Monday 13th January 2014 by Edward Keeble

The 11 most random (and unexpected) musician cameos in video games

They know where the money is

Phil Collins - Vice City Stories: As well as including a full performance of 'In the Air' tonight, protagonist Vic Vance has to protect good old Phil from being murdered by Assassins.

The Beastie Boys - NBA Jam: The legendary Beastie Boys are available as playable characters in NBA Jam alongside the rather bizarre guest appearances of Obama and Bill Clinton. You'd obviously pick the Beastie Boys.

Avenged Sevenfold - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: In a rather embarrassing and incredibly random appearance, two of the main characters from the game rock out with Avenged Sevenfold post credits.

James Hetfield - Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD: Included as a downloadable character is Metallica frontman Hetfield, who is a big fan of skating, so much so his insurance company have barred him from skating on tour. Other guests in the past have included Travis Barker, Eddie from Iron Maiden and Billie Joe Armstrong.

Fred Durst - Fight Club: Ever wanted to dish out some pain to Fred Durst? Well this is your oppurtunity to get payback for all the years of awful Limp Bizkit albums.

Aerosmith - Revolution X: There is nothing more 90s than this arcade game in which the player fires CD's at the New Order regime who have abducted Aerosmith after declaring war on youth culture. Word.

Kiss - Kiss: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child: For a game based on a comic based on a band this first person shooter really isn't too bad. It sees four characters fight against an evil circus while the band Kiss watch on as god-like figures.

Michael Jackson - Ready 2 Rumble Round 2: Boxing and the king of pop? Goes together like chalk and cheese. MJ also appeared in the Mega Drive classic Moonwalker and Dreamcast title Space Channel 5.

Redman - True Crime NY: The rapper isn't the first to appear as himself in a video game, with 50 Cent appearing in two of his own games, Snoop Dogg appearing in True Crime LA. However he was one of the first to pull it off properly - and with swagger.

Journey - Journey (The Arcade Game): The goal is to collect each member of the band from separate planets in order to perform at a gig where the player takes control of a bouncer keeping the crowds at bay. Wicked.

Bon Jovi/Avril Lavigne/Christina Aguilera - The Sims: Everyone remembers how bloody boring The Sims was, so these downloadable celebrities were made available to spice things up.

Tags: Limp Bizkit, Metallica, Kiss

It was recently announced that Grand Theft Auto surpassed the earnings of the entire music industry after less than a week on sale. The game raked in over $1 billion in three days with publisher Take Two quickly pointing out that the music industry makes $1.4 billion in a month. That is ridiculous.

Recently we've seen more and more musicians cashing in, licensing tracks for Guitar Hero, making cameos and even developing their own games. Snoop Dogg for example recently put out the rather poor Way of the Dogg, but he would flog literally anything anything these days so he's barred from this list. These are the most surprising musician cameos in video games.