In the last two years, the world of video games has been characterized by a very special type of game. We refer to the Battle Royale , since it is an extremely addictive modality that, in addition to allowing fast games, ensures a lot of fun for all types of users.
What is a battle royale?
The so-called royal battles are a type of game in which a large number of players play individually or in groups and compete with each other until only one of them is left standing. In most games, action and shooters, players start with very little equipment, and must look for resources on the map to improve their qualities and be able to survive against the enemies that we encounter along the way.
The birth of this type of game goes beyond a simple idea, and it is that it required certain hardware to make them come true. Thanks to the current consoles, gigantic maps could be created that allowed a large number of players to be distributed, thus allowing random games to be achieved at all times, something that makes it even more fun, since no game is repeated.
The origin of the battle royale
Playing a multiplayer game in which the winner is the last one standing is not a particularly new concept. We can go back to the mythical Bomberman to find a modality in which players could find power-ups that allowed them to place more powerful bombs to finish off their rivals. The concept was there, but it was not going to be absolutely compared to what we were going to achieve years later.
The seed is placed by the Japanese movie Battle Royale , an adaptation of the novel of the same name in which a life or death tournament is established in which players are forced to kill each other until only one is left standing, at the same time as the enclosure was getting smaller and smaller. The idea was so popular that it inspired some Japanese manga and anime, until The Hunger Games came to the big screen, which is possibly the greatest exponent of the genre in cinema.
Inspired by The Hunger Games
Such was the success of the film, that some developers were encouraged to create special servers in Minecraft based on the rules of the film’s tournament. Thus was born the Hunger Games server (later renamed Survival Games), where players were placed in the center of the map with two options to choose from: either grab resources from nearby chests, or flee to remote areas and look for other chests scattered around the map. Battle Royale was born, but it still had a lot to evolve.
The idea worked, but it wasn’t perfect. Taking advantage of the potential, mods for ARMA 2 began to appear, such as the famous DayZ, a survival mode in which players had to collaborate to stay alive in the face of zombies and other dangers that were in their path, but which they largely avoided part the PvP showdown. For this reason, Brendan Greene, known in the networks as PlayerUnknown, developed in 2013 a completely new mod for ARMA 2 and DayZ, and this one did lay the foundations of what we know today as battle royale, with random positions and weapons distributed by the whole map. In fact, the mod was called just like that. But … have you noticed the name of its creator?
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is born
The mod was a success, but the folks at DayZ preferred to continue releasing a game independently, so Greene advised on the creation of H1Z1: King of the Kill . But his ambition went further, so from there he became a creative developer of Bluehole, something that once he matured, ended up becoming what we know today as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds .
This game began by being announced in beta, but such was the demand that it managed to raise a spectacular amount of money in reservations and early access to the game, simply to be able to play alpha.
And Fortnite arrived
And of course, the Battle Royale genre was attracting so much attention that many developers saw a tremendous opportunity to launch into stardom, and there, Epic Games was very ready, and revolutionized the industry with a game that mixed shooter and platforms in a battle royale mode. extremely addictive. A king named Fortnite was born, and he was second to none.
The best battle royale
The rest you can imagine. The battle royale format has crossed borders, and today they can be played on both consoles and mobile phones, so the user community is huge. Large franchises such as Call of Duty joined the trend, and today they have one of the most followed battle royales in the Warzone market .
In addition, the companies have been able to give the genre another twist, and with the introduction of the seasons and a narrative that evolves over the months, the community remains completely hooked on the game, no matter how many months they take. Playing.
Today we can find a large number of Battle Royale type games, so we are going to leave you with a list of the best known and most popular:
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds : As you have seen, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the pioneer of the battle royale we know today, and its name is a tribute to its own creator. We are facing a first-person shooter of a warlike type, in which we will have real caliber weapons and various types of vehicles.
- Fortnite: The Revolutionary. It changed the industry standards with an extremely original format, where building platforms became a handicap when it came to winning the game. Its seasons, live events and gigantic community make it one of the most played games in the world.
- Call of Duty: Warzone : The battle royale version of Call of Duty. Lots of action, very balanced weapons and a first person control in the purest style of the classic multiplayer. Vehicles, helicopters, and various game modes make it especially addictive, both on console and PC.
- Apex Legends : It came as a surprise, and it quickly hooked audiences for its new game mechanics. Highly addictive 3 vs 3 games in which your characters take center stage thanks to special abilities that can give you advantages against the enemy.
- Spellbreak: What if we mixed Zelda Breath of the Wild with a battle royale? Well, the result would be Spellbreak, a spectacular game in which we will attack with magic tricks that we will obtain as we find potions and special objects with which to increase our abilities.
- Fall Guys : It’s the 2020 revolution. Released for PS4 and PC, this battle royale came as a peaceful proposal in which players simply had to pass tests of all kinds until only one of the players remained. But make no mistake, in Fall Guys you will find worse intentions than in any other game.
- Realm Royale : This is a spin-off of the successful shooter Paladins, and proposes an aesthetic very similar to Fortnite, where the protagonists will have unique abilities with which to differentiate themselves in the game.
- Tetris 99 : Possibly the most original battle royale to date, and that is a game of Tetris between 99 people, where the most advanced will send trap pieces to other players to get rid of enemies. Very original and addictive, and only available for Nintendo Switch.