You have to be pretty smart to be a videogame developer. Or so you’d think. To find out, we’re testing the noggins of our favorite developers with a little column we like to call 5 Hit Points. The premise is simple: We pick a developer and ask them 5 random questions about the game, series, and/or past works they’re involved with. If they get a question right, they get a point. Get one wrong and they get “hit.” Obviously, the goal is to get as many questions right as possible. Because answering all five correctly nets our players one truly fabulous prize: the satisfaction of knowing they’re not an idiot. Guitar Hero: Metallica Lead Designer Alan Flores is our first random encounter. He might know how to bang his head, but nagging neck cramps won’t help him here. Click the jump to see if he can rock our five questions.
1. Guitar Hero: Metallica is the first official videogame based on the band. But the group originally signed a deal with VU Games back in 2005 to make a title that (thankfully) never got released. If it did, however, which dying genre would it have fallen under?
Alan Flores: It was a racing/shooting game — it was like Twisted Metal.
Bitmob: Correct.
Points: 1; Hits: 0
AF: I remember that one and thinking, “I don’t know if that fits Metallica so well.”
2. Microsoft has a sense of humor — this year’s April Fool’s joke was a parody of Guitar Hero. Can you name this fictitious yodeler?
AF: A yodeler? I have no idea.
Bitmob: That’s a hit. The correct answer is Alpine Legend.
Points: 1; Hits: 1
3. Metallica isn’t the only 80’s metal band to have its own videogame. Which EA-published game was based on the famous LA glam rock band Mötley Crüe? 
AF: An EA-published game based on Mötley Crüe? Is this an 80’s game?
Bitmob: It came out in the early 90’s on the Sega Genesis.
AF: I know about a bunch of Aerosmith games, but I don’t know about a Mötley Crüe game, sorry.
Bitmob: Hit number two — the correct answer is Crüe Ball.
Points: 1; Hits: 2
4. Last year’s Guitar Hero KFC Meal turned our nausea up to 11. What was the official name of this boxed monstrosity?
AF: [Laughs] I don’t know! I’ve seen them. But I’ve never eaten one, because I’m vegetarian.
Bitmob: That’s probably for the better.
AF: I feel horrible — I only have one point!
Bitmob: Sorry, that’s a hit. The correct answer is the Fully Loaded Box Meal.
Points: 1; Hits: 3
5. The long-running animated comedy South Park spoofed Guitar Hero a while back. Tell us the three-word phrase that is said after the kids score a million points in the game.
AF: It’s politically incorrect for me to say it!
Bitmob: Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.
AF: You. Are. Fags.
Bitmob: Correct!
Points: 2; Hits: 3
Final Score: 2 Points
For a first-time player, Flores didn’t do too bad. Obviously that metal music isn’t helping out his brain cells, though. We suggest he listen to something more intellectually soothing, like Beethoven. Or this mind-enriching ditty.