Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout for PC is yet another battle royale game, cashing in on the unending popularity of the form, but this one is a fun and quirky take on the genre. You are a jellybean with face and limbs, and you will be competing against sixty other hopefuls to be the last bean standing after a series of four to six fun and silly games.

Say What Now?

Take part in a series of fun game against 59 other online players, aiming to make it through to the last stage, at which point there is a battle to the death, leaving just one victor. But this game does not make it a ‘winner takes it all’ scenario, with rewards given at each of the various stages.

The rewards take the form of in-game currency, skins and more, so you can change up your jellybean body into something unique and fun – pineapple head with a pink tutu sound like your kind of fashion? Done! The currency comes in the form of ‘kudos’ for doing well – finishing in the top five or so, or ‘crowns’ which are won for coming first on levels as you play through.

You play your way from start to finish as a standalone, but sometimes, especially in the early stages when the game is looking to cut down those 60 starters to a more manageable number, you will be divided into teams, to play team games.

These are as much fun and are as varied as the solo games. One game, Egg Scramble, involves first grabbing as many eggs as you can, and then, as soon as the opposition have a decent haul, stealing as many as you can from their baskets. Another, Team Tail Tag has you rushing around, trying to grab a tail off the opposing team’s behind, or – if your team has been tailed – trying to evade butt-capture by enemies!

You can play as a squad with your real life buddies, but this does not make it co-op play – you are each on your own and fighting to be top dog, best friends since nursery school be darned!

The Nitty Gritty

The controls are simple and basic – dash, dive, jump, grab – and you can combine them as needed to swipe the tails and eggs, jump over obstacles and race past your competition. The vibe is very much like a cheerful, vaguely humiliating gameshow – think Takeshi’s Castle done in animation and you are very close! – with bright cheerful characters set on a cartoony animated world.

Altogether there are over two dozen vibrant and quirky games and tasks, and while many of the levels involve races of one sort or another – in which as soon as the required number of players has passed the finish line everyone else is out. But this is not as onerous as it sounds – the entire game takes a mere fifteen minutes or so to play through the four to six levels, so you will barely have time to replenish your snacks before you are back in the game!

The game is rowdy and raucous, wonderfully cathartic silly fun!

Some of the Games

Race style elimination games:

• Hit Parade

• Whirlygig

• Dizzy Heights

More strategic puzzlers:

• Slime Climb where just falling into the slime results in instant elimination

• Fall Mountain

• Hex-a-Gone a fun and challenging puzzler where the floor – made of hexagonal tiles – falls away beneath you, if you have not plotted a careful enough course!

Deserving a mention:

• Block Party – sliding blocks try and knock you off course

• Perfect Match – memory game. Easy right? Not under this kind of pressure!

• Jump Club – two unevenly rotating arms that sweep around, tripping you up if they both hit at the same time!

• Roll Out – a series of rotating platforms, you must dash over them as fast as possible

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout for PC is available for purchase on Instant Gaming for a fraction of its retail price. You will receive an official key and be able to play the game in seconds. Play smart. Pay less.