FEATURES

NEW GAME TESTS THE METTLE OF METAL HEADS"

by Chris Akin/MBL

    Let's face it. Yuppies seem to have all the board games in the world to
play.   They can get their kicks proving their knowledge in a rousing game of
Trivial Pursuit. They can get their giggles out with a rousing game of
Jenga. They have the games, plain and simple. But what about those of us
whose interests stray away from building blocks and knowing what the capital
city of Indonesia is? What do we have?

    Well, Metalheads now have a very cool game - METAL MENTAL MELTDOWN is
100% metal, from it's pentagram playing board, through it's skull die, right
down to the 2664 questions on an evil 666 playing cards. METAL MENTAL
MELTDOWN is out there for those true to metal to enjoy with friends of
similar interests.

    This game gets my endorsement for many reasons. First, it is not some
piece of crap that was put together in someone's garage to make a quick buck.
It is highly professional, well assembled, well researched, and truly fun to
play. Secondly, the questions rule. As someone who considers themselves a
metal "expert," I was stunned at the varying degrees of questions and topics,
and the number of questions I didn't know.

     Finally, it isn't a corporate metal game, where what they consider metal
stops along the realm of Bon Jovi, Judas Priest and Metallica. These
questions deal with all styles of metal - glam, guitar heroes, death metal,
black metal, euro-metal, new metal - ALL of them.

     The game's designer, Joshua Wood, is a self-proclaimed metal trivia
expert who's down with the underground and looks to create a viable form of
entertainment for people with interests similar to his own. I caught up with
Joshua last month. Here's what he had to say...

BEAT - What gave you the idea to design a game for metalheads?

JOSHUA WOOD (JW) - I originally was trying to write a book and it just sort
of evolved into a game, with all these facts and trivia. I always enjoyed
trivia, so to me it was a natural fit - heavy metal and trivia.

BEAT - When did it go from being an idea to full-scale production?

J.W. - In February of '98, I actually had one of those "wake up in the
middle of the night moments." I got up and wrote all the rough notes. I
just said, "You know, I'm going to do this." My wife had been bugging me to
quit talking about it and just do it, so I did. I sat down and I wrote all
the rough notes. We decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to
go big or go home. I formed a company, formed a board of directors, and got
a lawyer and investors. I got all that business out of the way and got busy
writing questions, researching and brainstorming.

BEAT - By nature, are you a metalhead?

J.W. - Oh, and beyond! I've listened to metal all my life. I started
listening to KISS's Destroyer, and I've never looked back.

BEAT - Some questions are relatively easy ("Headbangers"), but the extreme
questions ("Metal Meltdown") are unreal. Where did you get them?

J.W. - About 70% of it was from my head, and 30% was research - double
checking facts and making sure that we had accurate facts. I know that
sounds egotistical, but I have a capacity for trivia and I happen to remember
fun little facts. You probably noticed the breakdown. Forty percent of the
questions are easy, and another 30% are medium. That's 70% of the questions
that are easier. We didn't want to make it so hard that nobody would know
anything, because then no one would have any fun. We tried to keep the
really killer questions to a minimum.

BEAT - Do you think that there is a large market for a metal trivia game?

J.W. - I think so. A traditional board game is a lot of fun. Older metal
fans, guys 30 and up who where teenagers in the golden age of metal, might
want to get together with some friends to have a beer and play this, rather
than just surf the net on a Friday night. It's a traditional type of game.

BEAT - Where has this been released?

J.W. - I've sold copies all over the world, on six continents. Of course,
we are really cranking it up now. We find that there is a good response
worldwide, so we may go to a second, bigger print run to try to get our cost
down for everybody.

BEAT - How has it been doing?

J.W. - Really well. I guess I would have two answers. One - these things
never go as quickly as you would expect. I hoped to sell out everything in
my first year, which we won't do. But for a brand new game in each market
with no advertising, we're doing incredibly well by industry standards.

BEAT - The game is definitely professionally made. It is comparable with
Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit games.

J.W. - Thank you. Like we said, we wanted to go big or go home. We got
investors. We put over $50,000 into it. We decided that if we were going to
make a game, it was going to be a kick ass game. It was going to be glossy.
It was going to have full color. It was going to have photos. The cards are
a little weak, I will admit. I wanted to go with glossy, but that would have
driven the cost way up. Hopefully with the next edition, we will have more
bucks and do the cards glossy.

BEAT - Is it hard to get this game into stores like Toys-R-Us or Kmart?

J.W. - Most stores have been really good. The HMV chain here in Canada has
been really good. They carry it in quite a few locations across Canada. A
lot of independent mom and pop retailers are into it. That's where we''re
getting some good sales. They take six or seven at a time and word of mouth
grows. There's one or two underground little metal stores in every market it
seems, and those are the guys we are trying to get it first. We want to try
to support the underground - the cool guys that support the music. We don't
really want to get it into Tower Records right away.

BEAT - Yeah, but if Toys-R-Us called, you wouldn't turn them away, would you?

J.W. - If they called, I'd say, "show me the money!" (laughing)

BEAT - Is there a second edition of the game in the works?

J.W. - You bet! What we're looking at doing is specialty packs. People who
like Bon Jovi don't like Dark Throne and Dark Throne fans don't like Bon
Jovi. We're going to do a black metal extension pack, and a death metal
extension pack, and a glam extension pack, and guitar heroes pack. That way,
people who have bought the game can buy the music that they prefer, and focus
in a little more. The packs would be cheaper, of course, so people could buy
four or five different packs of their favorite kinds of metal.

BEAT - How can people get the game?

J.W. - Our website has E-Commerce, and people can order directly through the
website. It's www.jpwmetalenterprises.com. Our phone number is (403)
217-8827. People are always welcome to call, check the website and check it
out.