Finding Frankie is a horror game in which you must compete in a deadly parkour show. Not only are you trying to win the five million dollar grand prize, but you’re also trying to escape the monstrosities within and make it out alive.
Finding Frankie originally launched on PC, and now is finally making its way to console on April 15th, 2025.
Story & Setup
After buying a bunch of boxes of Frankie’s Fruit Flakes, you finally win the ultimate prize, a chance to compete for five million dollars. There is a catch however, nobody ever wins. Most likely due to the ravenous animatronic mascots trying to kill you.
Overall a simple premise but it works as a good backdrop for a fun horror game such as this. Story isn’t the focal point here. Just survive and try to have fun amidst the chaos.
You’ll need to put on your best Mirror’s Edge impression facing multiple parkour courses, some while being chased by monsters. You’ll need to slide, wall-jump, and grind your way out of these scenarios.
It’s a test of guts and determination for the main character. You start the game with 3 other contestants, one minute later, you are all that is left. You quickly learn in here that one wrong move, step, or decision costs you dearly.
What follows next is a crazy little journey involving a killer mascot, a phone, and deputy duck. Yes, I’m being serious.
Hardcore Parkour
How you go about said journey involves some parkour and slight puzzle solving. You’ll go through multiple courses, each with fun vibrant colors, and a distinct feeling among them all.
From Deputy Duck’s yellow course to Frankie’s Frosted Tundra. Each brings distinct flavor, although the gameplay in each isn’t a drastic departure from one another.
A lot of the mechanics of each of these courses in Finding Frankie aren’t incredibly complex. I actually felt for the most part at times that it was a little too easy. Understandably, I recognize the game is more catered towards teenagers, there was just a lack of pressure or worry because I never felt I couldn’t overcome a challenge or obstacle.
And although there is puzzles here, they are very straight-forward. The same breaker box puzzle is used consistently, turn on one breaker box, and your hud will be updated with how many there are left to find. They aren’t hard to find either, so again, no pressure.
There was a standout section of the game for me. You find a deputy duck electronic device which can scan the area, or a flash which can reveal hidden items. After finding yourself face to face with Henry Hotline, you have to walk around a dark maze with your deputy duck device to find five phones, all while henry stalks you in the shadows. Very enjoyable.
Overall, I think the gameplay is fine but it’s far from perfect. The controls are a little weird and take some getting used to. On Xbox you press LT to run, RT to crouch/slide. Initially I hated it, especially when you have to run, press and hold X to grab a pole and swing yourself forward. Very awkward at first but eventually I got used to it.
One final note on gameplay, some aspects of the courses appear to take inspiration from Fall Guys. With a very fun and well known game from Fall Guys showing up towards the end. It was a nice touch and gave the game some added flavor.
Conclusion
Finding Frankie is a fun game, but it has obvious shortcomings. It’s a little too easy, fairly short, and there’s not a whole lot of variety in its mechanics or courses.
That doesn’t mean that there’s not some good here though. I think for the right price (I am unsure of price. The Xbox store doesn’t have a price listed and I can’t find any info online) you can have a good time with it. I completed the game in about an hour and twenty minutes so also consider that with price.
Looking online, this game had a very strong presence on YouTube particularly with streamers and content creators who play these types of games. This game is strongly built for that audience so if you like those types of games I recommend Finding Frankie.
