Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout review (PS4) – Worth the hype.
Contents
It has probably happened to you: you wake up, get used to the light in your bedroom, grab your phone and suddenly get the feeling that you have been living under a rock for weeks. Apparently there is a lot of hype going on, and you really have no idea what it is about! That’s exactly what happened to Dakota with Fall Guys, but how much longer will people keep talking about this silly Mediatonic game?
Compare Fall Guys with all those game shows that you come across on TV, such as The Game Without Borders and Takeshi’s Castle: you really are not going to stay home for it, but you will not quickly zap it. It’s an age-old recipe, but strangely enough, never properly applied to a video game. Mediatonic has finally found a way for everyone to participate in such a television game show. You won’t hear me complain!
Everything can happen
There is not yet a more chaotic form of battle royale on the market. In Fall Guys, sixty bean men compete against each other in various minigames to eventually take off with the coveted crown. Of course, this involves trial and error. Because no matter how good you are at Fall Guys, there is still a bit of luck involved. Of course, you are getting more and more handy at controlling the oval-shaped ragdolls, but you will not make it purely on skills. For example, the minigame See Saw is incredibly easy when you start at the front, but try to get yourself over the treacherous plateaus when you start at the back.
In the end, something always happens that you don’t expect in a round of Fall Guys. If the obstacles aren’t making your life miserable, your opponents will. Even if you avoid one ball after another, there is always some fool who will give you that one push and ruin everything. And that’s exactly what this whole game is all about. Just let it come your way, winning is an afterthought.
Rotating beams, flying fruit and big balls
The above are just a few examples of that can come your way. The format of the minigames are therefore quite straightforward. Avoid, balance, jump, dance, cry, fight and admire. It’s not rocket science, but it will be with all those other jelly beans around you. In addition, the control is not always to write home about. Everything looks awkward, and that’s hilarious when you’re playing with a group of friends. More often than you would like, you have the idea that you are doing everything perfectly, and yet everything goes wrong.
Then there is also a good dose of concentration and self-control. The closer you get to that final game, the more mistakes you seem to make. That’s when even the simplest obstacles feel like the Great Wall of China. Especially when your buddies are watching and do everything they can to get you out of your concentration. No wonder Fall Guys became a huge success on Twitch overnight and even left games like Fortnite and Valorant behind in terms of viewing figures. It is practically an accepted form of malicious pleasure.
However, not every game is equally fun. I love to jump over and avoid things as if my life depended on it. But then again I don’t feel like remembering different pieces of fruit; often I just follow the crowd. Don’t let me get started on the tail game, I was done with that in five minutes. Of course there will always be less fun games, but these minigames do not make the game any better.
Team games
In addition to the individual tests, there are also games that are played as a team. Nothing is more annoying than being eliminated from a game when there is nothing else you can do about it. Consider, for example, that game where you as a team have to collect as many tails as possible. When you have managed to score a tail, there is nothing you can do to help your team.
You may end up being the only one with a tail, and then you will still be eliminated. That is nice a number of times, but the fifth time it starts to get annoying. Ultimately, of course, it remains impotence.
Despite the clumsy controls of the males contain a lot of the charm, this is at the same time one of the reasons that you really have to turn off the game after a few games. For example, I have never managed to steal such a golden egg from the opponent’s basket. Simply because I can’t make that $ * & # jump with an egg like that in my hands. These moments of frustration are a bit more important in team games, because you feel that you do not have it in your own hands. Sometimes it all just feels a bit unfair.
Frustrating or Hilarious?
For the time being, Mediatonic has found the right balance between frustration and excitement. However, if they want to ensure this balance, they will have to maintain the game properly. At some point we are tired of the same games and those clumsy moments will turn into annoying defects. The team games can also be a bit fairer here and there. A game of Fall Ball with one man less is really not possible. Furthermore, it is high time that a statistics menu was added, because this way we can of course not show off our crowns. Anyway, Fall Guys, as I said, is not ultimately about winning.
Fall Guys is now available for PlayStation 4 and PC.
Conclusion
SCORE:
79 So is the hype surrounding Fall Guys justified? Yes for sure. However, it will not be very durable unless the game is regularly updated. For example, give players the opportunity to assemble mini-games themselves. In this way, community playlists are created and Fall Guys remains fun for much longer. So is the hype surrounding Fall Guys justified? Yes for sure. However, it will not be very durable unless the game is regularly updated. For example, give players the opportunity to assemble mini-games themselves. In this way, community playlists are created and Fall Guys remains fun for much longer.
