My son Tristan and have been playing Guitar Hero 2 on and off since the game came out.

Shortly after the game's release The Ant Commandos sent me one of their Shredder guitars for my son, who is 5-years old, to test out.

The idea, was that the guitar was supposed to be easier to play for a child because it was smaller. I had heard that the it was really just a design flaw that they turned into a specialized product and wanted to figure out which was true.

It turns out, according to my son, that it's a little bit of each.

While he found the Shredder easier to strap around his shoulder and hold onto, the buttons still posed a problem.
Despite that he was still able to, after just a little bit of practice, nail enough of the Shout out the Devil Bass line to make it through the game with me.

And there is something so very cool about playing through Shout at the Devil with your 5-year-old, whether or not he's playing a real guitar.

A little post song interview confirmed that Tristan is a big fan of the strummer, which he insists is easier to use than on the regular-sized guitar, the smaller body and the shorter neck.

The one thing he wasn't a fan of was the buttons, which weren't changed at all for this smaller guitar. He found them both too small and too big. On the one hand he said he thought if the buttons were bigger he would have an easier time pushing them, but on the other hand if they were smaller it would be easier to switch from one button to the next with his tiny fingers.

Personally, I think if the buttons were a tad narrower he would have less trouble switching between them during a song.

Overall Tristan gave the Shredder four out of five stars, pointing out that while he loved the guitar, it had some controller issues.

As a parent, I'd say that it's worth getting the smaller guitar for your younger children if you're really into Guitar Hero and they like the game too.

My son loved Guitar Hero well before he received the Shredder, he just could never play it.

The smaller guitar certainly won't remove all of the hurdles for a child who wants to get his shred on, but it will remove some of them.

According to a source, the peripheral will make all Guitar Hero guitars work with the news game. Yep that includes the wireless ones. I'm not sure if this compatibility issue is an ANT issue, or one that effects all Guitar Hero guitars, official and not so much. Brian Crecente

From The Ant Commandos, makers of all things shredding and video game guitar related, comes this new Guitar Hero controller made just for kids.

The Shredder Guitar Controller has a smaller, lighter frame, shorter neck with more reachable buttons for tiny arms, an easier to use whammy bar and the ability to slip into Rock mode with just a shake rather than a tilt.

"We got an overwhelming response from consumers asking TAC to make a guitar just for kids and that's how we created the Shredder Guitar. Unlike other guitar controllers, the Shredder has a smaller frame and lighter weight to help kids reach their rock star potential," stated Lip Yow, President of The Ant Commandos.

I'll be interested to see how well this works. Tristan, my 5-year-old, really wanted to play Guitar Hero, but the guitar it comes with was just too unweildy.Brian Crecente

Guitar Mania

Robert Summa — erstwhile Joystiq journo, now bitter Destructoid blogger — contacted The Ant Commandos, the company who released that god-awful Shredder Guitar Hero controller and are currently being sued by RedOctane for it. Which is ridiculous, since RedOctane has a history themselves of producing non-licensed controllers for musical games such as Dance Dance Revolution.

To highlight the absurdity, The Ant Commandos gave Robert this timeline of how the Guitar Hero controller was ripped-off... sorry. Born.

• 1999: Topway Electrical Appliance (part owner of TAC) patents the Magical Guitar controller for Konami's Guitar Freaks. The design had five fret buttons very similar to what Guitar Hero has now.

• 2001 and 2004: CEO of RedOctane, as well as a sales manager, made several visits to a Topway factory in China and inquired about the Magical Guitar controller.

• From 2001-2004: RedOctane purchased "several hundred" Magical Guitar controllers.

• 2005: RedOctane releases Guitar Hero with a controller that looks "exactly like" the Magical Guitar.

TAC have countersued. Damn right. Although I take exception with this explanation from Olivia on why the TAC controllers lack the "essential tilt function." She claims you have to shake the Shredder because it's aimed at younger audiences who don't know how to tilt. Is that really more plausible than the stone cold fact that the controller fucking blows? Florian Eckhardt

Ant responds to RedOctane/Activision lawsuit [Destructoid]

RedOctane, the publisher of Guitar Hero, have initiated a lawsuit against "The Ant Commandos", a California-based company that sells the one Guitar Hero peripheral everyone wants: wireless guitar controllers.

Why? Red Octane's furious about the unrepentant unlicensed-ness of it all. "Defendants have copied the packaging of Plaintiffs' products and have used Plaintiffs' trademarks and copyrighted material in its packaging and advertising of its own products in an effort to cause confusion among consumers."

Plucky words from a company that made itself known selling unlicensed, third-party dance pads for Konami's Dance Dance Rebolution games.

"Pot? This is Kettle, you black son of a bitch..." Florian Eckhardt

RedOctane sues guitar manufacturer [Gamespot]