MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn finally tried the colorful battle royale Fall Guys. He had more fun than he should have with the game and its messy controls. What he experienced in his first round with the cute potato figures and why he likes it despite all the contradictions can be found here.
Do I really want to play this? I wrote the first news about the announcement of Fall Guys back in 2019 and thought “Okay, this looks cute, but it’s going to flop hard!”
When Fall Guys finally launched in early August 2020, I was on vacation and thought “Okay, at least I’m not to blame if it fails, I don’t have time to play anyway.” Because if you didn’t know yet, games that I like and enjoy often tend to fail shortly after.
This thing is still alive? When I returned to work two weeks later, my astonishment was great. Because Fall Guys was not dead. On the contrary, it was thriving and seemed to be the next vibrantly colorful surprise success since Fortnite back then!
Shortly after, Schuhmann mentioned it to me as a topic and said I should definitely give it a try. “Alright, but I don’t want to hear anything if it goes offline soon,” I said and downloaded the game on Steam. “Let’s see how this thing is.”
Hooked after 10 seconds
Here’s how my first round started: I start my first round and first build my Fall Guy. He is purple and has a unicorn on his forehead. It has to be with my name. Then it was time to start. There is no tutorial or any nonsense here.
Why would there be? Especially in a fast-paced party game like Fall Guys, I don’t want to spend ages practicing moves; I want to jump right in! This approach was already appealing to me.
My first round begins as a big race through opening and closing gates. I and 59 other colorful wobbling figures wobble off. And what are those sounds? The Fall Guys constantly make strange noises that are somewhat adorable and fit the silly wobbling.
Soon, we stumble through the gates and some of the little guys tumble helplessly around, unable to progress.
Terrible controls, but it fits: This is mainly due to the awful controls, which are squishy, inaccurate, and just terrible. What I would see as a huge flaw in another game, here is a feature. Because the controls unfortunately fit perfectly with the clumsy, awkward potato figures that the Fall Guys are.
Here’s how it went on: Contrary to all expectations, I somehow made it through the chaos of tumbling Fall Guys and qualified for another round. More daring tumbles followed with the dwindling number of Fall Guys. Because with each round, the little guys get fewer.
They tumble out because of their clumsiness or the delightfully trollish game mechanics, irretrievably going out, and at the end of each round, they are also kicked out of the game in a list. They let out heart-wrenching sounds as they helplessly tumble into the void.
On my journey through my first round, I come across increasingly silly mini-games:
- I should dodge a cursed spewer. I somehow run around and suddenly win. Okay, sure …
- We all run over rotating seesaws. If too many Fall Guys stand on one side, everything tips over and many little potato figures won’t be coming home today.
- I also remember a round of memory where everyone just runs to where everyone stands.
“What a nonsense”: While I’m having fun with the Fall Guys, my son wakes up in the other room and my mother, who was babysitting, brings him in. The little one sees the Fall Guys on the screen and immediately squeals with joy. My mother, however, just shakes her head in confusion and says, “What a nonsense! And you have to do this for work?”
She said that and walked out shaking her head. My little 17-month-old son cries pitifully because he would have loved to keep watching the Fall Guys tumble around and squeak just like him. I understand him because the game is surprisingly a lot of fun!
Wow, I almost won: In fact, I made it to the finals in my very first round. Together with about a dozen surviving wobblers, I stand before the last obstacle to victory: The Fall Mountain. A huge mountain full of nasty obstacles and a crown at the top. Only one Fall Guy will be able to claim it at the end! And that Fall Guy is me!
And it actually starts well. I just walk stoically up the mountain and don’t even try to avoid the increasingly absurd obstacles rolling down. This surprisingly works well because while the Fall Guys around me are getting knocked out left and right, I keep moving forward. But other Fall Guys were even more effective and are ahead of me.
I can grab one and kick them down, but a nasty potato figure in front of me has a lead and runs through the finish line just before me. So close, but still passed!
Conclusion: What a nonsense! But unfortunately awesome!
My first round of Fall Guys ended with a narrow defeat, but it piqued my interest. Because the game is ridiculously fun. It’s unfair, inaccurate, and – as my dear mother aptly noted – a real nonsense. But it’s a good nonsense! Exactly for the reasons that it’s so messed up and silly, the ridiculous tumbling with the clumsy wobblers is so much fun. You can get really worked up about it when the trollish game mechanics create an insurmountable situation. But even that is somehow fun. I will definitely keep playing Fall Guys. Hopefully, it survives!
Jürgen Horn
Editor at MeinMMO
