Most Metal Video Games (Part 3)

Hails and pixels metalheads! I know it's been quite a while since the previous installment of Most Metal Video Games, just stuff in real life and sheer laziness. I make no promises to keep a better schedule other than try for a weekly installment until I run out of potential candidates. Of course the past day has been pretty bleak for metal with the loss of the almighty Ronnie James Dio. We shouldn't mourn his loss but celebrate his contributions to metal as a whole. \m/

This week's most metal video game is the Guilty Gear series.

The moderately popular Japanese fighting game is loaded with various metal references in the characters and the music. Daisuke Ishiwatari is a bit of a renaissance man by designing the characters, penning the story, providing voice work and composing the music of the Guilty Gear series. He makes no shame of his love of metal and hard rock by naming characters after bands such as Venom, Slayer, Testament and musicians such as Zappa, Axl Rose (Axl Low), and Cliff Burton (Kliff Undersn).

Backed up by the metal/hard rock influenced characters is the hard hitting soundtrack. Instrumetal goodness filled with solid headbanging riffs and searing leads make this one to be occupied in one's iPod for some time. However between the various incarnations of the game, it can get a bit tiresome as the songs start to recycle motifs and while this is a common practice in order to save time and money, it makes it a chore to listen to in the long run.

Guilty Gear has a very diverse cast of characters and some very unique character designs; some of the best I've seen in recent fighting games. You have a guitar wielding witch. A tall shape shifting man with a bag over his head. And a man who can conjure up cue balls to shoot at you with his cue stick.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of fighting games and have little patience for their nuances but I certainly respect the good ones and this one is one of them. While the game has not reached the popularity of Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter, it is still heavily played by those looking for a great fighting game experience. The uniqueness, wackiness, and numerous of references to metal this game makes it a very metal video game.