27 Rock Star Video Games
Once the video-game boom took hold, developers began turning to rock stars to create games based around their images and music. We uncovered more than two dozen times where musicians and video games got together below.
It started in 1982 with a game for the Atari 2600 console that traded on the success of Journey's Escape album and continues all the way into the era of the smartphone app. Over the years, the level of involvement by artists ranged from a last-minute deal to put Motley Crue's name on a pinball-based video game to David Bowie helping to write the story line for one.
While many games found ways to incorporate a band's music and image into a storyline for a playable, multilevel game with many challenges, three arrived in the mid-'90s that took players deeper inside the works of Peter Gabriel, Prince and Bob Dylan. These CD-ROMs contained information about their history and most recent projects, and featured content exclusive to the game.
So if you ever wanted to visit a world where you needed to rescue Aerosmith from captivity or one where Gene Simmons was a skateboarder, check out the below list of Rock Star Video Games. We also included an entry dedicated to the times musicians like Paul McCartney, Trent Reznor and Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh created new works specifically for a game.