Fall Guys

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout — How Mediatonic crafted a cute battle royale

If you told me that someone was making a cute battle royale, I would have laughed out loud in derision. When I saw what Mediantonic did with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, a very cute battle royale, I did laugh out loud. Because it’s so fun.

Fall Guys is one of my favorites from E3 2019, and last weekend it held its biggest beta test in advance of its August 4 launch. Inspired by games like Takeshi’s Castle, Exceed, and Wipeout on television, Fall Guys pits 60 players against each other in running hilarious obstacle courses, using only characters who bounce around like rag dolls. The game has 25 versions of its battle royale competitions, including Egg Scramble, which pits three teams against each other. They have to race to a huge pile of eggs and put them in their team’s basket.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.