Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Cynical Video Gaming: Harpooned!

My post a few days back on the market for cynical video gaming reminded me of a recent Steve Jackson post on his company's Daily Illuminator. Following his "literature search" for evidence of the "scientific research" that the Japanese claim to be conducting in order to justify the continuation of their whaling industry, Jackson was pointed to Harpooned, a video game satirizing the Japanese scientific agenda by putting the player in control of a "research vessel" mounted with an explosive-tipped harpoon gun. Sample of gameplay below:



It's a gory and blunt statement, and I suppose it may provide a sort of rude education to a few people not already informed about Japanese whaling. That said, given games like Army of Two, I wonder what the ratio will be between those "enlightened" by the game's grisly subject matter and those getting a momentary cubicle rush out of turning whales into chum slick during their lunch break.

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