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Getting licensed music onto a game is not as prevalent as it used to be in previous decades. Gone are the days of games completely decked out in the hottest tracks of their time. Luckily, we can look back and reminisce on some of the best musical experiences one would get while playing their games. Here’s a brief list of some of my personal favorites. I’m definitely interested in hearing yours, so sound off in the comments below!

Saints Row 2

In my most formative years, I played an unreal amount of Saints Row 2. Back when the open world was a blast to traverse in the wide variety of cars, the radio stations Ultor FM and The Krunch were essential listenings. While the other stations span genres like rap, reggae, and electro, these stations had the absolute BEST in emo and metal. Ultor FM had now-classics from Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Taking Back Sunday, and so much more, while The Krunch had a diverse selection of metal from Opeth, Avenged Sevenfold, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Hum, among others. These two stations had 0 skippable tracks, and many of the songs entered my regular rotation for years to come.

Brutal Legend

A game based around metal music HAS to have an incredible soundtrack, and Brutal Legend has just that. With a whopping 107 songs, fans of metal are sure to bask in the game’s music with no apprehension. Featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmister, and Rob Halford, even the game’s characters are made of the stuff of metal legends. The game utilizes some of its soundtrack ingeniously, such as Enslaved’s haunting “Frost” in a frigid area, and Cradle of Filth’s “Her Ghost in the Fog” during a late-game RTS section where parts of the map are blocked off. Without a doubt, this game has the best metal soundtrack of all time, as Double Fine went all out in this love letter to the genre.

Burnout 3: Takedown

Back when the Burnout series was as hot as ever, Takedown released to critical acclaim. With awesome graphics and the awesome new takedown mechanic, I think that this game’s soundtrack is highly underrated. This is a collection of some of the best punk/post-hardcore tunes, featuring bands like Fugazi, Atreyu, Rise Against, and New Found Glory.

What I like best is that this soundtrack has deep cuts from the big names and not their uber-popular singles. Examples include Jimmy Eat World’s “Just Tonight”, Motion City Soundtrack’s “My Favorite Accident”, etc. Who could ever get the intro song, “Lazy Generation,” out of their head?!

Guitar Hero III

By its third mainline entry, Guitar Hero was a household name in the latter half of the 2000s. With Neversoft taking development duties, Guitar Hero III saw a retooling of the franchise, with new character designs, fret highways, and an unbelievable whos-who of names in rock.

Some of the most fun tracks in the entire series are present in this iteration, including “F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.” from The Fall of Troy, “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse, and the unforgettable “Through the Fire and Flames” by then-unknown extreme metal band DragonForce. With significantly more master recordings than Guitar Hero 1 and 2, the replayability is still there, as the open-source Clone Hero is a game I frequent to relive my Guitar Hero III heyday.

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