The Real-Life Inspiration for Games in Squid Game

Over the past few weeks, Squid Game from Netflix has stolen the attention of millions of viewers around the world. The deadly games in Squid Game have become the main attraction to this new Netflix series.

Because of that, the show becomes one of the most-watched series ever on Netflix. First released on September 17, 2021, the show has received critical acclaim from both the audience and reviewers.

The series itself tells a story about a group of 456 people from different backgrounds who will fight to the death to earn a ₩45.6 billion prize in a series of deadly games. What’s interesting is, the games that they must play are actually games that children play!

Even more interesting is the fact that these games actually exist in our real life as well. For that reason, we shall explain what these games are actually!

The Games in Squid Game

The robot doll in the Red Light, Green Light game (Wallpapersden)

So far, there are five games that players must play in Squid Game in order to survive and get the prize cash. Let’s see what these games are!

Red Light, Green Light

The first game sounds simple, but it is still very challenging! Basically, players are told to meet a person referred to as “It” at the end of a field. To meet “It”, they need to run as fast as possible.

If “It” yells “Red Light!”, the players must immediately stop running and moving. If the players fail to do so, they must return back to the start line.

Once “It” yells “Green Light!”, the players can continue running to meet “It”. Any player who reaches first place can become “It”, and the game can start over again.

Cutting Shapes

The second game involves players cutting a shape from dalgona, or Korean candy made from melted sugar and baking soda.

The shapes can either be a star, circle, umbrella, or triangle. Any player who breaks their shape cuts will immediately fail the game.

It turns out cutting shapes aren’t as simple as we think!

Tug of War

Have you ever heard of tug of war? This is the third game that players in Squid Game must play to survive!

Tug of War is also known as rope pulling. To play the game, there need to be two competing teams who will pull the rope.

With their strengths, both teams need to pull the rope in their directions to win the game.

Marble Game

Played in pairs, both players will compete against each other to get the most amount of marbles in the game.

Within 30 minutes, any player who manages to earn the most amount of marbles will automatically win.

Crossing the Bridge

The fifth game in this series might sound simple, isn’t it? However, much like other games in this series, it’s not as simple as it looks.

In this game, players are told to cross a two-panel bridge to win the game. The catch is, there is only one panel that’s strong enough to hold the players’ weight.

Because of that, players who are impatient might cross the weak panel and fail the game.

Vocabulary Corner

As usual, we will provide you with a vocabulary corner here in case there are some words you don’t understand!

Here it is:

Word/Sentence in EnglishMeaning in Indonesian
Critical acclaimPujian tinggi
For the sake of…Demi

Conclusion

While the games shown in Squid Game look complicated, their origins are actually more simple than we thought.

However, for the sake of drama, the games are dramatized so that the viewers can be interested in the series. Now, are you interested in watching the series?

If you are interested in learning English blogs as well from Engliven, here’s the blog that you can read. Happy reading and watching, everyone!

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