This Is Pop teams with PETA and The Smiths to develop Meat Is Murder game

How Soon Is Now to release a video game based on your pro-veganism anthem if you’re a long-split British band? About 31 years, it turns out.

Independent developer This Is Pop has partnered with The Smiths and animals rights organisation PETA to create a game based on the group’s song Meat Is Murder, from the eponymous 1985 album.

The browser game is titled ‘This Beautiful Creature Must Die’, after the infamous refrain in the highly charged ballad’s lyrics – presumably because ‘The flesh you so fancifully fry/Is not succulent, tasty or kind/It’s death for no reason/And death for no reason is murder’ was a little long.

Gameplay revolves around saving animals from being minced by meat grinders by clicking on them, while an 8-bit version of Meat Is Murder plays in the background.

PETA has previously dabbled in working with browser developers with parodies of popular video games, such as Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. It has also released statements on the treatment of animals in games, including condemning gameplay that allowed players to hunt whales in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

"This game is the biggest social crusade of all, as we safeguard the weak and helpless from violent human aggression,” Smiths frontman and long-time veganism advocate Morrissey said in a typically understated comment. “You don’t get that fromPokémon Go."

PETA’s Joel Bartlett added: "This Beautiful Creature Must Die has a fun, nostalgic vibe but also calls out animal agriculture as the biggest threat to human health, animals, and the environment today. After mastering the game, players can save animals and the Earth in real life by going vegan."