(Image credit: Mediatonic)

Tis the season to stumble

Season 3 is already here in only a few short months for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. This Season is arguably the most ambitious for Mediatonic. It offers seven new levels, several challenging obstacles, and a ton of clothes fitting a winter wonderland. While normally a holiday themed game would be annoying, it helps to forget about staying socially distant without going overboard. With all the additional physics added, the game is growing in a positive direction.

The seven new levels expand the Fall Guys rounds well and can be played exclusively if desired. Tundra Run is the new starting round that shows off most of the added obstacles. The early snowball tunnels seem a little short but do provide a great amount of anarchy and there are a lot of paths for a bean to choose. Ski Fall is the usual second round, and one of the more unique levels. It is a race to score 15 points or get into the final goal ring. This level has unique snowflake obstacles that have rings players can jump through to score those points. Freezy Peak sometimes shows up as the second round and is a fun race to the peak of an obstacle laden mountain that makes the best use of the new fans.

The four remaining rounds are less frequent but offer more winter antics. Snowy Scrap has three teams battling to grow their snowball first. Pegwin Pursuit is a penguin hunt that is the rarest round played. The last two rounds are new final rounds that are fresh takes on other rounds from past seasons. Thin Ice is similar to Hex-A-Gone but the icy tiles melt over time. While Roll Off takes the Roll Out spinning wheels and ups the ante with only two barrels that speed up faster and have more gaps. Both new final rounds had me laughing all the way to elimination.

The added mechanics that accompany the new obstacles is where Season 3 shines. The snowballs grow as they roll but when they become obnoxiously large, they can take out bushels of beans. The fans topple over helpless beans or blow them to new heights and are cleverly implemented in the new levels. My favorites are the Punch Gloves that punch beans right off the map. Ice shows up everywhere in the new maps, mostly just to slow down progress but in Snowy Scrap or Thin Ice it is used in other ways.

(Image credit: Mediatonic)

Aside from just the levels and obstacles, Mediatonic added a new progression system to let players show off with exclusive costumes. The system is called Crown Ranks and levels every time the player collects a crown, some of the costumes unlocked Include golden versions of classic Fall Guys suits. With the Season progression giving out more crowns than the prior seasons, everyone can get a few Crown Ranks easily. This does not add much to the new season, but it does gives veteran players a new outlet to outshine the competition. The new season also adds more than 30 unique winter costumes that require kudos or crowns to acquire.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Season 3 brings some holiday spice to the overall variety of playable rounds. While I did not see the Big Yeetus in any of the new rounds, there was plenty of obstacles that sent my bean skyward. The added mechanics push the physics craziness to a higher degree and bring greater round variety within the 7 new levels. I look forward to battling my way to the top for a fancy golden outfit.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Season 3

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC

• Developer: Mediatonic

• Publisher: Devolver Digital

• Release Date: August 4, 2020