Every true metalhead knows that metal is not just a music genre; it a way of life. Metal is not just in the music you listen to, but in how you act, how you dress, what you drink, what you ride, how many shits you don’t give and yes, even what you game.
There have been plenty of games across the years that have featured metal in their soundtrack as a way to ramp up the action and epicness of the game. Likewise, there have been games that have managed to give us plenty of metal badassery such as blood, carnage, demons and epic violence, including the amazing Twisted Metal series, Doom, Splatterhouse, Bayonetta among others.
However, while these games were pretty damn metal in nature they weren’t explicitly heavy metal games. If you are looking to ramp up the revolutions of your gaming to the tune of your favorite metal bands then look no further, as we review the best heavy metal games of all time.
KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child:
It should be to no one’s surprise that KISS, the band that has solved mysteries with Scooby Doo and licensed their image more than all other metal/glam bands combined, decided to take advantage of their notoriety to put out a video game for PC and Dreamcast in the year 2000.
Based on the Kiss: Psycho Circus comic book series produced by Todd McFarlane, in which the members of KISS are super heroes with supernatural abilities, this game chose not to feature the band itself, but rather a KISS cover band as the protagonists. Starting out as regular humans, the members of the band are soon endowed with super abilities which they must use to save the universe from evil monsters. By defeating their (really easily defeatable) enemies and evolving their powers, the tribute band can ultimately achieve the ultimate state and become the actual band KISS.
Guns N’ Roses Slot:
With a lot of slot games being inspired by movies and artists, it comes to no surprise that a band as popular as Guns N’ Roses received its own slot as well. Game developer NetEnt welcomes players to the jungle in this exciting Guns N’ Roses themed game. Featuring plenty of Roses greatest hits as a soundtrack, along with multiple clips of the band going wild in live performances, this game doesn’t just try to capitalize on the bands images and music but is built to appeal to hardcore fans of the band as well.
With plenty of bonus features customized to the bands legend, including the Appetite for Destruction Wilds, Legend spins featuring Axl, Duff or Slash and Encore free spins, there is plenty of action to keep you entertained for hours – whether you are playing for fun or for real money.
While NetEnt also features a slot by Motorhead and Microgaming offers a Megadeath slot, Guns N Roses is by far the best metal slot of the bunch.
Iron Maiden: Ed Hunter:
Anyone who does not recognize Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie can hardly call themselves a metalhead. The first and most iconic mascot in a metal band, Eddie was a breakthrough for heavy metal artwork and visual culture.
In 1999, Iron Maiden decided to take Eddie out of their artwork and shows and into the digital world of video games, releasing Iron Maiden: Ed Hunter. In this on-rails shooter game, the players mission would be to hunt Eddie throughout different worlds inspired by the artwork in Maiden’s classic album covers. As is to be expected, the soundtrack to this hunt was a collection of the Irons greatest hits to inspire players along their epic quest. While the game was not quite as epic as the soundtrack, it did provide hardcore Maiden fans an entry into the worlds depicted in the album covers that they’d been fantasizing about for ages.
Guitar Hero Metallica:
A game that allows you and your friends to pretend you are members of the most successful metal band of all time killing in front of an ocean of adoring fans? Hell yeah!
While Guitar Hero made a reputation for itself as the best instrument game series, with multiple games that included lots of metal songs for metalheads to play along to, their decision to dedicate an entire game to Metallica proved to be one of their most brilliant ones.
Allowing fans to step up and take on the lead guitar, bass, drums, or vocals, this game features a total of 49 songs, of which 28 are by Metallica themselves while the remaining 21 were hand selected by the band. The band was also submitted to plenty of motion capture for the game, making their virtual selves as realistic as you could possibly hope for.
If that’s not enough, the game also features plenty of behind the scenes and live performance footage, making it a must have for any true Metallica fan.
Brutal Legend (2009):
This list would not be legit unless it was topped by the undisputedly most metal game of all time, Brutal Legend. Created by the legendary genius Tim Schafer, this amazing action adventure/real time strategy hybrid game was built as a loving and impressive tribute to all things metal.
Following the adventures of a roadie named Eddie Riggs (voiced by no other than Jack Black) as he is transported to a world straight out of metal album covers. There he finds out he is a demon’s son, and must battle all sorts of demons, nuns, and dwarves in order to prevent humanity from being and enslaved and become a true rock legend in the process.
While the game is immensely self-aware and filled to the brim with metal references, that is only half of what makes it amazing. Jack Black is not the only celebrity voice in the game, as Ozzy, Lita Ford, Rob Halford, and Lemmy (RIP) all lend their voice to characters in the game.
But what really puts this game above any other is it’s absolutely epic soundtrack, which includes 107 heavy metal tracks from 75 of the best metal bands of all time. Each song is a stone cold classic, making this game almost unbeatable as the most metal game of all time.