Super Animal Royale Is a Worthy New Entry in the Genre

Combining “battle royale” and “free to play” has the potential to result in a greedy combination filled with venomous microtransactions, but Super Animal Royale manages to avoid such pitfalls and offer a heck of a great time while doing it.

Courtesy of Pixile Studios

If you’ve ever played a battle royale, you should be familiar with how it works: players are airdropped into a map (not via an airplane in this case, but via a giant eagle) filled with guns, armor, and other loot, while a ring of gas (skunk gas, in this case) closes in at specific intervals, pushing players closer together and into confrontation. Super Animal Royale features foxes, bears, cats, dogs, birds, and more duking it out to see which animal reigns supreme, all in cartoony graphics reminiscent of something you might have played on Newgrounds in the early 2000s. The game is two-dimensional and has true line of sight, so if you’re on one side of a shipping container, your vision of the other side will be obscured, though you may be able to hear footsteps—this can make for some complex flanks and ambushes.

Matches in Super Animal Royale are quick—with 64-player matches, a winner is crowned in about six to seven minutes, feeding into that “just one more” mindset. Time to kill is in a sweet spot; it’s quick, but long enough to maneuver and reposition. The weapons, including the various pistols, shotguns, and rifles, are all more or less viable to use, though some rare weapon drops, like the minigun, melt anyone in their path, and it’s the wielder’s match to lose. Matches can be played solo or in squads of up to four players.

Courtesy of Pixile Studios

Characters can sport a wide variety of silly costume pieces so no two players will ever look the same. And how do you get those costumes? Let’s discuss microtransactions, that dirty word. Super Animal Royale is free to play, which means it has to make money somehow. The game sells premium currency, SAW tickets, in packs of 1,000 for $10, up to 5,000 for $40. A themed costume bundle (with torso piece, hat, and melee weapon), for reference, costs 700 to 900 tickets, a weapon skin can cost up to 600 tickets, and a hat 500 tickets.

Also available is a season pass for 550 tickets, as well as a “Super Edition” and “Starter Pack” for $15 and $5 respectively, which gives bonus tickets and cosmetics.

Additionally, there is a free currency, Carl Coins, which you receive a small amount of after each match based on your performance. These can be spent on items in a Carl Coin–specific shop that sells a variety of costume pieces, though you’ll definitely have to grind and save up for the good stuff.

Courtesy of Pixile Studios

Taken as a whole, I don’t find Super Animal Royale’s microtransactions to be egregious or scummy. There are no damage boosts or paywalled weapons to be purchased with real-world money, only cosmetics. There are cosmetics to unlock for free via challenges, so you do get something for your troubles. I don’t want to get too preachy about spending your money on microtransactions, just . . . be smart, people.

Super Animal Royale has short matches, simple mechanics, and a fun style all its own. I don’t think it will topple the likes of Fortnite anytime soon, but being free to play and occupying only about one gigabyte on a hard drive, it’s a great choice for a casual pick up and play, be it for a gaming night with friends or for a few matches here and there. Simply put, it’s a blast to play.

Super Animal Royale is available on PC, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Stadia, and Xbox One and Series X/S.