Animal Royal

Your meat is sitting there, and the other side's animals have already spotted it. That's Animal Royal in one look: a player-versus-player showdown where you send your own creatures out to fight back, and to snack on the enemy's stash.

The idea is tidy. Protect your meat from being eaten by your opponent's animals, while sending yours off to eat as much meat as possible. Do that better than the other player and you win the battle. Easy to say, trickier to pull off.

The cast keeps you thinking. There's a wide variety of animals and birds, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, so the smart play is rarely the obvious one. You're here to outwit a real opponent, not just click fast. The graphics are colorful, too, which never hurts.

If you like Animal IO games but would rather plan than just chase, this one belongs in the Strategy games pile. It runs free in your desktop browser with no download.

Protect your meat from your opponent's animals while your own animals and birds go after as much of their meat as possible.

Everything runs on drag and drop with the mouse. Move the cursor over an item, press and hold the left button, drag the item to its new spot, then release to drop it there.

Tip: every animal and bird has its own strengths and weaknesses, so think about which one you send out and where. Don't just grab the first one you see.