Heavy Metal has always been a visual genre. Long before music videos, fans were staring at Derek Riggs paintings of Eddie, decoding Motörhead’s Snaggletooth and memorising every line of Vic Rattlehead on a Megadeth sleeve. Those characters were built to leap off the cover — so it was only a matter of time before they leapt into games.
Today Heavy Metal video games, pinball tables and even branded slot machines form a surprisingly rich corner of fan culture. Some are cult classics, some are cash-ins, and a few are genuinely brilliant. This is a look at how Metal went interactive, from clunky late-90s shooters to sold-out pinball leagues and festival stages inside Fortnite — and what it tells us about a genre that has never been shy about merchandise.
The early years: Ed Hunter and the first Metal games
Iron Maiden got there first, as they so often do. In 1999 the band released Ed Hunter, a PC rail shooter bundled with a fan-voted greatest hits compilation. Players roamed levels inspired by album covers — the asylum of Piece of Mind, the Egyptian sands of Powerslave — blasting enemies while the band’s back catalogue blared out of the speakers.
By modern standards Ed Hunter is crude. The graphics were dated even on release and the gameplay was repetitive. But it did something important: it treated a Metal band’s artwork as a world that could be explored rather than a picture to be looked at. For fans who had spent years staring at those sleeves, walking around inside them was a thrill.
Throughout the 1990s other bands flirted with games through soundtrack deals and licensed tracks, and Metal riffs became the default backing for racing and extreme sports games. Skateboarding and snowboarding titles in particular introduced a generation of teenagers to thrash and nu-Metal long before they set foot in a record shop. The groundwork for something bigger was being laid.
Brütal Legend and the peak of Metal video games
If one game deserves to be called the ultimate Heavy Metal video game, it is Brütal Legend. Released in 2009 by Double Fine and created by Tim Schafer, it starred Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, a roadie transported to a fantasy world built entirely from Metal album art. The landscape was littered with giant chrome skulls, the weapons were a battle axe and a Flying V, and the solos literally melted faces.
What made it special was the respect. The game was packed with real heroes: Lemmy voiced the Kill Master, Ozzy Osbourne was the Guardian of Metal, Rob Halford played both a hero and a villain, and Lita Ford turned up as a warrior queen. The soundtrack ran to more than a hundred tracks across every subgenre, from classic Heavy Metal to black Metal. Critics were split on its real-time strategy sections, but fans adored its world, and it remains a cult favourite today.
Around the same time, rhythm games were bringing Metal to a mainstream audience. Guitar Hero and Rock Band put plastic instruments in millions of living rooms, and setlists featuring Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden and DragonForce turned “Through the Fire and Flames” into a playground legend. Guitar Hero: Metallica (2009) went further, building an entire game around one band. For many younger fans, a plastic guitar was their first step towards a real one.
More recently, Metal: Hellsinger (2022) married a demon-slaying shooter to a rhythm system, with original songs sung by vocalists including Serj Tankian, Randy Blythe, Matt Heafy and Alissa White-Gluz. Add the thunderous soundtracks of the modern Doom games, and it is clear that Metal and games remain natural partners.
Stern pinball: Metallica, Iron Maiden and beyond
Pinball and Heavy Metal share more than you might think. Both are loud, both are physical, and both have survived decades of being declared dead. American manufacturer Stern Pinball has leaned into that overlap with a run of band-licensed tables.
Stern’s Metallica table arrived in 2013 and quickly became a favourite with collectors, complete with a Sparky the electric-chair mechanism and a giant Hammett-style guitar on the playfield. In 2018 Stern followed it with Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast, featuring an Eddie figure, multiple album-themed modes and a soundtrack of Maiden classics. Both tables are packed with callouts and artwork that reward fans who know the deep cuts. Stern and other makers have also produced tables for KISS, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Rush, proving that classic rock and Metal licences sell.
Where UK fans can still play them
You do not need to spend thousands on a home machine. Arcade bars in London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow often carry recent Stern tables, and the UK has a thriving pinball league scene with regular competitions. Pinball shows and expos also give fans a chance to try rare tables side by side. If you love the sound of a Metallica riff and a ball draining down the outlane, it is worth seeking one out.
Part of the appeal is that pinball feels like a gig. The lights, the noise and the physical shove of the machine have far more in common with a live show than with a quiet evening on a console, and the best band tables are programmed like a setlist, building through modes towards a multiball finale. Collectors have noticed, too. Limited-edition versions of Metal-themed tables, with special art packages and extra toys, often sell out quickly and change hands for well above their original price. For many fans, owning a Maiden or Metallica machine has become the ultimate piece of band merchandise, sitting somewhere between a signed guitar and a back-catalogue box set.
Motörhead, Guns N’ Roses and band-themed slot games
The most surprising chapter of Metal’s interactive history is the branded slot machine. In the mid-2010s, games studio NetEnt launched a series of rock-licensed video slots that included Guns N’ Roses, Jimi Hendrix and Motörhead. Rather than slapping a logo on a generic machine, the developers built each game around the band’s look and sound. The Motörhead slot leaned into Snaggletooth, war-bomber imagery and a soundtrack of the band’s best-known tracks, while the Guns N’ Roses game used live recordings and classic artwork.
KISS, a band famous for licensing its image to almost anything, has also had its own slot machines on casino floors, complete with the make-up, the fire and the platform boots. For some purists this is a step too far. For others it is simply the latest chapter in a long tradition of rock bands turning their brand into entertainment.
Why would a band with Motörhead’s outlaw reputation put its name on a slot? Partly it is money. Licensing deals bring in steady income at a time when album sales have collapsed and touring costs keep rising. Partly it is reach. A themed game puts a band’s songs and artwork in front of people who might never walk into a record shop or buy a festival ticket, and some of them go on to discover the albums. Metal has always had a complicated relationship with merchandise, from Iron Maiden’s endless T-shirt designs to the infamous KISS Kasket, and arguments about selling out are as old as the genre itself.
Online casino sites now offer large libraries of music-themed slots, and rock and Metal themes remain popular. Platforms such as Revery Play Casino carry a wide range of themed games alongside classic table games. If you do play, treat it as entertainment rather than a way to make money: set a budget before you start, stick to it, and remember that slots are games of chance. Gambling is strictly for adults aged 18 and over.
Mobile games, Fortnite and what’s next
The newest frontier for Heavy Metal games is the smartphone. In 2016 Iron Maiden launched Legacy of the Beast, a free-to-play mobile role-playing game in which players collect different versions of Eddie from across the band’s history. It proved popular enough to inspire a comic series, a world tour name and, as mentioned, a pinball machine.
Meanwhile, the biggest games in the world now treat bands as live events. In 2024 Metallica headlined a season of Fortnite Festival, bringing playable tracks, skins and an in-game concert to millions of players who might never have bought a Metallica album. Other platforms have hosted virtual gigs and in-game merchandise drops, and it is easy to imagine more Metal acts following.
The next step may be fully interactive concert experiences in virtual reality, or rhythm games built around entire discographies. Whatever form it takes, Metal’s love of mascots, artwork and spectacle makes it a natural fit for whatever games come next.
Conclusion
Heavy Metal video games have come a long way since Eddie stalked the pixelated corridors of Ed Hunter. Along the way we have had Brütal Legend’s loving tribute to the genre, plastic-guitar duels in the living room, Stern pinball tables that eat pound coins in arcade bars, and branded slots that turn Motörhead and Guns N’ Roses into casino entertainment. Not every project has been a triumph, but the best of them share a real affection for the music.
Now it is over to you. Which band deserves its own game next? A Sabbath survival horror? A Slayer fighting game? A Gojira open-world adventure? Tell us in the comments.
