Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has released their own riff on Majesco’s Cooking Mama. The game, which this avowed carnivore found to be surprisingly entertaining, guides the player through the cartoonishly gruesome steps necessary to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving turkey, including removing the turkey’s feathers and entrails, and stuffing the turkey with what appeared to be dryer lint. You can check out the game for yourself right here.
The release of “Mama Kills Animals” comes on the heels of PETA’s recent victory over SEGA on the use of a trained chimpanzee in commercials for SEGA’s Samba de Amigo. Although PETA made no claims of animal cruelty within these specific ads, they released a statement saying that animal cruelty is not uncommon with trained animals in such ads and including trained animals perpetuated a flawed system, etc.. SEGA obliged the group and has since pulled all commercials featuring the chimp from broadcast and their sites. Behind the cut, the offending video, and much more on PETA’s games…
“Mama Kills Animals” is not PETA’s first foray into the gaming world. The gaming section of their PETAKids site is replete with games decrying the use of animal products from food to fur, including Super Chick Sisters, a send-up of Super Mario Brothers staring Pamela Anderson…
…and Revenge of the PETA Tomatoes, which encourages the player to throw tomatoes at anyone wearing fur…
The game Make Fred Spew, which I took to be a cautionary tale on lactose intolerance, is apparently meant to instill in children the notions that 1) veganism is preferable to vegetarianism, 2) dairy products are for people who live in trailers, and 3) even people who live in trailers and wear aviators and trucker hats without irony are horribly sickened by dairy. I was entertained.
Whatever your politics, the PETA games are worth checking out. They are in many cases kind of fun and, at times, uproariously silly. Enjoy.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Bizarrely cool! Maybe I can use this to get out of cooking a thanksgiving turkey this year
..PS Don’t cry
November 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Mmmm, forbidden turkey…
November 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am
@dot Your comment has held back my tears… for now.
@zak always good for a simpsons-related lol. if you could make a GOW-related lol, you’d really be the man.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Wow, amazing! I think there needs to be more pro-Tofu video games. “Non-lethal Tofu Combat” would be good or something with tofu-friendly penguins?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:12 am
@Ed Tofu Wrestling? Penguin Tofu Rolling? Penguin vs. Tofu LUCHA LIBRE!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Wait… So to teach me a lesson about the wrongness of eating meat and cooking with animal flesh… PETA makes Cooking Mama MORE fun?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I wrote Nintendo & Majesco about this yesterday, already got a letter back from Nintendo.
PETA is evil, I hope they get sued.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:53 am
“Mama Kills Animals” made me want Turkey more actually.
Did you guys notice that the second half of the game was dull and boring?
I actually went to the supermarket yesturday get slice turkey and made myself a sandwich. Oh, and it reminded me to pre-order a Thanksgiving banquet. Thanks PETA!
November 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
@More Turkey. YES. What the hell was that making stuffing part? And YES, I need to order a Turkey somewhere.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
@Parapraxis I’d love to hear what sort of responses you get!
November 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I tried cooking mama yesterday! What a coincidence. I thought it was great fun, was really enjoying the over the top violence, then it gave me a bonus. It actually felt more like a guilt trip than a bonus. Don’t get me wrong I’m still having turkey for Christmas, I’ll just cover it in stuffing and gravy to bury my shame.
This site looks great but so much like our site. Weird. Admittedly we don’t have Marie Kare though. Shame.