For a certain slice of the population, My Girl is a red-raw wound. They saw the poster of Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin laughing together, lost in their adorable shared adolescence. They heard the theme tune, which made them fall in love with the Temptations all over again. And then they watched the film in horror as – absolutely out of nowhere – a bee stings Culkin and he dies.

For a certain slice of the population, this was our version of Bambi's mum getting shot. It was our Janet Leigh getting stabbed in the shower. It was our "Luke, I am your father." Only it was sadder, because it was Macaulay Culkin getting stung by a bee and then dying.

If, like many of us, you've struggled with this heartbreaking moment every day for the last 23 years, help is finally at hand. A new game based on My Girl has appeared online. In it, you play Culkin's character. The instructions for the game simply read "Accept your fate". As you start playing, you run past a funeral home. The screen fades and the legend "I see my fate" appears. And then the bees come. You try to escape through a forest, but the screen locks. You're trapped. You run all the way back to the start of the level, but there's nowhere to hide there either. You cannot escape the bees. The first one stings you. Then the next one. And the next one. And the next one. At this point, realise that you're merely delaying the inevitable. You take your hands off the keyboards and let the bees attack Culkin at will. He dies. Anna Chlumsky wails: "HE WAS GONNA BE AN ACROBAT!" The game ends.

The point of the My Girl game, presumably, is to allow players to feel a degree of ownership over Culkin's death at the hands of the bees. The more you play it, the more you realise that his death was unpreventable all along. The lesson is that none of us, not even Macaulay Culkin with his vivacious eyes and mussed-up flop of yellow hair, can escape the icy clutches of death. It's a profound lesson to take onboard, and it might just mark the pinnacle of unofficial online movie adaptations.

Reading on mobile? Watch the My Girl trailer here

This is especially surprising, because this has been such a rich seam of entertainment. A few years ago, roughly coinciding with the announcement of Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation, an 8-bit Great Gatsby game appeared online. It is perhaps the single best adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's book that exists in any medium, not least because the attention to detail is so great and the music is completely irresistible. Plus Nick Carraway gets to murder flappers with a magical hat; a tangent that the book and subsequent films neglected to include.

Then there's the Moby Dick game that appeared at around the same time. Even though the creators happily admit that they've never read Herman Melville's book, the end result is still far more engrossing than the 1956 John Huston adaptation because you actually get to play as the white whale. You start as a constantly attacked baby whale and gradually take your vengeance against mankind as you transform into the harpoon-scarred beast of legend. It's a lot of fun.

And yet, the My Girl game trumps them all thanks to its simplicity and profundity. I guarantee that you will have never felt such a feeling of utter helplessness as you struggle to help Macaulay struggle to escape the bees that are destined to kill him. Free will is a myth. Our fates are already sealed. One day we will all be dead.

Which films do you want to be turned into bleakly existential 8-bit online games. Leave your suggestions below!