25 Years Ago: Lemmy Kilmister’s Bad Breath Saves Motorhead in Commodore Amiga Video Game
Lemmy Kilmister was the belch-wielding, bass-swinging protagonist of a now-forgotten, and perhaps unintentionally terrible, 1992 video game for the Commodore Amiga console.
Produced by Kaitsu Software – and probably inspired by Sega's Golden Axe, according to Dangerous Minds – the "Motorhead" game features an animated Lemmy moving across horizontal panels, laying waste to a series of musical foes, each more comical than the last. Worse than the retro-goofy graphics is that fact that the bulk of the "music and effects" are by "Benn Daglish" rather than, you know, Motorhead.
You're in charge of Kilmister – who, it's been suggested, seems to have awakened from "a bourbon-induced blackout" – as he works his way through various genre-specific foes (including country, rap and goth) on the way to saving his kidnapped bandmates. Along the way, he faces off against a whip-brandishing Dolly Parton lookalike in the Nashville-themed panel, and then a figure who looks suspiciously similar to the Cure's Robert Smith in the goth sequence.
To restore health, you imbibe. "The most Motorhead thing about 'Motorhead,' as Motherboard rightly noted, "is how much you drink." Before each battle, Kilmister exclaims, "Let's rock!" But that's not his secret weapon. Instead, it's his whiskey-soaked, powerfully bad breath.
"Lemmy can punch, head butt, swing his guitar or use halitosis attacks – always assuming he’s loaded up on cockles or Jack Daniel’s first," Richard Costello wrote in the January 1993 edition of Amiga Power magazine. "By collecting magical Motorhead talismans, he can unleash a devastating musical chord or summon up helpful demons, ranging from a tasty lass who distracts his opponents for a bit, up to WWF’s very own Undertaker – who just plain kills everyone."
Finally, after navigating through karaoke and acid house fan-zombies, Lemmy is reunited with Motorhead, and they perform a electronically looped (and completely lifeless) version of the song "Motorhead." A secondary game involves racing around drinking up as many cold suds as possible in the aptly named "Beer Frenzy."
Weirdest of all? The introductory credits indicate, somehow, that Kilmister gave permission for use of his likeness and presumably the Motorhead logo.
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