Netflix’s interactive specials ranked by how much your choices matter

polygon.com:

[ Ed. note: This ranked list is being continually updated as Netflix adds more interactive specials.]

2018’sBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch and 2019’s You vs. Wild marked a new phase for Netflix’s interactive shows, which started off with relatively simple interactive experiments for kids in 2017, designed to test the waters for actual Netflix games down the road. These Choose Your Own Adventure-style stories were some of Netflix’s more distinctive offerings for a short while, but fewer of them are being produced now as Netflix’s focus shifts toward more fully realized games, like the mini masterpiece Laya’s Horizon.

Still, Netflix continues to drop the occasional interactive story, and we’re continuing to rank each one based on how interactive it actually is. The service’s latest interactive special, Choose Love, finally dives into the seeking-romance genre that’s been such a hit for Netflix reality shows like Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On. This ranked list considers how much fun each Netflix interactive special is, what kind of stories they’re telling, and whether your choices actually have any effect on the overall story.

[Disclosure: Unwind Your Mindis a collaboration between Headspace and Vox Media Studios, a unit of Polygon’s parent company, Vox Media.]

This shouldn’t even really count as an interactive experience, but Netflix has labeled it as an Interactive, so we’re mentioning it. The only interactive part of this is picking which Headspace program you want: meditation, relaxation, or sleep. You can customize from there, but it’s just a glorified menu. Useful for what it’s meant for, but not so much for a story experience.

Similarly, Netflix files Trivia Quest under the interactive tag, but it