PETA Vs. Cooking Mama

Later next week, America celebrates Thanksgiving, a holiday laden with gluttony, family gathering, and lots of drinking. This, as you could imagine, is the favorite holiday for animal rights organization, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In their never-ending crusade to enlighten the world toward vegan living, they developed a flash game with eerie resemblance to our favorite culinary matriarch, Cooking Mama. Except in their version, she’s developed a bloodlust for murder!

The game itself is remarkably faithful to the source material, both in gameplay and artistic style. One could almost mistake Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals for being a genuine product of Majesco. You start the game by brutally rending the turkey to pieces, as it looks upon you with martyr’s eyes. You then go through the motions of mixing its bits together to create crude representations of traditional Thanksgiving dishes. In between batches of cooking tasks, you’re rewarded with bonuses, including appetizing footage from turkey slaughter houses. By the game’s end, Mama has come to her senses and presents you with the honor of preparing tofu-enriched vegetarian dishes. Mmmm…tofu!

In a day when lawsuits are filed at the drop of a hat, Majesco reacted with good humor to the parody, issuing a response on behalf of Cooking Mama herself.

“I would never put rat in my Ratatouille,” said a feisty Mama while beating some eggs. “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.”

Not likely found on PETA's menu: The Turbaconducken.

Rather than turn the situation into a legal circus, Majesco instead took the high road, using this as an opportunity to promote their upcoming Cooking Mama World Kitchen game coming soon to the Nintendo Wii. Kudos, Majesco!

PETA, while not often known for their rational actions, perpetuated the air of good sportsmanship set by Majesco’s press release. Joel Bartlett, PETA’s Assistant Director of Marketing, issued a follow-up statement to Cooking Mama, expressing affection toward the Cooking Mama games, despite the nature of their parody. He offered that if Cooking Mama should ever be interested in developing a vegetarian-based game in the future, the organization would be more than happy to lend assistance.