Watching Squid Game left me shaken, so spotting Squid Game: Unleashed’s unveiling earlier this month caught me off guard. Boss Fight and Netflix Games have rolled out a new video game that spins the show’s intense competitions into chaotic multiplayer fun. Yes, the bloodshed is still there, but it’s more cartoonish now. Unlike the characters in Squid Game, players don’t face permanent elimination. Instead, they get to retry until they master these virtual, and considerably safer, versions of the deadly challenges we’ve come to know from the show.
It seems like everyone is jumping on the Squid Game bandwagon. There’s Squid Game: Unleashed, a Call of Duty crossover, and even a real-life version by YouTuber Mr. Beast. Yet, all these attempts at game-ifying Squid Game don’t quite capture what the show was originally about. This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. Take Battle Royale (1999), a novel that provided biting social commentary alongside its gruesome storyline, leading to a gaming trend with names like PUBG and Fortnite. While the novel deals with a fascist regime forcing children into a performative deathmatch, that somber message has mostly been diluted in these games, which are more about fun and feature things like Snoop Dogg cameos.
Given this mindset in the gaming world, I suppose Squid Game: Unleashed shouldn’t take me by surprise. Additionally, the game’s developer, Bill Jackson, pointed out in a chat we had that this kind of adaptation aligns with what players are asking for. Rather than a narrative-driven adventure preserving the show’s intense story and critique of society, gamers wanted to dive headfirst into the survival games themselves.
In Jackson’s words: “We reached out to our audience to see what they’d want from Netflix’s game endeavors. Squid Game came out on top, by a landslide. When we asked what they hoped to do in it, the answer was clear: they wanted to become contestants and play the games, regardless of the risk of virtual failure. It was never about crafting a deep narrative—it was about the thrill of competition.”
Squid Game: Unleashed stands apart from its source material simply by being what it is—a game. As Jackson explained, the stakes might be high, but losing isn’t the end. It’s a video game after all, where players can retry their run until they find success.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked Jackson how stories like Battle Royale have shaped video games. He pointed out that these narratives are becoming more prevalent across different media, citing movies like Death Race and Enter the Dragon. This competition framework, he mused, is deeply ingrained in the gaming ethos, resonating with audiences everywhere.
It might sound strange, but players seem to love it. It isn’t some directive from Netflix’s top brass to strip Squid Game of its message and turn it into a more palatable game. It’s driven by players—everyday people—eager to test their mettle within these fabricated challenges, chasing after their own boast-worthy achievements in a space without real-world consequences.
This isn’t to say people are missing the point of Squid Game or that they’re altogether shallow. As Jackson hinted, maybe it’s something innate stirring within us. These kinds of adaptations keep popping up because, fundamentally, that’s what we’ve been asking for.
