'Brutal Legend' will rock your world

Forget 'Guitar Hero,' this is a real music game.

By Chase Koeneke

Published Oct. 27, 2009

I'll admit, when I first heard master video game developer Tim Schafer announce his next game would be "Brutal Legend," I was more than a little disappointed.

You see, I probably am the world's biggest fan of Schafer and developer Double Fine's previous game, "Psychonauts," an Xbox, PS2 and PC game that had you running around a psychic summer camp going into people's brains to fix their problems that ended with a wide open door for a sequel.

Giving up on "Psychonauts 2" was hard, but after I got my hands on "Brutal Legend," I'm eager to shout its praises from the highest of mountains.

"Brutal Legend" follows the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie for an awful pop metal band who, during an incident onstage, gets his blood on his belt buckle/mysterious ancient idol and is transported through time and space to the age of metal.

The story is completely quirky, yet thoroughly enthralling, as Riggs helps a ragtag group of humans band together to fight the oppressive army of the Tainted Coil.

The writing and dialogue is classic Schafer. The words spouted are hilarious, but the real laughs come at the wonderful pauses and reactions from characters.

Delivering these awesome lines is an all-star cast of voice actors, featuring metal gods Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmister, Lita Ford and Rob Halford, as well as excellent work by Tim Curry as Emperor Doviculus.

And we can't forget the star of the show, Jack Black. Schafer has gone on record saying the part of Eddie Riggs was written with Black in mind, but he never thought Black would be up for the part. When word came around that Black was actually a huge fan of "Psychonauts" and would love to work on the game, the stage was set for "Brutal Legend" to be big.

The problems with "Brutal Legend" become apparent when trying to categorize it. The game begins as pretty straightforward brawler. It's then supplemented into an open world action game once you get a hold of the game's main form of transportation, a hot rod called The Deuce. Even then, the game has yet to show its true colors until you get to your first stage battle. Stage battles are set up as real-time strategy skirmishes, except you are still in control of Riggs and can fight alongside your units.

If you stick with it and take the time to really learn the system, "Brutal Legend" can be insanely rewarding.

Another bright spot is the game's soundtrack. I've never been a fan of metal music myself. Sure, I'm aware of icons such as Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy Osbourne, but I never really enjoyed listening to any of their music. But "Brutal Legend" has made me a true believer and has consequently expanded my iTunes library's metal offerings substantially from the two songs I had before (those being Motley Crue's "Kickstart My Heart" and Osbourne's "Crazy Train," for your reference).

"Brutal Legend" is one of the most fun games I've played all year and deserves your attention. Don't let it pass you by like "Psychonauts" did. I'm still mad at you guys for not buying that one.