Update: Paolo responds, after the jump.

Some Islamic guy got upset that Mohammed was depicted in the original Faith Fighter, and he did what Islamic folks tend to do when the founder of their religion is graphically depicted, they politely file a complaint. The thing got stoked up and surprisingly, Paolo decided to pull Faith Fighter, literally removing it from the internet. When the story broke but before Paolo reacted, my impression was that wanting to "remove it from the internet" was tantamount to removing all traces of cadmium from the lipid tissues of every lifeform on earth, the internet is too pervasive, too viral to just take something back. Then I remember that this particular game was just stored on the Mollindustria site, unlike his other games, and poof, it's gone. It's been replaced with a sequel.

Faith Fighter 2 has you clicking on each deity, causing a stream of hearts to emerge. It isn't entirely clear whether these hearts are supposed to represent the loving belief that keeps these entities meaningful, or a torrent of beating hearts that have been rended from unwilling victims of ritualistic sacrifice to keep these entities fed. If Paolo's intent was to mix metaphors there, it would have been cooler to have the heart graphic have little veins in it, the classical heart icon was not an aesthetic decision I fully agree with. The gameplay is completely boring and pointless as you're merely moving the mouse around, holding the left button and watching the years tick up.

Pulling a game is not something I'd ever imagine Paolo doing. This is a guy who had to flee his home country because an offended institution wanted to put him on trial and send him to jail for making a game, and that game is still available online. He decided that the original Faith Fighter didn't adequetely communicate the irony of religions that teach peace constantly causing physical harm to people, so he threw this up instead. Now this game is ironic, despite being shallow, and indeed its shallowness is what makes it even more irony-y.

The game borrows a dynamic from Frasca's Madrid, makes the skill totally irrelevant, and modifies the feedback loop. Frasca's game had it so that you could never keep all the candles fully lit, there were too many and they went out too fast. Paolo's game, on the other hand, suggests that it's all too easy to be politically correct and distribute love between Jesus, Mohammed, both incarnations of Buddha, Xenu, and the Flying Sphagetti Monster. We could spread the love/hearts around and keep everyone unoffended for years and years until we get bored and quit to go, say, rape the children of parishoners.