Super Animal Royale’s ‘Howloween’ event will drive you clucking mad

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. You and a slew of other players hang out in a lobby while you screw around, dance, hit each other, and wait for a timer to run down. When the timer runs out you find yourself in a slow-moving flying object that’s moving over an island that contains a random arrangement of several landmarks. When you fly over the spot of the island that looks good to you, you drop out of the plane, hovering down while paying attention to where everyone else seems to be. Then, you find weapons and shoot players until only one player is remaining.

Now, take that, add a cartoon aesthetic and make all the characters cute animals and you got yourself Super Animal Royale. It’s a game that absolutely knows that it’s taking from Fortnite (down to the font in the title) without that obnoxious building mechanic.

Yup, this is Super Animal Royale, a game that, normally, I am absolutely terrible at. Like, I got to level 11 and I die so freaking fast it’s amazing. I suck at this.

Luckily, Hal…sorry…Howloween has my back. During this time, not only can you take a side trip to try to find candy corn all over the landscape that can be traded in for a plethora of things like costumes and weapon skins, but they also have the Bwoking Dead mode and…I kinda love it.

I’ve been playing it on the Nintendo Switch (where it’s free) but it’s also available on pretty much available on anything with a controller or keyboard. So get in there, create your animal (like my Doctor Who themed deer) and let’s get into it.

When a round of Bwoking Dead starts, you’re squadded up with four other players. You wake up on a random part of the island, just like all the other teams scattered about. In each squad, one person becomes “infected”. After a couple of seconds they turn and…becomes a chicken. I mean, it’s a creepy undead chicken often with an exposed rib cage, but still.

If you don’t turn it’s your job to find the other survivors and last long enough for an extraction point to show up. If you’re standing in it when the timer is done, you win!

If you get turned, either by becoming one at the start of the game or getting unalived by one of the bwoking dead (get it?) you turn as well and become an undead chicken thing with unlimited respawns.

From there it’s your job to find the survivors and take them out. Them with their guns. You with…your wings. You’re obviously very outgunned but over the course of the game, you grow in numbers and gain the upper hand. In fact, honestly, I’ve never seen the survivors win. Either that’s a really hard thing to pull off or I am an exceptional chicken man. I know this isn’t true though because this is what every round I’m in looks like. Nothing left of me but nuggets.

I love this mode because, normally, in this game, if you die you get a trip to the special hell that’s a loading screen, a menu, a loading screen, a lobby, and then the game. I hate waiting. With the Bwoking Dead even if I’m taken out early, I still get to play. And it’s actually a lot more fun being part of a relentless feather storm of undead chickens.

Anywho, it’s out now and I suggest playing it because even if you’re not great at battle royale games, this is really easy to play and a ton of fun.