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Easter Eggs & In-Jokes

Brutal Legend is packed with references to the world of metal and beyond. If you’ve spotted something not listed here, please send it in or post it on the forums!

brutal_legend_20091026194614Super effective!

[October 26th, 2009 by The Tingler]
“Super effective!” appears at various points in the game, a quote from Double Fine’s comic series.

brutal_legend_20091026194832Germination

[October 26th, 2009 by Leebot 5000]
When in battle, Doviculus will sometimes say “My seed germinates within you”. Doviculus’ voice actor Tim Curry played a similarly demonic role early in his career in a film called Legend, who said “The evil seed of what you’ve done germinates within you”.

Riggnarock

[October 26th, 2009 by Phazon_Elite]
A significant character in the story of Brutal Legend is named after Ragnarök, an event in Norse mythology that resulted in complete destruction of the world before being renewed and repopulated. Metal lyrics and bands are known to refer to this event.

brutal_legend_20091026195401You Have to Burn the Rope

[October 26th, 2009 by jclee89]
If you wait around for a while when the tour bus is being blocked by a huge stone barricaide, Magnus will tell you that “You have to burn the rope!” — Eddie will say “It can’t be that simple!” in response. This is a reference to the humourously simple Flash game You Have to Burn the Rope, completed by burning a rope.

Airships

[October 26th, 2009 by Ryan Williams]
Airships are a recurring theme of Tim Schafer’s. One of Eddie’s guitar solos causes a Zeppelin to crash to the ground, and Schafer’s earlier games Grim Fandango and Psychonauts both feature blimps — the former of which catastrophically crashes prior to the events of the game. Schafer has also been known to refer to airship crashes in interviews.

Bring It On Home

[October 26th, 2009 by Steven Kamai]
One of Eddie’s guitar solos is ‘Bring It On Home’, which causes a huge Zeppelin — very similar to a blimp — to fall from the sky and explode. This is a reference to Led Zeppelin, a metal band that had a falling Zeppelin as the cover art of its first album.

brutal_legend_20091026200001Dadbat

[October 26th, 2009 by Ben Brown and Snaggletöoth]
One secondary mission involves helping a family of bats by clearing a beast out of their cave. The father, Dadbat, is played by Ozzy Osbourne who notoriously bit the head off a real bat during one of his shows — the bat also resembles a younger Ozzy Osbourne. If you try to enter the cave without accepting the mission the bat will quote Ozzy’s song titles such as ‘I don’t wanna stop’ or ‘I’m not going away’, and ‘Never say die’.  The other bats are most likely based on Ozzy’s family.

brutal_legend_20091026200301Peter Criss

[October 26th, 2009 by Esteban Segura]
The Zaulia, a tribe of warrior women who wear cat make-up and ride giant cat-like beasts into battle, are based on Kiss drummer Peter Criss, who was known for wearing similar cat make-up. A drum kit at the top of the Zaulia’s shrine bolsters the reference.

brutal_legend_20091026200501Wagon of Bones

[October 27th, 2009 by Isikcan Yilmaz and Nate DeMarino]
One of the paint jobs available in the Motorforge is called ‘Wagon of Bones’, taglined “It’s not a company car” — a reference to Grim Fandango‘s Bonewagon, a Department of Death company car transformed into a hotrod. The Guardian of Metal describes the paint job with “That’s grim”. Sometimes Eddie will say “Well it looks like it’s just you and me, Manny” while driving with the paint job selected, a reference to Grim Fandango‘s protagonist.

Psychic headbanger

[October 26th, 2009 by Ryan Williams]
The headbanger responsible for constructing the death rack that lifts the Deuce up so it can fire at incoming enemies is wearing a pair of goggles extremely similar to those worn by Psychonauts‘ Razputin. Richard Horvitz voices both Razputin and the headbanger in question.

Soothing bass riff

[October 26th, 2009 by Ryan Williams]
The Kill Master and his crew play bass riffs that heal those around them. This bass riff is taken directly from the beginning of a Motörhead song, also featured in the game.

brutal_legend_20091026200701Fletus

[October 26th, 2009 by Brandon Waterman,  Perilion, and Rachel Forster]
Eddie frequently races a demon named Fletus, based on AC/DC  lead singer Brian Johnson. Both have a thick accent, wear a sleeveless top and flat cap, and love fast vehicles. Fletus’ car, the Squealer, is also named after one of AC/DC’s more popular songs. The character and grandiose car as a whole are based on the stylings of Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth, who was also the inspiration behind Grim Fandango‘s Glottis.

Ace of Hades

[October 3rd, 2009 by Snaggletöoth]
One of the paint jobs available in the Motorforge is called ‘Ace of Hades’, taglined “Let them know you don’t wanna live forever” — a reference to Motörhead song ‘Ace of Spades’.

brutal_legend_20091026201301Bobby dance

[October 3rd, 2009 by Ryan Williams]
One of the Kabbage Boy band members during the opening cinematic dances on Eddie’s stage and nearly falls to his death. The dance is the same dance performed by both Razputin and Bobby in Double Fine’s previous game, Psychonauts. Richard Horvitz voices both Razputin and the band member.

Snaggletooth and Eddie's belt Snaggletooth

[August 1st, 2008 by Ryan Williams]
Earlier pictures of Eddie’s belt buckle look very much like classic metal band Motörhead’s official logo, ‘Snaggletooth’. The similarity was probably intentional as Motörhead founder Lemmy Kilmister provides voice work for Brutal Legend.

Eddie Riggs

[August 1st, 2008 by Ryan Williams]
Brutal Legend‘s main character got his name from two sources: ‘Eddie the Head’ and Derek Riggs. The former is the official mascot of Iron Maiden, while the latter is the artist who created the mascot.

General Lionwhyte

[August 1st, 2008 by Ryan Williams]
Himself being based on glam metal, General Lionwhyte‘s namesake is glam metal band White Lion. The character has long, luscious, and fabulous hair that he can use to fly.

Kill Master

[August 1st, 2008 by Ryan Williams]
A prominent character in Brutal Legend is the Kill Master, whose name is based on the character’s voice actor Lemmy Kilmister, founder of Motörhead.

Lars and Lita Halford

[August 1st, 2008 by Ryan Williams]
A brother and sister named Lars and Lita Halford join Eddie on his journey. Lars’ name is a reference to Metallica founder Lars Ulrich, wheras ‘Lita Halford’ is based on Runaways lead guitarist Lita Ford and Judas Priest member Rob Halford.