We all know this one, right? Once upon a time, there was a game called Fall Guys, which got bought by Epic Games and then became Epic Games Store exclusive. Then, a mobile knock-off called Stumble Guys got a PC port released on Steam, and ended up becoming huge in its own right - even to the point of having a bigger merchandise line than the original, and a commonly-suggested search-engine question being "Is Fall Guys a rip-off of Stumble Guys?".



If you don't know either game, they're free-to-play online multiplayer games where you quickly get matched to a bunch of randoms (with no distractions like voice-chat or other such nonsense), and try to survive various wacky obstacle-courses and scenarios in the vein of old TV game-shows like It's a Knockout! and Takeshi's Castle.

I never got to try out Fall Guys - the closest I'll ever get to it is the Bean Bomber collaboration appearing in Super Bomberman R 2. Yesterday, I had some free time and decided that I may as well try out Stumble Guys on my Steam Deck since it's rated Steam Deck Playable and was a pretty small download, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it is!

Games are short (they're played in three rounds, where the contestants are gradually whittled down from 32 players to 1), and I really appreciate how time-respectful the game is if you just want to play a few quick matches and then bail. It's a great fit for a handheld! They seem to change out events quite often, too - last month there was a Ghostbusters collaboration, and this month there's a Dungeons & Dragons one; I'm interested in seeing what else they do, since I gather there've been quite a lot of them already.

Though there's some monetisation surrounding cosmetics and some other gubbins, the game doesn't seem to try to corral you into spending in order to stand a chance of winning - you can just check in for some short big-dumb-fun matches, unlock a bunch of cute freebies, and just keep enjoying the game.

I've been having a really good laugh with it so far. Anyone else playing?

Last edited by Pengling on 9 April 2024 at 5:49 pm UTC