Metalocalypse: Dethgame - PS3

Just in time for Comic-Con, Konami officially announced that it's publishing a downloadable game based on hit Adult Swim show Metalocalypse. Earlier today, I dropped into the publisher's hotel suite for a very brief first hands-on with Metalocalypse: Dethgame. It seems like a strange comparison, but the gameplay style reminds me most of No More Heroes.

Dr. Rockso, Paging Dr. Rockso...

From what I've pieced together from the press release, the new game puts you in the shoes of a Klokateer, one of Dethklok's roadies, who slay and eviscerate for...does it really matter? It's probably for reasons pertaining to something totally metal. Along the way, you'll smash heads to a pulp and disembody mutant rock fans to the sounds of Dethklok. Why does it remind me of that weird Wii game of yesteryear? It has a similar approach to gameplay. Sure, you're not flogging the dolphin with a Wii remote, but you're disposing of waves of throwaway enemies through a variety of brutal dispatches.

But Those Aren't Coins Shooting Out of Their Necks

In my sliver of gameplay, the action seemed pretty straightforward. The Klokateer either beats enemies until they're dead, or he can perform a variety of super-moves, such as punching them until they're pretty much hamburger or suplexing them so hard that he decapitates them. Like Grasshopper's homage to the weirder elements of Japanese culture, Dethgame doesn't just put ultraviolence on display, it revels in it.

But How Metal Is It?

Although TV and film-to-game translations have a bad rep, Metalocalypse creator Brendan Small has kept a close eye on the game in progress and has proclaimed that he wouldn't license his property out for a crappy game. The cel-shaded art style and over-the-top violence certainly live up to the outrageous nature of the show, but the genre can be, well, a bit one-dimensional. For a first look, Metalocalypse: Dethgame doesn't look too bad, but I hope that we'll see more to the game than just tossing unwitting souls into a fan to make hamburger of them.