My taste in music is incredibly varied and schizophrenic. Half of it is because I never received any formal education in music, and the other half is the kind of music I have been exposed to. Listening to Kishore, The Eagles, Rafi, Michael Jackson, Atif, Bryan Adams, Backstreet Boys, 50 Cent and Linkin Park in the same playlist can cause righteous rage in some people, but I listen to what I like. What that also means is that I get my music from various sources. Movies, Youtube, WWE, commercials and yes even Video Games. So here are the 5 times that I picked up songs from video games, and listened to them long after I was done playing the game.
I Stand Alone (Prince Of Persia Warrior Within)
The dark sequel to the breakout Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time is very close to my heart. It’s one of the first games that I finished, and one of the first single player games, where I found sinking my hours into. I would spend hours upon hours of my college life in the game, as lazy hot afternoons merged into cool breezy evenings and then made way to dark rainy nights. I would just sit there in front of a SAHARA laptop claw gripping over a minuscule borrowed USB mouse (which I broke by the end of the game, and the person who borrowed it from me threw it in my face with disgust, but it was all worth it), parkouring over the beams, jumping over those hideous crow demons and running away from Dahaka, while “I Stand Alone” played in the background. This was perhaps the first time, I had heard a full soundtrack play in the background of a game, with actual lyrics. And it suited those pursuits so well, the Prince jumping and scrambling across the crumbling walls of a forgotten ruin, as a time demon chased him down ready to devour and erase him from the sands of time. That guitar riff was just too awesome, and that defiance in the words was too extreme for my young adult brain. The dark anti-hero Prince was my new favorite protagonist, the Prince Of Persia my new favorite franchise, and Godsmack my new favorite band. Deal with it, I told my Kishore Kumar loving younger self.
I Am Rock (NFS Most Wanted)
If the first semester in college was all about Prince Of Persia. The second semester was all about Need For Speed Most Wanted. The first thing NFS Most Wanted had going for it was that the game can be played using just a keyboard. So I didn’t have to borrow any more mice from my friends (and burn any more bridges) and I could play it on my laptop almost anywhere. Of course, it helped that NFS Most Wanted remains to this day one of the best RACING games ever made, PERIOD! (If you disagree, start a petition, I will start a counter petition and we will see who wins). It had a huge sprawling open world, had so many races to complete, and had the perfect balance between real world looking cars and a stylized world, which I don’t think has been replicated ever again. Now there are a lot of great songs to pick from. There are songs like Nine Thou, Shapeshifter and Decadence in the game, but the game that I liked the most was “I Am Rock”. Just writing about it takes me back, as I rode my Ford GT on a skiddy highway, with police cars chasing me, and the blur effect making the world go by faster, and the song, the beast like lyrics just egging me on, baiting me into pressing that up arrow key harder and ticking that speedometer even higher. I was a rebel, I was an outlaw, I was a free spirit. I WAS ROCK and there was no stopping me.
Bum Like You (Fifa 08)
Single players are all good and nice, but the real essence of college is in the competition. Fifa 08 AKA just FIFA AKA the only FIFA that I care about was a rave in college, and one of our hostel guys had a gamepad attached to his PC (yeah the smartass decided to bring his entire computer to college), so of course, we would play against each other for bragging rights. It was all Madrid Vs Barcelona and Chelsea Vs Manchester United (unless some prick would pick Bayern Munich or Juventus). That obviously meant I had to practice, I wasn’t going to enter a football match (even a virtual one) without being confident of winning. So practice I did, with non-stop matches of FIFA on my now tattered laptop. During all those sessions, this awkward pop song by Robyn was the one that got stuck in my head. One factor was of course that I probably heard it a million times over as I made my way through the snazzy menu of FIFA 08. Another was the fact that I actually understood what Robyn was saying, agreed that made little sense, but yet in a game filled with Spanish songs and what not, it was nice to have something to sing along to, while I turned up the goalkeeper difficulty from Amateur to World Class. I also blame that song for opening me up to Pop songs after what seemed like an eternity (my parents tell me it was just 2 years) of Rock phase. So when you find Taylor Swift and Arianna Grande in my playlist, you know who to blame. It’s not me, it’s my circumstances. Cause My Favorite Thing To Do Is Wasting My Time On A Game Like You.
Animals (Just Dance 16)
Just Dance is one of those games, that as a gamer I am supposed to frown upon. But it’s also one of the most enjoyable experiences one can have when you do it with friends. And that enjoyment ramps up to pure craziness when it involves family. Now as you might have noticed, I am a bit of a metal head, sure I enjoy some Adele from time to time, but Rock is where my heart is. So, of course, I hate electronic music. I mean how is that even music, when all you are doing is pressing a button. But I digress. I played Just Dance 16 with my wife and my 3 cousins (all of them younger than me), so of course, they wanted to dance to Animals and Albatros and Hey Mama. And of course, they thought I would suck at Just Dance because I sucked at dancing in real life. Well little did they know, when it comes to video-games, even dancing doesn’t stand a chance. So while they tried to copy those helmet stooges on the screen, I synchronized myself with that little doll at the bottom. 3 minutes later, a stunned crowd of 4 gazed upon me as I basked in the glory of me beating them all. Though in my hubris, I did admit that Animals wasn’t so bad, and I would give electronic music a chance, for which I paid for by attending a Chainsmoker concert. There is a lesson here guys, dance all you want just don’t be an M****r F***ing Animal.
I Want It Darker (Assassin’s Creed Origins)
I do begrudge the Assassin’s Creed franchise for hijacking Prince of Persia, but anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed 2 can confirm that it is indeed one of the best games ever made. As times passed, however, Assassin’s Creed lost a bit of its reputation. It became an annual series, and for a period of around 5 years, each game in the series felt stale and repetitive. The world was becoming bigger, but the time I wanted to spend in that world was getting smaller. I swore to myself that I was done with the franchise when Assassin’s Creed Syndicate came out. And then I saw the trailer. And I will not lie, more than anything, it was the song. Sure it was in ancient Egypt, sure we could climb the pyramids, and kill Set, but it was the rusty scruffy voice of Leonard Cohen, which made me fall in love with the game again. It was as if the AC team was taunting their fans, that since they wanted a new experience, they were gonna give it to them. So, of course, I googled Assassin’s Creed Origins Trailer Song. Of course I listened to it hundreds of thousands of time, and of course, I missed out on playing Origins, because I was still completing The Witcher 3. I still have that song saved in my playlist nestled between Ain’t No Grave (Johny Cash) and Walls (Jamie N Commons), setting me up for the dismal Monday mornings and those late night production issues. And when I see that trailer again. Chills. I WANT IT DARKER.
Well, now wasn’t that a walk down memory lane. It started as an article about songs but became an article about video-games. What songs have made it to your playlist? What songs have stayed with you long after the game is over? Tell us all that and more in the comments.