How far is too far when devising a video game concept?

In Finland, tolerance for the low-quality, Flash-based game called “Kindergarten Killer” ended when it showed up on a children’s gaming site. It was bad enough that the game appeared where kindergarten-age kids could play it — worse still, “Kindergarten Killer” was available just days following a fatal school shooting in that country.

It was the second such shooting there in a year.

“We have removed pages from our site that are not necessarily appropriate for younger family members,” said a note on LastenPetit, a site full of casual games, referring specifically to “Kindergarten Killer.”

Basically, “Kindergarten Killer” asks players to assume the role of a nut-case school janitor who mows down any kid who crosses his path. The kids themselves are armed, too, and they’re trying to keep the janitor from reaching the principal’s office and murdering him.

“Kindergarten Killer” is filled with animated spurting blood and flying bone and flesh fragments, and seems associated with a genre of Flash-based games designed to shock rather than entertain.

Though Game Guy’s not a fan of censorship, he wishes though that “Kindergarten Killer” died in the conceptual stage, with the designer just dreaming up the idea and saying to himself in the next thought, “Nah. That would be too tasteless.”

Instead, we’re left to assess the value of such games on our own. And maybe that’s a good thing, regardless of taste.

What do you think? Is “Kindergarten Killer” a boil that should be lanced immediately? Or is it one of those “guilty pleasures” you’d enjoy when nobody is looking?