Caleb Hester – Cubold Gaming

One of the few games I was actually looking forward to in 2020 was a game that sadly only had a few months of recognition, before it died out, or did it really die out? And even if it did lose popularity, does the game deserve to come back in 2021? Well, I’ll give a little spoiler as to how I feel about this game, I like it. I liked it when it came out and I like it now, but there’s definitely more to talk about. So, how’s it going everyone, if you are new to the channel, I’m Caleb from Cubold Gaming, and in this video, I’ll be taking a look at Fall Guys in 2021. What is Fall Guys So, on the off chance that you may not know what Fall Guys is, it’s a game that was released back in august of 2020. It had a pretty exciting build-up coming up to the release, and I wouldn’t say it was overhyped either. It was a game that genuinely seemed different and definitely stood out from the other releases that PC players are used to getting. Agh, just thinking back on it, I was super excited for the game, and I’m getting ahead of myself but the game didn’t disappoint for the most part. Anyway, so Fall guys is, well, basically a battle royal, although it doesn’t really feel like one. It’s kinda like how I feel about Bean Battles. Like, I know it’s supposed to be a battle royal and it obviously is, but the gameplay doesn’t really make it feel that way. Fall Guys always reminded me of more of a party game, like Mario Party. With the additional goal of being the last person that isn’t eliminated. But anyway, yeah, so you play as these little bean-shaped characters in a lobby of up to 60 other players, playing through a whole variety of platforming levels. I think it’s around 7 rounds before getting to the very last one, where whoever wins that one will win the crown. The levels are platforming-focused but honestly what made it fun was that you didn’t have to be very good at it because the physics of the game are similar to something like gang beasts. So, super unpredictable and you usually end up bumping into a bunch of other players and fly all over the place. What Makes Fall Guys Good Alrighty, now that we’ve established what Fall Guys is, we should talk about what makes the game good, and really why it deserved all the hype when it first released. Personally, I think it’s got that whole couch co-op party game vibe but obviously online, and the great thing is, is that there isn’t really anything like it on PC. Sure, you see a lot of this kind of stuff on Switch and even xbox and ps4, but on steam? Not really. I really think this is why it started off so well, it’s because the PC community is so used to having near-unlimited amounts of games, whether it be triple-A FPS’s, or side-scrolling indie games. The only thing we aren’t used to having is something similar to Mario Party. I don’t know, that’s how I see it. Another aspect of the game that I think that brought a lot of people to like the game, are the crazy amounts of skins. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Caleb, micro transactions aren’t a good thing, and I would agree. I will say that Fall Guys does it in a way that I would encourage all developers to do it IF they are really set on putting that kinda stuff in the game. So, the reason I say that is because there are two types of currency in the game, Kudos, which you can earn and buy with real-world money, and crowns. The kudos are relatively easy to obtain because after each match you should be able to get some. I mentioned before that you can also purchase kudos, but the things you can get with kudos are different from what you get from crowns. This is why I’m okay with this whole system because you can get smaller things like colors and little taunts and usually common stuff with kudos, but crowns are where you get the good stuff. So, crowns are only obtained through winning matches. After each match, you win one crown, and you can build up the number of crowns you have to buy costumes. The in-game items that cost crowns are the items that are actually good. Yeah, there may be Micro Transactions, but only for kudos which don’t really get you the best stuff, because the best stuff is only awarded to the people who win games. Not only that but they are consistently coming out with seasons where the more you play, the more you unlock kudos, different colors, and costumes for your little character. I think that’s a lot of the appeal of the game, to be honest, and not only the costumes and things, but also the general appearance of the game. I mentioned before that the game was genuinely different from what you regularly see and appearance is really where that statement holds up. The game just looks so different and a lot of people liked that. It was a breath of fresh air and something you didn’t really need to take too seriously, especially in the battle royal genre. Really, it just boils down to that. This came out as something that was so different and so separate from not only battle royals but just every other game in general, that it made a lot of people, including me, really happy to play. Where it Falls Short I’ll be completely transparent here, I don’t play the game much at all lately, but I’ll be honest, I like this game. I think Fall Guys deserves a lot more than what it’s getting, and I'll get into that later, but, the game has some issues that have gotten fixed and some issues that still remain a part of the game. The main issue that I strongly remember being a problem for a lot of people, including me, was the amount of content in the game. Granted, it’s a battle royal, and the content is largely attributed to the general unpredictability of each round, but for this specific one, a lot of it is dependent on the actual content of the different maps and mini-games. This was a huge issue because when Fall Guys first came out, they would run the same level playlists for specific times. So, you’d run into a lot of the same levels in the same order, and that got old after a while. This issue was fixed, I believe after season 2’s release, but I think for a lot of people, that just made it seem like a boring game, which, you know, I can understand. Another issue that was pretty bad, although has been addressed a little by the developers was that the team-based rounds could be uneven. So, a lot of times, people would disconnect, or not even that, sometimes teams were just uneven and it made team battles really unfair because one team would be way better off than another. Personally, I’m not too big of a fan of the team based rounds even now, but they have gotten a lot better. I also remember there being a big issue with account names and the developers having to give people generic names like, player followed by a number, which, I’m sure there was a good reason for it, but it still hasn’t been fixed. I will say that they turned it into a clever new little thing where you can have titles and add more personality to your character, and I’m not hating on that because I have no clue all the ins and outs of that issue. Short Lived Popularity? Even though the game had a lot of issues from the start, it was really popular on twitch and from sales too. The very first month it was out, the game peaked at over 700,000 viewers on twitch, which is really impressive actually. Obviously, that kind of a number of concurrent viewers wasn’t likely to stay but I still think it had the potential to come close to that. It wasn’t just really popular on twitch either, in the month it was released, it also peaked at over 170,000 concurrent players on steam. For references on this, the game, as of the making of this video, has peaked at over 84,000 viewers on twitch, and peaking at around 17,000 on steam, for this current month. That’s still very good, and there are plenty of games that don’t even come near that. Plus, that’s not even counting whatever PlayStation concurrent player numbers are. So, even though the game may seem like it’s dead, it really isn’t. It reminds me of the PUBG situation. It really seems to a lot of people that PUBG has been dead for years, but it just isn’t at its peak anymore, and not many games stay at the top of the twitch viewer charts. So, Fall Guys still does have a large number of players and viewers on twitch too, just in contrast to what it peaked at, it seems like it’s dead. Reasons for Popularity Drop Off So, there are a lot of reasons that the popularity drop off can be attributed to. Obviously, pretty much every game has an initial peak during launch and drop-off over time, but there are those games that have traits that could allow it to survive for a long time. Fall Guys definitely had those traits, it’s fun to watch, and fun to play, especially with friends, not to mention the general uniqueness of the game. Basically what I’m saying is, the game was set up to succeed and top the charts in a lot of areas, including player count and viewer count. That doesn’t mean it isn’t and hasn't succeeded, because it most definitely has with the numbers we went over, but I mean like staying in the top 10 type game. So obviously we have the natural decline of any game, but I think some of the issues I addressed earlier also pushed a lot of players away from the game. I think the biggest and most obvious reason for the game losing popularity was due to another game overshadowing Fall Guys. That game is Among Us. Now, Among Us was actually out for a good 2 years before it blew up, and guess around what time it had its peak. Yup, at the end of the same month that Fall Guys released. On steam charts alone, Among Us topped over 438,000 concurrent players on Steam and over 774,000 peak viewers on twitch back in November 2020. So, obviously, the game had almost 3 times the amount of concurrent player peak on steam alone. That’s not even counting how many on mobile, which I’m sure is probably even more than that. The reason for that being, well obviously cost of entry. Fall Guys is $19.99, while Among Us is $5 on Steam, and free on mobile. Although Among us didn’t top over Fall Guys' peak viewers on twitch too much, that's also not considering youtube or Facebook Live streams. So, did Among Us kind of steal the spotlight from Fall Guys? In a way, yeah kinda, but I really just think that the timing was just coincidental and Among Us was just easier to play considering the price. Even now, Among Us is starting to level out in viewership and player numbers, so I think the timing was just awful for Fall Guys. Is Fall Guys Worth Playing in 2021 If you’ve stuck around for this long, we’ve finally gotten to basically what this whole video is about. Whether or not Fall Guys is worth your time and worth checking out again, and in my opinion, absolutely. So, listen, I am a believer that Fall Guys really deserves a comeback, and I think that it is overshadowed by Among Us really stunted the kinda growth potential that the game had. In no way is the game dead, but the potential is insane for the game. The developers haven’t given up either, not even a little. I mean they are partnering to make all kinds of new costumes like I remember seeing a Doom costume set, and they recently announced and are releasing a cuphead theme set too. Obviously, they aren’t just focused on cosmetics but also general content for the game. They are currently on season three and season four is estimated to release within the next couple of weeks. Each of the seasons add new maps and game modes, along with a free season tier system to get more cosmetics. Also, pretty much all of those issues that I mentioned before have been addressed and either fixed completely or improved. The game still is unlike any other in my opinion, both with appearance and gameplay. No other battle royal is like this. I don’t know, I guess I just feel like some of that popularity didn’t get stolen but didn’t get to grow like I feel it should have. I’m hopeful for the future of the game, new seasons are coming out, and what’s nice to hear is that the game is not only just coming to Xbox, but also Switch this year. This will definitely bring a lot more players to the game and hopefully spark some more attention to the game. Fall Guys is definitely worth playing in 2021 and trust me, the game has improved a lot over the past few months.