Brütal Legend/Trivia

"Tim Schafer:: When we showed the game to EA, they were interested but wanted to test the concept. In focus tests, the stage battles rated high. What's interesting is the people in those groups aren't told anything about the game and have no expectations for it. One of the things you notice looking at Metacritic ratings is that the highest scores come from those who really enjoyed the stage battles, and when you get down to the critics who didn't like the stage battles those reviews often center around their expectations about what we were going to make, instead of looking at the stage battles for what they are in a fresh way."
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Customization done to the Deuce in the campaign doesn't apply to multiplayer, but players that pre-ordered the game have Eddie's guitar replaced with the Love Giver and those that purchased the Hammer of Infinite Fate DLC have a golden Ormagöden-headed skin for the Separator appearing when they play Ironheade in multiplayer.
 * Berserk Button: Never call Tim Schafer a liar on Twitter because of EA's Misaimed Marketing...
 * Blatant Lies: Customers who complain about the Game Breaking Bug on Playstation 3 will get the runaround from Electronic Arts Customer Service. They repeatedly tell customers there is no patch, or that one is developed. Word of God says Double Fine created the patch a long time ago, and EA refuses to drop the money to make it available to the public.
 * The real tragedy is that the Stage Battles are derived from a PC game called Sacrifice.
 * Broken Pedestal: Zero Punctuation towards Tim Schafer.
 * Cameo: Ronnie James Dio was originally set to play Doviculus and even recorded lines for him, but the part was later deemed a better fit for Tim Curry and was recast.
 * Complaining About Games You Don't Play: Tim Schafer says that those who ATTEMPTED multiplayer enjoyed the game the most, and that those who complain about the Stage Battles are merely spouting "Ruined FOREVER" over seven tutorial missions without ever touching multiplayer, and that reviews reflect it and remain high regardless.

""I've always seen this overlap between medieval warfare and heavy metal. You see heavy metal singers and they'll have like a brace around their arm and they'll be singing about Orcs. So let's just make a world where that all happens. That all gets put together, the heavy metal, and the rock, and the battling, actually does happen. Let's not flirt around with this let's just do it.""
 * Development Hell: The first publisher, Sierra, was acquired by Vivendi, who gave one condition to Double Fine: people will automatically hate it for having light RTS elements, no matter how light, so they wanted a complete media blackout on the Stage Battles, to the point that no marketing would ever use the phrase "RTS" ever. Vivendi still canceled Brutal Legend, and planned on chopping the IP up to make a Guitar Hero game.
 * Double Fine sued and left to join EA, Vivendi sued back, and EA actually followed through with the lack of multiplayer coverage. The incomplete single player adventure was rushed through, EA spent 15 million dollars on TV coverage and more (but of course, no multiplayer demo), but Brutal Legend, after five long years of hell, was released October 2009.
 * Doing It For The Metal:
 * Tim Schafer has wanted to make a heavy-metal inspired game since 1995, and has lavished vast amounts of love on the project.
 * When pitching the game idea to various publishers, it was suggested to Tim Schafer that he make a video game about a more commercially viable music genre like Hip-hop or country. Tim Schafer stuck to his guns, though, and insisted that the game be about heavy metal. In 2006 the video game Guitar Hero introduced classic heavy metal to today's young people and Tim was finally allowed to make Brutal Legend.
 * There's also the fact that Jack Black is playing Eddie. While Eddie was based on Black's mannerisms from the beginning, Schafer and his team never expected that they'd actually get Black to play the character. How did they get him? He loves rock, he loved the concept, and he loved Psychonauts.
 * Game Breaking Bug: A serious problem on Ps3. Players are reporting their save getting corrupted just by approaching 80% in the single player. Double Fine says they have a patch, and every now and then, Word of God says it's Electronic Arts who refuses to make the patch available.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Double Fine revealed on their forum that the reason Eddie can't fly outside of Stage Battles in Single Player is because he can fly faster than the world can load and render, which is why you are confined to the Deuce. In development, they would make Eddie fly in the campaign for debugging purposes.
 * Heavy Mithril: Tim Schafer designed the multiplayer and story entirely around this trope. See his quote.

"Eddie: (while performing the Shocker with The Love Giver) Rocketsauce! Eddie: (while doing the Powerslide with The Love Giver) POWERSLIIIIIIDEEEEE!"
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Eddie is Lenny.
 * Ophelia is Jennifer Hale.
 * Doviculus is the Lord of Darkness.
 * Lita Halford is Dexter's mom.
 * The Screamin' Demon is Crane.
 * DadBat is Ozzy!
 * Who's also... Ozzy! Except this time he's selling you weapon and car upgrades!
 * One of the roadies is Crypto.
 * The Skull Raker is Brian Pohsen's boyfriend.
 * It Will Never Catch On: The reason Electronic Arts and Activision concealed the Stage Battles, leaving Tim Schafer to get the word out on his own.
 * To be fair, the game's predecessors (Sacrifice, and the Battlezone 1998 remake), were well received by critics but did not catch on either.
 * Don't forget Herzog Zwei, which is the stated influence for them. It was Vindicated by History, but at the time of release, it was a complete commercial and critical failure.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Neither the trailers nor the demo gave any indication that the game would have a lot of Real-Time Strategy elements. Both Activision and Electronic Arts intentionally hid this, but Tim Schafer was able to announce them and demonstrate multiplayer videos in August 2009.
 * Also, the very first, "The Mob Rules" teaser trailer had very little to do with the actual storyline. Eddie's belt buckle wasn't supposed to summon a godly warrior to lead the demon armies and there's no indication that it has been forged from the flesh of Ormagöden (seeing as how his body turned into all the metal in the game's world, they're correct, but it's phrased misleadingly...). Lastly, the eventual enthronement of Eddie suggested in the end of the trailer goes in stark contrast to his actual final actions and strictly monogamous tendencies in the released version.
 * That trailer is so incredibly early into production, it appears to be a trailer just setting the game's Rule of Cool mood. Besides. It was the publishers who decided to have a complete media blackout on the Action/RTS parts.
 * Promoted Fanboy: Jack Black, who voices Eddie Riggs. He wanted to make his own awesome game after playing -- are you ready for this? -- Psychonauts
 * Before the multiplayer patch was implemented in November, Double Fine took input from the authors of a Stage Battle Guide online.
 * Red vs. Blue: They loved the game and went to great lengths to help players get into the multiplayer.
 * Shout-Out: Plenty!
 * Just reading the IGN preview alone reveals so many different rock song references that this is shaping up to be a rock fan nerdgasm.
 * Eddie Riggs.
 * Not only do some metal legends provide voices for the games (and two of them effectively playing themselves), Lars looks suspiciously like Dave Mustaine.
 * Although he is named after a guy from That Other Band.
 * The guy Eddie rescues in the opening scene was doing the "Eh eh eh" dance done by Bobby Zilch and Razputin in Psychonauts.
 * Eddie: Super-effective!
 * Did we mention the amounts of Tenacious D references such as Kyle being the massive bouncer and more specifically the Game Stop pre-order exclusive guitar, "The Love Giver"?


 * There's a Bone Wagon skin for Eddie's car. The Guardian of Metal even calls it "grim".
 * "You have to burn the rope!"
 * Eddie's ultimate solo, Bring It On Home creates a flaming Zeppelin crashing down on your position.
 * The scene where the Kill Master is convinced to help your cause is a call back to the Miracle Max scene.
 * Where are you from? Uh...I'm on the road a lot.
 * The Bride unit resembles the Monkey Island ghost bride.
 * 11 o' Clock is a direction Mangus! Do you see the 11 on the dial of your amps?
 * Fridge Brilliance. For that to work, the dial would need 12 spots and be set to maximum. Their speakers go up to 12!
 * No it wouldn't. It would have to go up to 11 since 0 is taking the spot that 12 would be in.
 * The story (the beginning at least) itself appears to be an Homage to the short "Den" from Heavy Metal. Both involve an unassuming hero being unwittingly transported by a mysterious artifact into a land that appears to be based upon Heavy Metal album covers. He then discovers that he is a warrior, meets a girl and falls in love, fights druid-like figures in and around old temples, and struggles against a Camp Gay antagonist.
 * Upon playing the solo of the same name, Eddie yells "Call of the Wild was my favorite booooooooook!"
 * When killing a Bride she will sometimes complain "Worst. Wedding. Ever."
 * My seed...germinates within you!''
 * The Deuce has a Game Breaker weapon called Bolt Thrower.
 * "Why don't you make them ride your lightning for a change?"
 * Kill Em All!
 * Eviscerate!
 * The sunshine is my destroyer!
 * Throw It In: Jack Black was kept on a tight script to prevent Eddie Riggs from totally being a Marty Stu for him. The "you are the definition of a butterface" line was not on the script, but they liked it, and used it in the game.
 * However, the original script had very little cursing. Word of God says this was changed because Black and Ozzy had a tendency to hilariously ad-lib their discussions as Eddie and the Guardian of Metal, which was rife with cursing. They ended up just running with it.
 * Waxing Lyrical: Too many to count.
 * The Sea of Black Tears, and name Brutal Legend come from the song Betrayal by Lita Ford.
 * Battle Cry is a reference to "One Shot at Glory" by Judas Priest.
 * Bring it on Home
 * The Emo Teen zombie unit is called a Grave Digger.
 * "No sleep till Battersmith!"
 * "Everything louder than everyone else."
 * The Rockcrusher kills achievement is called Painkiller.
 * What Could Have Been: Although the multiplayer was completed without a hitch, single player was severely gutted.
 * The story was going to be twice as long.
 * An AI "autopilot mode" would have been available in which Mangus handles all RTS segments.
 * Fleetus was going to lead a fourth faction. The Tick Chopper units were originally his, and are the only creature of his army to stay in the game. (The Tainted Coil uses them instead.) Fleetus hints several times in-game that he has a whole army hidden somewhere and they will seek revenge on Eddie. Concept art reveals he had wings like the other factions, and there is a picture of him enjoying a beer alongside Eddie, implying friendly rivalry.
 * Ophelia was
 * A lot of content that was cut was going to be in the now canceled sequel.
 * Emperor Doviculous was originally going to be voiced by Ronnie James Dio, but Tim Schaffer eventually decided that Tim Curry would be a better fit for the character.
 * Cult Soundtrack / Nothing but Hits: The full list of licensed songs and the original score by Peter McConnell. So much and so significant, the track listing really wouldn't look right anywhere but the bottom of the page!
 * 3 Inches of Blood Deadly Sinners, Destroy the Orcs
 * Accept Fast as a Shark
 * Angel Witch Angel Witch
 * Anthrax Metal Thrashing Mad
 * Anvil March of the Crabs, Tag Team
 * Apostasy Sulfur Injection
 * Bishop of Hexen A Serpentine Crave, The Somber Grounds of Truth
 * Black Sabbath Children of the Grave, Never Say Die, Symptom of the Universe
 * Brocas Helm Cry of the Banshee, Drink the Blood of the Priest
 * Budgie Breadfan, Zoom Club
 * Candlemass Witches
 * Carcass No Love Lost
 * Children of Bodom Angels Don't Kill
 * Cloven Hoof Nightstalker
 * Coroner Skeleton on your Shoulder
 * Cradle of Filth Her Ghost in the Fog
 * Crimson Glory Queen of the Masquerade
 * Dark Fortress Insomnia
 * Dark Tranquility Cathode Ray Sunshine
 * Deathstars Blitzkrieg
 * Def Leppard Rock of Ages
 * Dethklok Murmaider
 * Diamond Head Am I Evil?
 * Dimmu Borgir Progenies of the Great Apocalypse
 * Dokken Mr. Scary
 * Dragon Force (video game) Through the Fire and Flames
 * Emperor Thus Spake the Nightspirit
 * Enslaved Frost, Loke
 * FireHouse Overnight Sensation
 * Lita Ford Betrayal
 * Girlschool Bomber
 * Iced Earth Pure Evil, When Night Falls
 * In Flames Goliaths Disarm their Davids
 * Judas Priest Electric Eye, One Shot at Glory, Leather Rebel, Painkiller
 * Girlfriend
 * King Diamond Cremation, Welcome Home
 * Kiss God of Thunder
 * KMFDM Free Your Hate, Rip the System
 * Manowar Dawn of Battle, Die for Metal
 * Marilyn Manson The Beautiful People
 * Mastodon Crack the Skye(instrumental), Oblivion(instrumental)
 * Megadeth High Speed Dirt, Tornado of Souls
 * Metal Church Metal Church
 * Michael Schenker Group Assault Attack
 * Ministry Stigmata
 * Mirrorthrone So Frail
 * Mötley Crüe Dr. Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart, Livewire
 * Motörhead Back at the Funny Farm, In the Black, (We Are) The Roadcrew
 * Omen The Axeman
 * Ostrogoth Queen of Desire
 * Overkill World of Hurt
 * Ozzy Osbourne Believer, Mr. Crowley, Diary of a Madman
 * Prong Snap your Fingers, Snap your Neck
 * Quiet Riot The Wild and the Young
 * Racer X Y.R.O., Technical Difficulties
 * Ratt Lay it Down
 * Riot Narita, Road Racin, Swords and Tequila
 * Rotting Christ Ad Noctis
 * Running Wild Riding the Storm
 * Sanctuary Batlte Angels
 * Savatage Hall of the Mountain King
 * Saxon Wheels of Steel
 * The Scorpions Blackout, Holiday
 * Skeletonwitch Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery
 * Skid Row Youth Gone Wild
 * Slayer Metal Storm / Face the Slayer
 * Slough Feg Warriors Dawn
 * Static-X Love Dump
 * Tenacious D Master Exploder, The Metal
 * Testament For the Glory of... / More than Meets the Eye(merged track)
 * Tvangeste Birth of a Hero
 * UFO Rock Bottom
 * Whitesnake In the Still of the Night
 * Wrath of Killenstein Igniisis Dance
 * Rob Zombie Superbeast