Kara Petrich, a Spanaway, WA mother, got an unexpected surprise the other day when she bought her daughter a copy of Petz: Monkeyz House Instead of the simian simulator, the cartridge contained T-rated "dating sim" Sprung. It wasn't just the wrong box, mind you, it was the wrong cartridge.
Sprung contains dialog like: "You wanna rock my mountains, don't you?" and "As your friend, I demand that you get out there and hook up with as many boys as possible." This is not appropriate for an eight-year-old.
"I want parents to know that you can't just hand kids a game and then send them off," Petrich said.
Wise words. And a weird story, eh? Both games are from Ubisoft, so I suspect someone in the factory slipped up, but I feel I should mention that willingly giving your children games in which common words like "Monkeys" and "Pets" are spelled with a "Z" instead of a traditional "S" is bad parenting too!
Source: KOMO News
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Displaying 1–18 of 18
gmhl10
LOL... just LOL.
Leopold stotch
I had this happen to me once when MGS III came out. I bought the game at circuit city and went home to play but it turned out to be madden. It was crazy the game was in the factory wrap with the correct box art AND disc art, but the game on the disc was madden. I took it back to circuit city and they gave me a new game and told me they had never seen that before. Maybe that was one of the reason they went out of business.... they got the crap products!
quesadia
She should have stuck with the original game she was gonna buy her daughter. "Cooking Mama"
>lawl
gravy666
How do we know that the parent actually isn't just some moron who picked up the wrong game without looking at the rating because maybe the cover just looked similar?
Jesters8652
If its anybody's fault, it's Ubisofts. Not that I'm placing blame. Someone in packing had a bad day and got lazy, it happens to everyone. For the mom to say that kids shouldn't play video games at all is just asinine. Mistakes happen. You cant take one persons negative experience with a company or product and use it to completely over-look thousands of people who have had a positive experience.
lowkevmic
So Ubisoft accidently had the wrong game in the box, a simple mix up made in their shipping and packaging department...Big Deal!!! All she had to do was take the game back to the store, and swap it out for a real copy of the game she wanted. Problem solved!! For her to be so outraged over the game is ridiculous. It's not like there is language or activity in the game that her precious little 8 yr old won't be exposed to in the next year or two. Give me a break, it seems like people will find anything to complain about.
FuzzyLumkins
What a dumb c, have everybody else take care of your child but you. I hope her daughter gets knocked up in highschool just because she played this.
Really_another_Sequel?
Aw Johnson, your stories are the best.
onthegrass
Wow, what a revelation "you can't just hand kids a game and send them off". *Gasp* you mean Parents might actually have to start paying attention to their children? say it isn't so.
EKG
In my 20 + years of gaming I have never heard of this happening, ever. Now this women is going to say that you should never just hand your child a game?? That is like telling someone you should never look up because one guy hurt his neck that one time. Ridiculous.
IamtheBat
Well Im Sprung by this
krypto74
Let's leave off the lulz of swapping petz for Sprung and look at the horror of a parent perpetuating the gender stereotyping of 8 year old girls. I'd kinda like to see Adam Sessler discuss third party developers for the DS continually creating games that tell women that they need to be more like the 50's stereotype. Cooking Mama, Petz, and the worst offender - Imagine: Women's Studies titles. Not only that, but the conceit that women don't like Metroid, they'd rather be training ponies. The mom in this story should be ashamed, nay, embarrased at not teaching her child how to snag a mate with "Sprung" as it's well within the realm of the goofy morality she's teaching the kid by buying her the type of crap she is.
Geez.
cryfordawn
Oh yes and teaching kids about dating is wrong? I think we are holding off on teaching kids about dating way to long. Thats why kids are having sex at a young age BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. Why cant they be kids and learn about life as well? Keep your kids out of gangs, dont worry about video games
MJH243
Off-topic, so feel free to thumb-down, but just making a note...
Stephen Johnson: Flooding the Feed Blog since 6:37 PST this morning...
Early bird gets the worm, I guess...
SirValor1177
"You wanna rock my mountains?"
Wow I really can't understand how you can mix up the two.
silent_jedi
Mr. Johnson your advice, from gaming to parenting, is truly wisdom for the ages.
Hoss70
I'm eagerly awaiting the inevitable blame that will be placed on Gamestop for this one way or the other
TehSkull
They're both equally horrible games.
Displaying 1–18 of 18