Guitar Praise Rocks!

My kids are probably like your kids. They jumped on board the Guitar Hero craze. Though we don’t have one, they played it over friends and relatives homes. I’ve got to admit, I had fun playing as well, but some of the songs, okay most of the songs…well, they were songs I’d rather my kids not listen to.

Then they found Garage band. Think Guitar Hero but with more instruments. They really rocked out to that one, but again, the music and lyrics didn’t leave me or them feeling edified. What we all really wanted was a game system that they could rock out to and not worry about the lyrics. Thank God for Guitar Praise. It does just that.

When I said I was getting Guitar Praise in the mail, they couldn’t wait to try it. In fact they asked me every day for a week if it had come in the mail. It finally did and my 14 year old was the first one to rip open the package and try and download it. For some reason it didn’t download on my computer (the newer one) so they tried it on theirs and were rocking out in no time.

Here’s what THEY say: Keep reading to find out what my kids think!

Digital Praise^® Inc, the leader in Christian-themed, family-friendly entertainment software, today announced that Guitar Praise—the new, inspirational PC guitar controller game that allows players of all ages to rock out to tracks by the best bands in Contemporary Christian Rock—is now available in stores.

            Included in Guitar Praise are enough features and challenges to satisfy any budding rock star.  In addition to unique lead and bass notes and four levels of play per song, Guitar Praise gives players a chance to unlock new songs in sets of five as they perform; by tilting their guitar they can also activate the spinner bonus to score more points.  Other features include the ability for two guitarists to play at once; a Power Duel Mode that lets players send seven different “PowerUps” to mess with their opponent; and the chance to earn Talent Points toward new onscreen guitars with richer sounds and different effects.

“Guitar Praise is even more of a group event than other guitar controller games,” noted Tom Bean, President and CEO of Digital Praise, Inc.  “Having the lyrics onscreen reinforces the positive messages present in Guitar Praise’s roster of songs, and allows everyone to take part in the game.”

Hottest Songs

Guitar Praise features 52 of the most inspirational and uplifting songs from the Christian rock world, all by the original artists.  Here are just a few of the best-selling bands and titles:

CURRENT AND EMERGING ARTISTS

·         Flyleaf—“Perfect”·         Family Force 5—“Love Addict”

·         Inhabited—“Rescue Me”

·         tobyMac—“I’m For You”

·         Stellar Kart—“Procrastinating”

·         Casting Crowns—“Lifesong”

·         Kutless—“Beyond the Surface”, “Hearts of the Moment”

CLASSIC ARTISTS:

·         Petra—“Backsliding Blues”

·         Whitecross—“When the Walls Tumble Down”, “Who Will You Follow”

·         The Crucified—“The Pit”

One or Two Players

            Guitar Praise keeps the fun coming by allowing either one player to perform in solo mode, or two players to compete for the better lead guitar score.  With a second guitar (not included), players can jam at the same time—both on lead guitar, or one on lead and the other on bass. 

Pricing and Availability

Guitar Praise supports both Windows and Mac personal computers and includes one USB-compatible guitar controller plus game software.  Setting up the game is easy—just load the software into any PC or Mac, set up your wireless guitar and you’re ready to rock!  It carries an MSRP of $99.95 (USD) and is in stores now!  For more information or to order, visit the Digital Praise Web site at www.guitarpraise.com.

What my 11 year old has to say:

Guitar Praise is really awesome! It’s like Guitar Hero except it’s actually praise and worship. That’s what makes it fun. Since the words to the songs go across the screen you’re able to sing and play at the same time, if you’re able to do it because it’s kind of hard to watch the keys and sing at the same time.

Every time you finish a song on easy it’s 1 point. On medium it’s 2 points and hard it’s 3 points, on expert it’s 4. Getting points is fun because you can buy new guitars. I think it’s kind of cool how you can actually buy new guitars within the game play that have different sounds and so when you play it it sounds a little different. I was really surprised when I found the first guitar was 30 points and the next one was 60 points.

If you’re really bad at a song, you can turn off the setting that ends the song for you if you mess up to much. It’s really helpful when you’re learning to play a song, but you don’t get any points. What I like is how on certain songs they get harder and I love it when it does all the fast notes.

There’s something called spinner boost. Every now and then there’s a serious of notes that the note spins and when you hit the note a certain amount in a series you get a level of spinner boosts. Then when you lift the guitar straight up it uses your spinner boost and it lights up all the other notes and gives you extra points for every not you hit.

You can switch the backgrounds from cd covers to bricks.

Since it’s on a computer if you don’t have a fast computer it can freeze up and mess you up because you hit the notes off time. And the wireless guitar doesn’t always connect to the game which is frustrating, but that’s when I  play the game by using the computer keys.

If I had to rate it I’d give it a 4 out of 5 because it’s like Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero is awesome. But Guitar Praise is Christian and it’s safe and clean.

According to My 14 year old:

Guitar Praise is not much different than Guitar Hero except you have to play it on the computer, which is a downside if you don’t have a good computer. At times it froze up on me which was difficult to play and quite annoying.

Like Guitar Hero, Guitar Praise is two player.

I really liked how they had all the cool Christian bands.

What My 8 Year Old Says:

Guitar Praise is really good. I really like it, it’s just our computer has trouble sometimes.

Gina here: I spoke with a representative who said it’s not common for the game to freeze up and they gave me the number of Tech support to help us figure out where the glitch is coming from! I’ll be posting a follow up review, it’s just we’re smack dab in the middle of a move!

Though Guitar Praise has no plans at this time to add more instruments to the game system like Rock Band, they always listen to their customers and their requests. So request away!

In 2009 they will be announcing their expansion pack schedule which will feature more songs and bands.

Guitar Praise is an overall hit with my kids and I feel so much better letting them play this than Guitar Hero or Rock band. The game play is pretty similar, but their hearts and minds are pumped with great, Christian music. If we didn’t own this game already, it’d definitely be on their Christmas list!

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

1 Ghz Windows PC with XP or Vista, 650MB available hard disc space, a 32MB 3D Video Card and one available USB port.      

1 Ghz Mac with OS X 10.3 or later, 650MB available hard disc space and one available USB port.