05) Revolution X
Perhaps more of an infamous mention here than a genuinely “good” game, but I remember playing this as a teenager on my old Playstation. Revolution X is very much a product of its times, being released in 1994 by publisher Midway. It is a shooting-gallery type of game with a graphical style considered top of the line for the times, based on the same digitized character technology, which was made popular by the Mortal Kombat series. The main selling point of this game was that it heavily featured the band Aerosmith, both as suppliers of the soundtrack and actual characters that appear in the game. While the game was considerably successful in arcades, the home console ports did not share that fate. They were rather universally panned – which comes as little surprise, given the audio limitations of older consoles like the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive. I’d consider this more of a hidden cult item than a hidden gem, but if you’re a die-hard fan of Steven Tyler and his band, then take a look at Revolution X – at least on the CD Rom-based systems of the time like the Sony Playstation or the Sega Saturn.
04) Iron Maiden: Ed Hunter
Aerosmith were not the only band to attempt a foray into gaming in the 1990s. Even NWoBHM legends Iron Maiden tried to jump onto the bandwagon in 1999, releasing “Ed Hunter” as a greatest hits album with a video game attached to it. While this release came at a crucial point in time for the band as singer Bruce Dickinson as well as guitarist Adrian Smith had just rejoined the band, with Dickinson replacing the previous singer Blaze Bayley. While the music naturally is fantastic, the game itself is not much to write home about. It is a slow-paced first-person rail shooter that takes the player, playing as the legendary Iron Maiden mascot Eddie, through various levels inspired by several songs of the band, such as an asylum, a graveyard, and ancient Egyptian ruins. The player is tasked with shooting all manner of evil enemies, from your run-of-the-mill zombies and skeletons, over mummies to cybernetic organisms. Considering, by 1999, gamers could already enjoy genre classics like Quake 3 Arena, Team Fortress Classic, Unreal Tournament, and, of course, the original Half-Life. As a standalone game, Ed Hunter doesn’t offer much apart from its hefty dose of Iron Maiden songs – but to be fair, I’d much rather just listen to the songs than have to play through this game to do so. It’s a neat idea for fans, but as a standalone game, it wasn’t even up to par with the gaming standards of its release year back in the day.
03) Grand Theft Auto series
While not necessarily focused on heavy metal in particular, the different radio stations have been one of the coolest features of the more recent entries of Rockstar’s legendary Grand Theft Auto series. Payers can turn on a station while their characters are inside any of the many vehicles available in the games. Depending on the setting of the iteration of the game you’re playing, these radio stations sometimes feature more (GTA Vice City), sometimes less (GTA San Andreas, GTA 5), hard rock, and heavy metal content. Especially GTA Vice City, set in 1986 in the fictional eponymous city inspired by Miami and Miami Beach, Florida, features an extensive selection of classic 80s metal cuts. Songs such as Iron Maiden’s “2 Minutes to Midnight,” Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” or Anthrax’s “Madhouse.” Additional fine rock tracks like Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian,” REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You,” and “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by YES. The GTA games are some of gaming’s finest, and its phenomenal soundtracks only add to the experience.
02) Twisted Metal franchise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_KoxVG8aUQ
Well, it already has “Metal” in its title. What more do you need? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this type of vehicular combat game was fairly popular, and the series has spawned a total of ten games and spinoffs. Debuting in 1995 on Sony’s Playstation, the games extensively used the new CD Rom medium for console gaming, providing developers the ability to include high-quality sound recordings in their games. This led to the over-the-top car combat the series is known to be accompanied by some bona fide heavy metal bangers over the years. Artists like Rob Zombie, Sepultura, Avenged Sevenfold, Judas Priest, Airbourne, Cypress Hill, and Sammy Hagar are featured throughout the series’ many installments. It’s more fun to crush your enemies, see them driven (literally) before you, and hear their lamentation with some epic metal tracks pounding in the background.
01) Metal: Hellsinger
I’ve opted to put this one at the end (top) of the list, as – at the time of this writing – it’s a new game coming up and currently scheduled for a September 2022 release date. Similar to the previous entry on this list, this one too literally features the word “Metal” in its title, and gameplay-wise, it combines FPS gaming elements with rhythm game elements, where the more in time the player shoots with the beat of the music. The more intense the music, the more impactful the player’s attacks. Interestingly, the music for this game has been custom-made, with modern metal icons such as System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, as well as Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy and Tatiana Shmailyuk from Jinjer being featured. With that type of cast, this game’s soundtrack could become an attraction of its own! It will be interesting to see whether the gameplay will be able to match the quality of the game’s musical lineup. Watch out for Metal: Hellsinger when it drops in fall 2022.
