Publishers don't always know what's best for a game. If certain executives had their way, Brutal Legend could've been a country music game starring Garth Brooks instead of a heavy metal adventure starring Jack Black.

"When we were first pitching Brütal Legend, it was before the first Guitar Hero game was announced and we were like, 'There's this game in a heavy metal world', [and they said] 'We like the game, but could we change it to be a hip-hop game, or maybe country music?'," Double Fine Productions' Tim Schafer said in a recent Eurogamer interview. "There's nothing against that music, but it doesn't have a lore of heavy metal, in terms of a certain kind of mythology that leads to epic, medieval battles."

Fortunately, the success of Guitar Hero revived mainstream interest in heavy metal and Double Fine was able to stick with its original vision for Brutal Legend. I doubt Double Fine feels grateful toward Guitar Hero publisher Activision, though. Activision dumped the game from its roster last summer when they merged with its original publisher Vivendi to form Activision Blizzard.