PETA Protests Cooking Mama (Badly)

There are so many things wrong with this story we don't even know where to begin. Let's start by identifying the players involved: On one hand we have Majesco, a small boutique publisher responsible for the cutesy handheld gaming sensation Cooking Mama. In another corner we have lobby group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Finally, we have you, the concerned gamer, and unwitting target of PETA’s latest protest action.

For their latest attention-grabbing stunt, PETA have released a rather sorry collection of online minigames called Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. According to the group, the purpose of this game is to draw attention to the horrific slaughter of virtual animals that takes place every time a child boots up the game to create a meal on their PSP, DS or Wii.

Like all protest games that suck, Mama Kills Animals is filled with terrible gameplay and fun facts for gamers to remember while they viciously plow their way through species after species of domesticated delicacy. For example, the game notes that over 40 million turkeys are killed each year during the holiday season in overcrowded farms. Players can unlock “bonus” content showing videos of these turkey factories by completing levels in the game.

Screenshot from the unauthorized version of Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals.

As awesome as the prospect of the game is, we can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed with the execution. I mean, what gamer doesn’t enjoy feeling their virtual blade tear through the flesh of some unsuspecting woodland creature? It’s what we’ve been doing in video games since the 1980s, for Pete’s sake. In one level, players are asked to slaughter a delicious turkey but pulling out its intestines and then decapitating it. Hello!?? We’ve all seen this before: it’s called a finishing move. Also, no matter how badly we managed to do at the game, we were still able to get to the end and unlock all of the bonus content. This is a game that is crying out for a “Top of the Food Chain” difficulty setting. PETA definitely needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with some original gameplay ideas if they want to grab our (admittedly short) attentions.

[Sources: Gamasutra, PETA]