An artist has reimagined Mario Party as the Netflix sensation Squid Game, with Waluigi and Luigi eliminated under the watchful eyes of the Shy Guy guards. Squid Game‘s battle royale-like premise has made it a firm favorite inspiration for gaming-related memes, with fans comparing Squid Game to big-name games including Splatoon, Pokémon, and more.
Squid Game is one of the most popular shows of the year, leaving viewers marvelling at its twists and turns. The show centers around a collection of children’s games, with participants gambling with their lives in the hopes of winning millions to help them escape their debt. Squid Game has appealed to lots of video game fans, and has drawn comparisons not just to battle royale titles, but also releases that feature competitive minigames similar to those seen in the series. Many are hoping for a second season of the Korean drama, while others are hoping interest in the show could lead to a Squid Game video game.
Redditor and artist The_Goop2526’s fanart reimagines Squid Game episode three, “The Man With The Umbrella,” with the cast of Mario Party taking on the honeycomb challenge. In the show, contestants are tasked with removing a semi-cut shape from dalgona, a honeycomb cookie, without breaking the shape itself. The fanart perfectly captures the tense game, with Mario following in the steps of Seong Gi-Hun by trying to lick his shape free, while Princess Peach hides from the guards under a slide, using a lighter to cut out her shape similar to Han Mi-Nyeo. Unfortunately, Waluigi and Luigi have already been eliminated from the game, with Shy Guy guards shown still taking aim at the lifeless characters. The detailed fanart has been a success on Reddit, amassing thousands of upvotes from Mario fans.
Played the new Mario Party tonight and thought it deserved a Squid Game mashup. Here’s my latest art piece, “SQUID PARTY” (OC) from gaming
See the post on Reddit here.
The impressive Squid Game fanart, believed to have been created in Blender, isn’t the first time the show has been compared to Mario Party. The recently-released Mario Party Superstars brings classic minigames and board games from across the franchise to Nintendo Switch, including the Mario Party 2 minigame, Shy Guy Says. In the game, players have to raise the same colored flag as a Shy Guy, with the threat of drifting off to sea looming over them should they fail. Shy Guy Says is one of many Mario Party Superstars minigames that are similar to Squid Game, with Crazy Cutters comparable to the honeycomb challenge, while Sneak ‘n’ Snore is based on the traditional game of Red Light, Green Light.
Mario Party Superstars might be the closest fans of Squid Game can get to emulating the show in real life, without needing to play for their lives. Due to the crossover between Squid Game‘s content and gaming, creative fans have been working hard to realize a video game version of the show using titles like The Sims 4. Squid Game has also been popular in Animal Crossing, with countless players making their own island minigames to pay homage to the Netflix hit.
