Hick news channel WTNH’s bleeding edge report on Crave’s Baby Pals for the DS had a few holes in it. One of the biggest was the fact the channel didn’t bother contacting the game’s publisher. Oops.

GamePolitics, however, did, and asked Crave to deny (or confirm!) whether the bathtime baby in their kids DS game was an undercover missionary for the Muslim faith. Crave’s response:

In creating the Nintendo DS game “Baby Pals”, the game developer Brain Toys / InXile used sounds files to simulate the life like baby noises and babbling. The sounds are publicly available for licence. It is a recording of a 5 month old baby babbling non-intelligible phrases. In over 200 hours of testing the product, no recognisable English words or phrases were discernable.

The sound in question of this babble may sound like the words night, right or light, but it is only coincidence as the baby recorded was too young to pronounce these words let alone a whole grammatically correct phrase.

We at Crave Entertainment and InXile regret that there was any misinterpretation of the baby noises and in no way have intentionally put any words or phrases into the baby sounds.

We hope this eases any concerns and fans continue to enjoy playing the game.

That record has been set straight. Besides… I always thought it sounded more like “my salami is alright”, though as a connoisseur of cured meats I may just be hearing what I want to hear.

Publisher Responds to “Islam is the Light” DS Game Controversy [GamePolitics]

Does the Crave DS game “Baby Pals” really say “Islam is the light” when you give your tot a bath? Of course not. That’s ridiculous. Doesn’t stop WTNH from reporting it, though!

Like the more widely-publicised issue surrounding the Little Mummy Cuddle and Coo doll – from which the baby’s audio sample is presumably taken – the baby is speaking in gibberish. A simple background check on the “furore” surrounding the doll could have told them that.

Likewise, a phone call to developers Crave – look, the logo is right there on the box in the report! – could have settled the matter, instead of trying to ask Nintendo about a game Nintendo didn’t develop.

Ah well. “BABY GAME SPEAKS GIBBERISH” wouldn’t be as interesting an angle as “BABY GAME IS ISLAMIC CHUCKY”, would it?

Video game plays strange message? [wtnh, via GamePolitics]