Just a reminder: Brutal Legend comes out today, for those of us who weren’t at Gamestop at midnight.
(No, yours truly was not among them. One, I needed sleep last night. Two, I don’t have $60 to drop on a game at the moment. Household repairs have a way of derailing the ‘entertainment’ section of the budget. I will start posting more about my experiences with the game when I can afford to get it.)
According to the Examiner.com, two tracks from Tom Petty were added to the Rock Band store yesterday. (My Xbox still isn’t talking to Xbox Live though, so I won’t be getting them today at least. I’m pretty sure it’s the router that’s the problem.)
In terms of the challenge of playing these songs, they probably made solid choices. Both “I Won’t Back Down” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” have decent guitar parts. “Runnin’ Down a Dream” has a drum track that I know I won’t be able to follow, and the guitar work in the solo is pretty impressive. “I Won’t Back Down” will probably be more of a fun party track.
Unfortunately, I would have preferred different tracks–personally, I think singing “Free Fallin’” and “Refugee: would rule. Unfortunately neither is actually a very complicated song, so no matter how much I would enjoy singing them, I don’t think they’re going to make either available as a download.
I’ll post again with my review of the tracks–when I can get them to download.
Brutal Legend will be sponsoring Dethklok and Mastodon’s upcoming tour, according to WorthPlaying.
They even plan on having game stations at the concerts so that the fans can try out the game right at the show. In some ways, this may not help expand the reach of the game very much. Most of the metal fans (at least the ones I know) usually tend to be gamers already. They’re all stoked for the release of Brutal Legend already.
However, the deal does come with advertising spots on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, thanks to the Dethklok/Metalocalypse connection. Adult Swim reaches a large audience of gamers, some of whom might not have been introduced to Brutal Legend otherwise. If they at least check it out, they might find out (like those of us who have been watching the trailers and demos) that there is more to this game than metal, and that will help the game do well.
I haven’t heard anything to indicate this, but maybe this partnership will mean that some Dethklok content will make it into Brutal Legend. It would be awesome if they gave out codes for an in-game Dethklok goodie at the concerts, kind of like the Tenacious D guitar that you get for pre-ordering.
There’s a discussion of requested Bon Jovi downloadable content at the Rock Band forums. There just aren’t enough Jovi songs available for Rock Band as it stands. Wanted Dead or Alive and Livin’ on a Prayer just don’t cut it anymore. A lot of the requested ones are pretty good; I might actually get around to getting a hard drive for my Xbox 360 if they start adding those.
Yes, I do only have an Xbox 360 Arcade. In retrospect, buying it was a mistake; I should have just gotten the regular one. Not having a hard drive does kind of put a heavy limit on what you can do with it. (I can’t even connect it to Xbox Live; I don’t have enough room on my memory card for the NXE.)
There are a few hardcore fans on there picking on the people who are requesting Blaze of Glory as part of a Bon Jovi pack. (Granted, it’s mild picking, but still.) Personally I always cut people some slack for thinking Blaze is a Bon Jovi song; even though it was originally a Jon solo song, it’s basically been adopted by the band. Soundwise, it would have fit in fine on Slippery When Wet or New Jersey, and it was included in with the rest of the band’s hits on Cross Road–which really makes it appear to be a band release to someone who’s not a hardcore fan. Plus, the band plays it in concert a lot.
On the other hand, there are a few people asking for Dry County for Rock Band. My arm hurts just thinking about it. (I guess I have a real fondness for epic guitar work; almost all of my big favorite songs always leave me with a sore arm when I play them in Guitar Hero or Rock Band.)
My personal Bon Jovi / Jon Bon Jovi / Richie Sambora Rock Band wish list:
Bad Medicine
Bed of Roses
Blaze of Glory
It’s My Life
You Give Love a Bad Name
This Ain’t a Love Song
I’d like to see the following songs, but I know that it’s never going to happen:
Living in Sin
Rosie
Both are too obscure, and also far too lyrically questionable for a game that’s rated Teen. (Let’s face it, the original Living in Sin video was banned from MTV, and still has the power to offend.)
Also, I’m totally behind all the people wondering why Slippery When Wet hasn’t been made available as a complete album. Not only is it the album that made the band, in many ways, SWW is the definitive hair metal album.
I think I’ll go over to bonjovi.com and bug Obie about it. Evidently bugging Harmonix about it isn’t doing any good.
(Or is it cover art?)
Destructoid has previews of the box art for Brutal Legend.
Like the commenters at Destructoid, I do find it interesting that Tim Schafer’s name is the only name on the box with the laundry list of heavy metal celebrities in the game, plus Jack Black in the lead. The absence of Jack Black’s name is especially odd; the guy has built a very successful career and the marketing materials that have been released for the game thus far have made fairly heavy use of it–especially the ‘Brutal Thoughts’ clips that they have been releasing.
Perhaps the list of heavy hitters was so long they wouldn’t fit on a standard game disc box at any kind of reasonable font size for marketing purposes. (Judging by the cast list that I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case.)
Even without leveraging the game’s star power, the box art does a more than adequate job of selling the contents inside. Heck, if I saw that at the local Gamestop, I’d be zeroing in on it in a heartbeat even if I knew nothing whatsoever about the game. Guitars, amps, and some seriously metal weaponry. Also, between Eddie’s bloody axe and the assorted other weaponry on the cover, it’s amply clear that this is more than just a heavy metal Guitar Hero clone.
Rolling Stone has a preview announcement of ten of the bands to appear in the next Guitar Hero game, including Bon Jovi (and a few I thought were already in another Guitar Hero game).
Guitar Hero 4 (World Tour) included the first Bon Jovi song to appear in the GH franchise–Wanted Dead or Alive. However, that game was Activision’s attempt to catch up after Harmonix put out the first Rock Band and took the whole concept to the next level. And the first Rock Band game had Wanted in it. That song made it in just because they were bent on copying everything that Harmonix did in Rock Band.
So my bet is that the Bon Jovi song in Guitar Hero 5 will be Livin’ On A Prayer–just like Rock Band 2.
All that being said, I am still thinking about getting this one (I skipped the Metallica edition). After all, I originally bought my Xbox 360 just to play Guitar Hero 3.