So PETA has released Pokemon Black and Blue an educational game where the player takes on the role of an escaped Pokemon fighting for Pokemon freedom with a message of “Pokemon exist for their own reasons” (seriously you will read that message a lot if you decide to play this game). While I certainly do not support animal cruelty or teaching children to enjoy such cruelty through video games, I think this game is probably more problematic than it is helpful. And no, I am not just talking about the massive amount of copyright infringement here.
Lets start with the objective of the game. You will need to fight through a series of abusive trainers in order to get a seriously sad PETA video to the internet where it can change the hearts and minds of the whole Pokeverse.
Even the other characters thought the video was sad.
Along the way you will pick up other pieces of Pokemon themed PETA propaganda and be encouraged to share them with your friends.
But before you can get to these “Treasures” you will have to fight nightmare versions of characters from the Pokemon Games. The fights work about the same as they do in the real games but half of each Pokemon’s moves are “PETA Type” moves.
At first I thought the game was going to teach me about non-violent protest tactics with these moves. Sadly this was not the case. Moves like “Group Hug”, “Protest”, and “Shame” are just stat adjustment moves, the equivalent of “Growl” and “Sand-Attack” in the real games. You know those moves you always replace right away.
A few of these battered Pokemon have PETA type moves that actually do some damage to the nightmare trainers, but they have so few PP that you can’t win a fight using only PETA tactics. This forces you to perform the moves borrowed from the original game, the moves PETA claims are unjust to make Pokemon use on each other the game forces you to turn those moves on humans. Sure its a silly flash game, but if PETA is asking me to take the Pokemon Franchise’s endorsement of animal cruelty seriously then I think it is fair to see this game as an endorsement of violence against humans who mistreat animals. I seriously hope PETA doesn’t stand by that message.
All of this of course is pretty silly, since PETA seems to have totally missed the message of the real Pokemon franchise.
In the Pokemon games and show you learn to respect and work along side these creatures. Ash never put Pikachu into a Pokeball because it made Pikachu uncomfortable. “Good Trainers” are always characterized as loving, caring for, and viewing Pokemon as their partners. Some Pokemon would only evolve if they were friendly enough with you, if you kept them from passing out, and gave them special items and treats. The protagonists of the games and shows are always asked to walk the path of respect and love for Pokemon as opposed to the villains who treat their Pokemon with cruelty and exploit them. PETA didn’t need to make this game because it already teaches a message of respect for animals.
Maybe I overdid the analysis of this nonsense. But someone had to.
