Fall Guys: The Almighty Rise

23/9/2020

Blog post by: Gemma @ Juicy Game Reviews / TheGebs24

Fall Guys is the latest game to take both PS4 and PC gamers by storm. In fact, I don’t recall a bigger video game craze since the launch of Fortnite in 2017. Recently Fall Guys became the most downloaded PS Plus game of all time; a phenomenal achievement for the developers; Mediatonic. Over on the Steam, Fall Guys hit a whopping seven million downloads and counting! Now statistics aside, Fall Guys was the game I never knew that I craved. A game that I feel will help keep 2020 in the map for some of the right reasons. Don't get me wrong, at times Fall Guys made me want to scream in pain but on the whole Fall Guys does a lot right.

Fall Guys is a Battle Royale game in which bright coloured Jelly Beans (us, the players) compete in It’s a Knockout style of events. As I’ve live streamed my Fall Guys antics some viewers have even made comparisons to Takeshi’s Castle. Takeshi’s Castle was a Japanese game show that first aired in 1986 and ran to 1990 but had later re-runs on the UK’s Challenge Channel. The basic premise was simple: win. Try to win by making it to the end of a guaunlet of dangers, other players, water and more. Takeshi’s Castle was just as much as about luck as it was fear. Do I run through this door? Will this lillypad sink when I land on it? It was great fun to watch the re-runs for sure.

Fall Guys is a game about patience. Rounds can last up to a few minutes and rounds are either be individual races or team games. Team games suck for the most part as you are at the mercy of other players. What I do appreciate about them though are that the games’ short rounds help to keep my attention. It’s almost feeds in to my thirst for immediate gratification. Fall Guys is appealing to gamers of all ages and of all abilities but you need to try and avoid the prejudged notion that Fall Guys is a kids’ game. At first glance I thought “I’m not playing this childish ****”. Then I played it and played it again, and again, and again. The rest is history. In fact, my first Crown was an immense feeling coupled with a huge adrenaline rush.

Mediatonic recently announced some plans for season 2 of Fall Guys. The general aesthetic is a pretty cool Medieval theme with new levels for our favourite jelly beans to run around, jump, fall and bash in to each other. The levels in Fall Guys season 2 look just as wacky as season 1 and I could not be happier.

Within the last week Mediatonic released a version 1.5 to the Fall Guys experience which introduced Big Yeetus. We've all seen the mini pink hammers that pin erratically on Slime Climb, or perhaps they've knocked you for six in a game of Tail Tag? Now you can expect more of the delightful rotating hammers, otherwise known as BIg Yeetus; amongst other things. For me, what this all translates to is that Fall Guys became even more difficult! Fun perhaps, but the goal for the crown is now even more difficult. Ultimately, this update tells me something else though. It tells me that the devs are completely committed to keeping fresh content dropping in order to keep players engaged. This is something a lot of dev teams fail to do. I see time and time again, gamers asking for "new maps" on certain games yet those maps never seem to surface. As a gamer I really appreciate regular and fresh content, even if the game is one of the most frustrating games out there.

Fall Guys is out now on PS4 and PC. Go play it. May the Yeetus be with you for now and many seasons beyond.

Blog post by: Gemma @ Juicy Game Reviews / TheGebs24