After watching Squid Game and feeling quite disturbed by it, the announcement of Squid Game: Unleashed earlier this month definitely caught me off guard. This new game from Boss Fight, part of Netflix Games, transforms the show’s intense competitions into wild multiplayer adventures. Yes, there’s still some gore involved, but it’s presented in a more playful, cartoonish style. Unlike the grim fate of the show’s characters, in this virtual world, death isn’t permanent. You have the chance to keep going, polishing your skills in these less lethal versions of the original games.
It’s interesting to see how Squid Game has found its way into different gaming adaptations. We’ve got everything from Squid Game: Unleashed to its pending crossover with Call of Duty, and even Mr. Beast’s real-life take on the games. Yet, all these efforts fail to capture the show’s deeper message. This isn’t a new phenomenon though. Take Battle Royale, a 1999 novel laden with brutal themes and poignant social critique, which spun off into a gaming trend seen in titles like PUBG and Fortnite. The novel paints a harsh picture of a fascist regime dehumanizing its young through deadly, dramatized military drafts. Unfortunately, that original meaning got lost when games like Fortnite turned it into pure entertainment – fun, but stripped of its critical undertones, not to mention cameos like Snoop Dogg.
So, I guess it’s not all that shocking to see something like Squid Game: Unleashed. In a recent chat, the game’s director, Bill Jackson, mentioned that this type of adaptation was exactly what the players wanted. They weren’t looking for something like a Telltale Games style experience set in the world of Squid Game, which might have preserved the show’s intense storytelling and social critique. Nope, they wanted to dive right into those games themselves.
“We asked the players, the community, if we’re making games at Netflix, what do you want? The overwhelming response was Squid Game,” Jackson explained. “We asked, ‘So what do you want to do?’ And again, overwhelmingly, they said, ‘I want to play as a contestant, try to survive, even if it means I might fail and die. I’m okay with it being brutal.’ That was clear from the first conversations we had. So we set out to make that reality. It’s a big challenge, but we aimed to deliver just that. You step into the shoes of a contestant in a stylized version of the show.”
Squid Game: Unleashed inevitably stands apart from its source material simply by being a video game. As Jackson put it: “The crux is you’re a contestant facing brutal consequences if you lose. But then again, it’s a game. Fail, and you get to try again. That’s the core loop here.”
During our discussion, I couldn’t help but bring up Battle Royale and its influence on gaming narratives. Jackson noted how pervasive this type of story has become across various formats. “Think about films like Death Race or Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. They share similar setups. It’s a profound structure in video games. You’re put in a competitive scenario with the risk of being knocked out – it’s innate to gaming and, on a larger scale, to human nature too,” he shared.
It might seem unusual, but people flock to it. It’s not as if Netflix execs are stripping away Squid Game’s layers to churn out something easy to digest. Instead, it’s the players – everyday folks – who are drawn to the thrill of competing, even if it’s all in a digital playground where death has no real consequence but the bragging rights are undeniable.
That doesn’t mean everyone ignores the real essence of Squid Game’s narrative, or that they’re just shallow or misguided. I believe, as Jackson mentioned, this desire reflects something deeper about human nature. It’s a little unsettling, perhaps, but that’s exactly why we’re seeing these adaptations come to life in this manner. It’s what we wanted all along.
