The fad of creating everyone's favorite non-secular celebrity in Nintendo's Mii Channel is far from new. What is new, however, is using the holy caricature in an advertisement for Easter services.

In a (successful [and adorable]) attempt to capitalize on the continued popularity of the Nintendo Wii, the Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco has adorned their ads for holy week with the pint-sized Jesus Mii.

Christened with the tagline "Come and Follow Mii," and including a very confused bunny, the ad is surprisingly well put-together, and definitely gives the impression that the church knows their audience. Kudos to them for the slick design.

[Via Eurogamer]

It's no secret that religious messageware Left Behind: Eternal Forces failed to find an audience amongst gamers (we think it's the whole "prayer is more powerful than guns" thing) so it's with a raised eyebrow and a quizzical look – and maybe even a Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor huhhh – that we greet news of Left Behind Games' "Million Game FREE Giveaway." It's simple: just stop by this website, make your order, and "increase [their] installed base of users to benefit future sales and expand distribution."

We should warn you though that it's not free free; there's a digital delivery or shipping surcharge of $5 or $6 respectively. Can't say we're filled with optimism for the plan, but apparently they know what they're doing ...

[Thanks, jc]

The New York Times explores how churches are using Halo to attract young congregants and the criticism it has caused. The article focuses on Protestant youth groups using the game to get young people through the door, then giving them the church spiel so that it'll be "hard for [the] teenagers to go to hell."

Critics say that allowing young people to play a game like Halo -- that they should not be able to buy on their own because it's rated M -- is actually a corroding influence. One critic put it succinctly when he said, "If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it."

As this blogger can clearly remember wanting to join the "troubled youth" program in elementary school because they got to play Nintendo and talk about their feelings while the rest of us were learning, it's pretty understandable how the allure of video games would get kids to do things they wouldn't necessarily want to do.

[Thanks Anonymous]

Games with a religious agenda aren't new. A trailer for A Fight for Faith: The Bibleman Video Game Adventure shows the latest way to teach gamers about Christianity. You've got Bibleman, Biblegirl, and Cypher making this Superfriends-style team that thumps enemies. It seems like a pretty standard PC/Mac action game, except even in the trailer, that agenda creeps in.

With an arch-enemy named "Wacky Protester," our Spidey ACLU-sense gives an idea of where the plot is going. We'll let you decide if this is better or worse than games with a military message. And how do games with subtle advertising compare? See the trailer after the break.

[Image credit: Bible and Traditions]

The Nation has a report this week on Operation Stand Up, an evangelical military entertainment group that is planning to send care packages including Left Behind: Eternal Forces to American troops fighting in Iraq.

The game, which raised the ire of many activist groups for its promotion of killing and converting non-Christians, will come packaged in "freedom packets" that also include a pocket-size Gideon bible, a Christian extreme sports DVD and the proselytizing book More Than a Carpenter. The OSU web site describes the game's inclusion as "just one more way OSU Tour can be a conduit in changing a soul forever."

While the group is affiliated with the Pentagon's America Supports You program, it's unclear just how much official support they have has from the military. The group does have the backing of "celebrities" including Stephen Baldwin, Evander Holyfield and, according to sources close to the group, God.

Nintendo and Sony united for a holy cause, picture provided to us by Joystiq reader Norm Wilson. Check out the highlights for the weekend:

Joystiquery
Joystiq interview: Hal Milton, lead designer, The Agency
Today's full of stuff video: Beautiful Katamari
Today's which-one-is-evil comparison: Skate versus Tony Hawk
Today's please-play-play-better-in-person video: DK Bongo Blast
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: criminal comic edition

News
Harry Potter website unleashes a little magic
GTA IV episodes confirmed Xbox 360 exclusives
Gamespot: Beautiful Katamari coming to Xbox Live Arcade
Independent Games Festival submission open call
Church of England thanks Sony for apology, it's not enough
A valiant attempt to get Xbox 360 failure rate answers
Watch the exclusive Red vs. Blue content without a Zune
Tomb Raider: Anniversary episodes hitting Xbox 360 in September
Blockbuster stores boast for Blu-ray
Sony not talking about rumble
Virtual Console Monday celebrates gentlemanly sport
Halo 3 viral marketing begins, countdowns and flyers galore
Dead or Alive movie dead on arrival
Take-Two chair talks Wii and DS focus
Legendary Pictures producing Diablo film
This Wednesday: Band of Bugs crawls onto XBLA (ick!)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 kicking this fall
New games this week: DiRT edition
3D Realms claims Earth No More
Take Two got $50M for GTAIV episodic content
McFarlane working on Halo 3 action figures
Microsoft sues Immersion over alleged breach of contract
PSP's Earthworm Jim gets the bird, goes 'on hold'
Tiltboard for Xbox 360 shipping next week for $40
Big Daddy's final look for BioShock limited edition
Marathon: Durandal runs away from German ratings board
80GB PS3 launches in Korea
EA reorganizes business into four labels
Soul Calibur IV's bountiful bouncing breasts bulge bigger
Afro Samurai going the way of the video game

Rumors & Speculation
GameStop: Wii Blaster due on June 27
Rumorang: Halo DS exhumed by IGN

Culture & Community
Indie gaming blog Gibbage turns into a portal
Fan crafts unofficial Super Mario Galaxy box art
The Guile to show SSFIITHDROMG
BlizzCon sold out, let the scalping begin
Gaming magazines influence boys' self-image
Father-son event at Nintendo world store
Nintendo Museum tour video, with 8 bit music
Drown your 360 sorrows with Ring of Fire parody song
Circuit City offers free copies of Shadowrun to Halo 2 Vista buyers
GameSpite gets teary-eyed with Chrono Trigger

This weekend the news broke that the Church of England was unhappy with depictions of Manchester Cathedral in the Insomniac developed, Sony published, game Resistance: Fall of Man. The Church had issues with Resistance's use of guns in the virtual cathedral and called the whole thing "highly irresponsible." Sony went ahead and finally issued a statement stating that they take the matter seriously: "Whilst we believe that we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game, we will be contacting the Cathedral authorities in order to better understand their concerns in more detail."

So, that's that, until dialog begins between Sony and Church of England; however, while the two groups work out their issues, CNN's headline writer is having a field day with this story. The best example is the first story they ran about the Church's issues. The headline reads: Cathedral shootout game under fire. Who knew that Resistance was all about a cathedral shootout? Then their latest story had the headline: Church wants cash for 'sick' game. Funny thing is that the word "sick" never shows up once in a quote, it's merely a word supposedly used by the church to describe the situation, but there's no attribution. Get ready kids, the mainstream media might spin this story off its axis.

The stereotypical image of a fiery preacher warning about the moral dangers of video games took a hit today with the relatively balanced look at games on Christian lifestyle program Living the Life.

The CBN program talked to Richard Abanes, author of What Every Parent Needs to Know about Video Games, who started by noting the positive effects game playing can have on logical thinking, social interaction and teamwork skills. Later, he said that media talk about games creating violent killers is overblown. "Whenever you see those stories in the news, it's just for the sake of getting some news," Abanes said.

Living the Life fixture Dr. Linda Mintle was up next, talking about the potential addictiveness of video games. Her professional opinion? "Is it really physically addicting. Probably not. Do the chemicals rise and you get into it? Yes." Still, Mintle warned parents to watch out for children using games excessively as an escape from social problems. Both guests recommended parents play games with their children and warned of potential desensitizing effects of prolonged play -- good advice that thankfully avoids the sensationalist fearmongering of some other media outlets.

Of course, the program did touch on some explicitly Christian issues. Abanes said that Christian games are not yet "hip enough" for kids, but that Christian games could eventually serve as "ministry points" to connect with hard-to-reach children. Mintle warned that parents should consider whether they want their kids "dabbling in the occult" through games. So, in summary, keep your kids away from The Witcher and you should be OK.

Watch - Living the Life 4/18/07 (WMV Link)

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Left Behind: Eternal Forces is beginning to raise the ire of some religious and political groups a month after its release. The Campaign to Defend the Constitution and the Christian Alliance for Progress are working to get the critically panned game pulled from Wal-mart shelves because of its "message of religious intolerance." Apparently some people think that gunning down the forces of the Antichrist, which include Muslims, rock stars and a sexy Secretary-General of the U.N., is un-Christian. Who knew?

To be fair, the game does let you convert non-believers instead of killing them, but it's hard to argue with the campaign's message that the game promotes "violent, divisive and hateful scenarios." Still, it seems a bit opportunistic to single out Wal-mart, which only sells the game in 200 of its 3,800 locations, while other equally culpable retailers get a free pass. Is an intolerant message enough to justify restricting a game's sale?

Escapist Magazine has posted a fascinating article detailing the attempts of an heir to a furniture fortune, and graduate students from the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa to create a non-violent first person Hindu shooter.

It sounds crazy at first, but when you look at the actual thought and effort that went into the game, it isn't that dissimilar from today's RPGs -- "We had Vedic abilities: astrology, Ayurvedic healing, breathing (meditation), herbalism, Gandharva Veda music, architecture (which let you purify demonic areas) and yagyas (rituals). During the game, you could acquire the siddhis of clairvoyance, levitation, invisibility, shrinking and strength. Your aim was to achieve pure consciousness by cleansing your six chakras in ascending order. But your current karma (depicted as a gray pall over your character's silhouette), if it covered any chakras, prevented you from cleansing them. So you had to remove karma by completing quests before you could purify yourself."

The only way to actually win the game would have been to complete it without harming or killing any other living creature. You could die and be reincarnated in a number of different forms like a human, a pig, a dog, or a worm -- but whatever form you came back as would limit the way in which you could interact with other characters in the game.

They had licensed the Unreal Warfare engine for use in the game, but eventually things began to fall apart because the graphics looked sub-par, and the producer had to face the facts that the development was beyond the team's ability to create.

Still, at least they tried to do something new that wasn't another standard shooter clone and featured some true innovation. It's refreshing when someone takes a risk every now and then and puts something truly unique on the map.

If Jesus of Nazareth, the "annointed messiah" in the Christian world, were alive today, would he game? Ryan Stone of North Greenville College thinks so, and he points to Halo as a title on which Jesus might earn a few frags. In his words, "I think He, being the almighty Creator, understands that He built into men the want to be a hero. I want to save the world and fly through the galaxy shooting the bad guys and coming out unscathed with a smoking pistol in each hand." We could not say it any better.

Stone's article derives from his experiences trying to set up a Halo tournament through his church in order to raise money for Relay for Life, which aids the American Cancer Society. However, some of the chuch members complained, citing not personal experience but "many articles from Focus on the Family and other highly conservative publications" that associated Halo with non-Christian values. But Stone reminds readers how Jesus "fought the conservative and religious people of the day, how he bucked the system."

Stone believes Jesus would have played some Halo, and probably rock at it, too. "He'd probably even beat me terribly and make me look like I'd never played. I'd even hope for a little humorous religious smack talking." We agree that many M-rated games could be seen (and rightfully so) contrary to Christian ideals of morality (e.g. every Rockstar game not revolving around table tennis), but as a government soldier who fights to save humanity against an evil alien race or two, Master Chief is a hero. So, to relay his final question, what would Jesus play?

[via GamePolitics]