FEATURE: The Soundcheck's Fave Video Game Soundtracks

Tiana Speter
Jun 20
14 min read

Updated: Jun 30

Ask any casual or diehard gamer what their favourite game is, and you'll instantly get a horde of answers that span nostalgic faves through to brand new titles. And while these days gaming is an entirely different beast to what it was when yours truly was growing up, what really levels up my enjoyment of a game boils down to two things: how many dumb things I can do outside of the actual storyline and, in a less immature capacity, how bangin' the soundtrack is.

A great game soundtrack isn't just the recipe for enjoyment across the board in-game (which may or may not also result in better sales); it can also result in impacting the real world as well. In my first year at university, one lecture stood out massively. It was 2004, technology was rapidly changing, the curriculum was equally evolving at a sweltering pace and a piece of advice was given not just to those interested in music, but also to anyone in the Creative Industries programs at the time: video games are where it's gonna be at. Are you a writer? Games now demand more complex and nuanced narratives and will increasingly have a huge focus on storytelling. Artist or a designer? Technology has thrown open the doors to endless possibilities for animators and illustrators, as well as design work. Actor? Ongoing and genuinely exciting voiceover opportunities (unless you're still holding out for Link to finally say some words. I guess he grunts though sometimes). And beyond all of that - musician? You can compose a shit-hot score for some epic new game, and/or curate something that might change the pop culture landscape. Sure, this was in 2004 which was over two decades ago. But the latter fact has actually always been true.

It only takes a quick trek down memory lane to remember the iconic jauntily spooky 'Underground Theme' from Super Mario Bros. or the anxiety-riddled speeding up of whatever track you were playing on Mario Kart for the final lap. There's also 'Snake Eater', aka the memorable theme from Metal Gear Solid 3, 'Zelda's Lullaby' from The Legend of Zelda, multiple Final Fantasy standouts, the incessant Tetris theme song and so many more that I know you will be sitting there likely enraged that I may not have included your fave in this preliminary list (trust me, it'll help us get past this intro quicker). Long story short: music in video games is way more than window dressing. And with that in mind, today I'm rounding up five of my own personal video game soundtrack standouts that have stuck with me for decades. And as always, anytime I publish these round up lists, rest assured this is definitely not a definitive list of kickass soundtracks. These are simply ones that have burrowed into my nostalgic psyche and never let go.

TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER 1 + 2 Activision (1999 + 2000)

Growing up, I didn't have access to a lot of games (which may or may not explain why I get so blown out that I own a Nintendo Switch still after all this time). Growing up, my brother had a Game Boy, which I was occasionally allowed to play Pokemon Blue on and a few Mario games, and one autumn we were loaned a Nintendo 64 which instantly made me fall in love with OG Mario Kart, playing GoldenEye (and by playing I mean trying to only play as Oddjob and hide in a stairwell until someone finally hunted me down), and a baseball game that cemented names like Wade Boggs and Barry Bonds in my memory to this day. But, as the title of this section has already spoiled, I did manage to get my hands on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on PC in the early 2000s. And while I spent most of my time failing to do a Christ Air and/or subjecting my skater of choice to a face full of repeated concrete, one thing grabbed my attention and opened up an amazing new musical world for me at the time: the wall-to-wall bangers on the game's soundtrack. And obviously, I wasn't the only one blown away.

In an era when the floodgates had opened and I was finally able to discover and listen to music that I actually liked, in hurled the likes of Guerrilla Radio by Rage Against The Machine, Superman by Goldfinger, Bring The Noise by Anthrax and Public Enemy, No Cigar by Millencolin, Jerry Was A Race Car Driver by Primus and many more. Due to the stacked soundtrack, I definitely had delusions of skating grandeur as I headbanged along to the tunes while also haphazardly ollie'ing and kick-flippin' around courses. In those moments, my tiny 16 year-old mind was promptly blown to smithereens, and if only I could go back in time and tell teenage Tiana that she would be drinking whiskey with Millencolin on camera for Good Things TV in 2022 (but, thankfully, did not attempt an ollie with them).

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and its turn of the millennium sequel did set the bar insanely high for what a game soundtrack could be. Even if it wasn't the first games to feature licensed music, it did generate biblical interest, straddling new and old material and also opening the door for many in terms of music discovery and shaping many players' ongoing musical tastes. And while maybe it was because I got my hands and ears on this in my mid-teens myself that I hold so much weight to this soundtrack, but it is little wonder that many revere the THPS soundtracks as god-tier. Last year Scott Pease, former studio director at Neversoft, the developer of THPS, and Tony Hawk himself shared memories with Rolling Stone about bringing the game to life, as well as how integral the music was to the game. "Music is such a huge part of skate culture," Pease said in the feature. "If you watch any of the skate videos, the music choice is huge. Guys make their whole careers around this persona and the music they cut their videos to. We wanted to reflect that in the game."

Fortunately, Activision had a big music department (and they would also go on to license music for a little game known as Guitar Hero amongst many others), so fortunately it streamlined the process to get clearance on the music. But Pease also revealed that the budget for the first game wasn't massive, so they went for bands that "were cool, but maybe no super popular at the time. A lot of them were popular with the skaters." The budget increased after the first edition of THPS (which made over $1.4 billion in sales) and the doors opened wider for each new release from there.

Soundtrack Rating: 10 Secret Tapes

QUAKE id Software (1996)

Back in 1996, dial-up internet was on the rise, physically browsing Blockbuster Video aisles was our equivalent of scrolling through Netflix, the Chicago Bulls took out yet another NBA Finals win, and on the gaming front things pretty much changed forever after the release of a first-person shooter game called Quake.

Dubbed everything from "The Beatles of game engines" through to being featured in multiple "Top 100 Games of All Time" lists, with some inclusions coming within less than a month after the game's release, the Lovecraftian gothic influences and infamous Quake Engine, dubbed "id Tech 2" and featuring 3D real-time rendering, took the foundations laid out by Doom and turned the industry on its head. A feat of technical brilliance for its time (there is an amazing map that sets out the scope of the Quake engine in this article for my fellow trivia acifionados), the OG Quake paved the way for multiple sequels with its breakout 3D engine and incredible aesthetics, and also adapted to online multiplayer functions which has led to the Quake also being credited with helping to create and shape esports. And as if all of that isn't enough, the game's soundtrack was equally lauded: and we can thank none other than Mr. Trent Reznor for this.

Boasting entirely original music and sound effects arranged, programmed and produced by Reznor, and written and peformed by Nine Inch Nails, Quake came out between the band's 1994 album The Downward Spiral and 1999's The Fragile; smack dab in between the likes of March of the Pigs and Into the Void eras. And the iconic Quake soundtrack only helped foster the monolithic following the game has garnered since its release, with moments of ambience balanced alongside blasts of industrial fury, perfectly complimenting taking out some pretty hectic creatures, and also prompting GameSpot to declare in a 1996 review: "Simply put, this is the best soundtrack ever created for a computer game. Reznor's eerie sounds and unsettling background music push Quake's already dark and creepy atmosphere into the realm of pure evil."

As to how NIN came to be involved in this historic gaming moment? Chris Vrenna shared in a 2022 interview that he and Reznor had moved to Los Angeles in 1993 and were living in the famous Sharon Tate house at the time. Work had begun on The Downward Spiral and "Trent was a massive, massive gamer back then," revealed Vrenna. Soon enough, the pair got hooked playing Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny, The Downward Spiral gets released, and Reznor spoke often at the time in interviews about the tour bus LAN parties the band had in motion while they were on the road in support of the new album. Soon enough, id Software got wind and came knocking, flew Vrenna and Reznor out to Dallas and asked them if they would be interested in soundtracking a new game they had coming out.

Obviously the answer was a "yes", and the Quake soundtrack came into being. And post-release, eagle eye fans clocked the NIN logo on the wooden crates of ammo for the Nailgun weapon, which had perfect accuracy and no recoil. And the famous undulating ambience on display on parts of Quake's soundtrack would be something that Reznor would continue to explore, ultimately leading to Academy Award wins for Best Original Score.

Soundtrack Rating: 9 Speedruns

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV Rockstar Games (2008)

While Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is still my favourite GTA game to play, Grand Theft Auto IV is still hugely up there for me - and it definitely was a monster hit for multiple reasons. Released in 2008, right around the time I was finishing up my post-grad studies at uni, GTA 4 once again featured in-game radio stations with licensed songs following San Andreas' expansion into curated programming and licensing. For GTA 4, with 23 radio stations to choose from all up (inclusive of the expansion packs) while you're causing a ruckus around Liberty City (*cough* New York City), the dynamic presence of these radio stations brought the bustling metropolis setting to life. And love or loathe the actual game content, with the fourth installment once again attracting controversy both before and after its release, you can't mess with the fact that when it came to selecting the music, the music supervisors, including DJ and label manager, Ivan Pavlovich, not only took great strides to actually match the music with the setting - game developers also took things a step further by allowing players to tag songs in the game's soundtrack to then purchase online, and they also bothered to approach more than 2,000 contacts to gain the correct music rights.

Prior to GTA 4 releasing, San Andreas held the record for most songs in a soundtrack, coming in with 156 songs on its lineup. GTA 4 busted that record, and also saw Rockstar Games fork out up to approximately $5,000 per composition, as well as an additional $5,000 per master recording per track - and a side note here is that Rockstar is one of the few game developers who actually create and licence their own soundtracks. All of this was pre-TikTok and when newer forms of social media were still kind of finding their feet (MySpace was still thriving in this era for those playing at home, and the Instagram logo would be unrecognisable to many today). What GTA 4 ultimately achieved beyond its focus on storytelling and a more realistic physics engine was a pretty amazing showcase of creative worlds colliding, as was the interdisciplinary power of music discovery on full display beyond traditional means.

GTA 4's soundtrack at the time avoided pop artists, and its soundtrack didn't limit itself to only new songs and/or only established hits. There are obscure cuts and rarities, reggae and dancehall tunes, Busta Rhymes, Nas and Bob Marley singles, an entire station dedicated to original songs and, fittingly give the game's mirror setting of NYC, a station populated largely with indie New York artists (Radio Broker). And on the latter station, a track that definitely grabbed my attention at the time was No Sex For Ben, aka the total bop from New York rockers The Rapture. A diss track that was squarely and unashamedly aimed at real-life DJ Ben Rymer, No Sex For Ben's origin story saw the band recording it with Timbaland in London at the same time that Justin Timberlake and Duran Duran were working in the same building. Timberlake actually liked the song so much he ended up recording some backing vocals for the chorus, but these were ultimately removed before its release. (Also a bonus fun fact: Max Cavalera of Sepultura and Soulfly fame appeared as a DJ on the Hardcore radio station on the downloadable content The Lost and Damned).

Obviously there are more songs to list on GTA 4's soundtrack than there is room for here, but it certainly proved a landmark moment both for gaming and the power of discovery in the gaming world. There's currently a heap of buzz about the upcoming new addition to the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, with its release delayed after it was originally expected to drop earlier this year. And while there's already been some chatter online about music leaks, some of the trailers in the lead-up have featured songs including Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty, Thunder Island by Jay Ferguson and I Love Rock N Roll by Joan Jett. And a final fun fact here: Trailer 1 for GTA 6 catapulted Love is a Long Road's streams to rise by 36,979%. Considering this isn't considered one of Tom Petty's biggest hits, this all further highlights the power of these games, as well as the the might of gaming fanbases in general.

Soundtrack Rating: 8 God Bless This City(s)

CHRONO TRIGGER Square (1995)

I can't unleash a video game article without paying homage to the first ever RPG game I ever completed from start to finish (with a fresh replay on my mind from earlier this year, unwittingly celebrating the game's 30th anniversary at the same time). When I first got my hands on it in my teens, Chrono Trigger had everything I wanted from an RPG: engaging narratives, fun characters and it even had a time-travelling storyline that didn't twist my brain into more of a pretzel than it already is (looking at you, Tenet). And on top of all of that, its soundtrack was insanely beautiful, making this game a "must-play' from the 16-bit era.

With primary composer Yasunori Mitsuda making his scoring debut, as well as some additions from Final Fantasy's legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger boasts so many varied styles that hammer home the plot and accompanying emotives, and truly felt as ahead of its time as many of its characters would end up being in the storyline. And while there aren't any flashy real-world rockstar-driven songs, the game's score was lauded by ING as "one of the best videogame soundtracks ever produced" - and if you've ever played this game, you'll understand why. With influences drawn from Mitsuda's own personal life, he also aimed to lend the score a timeless quality, aptly dovetailing with the expansive story threaded throughout. A triumph in "synthestration", this 16-bit soundtrack is a stylistic kaleidoscope, dabbling in jazzy muzack percolations (Wings that Cross Time - Epoch's Theme), jubilant earworms (Robo's Theme), transcendent futuristic cuts incorporating non-Western influences (Corridors of Time) and maudlin pizzicato MIDI strings (Wind Scene) to name a few. And while not every single song is one you'll be mulling over for years to come, largely due to the fact that a lot of the score is designed to be incidental, there is something remarkable about the work of Mitsuda, and occasionally Uematsu, and the ability to tug at your heartstrings and lend genuine pathos and meaning to some little 16-bit characters.

To cover eras from 65, 000, 000 BC through to the end of time, as was required for Chrono Trigger's leaping narratives, it takes a pretty masterful stroke; and creating the score for Chrono Trigger ultimately proved to be so intense that Mitsuda, composing until ungodly hours and passing out exhausted, ended up developing stomach ulcers and had to be hospitalised during the process. Fortunately, Uematsu was able to step in and close out what was needed to finish the score. And Mitsuda has gone on to have an incredible career, including establishing his own production studio and record company, with Chrono Trigger's soundtrack also being staged in a live setting my orchestras, and multiple fan-made remixes.

On a modern replay, elements of the game may feel slightly primitive 30 years on, but that only seems to further enhance the genuine magic that Chrono Trigger possesses. If you're a fan of RPGs and have never ticked this one off, or you're overdue for a replay, consider this your sign to go get Chrono-ing.

Soundtrack Rating: 9 Megalixirs

NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERGROUND + NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERGROUND 2 EA Back Box (2003 + 2004)

Lastly for today's round-up of some of my fave video game soundtracks, I'm taking it back firstly to 2003: the year I graduated high school and also the year that one of my fave Need For Speed games dropped: Need For Speed: Underground.

I know a lot of people will have pretty strong opinions about their fave in the series, but for me it was the addition of career mode and customisation in Underground and Underground 2 that largely ticked a lot of boxes at the time; I like a bit of player-driven storytelling and I usually spent more time customising things in-game than playing the actual games (my NBA 2K endeavours have usually just been me spending way too long creating my character in the career mode, to the point I likely spent more time choosing a sneaker for my character than I did playing an actual game). And to take things to amazing terrain the year after Need For Speed: Underground releases, Need For Speed: Underground 2 dropped in 2004, offering my greedy little customisation inner gremlin even more chances to make my car look absolutely cooked while being capable of driving at insane speeds (and ceaselessly trying to do wheelie starts at all times).

The OG Need For Speed: Underground soundtrack in 2003 featured the likes of Static-X, The Crystal Method, Story of the Year, Mystikal, Lostprophets and many more. But the 2004 sequel was the superior in my eyes, not only with the game's more open format, but also with tracks on its soundtrack from Helmet, Mudvayne, Queens of the Stone Age, The Bronx, Spiderbait and Rise Against. Even if I didn't know every single bad as intimately as I would later on in life, I knew that I ridiculously loved what I was hearing while I was driving my absolute shitshow of a car around the streets.

The soundtrack for both Underground editions were licensed by EA Trax, alongside the original score music featured in the game, and we even got Snoop Dogg on a remix of Riders on the Storm by The Doors for the sequel's theme song. And as with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the music featured in the Underground games were designed to reflect the world of it's subject matter, in this case the realms of late-night street racing, with plenty of high-octane music merged with some perfectly angsty rock. Somehow listening to The Bronx or QoTSA while engaging in some fictional racing to make Fast & Furious look like child's play feels entirely on brand, and the escapism then and the nostalgia-factor now is inescapable.

In 2020, a restrospective on Need For Speed highlighted that Underground 2 "perfected what it started one year earlier kicking off a golden era revival of the popular racing series". And between its snazzy design for its time, nitrous boosted mayhem, and genuine adherence to its title (there is indeed plenty of speed for those in need), the soundtrack was some brilliant icing on a glitzy but very fun cake.