The Games With the Most Iconic Soundtracks Ever
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Video games combine many elements into one. You have the story of a book, the action scenes of a movie, and the beats of a great album. They’re also not linear in the same way that film, book, or TV show is, you sit at the centre of the story with control over what happens and when.
Today, video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment with billions of people playing them every year. While there are plenty of great video games released over the year, occasionally, there is a truly brilliant game that has an iconic soundtrack that stands out from the crowd. Here are some of those games.
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Grand Theft Auto Vice City was the second instalment in the “3D era” of GTA games and was released in 2002. Its 1980s Miami backdrop was a sharp contrast from the contemporary New York setting for GTA III, and it provided Rockstar Games with a great opportunity to add a killer soundtrack.
As has been the case with all the GTA games, Vice City only played music while the player was driving a vehicle, creating the sense that it had radio stations. There were 10 to choose from, two were “talk stations”, while the remaining eight played different genres of banging 80s tunes.
Some of the best songs from Vice City include Iron Maiden’s 2 Minutes to Midnight, Indeed’s Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, Toto’s Africa, The Outfield’s Your Love, and A Flock of Seagull’s I Ran (So Far Away). Even Michael Jackson made an appearance with his hit song Billie Jean.
Retro Riches Mega Pixel Pays
Slot games have come a long way from the early mechanical machines created in the late 19th century. Modern slots have unique theming, exciting bonus rounds, and even tell a story like any other video game.
Video cut scenes, HD graphics, and attention-grabbing sound effects all help to make slot games exciting, but some also include a mega soundtrack. Of the hundreds of different options, some slot games with great music include the Jimi Hendrix Online Slot and the Guns N’ Roses Video Slot.
But for those that love retro 90s techno music and enjoyed playing computer games during that decade, Retro Riches Mega Pixel Pays is the slot game for you. Its reels are displayed differently to traditional slot games, making it a unique prospect, while the MIDI soundtrack will have you feeling nostalgic for video games of the past.
Driver
Driver for the original PlayStation was a game where you played an undercover cop who had to infiltrate the criminal underworld to investigate a huge conspiracy to attack the president. The game was heavily inspired by the cop shows and movies of the 1970s and 1980s and a lot of work went into making the car physics match what you saw in them.
The soundtrack was also composed to match the feel of these shows. While you cruised along the streets of Miami, the music would make the ideal companion for the bright sun and ocean backdrop. But when you had the cops on your tail, things got more intense and the music changed to reflect that, picking up the pace and becoming louder and more “aggressive”.
Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami is a top-down shooting game that looks like it should have been released on a late 1980s home computer, but it’s actually an 80s-inspired title that first went on sale in 2012.
It’s set in Miami in 1989 and sees an unnamed protagonist take on a local mafia gang. Although the graphics are somewhat cartoonish, the game can be quite violent. Each level is set in a different place and the soundtrack is designed to match it.
All of the songs are inspired by the era, with lots of heavy techno beats and high BPMs. One of the best is Perturbator’s Miami Disco which features in chapter eight “Push It”.
