PAX East Spotlight: Fall Guys
By Peeziest
Fall Guys is a quirky collection of mini-games that seeks to emulate an elimination style game show.
Each "show" consists of four mini-games. At the start of the show, 100 players will participate. The game is focusing on an online experience, so the vast majority of those players will be human. At the end of each mini-game, the lowest performing players will be dropped. Those who did well are "qualifying" and will move on to the next mini-game. This repeats until the fourth game, where only one will win.
The demo I played only had four mini-games. However the developers mentioned that there are many more in the works, leading to plenty of replayability. One such game was a tail-snatching romp, where some of the players had tails, and others did not. Qualifying for this mini-game means having a tail at the end of a two minute period. If you didn't have a tail, you could steal one off of the other players. Imagine a big game of tag, where multiple people are "it", and you'll have a good idea of the shenanigans that took place.
The controls are simple to pick up as there are only four things you can do: move, jump, dive, and grab. Combine this with the relative simplicity of each mini-game, and you have the makings of a great party game.
You'll be able to customize the look of your little pill person, with different patterns, colors, and outfits. There were a fair number of looks in the demo at PAX. But the developers are looking to add even more for the release.
I had a ball with the game, and could not stop laughing the whole time. I highly recommend it if you're looking for some quick multiplayer action. Fall Guys is targeting release later this year, on Playstation 4 and PC. You can find it on Steam now if you want to wishlist it.