Last week PETA, yes the animal rights protest group, released a game. Seriously. If that doesn’t surprise you then perhaps this will: it isn’t their first. PETA have created more than a few parodies, quite elaborate send-ups in fact, of popular video games, movie franchises and even strip tease games. These satirical experiences are fairly blunt to say the least and are laced with issues from vegetarianism to animal cruelty. This library is a prime example of activist gaming.

The game released this week accused Mario, the innocent Italian plumber, of skinning poor innocent tanukis to make his apparently visceral flying suit. The other games are of a similar nature. “Super Tofu Boy” is a delightful little satire of Super Meat Boy, that transforms the eponymous hero (who isn’t actually made of meat, but that is by the by) into a blood spattering villain fighting against a mirror bean curd hero. The super chick sisters demonstrate the cruelty of KFC in an obviously Mario based platformer. But my absolute favourite had to be “Mama Kills Animals”. This is a gruesome interpretation of the cute, child-friendly cooking simulator, where you use various mini games to brutalise a turkey with far more blood in it than a standard slasher flick.

These flash games are surprisingly well made. In fact, many of them show a lot of loyalty to the originals, using the games that they parody to push various beliefs. Unlike many people in the forums, who spewed anger against PETA for taking away their fun, I quite enjoyed this week’s little parody. Honestly, I didn’t know that the tanuki existed, let alone was skinned for its fur. I didn’t find the blood soaked Mario land particularly offensive either. These games are quite openly pieces of propaganda. They aren’t the bludgeon that is going to turn me into a vegetarian but are the influence that will make me read up on the issue before choosing not to be.

These examples show biased games at their best, mostly because they are presented in a tongue-in-cheek manner and therefore can’t set out to indoctrinate because we know the context of the argument. I’m not convinced that attacking the suit of a plumber who also wears a penguin suit was the correct way to frame their ideas, but hey PETA had their fun, and frankly I had a giggle too.