Some characters can be evolved into a legendary NFT, which can be traded on the Mythical marketplace.
Pudgy Penguins mobile game Pudgy Party is a hit with fans of the Ethereum NFT collection — and we agree with the hype. This casual battle royale game takes the best elements from Epic Games’ Fall Guys, evolves on them, and adds a crypto twist.
In many ways, the new mobile title developed by Mythical Games might be better than Fall Guys, as it adds lovable, meme-inspired characters with unique abilities to the game. On top of this, the mobile game has a satisfying and natural progression to it that is turbocharged by its use of NFT items sellable on the Mythical marketplace.
We’ve played several hours of Pudgy Party over the past couple of weeks — here’s our take on how the Pudgy Penguins casual mobile game rises above Fall Guys, and where it falls short.
Just as in Fall Guys, Pudgy Party players are thrown into a lobby together and tasked with sprinting, double-jumping, and dodging their way through randomly selected levels. The last player standing wins the entire game.
Due to its casual focus, Pudgy Party starts with a notably smaller lobby of 20 players compared to Fall Guys’ 40-player limit. As a result, Pudgy Party games are much quicker, suiting its mobile audience, whereas Fall Guys is mostly a casual console and PC game.
The major differentiating factor that Pudgy Party has, to its benefit, is that the characters offer more than just a cosmetic change; each one has up to four unique, unlockable abilities. For example, the Konk character can smash people with a club, and once fully leveled up, can slam downwards on the ground to knock back players in the area.
These abilities create more dynamic gameplay and allow for skill expression in an otherwise hyper-casual game. Characters are leveled up by finding copies of them in chests, which can be unlocked multiple times per session. Fall Guys’ power-ups are less expansive than Pudgy Party’s offerings, limited to certain game modes, and aren’t specific to each character.
On top of this, the Pudgy Party characters themselves lean into the meme-fueled roots of the NFT collection. Aside from the characters being Pudgy Penguins wearing outfits, they’ve also implemented meme icons like John Pork and Italian brainrot memes like Tung Tung Sahur.
This feels like Mythical Games understanding the game’s audience and leaning heavily into it. And I’ve got to admit, there’s nothing better than winning while wearing a John Pork costume.
Players can optionally choose to create or link their Mythical account via the settings page, which allows for some skins to be traded on the Mythical marketplace.
It’s worth noting that not all characters can be turned into legendary NFT characters. When viewing a character in the “collection” tab, those that can be turned into NFTs will show an additional button on the right-hand side with what item needs to be added for it to transform.
For example, once John Pork hits level three, it can be combined with a “Tim Talisman” item to create a legendary Tim NFT character — clearly inspired by the Italian brainrot Tim Cheese meme. Tim Talisman is purchasable from the marketplace for a couple dollars, or can be earned through the game’s battle pass priced at $2.99.
Engaging with this side of the game is extremely optional, as through the several hours of playing, I never felt that I lost due to another person having a better character than myself. Having said that, as the game ages, the player base gets better at the game, and new characters are added, this balance may shift.
Pudgy Party does have its flaws, although they are admittedly small.
In typical mobile gaming fashion, there are a million things to click and unlock between every game. On one hand, this is great as it means that I’m advancing without needing to pay anything. But on the other hand, it’s annoying and stops me from jumping into the next game.
That issue was only intensified by the short length of each game. Again, this could be seen as a benefit for the casual gamer, but at times, I felt it was a tad too short for me to feel competitive against my opponents.
Fall Guys’ level design is top-notch and a major factor in its massive success. Mythical’s level design is a few steps below this extremely high bar, resulting in the game feeling a little bland at times. Pudgy Party’s library of levels is also quite small, and expectedly so for a game that is less than a month old.
That said, Pudgy Party’s level design isn’t bad — it just isn’t very creative when adapting level types already seen in Fall Guys. Well, apart from Cracktop Isle, which requires players to catapult from lava island to lava island — more of that, please.
Pudgy Party is undoubtedly a standout among crypto games. Like many blockchain titles, it takes an already established formula and attempts to improve on it — and in this case, Pudgy Party actually sticks the landing.
As a fan of Fall Guys, the Pudgy Penguins spinoff feels like a natural way for the casual battle royale genre to transition to mobile while adding a new gameplay element to keep it feeling fresh. If it gets regular and thoughtful updates, then we see no reason why Pudgy Party couldn’t establish itself as a big player in the casual mobile gaming scene.
