Common Sense Media is a somewhat right wing, religious group who dole out parental advice to people who probably shouldn’t have had children in the first place. Displaying a complete lack of their namesake, they’ve compiled a list of games to avoid buying kids for Christmas, as well as suitable replacements.

While their goal is a noble one, and I agree that children shouldn’t be playing games unsuitable for their ages, their choices as alternative games have left me scratching my head a bit.

This is the list of games to not but for kids, with “suitable” alternative encased in parentheses.

• Assassin’s Creed II (Mirror’s Edge)
• Borderlands (Infamous)
• Brutal Legend (Ghostbusters)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Battlefield: Bad Company)
• Dead Space: Extraction (Deadly Creatures)
• Dragon Age: Origins (Braid)
• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Batman: Arkham Asylum)
• Demon’s Souls (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (Overlord II)
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (C.O.P.: The Recruit)

And here are the problems :

Replacing Borderlands, which, yes,  is a horribly violent game – but one set on a fictional planet with decidely satirical overtones with inFamous, a decidedly violent game set in a realistic world where your moral choices hardly matter and you can be a right evil bastard? Substituting Dragon Age Origins, a pretty violent RPG with adult themes with…Braid, a time-distorting puzzle game? Barring the fact that they’re completely different games,  just how the hell do you put downloadable content under a Christmas tree?

Batman : Arkham Asylum, while not as superficially violent as GTA is a game filled with mature themes that just aren’t child appropriate, and Overlord II is a game where the sole purpose is to be evil, going so far as to club baby seal. I reckon ridding the world of infected scourge is a more noble endeavour.

You can read more about why Common Sense Media thinks these games are so morally bankrupt over at their site, here.