Falling into place: “Fall Guys” season two review
WSS staffer Carter McLaughlin ’23 takes a look at the second season of “Fall Guys” to discover if its popularity has been maintained.
Fall Guys season 2 brings new minigames and bonus features to the base game
With the release of its second season on Oct. 8, “Fall Guys” breathed new life with additional minigames, costumes and general quality touch-ups on the game. With the season’s theme being based on medieval times, I instantly fell in love with the game more than I did beforehand.
Unlike my original review, which was season one of the game, this review will talk more about the new inclusions to the game rather than giving the season an overall number based grade.
New Ways to Play
Season two added four new minigames alongside the original 25 minigames; Knight Fever, Egg Siege, Hoopsie Legends and Wall Guys. Half of these added a new mechanic to the game, which is the addition of moveable objects.
One of those games is Hoopsie Legends. Hoopsie Legends is the second minigame to be labelled a hunt minigame, the other being Tail Tag. Similar to the team game, Hoopsie Daisy, your goal is to jump through enough hoops to get to the next round. Unlike Hoopsie Daisy, though, Hoopsie Legends is a free-for-all where players have to get six points before enough people qualify. This is a really fun minigame, which the addition of moveable objects to get to hoops faster adds to the experience.
The other minigame that uses moveable objects, and the best new minigame to be added, is Wall Guys. Wall Guys is another race game that is able to stand out from the others thanks to the more platform based challenge. Players can move blocks closer to the walls you have to cross to make the platforming easier, but other players can move blocks away, making it harder to get across the wall. The unique challenge of platforming, where one mistake can cause you to start over a section, makes the competitiveness and adrenaline much greater and more exciting than other minigames.
Knight Fever is a more traditional race minigame, with players going from the start to the finish without having to move objects around. Despite this, Knight Fever has many new additions that no other race minigame currently has. These include spinning axes, drawbridges and a spiked log meant to knock players off the course named “Thicc Bonkus.”
Egg Siege is a team game and the last new minigame added. Egg Siege is essentially the minigame, Egg Scramble, with the difficulty scaled up to 11. Unlike the open space of Egg Scramble, where you can jump in and out of another team’s base with an egg, Egg Siege has gates on the exits of the bases, making it extremely difficult to get an egg to your own base once it’s in someone else’s.
The new minigames aren’t the only things that were added to the gameplay. Season two added the Show Selector, which can change what minigames are playable. Main Show is the normal version of the game and is always available.
The other two shows shown are called Gauntlet Showdown and Slime Survivors respectively. Gauntlet Showdown is where you can only play race minigames, while Slime Survivors is only minigames that have you disqualified from touching slime. These change around every week, and I’m very excited to see what other ideas they have for shows.
Visual Additions
Season two added a fresh coat of paint on the game overall. The visuals of the game were greatly upgraded, with it looking much cleaner than it used to. The biggest thing I noticed between season one and season two was the shading in the game looked sharper than it once did. Some rounds were given minor touch ups to add just a bit more detail to them as well. Perfect Match is one of these minigames, having the platforms you stand on shake before some of them disappear.
Alongside new costumes available, the game also now has nameplates and banners for each player. The banners and nameplates come along with a nickname that you can put on it so that it can further stand out from other players. You’re able to view the banners of other players by being in spectator mode and seeing it on the bottom, left-hand corner. Although I, personally, would prefer using my in-game currency on costumes for my character, I found some banner customization too good for me to pass up.
There was one visual that I found to blow the rest of it out of the water. Many fans of the game requested this to be a feature in the game, and the developers at Mediatonic delivered. They added the ability to see you and your friends you invited to play with you falling together while waiting for a game.
Of course, it may not seem like much, but the fact that Mediatonic listened to the fanbase gives me a positive opinion of the company. The loading screen seemed bland at times when you were the only one falling, even if you had friends you were playing with. Now that you can see you and your friends together, it made me feel so happy even if it may be just a minor detail that Mediatonic added.
Overall
From the new minigames to falling with friends on the loading screen, I found nothing but positive additions to the game. Despite the decline in popularity from the first season, I believe the game is still very fun. I’m super excited to see where the game will go next, whether it’s the mid-season update or the entire next season. It’s hard to say what the next season’s theme is going to be, but I would like it if it went from the medieval past to the distant future for season three.
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Carter McLaughlin is a sophomore at West High. This is his first year as an online staff reporter. In his free time, you can expect him to be on his Nintendo...
(she/her) Cassandra Michaels is a senior at West. This is her second year on the staff for the online publication as an artist. When she isn't busy she...
