Rock Gods & Video Games…
 

Every time I get a new game I hear one of my fav bands thumpin while I’m playin… What’s the best band / game match-up you’ve heard… or would like to hear?

i cant remember who did the music for the 1st crazy taxi game, but i remember it matched the game really well.

~james

I haven't played Crazi Taxi - what's it like? Have you played GTA3? If you have, you know what I mean when I say it would be great to have a bigger selection on the "radio"! I love whenever you get a game like DOA or Gran Turismo and you hear a band like Aerosmith or Garbage in the intro! I'd be curious to know what music they're going to have playing in the new Mortal Kombat. Probably music composed specifically for the game, but it would be fun to have some kind of aggressive music playing while you execute a fatality move! Have you seen the new Sub-Zero? You gotta see this guy; he looks so wicked: http://www.mortalkombat.midway.com/

crazy taxi is... sublime. just a great game. little bit light on features, but just a great time. if you own a dreamcast, you owe it to yourself to pick this little slice of heaven up. i havent played the xbox sequel, but i cant imagine that it would be a bad game.

i think on the pc version of gta3 you can change the music, using your own mp3s, but i could be wrong. i havent played it yet, and i dont know that i actually will, but i might pick up the pc version once its a bit cheaper.

~james

Crazy Taxi (the first one, at least) had a soundtrack by Offspring and Bad Religion, seven or eight tunes in all. It's an absolute gem -- no mad driving skillz required, just a frenetic romp in an indestructable taxi that anyone could learn in five minutes. And, yes, the music matched the mood of the game perfectly.

Zuntata, who does much of the music for Taito games, has had some wonderful soundtracks over the years -- their music for the original Darius was the first time I ever recorded a game track for listening purposes.

I thought that GTA3's music was perfect SPECIFICALLY because it was mostly unknown-to-the-general-public artists, or obscure tracks from the knowns. I wouldn't have known Scientist from a hole in the ground before GTA3, but I ended up buying the CD that his GTA3-featured tracks (Jah Radio) came from. Before that, previous GTA games had homegrown parodies of popular songs and styles -- the country song from GTA1 still cracks me up.

The next GTA game (GTA: Vice City) is going in the complete opposite direction, and I think it's a significantly negative step. They're going with all 1980's music, apparently all (or almost all) from name artists - A Flock of Seagulls, Hall and Oates, Judas Priest, Kool and the Gang, Laura Branigan. They'll still be separated by genre, but they'll all be familiar songs -- and that's the problem. I've had twenty years to burn out on every damn one of them. (I burned out on some of them six seconds after hearing them for the first time.)

Worse yet, name artists bring with them lots of preconceived notions and baggage. The first time I get into a GTA Vice vehicle and it's playing Culture Club, for instance, I'm jumping out of the car and throwing a grenade into it on general principles.

Of course, there's a reason for the big-name artists this time around -- Sony and Rockstar announced recently that they'll be releasing not one, not two but SEVEN soundtrack CDs for GTA: Vice. SEVEN CDs. One for each music station in the game. This not only shatters my hopes that the 80's cruft would be on one easily-avoidable station, but strikes me as a bad marketing ploy -- sort of a "NOW That's What I Call 80's Music" line with the GTA logo splashed over it.

The first major video game/band tie-in I can think of was Nine Inch Nails for the original Quake. That intro music rocked like all hell, and including the "NIN" logo on the ammo crates for the nailgun was a very creative bonus!

Yes did the music for Homeworld. I've never played the game, but I love the band.

Journey ESCAPE

These games don't actually play music while you're playing, but...

FIFA 2001 and 2002 use what I would consider "fitting" soundtracks that aren't too bad--mostly Europop (go figure, since most of the teams are from the European leagues) and techno-pop. From what I can remember off the top of my head, 2001 has Robbie Williams and Gay Dad; 2002 has Gorillaz and BT.

I don't generally care for the tracks on Madden, but 2001 had a cool song by Xzibit on it.

This is slightly related, slightly not, but must be posted.

Anyone here heard of The Minibosses? Before Googling it.

~mike

Minibosses (sure I know 'em)
 

Minibosses are the easybosses that you kill right before the major end of the level boss. They don't use them in games much anymore, as most games are not level based but they still exist in games like Legend of Zelda.

:D Couldn't resist sorry! :D

minibosses make an asskicking remix of the ghosts n goblins theme!

Hey VSP - how do you know so much about games? I'm impressed!

http://www.mortalkombat.midway.com/f...ubalt_xlrg.jpg

There's also Dry Kill Logic in MLB Slugfest, Garbage and Ash in Gran Turismo (I think) and Aerosmith in DOA2. Oh, and Trent Reznor in Quake.

Aerosmith was only DOA3, I do believe.