A really strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

Game-of-Death

Score yourself a hundred old school points if you know the movie where that quote comes from. Montreal Directors Sebastian Landry and Laurence Baiz Morais also wrote the script to this genre film along with co-writers Edouard Bond and Philip Kalin-Hajdu. Based on the opening titles, which look like something generated by the old’ Lucasarts SCUMM engine, it’s not hard to know where they drew their inspiration.

The proverbial Game of Death looks like something cooked up by Mattel, Hasbro or the Parker Brothers. An octagon with several buttons to be pressed by a group of rowdy party-loving teenagers all too enthusiastic to play an old game. The first sign of trouble is when the game draws blood from each player and starts a literal death clock. You now have 30 seconds to comply. Wait, wrong movie…

The game actually has two counters, one beeps and the other starts at 24. It’s 24 deaths that the game wants. If it receives none in a certain amount of time (non-specified) then one of the players dies.

The way out is simple, and of course it takes the young teenager who carries a gun around (because apparently this is a thing for him) to realize that none of them have to die. They just need to kill other people. Simple huh? Ok then, pass the chips? No, not yet. Surprising enough, not everyone is up for the gleeful activity of serial killing.

I’m being sarcastic. The many iterations of this formula (of which, many, many have ended up as Fantasia selections) have been done before. A game in which you need to kill to survive. This goes all the way back to Battle Royale and other similar movies. The conditions are simple, they’re always precocious teenagers looking for a fix and there’s always blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Recommended for fans of blood, guts, gore and did I mention the buckets of blood yet? Yes, there are references sprinkled about referencing 80’s PC gaming. When it comes down to it, there can be only one. Wait, wrong movie again. Anyhow, it must be the weekend because the kids are just aching to paint the town red. Let them out to play while there’s still time.

That will do for now.