Fall Guys (2020)

Before I start, a quick disclaimer: this is not a guide to getting trophies, and is instead my experiences with them. If any players are looking for guides relating to Fall Guys, I'd recommend psnprofiles.com/guides and search there.

For those who have been living under a rock, Fall Guys is a game about gelatinous beans competing in a COPPA-approved version of Squid Game, spanning from rounds such as obstacle courses to tagging tails, all in an attempt to get a crown at the end. My first experience of the game was back during the COVID-19 epidemic, and like most others, it was a blast. It was a mostly wholesome take on the battle royale genre that achieved what it sought to do. After a while, I decided to return and commemorate my fun with the game by trying to earn its platinum- a memento of sorts.

But the trophies...are a different beast, to put it lightly. The infallible one, in particular, required you to win FIVE games in a row. Not three, not four, but FIVE. To put it in perspective, Fall Guys rounds are not just using RNG, but are actively orbiting it. From spawning in the furthest row from the start line to getting hit with the fruit in Fruit Chute, the game demands you have won the lottery twice in your life if you are trying to get said trophy solo on its regular mode at least.

However, there were, and still are alternatives. If you were one of the people to be granted the mercy to play during the start of the creative update, you could get it from the creative levels: just wait for the perfect rotation of levels that required you to do nothing and win. And that'd be it. The 'hardest trophy' in the fall guys-in your hands. There is always sweet thieves as well, but that came around rarely. Me? I had none of those options. With my luck, the glitch was patched when I came around to do it.

To be honest, most trophies in Fall Guys aren't that bad. You have your usual win a couple of games and get some clothes achievements, but with this game, when it rained, it fell. It fell hard. To even try to get infallible, I had to get the Seal Team 6 of fall guys together from a discord. The funny thing is that we weren't even going for infallible, but another achievement called low baller: we just got infallible along the way through our constant attempts in the squad playlist. Because to get infallible, you cannot think about infallible.

After I got it, I was at a crossroads; should I continue to try and obtain the platinum or stop with infallible? At first, it was obvious: take the infallible trophy and go. But that 0.1% obtainment rate...A couple more trophies I thought: a couple more and I too would have this rare platinum- not to assert my dominance or anything, but because I already came so far and it was probably just a bunch of easy ones left anyway, right?

No. What I did not see, was the sadistic animals at Mediatonic hiding their teeth. And all because my filthy masochistic self could not resist. As it turned out, infallible was just the tip of the iceberg. As I won game after game, the skill-based matchmaking adapted competitors to my level, up to the point where it became an imitation game. Everyone knew all the skips, all the techniques, everything. There was another trophy I was trying to get, which was to dance before coming in first place-problematic because I barely came first place: with all the people with 1000 crowns and whatnot in my games. It was impossible until I came across Knockout, a non-SBMM playlist that for some reason also featured creative levels I've barely played. After countless attempts, I finally got the trophy alongside another one requiring you to get first place in a race ten times. A challenging effort, but not tedious.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Fall Guys Fashionista. Unlock 50 items from the store, it said: only at the price of my sanity though. This trophy...THIS ONE TROPHY ALONE is a harrowing journey through limbo, with no guarantee of safe passage. This one trophy makes mailing a pipe bomb through Epic Games HQ seem like a noble effort, if only not to avenge the poor free-to-play souls such as myself who will forever wrangle with the fact that all they had to do was spend some disposable income on a wardrobe filled with digital clothes. For beans. To the lucky ones who have got this trophy before Epic got their grubby hands on the game in an attempt to smother it into their 'mEtAveRsE'- or didn't try to get the trophy, obtaining this trophy can feel a bit of a Sisyphean trial. It sounds simple really: obtain kudos from the challenges, spend it on name tags to keep some for the next day, repeat until kudos have been spent, complete challenges and repeat. However, looks can be deceiving: you could be repeating the process for days on end, never knowing when you will get that trophy. It felt like a prison sometimes, forever waiting to get that coveted 50th item as summer blended into school. And because I played before I even tried to get the trophy, I already had clothes that I purchased with kudos. In other terms, I was blind. At least, those who haven't bought anything can count how much they got. I was in the dark about any progress towards the trophy at all; for all I knew I was 1 or 49 purchases away. And all because I didn't want to spend on any microtransactions.

But after what felt like a month, I finally bought the last purchase and the platinum was mine. Truth be told, I didn't tell anyone about it- none of my friends weren't really into trophy hunting, so this was more of a personal triumph rather than one to brag over.

To the trophy hunters out there, or people just looking for a challenge, Fall Guys will provide you with that but at the same time, the way you have to spend money if you want to skip the grind leaves a sour taste in my mouth, so in my personal opinion, I would say steer clear of this one if you are into grind, but if you are, and still want to toil through this colourful, zany, hellscape, a quick warning:

When it rains, it falls.

We've seen games like Fall Guys before but Mediatonic said We'll do it again! and nailed the timing, as it blew up when it released during a locked down 2020. It's like Mario Party meets Gang Beasts but with longer rounds and you qualify through games to reach the crown and win the episode! There's loads of modes and user created content but now mostly focuses on Season Passes and costly DLC packs with every imaginable collab under the sun available for purchase. It is fun however to just jump in a lobby with a few friends and fall, bounce and grief together!

[3] / [5]

BATTLE ROYALE - Compete with other players in wacky, cute platforming challenges and races.

PROS:

++ Unique. Unique and refreshing take on the Battle Royale genre.

++ Simple. Incredibly simple and easy to play.

++ Casual competition. Lighthearted and casual tone, meaning you can still have fun even if you never win. There's not much room for toxicity in the game.

++ Design. Cute design on the mascot.

CONS:

-- Repetitive. Can get repetitive if played for an extended play session, since there's not tons of variation in the stages. In a couple of games, you could experience every stage variation the game offers.

My first battle royale game and probably my last too. I spent more time with this game than I initially wanted. Just because it felt wrong, to write a review after barely playing for an hour.

Graphic/Design ★★★☆☆
Colourful. That's what first comes to mind. The jelly bean-like characters are cute and sort of charming, the stages well-designed. I really like the colour scheme of the space-themed stages, as it brings some variety to the otherwise monotone ones.

Gameplay ★★☆☆☆
While the FPS drops on the Switch don't look good, the game is still playable. More bothersome are long loading screens and a long matchmaking process. Sometimes you get the same stages over and over again. Generally, everything feels a bit repetitive after a while. Mini-games, like memory, are a complete waste of time. On a positive note, the gameplay itself is pretty simple - run, jump and occasionally grab.

Sound & Music ★★☆☆☆
Upbeat music, that you either like or don't. Like the game, it gets a bit repetitive, possible even to the point where it's annoying. The individual tracks sound similar, but are fitting for the game.

Overall Fun ★✭☆☆☆
As mentioned above, after an hour of gameplay, I felt like I've seen everything. Even though there's a reward system and an achievement list to complete, it's just not interesting enough for me. I just don't see a point in continuing playing the game.

Final Score: 2.1/5

This is kind of a TV show about a bunch of jellybeany runners, competing in a set of colorful elimination games until the best (or luckiest) competitor wins the crown. It's quite anticipating to see how you as a player fare against 59 others, who are doing (trying) their best to make it to the next goal. Maneuvering and observation are the key skills to make the best out of the rounds but luck also comes to play at times, when moving obstacles and crowding become a dealing matter.

The playful mood and colorful aesthetic make for a wholesome setting, contrasted by slapstick factor when moving obstacles catches you off-guard or at your poor timing. Such high-pace competition paired with unpredictability that could turn you to a rolling ragdoll makes the gameplay often exciting and anticipating but also occasionally agitating. The first few days, I've enjoyed progressing, failing and winning races at the literal rush of the moment with fellow players; afterwards, I got sneakily pushed off the edge by particularly competitive opponents more than a few times, getting eliminated as a result.

The constant updates and regular daily features proves that its community is well alive. There are a wide range of cosmetics to come by and daily tasks that reward you with currencies and milestone assets. Unless you wear stock cosmetics or features from other games, no player will be alike.

This dopamine-infused, mass obstacle course game has got its Nintendo stamp all over. Although there is a large variety of levels to get through and the competition getting unpredictable, you might feel it starting to get repetitive after a few days. I have to concur with issues of varying loading times and RNG level selection bog down the momentum of the exciting, competing sessions.

At least, I can't help but come back to this over a coffee break to get a change of gaming and some fierce, social interaction without words. And yes, I once managed to be the last guy falling.

This game can easily consume me for hours at a time If I'm not careful, with the awesome Takeshi's Castle like concept and colourful visuals It presented I knew it was a game I couldn't ignore, free or not. The fact there are a number of updates is great and keeps it's replay value sky high, constantly coming up with new frustratingly enjoyable games. Just keep the team games at a minimum, they suck.

The main selling point of the Fall Guys release is - get this - you get to play Fall Guys whenever and for as long as you want. Coming from the beta of hour-long play sessions, that was all I needed.

This is largely an unnecessary review. Like Rocket League, this game is a phenomenon. With future seasons to come, it's likely going to be a multiplayer institution. All I can do here is point out why that's the case and then get out of its way.

Fall Guys is not a complex game. It's one of the most accessible battle royale-esque games ever released, yet with just enough of a skill ceiling to keep things interesting. Its aesthetic and music resonate so much that Mediatronic must have inadvertently discovered a new reward pathway in the brain. It's like injecting pure rainbows.

Surprisingly, despite its Saturday night gameshow appearance, it really doesn't lean much into this. A couple of hovering cameras are tossed around the levels and the beanies of whom don't qualify fall out of Hollywood Squares. Some extra stylistic embellishments like a jelly audience might help. I know they're at home because of the pandemic, but in that case the competitors are setting an incredibly bad social distancing example.

All I have is screenshots of my wins. One doesn't win if one doesn't focus.

In place of the traditional shooting fare, Fall Guys pares down the initial 60 jellybean peeps to one victor with minigames. Unlike most party games, whilst these still have great variation in premise, they never meander into different control schemes or quick time events. They all stick to a very solid foundation of platforming - jumping, diving and grabbing. As can be expected, there are the ones for which you jump for joy, those you're indifferent about and those you you wish would be removed from rotation forever.

I think Fall Guys is at its best in its race and survival rounds. The various race rounds test your platforming mettle superbly. Door Dash and Tip Toe inject some heavy risk-reward tactics by requiring some to have the gumption to pave the way and risk hitting a wall or fall, yet hang too far back and you too might not finish in time. Other races are full of shortcuts and obstacles to perfect your approach to. The seesaw, frustrating as it can be, perfectly embodies how Fall Guys is a platformer about navigating your competitors as well as the obstacles before you. The mass of jellies before you weigh down the seesaws precariously. Tight areas create desperate scrums of mashed together beans diving and launching every which way. You need to develop a predictive instinct for negotiating the random chaos.

There are technically only three survival rounds, Block Party, Roll Out, and Jump Club, but they really stand out. I'd also count Hex-A-Gone, one of the final rounds, as one too. Like the races, they take advantage of the inherent chaos so incredibly well whilst placing the emphasis on careful, precise movement. The tactics of Hex-A-Gone make it my favourite round by far. Layers of hexagonal platforms disappear under your feet - be the last man standing. People quickly worked out that you can jump from platform to platform to slow your clearing to a crawl, but running like a madman to remove breathing room for others is also effective. You can remain at a higher tier for half the match, but meanwhile others might have completely cleared many of the tiers below and put you at a disadvantage. You therefore have to carefully plan your descent as well. Being a final round, it's the one for which a win feels truly earned.

In terms of its competitive dimension and wins feeling 'earned,' I'd advise you don't overly worry with this one. It's often undermined by the sheer entropy involved. Getting better at Fall Guys is can only really be about tending towards performing better in each kind of round. There are too many factors at play, whether it's getting lucky with the timing of obstacles or having no Fall chums smacking you off your bean stalks. Further undermining all this is the team games. They're a clever addition. They also channel that need in the races to temporarily work collaboratively to overcome an obstacle. Get laboured with a particularly bad team, though? It's all over. Some aspects of these round types are just frustrating too. Right trigger being used for both picking up eggs and grabbing guys makes for chaos atop chaos in Egg Scramble. Not in a good way. I'm no great fan of the physics of the balls either. Whether it's Rock ‘N’ Roll, Fall Ball or Hoarders, the balls just feel cumbersome to move.

Seriously. It's just my wins. If there was a fashion competition, I can only think I'd win that here too.

My absolute least favourite round is the only logic type - Perfect Match. It's a memory game that tasks you with being on the right fruit tile when the time elapses. Although I like the social dynamic of some players betting on others knowing the correct tile when they haven't a clue, it's really too easy and feels out of place. Only the last stage of it is really tough enough to eliminate anyone (and it rarely does).

If Fall Guys falls down in any area, they it's in how quickly you've seen everything it offers. It's a compulsive, but quickly repetitive game to play. 'Now, Alphy, that applies to every Royale game ever, surely?', you might say. Sure, but I'd argue that Fall Guys with its small-scale, mini game structure has a much more limited 'possibility space' compared to all those admittedly tiresome shooters it fights shy of. Despite the chaos of the scrums, many rounds really do play out much the same. The customisation that relies on you actually winning games to unlock outfits is a great incentive to keep on going and aim high. It helps to prevent the microtransaction element from being too disagreeable too. Fall Guys has plenty of variation in types of round, but it's symptomatic of its design that even this doesn't feel enough.

A quick word on where I fall on grabbing competitors. I'm a sensitive enough guy. I even wrote an essay on how the social capital of multiplayer is worth sacrificing for vulnerable players to avoid player toxicity. But on this? I'm all for it. Shove each other to your hearts content. This is a competition for dominance goddammit. Know that if you're thrown off a tile in the memory round, it's likely my doing. I have a Hotline Miami costume to unlock. Those players who wait to wrestle with you at the finish line? Consider them one final obstacle. It's nothing a good dive can't solve. That said, my girlfriend was traumatised by some tall glasses of trouble. Perhaps mine is not a victimless crime?

Fall Guys crowns itself game of the century.

Fall Guys doesn't need me. It's evilly good. It would have conquered its little fricandeau of multiplayer space quite happily with no reviews whatsoever. Millions of Haribo people will be crowned. Hundreds of small fries will be thrown to their sublimely slimy doom by me. I hope server troubles subside over time, but most of all I hope that new seasons come round fairly regularly. For now, Fall guys is pretty small, guys. It needs some hefty additional variation - if you've played it for as long as I have, that is. I'm still going to keep on playing it too, so Mediatronic really are laughing. They might as well totally ignore me because I like everyone else have fallen head over heels for this one. 'Fall, Guys' is in fact a command Mediatronic are making of you. 'Fall in line and buy Fall Guys.' It's one you'll struggle to resist.

I think I'm in love with this game.

I'm having lots of fun even if I haven't won a single crown. I even have fun and a good laugh when I lose in the first round! I love how accesible and easy to learn is this game, how fast everything descends into chaos and how much I laugh when playing with friends.

I don't love all the minigames (I even hate one... Hoarding Balls) and is a real shame it doesn't have a local multiplayer mode. The microtransactions are unnecesary too and feel specially bad when you really can just get everything by playing. But that hasn't ruined my fun.

You can read my review in spanish here.

If you're subscribed to PS Plus you have no excuse to at least try this game.