In Squid Game<\/em>, schoolyard games are turned into nightmares, as players compete to survive and \u2014 if they\u2019re lucky \u2014 earn a massive cash prize. But in Unleashed<\/em>, a new mobile spinoff that\u2019s part of the streamer\u2019s fledgling gaming efforts<\/a>, those games are fun<\/em>. It\u2019s a strange experience that sands off much of the appeal of Squid Game<\/em> in service of making a multiplayer party game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unleashed<\/em> is sort of like Fall Guys<\/em><\/a> but in a Squid Game<\/em> wrapper. You compete against 31 other players across three random games pulled from the show, like \u201cred light, green light\u201d or racing across a bridge made of glass. Slowly other players die off, and by the end one wins a whole bunch of money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Aesthetically, the game mostly follows the show. There are a bunch of characters to play as \u2014 some pulled from the show, others new for the game \u2014 and even though there\u2019s a cartoon aesthetic, things still get bloody, with players being shot for breaking the rules or crushed under some obstacle. There are the familiar green track suits and masked guards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the connections to the show are really only surface level. There\u2019s no story element, so if you haven\u2019t watched the show, you\u2019d have no idea the kind of personal anguish many of the characters are going through.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In fact, many of the elements that make Unleashed<\/em> a pretty fun mobile game are also what keep it from being a good adaptation of what Squid Game<\/em> is all about. In order to reduce frustration, most of the games have respawning. So even if you fail at \u201cred light, green light\u201d and get shot by a guard, it\u2019s not game over. It simply slows you down in a race to be one of a pre-determined number of players to cross the finish line and move on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Similarly, the games can all be completed in a few minutes. This is great for playing short sessions on the go; being stuck in a 30 minute multiplayer match on your phone typically sucks. But when you put elements like the short run time and respawning together it, completely erases any of the tension that\u2019s so core to Squid Game<\/em>\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And despite having no in-app purchases \u2014 Unleashed<\/em> is completely free for Netflix subscribers and, for a limited time, non-subscribers<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s still structured like a typical free-to-play game. You earn cash from winning matches and completing various goals, which is used to unlock new characters, costumes, and emotes. Every time I log on I\u2019m greeted with a jarring number of pop-ups and notifications letting me know I just unlocked a zombie costume or that there\u2019s a Christmas-themed event going on. Just this morning I was gifted a twerking emote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes, now I can make Kang Sae-byeok, whose death was one of the most tragic moments of season 1, twerk in the middle of a deadly obstacle course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unleashed<\/em> isn\u2019t a bad game. In many ways, it\u2019s a clever reinterpretation of online party games for mobile. But, like most of Netflix\u2019s expansions of the Squid Game<\/em> universe<\/a>, it also completely misses the point of the show. It\u2019s sort of like what Fortnite<\/em> is to the original movie Battle Royale<\/em><\/a>: a playful, colorful take on a brutal, piercing story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fortnite<\/em> largely avoided the tonal dissonance by creating a cartoon-ish, multiversal world that is far away from an island full of kids killing their classmates. Unleashed<\/em>, on the other hand, is another part of Squid Game<\/em> \u2014 one that doesn\u2019t seem to understand why the series exists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n