Mario Party, not battle royale games, embodies the heart of Squid Game

If you have been paying any attention to what’s on TV in the past month or two, you’ve probably heard of Netflix’s runaway success, Squid GameYou can watch it here. Whether you’ve seen the show itself, memes inspired by it, or the Roblox versions of it — the Korean thriller quickly took over our screens to become one of the most popular shows of the year.

The series follows Seong Gi-Hun, a gambler who’s down on his luck and decides to compete in a series of life or death children’s games where the last person standing gets a big fat bag of cash. Fans have lauded the slasher’s anti-capitalist message and its bold, thrilling visuals. For fans of battle Royale Games, however, this show concept isn’t new. Since PlayerUnknown’s BattlegroundsPopularized, almost every major game company entered the fray offering its take on the format. FortniteThe highest of them all.

It’s only natural then that writers would compare a battle royale show to video games. However, I’m here today to defend a different thesis. The real squid game isn’t Apex Legends, Fortniteor in any battle royale games. True game captures heart and soul Squid GameIt is Super Mario Party — or any other Mario Party game, for that matter.

[Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the ending of the television show Squid Game.]

The surface is beautiful Super Mario Party doesn’t have anything in common with the bloody, gritty competition in Squid GameThis is a. If you dig deeper, however, they both use playful and childlike aesthetics in order to conceal a more sinister reality. The In Squid Game, the contestants play through a series of deadly versions of children’s games like red light green light or tug-of-war. The red light green lights are where those moving in the red zone will get shot. Tightening the ropes is where the loser team gets pulled to the edge of the high ledge.

Super Mario PartyWhen you really think about it, this is actually quite a dark game. Some TikTokers pointed out that the Mario Party mini-games have very similar ideas to those in The Dark Knight. Squid GameIt is possible. While there is no gun, the concept of this game is similar. The four main characters play a series mini-games to win more coins and power stars. This is the highest currency form in Mario’s universe. They are constantly in danger of being killed and then revived by various tests. Squid Game-like mini games. In “Isthmus Be the Way,” not making it in time results in being blown up. “Soak or Croak” looks like a friendly water gun game until you realize that it’s a “last man standing” competition where you fight and push others off the edge of a circular platform.

You can compete for only coins in a whole subset of these games. Among them is “Air to a Fortune,” where each of the four characters are placed on clouds, with adjacent clouds having varying amounts of coins. Everyone secretly picks a neighboring cloud to jump to and if you and your neighbor happen to pick the same one, you’ll both fall and get no coins. It’s a particularly psychological game that has you guessing if you should risk it at the chance for more money, or just give it all up. This could as easily be considered a board game. Squid Game

They are not only a common childlike game, making the death-and-life scenarios even more tragic. But they share the same trait: their games require skill, even though both seem rigged. There are many ways to get in. Squid GameThis means that Oh Il-nam, the elderly man, went further than he ought to have and favors Gi-Hun winning. In Super Mario PartyThis is made possible by the bonus stars at each end. Just this week, I played a round where — after activating multiple gold pipes, buying mushrooms, and spending my money on four stars — I ended up losing because one of my competitors only spent money on one and ended up getting a whopping three bonus stars.

Both Squid Game and Mario Party present this absurd vision of competition that seems based on merit, at first, but actually isn’t. At least the Mario Party games can be fun (if you don’t care about winning); but they do teach an important life lesson. Sometimes you don’t earn everything you win.