Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is Takeshi’s Castle Online

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was one of August’s free games on the Playstation and it has become a mild addiction. I was going to go with ‘It’s a Knock Out’ (from the UK) or Total Wipeout (from US) instead of ‘Takeshi’s Castle‘ for the title but most younglings won’t know what I am talking about.

Essentially, the shows are similar in that loads of people are whittled down by obstacles and big soft things whacking them hilariously in the face. Takeshi’s Castle seems more dangerous and slightly more insane, which is why it wins. Also, if you watched in the UK years ago, it had a superb sarcastic voice-over by Red Dwarf’s Craig Charles.

Anyway, it seems likely you will have seen one of the above shows. As everyone is currently obsessed with Battle Royale, this is a genius idea. Fall Guys has you playing a cute bouncy little avatar and pits you against 60 other players as you try and get to the end of each course or game.

Some of the games are even the same as the above shows, such as the one where you shout something in Japanese and run full-on at something that may or may not be a door or wall. Ok, that was Takeshi again, sorry. But that game is here too. Other games have you jumping over things, dodging giant balls, playing a kind of football game in teams, and loads more. It seems to be being updated quite a lot and so there will be more games on the way. It is insanely fun.

It works like this: 60 players are whittled down until there is a winner. The first game is normally a race with obstacles and around 40 will get through. Then there is often a team game where another third are out, then another elimination game and so on.

I never managed to get addicted to Fortnite or any of the others as I always got killed by a talented teen with faster reflexes than I will ever have but on Fall Guys, I often wobble into the top ten. That is about all I can hope for these days. I tend to prefer solo narrative games, so this has been a nice change.

If you get a chance, download it and see what you think. It’s free and will probably soon appear on other platforms. I imagine more and bigger mini-games are on the way. It is insanely good fun. Watch the trailer to get a feel for it. Enjoy.