Recently, a well-known gaming Youtube channel known as Game Theory released a video titled “What Went WRONG With Mascot Horror”. The gist of the video is that the mascot horror genre has become oversaturated with content and heavily monetized with little effort being put into quality of games. The video ends on a positive note though, praising developers who take the time to fully develop their games, showcase their passion and dedication to their projects, and deliver products that bring the mascot horror genre back to its glory days. Its no coincidence that many of these developers have backgrounds in the indie horror genre in some capacity, such as in fan-made music and/or videos.
Horror Skunx on Youtube continues this trend. The channels consists of fan-made songs and videos for many popular indie horrors, such as Poppy Playtime. The channel is run by a man named Winston and has been around for a few years. The reason I mention this channel is because the developers of Dark Pals: The 1st Floor is a small team of people that come from this channel—Skunx Games. Knowing that they have a background in indie horror and are willing to put time and passion into their projects, let’s take a closer look at their first full-released game.
Dark Pals: The 1st Floor is a single player mascot horror game with puzzles, chases and a story. Developed and published by Skunx Games, Dark Pals: The 1st Floor was released on May 1st, 2026. Players take on the role of a currently unknown character in an abandoned children’s mental health facility known as UpWard. While going through the facility, players will need to solve puzzles with their Ink Blaster, the cutest little squid-like gun that shoots ink and follows you when put down. Players will also come across entities left behind in the facility. Players will need to both trust and run from these entities at different points in the game.
In similar fashion to many mascot horrors (such as Poppy Playtime), Dark Pals: The 1st Floor is just the first chapter in a series. With this in mind, I felt the game did a great job as an attention grabber, somewhat of a teaser for what’s to come later on in future installments. I’m excited to see what future floors have, with this game ending as we get to the 2nd floor. However, I think my enjoyment of the game is a bit too dependent on this. When viewing the game on its own, it’s just okay.
There’s a mix of positives and negatives here, but mostly positive. The graphics look fantastic, and I love how the cartoonish elements blend seamlessly with the decayed, decrepit facility. The game throws in the occasional strange occurrences, too. There are story elements but it is reading as a cliché so far by indie mascot horror standards. I do like the mascots/entities that exist in this first game. They’re endearing, fitting for what we might see in a children’s mental health facility, but at the same time not very scary even after years without human contact. I think overall, Dark Pals: The 1st Floor deserves some attention, and it does seem to be getting traction in the Let’s Play and streaming communities. So, hold tightly to your favorite toy, because it’s time to discuss Dark Pals: The 1st Floor!
Just a quick side-note, I will try to avoid spoilers in my review, but it would be pretty difficult to discuss without some spoilers. The game is somewhat short in length and overall content. I completed the game in an hour and half, which included exploration and occasional deaths. Plus, as mentioned, the story is so far reading as cliché, so I’m not really spoiling much.
“Here at UpWard, the only way is up.”
Speaking of story, let’s dive right in. The game begins in an elevator with players heading down to the main lobby. From what I’ve seen, no context of who you are or why you are here is given at any point. In the reception area waiting for players is the cutest little squid-like plush, the Ink Blaster. Though it may be a toy, it is certainly alive as it reaches up to players and makes noises. I’ll discuss the Ink Blaster a bit more later when I go into the puzzles.
After signing in at the reception, the facility briefly comes to life. A video plays from a man named Mr. Grin, welcoming children and their parents into UpWard. Players tackle three puzzles to advance the investigation. After completing them, the game prompts you to grab your favorite toy and head off on the tour. Before proceeding though, a garden-like area with a large fountain is accessible from the main lobby. This fountain has one of the first strange visual occurrences in the game, and though it is minor, it was super effective at giving me a feeling of unease. Dark Pals: The 1st Floor has many blink and you’ll miss it moments that let players know that not everything is as it seems—beyond the facilities dark nature they make obvious later on. It is beneficial to keep focused on your surroundings with your eyes open.
Shortly after exiting the main lobby, strange red text appears on the walls. The text writes “I am friend.” and “Do you remember?”, both of which are important. The red text is being done by an entity called Doodledoomer. Though we don’t learn this in game, we can however learn this on the Dark Pals website. I’ll discuss this a bit more at the end of this section. Doodledoomer drops hints throughout the game to help players, so it is safe to say that they are indeed friend—for now. The “Do you remember?” message seems more story focused. I think the unknown character players take the role on must have been at this facility before, though I am not entirely sure in what capacity. I personally believe they were a child here, and leave a comment if you’d like to know my reasons as to why.
The next major plot points come at the theater. In the projector room behind the theater, players will need to change the film reel. However, the instructional video on how to change the reel, as well as signs on the wall, make it obvious that there’s a darker side to this children’s mental health facility. At UpWard, the company subjects the children to full‑on brainwashing. They bind them into the theater seats, and any child who won’t obey faces punishment. After changing the reel, Mr. Grin appears again and tells the children that they’re incomplete and that they will “learn to play our way.” At the end of the video, a mantra repeats. Submit. Conform. Consume. Perform.
From what I can tell, there aren’t any major plot points beyond this so far. The only thing that seems important to note is a video of an entity being abused for not doing their duties. I would hope future games in the series go into the story a bit deeper. Currently, it feels like such a cliché. The company coerces children into specific behaviors and punishes anyone who refuses to comply. I feel like we’ve seen this many times before.
Some story elements that do make things more interesting actually come from ‘outside’ the game. On the main menu, you can click on database and it will open a link to the Dark Pals website. On the site, you can find descriptions of characters and entities that give more backstory. This includes the two major entities I will discuss in the next section, as well as the Doodledoomer that writes to us. There are also videos to watch that give more exposition to the Dark Pals organization. What seems most important is that the Dark Pals raided UpWard in 1980, leaving it in the crumbling state that its in now. This information is certainly helpful to watch and I did consume it before starting my play. However, because they are not in the game itself, I’ll leave it up to you to review the rest of the information.
Misunderstood Mascots
In Dark Pals: The 1st Floor, there are two major mascot entities. The first major one we encounter is Chompy Chasey. Chompy is a brown dog with an oversized head. He has a large mouth with a row of colored blocks on the bottom and sharp fangs on tops. At first, he watches the player from a distance, but will later…interact with them. Throughout the game, Chompy has looked happy to see us, angry, sad, overly excited, and maybe even a bit hungry too. This may seem like an obvious thing to do for a mascot horror, but there are many out there that just don’t give this attention to detail. The mascots feel two dimensional, with only one thing on their mind. Chompy however feels alive with emotions and character, and he doesn’t even talk! He’s also super cute, especially when he’s happy.
The other major entity is Binky Drinky. Binky is actually two entities fused together: a pacifier‑shaped head and a large baby body with a gaping maw. They are more of a guardian or caretaker for the children, guiding them to beds or helping them create meals. Binky acts in the same way with us (again, why I think we were a child here and not a worker who would have abused Binky) and is typically pretty caring for our wellbeing. However, this is just the pacifier part that is, as the large baby body craves human flesh. At night, players can peek on Binky feeding the lower half its pacifier to calm it. This turns out to be only a temporary fix though. Most of the chase sequences occur with Binky pursuing players, with the top half sounding distressed and unable to control the ravenous bottom half.
Like Chompy, Binky feels alive with character. I like the duality of wanting to help us and wanting to eat us. It is actually Binky in the video of an entity being abused for not doing their duties, and honestly, I felt bad for them. I think what Skunx Games has done well so far is making their mascots sympathetic and misunderstood. Both Chompy and Binky show behaviors that feel out of their control, as if someone conditioned them to act that way, or misunderstood having been abandoned and mistreated by humans. I suppose their whimsical charm helps as well, as neither are really all that scary. They’re more endearing, even when they’re chasing the player to consume them. I am excited to see more entities in future games, especially those Bitesizers.
I suppose the question then is “Is Dark Pals: The 1st Floor scary?” No, not really. It does have a few jumps here and there, especially when chase sequences start, but it isn’t scary outside of that. There are no stealth sections or super dark corridors that make me hesitant about what might be lurking. The environment might be decayed and decrepit, but it still carries some of the brightness and magic it must have had before. Sure, they may be brainwashing kids, but they’re doing it in style.
The chase sequences are okay. They’re kind of short and unforgiving though. There isn’t a lot of time for players to stray off the set path for them, making it almost trial-by-error. I had to do every single chase at least twice, and many times it was because of not knowing exactly where to go. For example, one chase involves interacting with a bed in order to complete. This proved a bit difficult to do though. If you don’t interact with the bed once you get to it in like a second, the next one will have you restarting. You also can’t skip the cutscenes either which makes the initial scares they may have had become tedious.
Ultimately, I think this first game of the series could have used an uptick in the horror. The blink and you’ll miss it moments or things vanishing suddenly does help me feel uneasy. However, going the whole game just with unease and not much actual horror feels underwhelming. Again, it leads itself to feeling like an attention grabber or teaser for the whole series, which I would hope is scarier.
One last brief thing I ran into were occasional animation glitches I think? I know little about developing a game so I’m not sure what they are exactly. Occasionally a cutscene repeated itself, leading to it overlapping. This happened during a chase sequence when I got caught by Binky, and also during the final moments of the game. It was a little odd and again, no idea what caused it, but its something worth noting. I would assume these will get patched soon, but I do have to tick a point off because of it. (Patched at time of posting, should not be an issue anymore.)
Ink Blasting Puzzles
Much like the GrabPack in Poppy Playtime, the Ink Blaster is used for most puzzles. The puzzles were okay, though nothing to write home about. I won’t cover all of them, but some of my favorites were the shooting gallery and making a cookie. The shooting gallery is as you may expect—shooting targets as they pop up. There isn’t a whole lot to discuss with this one but it was simple fun. The cookie puzzle didn’t involve the ink blaster, but was a significant point in the gameplay. This is partly because of the song that repeats the whole time. It still pops into my head days after playing. Players need to gather the right ingredients to make a cookie with Binky. The cookie ends up drugging us unfortunately, but it does sound pretty good—banana, blueberry and white chocolate.
Another very small puzzle I liked was shooting a ball into a goal. The puzzle itself was tiny, and the game never returned to the moving‑target mechanic, but I’d love to see them expand on it. Another common puzzle is finding ink canisters to equip onto the Ink Blaster and painting something. This is usually with a red and blue dragon, and it made me wonder if these things have a deeper significance. As I said though, the puzzles were okay and not anything special. I see them more of a positive despite this feeling though, simply because I felt that the pacing was done well. It wasn’t…too puzzly and I didn’t feel like I spent too much time on one particular puzzle.
The game hides three distinct types of collectibles throughout its environments. I won’t spoil what they are, but keep your eyes open for them!
Looking Forward to the 2nd Floor
Overall, I think Dark Pals: The 1st Floor deserves the recognition it is receiving. You may even have seen some of your favorite indie horror gamers playing already as it seems to be gathering traction. Despite some of the flaws, I do believe passion has been put in this game and series. I hope it strays away from the story clichés and creates its own identity so that it wouldn’t feel fair to compare it to other mascot horror games. I hope that the future games in the series uptick the horror elements and maybe even make some memorable puzzles. Fans of mascot horror should at least keep their eyes on the Dark Pals series.
On the flip side though, if you look at the game as a stand alone, I think its just okay. It feels heavily like a teaser for the series as a whole. They avoid showing all their cards upfront, choosing instead to spark players’ curiosity and keep them invested in the series. I think the game’s low price point does help mitigate this factor though, and is still recommendable. My attention has been grabbed and I am excited to see what—or who—might be lurking on the 2nd Floor.
Thank you for reading and happy brainwashing, everybody!
