I love survival games. Any time I hear about a series with a survival game twist gets me excited to figure out all the ways to win.
Sadly, I didn’t do so well in Samurai Dan’s Squid Games, but I had a blast playing! Welcome to my first article on what I did on Friday during ColossalCon North!
This is how I died!
Samurai Dan’s version of the Squid Game didn’t involve pain, loss of life, or a cash prize. But it did involve the core aspect of Squid Game by making us play some children’s games.
And the prize was a free pass to ColossalCon North 2023, plus a picture was taken with Samurai Dan! Unfortunately, I didn’t record anything due to wanting to play and not having anyone I trusted to watch my stuff.
I took plenty of notes after I was dead, though! The first challenge was a mix of Red Light, Green Light, and Simon Says.
Only, instead of moving randomly, you had to move as Samurai Dan decreed in Japanese. Fortunately, we only had to learn two commands.
Shuffle and sway. I don’t remember the Japanese words for them, but yes, I did make some mistakes during the round.
But my skills from watching survival games helped me survive the first round. I placed myself in the second row with several people around me.
This helped conceal my movements from the judges. Finally, I tried to become a judge, but sadly I wasn’t picked.
The second round was also simple. Take a rubber-throwing star and try to land it in a box. But my skills failed me again, and I resumed my seat.
This is how the game ends!
The third game had the remaining players split into two teams. One half received a stick, and the other was given two plastic rings, just like the ones you’d find in a pool or park.
The goal was for each member to use the stick to catch both rings. And one brave soul attempted to use a loophole in the rules and kneel to make catching the rings easier.
It didn’t work, but the game wasn’t over! The winners now had to play Quarter Catch. Take your dominant arm and position it like you’re trying to scratch your shoulder on the same side as your arm.
Then place a quarter near your elbow and try to catch it using your dominant hand. Samurai Dan gave the players a few minutes to practice and said that if they caught the quarter, they must try to catch it twice more with their dominant hand and add another quarter per attempt.
If they managed that, they had to try it again with their non-dominant hand. And if there was no clear winner, they had to try again with more quarters!
This was technically the final game, and a brave soul was rewarded for his efforts. But the panel wasn’t over yet, as Samurai Dan allowed the dead to rise again and attempt the throwing star challenge again.
I chose not to participate this time and watched as more people got their stars into the box. Only to have the round continue with Samurai Dan separating the players and having those who successfully landed their stars try again with a box that’s further away!
We also learned that if you have a knife or a projectile weapon, don’t throw it if you’re opponent is less than 20 feet from you. Instead, keep it in your hand because you won’t be able to stop them with a projectile at that distance.
The final round was a new version of catch the ring, with the teams splitting into three people, one with the stick, the others with one ring each.
The goal was the same. Except for the ones with the rings, had to toss them one at a time. And then, at the same time.