move around the pizzeria during the night because they are each filled with the soul of a child murdered by William Afton, one of the two owners of the restaurant. However, this might be a topic for another time.

Well, there you have it. A breakdown of Chuck E. Cheese, its presence in Hong Kong, and a comparison with its video game counterpart. I hope you enjoyed and learned something new about Hong Kong.