Table of Contents Show
The battle royale genre has been largely dominated by competitive skill-based shooters in the shape of “Fortnite,” “Call of Duty Warzone,” and “PUBG,” leaving all of the casual players to become cannon fodder among the endless waves of hardcore players trying to become the very best. This has made the battle royale genre filled with generic copies and bland imitations of popular series. However, “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” takes a different approach to the genre with its colorful and family-friendly design.
What’s A Fall Guy?
“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is an indie game developed by Mediatonic and published by Devolver Digital. The game is an online multiplayer battle royale, where players have to go through five rounds of obstacles, races, and team-based challenges until there is only one player remaining to claim the crown of victory.
How Is The Gameplay?
Players control cute, cartoonish, jelly bean characters throughout a series of minigames in an attempt to be the last one standing. Players will also be able to customize their character’s skin and outfits to unlock more cosmetic features through a battle pass system that is similar to “Fortnite.”
There are currently over twenty minigames including obstacle racing, survival-based games, and team-based matches. In addition, every round you progress to becomes increasingly more competitive as the last, because only a certain number of players can qualify for each advancing round.
The game mechanics are smooth and simple; allowing players of all ages to quickly understand how each minigame is designed. Whether you progress over to the next round fully depends on your familiarity with the specific minigame and luck since the beginning minigames are usually chaotic and jam-packed. Players will either be frustrated or humorously baffled by how each round progresses as the challenges become difficult for a multitude of reasons.
Art Style
The game is extremely colorful and vibrant using many bright colorful shades that fully encapsulate the players’ focus with a goofy Candyland like the color scheme. The use of bright colors is not jarring or visually distracting, as it enhances the game’s art style.
All of the costume designs for “Fall Guys” are creative and funny as the majority of them resemble a comical take of mascot costumes. The cute and goofy aesthetic draws in players and they are freely able to customize their character however they see fit. Additionally, Mediatonic Studios encourages their community’s creativity and involves them to be part of the game by holding a monthly contest to design a fall guy costume. The best submissions are chosen on their social media and the winner’s design is to be included in the game’s item shop in exchange for in-game currency.
It’s Sudden Popularity
Leading up to the game’s release date on August 4th, 2020, the developers gave numerous twitch streamers with varying popularity, early access to the game and had all of them live stream their reactions and gameplay. Their experiences of the actual gameplay made viewers reminiscent of their time playing “Mario Party” mini-games, which became an unexpected selling point for the game.
In addition, the developers have made the game free to download on the Playstation store which made it extremely accessible. When the game was released on August 4th, the game’s server crashed multiple times due to hundreds of thousands of players wanting to play “Fall Guys,” virtually showing the game developers that they have made something great. However, due to its sudden popularity, the game’s servers are continually not able to keep up with the demand. The developers are constantly forced to take the servers out to do maintenance.
Is It A Knockout?
“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is a game that takes all of the best aspects of various “Mario Party” mini games and combines it into a simple battle royale format that makes it entertaining to play no matter what. The gameplay is simple, fun, and chaotic which levels the playing field for its wide demographic player base. The game itself is a great addition to the battle royale genre, taking a refreshingly new approach and inspiration from popular family friendly titles and childhood imagination.
However, the jumping and grabbing mechanics are frustratingly flawed, particularly in team-based and survival minigames. In addition, some minigames are considerably too easy, but it is balanced with exasperatingly difficult minigames that will change players’ tactics in the game.
The game has a lot of potential and could possibly become the next household title if the developers continue to update its gameplay mechanics and level design. Only time will tell if “Fall Guys” will stay in the long run, but as it is currently, “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is the battle royale that we never knew we wanted. The game is currently free on the PlayStation store if you have a Playstation online subscription, and is available for purchase on Steam.
