Brutal Legend managed to move 215,000 copies when you combine the figures from PS3 and 360. For a game with a niche appeal, that’s not too bad. But for a game that had Jack Black popping up every five seconds to promote it… yeah, maybe EA were hoping for a little more.

It’s a veritable Modern Warfare 2 when you compare it to DJ Hero, however, which only sold 122,300 units. Across four platforms. Yes, it was only on sale for five days in October (still a long enough time to pick up decent numbers), but this was Activision’s first crack at their own “Hero” game. It had an expensive marketing campaign, and was backed by heavyweights like Daft Punk, Jay-Z and DJ Shadow.

Then again, maybe that was the problem. My distaste for the game has always been down to its scattershot approach to its soundtrack: a little hip-hop here, a little electronica there, some dance, all meeting over some ill-advised pop remixes… it’s a mess. Perhaps it would have been better served picking, say, hip-hop and just running with that, so it was a must-have for at least one market.

That or not being $US120. Or making its song downloads $US3. Those might have helped, too.

Wonder if it’ll do any better in November…

Anyway, here’s the platform breakdown for those interested, courtesy of GameSpot:

Brutal Legend (360) – 150,000 units
Brutal Legend (PS3) – 66,000 units
DJ Hero (360) – 62,000 units
DJ Hero (PS3) – 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Wii) – 19,000 units
DJ Hero (PS2) – 3300 units

Brutal Legend sells 216K, DJ Hero 123K [GameSpot]

The Mishka NYC × Brütal Legend collaboration not only gives metal-heads an opportunity to proudly display their love of all things Tim Schafer on their torsos, it draws upon real thrash and metal credibility.

The above “Headbanger” tee features the gory result of Ironheade’s head-banging foot soldiers in a design crafted by artist James Callahan, known for his work with bands like Municipal Waste. The second, featuring a Brütal Legend Razorgirl riding a Fire Beast, is all ’70s metal fantasy, courtesy of Daniel Mumford, known for his work with Black Dahlia Murder.

Keep watch for opportunities — right here on Kotaku, for example — to get your hands on these tees.

We’ve featured her on Kotaku before, but years ago. So to reintroduce her, Old Grandma Hardcore lives in Cleveland (there’s just no way she could live anywhere else) and she loves playing games.

She’s also got the potty-mouth of a 19-year-old, but the F-bombs she drops are terms of endearment, explains her grandson:over at OGH. “I’d say never so much before has a game made Grandma squeal with joy whilst simultaneously pissing her off, but you know that’s not true. That describes pretty much every goddamn game she likes. She absolutely adored it.”

Video 24: Grandma Plays Brütal Legend [Old Grandma Hardcore]

Thanks for sharing, Dave Brown, Jonathan Barrett, Adam Olson and gyophry (who did both Brütal Legend and Final Fantasy VII).

The Tears of the Hextadon map pack consists of two new maps for Brutal Legend’s completely non-real-time strategy online multiplayer mode. The Circle of Tears map is completely surrounded by water, while the Death’s Fjord map takes place in an icy mountain path, where players must brave wide open spaces in order to reach the fan geysers needed to generate units.

Double fine’s Tim Schafer explains the map names.

“I play Brütal Legend online every night,” said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. “And I need more maps! Circle of Tears is named after the crying of my vanquished foes on the battlefield, and Death’s Fjord is obviously a tribute to my Nordic ancestors, and their love of fan geysers and… Well, actually I just thought the name was cool. See you online!”

He doesn’t explain, however, why the PlayStation 3 version of the downloadable content is free from the November 5 release until November 19, while the Xbox 360 pack costs 400 Microsoft points as soon as it hits Xbox Live on November 3. Perhaps EA is trying to drum up more PS3 business? We’ve contacted EA about the reasoning and will update as soon as we hear back.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.

This review was submitted by Mitch Alexander. If you’ve played Brütal Legend, or just want to ask Mitch more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Brütal Legend (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tim Shafer’s long-delayed action-adventure/RTS hybrid finally hits shelves, but is it as legendary as its title?

Loved

Story & Characters: Brütal Legend’s strongest points are its story, humour and characters. The voice acting is top-notch and the characters’ dialogue is as hilarious as it is compelling. The heavy metal in-jokes and easter eggs keep the game entertaining throughout.

Art Direction: While the graphics aren’t exactly cutting edge, the game does look fantastic with character designs and polished cut-scene animations that wouldn’t be out of place in a Pixar film.

Soundtrack: The head-banging soundtrack delivers in spades for the metal faithful. Besides the obvious inclusion of the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, Brutal Legend features great non-mainstream acts like Slough Feg and Testament lovingly mined from metal’s myriad sub-genres.

Hated

Gameplay: The mashup of RTS and third-person action simply doesn’t work. The third-person sequences are like God of War-Lite and the RTS elements are hampered by a simple but ultimately clumsy interface. While I appreciate what Schafer and Double Fine have attempted to do here, Brütal Legend’s gameplay is disappointingly average.

Secondary Missions: Like most free-roaming titles, there are numerous side missions available for explorers to track down and complete. All well and good, except there’s little variation between missions and limited incentive to bother completing them beyond weapon upgrades and collecting more Nerd Points for your Gamer Profile.

Short and Shallow: The story – as great as it is – is incredibly short and can easily be completed in 6-8 hours. The repetitive nature of the side missions and the RTS-based multiplayer do little to improve the game’s longevity.

While the game’s slick production and soundtrack help create an entertaining weekend’s worth of gaming, the flawed mechanics and short-lived story see Brütal Legend falling far short of its hype.

Reviewed by: Mitch Alexander

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.

It’s not that Schafer’s made so many games that he has to be on every list (like the Final Fantasy games). It’s just that his games are so diverse and bizarre that they usually stand out enough to make somebody’s list of “Gaming’s Greatest/Worst [Insert Noun Here]“. This week, he makes GamesRadar’s list of “18 awesome games that died at retail” not once, but twice!

Psychonauts to me is the obligatory Schafer game everyone includes on their list. But thankfully Grim Fandango made the cut this time. Of all Schafer’s works, it’s still my favourite so far.

It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Brütal Legend qualifies as a great game that dies at retail. Currently, it’s got a Metacritic score of 84, but the jury’s still out on how well it’s selling…

18 awesome games that died at retail [GamesRadar]