Every Game In Squid Game Season 3 Ranked

Attention, players: This article contains spoilers for "Squid Game" season 3.

Netflix's "Squid Game" comes to an end with season 3, and the show pulls out all the stops on its bloody path toward the series finale. Not that it ever had any other options, because the show runs on escalating thrills: The games in "Squid Game" season 2 were just as sadistic as anything season 1 had to offer, and individual games — the elaborate Mingle in particular — showed just how big the show has become, with set designs that go above and beyond to amaze the viewer. 

The high bar set by season 2 left "Squid Game" season 3 with the challenge of doing even better in order to impress the viewing audience, and the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and his organization have done just that. Since this particular round of games is divided over two seasons, "Squid Game" season 3 only features three major games. However, what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quality. Every single one of the following games is a top contender for some of the best (or worst, if you're a player) — "Squid Game" events in the show's history. But which of these elaborate games reigns supreme? 

Jump Rope is effectively a more hectic version of season 1's Glass Stepping Stones game, which is great news for people looking to live their acrophobia vicariously through other people. It's also the game that was teased in the weird post-credits scene of "Squid Game" season 2. The set is dominated by two giant dolls — the all-too-familiar "Red Light, Green Light" doll Young-hee and her male counterpart, Cheol-su — facing each other across a vast chasm. Fortunately, the looming figures don't have those creepy motion sensor eyes this time. What they do have, however, is a massive length of rebar shaped like a skipping rope. The players have to keep jumping over it as they cross a narrow platform with a gap in the middle. Miss a step or get hit by the rope, and the reward is a long fall into a flower-themed pit. Oh, and of course there's a time limit and a chirpy children's song that welcomes the players to their doom. That should go without saying.

As visually interesting as Jump Rope is, the game itself is fairly easy, to the point that only severely injured or otherwise inconvenienced players are utterly doomed before even stepping on the platform — even the elderly, comparatively out-of-shape Player 100 (Song Young-chang) manages to skip the "rope" for a prolonged period. As such, the majority of tension comes from the creepy set and sound design (that whooshing rope!), Jun-hee's (Jo Yu-ri) ankle injury, and Player 096's (Lee Suk) shocking decision to start throwing players to their doom after reaching safety himself. The end result is effective, but the two other games are so much better at Jump Rope's central tenets of "players betraying each other" and "people falling to their death" that third place is a non-brainer. 

Fans knew that it was coming, but they sure weren't ready for the version they'd be getting.

There was never any real doubt that "Squid Game" season 3 would end with the titular game, just like season 1 did. Still, when episode 5 ("Circle Triangle Square") rolls out three towering pillars that imitate the circle-triangle-square shape of a Squid Game playing field (and the game's logo), it's clear that the show has come up with a particularly inventive twist on the theme. This, of course, is a necessity: While the final game of season 1 was a one-on-one battle between Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), this time there are no less than nine players (including the new Player 222, a baby). With the majority of the finalists already allied, the show was bound to introduce an extra element in order to prevent them from easily dispatching Gi-hun, the baby, and the timid Min-su (Lee David). 

Sky Squid Game starts with the players on top of the square pillar, and they have to eliminate at least one person per pillar in order to win the game. However, Gi-hun is not playing along with the baby-killing majority vote, and unless the allies can convince him to let go of the baby, one of them will have to be sacrificed as well in order to win the game. What follows is "Squid Game" in a nutshell: a look into several different survival tactics, politicizing, betrayals, and unexpected twists. It's an exciting, edge-of-the-seat event that manages to capture the spirit of both Squid Game the game and "Squid Game" the show, set on arguably the most visually imposing arena in the show's history. Here's hoping that at least one of the inevitable "Squid Game" spin-offs will reveal just who designs and builds this stuff. 

The blue team gets keys and a head start. The red team gets knives and an instruction to kill at least one blue player until the 30-minute timer runs out, or be eliminated themselves. Players are allowed to switch colors with a willing person before the game begins. Such is the simple premise of Hide and Seek, a game that's effectively a slasher movie — only with dozens of killers stalking their hapless victims.

A lot of the game's impact comes from its playing field, a claustrophobic parody of a cozy little town under a pleasant night sky. Its endless corridors, locked doors, and ghastly nursery-themed rooms see a lot of blood before the game is over, with every second a promise that death is just around the corner. What's more, Hide and Seek keeps throwing curveballs at the poor blues, who find out the hard way that there's far more to using the keys than meets the eye. Meanwhile, some red team members use the opportunity to kill way more blues than they need to, in order to increase the prize money. 

Apart from its cruel rules and unnerving setting, Hide and Seek is notorious for its sheer number of deaths. The game and its aftermath wipe out over half of the most prominent player characters, which makes the tail end of the episode a series of major death scenes that are brutal even by the show's lofty standards. Hide and Seek isn't just the greatest game of "Squid Game" season 3 — it might just be the best in the entire show.