Morrissey and PETA have a relationship that goes way back — where do you think that ridiculous cat-hat image came from? Today, they’ve taken their partnership into the 20th century by releasing a new video game based on The Smiths’ classic “Meat is Murder”.
Yes, that says “20th century” on purpose. The game, dubbed This Beautiful Creature Must Die, is a clicker stylized like an old school arcade game. There’s even an 8-bit rendition of “Meat is Murder” as the score. The object is pretty simple: Click on the cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys in the four quadrants before they reach the spinning blades of death at either end. (You also want to avoid clicking bombs, which seems a strange tactic — wouldn’t you want the slaughterhouse to explode? Just a thought.)
“PETA’s This Beautiful Creature Must Die has a fun, nostalgic vibe but also calls out animal agriculture as the biggest threat to human health, animals, and the environment today,” PETA Vice President of Marketing Joel Bartlett said in a press release. “After mastering the game, players can save animals and the Earth in real life by going vegan.” Well, I got to about 164 animals saved, and still had turkey bacon for breakfast. What players most likely will do after playing is click on a link that takes you to a new PETA video showing some horrific slaughterhouse tactics while the original “Meat is Murder” plays on.
Minus the wanting everyone to go vegan thing, the core point of the game is reasonably just: There has got to be a more humane way to handle agriculture. It’s just hard to see how a repetitive, goal-less game is really going to help change people’s minds — but don’t tell Morrissey that. “This game is the biggest social crusade of all,” Moz said, “as we safeguard the weak and helpless from violent human aggression. You don’t get that from Pokémon Go.”
If you want to stop looking for that allusive Pikachu for a second, scroll below to play This Beautiful Creature Must Die.
