Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, the latest title from London-based developer Mediatonic, is not your typical Battle Royale. Dropping firearms, loot crates, and death zones for jelly-bean obstacles, waddling races, and ineffectual shoving is certainly a unique take on the genre. In fact, Fall Guys is more like a combination of Takeshi's Castle, Wipeout, and cuddly shove 'em up Gang Beasts, than it is a hard-core battle to elimination.
Matches are fought in qualifying rounds, which slowly whittle down 60 players to a single winner. Each of these rounds features a different challenge, some team-based, others solo, which serve to knock-out the lowest scoring competitors. Just like in fellow PlayStation Plus title Rocket League, in Fall Guys there is no conflict between players more direct than shoving and grabbing. This means players must learn to use their limited skills in the most efficient way possible. One of the most important of these is diving, which, when used correctly, can make the difference between defeat and dominance.
Waddling to Victory
Practically built for Twitch, Fall Guys is not a complicated game, and its control-scheme lives up to that philosophy. Apart from showing player names and performing emotes, there are only five things players can do: move their character, move the camera, jump, dive, and grab. Diving can only be done after a jump or a fall, and propels the character forward onto their face.
Diving Controls:
- PS4 Controller: Square
- Xbox Controller: X
- PC Keyboard: Ctrl
While diving can be useful for evading obstacles and other players, it does come with a down-side. A diving character will never land on their feet, forcing them to take a second to get up. This can be crucial in some game modes, and often means diving should only ever be used as a last-ditch method.
Falling with Style
It seems a safe bet that there are going to be plenty of Fall Guys Twitch Streamers, and no-one wants to make a fool of themselves by diving at the wrong moment in front of their fans. Knowing when to take a dive is essential to claiming the title in Fall Guys, it's right there in the name after all, but that doesn't mean it's easy.
When sprinting to avoid an obstacle in Fall Guys, make sure to dive at the last possible second. There's nothing worse than mis-timing a desperate leap and being swept off the map while laying prone. In competitive games, avoid diving around other players unless it's the only way to escape them. The time spent flat on the ground isn't enough to compensate for the increased jump distance when trying to avoid a Jinx.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is out now for PC and PS4.