When Religion Meets Video Games Quiz

Answer: Sodom and Gomorrah

Video games are notorious for embracing extreme violence and death, and it has to be confessed that the Bible stories of Noah, Moses, and David & Goliath all involve these in one form or another. Indeed, the story of Noah features the extinction of all but eight of the earth's human population (even the film "2012" rescued more than that), and Baby Moses is saved from a massacre of all male Hebrew children.

But concerned parents may rest assured that there is none of this in Wisdom Tree's games, which turn out to be basic "sidescroller" games which just happen to feature Bible characters.

Answer: Camel spit

In the game, you play one of the Three Kings, riding a camel armed with deadly saliva. "King of Kings: Early Years" was not an official NES game, but was released on a cartridge that could be used on Nintendo's game system. It contained three games based (very loosely) around incidents in the childhood of Jesus Christ. Those hoping for a "shoot-'em-up" based on Herod's Massacre of the Innocents remained disappointed, as the other two games were "Flight to Egypt" and "Jesus and the Temple".

Answer: Hanuman: Boy Warrior

The Universal Society of Hinduism criticised the game "Hanuman: Boy Warrior" for trivialising a much-loved Hindi deity for solely commercial reasons. The PS2 game was designed and developed in India specifically for the Indian market, and proved very popular, although gaming fans who judged it against more mainstream games were less than impressed.

Answer: Rock Band

Like the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" games, "Guitar Praise" enables a player to accompany a range of pre-recorded music using the guitar-shaped controller provided with the pack. For Christians who feel uncomfortable at thrashing along to Judas Priest and AC/DC, the songs provided are by a range of Christian rock bands and other performers, such as Skillet and Hawk Nelson.

Answer: You lose spirit points which can only be regained by praying

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" was based on the popular book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with the battle of Christian believers against the Antichrist. While the game was criticized by both Christian and non-religious groups for encouraging and glorifying violence, it should be pointed out that killing your enemies is penalized by losing points. Converting your opponents to Christianity is shown to be preferable to killing them, although of course non-Christian players are hardly likely to be impressed by this either.

Answer: Orang-Utang

While whales, donkeys and snakes all make appearances in the Bible, "Sunday Software" was perhaps wise to make Bongo a non-Biblical animal that comes without any potentially negative baggage. As with most such games, "Bongo Loves the Bible" involves basic puzzle-solving games that require some Bible knowledge to complete.

Answer: You lose all points gained from that round

There is a "Wrath of God" square in every round of the game, and the round only ends when someone lands on it. Rather unfairly, there is no equivalent "Mercy of Jesus" square, which gives you your points back. So Christians who are uncomfortable about the idea of an Old Testament-type deity who delights in random acts of anger may be advised to give this game a miss.

Answer: Its music contained two expressions found in the Koran

The Muslim gamers suggested that including phrases from the Koran in background music could cause offence. However, an official Muslim group, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), was quoted as disagreeing with the decision to censor the game, on the basis that "Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted". AIFD suggested that Muslims who felt they might be offended should simply not buy the game.

Answer: Islam

The Quraish was the name of an Arabian tribe based around Mecca, of which the prophet Mohammad was a member. "Quraish" is basically a campaign-based strategy game set in the Arabian world around the time of the emergence of Islam as a religion. Religious elements are not central to the game-play, but attempts are made to educate the player about the concepts of Islam during the course of the game.

Answer: New Super Mario Bros Wii

Not unreasonably, the Christian-sponsored Guide2Games takes a pretty dim view of profanity, violence, drug use, sexual content and "illegal and destructive acts", which puts rather a lot of bestselling games out of contention. Fortunately, although "New Super Mario Bros Wii" is noted as having "some use of magic", and "mild suggestive content", it is otherwise regarded as "Squeaky Clean". Phew!