Mario and the SMG4 crew all end up in Squid Game and their friendships are TRULY put to the test.
A vast majority of the SMG4verse cast participate in Squid Game. What follows is a series of events that will test each other's friendship and limits for a grand prize.- Big Brother Instinct: Mario once again gets mad at Wario, this time for forcing Luigi to lose the "Glass Bridge" challenge.
- Brick Joke: Previously, Mario asked Hideo Kojima if the Squid Game had something to do with PlayStation when he saw the calling card with the circle, square, and triangle (all PS controller button shapes). At the start of this episode, Kojima reveals the games are indeed hosted by PlayStation.
- Early in the Honeycomb challenge, Lanky Long was shown looking at his honeycomb, which he needed to carve into a perfect copy of The Mona Lisa and screaming in frustration. Later in the challenge, JubJub is shown to have perfectly carved the Mona Lisa from memory on his honeycomb (he still gets disqualified since he was supposed to just carve a circle).
- The Bus Came Back: SMG3 makes a return since his last appearance on WOTFI 2021,
making some wonder how he got there if he was originally in the Internet Graveyard. - Call-Back: With the final challange being Splatoon's Turf Wars with the serial numbers filed off, Meggy is confident she has the victory in the bag but Mario reminds her that he trained with her for the Splatfest.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Inverted. Everyone who gets ahead in the tournament does so by blatantly cheating in one way or another, which Luigi points out in the end:
- In "Red Light, Green Light", Mario absorbs a Luma like a Power Star and charges for the goal, totally Immune to Bullets. Wario and Waluigi also use a car in this game.
- In "Honeycomb", Meggy uses her headphones to trace a perfect circle, while Wario just steals Crusty Sean's shape for himself.
- In "Glass Bridge", Steve just builds a bridge of blocks that all the remaining competitors use to get across.
- In "Squid Game", Mario distracts Meggy by spitting the honeycomb from the second challenge into her face.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mario coughs up the honeycomb he ate during the second challenge to defeat Meggy in the final round.
- Compromising Call: Spamton's phone rings during the middle of Red Light, Green Light while he needs to be motionless. He calls out "Piss." before being shot.
- Disney Villain Death: While it's a Non-Lethal K.O., Wario suffers this fate at the hands of Steve in the fourth challenge, which proves to be completely deserved after he just did the same to Luigi moments earlier.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although Wario proves himself a total scumbag in the penultimate challenge, he's shown to be broken up over fighting Waluigi in a game of marbles. Right before Waluigi is eliminated, both brothers reiterate their love for each other.
- Fate Worse than Death: Anyone who gets eliminated in the Squid Game is instead forced to join the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale roster. The survivors all treat this as a horrible fate, with Bob (the first one out of the game) begging for death.
- Graceful Loser: Despite not wanting to fight Wario in the first place, Waluigi calmly accepts his defeat in the third challenge and reassures his brother that there are no hard feelings between them.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After Wario chucks Luigi over the Glass Bridge and threatens to do the same to Mario and Meggy, Steve grabs Wario and pulls him off along with himself, allowing the others to win.
- Hypocrisy Nod: When Meggy complains about Mario cheating to beat her in the final challenge, Luigi points out that they all cheated to a degree, including her. Meggy just grumbles in response.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Mere moments after Wario throws Luigi off the bridge to get rid of the competition, Steve sacrifices himself by grabbing Wario and throwing themselves off to their demise.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to several other Halloween specials and Squid Game itself, the episode is this. All kills in the video are Non-Lethal K.O.s, and the host of the game doesn't have any ulterior motives. For all we know, it could've turned out like If Mario was in Fall Guys.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The main cast are left horrified after Bob gets eliminated in the first game, with everyone else following suit after Kojima explains what happens to those who are eliminated.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Those who are eliminated are simply teleported into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale against their wills, and come back fine by the end. This is treated as a Fate Worse than Death.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Mario emerges from the games as the champion, but his "cash prize" turns out to be a lifetime supply of PlayStation 5s.
- Self-Deprecation: In "Honeycomb", the shape on SMG4's honeycomb was that of Beeg SMG4, which makes him complain about whose idea it was to create the meme.
- Sequel Episode: The episode directly follows the previous one's Sequel Hook where Mario is invited by Hideo Kojima to join the Squid Game.
- Sore Loser: In true Splatoon fashion, Meggy pouts over losing to Mario, who only won because he cheated...even though she and pretty much everyone wound up cheating by this point, as Luigi notes.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Leaving your phone on in a game of "red light green light" isn't a very good idea as Spamton soon figures out.
- What else was going to happen when Swag tries firing bullets onto the honeycombs he and Chris had?
- There was no way that the Weegee Doll was going to pass the "Honeycomb" challenge if they can't move their arms, can they?
- Instead of cutting out a heart from his honeycomb, Mario spits out his own heart and uses it to pass. It works, but he dies anyways from not having a heart.
- Meggy is still by-far the better Splatoon player between her and Mario, but as Mario points out, he's also trained and practised for Splatfests; ironically, under Meggy herself. As a result, whilst still outmatched in the end, he holds out much better than he would have before, and it proves to make all the difference, buying him time to use a dirty trick to win.
- Take That!:
- Being forced to join PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale after being eliminated is treated as a Fate Worse than Death, to the point that Bob begs for death when he gets eliminated. There's a large amount of participants who are eliminated at the beginning because they tried to pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here after learning what happens to eliminated players.
- The ultimate punchline of the episode is that Mario winning a lifetime supply of PS5s is the reason why they're all sold out, taking a jab at the console's infamous stock shortages.
- Taking You with Me: Part of Steve's Heroic Sacrifice, where he forces himself off the glass bridge with Wario in tow.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode references the entire first season of Squid Game, with a few SMG4-flavored alterations: the Front Man is replaced by Hideo Kojima, the masked guards' shapes stand for Sony PlayStation, and the titular "Squid Game" is actually Splatoon.
