Among Ushas already gone down in history as a truly unique internet craze. Just when everyone needed something to do from home the most,Among Usgot discovered on Twitch and took the streaming platform by storm. While the simple, approachable gameplay loop was fun and engaging on its own right, a huge part of theAmong Uscraze was the adorable design of the game’s playable Crewmates – simple little bean-shaped spacefarers.Among Uswasn’t the only game that came out that year starring adorable beans, though. In early 2020, Mediatonic and Devolver Digital came forward withFall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, a competitive platformer all about adorable beans.
Fall Guyswas an internet sensationin a similar way toAmong Usonce it picked up steam, and for very similar reasons. The gameplay is simple but engaging, and the characters are extremely cute and very customizable. The internet always goes through a few different video game sensations over the course of a year, but it’s uncommon that two of them share aesthetics as closely asAmong UsandFall Guysdo. Although both of these games aren’t quite at the height of their popularity anymore, they’ve left a mark on the game industry and on online game culture. If people still really enjoy the bean aesthetics of these two games, maybe more games of the same kind will follow in their wake.
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Among Us and Fall Guys' Mascots
Among UsandFall Guysreally make the “bean” aesthetic of their characters work for them. There’s a few reasons that there’s a lot to gain from the aesthetic. For one thing, the player characters in these games are cute, plain and simple. They’re small, brightly colored, and short on features – just enough to define their shape, like a simple cartoon character. They also have very squishy-looking bodies: they have no hard edges, and only gently sloping sides, which makes them look like bean-shaped stuffed animals. Simple designs with soft edges are a great recipe formakingAmong UsandFall Guyscharacters cute.
There’s more that the simple bean aesthetic of these two games achieves. It’s crucial in both games' reliance on cosmetics. When the base characters are so simple, it’s veryeasy for anAmong Uscrewmateto don some accessories for a unique look. The same is true forFall Guys, where the player characters have a bit of extra depth in customization, but are still simple in base appearance. Everybody wins this way. The developers can sell a lot of cosmetics to apply to the simple base characters, and the players get a virtually blank canvas that they can make whatever cute character they like.
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Fall Guys and Among Us' Long-Term Impact
Clearly there’s lots of good reasons that theFall GuysandAmong Uscharacters are so appealing. The question, then, is who jumps on the idea next.Among Ushas already had its imitators, but what’ll really show whether or not bean-shaped characters are here to stay is when unique games come out that still use bean-shaped mascots.Among UsandFall Guysmight have uncannily similar designs, but they’re very different games beyond that, belonging to totally different genres. With that in mind, the biggest question is what game genre can adapt the bean aesthetic the best after these two.
Frankly, the possibilities seem endless. Any indie developerfollowing in Innersloth and Mediatonic’s footstepscould come forward and produce another brightly-colored game stocked with charismatic little beans for fans to play as. After all, one more benefit of the bean aesthetic is that it’s a very simple design.Among UsandFall Guysdon’t need a huge player base to keep instilling this possibility on the game industry. Both games have already made such a name for themselves that they might have already inspired more developers. It’s just a matter of waiting a year or two to see if any obvious bean-filled successors start rolling out of development.
Among Usis available now on PC, Mobile, and Switch. PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions are in development.Fall Guysis available on PC and PS4, with Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch versions in development.
