Tattletail

Rate it

Keep a talking 90s toy quiet before its mother finds you.

Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (95% of 5,073 reviews)
Length: about 2 hours, more with the Kaleidoscope campaign
Players: 1
Made by: Waygetter Electronics
Released: 2016

What frightens A talking 90s toy you opened before Christmas must be fed, groomed and charged or it will not stop talking, and every noise it makes can bring the recalled Mama Tattletail, who stalks the dark house hunting for her baby.
Content: jumpscares, loud sounds.

Tattletail is a short first-person horror game set in a family house in December 1998. You open your Christmas present early, a furry talking Tattletail, and must keep it fed, brushed and charged through the nights, because every chirp it makes can wake Mama Tattletail, the recalled toy that hunts you in the dark.

About Tattletail

Tattletail was made by the small team calling itself Waygetter Electronics, the name of the fictional toy company in the game, and released on Steam in December 2016. It plays on the memory of talking toys of the 1990s like the Furby: the box says it will be your best friend, and the old recall notice suggests why the first model disappeared.

Each night you get tasks from the toy itself and from the house. Tattletail wants to be fed, groomed and recharged, and wants to play hide and seek, while you explore the darkened rooms with a flashlight whose battery you charge by shaking it. Shaking makes noise, and so does a neglected Tattletail. Mama Tattletail, a large, damaged version of the toy with glowing eyes, walks the house; if she hears you she comes, and the only answer is to get quiet, get away or keep out of her sight.

The horror is in the mix of the cute and the wrong. The colourful toy, the Christmas tree and the cassette-tape menus are bright, and the house around them is pitch dark, with Mama somewhere in it and a story told through tapes and hints about what happened to the toy company. After the main nights a second campaign, The Kaleidoscope, tells a different story with a green-eyed Tattletail and is included in the game. It suits players who like short, toy-themed horror in the line of Five Nights at Freddy's and Poppy Playtime, and multiple endings reward a second play.

How to play Tattletail

Each night, read your task in the top corner and follow Tattletail's requests: feed it, brush it and put it on its charger.
Use the flashlight to see, and shake it to recharge it when Mama Tattletail is not nearby.
Keep Tattletail's needs met so it does not cry out, and listen for Mama's footsteps and music.
When Mama comes close, turn away from her and move off quietly until she leaves, then finish the night's tasks.
Collect the hidden eggs and tapes for the story and the other endings.

Screenshots

Tattletail screenshot: holding the purple Tattletail toy at the top of dark basement stairs, flashlight in hand, with the task to find Tattletail's friend in the basement

Tattletail screenshot: an opened Talking Tattletail box on a table among Christmas presents and a stocking, with the task to open your present early

Tattletail screenshot: a dark house at night seen through an archway, with a Tattletail toy on the floor and a large shadowy figure by the doorway

Tips

Charge the flashlight before you set out on a task, not in the middle of a room Mama may walk into.
Watch Tattletail's feed, groom and battery bars and top them up early.
Play with headphones; Mama's approach is easiest to hear before you see it.

Questions

How long is Tattletail?

The main story takes about two hours on a first play. The Kaleidoscope campaign, unlocked afterwards, adds more nights.

Is Tattletail like Five Nights at Freddy's?

It shares the creepy toy and the jumpscares, but you move around a house doing tasks and avoiding Mama Tattletail rather than watching cameras from one office.