Brutal Legend: Did it try to do too much? Is rhythm minigame not required?

[famousringo]

richardhutnik said:

I want to look at the aspect of doing too much. Say that developers nail everything perfectly and all the experiences together are best of breed. If you demand players have to do all of the above, isn't there a risk you are going to give them some experience they suck at and don't find fun? That is the question I am posing about Brutal Legend. Now, if you have experiences OPTIONAL, that can work, but not required. I don't need a rhythm minigame in my action RTS.  With myself, I don't care how much you have a rhythm minigame polished, I am not going to end up being good at it at all.  I have Guitar Heroes, for example, and it only comes out in a party set up.  I picked up a Guitar Heroes bundle on my 360 for $10, and some expansions, and now am set for parties.  But no way do I play this.  It just isn't my thing.

No, you're right, a lot of people will hit that one gameplay element that turns them off. But on the other hand, a small subset of people will find all the gameplay types exciting and varied. So the game would likely alienate a fair number of potential customers, but at least a minority of people will walk away extremely satisfied.

I just think that even that minority will be shrunken and tiny when over half your game mechanics are diappointing because you tried to design four or five games at once.

And while I'm venting my spleen on this game, why the hell doesn't it have a minimap? It's not a super sophisticated bit of programming, and just about every part of the game would be better with a minimap.