Fall Guys

Fall Guys
“Behind those innocent, cute, jelly bean characters remember there’s always a person screaming behind their screen“
Protagonist(s): Your bean Genre(s): Platforming Battle Royale Release Date: PC, PS4 WW: August 4, 2020 Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S WW: June 21, 2022 Android, iOS WW: August 16, 2024 Engine: Unity Developer(s): Mediatonic Publisher(s): Devolver Digital (formerly) Epic Games (currently) Country: United Kingdom

Fall Guys, formerly known as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, is a platforming battle royale game developed by Mediatonic. Up to 60 players (40 players since Creative Construction) control jellybean-like creatures nicknamed "beans" to compete against each other in a series of challenges like obstacle courses or tag.

Why It Takes The Crown

1. The idea of an online multiplayer game centered around a game show-like universe sounds like an interesting concept. Even for battle royale standards.
2. The graphics in the game have a cartoonish, colorful, and cute look that is pleasing to the eyes of those who play it. It's almost equivalent to candy.
3. There are many different rounds you can participate in during the gameplay. Each of the games is different from one another. Many of the rounds are related to different varieties of competition consisting of race, survival, hunt, logic, and team. Turns out that they are fun to play on due to the challenge. The best part about the main game is how it's randomized meaning that it keeps the fun challenge of a typical game show.
4. There are cosmetics based on licensed media like Half-Life, Godzilla, Team Fortress 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, DOOM, Ratchet & Clank, Cuphead, Among Us, Untitled Goose Game, Ninja (Richard Tyler Blevins), MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), Tron, NieR: Automata, Disney's The Jungle Book, Destiny 2, Star Trek, Alien, Hatsune Miku, WWE, Toy Story, Bella Poarch, etc.
5. Kudos are obtained by simply doing well in rounds, being used in rewards during seasons, external promotions, and buying them with real money. The cost of buying Kudos isn't so bad. They can range from $4.99 with the largest amount being $49.99. The game makes the Kudos be given out very frequently.
   • Another currency is Tokens. They are used to complete challenges in time-limited Live Events. You can use these to get certain exclusive rewards. For instance, you can get rewards based on Ratchet & Clank with your tokens if you have enough.
   • Season 4 introduced Crown Shards. To earn them, complete daily challenges or win an episode of Squads Show, Squads Duos, or Squads Trios. Earning 60 will give you at least 1 crown.
   • Speaking of Crowns, they are another currency to buy items from the in-game shop. The only way to get them is by winning shows, receiving them as a reward for leveling up during a Season, external promotions (Prime Gaming), and surveys. Depending on the difficulty, some shows might reward you with more or less than one Crown for winning.
6. Normally, the game hosts new seasons every 2 months. When a new season comes, a new theme and additional content every season (like new rounds). You have themes related to stuff including the medieval era or the future.
7. The game supports cross-platform compatibility for all versions. It was a huge priority for the game according to Mediatonic.
8. Simple yet fun gameplay. All you have to do is participate in various challenges like a game show. Not to mention that the controls are easy to understand.
9. Funky soundtrack. The OST in this game is so exciting to listen to that you just want to use these tunes to play at an epic birthday party or so.
10. The character designs for the Fall Guys are wholesome. What else is there to say given their schematic nature?
11. Because of its wacky nature, the game can be hilarious to play due to its physics and nature. From having to control your character to even failing somehow.
12. A huge variety of customization for this game. You can design your very own fall guy however you want from a huge assortment of costumes, patterns, colors, emotes, and what have you. Banners and Nicknames can also be used for customization.
13. If you get eliminated, you have the option to watch the remaining game as if it were an actual game show. Losing isn't all that bad, right?
14. Around September 2020 the game prevents cheaters from being part of the game meaning that it has an anti-cheat system.
15. The levelling-up system the game has is called Fame. Each time you earn Fame, your Season level will increase. To get fame, do well in rounds, or complete daily challenges. Depending on the level of fame you have, you can get stuff like Kudos. If you reach the maximum season level, Challenges that reward you with Fame can give you Crown Shards instead.
    • Another leveling system is the Crown Rank. winning more and more crowns would unlock rewards along with an exclusive unlock path. Introduced in season 3.
16. The Crown Shards were not the only ones introduced, we got Challenges that were added to the game. Completing challenges will give you either Crown Shards of Fame. As of 4.5, the challenges that require winning a specific show were removed so you don't have to worry about losing.
17. As of Season 2, the game now has a Show Selector. Players have the option to choose with the Main Show a different special weekly playlist where only specific rounds can be played. You have two different ones which are the standard Main Show or the alternative Squads Shows. As of October 2020, some special playlists are for a limited time only.
18. Players with a Prime Gaming account can let players get exclusive in-game content. To get the in-game content drops, the subscribers need to link their Amazon Prime account to Fall Guys.
19. Exclusive to PC, custom lobbies have been implemented for this game. For streamers, viewers can join their custom show by clicking CTRL twice in the show selector. Since 4.5, the hosting functionality has been granted to every player.
20. Squads Show was introduced in Season 4 Legacy where it places players into teams of four. At first, it was temporary but became permanent in April of 2021. Sometimes it can be replaced with another 4-player squad show.
21. Useful camera. The players can make the camera useful since players are able to control it.
22. As of June 21, 2022, Epic Games acquired Fall Guys and made the game better than it already was
    1. For instance, you can now download the game for free on Epic Games Store and game consoles. You heard that right, FREE!
    2. Epic Games is well known for the many crossovers (usually skins) Fortnite had, so Fall Guys got a wider access to licensed skins following the acquisitions, such as SpongeBob SquarePants.
    3. More recently, Fall Guys avatars and worlds have been introduced into Fortnite in the same vein as Lego, where your skin becomes a bean in the Fall Guys worlds and you can jump and dive like a bean.
23. Season 4 Creative Construction introduced Creator Rounds and a single-staged Creator Made Rounds, which makes players get Crown Shards and Crowns easier.
24. After the Season 4 Creative Construction, the finale of Fall Guys, there are updates available, adding several obstacles and elements in Creative Mode, and most of the stages remain unvaulted so that other players can play them without missing out.
    • It introduced a new major update called, Fall Forever Update, where players can freely rom around in Explore or compete shows in Knockout modes while levels refresh later to add fan-favorite stages.
    • Players can get 5 crown shards after finishing race tracks or surviving in survival levels. It adds 3 more crown shards when players maxed out the fame in fame passes.
25. In the 5th Legacy Season the game has become canon, seen in cinematic trailers, where it introduced Silent and Banana as the major characters by investigating the predictions for the next season.
    • While the Creative Construction cinematic trailer is short, it introduces Digi, a female character who creates levels using a gadget.
26. The newly-released mobile port not only saved the game from Stumble Guys' popularity, but is also surprisingly stable, contrary to what others say about it (It is not "buggy" or "glitchy").
27. There are plenty of trailers that are very good and enjoyable to watch, especially the cinematic trailers and live-action trailers.

Eliminated Qualities

1. The ragdoll physics can sometimes be frustrating depending on your actions. Due to the physics of both the levels and the Fall Guy can be exasperating. The physics can be stressful to some players depending on the map.
2. No offline modes in Fall Guys. Not to mention how there's not even a practice area. Although the practice area has been given in Custom Shows, especially the Creator Modes, but it still lacks any training.
3. The noises the Fall Guys make can be a little annoying since it's repetitive. Sure, the noises are cute but still.
4. Some glitches can occur in certain parts of the game like one that can eliminate an entire lobby of players as well as glitches that mess with the physics. Glitches are patched though.
5. Requires internet connection since it's an online multiplayer game. Your game would go bonkers if the internet isn't doing well.
6. Microtransactions. At least it's cosmetics only.
7. Some cosmetics are too rare to get nowadays like the Crash Test Dummy skin, the Big Bad skin, the Prickles skin, Solar Flare and Hardwire neon skin, or the Twitch Rivals skin.
8. The Fame meter will reset once a new season starts.
9. Squads mode can be unfair on some occasions, especially when you don't have many team members you can end up getting knocked out.
10. The Switch and Xbox versions were supposed to be released in the summer of 2021 except that they were postponed to June 21 of 2022, probably due to the acquisition by Epic Games.
11. The seasons were getting longer and longer. Season 1 lasted only nine weeks, while Season 6 lasted for 29 weeks. When it was renamed to simply Fall Guys, the seasons returned to not being excessively long.
    • Even Season 3 Sunken Secrets had a longer season than other seasons, except Season 6 Legacy.
12. Minor False Advertising: In the Free-for-All trailer, Banana and Silent use the Blast Ball in the container, which can later shoot rainbow light and not just exploding; however, it does not appear in the game.
13. Several Missed Opportunities:
    • Cosmetics that do not appear in Xbox or Nintendo Switch versions of Fall Guys should have include every single item in Ultimate Knockout, but only some of them appeared like the Everybody Falls emote.
    • There are exclusive items given in Prime Gaming, Playstation Plus, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. But Nintendo Switch version does not include any exclusive items or events (like Super Mario, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, or Splatoon) unlike other consoles, which is disappointing.
    • Some of the cosmetics that are given to the fame pass are not seen here, but instead be featured in the shop in the future.
14. Fame Pass March '24 was considered the most divisive fame pass due to having 300 fames in here (we kid you not); however, it only applied to players who paid the premium pass.
15. Unfortunately, it got overshadowed by a blatant knock-off, Stumble Guys.
16. The mobile version (Android and iOS), although quite good, is worse than other ports of this game.
    • The mobile port seemingly lacks Creative Mode, possibly due to hardware limitations. But the developer will be promise to adding the Creative modes in the future:
      • However, the absence of Creative Mode is inexcusable, knowing that there are phones with similar power to the Nintendo Switch or higher, a perfect example is the Galaxy S24 Ultra or some similarities, as it is not only an extremely powerful phone, but it is also perfect to be a competitor in portable consoles today, except those that run on Windows 11 and the Steam Deck.
    • Also, considering to some people who had a little problem with users device, some of them like for low/mid-range phone can be a problem that can be unplayable, such as frame-rate hiccups and slightly downgraded graphics.
    • the iOS version was only released in Europe, unlike Android, which had a global release.
    • The graphics, although absolutely beautiful for this port, are weaker (also a missed opportunity to improve graphics, especially for premium phones).
17. On PC, there is a high chance Fall Guys can error out when starting and crash your PC with a BSOD. This is due to the game using a faulty version of Easy Anti Cheat.

Reception

The game has gotten praise for its chaotic concept of a battle royale game. Metacritic had the game under Generally Favourable reviews, GameSpot rated it a 7/10, and USgamer rated the game a 4 out of 5 stars. This game alongside Among Us was seen as an online game that grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic not to mention that both games have bean-like characters. Fall Guys won the Best Multiplayer Award and Best Family Game on the Golden Joystick 2020 awards, the Best Community Support on The Game Awards 2020, and Best Independent Game-Platinum and Best Multiplayer Game-Gold at the PlayStation.Blog Game of the Year.

Trivia

• Takes inspiration from game shows like Takeshi's Castle, It's a Knockout, Wipeout, and playground games like tag and British Bulldog.
• Spawned some memes like the Yellow Team, QUALIFIED!, ELIMINATED!, the hackers, the song "Fall n Roll" for its lyrics, the gameplay, tail tag, and some comparisons between Fall Guys and Among Us.
• Originally there were some sources that the mobile version of Fall Guy was only released in China.

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