Stumble Guys (Xbox) Review – Falling For It
I guess it was inevitable. After having a hell of a life on mobile, Stumble Guys (…) found its way onto PC and blew up, in a very similar way to that Mediatonic title that looks awfully similar to this. Stumble Guys was a free alternative on mobile, the FOMO not feeling so fearful now a carbon copy had been released which did everything it said on the tin and more. It never really had to try all that hard, the audience was built in from the beginning. If you weren’t lucky enough to grab Fall Guys for free when you had the chance, well, Stumble Guys is now a thing you lucky devils. And now it’s hitting Xbox (and Switch soon) and well, does it even compare to Mediatonic’s monster?
The answer is..tricky. One the one hand obviously, yes. It’s a party battle royale where you race from one end of a gauntlet to the other in the hopes of being the last person standing or the first over the finish line. From the outset you’ll be knocking into obstacles, double jumping to clear tricky gaps and getting hammered off the course by fellow players who are very much in your way at all times. Then you do it again and again until there’s a winner. The whereabouts of rocket science in Stumble Guys is nowhere to be seen as it’s as easy to understand as Fall Guys ever was, but it seems like it has no idea Fall Guys even exists, which is hilarious in itself.
Away from the gauntlets are races featuring Hot Wheels, first person shooter levels with NERF guns and a huge variety of licensed characters that are surprisingly hefty (including Pac-Man, Spongebob Squarepants and even Barbie). You begin to realise the more you play Stumble Guys that it’s doing everything it can to differentiate itself from Fall Guys, despite the clear and present intentions (maybe change the name, first?).
And to be fair, it’s doing a good enough job. Stumble Guys has a huge audience that will play the game daily and has enough about it that it’s carved its own little corner of the internet for players who might have gotten a little tired of Fall Guys or simply want something similar but different to play. Whilst Fall Guys fell under the spell of Epic Games and subsequently became a little bit too big for its tiny boots, Stumble Guys just kinda powers along, gaining massive audiences and huge numbers on Twitch without breaking a sweat or worrying about what Fall Guys might be doing next. It’s far too busy focusing on what Stumble Guys should be doing, and it’s all the better for it.
Each run features 32 players (including you) and as you would expect, each game is a drastic race to the finish or to be standing when the timer runs out. It’s cookie cutter stuff but it’s presented well, full of life and colour. I’m playing the game on my Xbox Series S and are yet to see any slowdown, framerate issues or crashes. From a technical standpoint it runs very well, considering how much is going on in the screen at once. It never asks too much of the consoles visually, but it’s a decent enough trade off when the game runs this well.
One thing I have noticed – and this may not be the case for everyone – is that the randomiser of levels is certainly more varied than Fall Guys. I found with the latter I was playing the same levels over and over. With Stumble Guys, the level types were a fun mix of ideas and scenarios that kept playing exciting and intrigued as to what came next. Across the level types such as Race, Elimination, First-Person Stumble, Team, Collection and Driving there’s a neat mix of gameplay types which makes SG stand out. One level will be a classic gauntlet, the next could be a first person Nerf arena. They’re all somewhat straightforward in execution but then I consider the primary age group that will be playing this and I let it go, Nerf shooting and racing doesn’t need to be complicated or offer additional mechanics, it just needs to be super fun and to Stumble Guys’ credit, it really is.
And Stumble Guys loves throwing you stuff. It’s a huge fan of rewarding you for basically everything you do, win or lose. Obviously winning gets you more things to spend things on with your winnings, but even if you come dead last you’re picked up by the rewards and it gives you a nice little push to keep going. There are of course microtransactions and a decent battle pass option for cosmetics, emotes and whatnot, but seeing as the game is free I’m hardly going to begrudge them that, they have to keep the lights on somehow and some of the designs are genuinely excellent. I’m currently a badass lion and I’m terribly happy about it
Stumble Guys then has thankfully created a niche of its own to differentiate itself from an obvious competitor and it’s worth celebrating just for that. We’re as intrigued as anyone to see where they take the game next, and with its huge variety in levels and easily digestible modes, we could all be falling yet for this little party royale that could.
Stumble Guys is available on mobile, Xbox (reviewed on Series S) and PC. Coming soon to Nintendo Switch.
Developer: Kitka Games, Scopely
Publisher: Kitka Games, Scopely
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy from the publisher.
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