Best uses of licensed music in games

I was playing through Tales of the Borderlands (great!) and one of the episodes starts with this fantastic title sequence set to a brilliant Twin Shadow track. It was epic, it hit that slightly cheesy 80s romp vibe that the series hits, and it added a sense of gravity to the episode. Went straight to spotify when I was done.

 

 

One of many great choices of licensed music in the series.

 

Has anyone got any personal picks? The Fallout 50's music is obviously a winner, as is the excellent Jose Gonzalez track in Red Dead

 

And ofc

 

 

And literally every track that appears in Life is Strange.

Not used in game, but a great use of the music all the same.

 

Saints Row 4 has a few set music tracks that are well done. Aerosmith in the intro, later on characters jamming out to Just a Friend.

Borderlands 2 does use licensed music well!

 

This fantastic opening for example:

 

 

And literally every track that appears in Life is Strange.

 

I was just thinking "I can't think of any other than the song at the end of Knack..." and then saw this. So yeah, that.

 

Still can't think of any others though.

 

Oh wait MGSV used a lot of 80s tracks which led to this:

 

Alan Wake and Quantum Break. The licensed music which plays at the end of each episode usually fits with the theme of the episode.

Back to Borderlands...

 

 

Thought this was a great opening to the original game.

 

Also, from Mass Effect (the first one)...

 

 

Probably my favourite end credits song in any game, really helped put the final touch on an incredible game!

Spaaaaaaace Channel 5!

 

Rabbids Go Home

 

The best has got to be the GTA series though, especially Vice City, that soundtrack is

!

 

 

Just brainstorming. The Night Club level on GoldenEye on the Wii! The music in SSX 3 was a good fit. Ten Eighty on the GC too with that Cauterise band - I actually gave them a Google back in the day. There's good tunes put to good use in Elite Beat Agents and Bunnies Just Wanna Have Fun and Miserlou in Rayman Raving Rabbids were great fun to play to (imo). Did Unirally have Thin Lizzy or just a tune that was pretty similar?

 

I think, on reflection, my Excite Truck had the best licensed music of any game to date.

Not sure if it'll be to anyone else's taste but I absolutely loved the Far Cry 3 mission where you had to burn all the weed fields with a Skrillex track playing in the background...

 

 

Running around with a flame thrower with that music blasting was so much fun!

CTRL F "Crazy Taxi", good!

 

No mention of Bayonetta 1 & 2 though?

 

 

 

The way they took these classic tunes and re-invented them is pretty damn inspired and it's hard to imagine the games without them : peace:

I'm not really a fan of licenced music in games. I guess most games which contain them I'm not really interested in to begin with (racing sims, sports games), but some stuff it just feels lazy and detracts from the atmosphere.

 

The Burnout games spring to mind. Burnout 2 had a really cool soundtrack which adapted to various situations in the game like when you were boosting. The later Burnout games just had EA Trax, which I immediately turned off in the options. It felt so soulless.

 

And I'd forgotten about the Mass Effect end theme. Really love the rest of the music in the game, but the end credits is like, hold on a minute did I just beat some other game by accident? And that bloody Fly Me To The Moon song in Bayonetta was so irritating, I actually struggled to play though the game when it was on.

CTRL F "Crazy Taxi", good!

 

No mention of Bayonetta 1 & 2 though?

 

 

 

The way they took these classic tunes and re-invented them is pretty damn inspired and it's hard to imagine the games without them : peace:

 

YES, YES, YES! Fantastic remixes.

 

This however is the original and best:

 

Also, from Mass Effect (the first one)...

 

Just to point out (for other people), it's

 

They also used another one of their songs (one without Lyrics) in Mass Effect 3

 

 

One music track that stands out is the use of I Need a Hero for the final mission in Saints Row: The Third. The "past" versions of music in Bioshock Infinite is great

 

 

As for the worst use, it has to be the

in Gears of War 3 (note: spoilers in comments). Completely and utterly destroyed what could have been an emotional moment (the use in the first trailer for GoW1 was great).

Does Tony Hawk count? I can't imagine skating to anything other than Superman by Goldfinger.

Does Tony Hawk count? I can't imagine skating to anything other than Superman by Goldfinger.

 

Ha yeah for suure. Those games shaped the music tastes of thousands of millennials I'm sure!

 

Loving these other Borderlands ones too. Didn't realise the awesome title sequences cme from gearbox rather than Telltale. Good suggestions all round

I can't believe I had forgotten this. I'm not sure if Classical music counts as licensed but it's certainly not original to the game, and it's bloody fantastic in the game.

 

(skip to about 15 seconds in)

 

Episode 11 of Asuras Wrath, the fight with Augus. A top moment in gaming really.

I meant to post this ages ago when I cleared this awful game but the remix of Rockafeller Skank in Gekido for PS1 must be one of the WORST uses of licensed music in games I can remember

 

It's highly irritating!