Little Inferno Arrives on iPad while Fire Safety Nuts Call for Its Ban on Wii U

[Shawn Zipay]

Tomorrow Corporation's Little Inferno is slated to arrive on the iPad on January 31 (that would be tomorrow). So now you can burn things on the go in between burning things while you're at home. This is the same fireplace simulator that has been available for a while now on the PC and Wii U, though you will need at least an iPad 2 in order to play the game.

However, it looks like fire safety fanatics are calling for the removal of Little Inferno from the Wii U eShop because it's "causing concern for kids fire safety." That quote just broke my brain.

The problem here is that the game not only tells you how playing with fire is bad and dangerous, it actually demonstrates as such as the game progresses. Sure, on the surface, the game is nothing more than just setting things on fire, but when you dive deeper into the game it becomes so much more than that.

Something tells me these people didn't even bother to play the game.

[K-16]

One of the earliest cutscenes even flat out admits playing with fire is dangerous (possibly the first one), so this satire game with a hidden moral is something that teenagers will understand (and the ESRB appropriately rated this as T). Unfortunately their research stops short at the first paragraph of a contributor's review for Forbes... Ironically had they spent more time reading the same article instead of whistleblowing in mass panic, they would also notice the words "At a certain point, you begin to consider that desperately burning everything you own is not the stuff of a happy story."

The Public Fire Protection division of the National Fire Protection Association has proven with their own campaign awareness site, that they chose to rush to a conclusion instead of spending time researching on the game, but what bothers me is the possibility that people can be closed-minded from fear for their children to see the flaws of this campaign, and will ignorantly support this, though it's a little comforting to see the opposition posting well thought-out comments on NFPA's site (polite too).

Although I will admit the game broke my brain (far more than the fire safety campaign) the moment the game CHANGES GENRES!!! That messed me up so much, since it completely blindsided me in a very rewarding fashion. I mean the developers really... Uh... Made the reward ridiculously well-made when... They didn't have to put it in at all. But it made their storytelling, and the delivery of the moral behind this game more effective.

Good to see the game being on tablets now (aside from Windows). Hopefully the developers will consider Android as well.

[CptainCrunch]

Oh yeah, if the slogan "For the children" can be added to it, it will usually end up bad.

From schools not able to suspend kids to parents using proper discipline all the way up to gun control, video game control, music control, and so on.

Parents cannot tell their children about fire, it is better to jump to conclusions and force the decision from the parent and those that do not have children or understand real safety.