Super Tanooki Skin 2D spoofs Super Mario 3D Land

PETA is a group with noble ideals. Who isn't in favor of the ethical treatment of animals, after all? They're cute and furry. Yet sometimes, the company that has had beautiful celebrities strip naked to protest furs... well, sometimes it goes too far in a direction that isn't quite as pretty.

PETA is a group with noble ideals. Who isn't in favor of the ethical treatment of animals, after all? They're cute and furry. Yet sometimes, the company that has had beautiful celebrities strip naked to protest furs... well, sometimes it goes too far in a direction that isn't quite as pretty. In this case, PETA is picking on none other than the hero of all heroes, Mario. Because he sometimes wears a tanooki suit, don't you know?

The tanooki is a real animal, as PETA notes on its site devoted to the anti-Mario campaign:

Tanooki may be just a "suit" in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. Play Super Tanooki Skin 2D and help Tanooki reclaim his fur!

There's even a Flash-based game that you can play.



Give Super Tanooki Skin 2D a shot and you'll find that it's one of those quick jobs where you just press the space bar to jump and hold it down to jump further as the screen scrolls. True to Mario form, you'll collect coins as you go, but there's a timer that counts up and there are no extra lives or power-ups. Ahead of you, Mario flies with a tanooki pelt and showers the stage with blood. Eventually, you'll time a jump wrong and fall into a pit or get crushed behind an object as the screen scrolls.

PETA is known for outlandish campaigns, and this isn't the first time that the group has turned its attention to video games. There's also Super Tofu Boy, a spoof on Super Meat Boy that is accessible from the same site.

I have a hard time imagining that people who play Super Mario 3D Land will grow up to slaughter tanooki in their spare time, or that they'll develop a keen interest in fur coats. This feels like a case of PETA going after the wrong offenders. The old gaming stereotype is that we all live in our parents' basements. This isn't a group that's going to be rushing out to buy fur coats.

Clearly, PETA is going after whatever large group it can find that has any sort of connection to animal mistreatment at all. What's next, a campaign to save Cuccos? Probably... if someone can figure out how to code something suitable in Flash.

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Staff article by Jason Venter (November 14, 2011) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.