Oldest In the age of games, music has helped to create a sense of immersion and a sense of worldview. Super mario bros. Theme: Contagious tinnitus Tetris“Korobeiniki”: The sound of a video game is often just as memorable, if not more so, than its appearance.
While video game scores have evolved significantly over the past half century towards a more cinematic style, there's another form of video game music that has had a major impact on the user experience and has been gaining momentum since the '90s: the licensed soundtrack.
The idea dates back to 1982, when Journey released a chiptune version of their song “Don't Stop Believin'” for the Atari 2600 game. Journey EscapeBut just a decade later, with the advent of home gaming consoles like the Sega CD and Sony PlayStation, the ability to incorporate popular music into video games leapt beyond tonally choppy MIDI reproductions into the realm of high-quality audio tracks.
Some games are from 2001 Twisted Metal: BlackThe use of The Rolling Stones' “Paint It Black” over the opening credits instantly set a new tone for the entire series, and other great scores were followed by some tasteful needle drops to underscore key moments in the story, such as D'Angelo's “Unshaken” which creates an unexpectedly somber atmosphere during the climax. Read Dead Redemption 2.
But a truly great licensed soundtrack can blend seamlessly into the overall gaming experience in a way that's integral to the gameplay – after hours of immersion in a game's world, players can develop a deep connection with certain tracks, and introduce a new generation of gamers to tunes they might not have known before.
There are a few caveats to ranking the best licensed soundtracks of all time. In creating the list, we looked at games that generally have one or more well-known songs, and we also excluded annual sports franchises that have numerous popular songs from each year. FIFA or NBA 2K We also did not include rhythm-based or dance games that rely on playing along to popular songs (put down your pitchfork and go). Guitar Hero stance).
Here are Rolling Stone's top 25 licensed game soundtracks.
