There were a few times in my life where I tried messing around with creating levels in Unity 3D and in a bit of GameMaker Studio, including watching tutorials on YouTube on how to make games in such engines. The moment I first saw the trailer for Fun with Ragdolls Plus, it took me back. Personally, I was never able to create any particularly impressive levels in Unity 3D, but the flashbacks still remain. Apparently, Fun with Ragdolls Plus already had a predecessor on PC and mobile back in 2019, which is a curious thought since I previously never heard of said predecessor, nor of the dev studio Fun & Simple. But hey, there’s always a first for everything, right? This is as good of an opportunity as any to dive further into a type/genre of game that I usually don’t play so much of.
Story with Ragdolls
Fun with Ragdolls Plus isn’t necessarily a level maker game like Super Mario Maker, nor including a level editor like insert Halo game here, though this Ragdoll game does have a sandbox mode (more on this later). Though I never played the game’s 2019 predecessor, I could already tell that Fun with Ragdolls Plus’s big draw over its predecessor is a dedicated story mode. But honestly, it isn’t your usual deeper, narrative-driven AAA game story campaign. The premise is a rather basic one.
Fun with Ragdolls Plus showcases a world where an arena’s worth of sentient, blocky ragdolls compete in numerous obstacle courses. Among all the ragdolls, the story centers around the yellow & red ragdoll duo Danny & Rickie. The former may be considered the one that’s optimistic yet caring for his buddy, while the latter is more tense and always striving to rise above his fellow competitors to get his name to the top of a giant scoreboard. Rickie evidently and gradually grows more resentful of all the obstacle courses and of his fellow competitors such as Danny himself, especially when it comes to failing to surpass his green rival Dilly. In some ways, the premise is somewhat similar to The Hunger Games (minus the “last tribute standing” aspect), and maybe, dare I say it, similar to Squid Games.
Now don’t you worry, there is indeed a secret driving force behind all the seemingly never-ending obstacle courses. Though the player is first to know what (or who) is the mastermind behind everything, Danny and his buddies would slowly discover that countless winners of these challenges get carried off to destinations unknown and never seen again.
Basic But (Mostly) Quick Levels… Plus
As far as gameplay and level structure goes, the levels are basic and usually set around a brief main objective. This can be seen in levels such as the Level 2 (excluding the tutorial) where Danny fights the ragdolls who call themselves the “Pals of Dilly”, Level 3 where Danny and Rickie need to outrun a laser barrier (sort of in Indiana Jones-style), and Level 5 where all the Ragdolls need to cross to the other side of a course while dodging lanes upon lanes of cars.
On one hand, Fun with Ragdolls Plus features basic platforming gameplay, from moving/wobbling platforms, checkpoints marked by flags, and even some fans for gliding and certain platforms to bounce on… and once in a while, spikes to dodge. And as demonstrated in the fight against the Pals of Dilly, combat… but limited to button-mashing punches and kicks with no combos. On the other hand, there is some gameplay variety, as seen in Level 3 where for once, it’s actually a hub level divided into color-coded sections with dedicated mini-challenges. Other than interacting with select NPC ragdolls, the inclusion of the hub level is bare bones at best. At one point, there’s at least one timed obstacle course with a goal time, but that whole mini challenge is vague to me. It would certainly be an improvement if, perhaps, the game’s story mode centered around the hub level and where all the other levels are accessed.
Furthermore, Gears serve as the run-of-the-mill collectathon item. Though unless I missed something, these gears don’t have any particular purpose like unlocking any items, such as for the Sandbox mode. Not that a *Fun and Simple* game like this has to have items unlocked through in-game currency or upgradable character/item stats like some kind of RPG, but it would’ve been nice to have a purpose for collecting gears. They’re just there to be there, otherwise. Oh yeah, and there is a dedicated ragdoll button: the Y button on the controller. It has been fun to see Danny flop across the place before respawning… and seeing hearing him react to the ragdolling. Though not personally a detriment to the game, there were times every now and then where I accidentally hit the Y button, unintentionally causing Danny to ragdoll through the air.
The player also encounters certain ledges to jump to and climb. This triggered the Uncharted fan in me, but disappointingly, these ledges can’t be scaled. You just have to jump on and off these ledges. While this aspect of the gameplay could be to add some more difficulty and contribute to some of the gameplay variety, they also tend to be a bit on the slightly frustrating side. There’s one of the longer levels in the game which involves a combination of puzzle solving (which is used sparingly) and finding buttons/switches to press in before unlocking the following area(s).
In sections like this, some of the ledges are located around the corner from others, making it trickier to jump to them and often had me falling back down to the floor. In fact, it’s a general thing with these unscalable ledges that, more often than not, made me feel like it’s so easy to miss these ledges and think “How do I know that I will grab the ledges instead of accidentally jumping past them?”
Brother vs Brother
Tensions progressively come to a head as Rickie grows more determined to be a winner in these challenges. At one point, he does accuse Danny of betraying him and buddying up with another competitor, despite the reality of Danny actually saving him from being killed by a cannon ball. One of the later levels features a dedicated boss level against Rickie. So much for getting through the obstacle courses and looking out for one another.
On paper, it’s a straightforward fight, luring him into oncoming cars and landing a few hits before repeating the cycle a few more times. In practice however, it’s trickier to time the path of the cars to hit Rickie. In my opinion, it takes more time than it should to direct the cars.
Also, should anyone be asking why cars are suddenly circling around the fight as if Rickie had mind control over them? Am I reading to deep into this battle? Maybe it doesn’t matter anyways, since the next cutscene after the fight starts with Rickie knocking Danny out and disappearing, being the winner after all. Perhaps this is an intentional “slap” to the face. But this is not over between Danny and Rickie…
The MAR-vel Behind The Madness
As previously mentioned, there’s more to all the ragdolls competing in seemingly endless obstacle courses than meets the eye (no Cybertronians to be found here). There’s a mysterious creator operating the challenges and handling all the winners. It’s a giant, black mechanical being named “MAR” who, from his point of view, tests all the ragdolls in order to push them beyond their limits… then makes them “immortal” by converting them into soulless Battle Bots. It’s a familiar man vs machine, intelligence/free will vs programming theme or trope. But how does this plot get uncovered? Why, by a convenient malfunction that occurred right after Level 6 after a rogue cannon positioned near the end stage fires a rogue shot that breaks a wall.
Soon afterwards is where Danny gets surprised by the Battle Bots and has to fight waves and waves of them. Again, this is where the bare melee combat comes into play, but also where it starts feeling repetitive. I’ll admit that it’s reasonable to expect the Battle Bots to take multiple hits before being defeated, but the repetitive part is having to dodge one or more of the bots before their single charged punches wipe out like, 95% of your health. Land a few hits, then dodge. Rinse and repeat, though granted, your health does slowly regenerate… but at times, it looked like your health regenerates after defeating enemy after enemy (including with the other ragdolls earlier in the story).
On a positive note, MAR and the Battle Bots almost look like something out of Minecraft though. MAR’s voice does sound scary, but I find his overall character and goal… shallow, to say the least. Yes, I was not expecting a more complex/nuanced villain like Megatron, Darth Vader, etc. but despite the game in multiple ways living up to the dev’s name, MAR as a simple villain also makes him to be somewhat generic. I know, it’s a conflicting feeling to try to explain. After Danny eventually uncovers MAR and his factory, the obligatory final boss fight ensues.
The boss battle has the simple setup of having to free all the imprisoned winner ragdolls (and surprise, Rickie among them) by destroying a set of power generators that randomly shut on and off, while dodging MAR’s powered lunges and laser vision (which he switches between with little indication). Afterwards, another all out battle breaks out between the ragdolls and the Battle Bots. And only after recognizing a particular ragdoll after he makes a sacrifice does MAR have a sudden change of heart. Despite allowing all the ragdolls to escape his crumbling factory, he really doesn’t have a solid hint of who or what he could potentially have been before… just a convenient event to trigger his change of perspective and make his own ultimate sacrifice. And even worse, all (but two) of the ragdolls cheer… then the story abruptly ends. Anticlimactic much? But at least Rick and Danny made up.
Holding Out For Redeeming Qualities
Getting past the story, gameplay, and villain comes the music and the graphics. I can’t really comment much on the music since there’s no particularly memorable level theme. There’s either no music at all, or there’s some light ambient sounds to fill the void. It’s hard to describe, but the music in at least one of the cutscenes showing ragdolls running the obstacle courses has some tune that at least comes close to giving the game a defining music theme. The main menu may also have some themes to contribute to this as well… but again, I can’t think of any standouts. But hey, the boss fights also attempt to add some atmosphere by including some choir vocals. But once again, no music theme that’s particularly memorable in my mind.
The levels and objects are… minimal. I might be wrong, but the textures and objects all look like they were made with stock assets. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as it does contribute to my memories of exploring level creations in Unity 3D and seeing various fan-made games. The lighting in the game does help make the environments generally look sharp and stunning.
In fact, there are certain pillars that are present in some enemy encounters, and it it’s genuinely satisfying to be able to punch enemies through the pillars and see the objects crumble into rubble. And if that’s not enough, in case that it seemed like there’d only be repetitive melee combat, one of the last levels in the story does drop something new… a gun. Sometimes there’s enemies that do shoot you, so it’s a welcome addition to find a firearm and use it as a weapon. The only downside to finally having a sidearm in the game is that it’s the only time in the game’s story that you can shoot enemies, though the Battle Bots do take multiple shots to take down.
For a quick final note, I do commend the game’s story for adding at least one comedic moment to liven the tone a bit. Namely, the goofy ragdoll “The Special” in one level is confidently about to fulfil his personal moment, to show the others how to go through this new challenge in style… only to fail off screen. *Whispers* Don’t fret, The Special will return…
Create Your Fun
Finally, we get to the Sandbox mode. While I personally don’t have too much experience with level creators/editors despite playing some similar games in the past (old flash games on sites like Hasbro and Cartoon Network), the sandbox mode does have enough objects and enemies for players to work with. At the same time however, I wish there’d be a little more to use. Needless to say, because I don’t play a ton of games like Super Mario Maker on the regular, I’m not very good at creating my own levels from scratch… but I do see the potential on what more experienced level creator players can make.
You have your platforms, weapons, gears, and numerous objects from the game’s story to mess around with. There’s even NPC spawners so you can spawn dumb or smart ragdolls, enemy ragdolls with guns and bombs, friendly NPCs, and so on. Music will play every now and then. On a minor note, despite cars being featured in the game and a button to honk the horn, it’s disappointing that there’s no actual honking sound for the cars. Oh and not to forget, you also have an option to customize your own ragdoll. Maybe this could be where the collectable gears could’ve been used towards. Then again, if players decide to go into the Sandbox first, then my suggestion would not make sense.
Additionally but not necessarily only related to the sandbox mode, I’m surprised with how relatively quick the devs have released updates since launch. It isn’t like the game is functionally broken and needs all the updates for this reason. The game updates also hold improvements to the sandbox editor, such as new items. Hopefully even more updates will come to further expand the sandbox editor.
Simple But Generic. However…
So, the story and gameplay overall is simple and… for the upteenth time, basic, and once again, tends to be repetitive at select times. But that’s not to say that the game is completely forgettable. There’s still fun times to be had in such a simple game, and the game isn’t mind-numbingly boring. Despite some slightly frustrating times, Fun with Ragdolls Plus has enough positively intense action to make your experience worthwhile.
Perhaps the shortcomings of the game have to do with me not playing Fun & Simple’s first Ragdolls game, and I’ll be open to that possibility. If anything, Fun with Ragdolls Plus is a decent stepping stone for the devs to further their skills and build even better ragdoll-centric games, even with limited resources. I recognize the need for the dev’s games to be simple and not needlessly overcomplicated, and it is possible to have fun, quality games at smaller scales. Add a little more depth and possibly an extra layer to the gameplay and story and Fun with Ragdolls Plus, and any sequels, could become even greater.
