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Fall Guys Game Review

Fall Guys is a 2020 platform battle royale game developed by Mediatonic primarily for Microsoft Windows. It’s a wildly entertaining, innovative genre-bender.

Battle royale games are the hottest genre right now, but the majority of these games are first person shooters. Suddenly, Fall Guys came along and changed everything by bringing in the platformer genre to the battle royale market. For people such as myself who prefer platform games, it’s an utter delight that has an enormous replay value.

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Inspired by game shows such as Wipeout, sixty players compete in a series of challenges until only one person is left standing. Usually there are four or five of these challenges in one playthrough, thus it felt refreshingly episodic in its structure. The screens between the matches are usually not overlong, so the game is never tiring whatsoever. Everything runs quickly and smoothly here.

There is a whole lot of excitement to be had while playing many increasingly harder levels in this colorful, joyous, but also difficult game. The chaotic nature to the proceedings is frequently even hilarious. Couple that chaos with the game’s very cute, amusing characters and moves, and you’ve got a game that is actually very funny in its delightfully silly, childlike, cartoony designs.

The game is split into seasons like a true television show. Each season lasts for about a couple of months. Each new season new levels are added, which makes the game fresh every single time. The levels are split into categories depending on where they are put in one game’s run: first there are Race levels, then Survival, afterward you team up in Team levels, and finally Final levels is where only one player is crowned.

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Let’s touch upon each of the levels. Among the worst are Tail Tag and Pegwin Pursuit. Both of these contain the task of holding a tail or a penguin as long as necessary or hold in the final second of the game. This type of game just feels overly reliant on the factor of chance with no tactics or skills involved whatsoever. These two frustrate me every single time I play them and by far they are the worst parts of Fall Guys.

Another famously inferior stage is naturally Perfect Match. You have to memorize the symbols of the tiles as quickly as possible and jump on the tile containing the symbol that is showcased on the screen above the players’ heads. This would have been interesting had it not been so easy in the lack of briskness displayed. As for Rock ‘N’ Roll, I hate this one as well. Rolling the ball would be fine on your own, but when you depend on others, it gets very frustrating when you land in the weakest team of the bunch. There is a clear pattern here, so let me address it – I really do not like these team levels for the most part as I am a solo player preferably.

Snowball Survival is one of the levels that I still haven’t mastered due to me not using the mouse when playing it, and this one makes it essential to use the mouse, but more on the controls later. It’s an okay level, but too dependent on luck. Hoarders is actually a better team ball game as it is rather fun getting to throw as many balls to your team’s space as possible, but again you are too dependent on the rest of your team’s players here as well.

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Tundra Run is a pretty good level, perfect for an introduction to the entire game, but it is rather easy once you get used to it, and it becomes rather tiring playing it over and over again as the game picks it up for the first stage way too often. As for Slime Climb, this is the most difficult level of them all for me personally as it’s overly hard in controlling the camera and the slime is overly fast. Egg Siege is one of the most fun team levels and the one that I at least play really well, so that even if my team is weaker, I can somehow get through it on top.

Fall Ball is basically the Fall Guys version of soccer and it’s super fun. It controls surprisingly well and it’s one of the better team levels for sure. Freezy Peak is very difficult at first, but it becomes easier when you get to know it more, thus emphasizing so effectively how wonderful this game is at teaching you how to play it. It requires multiple plays and failed tactics to find just the one that is the best for you. This is where we get to the really good levels.

Dizzy Heights isn’t overly hard, but it’s so much fun. It’s very well designed in its entirety. Fruit Chute is difficult until you realize how to play it (the sides are your friends here, the middle is your worst nemesis). I like it, though it’s overly short. Ski Fall is trashed by many players, but I personally love it as I am awesome at it. Jumping through the hoops and collecting more points each time is very rewarding. As for Wall Guys, it can get frustrating and very competitive, but this is one of the levels where quick thinking will get you far. Fall Guys is so good at these moving blocks levels that it needs more of them.

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Block Party is overly short, yes, but it’s so much fun. It’s perfectly designed, plus this is the time when pushing others can prove vital, though I personally do not use that tactic myself. Door Dash and Gate Crash are both very short, but undeniably effective at timing for the former and luck for the latter. The chaotic nature of the game is best exemplified in these two fun levels. Roll Out requires moving the camera, so it was difficult for me at first, but at the end of the day I mastered it successfully. It’s so much fun jumping from one moving platform to another with so many players jumping besides you and some falling to their death. This level is also dangerous if some annoying player is pushing you constantly.

I don’t get why so many rank See Saw lowly. This level is just incredibly entertaining. Yes, it can prove fatal if you don’t have luck, but for the most part this level requires skills and great timing and resourcefulness first and foremost. It’s the most physics-based level, which makes it very interesting. Most platformers don’t utilize realistic physics, so Fall Guys is admirably different in that regard. Big Fans is one of the easier, but undeniably fun and so well designed levels. The same goes for The Whirlygig.

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Knight Fever is somewhat more difficult, but it gets easier once you get to know it more. The medieval weaponry is very well utilized in this one. Tip Toe is incredible. Never has the choice to follow or go first been more frustratingly hard to take than in this increasingly intense, wonderfully realized level. Hoopsie Legends is amazing! It’s so much fun jumping through the hoops and collecting points. This level is utter perfection in that it requires immense luck, great timing and a strong use of well executed jumps and moving objects to your advantage.

The Final levels are my favorite ones, especially Jump Club, which is thrilling in its intensity and perfect how close it can get between the first two players, Thin Ice, which requires excellent tactics to master (jumping on one ice block at a time until it dissipates would be best in this situation), and Hex-A-Gone, which is similar to the above, but different in that it has multiple icy platforms beneath you, thus it requires running around as fast as possible and making other guys fall by taking ice in front of them. All three of these are the absolute best at deciding who truly is the best player of them all.

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Graphically speaking, Fall Guys is so much fun. Yes, it’s simplistic, but not to a fault as this colorful, simple look fits well with this genre. It’s thus a game that has widespread appeal as it is suitable for all genders and ages. It’s a shame that there is no split-screen mode present so far, but the online mode is terrific. Back to the visuals, the colors are vivid, the game has literally every bright color possible and the movements are also very smooth and polished. Watching these jellybean figures jump, crash against each other and/or fall to their death is amusing every single time.

The sound is terrific, the titular guys’ sounds are endearing and the soundtrack is catchy and fun, but not as varied, leading to quick repetitiveness. There is no plot to speak of here, but this game does not need it. As for the options, there are only a few options to change the sound and greetings of your avatar, but not enough in my opinion.

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The same scrutiny must be held for the rewards system, which is inherently flawed. You get one crown for being number one, which is super hard and it’s rare to win the entire game, so you are better off winning crowns by beating levels. There are 40 levels in total and that progression system is fine, but simply getting a crown to buy some costumes was not a reward enough for what is surely a very difficult session to beat. Thankfully, the game is so incredibly entertaining that it doesn’t matter for the most part that you don’t get great prizes, as the thrill of seeking the first position is enough to make you play the game over and over again.

The level design is mostly pretty good, though overall the game could be more varied in the gameplay mechanics that it offers to players. The game runs smoothly with no bugs present, but a very strong Internet connection is definitely required to play it. The controls are the biggest issue for me personally. The game doesn’t have a fixed camera, which thankfully doesn’t hurt you in most linear levels, but in certain stages you have to move the camera to literally chase the screen, which personally bothered me as the default controls that I use do not fit well with the mouse.

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