Brutal Legend just seems to be constantly exploding in the media as of late. This weekend, in the UK, Brutal Legend fans broke a really awesome world record. No, nothing to do with body piercings or mohawks. At a party during the UK Download Festival 440 Brutal Legend Fans broke the world record for the most number of people playing the air guitar at the same time.
The attempt appears to have been set up by EA and an FM radio station during the concert. A few pictures taken at the concert features a wave of people in black shirts rocking out as hard as possible without anything in their hands to Motörhead’s Ace of Spades.
The previous record was not broken, but utterly disgraced by being a sad 319 people set last year. Rather disappointingly this number set today is tiny compared most people playing actual guitars, which was set in 2007 at over 1800 people playing Smoke on the Water.
In other news, Tim Schafer has explained why Ronnie James Dio was removed from Brutal Legend. Turns out it’s not Ozzy’s fault, but a moment of clarity. The choice was made based on Tim Curry’s role in the 1985 Fantasy movie Legend which he stared in alongside Tom Cruise.
Schafer told Kotaku, “Ronnie James Dio is an amazing singer and truly one of the great figures of Metal, but as the character of Doviculus evolved, we realized that Tim Curry was a better fit for the part. Anyone who has seen his amazing performance as the Lord of Darkness in the movie Legend knows why we cast him in the role of Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil.”
I haven’t seen Legend, so I can’t really say if Curry’s performance is great or not, but Curry will probably give a better performance. Curry’s done his share of comedies, and knows how to act in them. It should be a great match with Schafer and Black’s influence on the game’s lines. Dio might be a rocker, but he’s not an actor. The only movie he’s really acted in was the Tenacious D movie and he was just singing in that for like 30 seconds.
I just hope we actually get to hear Tim Curry’s performance, and the massive marketing budget EA’s using to promote the game doesn’t become useless by Activision’s lawsuit.
Kotaku: Tim Schafer on Dio’s Removal
Broken world record for most people playing the Air Guitar