Netflix's Squid Game game takes a rather bubbly approach to absolute horror

As we patiently wait for the long-gestating Squid Game season 2 to roll around — the show finally returns to Netflix on Dec. 26 — the streamer continues to keep survival-horror sickos content with new (squid) games. --- [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/gamescom_d1beb9.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Check out Polygon’s Gamescom 2024 hub page for all our coverage of the world’s biggest games event. --- Revealed at Gamescom 2024 Opening Night, Squid Game: Unleashed is the latest title from Boss Fight, the mobile-minded studio founded by Zynga and Ensemble Studios vets. Netflix acquired Boss Fight in 2022. The gameplay looks straight out of the series, with challenges replicated in a lighter, polygonal style. Unlike the show, the slaphappy game has a bit of a sense of humor when it comes to the horrors of the situation. Squid Game, which flew under the radar in 2021 only to become the biggest Netflix series of all time, explored a dystopian South Korea competition in which 456 financially strapped players vied against each in various schoolyard games. The winner took home a giant cash prize. The losers… died. Squid Game: Unleashed has slightly lower stakes, but hopes to replicate a few of the mechanics of creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s chilling world. Netflix has funneled a ton of money into its gaming arm, which remains unsung next to the major platforms. On top of licensed games like Storyteller, The Case of the Golden Idol, Immortality, and even the GTA series, the streamer is also in the business of developing original titles for play on mobile and within the Netflix smart TV app. Over the summer, Netflix announced it had nearly 80 games in development, many of which cull from its expanding library of IP. (If you love Emily in Paris and point-and-click adventures, buckle the eff up!!!) At a time when every major subscription service is scrambling to crack handheld gaming and cloud experiences, and when Apple hopes to turn Apple Arcade into a meaningful space for gaming, Netflix seems poised for yet another disruption — that is, if games like Squid Game: Unleashed are any good. Squid Game: Unleashed doesn’t have a release date, but it’ll hit exclusively on the Netflix app when it arrives.