You know you get the feel of driving down the highway at dusk, and perfect the song that appeared on the radio? Suddenly, it feels like you’re in a music video, or a bit at the beginning of a ’90s teen movie, where everything is shimmering and perfect. Music becomes background music, and your life becomes a story.
There are also a few brilliant moments like this in the media – moments that deploy the right song at the right time to create the perfect synergy of emotion. Think about how Edgar Wright uses licensed music in his films to underline tense, dramatic moments and add comedy or use Don’t You (Forget About Me) at the end Breakfast Clubor The OC season 2 finale, scored by Imogen Heap, became so iconic that it has its own SNL skit.
Just like movies and TV, video games evolve slowly, but surely learn to combine music and mechanics to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Admittedly it’s not that widespread – perpetual music licensing costs insanely expensive even for more money studios – but when they get it right, they get it the right.
So here’s our list of some of the best uses of licensed music in video games. Imagine the satisfaction ka-chunk of the Walkman play button when we start, and make sure to fast forward to the bottom of page two to have your say in our polls…
Publishing company: 2KCK / Developers: 2KCK
If we can’t have Fallout on this list, at least we can Bioshock, a series that has happily incorporated both period-appropriate and completely out-of-date music into its scenes. While it could be argued that ‘Beyond the Sea’ is a bit wordy when it comes to Bioshock’s theme and setting, it doesn’t really matter too much in this case, because of the combination of the laid-back vibes of these two. 50’s and this song’s eerie melancholy tone is enough to pull it away from too much. It is just perfect.
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Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: PlatinumGames
This super poppy remix of Fly Me To The Moon sounds like a Dance Dance Revolution game, but no! It’s the background music for Bayonetta kick the angel’s ass, and it serves as a goofy, optimistic cover that makes you want to spin Metatron right in front of his stupid face with your ridiculously long legs. Moon theme continued in Bayonetta 2 with Moon River and Moonlight Serenade in Bayo 3But let’s be honest: this is the best one.
Publishing company: Rock star / Developers: Rockstar game
GTARadio’s is unlike many of the other games on this list. Instead of deploying a perfect song at the perfect time, the radio soundtrack instead captures all the terrible decisions you make as you drive through the trio’s many locations. . That means each player’s experience is different – perhaps your most memorable moment is set in Kim Wilde’s ‘Children of America’, or maybe you have fond memories of crashing into pedestrians to the Heart’s ‘Barracuda’. Either way, there are a lot of bugs to be found here.
Publishing company: Square Enix Europe / Developers: Eidos Montreal
Peter Quill’s everything is his Walkman. Well, that and his cool guy refuses to follow the rules. So it makes sense that Guardians of the Galaxy the game will take that theme and run with it. Composer Richard Jacques substituted ’70s songs on Quill’s mixtape for ’80s songs, carefully and sparingly deploying them at exactly the right times to do it. for you feel Like a powerful superhero choosing his own soundtrack. We’ve picked the Group Chat moment here, asking players to do a perfect short chat if they want the music to kick in. right.
Publishing company: Harmonix / Developers: Harmonix
Is it cheating to have a music game here? No. We make the rules. But the reason Fuser is here, not any other rhythm game, is because it allows the player to decide the sound of the music. A rhythm game usually requires you to play exactly one song; Fuser puts the control in the hands of the DJ, just giving you a list of songs to add to the mix and asking you to hit the beat. Friend is what makes it good and like in the example above you can make it really good. Fuser provides a lot of power with its tools, and then leaves the execution up to you.
Publishing company: Electronic Arts / Developers: Criterion Game
Don’t you feel a pang when you hear the first notes of Paradise City? What a song that introduces the world being burned by the sun Burnout Paradise namesake (don’t tell anyone, but it’s just a fictional mix of California towns). Along with Guns ‘N’ Roses, Burnout Paradise also takes the style of the soundtrack of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaterput names like Faith No More and Jane’s Addiction on playlists again.
