I don’t know about you, but I already miss Conan O’Brien. Personally, I think he’s ultimately much funnier than Jay Leno. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what a 6’4″ Irish-Catholic comedian has to do with the heavy metal tribute that is Brütal Legend, but bare with me, I’m getting there.

On Conan’s show he used to do a segment called “If They Mated” that was always funny as he’d mash together the faces of celebrities to discover the monstrosities that could be their children if they ever got down and dirty. Playing through Brütal Legend I kept on feeling like what I was playing is what you’d get if Guitar Hero 3 and Jack Black had a lovechild.

Now be assured, dear reader, I rarely think of Jack Black’s mating habits. However I assume that Tim Schafer, highly-renowned game designer known for such classics as the first two Monkey Island games, must have, seeing as Brütal Legend may as well be his and Black’s love letter to the music genre.

The game begins with Eddie Riggs, roadie-extraordinaire, (basically Jack Black if he grew his hair and picked up an anabolic steroid habit) showing off his skills and just generally being awesome. Unfortunately he feels trapped within the current state of metal music, feeling like he was born in the wrong time, a time where heavy metal has become way to emo to really be considered “rawk”. Just then one of the band members fails a risky stunt and, in an attempt to save his life, Eddie is crushed by his own set, bleeding into the monstrous mouth of the belt buckle he is wearing. This awakens Ormagoden, “the Cremator of the Sky, the Destroyer of the Ancient world, the Lord of all things Brütal” 4 who proceeds to murder the entire band, lift Eddie up and transport him to an alternate universe where rock is everything and everything is rock.

Honestly, this game has a ton of things going for it. Firstly, Schafer’s idea of casting Jack Black as the main voice actor was without a doubt the perfect fit. In fact I sort of forgot about the whole “Eddie Riggs” persona and basically felt like I was playing as Jack Black the whole time. But Black isn’t the only big-ticket name in the game, joining him are Kyle Gass (his Tenacious D partner), Tim Curry as Doviculous, Ozzy Osbourne as The Guardian of Metal, Rob Halford (from Judas Priest) as General Lionwhyte/The Baron, and comedian Brian Posehn as The Hunter, just to name a few.

If that doesn’t give you an idea of the type of game Brütal Legend is, than I don’t know what will. The game is a generally fun spin on your typical hack-and-slash adventure, despite its hidden Real Time Strategy (RTS) features. It even manages to mix up the typical system of linear pseudo-sandboxing by giving you side-quests that are nothing like anything you’ve ever been asked to do before. In one mission I was doing a beer run and in another I was acting as a wingman for a metalhead in my army who couldn’t get his mack on with this one girl because the bass players kept sweeping in and getting her attention.