It seems like everyone and their mother is trying to break into the battle royale space these days. Fortnite remains the undisputed king, depending on how you judge the scene, but if anyone can step to Epic Games, it’d probably have to be a megacorp as big and omnipresent as Google.
At long last, Google (who has had a checkered history with gaming) has put out its own take on the battle royale genre—starring anthropomorphized popcorn kernels fighting for survival in a hot pan. Huh?
It’s not exactly a perfect adherent to the PuBG formula, but at least it’s fresh. The game is part of the Google Doodle series, Google’s long-running tradition of swapping out its logo with seasonal variants or even interactive experiences like this one. The battle royale game—which officially remains nameless, making this a fairly tough article to write—is completely free to play, and can be accessed simply by clicking the logo on the Google homepage. Seriously, go try it!
It’s a cute little game with its hand-drawn graphics and mobile phone-sized screen output, but it still manages to be a fun twist on the battle royale formula. The game is played with only five buttons, your arrow keys and space bar, and features only indirect player-to-player combat. Instead, it’s more of a bullet hell, with 60 players tasked to avoid salt, hot butter, and several of the other essential steps in making some delicious popcorn. At least you don’t have to keep up with battle passes or changing seasons.
To make things even more nuanced, there are three different “classes” you can choose, from, each giving you a special ability to help you survive. Depending on the color of kernel you choose, you’ll be able to either eat hazards to regain health, put up a reflective shield, or catch and throw hazards at other players. If you’re thinking that the healing one sounds better than the others with absolutely no contest, you’re right, but the class diversity lends what would probably otherwise be a one-and-done game some nice replay value.
The game will only be around for as long as Google wants to dedicate its homepage to “celebrating popcorn,” so go give it a try before it, too, vanishes like the ephemeral kernels.
