What’s Jack Black doing now? Only making the most metal game EVAR

Years ago Tim Schafer, creator and writer of games such as Grim Fandango and Secrets of Monkey Island, created a game for the Xbox called Psychonauts, it was critically praised for it’s gameplay, level design, story, humor and just about everything else under the son. The game did not sell so well (as many aesthetically pleasing games do), but it became a cult classic. Despite the game’s poor sales Double Fine Studios and Tim Schafer signed a contract with Vivendi Universal to create another game for them. For many months it was unknown what this game would be called, or what it was about.

Double Fine eventually released the next game they were working on, but it wasn’t what most expected. It was a flash fighting game (which can be seen on their website), and it was rather funny, but it was no Psychonauts. Then Jack Black, the world famous comedic actor known for his role in School of Rock and in the band Tenacious D, was seen wearing a T-shirt. No big surprise there, but what was on it was a hint on what was to come from Double Fine.

Yes he was wearing a Psychonaut T-shirts. Sure, you can buy the shirt from their website, but this is Jack Black. Jack Black does not buy T-shirts, he is given T-shirts. Rumors ran around that Jack Black was working with Double Fine on a game called Brutal Legends, which was to be announced at the Leipzig gaming convention. It wasn’t, but rumors still swam around. Then, come last week, a new issue of Game Informer was released. On the cover was a picture of a new game, a world exclusive of Double Fine’s new game, a game called Brütal Legends.The game features Jack Black as the main man… well roadie, Eddie Riggs. Eddie Riggs has a belt buckle, which just happens to be cursed. He’s tuning a guitar and cuts himself, bleeding on said cursed belt buckle. The buckle comes to life and sends him to a Nordic, Heavy Metal, hell where Humans have been enslaved by Demons. Eddie finds a battle ax which, for some strange reason, he’s good at using. From there it just gets stranger and more metal.

The gameplay is very much an action adventure game focusing mainly on Heavy Metal music and an over the top cinematic style. Eddie has 3 main weapons, his close range Battle ax which upgrades as you play through the game, his electric guitar(which he took with him from the material world to the heavy metal hell) which is used as a ranged weapon, and his drop-top coupe called “Deuce” which he uses for… well driving. The Ax is used like any weapon in an action based game. The Guitar on the other hand is more unique. Like the ax you use the buttons for combos, but the guitar is used as a weapon by Eddie playing it in a rock-solo manner. The Deuce can do many things. It’s a car to run over enemies with, get around the map, and have vehicle based battles with various foes. At certain points in the game you can find ancient garages to upgrade the Deuce with weapons and new abilities. All of that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I could go more into detail, but we all might be here for hours(me typing and you reading). Simply put, the game looks amazing. No, not even that. Epic doesn’t describe how the game looks, neither does Legendary. Brutal’s close, but we all know there’s only one way to describe this game. Brütal Legends looks METAL.

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[Sources: the Wiki, Kotaku’s Brutal Legend section, and International Mojo]