First let me start off by saying Im 34 yr old male and been a gamer since I learned how to use the controls on my Atari 2600 back in the day. Ive owned just about every video game console that came out and do so to this day. My brother and I grew up on video games and I am not a believer in anyway that games cause a kid to go out and shoot his classmates. I hate Jack Thompson! (hardcore gamers know who that guy is) and will always defend video games. Im currently gaming on the 360 and PS3 with COD4, Warhawk, Gears of War, Burnout Paradise, NBA2k8 and enjoy the new Frontline Fuel of war demo. On my DS I have games like COD4 also, Madden, Mario Kart, and Advance Wars. I listen to Achievement Junkies podcast everyweek and Im on Nelsons friends list. Just to give ya a little background on myself

Now with that said I think Ive experienced my first WTF on a game as a parent!....I was at my local Best buy two weeks ago and purchased for myself Burnout Paradise and for my daughter who is 5 I bought Interactive Storybook DS series 3 game. I really thought since she is going thru Pre-school that this game which has mini games in itself to help your child learn numbers, colors etc would be a great purchase, especially at 19.99! And on top of that the game also tells your child a few "Classic Fairy Tales" (fairy tales that i never heard of buy the way). Now in these fairy tales the story is narrated by a lady and a picture will pop up during the narration...within that picture your able to interact with something. Well a Fairy tale about Flanders Dog or whatever basically to make a long story short ...Dog gets lost and stumbles upon a house in the country where a mean old dude lives...well...the old guy doesnt want the dog there and yells at it...at this point you can interact with the onscreen picture by tapping the bottom screen on your Nintendo DS...and what happens when you do this??? The old man beats the dog over the head with a stick!! Yeah I know funny probably but for a game labled AGES 3-6! I didnt find it that way. It doesnt end there....the old man ends up killing the dog and burying it in his backyard...the Dogs owners are looking for the dog when they stumble on this old mans house....Now at this point I turned this thing off before my Daughter was devasted even more... so no I didnt finish the story and maybe the dog lives somehow or it was some kind of bad dream by the dogs owners... BUT the damage was already done by showing the dog get hit over the head with a stick and supposly dies! I ended up returning this game to Best Buy the next day...showed the manager at Best Buy and he could not believe it! He gave my money back in full and pulled the 3 copys off they had on the shelf until he had a chance to show higher ups I guess to make a decision on what to do with those copys. Now with all this said...yes there is a ESRB rating. Which is E for everyone but with mild violence. Now I didnt take note of the rating when purchasing...yes I know Im guilty of it....but cleary on the front of the box its marked for AGES 3-6! and when you see that you really dont expect to see that kind of violence or any in a kids game. I didnt view the rest of the fairy tales cause this one story was enough for me. Just wanted to give you parents out there a warning about this game. I'll provide a link at the end of this post so you know what it looks like you make the decision from there if you want to purchase this or not. But man I was blown away and could not beleive it. My friend says I have a good case for a lawsuit but Im not sure since the Rating said Mild violence and really Im not a lawsuit happy person. Just beaware though parents I couldnt believe it.
http://www.amazon.com/Tommo-80091-Interactive-Storybook-Series/dp/B000RZ8Z8C/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_img_b

i agree and say,"wtf"

To bad you didn't video it. That make for some interesting viewing. You did the right thing returning it.

Yeah thats to bad your Daughter had to see that.Good thing you were there too.I do believe what you said though Video games don't make you kill people and do crazy stuff.Some times kids do think they can act out whats in a video game.With Micheal Vick and all his dog fighting stuff this year I think people are a little more sensitive to animal abuse...

Yeah no doubt I wish I knew how to do all that Youtube stuff to post it. I did some searching for anyone else complaining about it and couldnt find a thing. Im not sure if anyone else bought this game bought me yeah its crazy guys. Never seen anything like it. Like I said I didnt finish the story and maybe the dog lives or it was all a dream but the damage is already done when you show the dog getting hit over head and show it buried in this guys backyard. Amazing stuff.

wow i looked at you post and said crap i cant read. lol

To that I DO say WTF!!? Beating a dog? Encouraging animal cruelty into young minds much? To that I say, just get My Word Coach for your daughter, she will get exponentially smarter!!

Hey thanks for the info on MY Wordcoach for my daughter.

Yeah again couldnt believe it. Ages 3-6 and a ESRB rating of E for everyone / Mild violence

theres actually a great thread about this whole concept titled
"violence in video games"
look it up jackaroo makes some great points.

I was reading this and I am quite effected by the dog dying and it being buried!
However hitting the dog and the owners having justice I find would have been fine!
But the dog dying! :O

yeah its crazy. Ive been contacted by few people in the media but havent responded as of yet. Im afraid of becoming a mini-jack thompson to be honest with you. LOL.

I know I'm responding to a 4 month old post here, but I just wanted to say thanks for that warning. I just picked up a DS. It's primarily for my 8 year old daughter, but I expect my 5 year old daughter will be getting a mileage out of it, too. (Actually, let me revise that: It is secretly primarily for ME, but I picked up a pink one and I'm claiming it is for the kids...) Had I seen the Interactive Storybook on the store shelf, I almost certainly would have picked up a copy. Now I won't.

I still vividly recall the day my daughters watched "Benji" - an old movie about a dog. I remember loving the movie as a kid, and when I saw it showing on tv I put it on for them without a second thought and went into the other room. Partway into the show I heard traumatized screaming from them both. Turns out there's a scene in the movie where a dog (not Benji) is kicked by a person, viciously and repeatedly. Can't remember if it dies or not, but it was a pretty brutal beating. We turned off the show and had a big discussion about how tv is not real and the dog was just an actor. They asked how a dog could "act" getting kicked, and I'm still pretty much at a loss. I looked for but didn't see a "no animals were filmed during the making of this production" at the end of the movie, and the movie came out in the 70's. I wonder if the dog was really being kicked?

Also responding to an old post but didn't see it the first time through.
You know, when I was a kid I watched cartoons where a certain hunter constantly tried to shoot and kill a rabbit. I watched cartoons where a cat was beaten repeatedly by his owner for attacking a bird who often instigated the fight. I watched Benji when I was real little, I cried like crazy. You know what? Even with all that I'm a pretty well adjusted human being. Violence on weaker characters builds empathy for those characters not the urge to hurt animals. Gargamel never once made me want to kill midgets.

Great post GottiJr, I have been looking for a DS game for my son who just turned 5. I saw this game online and thought it was a great idea. But apparently the execution (no pun intended) is flawed.

I think we'll look into My Word Coach and some other games.

Thank you for your post.