Ahoy, ahoy! I see you found our treasure chest! Ah, I know what you’re feeling right now. You can’t resist taking a peek inside, can you? Okay, go ahead and open it. Open it!
What did you expect? Gold pieces? Diamonds? No, no, video games are much more interesting. As you can see, our chest is full of them. They’re all indie games that we like to play when there’s a lull. This one at the top, for example. I’m honestly surprised that Captain Yannik doesn’t have it with him right now, he can hardly keep his hands off of it lately.
Super Auto Pets
“Battle against other players at your own pace in a chill auto battler!” This is how the developers advertise the game. Of course, they directly mention the biggest advantage, namely that you can play against others, but don’t have to wait until they have made their move.
But let’s start from the beginning:
In the round-based game you’ll set up a team of cute animals and let them compete against another player’s team. Thus, it is, of course, an online game. The whole thing is actually relatively simple, because each round consists of only two phases.
In the shopping phase you can buy animals and food. After all, they have to come from somewhere. Each round you have 10 coins at your disposal and each animal or food item costs you 3 coins each. The store is limited and the items offered are random. But of course there is a solution for this. If the selection is not so exhilarating, you can simply spend a coin to roll the dice and get offered new items.
So far, so good! Next, you can set up to five animals for battle and buff them with food. The order of your fighters plays a crucial role, as each animal has its own special ability. For example, a turtle, when defeated, gives the fighter behind it a melon armor that deflects one-time damage. Mosquitoes damage a random enemy at the beginning of the fight, and beavers, when sold, give two comrades more lives! Since different animals appear in the store again and again, you can try out different team variants. It also makes a difference to whom you give which food. The possibilities are virtually endless. So it will definitely not get boring!
Are you ready? Then we will now begin the battle phase!
The animals from your team and the opposing team will attack simultaneously. The battle is played automatically and you just have to hope that your strategy works. As soon as the first animal of a team is defeated, it will be replaced by the next one; until all of them from one team are defeated at the end. If you are the one who lost, you can think of a new strategy in the following shopping phase. Don’t worry, you don’t start from scratch again, because you can send your animals back into battle even if they were beaten.
If you win, which will definitely be the case after the first few rounds of familiarization at the latest, you get a trophy. A trophy! Each of them is worth 10 points. With the points you can buy your animals fancy hats or a new background. In general, the game has a simple but charming graphic style that doesn’t distract too much from the action and still makes for a nice, colorful overall look.
So I’d love to have a separate hat for each animal. Maybe I’ll have to jump into the fray as well, what do you think?
But before that, back to the biggest advantage for impatient players like me:
After the battle, whether you won or lost, you’ll end up back in the store, where you can buy new items and rearrange your team. Of course, everyone needs different amounts of time for this. But you don’t have to wait for your opponent to finish, because you’ll be competing against a new player every round! As soon as you are ready for the fight, you will be assigned to a player who is also ready.
Okay, now that I’ve explained the basics, feel free to try it yourself! Unfortunately, I can’t give you our version, because otherwise I’ll get into trouble with Yannik, you’ll understand that. He has already collected over 50 hours of gameplay, because the game has an extremely high replay value due to the random store!
But don’t worry, “Super Auto Pets” is available for free on Steam, in the Google Play Store and in the browser. Give it a try and let me know when you win some trophies. I believe in you!
May you always have wind in your sails!
