I get that PETA is totally against the "collecting and battling" nature of the Pokemon games. It makes sense, and viewing the games as celebrating virtual cockfighting is awful.

But to coincide with the release of the Pokemon games Black 2 and White 2, sequels to the Pokemon Black and White games of two years ago, PETA has published a Flash-based game to talk about friendship and equality and a stance against the virtual dogfighting rings that are made up of grade schoolers who think that Pikachu is cute.

I present to you "Pokemon Black and Blue: Gotta Free 'Em All!":

• No, just the image will do fine, thanks.

The game that they're running has a number of callbacks to the Pokemon games, and even references a number of tropes within the games, as well as a long-running meme involving the Slowpoke Pokemon — I mean, aside from all of the references to animal abuse that are involved in training real-life critters for fighting others to the death.

Strangely, this game doesn't seem as gimmicky or awful as their others, which include "New Super Chick Sisters," "Super Tofu Boy," "Super Tanooki Skin 2D," and "Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals." (Note: NONE OF THESE ARE MADE UP.)

I'll link to this game, just because it's so bizarre, but I warn you now: the payoff isn't worth the playthrough. Don't say I wasn't warned.

If you'll excuse me, I'm off to go grab my copy of Pokemon Black 2.