Cuddle Bears of Death – Final Girl – Bad Times at Buddyland Review

Many of us have been to those amusement places like Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza (that’s what they were called when I was a kid), where you have your video games, you have your dining areas where rambunctious kids are running around, throwing mostly inedible pizza at each other and, sometimes, hitting you instead. Or hogging the Qbert machine in the Arcade while I wanted to play it before the mother in charge of group corralled all of us other kids back to the table to gorge ourselves and hopefully not have stomach issues when we got home.

Ah, nostalgia…

Anyway, I think those places still exist, though I really only know because Ted Lasso references Chuck E. Cheese in an episode, so I figure it must still be somewhat of a thing.

That, and Van Ryder Games made a Final Girl feature film about one.

That’s when you know something is still in the zeitgeist.

(Is it still in to use the word zeitgeist?)

Bad Times at Buddyland is a Series 4 film in the Final Girl franchise that has you in one of these dens of chaos, fighting against not one, but probably multiple animatronic nightmares (I remember the Rockafire Explosion Band from Showbiz!) who are probably not in a band, but instead are trying to kill you.

Designed by Motti Eisenbach with art by Jacqui Davis, this feature film was published in 2025.

Both the killer and the location add some interesting twists, though moreso the killer because it can be brutal.

But on the other hand, I found this set to be one of the easiest of the bunch in my three plays, with two of them being outright (and easy) wins.

Granted, my first play I did the killer’s health slightly wrong, but I think I had enough oomph against him that I still would have won.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what this film has and whether it is worth getting.

The killer is Billy the Bear, a huge animatronic bear that just wants to hug you…to death.

This killer has a unique bloodlust track in that some of it is randomized.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, though I haven’t played any of Series 3 yet.

See the “A” and “B” tokens above?

There are four of each and you are using three of each in the game.

You might be lucky and get no effect, or something bad might happen.

You might even spawn a buddy!

What’s a buddy?

These are buddies.

The game always starts with one buddy spawned adjacent to Billy.

These are minions that will also be coming after you or the victims.

In Final Girl, minions take killer actions before the killer, and with Terror cards, they do all of the actions as well (unless it says “Billy (or killer) only”).

I do really like that, if you can manage to kill off one of the buddies, each one gives you a good effect, whether move 1 space or decrease Terror or what have you.

Just don’t get swarmed.

The other unique aspect of Billy is the power supplies.

At the beginning of the game, four power supplies are placed around the map (you get to place them, so that’s good at least, though none can be adjacent to another).

Each killer phase, Billy will heal one heart if there’s at least one active power source.

However, you can wander around the map and, for the cost of 1 Time (you don’t even have to stop), you can turn off any that are in a room that you walk through.

Turning them off becomes a priority, though the game may work against you in regards to that.

Both of Billy’s minor dark powers have to do with the power sources.

One won’t let you deactivate them, which is fine if you already have!

The other one is much more annoying because each round, it will activate one that you’ve worked so hard to turn off.

Thankfully it only happens twice before it goes away, but that’s bad enough!

Also, Eyes in the Dark increases Terror by the number of enemies in your space or adjacent after moving toward you, up to the number of activated power sources (which hopefully is zero if you’ve been doing your job).

Even at least one of Billy’s Dark Powers uses energy, and it’s a really scary one.

I had this come out in one of my games along with the minor dark power that reactivated power sources, meaning I had two active when I did my final hit point of damage.

I had to draw two extra final health tokens…and thankfully all were blank!

But it could easily have turned out terrible.

The other dark powers aren’t actually too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Adding one to his movement and attack values isn’t good, but could be manageable.

I haven’t played with any Epic Dark Powers yet, so let’s not go there.

Then, of course, there’s a new special buddy…Billy Jr.!

There are two special buddies in the game (Boris is brought out by the Epic Finale).

Billy Jr is always in Billy’s space, meaning you have to kill him before you can attack Billy (buddies protect Billy from being attacked).

Thankfully, buddies (except Boris, I see) are relatively easy to kill if you’ve got a weapon.

Only Toby has 3 health, meaning a good attack (or a weak attack with a weapon) will do the job really quick with the others.

The finales, I only reached one of them but they don’t look very pleasant.

The basic killer and minion action doesn’t have either of them move.

Just attack.

When the finale is revealed, all bets are off.

Everybody’s moving, and Billy either moves twice or attacks twice.

Or both!

Sizzling Power means you have to deactivate those power sources, because otherwise Billy heals twice and moves/attacks twice as well.

Let’s take a look at the Terror cards now (though we already have above a little bit).

Above we saw one that spawned a buddy.

Now we have Regroup, which groups all of the buddies into Billy’s space, to have them go out roaming again (and protect him too).

Going back to the power sources, Power Surge brings out a 5th one.

Oy vey!

He’s Turning Them Back On has Billy reactivate one you’ve spent time deactivating.

The bastard.

And It’s a Short Circuit uses an active one to kill at least one victim and then deactivate it.

If you can bear the bloodlust gain, not a bad way to get them turned off!

Finally (though I’m not showing all of the Terror cards), we have cards that have everybody move and then attack, which can be devastating if you haven’t been able to keep the buddy level down.

In these, the buddies go after the victims while Billy goes after you.

Or, in Do the Splits, he goes after a victim and then you.

Not good if the bloodlust has gotten high, because he will be able to run around the board.

Overall, I’d have to class Billy as a rather easy (and sometimes boring, but only when he’s too easy) killer.

Two of my three games, I beat him before the Finale, and in my third game, I beat him before his Dark Power was revealed.

That might have been a Buddyland thing more than Billy, because the victims were placed pretty well for saving, but I’d chalk at least some of that up to Billy because both his action and the other Buddies’ actions are just to attack whatever’s in their space.

They need the Terror cards to move and only a few of them dictate movement.

Hopefully for Billy the location Terror cards do movement!

I do really like the Buddy concept and the right combination of cards can make this a massacre, but you do need that right combination.

I also hope there are other killers where some of the bloodlust track results are random.

These were so cool, especially having the possibility of a no effect (though you could say that contributes to how easy Billy can be).

I do think Billy would be harder in a location where it’s not as easy to rescue victims.

Which brings me to Buddyland itself.

The Buddyland arcade and pizza center is a place that I would have loved as a kid, as long as it didn’t have a maniacal animatronic bear wandering around.

It has four arcade rooms, which can come into play in interesting ways.

Then there are play areas on the right side and the eating areas on the left.

You can find some cool items in the Dining Area, at the Prize Counter and…in the Ball Pit?

Did little Joey lose his Fire Axe amid all the balls?

Buddyland has some cool events that can make your life easier too.

Or harder, as the case may be.

I love the special victims in this set, as they’re all helpful in some way.

Though if you let them die, you won’t enjoy it.

Nick the Janitor, I used in my last win.

He killed two minions on his own!

That’s because whenever you lead him into an enemy’s space, he does two damage to them.

All but one of the buddies have 2 hit points or less, so instant death!

He disappears back to the Janitor’s Closet after that and you have to go grab him again, but thankfully that means he’s not on the map during the Killer phase.

It’s a win-win.

The Birthday Girl doesn’t do anything, though if you save her, you get a bunch of time.

The Pizza Delivery guy gives you two extra dice on Searches. I had him appear in the Ball Pit (ewwwww).

I got some cool stuff!

Other events aren’t quite as helpful.

I had Tragic Collapse kill a victim right at setup, which is always fun.

Sing-A-Long is terrible if you’re trying to keep your 3-dice horror rolls going.

Though I can’t really blame them. I’d get more and more terrified if I had to listen to little Bobby and all of his friends sing.

(oh, I guess that’s Billy and friends singing? Same difference)

The Terror cards can ramp things up a bit too.

It’s Play Time can be really brutal if you don’t have a lot of Activity cards to burn.

Rolling to put the Killer in the same spot as the closest target, and then 5 more times (minus how many Activity cards you discard)?

Thankfully it didn’t hurt me too much either time I drew it, because I kept rolling 1-3. The killer can only go to the closest target once. After that, if he doesn’t kill, then nothing happens!

Earthquake is incredibly timed to come out just when you’re next to an exit space, with the victims you’re leading going one way while you go the other.

Buddyland does come with some really cool items that will come in handy.

It pays to search in Buddyland (it doesn’t always elsewhere).

I made great use of the Skee-Balls in my first win, knocking Billy down hard with that extra die and one extra damage.

You have to make sure you get to the Arcade spaces for all of these, though.

The Claw Machine token would be really cool to get one of the items that didn’t make it into the game.

My favourite, though, is the Extension Cord.

As long as you can get an enemy into an Arcade space, you can attack from anywhere in or adjacent to the Arcade. And do an extra damage!

The Fire Axe is great against minions, as it will even kill off the highest-health buddy in one shot. It’s good to have on hand if buddies are starting to overrun the place.

The Janitor’s Mop is a good way to reduce Terror, which is great considering how much Terror can increase in this feature film.

There’s even pizza which can help you reduce Terror or heal you…twice!

I’m not sure how Buddyland pizza can do that, if it’s the same as Showbiz or Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza, because those are pretty horrific, but it’s a great mechanic.

Buddyland is a really interesting location that I liked a lot.

The map layout is really cool and the exit spaces aren’t too far removed, so with a little luck it is easy to save victims.

I gained my Final Girl Ultimates in all three games I played.

The Search locations are also not outrageously far apart.

There are some corner spaces that are a bit tough, though.

In one of my games, the Birthday Girl came out. She goes into the Party Room.

Then the Terror card that has everybody move toward the Party Room came out.

She was never alone, but my start location was all the way across the Arcade, and Billy never moved that direction.

She was a pretty safe Birthday Girl, which I guess is good since you don’t want to die on your birthday.

I just love the Arcade setup, especially with Items that deal directly with it.

Especially the Extension Cord!

I can see myself playing many times in Buddyland if I didn’t randomize all of my “free” plays (i.e. ones that I’m not playing to review the films)

Finally, let’s get to the two Final Girls who are featured in this one.

Rena and Gwynn both kick ass, but in different ways.

Gwynn only has 5 health, but also only requires saving four victims to get her Ultimate out.

And each victim save slot reduces Terror by one.

Wowsers!

Rena is more of a standard mix, but can reduce Terror or move you one space, and taking a top Item card is never a bad thing.

Their Ultimates are very cool, though.

Rena lets you take one of your 0-cost action cards back each round, before it’s discarded. Meaning you’ll never be without at least one card.

Gwynn is even better, letting you decrease Terror whenever you roll one die for a Horror roll, and you can choose to do at any time.

You’ll never be in The Bad Place for more than one Horror roll because of this!

Bad Times at Buddyland is a very satisfying feature film, with a cool killer who can overrun you with his buddies, as well as a location that’s fun to play in.

The feature films tend to really bring together killer and location, feeding off of each other in interesting ways.

Sometimes it’s so horrible that you want to try it with a different killer (or location). This would be Slaughter in the Groves.

Other times you wonder whether the killer is too easy in this location and they’d be a bit harder and more interesting in another one.

I’d like to try animatronic bears in space.

I should do that, actually.

The two new Final Girls are really cool, though. You want to get Gwynn into a place where Horror ramps up very quickly.

Maybe the Groves?

This is a solid start to Series 4 (I don’t know if it was the first one, but it was the first one for me) and I can’t wait to see the rest.

(This review was written after 3 plays of this film)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews