My costume is half astronaut, half ballerina, but someone else dressed as a hot dog grabs my tail pinned to my butt and runs off. I chase after them, swearing, and make one last dive to retrieve my tail just as time is running out. I failed and swore again. That hot dog had cost me my throne.

"Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout" may be cute, silly, and easy to learn, but that doesn't mean it's a low-stakes game. Despite its party-game feel, it is still a battle royale. Most of the game is satisfied with goofing around, taking reckless chances, and stopping to celebrate with emotes before crossing the finish line. If they get rumbled or burst out of the competition, they can usually laugh it off. But as the end of the final round approached, I suddenly began to take things more seriously. I may be a bean in a frilly pink tutu, but I want to win.

Each round of "The Fall Guys" begins with 60 players running through an obstacle course. Only the first 30 or so who cross the finish line qualify for the next round. In the final round, only a handful to a dozen or so compete to be the sole winner.

There are several types of levels. Races are the most common and may involve running through various obstacle courses multiple times during the same match. The courses may have giant spinning fan blades that knock players backward (or sideways, or forward), slippery slime-coated ramps, spinning balance beams and disappearing floor tiles, walls that can be breached (or not breached and you fall on your butt There are also giant pieces of fruit that roll down the course and can knock players aside like bowling pins if they do not dart and dodge.

The Fall Guys rely a little too heavily on these foot races. It's a good way to cut the crowd in half at the start of a match, but after a few times I've learned to run the same route and hope for the best.

More exciting are the endurance levels, such as the block party. It's exciting to jump into the gap at the last minute and hilarious to be bottlenecked amongst the squirming, huffing and puffing competitors.

Other levels divide players into teams to reach the finish line, and these team fights are some of the best in Fall Guys: While most events in Fall Guys have you running alongside other players, in team mode you can confuse and grab other players. There is great advantage in trying to disrupt, grab, or impede progress.

In Egg Scramble, teams fight over a pile of eggs in the center of the map, grabbing as many as they can and placing them in their team's basket, trying to grab a few more from the other team's basket before time runs out. In another game, teams push a giant ball through an obstacle course to reach a goal. The downside is that in team games, if you don't have friends with you during the game, you have to rely on strangers with whom you can't communicate. Randomly selected teammates may not be able to get together and lose a good game.

However, randomness works for the Fall Guys. It's so silly and carefree that if I get eliminated because of a teammate's shabbiness, or if someone carelessly jumps into a spinning fan and hits the pit, I just laugh, shrug, and get in line for the next match. The only thing I care enough to swear about is the last game. That hot dog, damn it.

The "Fall Guys" are best played in small doses, and an hour a day is enough for a few rowdy matches before you start to get tired of the same old footrace. But that hour is usually a lot of fun mixed with the tension of the finals. It's a great feat for a game as charming and silly as this one, yet filled with genuinely dramatic moments, heartbreaking losses, and last-minute acrobatic feats.