In the history of music video games Guitar Hero, developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console, distinguished itself from other similar games through one particular feature. Unusually for those times, Guitar Hero came packaged with a guitar peripheral modeled after a black Gibson SG rather than using the console’s standard controller which simulates the playing of music. The feeling of playing an actual guitar is almost real, except the fact it uses five colored “fret buttons” and a “strum bar” instead of frets and strings. When RedOctane, who was selling at the time guitar-shaped controllers for imported copies of GuitarFreaks, came up with the idea of creating a game thought in the manner of being able to use an entirely new Guitar controller, the company decided to challenge Harmonix in such an adventure. The source of inspiration for the development of Guitar Hero was Konami’s Guitar Freaks arcade game which had not made a very good impression on the North American market, most probably because of the unexpected reduced level of exposure.


The soundtrack of the game comprised 47 playable rock songs, which were in fact cover versions of the most popular songs from famous artists and bands, from the 1960s to the present.

To resume, five games have been released so far, all of them designed for video game consoles, while other games have aimed mobile phones and the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system. The series has sold over 21 million units to the moment, earning over US$1 billion.
With this brief history of the game, we just can not be taken by surprise by the amplitude of the cultural phenomena which Guitar Hero not only created, but also amplified through sustained efforts. The greatest achievement of the game – from a cultural point of view – is the interest in young adults and children in learning how to play a real guitar.

While some consider it revolutionary, as it is introducing millions of people to the possibility of playing the instrument and teaching them important necessary skills, others tend to blame such a concept because it is based on rock and roll music. And, as many of us already know, there are conservative Christian groups who call the genre “the music of the devil”. As a logical consequence, a game like Guitar Hero would be, no more, no less than the personification of the devil.

And even though we are often tempted to say that there is nothing new under the sun, we might as well be wrong, as those conservative groups I was talking about earlier are now offered an alternative to the Guitar Hero, a “spiritualized” version of the game which will be released under the inspired name of Guitar Praise.

Although it seems to be actually the same thing, as the rules are the same and the guitar looks like the Guitar Hero’s model, there is one fundamental difference: instead of some “smoke on the water” played by the legendary Deep Purple you will get your free share of “Jesus on the water”. Therefore, Aerosmith and Rolling Stones will be replaced with Christian rock stars.

I must confess that I, for one, am not familiar with Christian Rock, and the idea of such a game is of no interest for someone who thinks that a guitar is better for some “dust in the wind” than for praising the lord in front of my personal computer.
Guitar Praise is available at the Digital Praise site for an amount of $99,95, with an additional guitar for $69,95.