(Credit: Netflix)

Squid Game on Netflix is all fun and games until it isn’t. Underneath its sugar-coated exterior, made up of childlike charm and colourful games, lies a dark, twisted core. Though Squid Game excels in deception at the surface value, one step into the arena is enough to see everyone’s guards go up in a go. As season three inches closer like a chaotic supernova on a mission, let’s rewind to every game played so far in Squid Game. Here, the rules are absolute, and disobedience has a price.

If observed, every Squid Game player has one thing in common: they are motivated to participate in the competition due to their deep financial troubles. Even the title of the Netflix series is taken from a Korean children’s game, ojingeo. However, make no mistake, because Squid Game is no child’s play. When the show was first released in 2021, it didn’t become Netflix’s most-watched series without reason.

It was a massive streaming hit that transcended borders, cultures, languages, and demographics in reception. At the centre of it all was a cash prize that turned out to be a driving force. However, the defining element of the story is and will be the games. While Squid Game’s Netflix release already had dedicated fans recreating the games with their own DIY adaptations, before season three lands on the streamer, it’s time to glance back at the real deal.

So, buckle your seatbelts while there’s still time because Squid Game stops for no one. And always remember, disobedience comes at a deadly price.

Squid Game season one games:

Ddakji

In Squid Game season one, episode one, ddakji starts it all. The Recruiter invited Gin-hun to take part in a game of ddakji before officiating his entry in the official game. The rules are quite simple: ddakji is a two-player game where each player has a folded square paper piece, AKA ddakji. Once a player’s ddakji is on the ground, the objective is clear: knock down your opponent’s ddakji by flipping it with a well-placed throw.

The Recruiter offered Gi-hun 10,000 won for each knock-out round he could win, and vice versa. However, when Gi-hun lost, with no money whatsoever to pay him back, a slap was struck on his face for every loss he could count.

Red Light, Green Light

Red Light, Green Light, was the infamous opening game of Squid Game season one. Although it is inspired by the popular Korean children’s game Mugunghwa kkochi pieosseumnida, Red Light, Green Light doesn’t come without its murderous twist. The rule isn’t very different from the original game, where players are allowed to move forward when the tagger faces away from other players. However, instead of a tagger, Squid Game has an eerie animatronic doll called Young-hee.

When the doll says “Green Light,” players can move but must stop when the “Red Light” is called for. All players must cross the playing field within five minutes to qualify for the next round of the competition. But if a movement is detected after “Red Light,” they will be eliminated, meaning they would be killed on the spot.

Dalgona

Squid Game season one episode three introduces yet another game called Dalgona. The rules for Dalgona are that players shall choose a shape among circle, triangle, star, and umbrella, emblazoned on a wall, to carve out the exact shape on a Dalgona cookie. They cannot break or crack the shape in any way, or they will lose the round. The time limit is ten minutes, and each player is given a needle to remove a perfect cookie-cutter hole in the centre.

This Dalgona round comes right after the players were offered the opportunity to leave Squid Game once and for all. Out of the 187 who returned, 79 were eliminated.

Tug-of-War

Tug-of-war is the third game of Squid Game season one within the main playing field. While everyone knows the game more or less inside out, the show has the competitors dividing themselves into groups of ten. Suspended high above the ground, the game takes place on top of two towering platforms, and each round sees two teams go against one another. But it takes the players the first round to figure out the deadly twist.

It so happens that a guillotine is well placed atop the players, which cuts down whenever a team drops off their platform, leaving the loser’s side to die in a heartbeat. However, unlike a tug-of-war where physical prowess is the ultimate trump card, here strategy has the last laugh.

Marbles

The Marbles round happens in the fourth episode of Squid Game. While every game in Squid Game is one of do-or-die, this one truly breaks hearts. The surviving players are tasked to partner with a player of their choice for Marbles. But little do they realise that the pairing is made to make them compete against their friends.

In the game, each player has ten marbles and 30 minutes in hand, to win the opponent’s ten marbles. The rules might be simple, but the consequences? Not so much.

Glass Bridge

Glass Bridge is the semi-final game of Squid Game. The players stand at the threshold of a heart-stopping challenge where two parallel glass bridges, identical in appearance yet vastly different in safety, are seen. Each of the 18 stepping stones along the catwalks conceals a deadly secret: will it shatter beneath their weight or hold firm?

The players must navigate the treacherous path as they pray their instincts guide them towards the normal glass, away from the breakable. However, that’s all to be done under 16 minutes!

Squid Game

Squid Game culminates as the last round of season one, and the name is taken from the court shaped like a squid. The game requires two teams: offence and defence. Defenders have the freedom to roam the court on two feet while attackers must hop on one foot outside the lines until they slip past the squid’s neck.

In the last confrontation, attackers need to dash from the entrance to the top of the court to claim victory. If someone is pushed out, they, of course, die. But whoever gets to the top gets crowned. While this sums up Squid Game season one games, now is the time to dive deep into season two games.

Squid Game season two games

Bread and Lottery

Bread and Lottery is the season two replacement of ddakji, the game that leads players into Squid Game. In episode one, the Recruiter buys 100 buns of bread and 100 lottery tickets. He goes to a park swarming with 100 homeless people, offering them a chance to take a bread or a lottery ticket, but not both.

People who choose the bread can eat it on the spot, but the ones who opt for a lottery ticket are given a coin that they must return when they’re done with the ticket. However, when most give the scratch cards an upper hand, the Recruiter ensures he stampedes over the leftover food, as a payback for those who chose gambling.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Minus One

The traditional game play of rock, paper, scissors takes a twist in Squid Game season two, thanks to the Recruiter. During gameplay, players should form a shape of either rock, paper, or scissors, with both their hands and take one away. Whoever wins the round with the remaining hand is the ultimate winner of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Minus One.

However, if Squid Game has taught us anything, it’s that no game comes without its punishments. And for this, the losers have to participate in Russian Roulette, at least for a round.

Russian Roulette

In Squid Game’s Russian Roulette, the Recruiter sells the game on the idea of a five out of six chance of survival with a gun barrel set with one bullet. The Recruiter resets the barrel while playing with a player in episode one, but during his play against Gi-hun, he spins the barrel just once before starting the game.

When he and Gi-hun take turns to shoot themselves and test their luck, the probability of dying increases each time because by the sixth round, the bullet has to be shot. But who gets to cheat death? Well, we won’t spoil the fun for you.

Red Light, Green Light

Red Light, Green Light is the same game played in Squid Game season one, where players can move with the declaration of a “Green Light,” and must stop at the announcement of “Red Light.” However, unlike the first season, Gi-hun already knows what lies ahead in the game.

So, in an attempt to safeguard others, he tries to guide fellow players so that they survive the round. But soon he realises that the eyes are all on him, and there’s no easy way out of this one.

The Six-Legged Pentathlon

With Gi-hun’s season one experience proving beneficial for fellow players of Squid Game, the bigwigs know it’s time for a plot twist. So, Squid Game season two brings a fresh game of survival in episode two: Pentathlon. Gi-hun enters the playing field expecting to carve out a Dalgona cookie as he had done before in season one following the Red Light, Green Light round.

But he and the players are taken aback by a six-legged relay race instead. Each team, made up of five players, have to finish the race within five minutes. Within those five minutes, each player needs to win a distinct mini-game. Without completing the one at their disposal, the team cannot move on to the next. The Pentathlon consists of Ddakji, Flying Stone, Gong-gi, Spinning Top, and Jegi.

• The rules of Ddajki are already known from season one.

• To win Flying Stone, a player has to stand behind a line while attempting to throw over a stone with the help of their own. When a player fails to knock over the stone, they walk to the stone they threw, pick it up, and return to the original point to throw it again.

• In order to win Gong-gi, a player throws five die in the air to catch them during treacherous stages. But once accomplished, they now have to throw the five die in the air as a team and catch them on the back side of their hand.

• As for the Spinning Top round, a player ties a cord around a top and releases it in a way that it lands spinning. If they fail, the team walks to the pickup point of the spinning top and starts again.

• Lastly, to win Jegi, a Squid Game player has to kick a jegi five times consecutively with their feet or ankles.

Mingle

The last game of Squid Game season two is Mingle. But unlike its name, its reputation is creepy. Mingle is a dizzying game of numbers and doors where players are placed on a spinning platform surrounded by colourful doors. Here, players are required to quickly form groups that match the number called, then find a door to an adjoining room.

The group cannot consist of players more or fewer than the number that has been called out; otherwise, they are eliminated. Now, it remains to be seen what awaits Squid Game season three. With the trailer already out, it’s officially time to count it down.