From in-game radio to climactic boss battles themes, these are the tracks that defined popular music in gaming
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Since the earliest days of gaming, music has helped create a sense of immersion and worldbuilding. From composer Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. theme, to the infectious earworm of Tetris’ “Korobeiniki,” the sound of video games has often been as memorable, if not more so, than the actual look.
And while video game scores have come a long way in the last half century to become more cinematic, there’s another form of video game music that has had a profound impact on the user experience and has been going strong since the Nineties: the licensed soundtrack.
The idea dates to 1982, when Journey delivered a chiptune rendition of their track, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” for their Atari 2600 game Journey Escape. But just a decade later, with the advent of home consoles like the Sega CD and Sony PlayStation, the ability to incorporate popular music in video games would leap beyond tonally spotty MIDI recreations into the realm of high-quality audio tracks.
Some games are synonymous with a single song, like 2001’s Twisted Metal: Black, whose use of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” in the opening credits instantly reinvented the tone for the entire series. Others follow up incredible scores with a tastefully placed needle drop that drives home an essential narrative moment, like the unexpected somberness of D’Angelo’s “Unshaken” during the climax of Read Dead Redemption 2.
But a truly great licensed soundtrack manages to weave itself throughout the entire experience in ways that make it essential to the gameplay. Spending hours immersed in a game’s world often deeply connects players to specific tracks and can introduce new generations of gamers to songs they may have never otherwise known.
To rank the best licensed soundtracks of all time, there must be some caveats. Compiling the list, we generally looked at games that had more than a single famous track, and we also omitted annual sports franchises that include slews of popular tracks from their respective years. (There’s simply too many FIFA or NBA 2K installments to rank.) Nor did we include rhythm-based or dancing games whose entire premise is playing along to popular songs (put down the pitchforks, Guitar Hero stans).
With that, here are Rolling Stone’s picks for the 25 best licensed gaming soundtracks.
2012
All good schlock needs the right soundtrack, and Lollipop Chainsaw delivers both in spades. Directed by Japanese designer Goichi Suda (under the alias Suda51) and co-written by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, the game harkens back to Suda’s roots as a Troma b-movie director, with a ludicrous, blood-soaked story about Juliet, a cheerleader who spends her 18th birthday battling the zombie apocalypse with the sentient severed head of her boyfriend at her hip.
A bombastic retro vibe is injected into the game from the opening title screen with the track “Cherry Bomb” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The game’s licensed music was curated to emphasize the batshit tone of the game, one that composer and Mindless Self Indulgence front-man Jimmy Urine has called, “Totally. Fucking. Crazy.”
And crazy it is, with songs accompanying menus, mini-games, and climactic battles that range from hits like Toni Basil’s “Hey Mickey” and The Chordettes’ “Lollipop” to era-appropriate bangers like Sleigh Bells’ “Riot Rhythm.”
Song to stream: “Cherry Bomb,” Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
1999
Just because a game has a great soundtrack doesn’t mean it needs to be a long one. Sega’s Crazy Taxi is the perfect example of utilizing just a handful of licensed tracks to maximum effect.
Beginning as an arcade game before being ported to Sega’s final console, Dreamcast, it’s designed for quick sessions with players controlling a lunatic taxicab who must pick up fares at a frenetic pace. Theat frenetic playpace is set by a punk soundtrack consisting of only seven songs from two bands: The Offspring and Bad Religion. But with Crazy Taxi, less is more.
Some 25 years later, fans of the series still associate the intro with the lyrics of The Offspring’s “All I Want,” but many were bummed as licensing issues forced modern ports and mobile remakes to omit the best tracks. The Crazy Taxi experience isn’t the same without the iconic high-pitched howls of the band’s vocalist Dexter Holland’s, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”
Song to stream: “All I Want,” The Offspring
2013
One of the best ways to incorporate mainstream music in games without breaking the atmosphere is to use them as in-game covers or diegetic music used within the scenes. Irrational Games’ steampunk first-person shooter Bioshock Infinite combined both to infuse an eerie asynchronous tone into its sci-fi world, which is set in a fictional city-state in the sky circa 1912.
Creator Ken Levine and music director Jim Bonney originally sought to use period-appropriate music, but struggled to find music with the right political gravitas and modern audio quality.
“It’s much more challenging to find music from that era that sounds great to a modern ear,” creator Ken Levine said to Wired at the time of the game’s release. Instead, they opted for old-fashioned covers of tracks like Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People,” blasting from a gramophone.
Song to stream: “Fortunate Son,” by Jessy Carolina (covering Creedence Clearwater Revival)
2021
Forza Horizon 5 shows that the easiest way to insert popular music into a video game is to just add a radio. With eight different radio stations featuring over 100 songs, it’s practically impossible to get tired of the in-game music. Station genres include punk, dance, hip-hop, and — of course — classical.
The eclectic mix of tracks featured in Forza Horizon 5 were compiled over three years, according to lead audio designer Fraser Strachan, creating a soundtrack that fit both the overall franchise and the Mexico setting itself.
“Music curation is by far the most challenging and time-consuming task we undertake on every game,” he said in a 2021 interview with A Sound Effect. “We wanted to fill each station with a collection of music that was authentic to Mexico.”
Every Forza release delivers a new collection of music, and the selection for the best mostly boils down to the player’s taste, but the fifth installment features the most robust track list that, paired with its open world gameplay – some of the best ever produced for the genre — allows players to roam a fictionalized version of Mexico’s coastline with the blaring radio leading them off into the sunset.
Song to stream: “Heat Waves (Shakur Ahmad Remix),” Glass Animals, Shakur Ahmad
2008
Another racing game from a venerated series, Midnight Club: Los Angeles strikes a different tone than that of Forza Horizon. Produced by Rockstar San Diego, the Midnight Club series focuses on street-level races that feel closer to the early Fast & Furious films than the over-the-top grandeur of Forza.
At the time of its release in 2008, there wasn’t anything else quite like the Midnight Club franchise. In the eyes of the team at Rockstar, it filled a void left by other racing games by bringing a larger than life quality to the racing fantasy. In an interview with IGN, then-series producer Jay Panek called other racing games of the era, “Boring, with no vibe and generally lacking any imaginative quality.” Part of avoiding that sense of monotony was imbuing their take on the racing genre with music that can match the game’s energy.
Fans would say it’s a toss-up between Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition or Los Angeles for which game has the best soundtrack, but we’re giving the edge to the latter for its varied mix of high-octane beats across genres, with tracks from artists ranging from Nine Inch Nails, MGMT, and Justice, to Nas, Jeezy, and The Game. No matter what song is on, it’s bound to feel like you’re playing a better Fast and Furious game than any of the actual licensed attempts from the movie franchise.
Song to stream: “Kicking and Screaming,” The Presets
2016
Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series is an interesting breed of open world, action-adventure games starring hacktivist cells working to take down corpo-fascist organizations through stealth, hacking, and gunplay. To evoke that rebellious tone, the soundtracks employ a mix of aggressive yet catchy electronica and hip-hop, alongside more retro classic rock and punk songs that help paint the game’s apolitical crypto-anarchist themes in the game.
Much of the fun of Watch Dogs 2 rests in the increasingly ridiculous ways in which players can remotely hack into cars, drones, and other people’s personal devices. Of course, that extends to the in-game radio, where players can use “SongSneak,” a wireless hacking app clearly inspired by Shazam to pick up on songs in the environment and steal them for their own playlist. The producers previously called details like this the “jester spirit” of hacktivism.
With a wide-ranging soundtrack that includes music from artists like Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Big Sean, Dead Kennedys, Ty Dolla $ign, and Sublime, there’s plenty of tracks to “hack” throughout the game in the name of court-jester anarchism.
Song to stream: “Blockbuster Night Part 1,” Run the Jewels
2020
When thinking of the music of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us games, most people would imagine the string arrangements of Gustavo Santaolalla, whose intimate scores for both the games and HBO adaptation are legendary, but one of the most vital parts of the second game is actually its effective use of licensed music.
There’s a few popular songs peppered throughout the game — including a snippet of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” — but the real heavy lifting is done by actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson as protagonists Joel and Ellie, singing acoustic covers of songs like Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” and a-ha’s “Take On Me” at pivotal moments that help cement its place as one of the greatest emotional sucker punches in all of gaming.
According to game director Neil Druckmann, obtaining the rights to use tracks was the easy part, but the difficulty came afterward when trying to find the right tone for the more somber version of “Take On Me.” With the help of musicians and current Guns N’ Roses band member Melissa Reese, Ashley Johnson actually had to work diligently to bring the more upbeat track down to the game’s emotional wavelength.
The focus on Joel teaching Ellie to play guitar (with a playable minigame to boot) and passing along that gift is one of the most important aspects of The Last of Us Part II, and remains one of the best uses of popular music woven into the fabric of a video game narrative.
Song to stream: “Take On Me,” Ashley Johnson (Covering a-ha)
1990
Okay, these are technically two different games, with Sega developing multiple titles based on Michael Jackson’s 1988 experimental film Moonwalker: one an arcade beat ‘em up and the other a platformer for home consoles. But as they both adapt the same material and share some of the same songs, we’re going to consider them one complete entry that celebrates the work of the King of Pop.
All versions of the game star MJ himself, covering the “Smooth Criminal” portion of the film, and play like traditional platformers/beat ‘em ups of the era, filtered through the bonkers lens of Jackson’s bizarro Peter Pan persona, including the ability to transform into a laser blasting mech and in-game assists from his monkey, Bubbles. They’re elevated even further by glorious MIDI renditions of various hits, including “Bad,” “Beat It,” and of course, “Smooth Criminal.” The project would kick off a multi-part collaboration between Jackson and Sega, including his later work on the Sonic the Hedgehog series and appearance in Space Channel 5, although the musician’s involvement in games diminished as the artist became more reclusive following a media frenzy surrounding sexual abuse allegations.
Much of the detail surrounding Jackson’s work with Sega has been lost to time, but the singer was well known as one of the first ardent celebrity gamers whose personal arcade housed titles like Crazy Taxi, Tekken 2, and the iconic six-player X-Men cabinet. Moonwalker was one of the first games to show just how far the crossover between music and gaming could go, even with the limited technology of the era.
Song to stream: “Smooth Criminal” (Sega Genesis version; Michael Jackson)
2015
Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima has long since been considered one of the auteurs of gaming, and the closest thing the industry has to a Scorese-level icon, but with the final installment of his breakout franchise, he also introduced his love of era-appropriate rock and pop music for the game, which is set in 1984.
Kojima’s appreciation for classic rock informs his storytelling in surprising ways. In an interview with Siliconaera shortly after the game’s release, he admitted that he named the private military company at the heart of the story after David Bowie’s song “Diamond Dogs.” But putting together the game’s soundtrack was more of a tug-of-war with his younger team members.
“I’m always being rejected by our staff members,” he said. “I’m the only old man around, so most people don’t get it.”
The music he was able to convince them on is obtainable through collectible cassette tapes and playable through an “iDroid” (not subtle!), the game features unlockable tracks from throughout the Eighties, including The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love,” Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.” Despite being relegated to bonuses, the licensed music does well to frame the game’s setting firmly within a timeline that can be a little wonky to follow overall and brings another layer of its creator’s global pop culture obsession to the mix.
Song to stream: “Gloria,” Laura Branigan
2010
Anyone who’s played Fallout (or seen its adaptation on Prime Video) knows that part of its oddball charm is the retro-futuristic touch applied to the desolate wasteland. A huge part of that is the music, which often leans into very old timey tunes like Fallout 3’s “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” by The Ink Spots. Fallout: New Vegas had that, too, and more.
For Fallout: New Vegas, the developers at Obsidian wanted to take the music in a new direction. With a team who originally worked on the early Fallout games (1 and 2), special care was taken to evolve the game’s soundtrack beyond what they’d previously explored, while remaining strict on from what era each song could be pulled.
“It kind of felt nice because we had covered the Fifties with Fallout 1 and Fallout 2,” director Josh Sawyer told USgamer. “So pushing a little bit into the Sixties didn’t feel bad, because it was like, ‘Okay, we’re continuing ideas from Fallout 2.’ And we’re venturing into a later decade, but the cutoff I used was JFK’s assassination. We couldn’t use music or anything past that point.”
Given the unique setting of New Vegas in the Mojave wasteland, featuring ruined portions of the Vegas strip, the game makes use of its locale to incorporate a sleazier romanticization of the Rat Pack Fifties that utilizes the lounge music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole, with an underpinning of good old cowboy gunslinger vibes from the likes of Peggy Lee. It’s a different kind of Fallout soundtrack, while retaining the essence of everything fans know and love about the series’ tone.
Song to stream: “Johnny Guitar,” Peggy Lee
2003
To put it lightly: they don’t make games like Def Jam Vendetta anymore. Sure, everything from Call of Duty to Fortnite may feature famous artists as combat skins, but the sheer audacity of a pro-wrestling game starring a roster of real-life rappers beating each other senseless remains the product of a bygone era.
But as ridiculous as the game’s premise was, the people behind it took the process dead seriously. As one of the creative leads behind the game, former Def Jam president Kevin Liles was committed to honoring hip-hop, and bringing truth to its video game depiction.
“I couldn’t see us, at that particular time, doing a game that wasn’t authentic to the culture, from what artists were in the game to the character’s clothes and moves,” he said in an interview with Okayplayer. “These artists were either on theor friends in the industry. Also, I would say 95 percent of them were gamers.
Leveraging its heavy hitters like DMX, Funkmaster Flex, Ludacris, and the combo of Redman and Method Man as characters, the soundtrack is packed with rap and hip-hop tracks of the time, including DMX’s “Party Up,” Joe Budden’s “Focus,” and “The Grain” by Ghostface Killah ft. RZA. It was rare at the time to see this level of synergy between the in-game appearances of iconic musicians and the game’s actual soundtrack, and it’s something seen even less frequently today.
Song to stream: “Party Up,” DMX
2005
Fans of the now-defunct snowboarding franchise SSX could debate all day which game in the series has the best soundtrack, and they’d all have a solid claim. And while 2001’s SSX Tricky might be the most famous due to its direct tie-in with the hero track, Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky,” it was with the series’ fourth installment, SSX on Tour, that the game’s soundtrack explored new horizons.
Unlike the previous games in the series, which focused more on breakbeat and techno, SSX on Tour branched out into popular rock, alternative, rap, punk, and metal, which was clear from its lead track, Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills.” Including music from artists like Diplo, Bloc Party, Pennywise, and OK Go, its breakneck, arcadey gameplay was made all of the better by its off-the-rails musical arrangement.
The change in tone was deliberately targeted at capturing gamers who were coming of age at the time of SSX on Tour’s release and the game’s developers were pretty blunt about it at the time. Producer Tim Fields has gone on record stating that the goal was to transform the franchise into something that’s, “much more culturally relevant.”
“The kids today, our fans, they’re changing,” Fields told IGN in 2005. “The techno music and stuff that was great before isn’t as fresh as it was.” The result was a much harder hitting sound than anything that had come before from the series.
Song to stream: “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House,” LCD Soundsystem
2008
Even diehard fans of the Saints Row series know that it’s essentially developer THQ’s dumber, more ridiculous counterpart to Grand Theft Auto, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Aping and exaggerating the open world criminality of Grand Theft Auto, the Saints Row games also incorporate in-game radio stations where players can find the perfect accompaniment for a ultraviolence laced with petty larceny.
According to the game’s lead audio designer, Frank Petreikis, Saints Row 2 had a budget that was double that of the original game, which helped secure a massive swath of licensed music that helped give the game its pristine soundtrack.
Many fans of the games — Saints Row 2 in particular — feel that the in-game soundtracks, which consist of nearly 170 licensed tracks, do a better job of creating an eclectic playlist for players, with a better mix of artists both mainstream and underground. With artists including Deftones, Panic! At The Disco, Young Jeezy, MSTRKRFT, and Tokyo Police Club, it’s hard to argue that the soundtrack isn’t well curated, at the very least.
And while future games in the series would continue the trend, even as the games themselves varied in quality, the second game stands head and shoulders above the rest as a fan favorite.
Song to stream: “Street Justice,” MSTRKRFT
1993
With a name like Rock n’ Roll Racing, you pretty much know what you’re in for — and it absolutely kicks ass. Developed as an early game by Silicon & Synapse (now Blizzard Entertainment), Rock n’ Roll Racing was a vehicular combat game that pitted players against each other in a monster-car death race, set to MIDI versions of the exactly the rock hits you’d imagine — from George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.”
As noted in a Blizzard developer diary, co-founder Allen Adham’s original idea for the game was simply, “ZZ Top’s Racing,” but the idea had to be nixed because the company couldn’t afford to license the band’s likeness. Instead they opted to go for their own aesthetic, married with their own digitized renditions of other popular rock classics.
The game’s inclusion of mainstream music was influential not just to other titles of the time, but to future staff members at Blizzard who were only kids at the time of Rock n’ Roll Racing’s release. In the same developer diary, Blizzard’s game master Angelo Cani recalled his obsession with the game’s rock tracks, despite speaking an entirely different language.
“We liked the songs, and knew they were famous, but had no idea what they were called,” the developer said. “I was born in Brazil, so I had no knowledge of English at all at the time. Since we couldn’t identify them but still wanted to play them at home, we went to a music store and we sang our 16-bit remembered version of ‘Born to be Wild’ from the depths of our lungs.”
Song to stream: “Paranoid,” (Instrumental, originally by Black Sabbath)
2022
The Need for Speed games have long been the premiere racing franchise predicated on going really fast and evading the police. Under the direction of Criterion Games, who returned to the series after a nine-year hiatus, Unbound took a notably different direction, focusing instead on urban street racing aesthetics through graffiti-like art style, complete with an all-timer soundtrack.
Prior to release, the game caused a stir across Reddit and YouTube, pitting the fandom against itself as older players rejected the new tone and hip-hop heavy soundtrack headlined by A$AP Rocky, while newer, more open-minded players and fans of hip-hop embraced one of the most thoughtfully curated soundtracks in gaming.
A$AP Rocky himself isn’t just featured on the soundtrack, but appears in-game with his own playable mode. Other than Rocky, the massive artist list for the soundtrack includes Princess Nokia, Rico Nasty, and Playboi Carti, making the gaming’s ultimate who’s who of global hip-hop that’s true to the street racing spirit of the series.
“Underground was considerably, like, everybody’s favorite,” A$AP Rocky, told Rolling Stone. “And I think Unbound is just an extension of that.”
Song to stream: “Shittin Me,” A$AP Rocky
2004
The best way to describe the music for Burnout 3: Takedown is through the words of the game’s creative director, Alex Ward, who wanted the experience to feel like, “Snorting a huge bowl of cocaine.”
Another hit from Criterion Games, Burnout 3: Takedown is often referred to as one of the best games, full stop, of its generation. With white-knuckle driving mechanics that brutally emphasize slow-motion automotive wrecks, it’s the rare type of game that instills the fear of God in players as they continuously inch just a little bit faster at the risk of losing it all.
A huge part of its kinetic energy comes from the game’s soundtrack, which leans rock and punk-heavy for maximum adrenaline behind the wheel. The game’s opening track, “Lazy Generation” by The F-Ups, sets the appropriate tone and features every suburban teenager’s early gen iPod favorites, including New Found Glory, Yellowcard, Sugarcult, and Funeral for a Friend.
“[When] we signed to Electronic Arts, all of a sudden they’d send you a catalog and you could pick real songs yourself,” Ward said in a 2016 interview with GamesRadar. “Given the chance, ask any developer in the world, and if you can put real music in your game you probably would.”
Song to stream: “My Favorite Accident,” Motion City Soundtrack
1999
It’s the last racing game on the list, but it’s also the granddaddy of them all. When it was released at the turn of the 21st century, Gran Turismo flipped the racing genre on its head by shirking the floaty, arcade-like controls of the genre’s most popular games to instead create “the ultimate driving sim.”
With an elegant presentation better suited to the showroom than the street, it set a new standard for racing games, and that included the music that came with it. While many arcade racers of the time leaned into over-the-top glam rock and metal sounds to hook players, Gran Turismo 2 delivered contemporary tracks that were instantly familiar and kept the tempo going behind the wheel.
The game’s intro track is pretty on-the-nose, pairing the opening cinematic of racing footage with The Cardigans’ “My Favourite Game,” off their aptly titled fourth studio album Gran Turismo.
Of course, being released in 1999, Gran Turismo 2 also featured now dad-rock tracks like Foo Fighters’ “My Hero,” but it also had sexier stuff like Garbage’s “I Think I’m Paranoid” and the aptly named Stone Temple Pilots classic, “Sex Type Thing.” What a time to be alive.
Song to stream: “Now Is the Time (Millenium Mix),” The Crystal Method
2009
Many games have fantastic soundtracks, but few go to the lengths of crafting a genre love letter that Double Fine Productions’ Brütal Legend did. Starring Jack Black as “the world’s best roadie” transported into a medieval fantasy world for a metal-themed adventure, it’s the closest thing to legitimate Tenacious D video game there is (kudos to the Kyle Glass cameo). The game even goes as far as to cast music legends like Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), and Lita Ford (The Runaways) in major roles.
Part of the game’s charm was its commitment to its own original soundtrack, arranged to fit in tandem with its 107 licensed tracks, making for a metalhead’s dream. Tim Schafer, the game’s creator director, described it as a, “Trojan Horse” for non-metal fans to fall in love with the genre, Brütal Legend’s soundtrack is so expansive that the end result exponentially dwarfed the original scope of songs the team wanted to include.
“We got a little carried away because we were just having so much fun,” Schafer told Xbox Achievements in 2009. “First, just listing out all my favorite songs and which ones I wanted to have in the game. Getting those, I was like, “Oh well I guess we’re done,’ and then our music director was like, ‘No, that covers about 10 percent of the game.’”
With unlockable songs from Judas Priest, Children of Bodom, Mastodon, Manowar, and In Flames, the game’s soundtrack includes a litany of metal bands from all eras.
Song to stream: “Goliaths Disarm Their Davids,” In Flames
2013
In all of gaming history, there may not be a soundtrack as ambitious as that of Grand Theft Auto V. Everything about the game is massive, from its multi-region open world to its three parallel narratives woven together, but strictly on the music front, the scale is unparalleled. The first game in the series to utilize its own original score, composed by the Alchemist, Oh No, and Tangerine Dream in collaboration with Woody Jackson, GTA V broke new ground for the series with a litany of tracks produced exclusively for the game.
But beyond that, everyone knows the GTA series for its radio stations which, in this case, features over 441 licensed tracks stemming from practically every genre imaginable. Its track list is so stuffed, it had to be released over five official soundtracks for retail. The only criticism one could possibly make against the game is that it almost has too much music, with a kitchen sink approach that aims to recreate the concept of Los Angeles radio from every conceivable angle, unlike its predecessors, which were more tightly curated to be of their periods settings.
“For this game, which is set in our version of modern day Los Angeles, what was important for us was to capture that feeling of L.A. and California,” Rockstar’s soundtrack supervisor Ivan Pavlovich told Rolling Stone. “We approached the radio stations as the musical soundscape as you fly into L.A. One of the things we’ve never done in a GTA game before is a pop station; exploring that made so much sense in the context of L.A.”
Song to stream: “A.D.H.D,” Kendrick Lamar
2021
Taking a page from James Gunn’s Marvel Cinematic Universe trilogy, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy paints a picture of sprawling space opera that belies a squishy emotional center, to the tune of a classic rock mixtape. Arguably even more effective in its storytelling thanks to its extended immersive run time and interactivity, the game was a surprise hit when it dropped in 2021, standing tall alongside the films as one of the definitive takes on Marvel’s motley crew.
“The music [is] definitely infused in the DNA of this game,” Steve Szczepkowski, senior audio director, told Screen Rant in 2021. “The Guardians are pretty much a rock ‘n roll band; They’re a band of misfits that found each other and have a common goal.”
Credit is due to the game’s innovative battle system, which plays mostly as a real-time action game until players trigger a “Huddle” action, slowing down time for players to engage in a motivational speech sequence from Star-Lord himself, which hits the needle drop for extended combat sequences to likes of tracks like Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” or Wang Chung’s “Everybody Have Fun Tonight.” Like the movies, Star-Lord’s Walkman gives an in-universe reason for licensed tracks to play diegetically and inform the action on-screen.
What could feel cringeworthy or reductive becomes one of the most exhilarating fist-pumping experiences in modern gaming. The game also scores bonus points for having one of the best uses of “The Final Countdown” in popular media.
Song to stream: “The Final Countdown,” EUROPE
2012
Few games on this list do as much with as little as the indie-cult hit Hotline Miami. A pixelated top-down shooter set in the Eighties, it eschews the obvious path of leaning into pop hits of the era, instead synching its gruesomely violent gameplay in lockstep with dark, droning synthwave sounds that put players in a trance-like state. Combined with its VHS-styled aesthetic and minimalist storytelling, it’s a point-and-click reflex shooter with a greasy veneer that puts you in the mindset of a B-movie murderer.
“We didn’t want the music to be stressful. We wanted it to be more hypnotic, not the highest tempo,” said co-designer Jonatan Söderström when speaking to NoClip. Along with Dennaton Games partner Dennis Wedin, Söderström found most of the artists featured on the soundtrack on Soundcloud. Inspired by Cliff Martinez’s score for the movie Drive, the duo wanted not only to recreate its neon-soaked visuals, but lean into its indie sound. The result is a dreamlike take on Drive that leans closer to a nightmare as the game progresses.
With an emphasis on hypnotic drum and bass tracks like “Hydrogen” and “Paris” by M|O|O|N, with occasional tonal shifts to more up-tempo beats like Perturbator’s “Miami Disco,” Hotline Miami is the type of game where you’ll likely go in not knowing a single artist on its soundtrack but will walk away with a playlist. A titan of indie gaming, its impact has reached far and wide, with countless imitators over the last decade seeking to recreate its unhinged charm.
Song to stream: “Vengeance (The Return of the Night Driving Avenger),” Perturbator
2004
Many fans view Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the pinnacle of the series, which is high praise for a franchise where any number of its entries could be listed among the GOATs. By focusing on a Boyz n the Hood style story in a fictional take of Southern California, San Andreas has become one of the definitive titles in the entire medium with an innovative take on a very specific microcosm of West Coast culture from the early Nineties.
“California has got the best radio of anywhere in America,” Rockstar Games cofounder Dan Houser told Eurogamer in 2004. “It needs to feel Californian, but still presented in that GTA way.”
While not as expansive as its eventual successor, San Andreas explored aspects of pop culture rarely touched upon in gaming, often controversially, and brought Black artistry to the forefront of its soundtrack with a downright massive track list, including iconic hip-hop acts like Public Enemy, Gang Starr, and Biz Markie, on top of classic musicians like the Isley Brothers, Rick James, and Frankie Knuckles while still making room for Merle Haggard. With a clear vision and ample legwork, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will go down as having one of the most influential gaming soundtracks ever.
Song to stream: “B.Y.S.,” Gang Starr
2015
Decidedly lower key than pretty much any other game on this list, Dontnod Entertainment’s Life Is Strange series offers a more somber, meditative alternative to most AAA game’s hard-hitting soundtracks. Released episodically throughout 2015, the first Life Is Strange game is third-person exploration and puzzle game that plays out akin to an interactive graphic novel. Its story centers on a teenage girl named Max, who returns home to where her childhood friend was killed. Gifted with the ability to manipulate time, she uses her power to attempt to change her past, creating an unintended butterfly effect as a result.
Aligning with the general melancholy and emotional slant of its narrative, the soundtrack of Life Is Strange has a unique indie music bend that’s rarely seen in popular games. With tracks like Sparklehorse’s “Piano Fire,” Mogwai’s “Kids Will Be Skeletons,” and Bright Eyes’ “Lua” punctuating poignant moments in the plot, the game has become famous for its more emotional undertones and nostalgic vibes that have most certainly inspired the recent cozy game trend. The inherent power of Life Is Strange as a piece of art is proving how effective gaming can be as a means to explore trauma, and how music can be the key.
“Since the early prototypes of the game, the teams were using music tracks which helped define the mood of the scenes and the whole game,” Luc Baghadoust, the game’s producer, told Red Bull shortly after the final episode’s release. “Using licensed tracks is something not that common in games, and using them was a good tool to create a consistent and realistic world, to develop characters according to their musical tastes and to tell stories through each track. “
Song to stream: “Mt. Washington,” Local Natives
1999
For gamers of a certain age, Neversoft’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series was the gateway into music. The original duology of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000) were released at the height of the PlayStation’s popularity when many now thirty-somethings (or forty-somethings) were at their rebellious peaks, and nothing quite hit the spot like kicking back with a controller to kickflip their way around an empty pool to the sounds of Primus.
“The soundtracks are very much in line with my music tastes and my history of growing up skating,” Tony Hawk said in a 2022 oral history with Kerrang!. “Punk music was really closely associated with skating at the time and a lot of the songs on the soundtracks were songs that I heard growing up at skate parks.”
Of the two, it’s brutal to choose a favorite, with fans feverishly debating online over which was the superior game soundtrack over the last 25 years. Forced to pick, the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater takes the win as the inaugural entry in the series that would inspire a generation of music lovers with tracks like Dead Kenney’s “Police Truck” and Even Rude’s “Vilified.” Most crucially, it has “Superman.” Enough said.
Song to stream: “Superman,” Goldfinger
2002
This is it: peak video game music. From the first trailer, set to the Fat Larry’s Band track “Act Like You Know,” Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was distinctively a vibe, long before anyone would have thought to call it that. While many games set in a defined era incorporate period-specific tracks, Vice City fully recreated the coked-out bravado of the Eighties in all its glory.
“GTA: Vice City famously transported players back to the neon-drenched excess of 1986, and it was fabulously successful at it,” IGN’s Luke Reilly said in a 2023 retrospective. “It wasn’t the pastel pants, the palm-lined streets, or the pulsating period soundtrack. It was all of those things working together to form an irresistibly immersive time capsule.”
The game itself might feel dated by today’s standards, but in the halcyon days of 2002, it felt like a revelation, especially following the muted tone and palette of Grand Theft Auto III. And although the maestros as Rockstar Games did impressive work to visually recreate the Miami Vice aesthetic of the Eighties using PlayStation 2 technology, it’s the game’s soundtrack that served as a shorthand to instantly entrench players in the game’s tone.
“[Vice City], perhaps more than any other GTA game, was as much about the era as the setting,” producer Leslie Benzies told Digital Trends around the game’s 10th anniversary. To bring the neon epoch to life, Benzies’ team included tracks from across the musical spectrum like Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock,” Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” and A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran (So Far Away).”
For a game built to be an Eighties crime simulator, the soundtrack for Vice City absolutely hits the mark and then some as the most effective use of licensed music ever in a video game.
Song to stream: “Working for the Weekend,” Loverboy
From Rolling Stone US.
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