I love Rock and Roll. I don’t know what it is about it, but I just love it; the guitars, the drums, the lyrics, the mindset, everything about Rock just clicks with me. Another thing I love is Psychonauts. A great game with amazing visuals, awesome gameplay, and a stunning story? Sign me up.

So you might be asking; “What exactly does Rock and Roll have to do with Psychonauts?” One man: Tim Schaefer. The designer responsible for such hits as Psychonauts, Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle  is working on a game called Brütal Legend, a mixture of fantasy and hardcore heavy metal. Hit the jump for the details.

The game follows rock and roll roadie Eddie Riggs, voiced by Jack Black, a man who Schaefer says “Should have been born in the seventies”; he’s your typical Jack Black-esque hard rock fanatic. Apparently, he gets into a stage accident one day and some of his blood lands in the mouth of his magical, time-traveling belt buckle. Suddenly, Eddie is transported back in time, into an alternate past that can only be described as every heavy metal album ever made: Swords sticking out of the ground, a giant temple made of bones, pits of fire, the usual fare. As he realizes where he is, he finds two weapons: a huge, double-bladed axe known as The Separator and a magical guitar known simply as Clementine.

As you progress in the game, you can find plans for different vehicles and weapons, such as “The Deuce”, a vehicle which can only be described as a gigantic, badass hot rod, that can be created with the use of your magical guitar. The vehicles in the game can be outfitted with numerous weapons that can be purchased with items like lighters, the cash substitute you receive for completing missions, sweet jumps with the Deuce, and “Anything we deem to be extremely metal”, Schaefer says.

Another feature of the game is the ability to recruit more people to your cause of Rock and Roll domination. Eddie can use his guitar to inspire those who are being kept enslaved to join him and fight against their evil captors. Though this adds some strategy to the game, you can just forgo all of this for cleaving your enemies into tiny bits using the Separator, just in case strategy isn’t your thing.

Regardless of your tastes in music, Brütal Legend is shaping up to be an awesome game. Look for it on the Xbox 360 sometime this year.

[From OXM, via Joystiq]