Squid Game finally finds its natural home in the video game community: dedicated CS:GO servers.
Squid Game is a Netflix-made Korean drama that has been an absolutely ridiculous success since its release in September 2021. In it, desperate contestants compete in deadly variations of children's games for a chance at cash prizes. It has created quite a few knockouts in the video game world, as well as in the real world. When I wrote about Squid Game games earlier, I stupidly guessed that we wouldn't see any more, and I also mentioned how they reminded me of the Source engine mods I loved when I was younger.
Somewhere, a single finger on a cursed monkey's paw curled up and we can now play Squid Game in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. User Ansimist and a small team developed the project, which includes all the big hits on the show, including a rendition of my old nemesis, Red Light, Green Light.
The custom maps and models all look good and the Source engine still seems well suited for this type of game. Source's flexibility and ease of use for modders, its distinctive physics simulation, and the movement speed and precision it provides to players suggest it be included in the Squidlike genre. I love animist and common solutions. We have also reached re-creation of these games. They adapted the cookie cutter game from the show by having you smash an in-game cookie with your combat knife, and Squid Game's tug-of-war seems to have done it as some sort of collective fast-time event.
With that in mind, Squid Game in CS:GO can be the black horse of the Squidlike race: Adjust your scorecards accordingly. I still stubbornly hold on to my belief that this is just a passing fad, another expression of the same urge that makes every vigilante modder with a twinkle in their eyes recreate the Matrix lobby as a map in every FPS.