Nintendo Switch’s First Advocacy Game Is PETA’s ‘Kitten Squad’

High-Octane Game Now Available on Nintendo Switch Lets Users Shoot Animal Abusers With Yarn-Ball Guns and Carrot Launchers

For Immediate Release:
May 10, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Today, Nintendo released PETA’s action-adventure game Kitten Squad for the Switch, making it one of the platform’s first free-to-play games and its first advocacy game ever. The popular game, which features a brand-new four-player local co-op mode, has already been downloaded over 1.3 million times across the PlayStation, Steam, and app versions.

In Kitten Squad, an elite team of kittens rescues baby elephants born into captivity, cows stuck on dairy farms, and orcas enslaved at SeaLand Marine Park from animal-abusing robot attackers using weaponry like carrot launchers and yarn-ball guns. Players earn cat-shaped coins that can be redeemed to dress kitten characters with shades, a crown, or PETA gear. Gamers can even play as their own family cat.

“In Kitten Squad, players liberate abused animals while also learning how they can help animals in the real world, such as by going vegan and boycotting the circus,” says PETA Vice President of Marketing Joel Bartlett. “PETA is thrilled that Kitten Squad is now available as a free-to-play game on Nintendo Switch, where it will surely reach scores of compassionate players who enjoy standing up for justice.”

Kitten Squad was created by designer Luc Bernard—known for Mecho Wars and Pocket God vs. Desert Ashes—in collaboration with PETA and its partner sagency. The game’s missions are inspired by PETA’s real-world exposés of animal abuse, including baby elephants who were exploited by Ringling Bros. circus, mother cows whose calves are repeatedly torn away from them on dairy farms, and sheep who are beaten on wool farms, as was documented at shearing facilities in Australia, the U.S., and Argentina.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has created numerous online games, including parodies of Pokémon and Super Mario Bros, as well as “I, Calf,” a new virtual reality experience that shows viewers what it’s really like to be a cow born on a dairy farm.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.