5 Battle Royale Game Ideas That Could Dethrone Fortnite
By Jason Fanelli ·
Fortnite and PUBG are the leaders in the battle royale clubhouse, but with a few ideas like the ones proposed here those two could be knocked out of top spot.
The battle royale genre currently revolves around two main titles: Fortnite and PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds. There are other royales to battle of course, such as H1Z1 being the first to start an esports league for example, but these two titans are at the top of the heap. What would it take for a new contender to shock the world and take the Victory Royale? We take a look at five ideas that, if done right, could ascend to the BR throne.
Battlefront Royale
Star Wars Battlefront II has been embroiled in controversy since its launch, the title inciting the rage of the internet with its seemingly predatory microtransaction and loot box systems. The game has made good on those mistakes for the most part, but what’s one sure fire way to get the people back to the Battlefront? Simple: make that battle a little more royale
Here’s the pitch: start with 100 players dropping into a map, all randomly assigned a grunt from Star Wars: Stormtroopers, Clonetroopers, rebels, droids, etc. As the field whittles down to 50 pods open up across the map, letting the remaining players become rocket troopers or other powerful archetypes. Finally, when the field is reduced to 25, another set of pods drop at each remaining player, giving them access to the Star Wars hero or villain of their choice. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Kylo Ren, Leia Organa, Rey, Finn, the possibilities are endless. More than a simple “survive until the end,” this gives even more incentive to stay alive, as that power boost could be the edge needed to win.
Battle Royalers, Assemble!
Similar to Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at the height of its popularity with Avengers: Infinity War now in theaters. A Marvel-themed battle royale game could capitalize on two intensely popular areas, creating a singulatiry of awesome that would be hard to contain.
The format in our idea is very similar to the Star Wars game above: 100 players start as random AIM, Kree, Shield, or Hydra operatives. At 50 players left everyone receives the power of a random Infinity Stone, be it increased damage with Power or teleportation with Space. AT 25 left the heroes and villains of Marvel assemble, each player selecting their preferred character before the match. Watching the Avengers battle in a last man standing format would be pretty cool, so why not give this a shot?
Capture The Flag Royale
This next one’s not specific to a franchise, but here’s a novel concept: 100 players a join match where the objective isn’t just to outlast everyone else, but to compete in some other shared objective. Being killed would incur some sort of penalty, but not removal from the entire match, and the winner is the person who scores the most points.
How about this: the Fortnite map is inundated with flags, and 100 players try to capture as many as they can in a certain time limit. Being killed means you lose half of your collected flags and incur a 1% respawn time (10 minute limit = 6 seconds, 20 minute limit = 12 seconds, etc). Whoever captures the most flags at the end of the match claims the Victory Royale. It doesn’t have to replace the current format, this can easily be made into a side options, but Capture the Flag Royale would allow all 100 players to remain in one match for the entire time limit instead of being one of the poor saps who gets killed after 30 seconds. What’s not to like?
Kid Royale or Squid Royale?
Along the lines of alternate objectives, there’s one idea that’s been staring us in the face with paint-splattered eyes since the inception of the genre: Splatoon’s Turf War. If Nintendo decided to turn that into a battle royale style competition? It could make for some of the most entertaining matches to play and watch in battle royale history.
Think of it this way: 100 players, either solo or 25 teams of four, are dropped into a massive urban area with winding streets and high-rise buildings all around. As soon they land they need to find some sort of paint-based weapon and start spraying; the colorful madness that follows would be glorious. Imagine all of the different colors splattered across an area the site of Fortnite’s map, kids and squids alike running around painting the heck out of everything for 15 minutes at a time. It’d be a masterpiece of mayhem worthy of a museum.
Get Ready For The Next Battle (Royale)
Even including the ideas we’ve suggested above, every battle royale game we can think of has one thing in common: they’re all shooters! Where is the rule that states battle royale games can only be shooters? There are plenty of other genres out there that could sustain the battle royale format, including one that a lot of people wouldn’t typically consider: fighting games.
Take a 3D fighting game like Tekken or Soul Calibur, allow 100 players to pick their favorite characters, place all of them in random places in a map, and watch the fists and blades fly. We imagine the maps for a fighting royale game would have to be smaller, as vehicles wouldn’t have a place in a game like this, but that’s a small price to pay to see Heihachis, Kazuyas, Jins, and other famous fighters throwing hands on a grand scale. Heck, maybe the next great fighting game crossover game could use this format instead of the traditional fighter.
For our coverage on more Battle Royale games, check out the leaked skins for Season 4 of Fortnite.