One thing about classic gamers, we love those annoying 8-bit jingles in video games. They are like ear worm songs that just bore into our brains, so much that we find ourselves whistling the Legend of Zelda tune while vacuuming the house or hearing that Final Fantasy theme in our heads as we try to fall asleep at night.
What happens when the musicians make video games, not just the tunes for them? Sometimes it works out; sometimes, not so much. In 2011, the Grateful Dead are going to be indulging their decades of fans with a video game. Upon learning that, it is hard not to look back at those who have gone before the Dead, making games that have little or nothing to do with music, but are instead “first person shooters or platform games”, whatever.
Some are so old and obscure that they may not even be well-remembered by the general gaming public. The Grateful Dead’s pending game is being developed by the same folks who made REO Speedwagon’s Find Your Own Way Home, a silly platformer that was meant as a promo for the band as it tried to revive in 2007. However, Journey Escape was actually created for the Atari 2600 in 1982 and starred the band in a single-player action game. While not mainstream, it maybe was a bit more popular than Ed Hunter, a 1999 release from the Iron Maiden featuring locations from the covers of the band’s albums.
More popular were the pop hits. Who can forget Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, where the pop star used “dance magic” to smoke his enemies or, possibly worse yet, the Spice Girls Spice World: The Game.
One thing is for certain when it comes to musician-released games, the more classic they are, the more popular they are likely to become. Classic gamers are nothing if not forgiving. Check out the list of those in need of such forgiveness here.
Music meets gaming: the cooperative movement,Tags: Atari 2600
