Earlier this week, when PETA released our parody of Majesco's Cooking Mama video game series, we wondered how the game would go over with the folks at Majesco. We were extremely happy yesterday when we received Majesco's public response, which included the following:

Cooking Mama World Kitchen includes more than 25 vegetarian-friendly recipes including delicious breakfast, dinner, dessert and snack options. And, while Mama is not a vegetarian, she fully supports the humane treatment of animals, particularly for her canine protégé Max who makes his doggie debut in World Kitchen.

Majesco even pulled Mama from the kitchen to get her thoughts on the matter. "I would never put rat in my Ratatouille," said Mama. "Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed."

Now that I know I have Mama's attention:

Dearest Mama,

On behalf of everyone who worked on Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, The Unauthorized PETA Edition, I wholeheartedly want to thank you for the hours of enjoyment you have provided us through your various Cooking Mama games. We played and studied them as we prepared our lighthearted parody of your successful series.

Based on your and Majesco's good-natured responses to PETA's game, I think you understand that although we made you into a demonic, knife-wielding maniac in Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, we still love you. While we had a good time roasting you, the real purpose of our game, of course, was to bring to light some of the horrific practices of the turkey industry. And we mean the animals who are actually mistreated—not the virtual ones you cook up in your digital kitchen. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that, as a result of our game, tens of thousands of people have watched undercover footage from turkey factory farms, and hundreds of thousands have been exposed to the idea that how we treat animals matters.

It's great to hear that you want to "make the world a happier place," because that's pretty much what we want to do too (though it seems that we might have different tactics …). I do hope that you seriously consider making a vegetarian diet a part of your strategy for world happiness. By adopting a vegetarian diet, you can save more than 100 animals per year. Plus, vegetarians live longer and have a considerably lower carbon footprint. I know that—as you are a digital being—these benefits don't exactly apply to you, but I still urge you to take the pledge to be veg for 30 days.

Even if you don't take the plunge into the wonderful world of vegetarianism yourself, I still hope that you will consider making a vegetarian-only Cooking Mama game. There is such a variety of international cuisine, including Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Middle Eastern cuisine, with an abundance of vegetarian and vegan options for you and your followers to explore.

If you do decide to move forward with Cooking Mama: Vegetarian Kitchen please contact us so that we can help promote your game to our over 2 million members and supporters. I already look forward to playing it!

Best,

Joel Bartlett
Assistant Director of Marketing
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

P.S. Please give Max a big hug from everyone at PETA!

Posted by Joel Bartlett

Just in time for Thanksgiving and the release of the latest installment in Majesco's popular video game series Cooking Mama, PETA has launched a parody of the game called Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, the Unauthorized PETA Edition.

If you're wondering why we're picking on poor Mama, it's probably because you've never played the original games. They are so heavy on dishes made from dead animals that the only things missing are the blood and the slaughterhouse. So in the name of accuracy and honesty, PETA decided to introduce a little horror into Mama's kitchen!

In the original Nintendo Wii and DS versions, players score points for assembling a meal (yup, it's that simple). That also applies in PETA's parody, but with this Thanksgiving dinner, players also must go through the motions of plucking the turkey's feathers, pulling out the bird's intestines, and cutting off the animal's head (we like to paint the full picture of what goes into a "meal"). We also added this really disgusting mini-game—no, seriously, this should really gross you out—where you have to stick food up a turkey's butt. It's amazing the things we can come up with!

And all the while, a demonic, cleaver-wielding Mama takes delight in the agony. But the good news is that if you beat the game you might be able to give Mama a change of heart and replace her bloodlust with a craving for tofu-turkey. Give it a shot if you think you have what it takes!

In addition to entertaining and educating (some people like to say "edutaining," but I just think that's lame) with the new Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals game, we're also encouraging players to contact Majesco to ask for a Cooking Mama game with all vegetarian recipes. We've already got the good news that Mama's next outing after Cooking Mama: World Kitchen will be a gardening game titled Gardening Mama (how did they come up with that title?!), but we want Mama to take her newly found love of veggies back to the kitchen too.

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that this game is the best thing ever. So play it now, or else ….

Posted by Joel Bartlett

Have you seen the Tom Jones inspired cat memory game that’s making its way around the interweb this week? I hate to even blog about it, but what can I say, I’m obsessed. If you have a spare minute or two, see if you can beat me; I got to level 12. But I warn you, the game is beyond addictive and you'll never get the time back . . .

Voodoo Zebra/Creative Commons
What’s new, pussycat? Whoaoaoaa . . .

Click here, if you dare.