Swinefighter game spreads like a virus

A casual web game dubbed Swinefighter is catching on like a virus.

The game’s popularity comes on the heels of a global panic about the spread of swine flu around the world in an epidemic that has killed hundreds from Mexico to the U.S. to Europe in a matter of days.

Evidently, the department of questionable game topics is quite busy this week. In the exploit ’em while you can genre, Games2win created a Somali pirate sniper game. But Konami canceled its Six Days in Fallujah game after a public outcry. The Swinefighter game was created as an experiment in virality by Heyzap, which makes a widget that lets any web site include free casual games.

The mission for the player is to stop the out-of-control virus. Using a needle, the doctor-player is supposed to inject green pigs with an antidote before they fly off to infect different countries. The player has 20 seconds to click away with a mouse.

The Swinefighter game is at least educational. It offers health advice such as good hygiene to players. A counter on the Swinefighter site says more than 800,000 viruses have been eradicated.