Royal Battle is more than a fashion, thanks to these new games

The new constants on the Royal Battle Games can be exhausting.

The success of Battlefields of PlayerUnknown, which itself comes from the mods of the past and existing ideas, has spawned a series of competitors, including the public monster Fortnite. Many of the largest first-person shooting franchises have added a Royal Battle Mode or will be adding some soon. The royal battle must be a fad, right?

But two games appeared just as it seemed like the royal battle was an exploited genre, and they proved that the basic pillars of the royal battle games had legs. This genre is not a genre to disappear so soon and there is still plenty of room for adventurous developers to explore.

What are the pillars of a royal battle game?

The Royal Battle as a genre is defined less by games in which a group of people jump from an airplane or bus to find and shoot guns, but rather as a framework of rules of thumb. base uncompetitive.

So, a royal battle game, basically traits:

• Has a maximum number of players and the winner is the last player (or team) standing
• Everyone starts with nothing and builds an advantage via what the game provides
• You can choose your starting position and your strategies
• Luck is a factor with the tools the game gives you, but the skills will usually beat the odds

These pillars may be a bit more subtle, but they must be packed with a growing sense of stimulation. The longer you succeed, the more tense a game becomes. The storm or force field existing at the boundaries of the gaming zone is a means by which the developers control this pressure. As the storm moves inland, reducing the playable area on the map, the pace increases. Players are forced to meet and fight when they run to an increasingly small and safe area of ​​the map.

PUBG Corp.

Royal battle games also tend to be short and contained experiences. I do not have to win. In fact, I win very rarely! I am very bad at these games! But the stakes on each card tend to be very low.

And losing usually means that you have learned something about the game. This is important because of another interesting aspect of Royal Battle games: there is usually only one card per game and learning to move is an important part of winning. The card is as much a character as the players themselves, and knowing it well gives you a huge advantage.

The new generation of Battle Royale

After a hundred hours spent in PUBG and bounce FortniteAgile building, I thought I had finished with royal battle for good. I've touched games like Red Dead The gun online RushOf course, but I thought – like many other players – that I witnessed the end of a trend, like selling Pokémon cards in primary school.

Apex Legends and Tetris 99 have proven the opposite. Here's why.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is the most obvious example of a royal battle game that advances the genre. Respawn and EA have even avoided conversations about the fatigue of the Royal Battle with a surprise launch, after a weekend of infiltration test and poorly hidden streamer.

Apex Legends add character classes to the royal battle, building on previous attempts Royal Kingdom. I can be awful with a sniper rifle, but I can choose Wraith and set up empty tunnels to allow my team to enjoy mobility or start care as a lifeline. These heroes have useful kits and, more importantly, I can create emotional connections with them in a way that is impossible for me with PUBGThe guy with helmet and pan or FortniteJohn Wick-alike.

Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts via Polygon

The characters are great, but the true evolution of Apex Legends appears in the accessibility options and the wealth of information that the game constantly feeds players via the ping system.

I feel good even when I'm just exploring. Running, sliding and ziplines are all fantastic, transforming the mundane moments of discovering new buildings to loot or just fun with friends in their own highlights.

None of these things are very new in themselves; Respawn did not reinvent the wheel. But the team has introduced so many thoughtful little manipulations into the game systems that everything in its own right is obvious afterwards. It only took a few weeks, but Apex Legends has gone from a game that is obviously inspired by Fortnite to a game that lacks features when I go back to play Fortnite.

Even the epic games have noticed. Fortnite has added a new ping system, and now developers are discussing respawns. The large iterations – and sometimes even the smallest – of existing ideas are important, as is the execution. And Apex Legends excels at the same time.

Tetris 99

Tetris 99 is the other game that shows what kind of royal battle can do. "Tetris battle royale" looks like satire, but I have not been able to put my Switch since I downloaded it.

Competitive Tetris is not a totally new concept, but Tetris 99 puts you against 98 opponents and slowly increases the pressure. As other players drop out, you are more likely to suffer from the blockages of waste generated by players doing better.

This mimics the mechanism of the royal battle that forces you to clash with the survivors until only one person remains. You can withdraw quickly because of bad luck, or find yourself stuck in a battle of wills and frantically turn against another person for the final victory. There is a bit of luck, but it's mostly a skill. And it works. Tetris The royal battle, strange as it may sound on paper, was a good idea.

Tetris 99 captures as much of the same feelings as a tense match of PUBG or a frantic fight in and around a building in the final zone of Apex Legends, even if the games are all radically different.

I can not wait to see what other series are able to do with the basic rules that make royal battle games what they are. The genre has before him a long and interesting future that can no longer be described as "fashion".