Free strategy survival game
Poppy Squid is a free strategy game for Android heavily inspired by Squid Game, but with a twist. Instead of snipers or an oversized Korean girl doll, spend your time avoiding Huggy Wuggy from the Poppy Playtime game. Put yourself in the well-worn shoes of Player 456 and try to survive each round of the competition using logic and skill.
The Google Play store hosts hundreds of alternatives to this genre of horror-inspired mobile gaming. There are plenty of games similar to Poppy Squid that offer improved graphics and smoother gameplay. If you're looking for an entertaining game, try Survival 456 But It's Impostor, which brings the adorable characters from Among Us into the non-stop action of Squid Game. Also available to download for free is Cookie Carver: Life Challenge.
You'd be hard-pressed to call Poppy Squid a quality game. The many one-star reviews on Google Play are proof of that. However, the graphical quality is decent for a small mobile game. The developer claims that the game runs well on Android 4.4 and up, but numerous players still complain the game won't open on low-end devices.
Performance and graphics
Gameplay
The gameplay features of Poppy Squid are well done for a small Android game. There are no apparent glitches or bugs, and the characters move relatively smoothly on Android 10. Poppy Squid does have more gameplay options than its contemporaries; it offers more than 10 challenges instead of the four classics that suffocate the 'adventure' and 'strategy' genres on Google Play.
Too many ads
The ratio of ads to gameplay in Poppy Squid is quite unbalanced. As is the trend with small Android games, developers rely too heavily on ads to justify the game being listed as 'free'.
Developers have to make money too, but in games like Poppy Squid, where you’re served an ad every few minutes, it seems not enough attention was paid to the game's usability. Playing the game for a few minutes leaves you feeling like you downloaded a bunch of ads, where the gameplay is an ad too.
Another underwhelming clone
The mobile game genre that Squid Game inadvertently launched has taken over the market. If you go through the thousands of Squid Game emulators, you're bound to find good (and even incredible) examples of this new breed of horror-inspired game.
Poppy Squid just doesn't hit that mark. Any redeeming qualities the game does have, like its abundance of levels, are chipped away by the developer's over-reliance on ads.