People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), ananimal rights organization based in the United States, has released a number ofbrowser games on its website that have parodied existing video games. Various PETA parodies have been made based on games such asNew Super Mario Bros.,Cooking Mama 2: World Kitchen,New Super Mario Bros. Wii,Super Meat Boy,Super Mario 3D Land,Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, andPokémon X and Y. PETA creates these games to spread attention about real-lifeanimal rights andanimal welfare concerns and to advocate forvegetarian andvegan diets.

Some of PETA's earliest forays into gaming include Flash-based games such asMake Fred Spew (2001)^[1] andSave the Chicks (2003),^[2] which were included as part of PETA's anti-dairy andKentucky Fried Cruelty campaigns. These games received some coverage in academic and news sources,^[3][4][5] and PETA's head of online marketing, Joel Bartlett, identified their 2004Revenge of the PETA Tomatoes and theFrogger parody,Lobster Liberation, as some of the organization's earliest released games.^[6][7] However it was not until 2007 that PETA began to attract wider attention within the gaming community with its release ofSuper Chick Sisters, a parody ofNew Super Mario Bros. andSuper Mario Galaxy.^[8] Controlling two female chicks named Nugget and Chickette, the player sets out to rescue vegetarian actressPamela Anderson, who has publicly revealed animal cruelty endemic toKFC's food production, from KFC's mascotColonel Sanders.^[9] In 2009, the game was met with a sequel,New Super Chick Sisters, a homage toNew Super Mario Bros. Wii.^[8] In this game,McDonald's mascotRonald McDonald kidnaps Anderson with the intent of using her as aHappy Meal ingredient, and the Chick Sisters must rescue her again.^[10]

In 2008, PETA released an adaptation of the cookingsimulatorCooking Mama 2: World Kitchen calledCooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals.^[11] In it, PETA encouraged users to write toCooking Mama developerMajesco Entertainment to create a version of the game with only vegetarian recipes.^[12]Mama Kills Animals consists ofminigames related to the preparation of animal carcasses, in this case, a stuffed turkey.^[13] After successfully completing the main levels, Mama goes vegan and hugs a live turkey, while the player makes a tofurkey. The game contains facts about turkeys and includes vegan Thanksgiving recipes.

Edmund McMillen^[14] from Team Meat, the developer of theindie gameSuper Meat Boy, created various accounts on PETA's official forums to try to get his game parodied by PETA. PETA developedSuper Tofu Boy and released it in December 2010.^[15] It stars Tofu Boy, an anthropomorphic cube oftofu whose goal is to rescue Bandage Girl, the girlfriend of the original game's protagonist Meat Boy, from Meat Boy.^[16] It plays as a standardplatformer^[15] and is peppered with inter-level pro-vegetarian messages and facts about meat consumption and the livestock industry.^[17][18] Team Meat responded by adding Tofu Boy as a playable character. Tofu Boy is unlocked by typing the word "petaphile" in the character selection screen. As a playable character, he is very slow and has a poor jump height, but players are always given an A+ level completion grade regardless of how long they take to finish a level as him. He would eventually return in the sequel,Super Meat Boy Forever.

After releasingSuper Tanooki Skin 2D (often known asMario Kills Tanooki), a parody ofSuper Mario 3D Land, PETA released a statement that "Tanooki May Be Just As 'Suit' in Mario Games. But in Real Life, Tanooki Are Raccoon Dogs Who is Skinned Alive for Their Fur." The organization also stated that "by wearing Tanooki,Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur."^[19][20] It is anaction game in which the player controls a skinned but living raccoon dog that chases Mario to retrieve its fur.^[20][21]

PETA took on thePokémon series withPokémon Black and Blue, a parody ofPokémon Black and White 2 that focuses on animal fighting and experimentation.^[22][23] Inrole-playing-style battles, the player controls aPikachu who escapes Ash Ketchum’s abusive circus. Pikachu first fights a drunk Cheren,^[24] who brutally abuses his Tepig in a dog fighting-esque manner, and then moves on to other Trainers and characters in order to rescue theirPokémon from their ownership (a Snivy being experimented on by Professor Juniper, an Oshawott skinned alive by Ghetsis, and finally Ash himself).^[25][26] Pikachu recruits these Pokémon to its cause,^[27] as well as the sympathetic Nurse Joy.^[23] A sequel,Pokémon Red, White, and Blue, A parody ofPokémon X and Y, followed in 2013. Also a role-playing game, it stars Pikachu andMiltank,^[28] who battle McDonald's characters like theHamburglar in a crusade against the rare but ongoing practice of meat production in theUnova region.^[29][30] Pikachu must rescue a Jigglypuff from being treated like furniture, a Miltank from the dairy industry and the slaughterhouse, and Grimace from being tortured. At the beginning of the game, Pikachu is nearly eaten by an obese gamer but lives.

Also in 2013, PETA releasedCage Fight: Knock Out Animal Abuse, abeat 'em up game in the style ofRiver City Ransom. The player controls vegetarianmixed martial arts fightersJake Shields,Aaron Simpson, andGeorgi Karakhanyan and attacksanimal testing practitioners to rescue confined animals.^[31] There is a warning before the game begins that it is illegal to punch scientists in real life.

PETA has parodiedFast Food Nation in a game called “You Want Lies With That?”. The player controls an evil chef who must create hamburgers while avoiding the pigs and cows who are chasing him. Successful completion of each level reveals the links between meat consumption and heart attacks orE. coli.

There is also a hunting game where the player shoots tofu deer; “Stick a Chick”, where the player must preventsalmonella-infected chicken from entering the shopping cart; an animal testing awareness game that also spreads awareness about breast cancer; a gory maze game about seal clubbing; several games about animal skins used in fashion; and a quiz game that compares theAmerican Kennel Club to theKKK.

PETA's games have received mainly negative opinions from video game journalists.Forbes contributor Erik Kain summarized the series in general as "a long parade of silly protests." He also considered PETA's failure to satirize well-known hunting games likeDuck Hunt andBig Game Hunter as well as the general message that video games encourage real-life violence, to be illogical.^[32]

Response toMario Kills Tanooki has been negative, generally holding that it was under-researched. While PETA's protest focused on Mario wearing a raccoon dog's skin rather than harming them himself, Gaming Union stated that "from any gamers' perspective, it's clear to see that PETA have missed their mark on this one; Mario squishes hundreds of enemies in each of his games, but is never seen harming a tanuki." Kain called the game "ludicrous" given that gamers had long adored the Tanooki suit and would not be encouraged to kill real-life raccoon dogs.^[32]

Jessica Conditt fromJoystiq found the messages ofPokémon Black and Blue to be contradictory: "while it's terrible to punch, kick, cut or hit fictional animals with bats, it's perfectly acceptable to electrocute humans".^[33]Jason Schreier fromKotaku called it "ridiculous".^[22]Kotaku's Mike Fahey wrote a mostly negative piece aboutPokémon Red, White, and Blue; he stated that despite its occasional humor, "mostly it just wanders about, beating its message into your brain with heavy hands."^[34]

Not all critical response has been unfavorable. Fahey opined thatNew Super Chick Sisters "manages to be a rather capable little platformer despite its heavy-handed message."^[8] Nikole Zivalich ofG4TV calledSuper Tofu Boy "actually a pretty good time waster" and, as she is a vegetarian, claimed to be "on Team Tofu."^[15] Overall, Mike Splechta fromGameZone stated that "some are a little less flattering than others, but they do tend to get their point across." He also calledCage Fight "kickass", praising its gameplay andchiptune soundtrack, and encouraged readers to play it.^[31]

In some cases, the creators of the original games have responded to PETA's parodies. In response toSuper Tofu Boy,Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat added Tofu Boy as a playable character in aSuper Meat Boy update.^[15] Majesco responded toCooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals that the Mama character, while not a vegetarian herself, supports treating animals humanely and "would never put rat in [her] Ratatouille."^[11] Nintendo also released a statement in regards toPokémon Black &Blue stating, "Nintendo and the Pokémon company take the inappropriate use of our products and intellectual property seriously."^[35]

PETA's games—and the games they parody—that have received press coverage include:

• Super Chick Sisters (2007) –New Super Mario Bros. andSuper Mario Galaxy^[8]
• Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals (2008) –Cooking Mama: World Kitchen^[11]
• New Super Chick Sisters (2009) –New Super Mario Bros. Wii^[8]
• Super Tofu Boy (2010) –Super Meat Boy^[15]
• Super Tanooki Skin 2D (2011) –Super Mario 3D Land^[19]
• Pokémon Black and Blue (2012) –Pokémon Black and White 2^[33]
• Cage Fight: Knock Out Animal Abuse (2013) –River City Ransom^[31]
• Pokémon Red, White, and Blue: An Unofficial PETA Parody (2013) –Pokémon X and Y^[34]

• Full list of PETA's browser games

• Action games
• Animal rights mass media
• Beat 'em ups
• Browser games
• Cooking video games
• Flash games
• Parody video games
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Platformers
• Role-playing video games
• Simulation video games
• Vegetarian-related mass media
• Video games scored by Tommy Tallarico
• Video games developed in the United States
• Satirical video games

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