Four Great Music Themed Video Games You Might Have Missed

Music and video games haven’t always been obvious bedfellows; home computers simply weren’t powerful enough to have great soundtracks added to their games for many years.

Rather ironically, whilst video game developers played with technology and waited for it to progress, they churned out some of the most memorable soundtracks. If you think back to Mario, Zelda or R-Type, you’ll likely remember their theme tune more than Mass Effect or Red Dead Redemption. That’s why the music scene known as Chiptune is thriving, according to Tech Radar; nostalgia.

Once technology caught up, we saw many games themed around music and bands. It is the case on home computers, but now even mobile phones can handle complex musical scores and great games. My Singing Monsters is a great example of this on iOS, allowing gamers to play with musical themes on monster-filled islands. Many online slot providers rely on their music to generate a theme or backdrop, but some go all out with their musical links. You can find a crazy hybrid of a fairytale and biker bar on the Gala Bingo online slots named Snow Wild and the 7 Features. It’s got heavy rock music influences as a version of Snow White, named Snow Wild, is placed in a biker bar with rock guitars, tattoos, and related imagery. You can even find games directly linked to real people, not fairytales, with Michael Jackson featured in King of Pop, a music quiz game the whole family can play.

They are examples of how mobile game developers have interpreted music artists, themes and hybrid games, but what about those on home computers? Titles such as Guitar Hero were wildly popular a decade or two ago, but these are four music-themed games you might have missed.

The Blues Brothers

Before home computers had the technology to implement a thumping soundtrack, developers had to be clever with their music license, and none were cleverer than Titus with the Blues Brothers tie-in. The game was a platformer, a popular genre of the time, and it was surprisingly good. The 8-bit soundtrack managed to perfectly represent Jake and Elwood as they went about their adventures, and it was a tantalizing hint at what might develop as the years rolled by.

Def Jam: Vendetta

Def Jam Vendetta is almost 20 years old now, but the PlayStation 2 release is the perfect example of how developers take a musical theme but add their own game genre to make a timeless experience. This EA Sports release is a wrestling game where the protagonists are all rap stars such as Ghostface Killah, DMX and Ludacris. As you’d expect, it had a superb soundtrack, and as it came in the early days of proper music on games, it felt revolutionary. It’s still highly playable today.

Grand Theft Auto: After Hours

This isn’t a standalone game but rather an add-on for the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto Online. It allowed you to buy and run your own nightclub, hire and fire DJs, and run missions to promote your location. It’s the perfect example of what a modern-day developer can do with music because the DJs involved were not only real, but they also played exclusive sets for Rockstar Games. They’ve also recruited Dr Dre to the game in recent months, taking the musical link up one stage further.

Tetris Effect

We’ve looked at the old and the new, but how about a hybrid of two completely unconnected styles. Tetris Effect is what happens when you take a fairytale such as Tetris and throw in a musical element, just as with the online Snow Wild slot we discussed earlier. It was released on PlayStation VR, among other platforms and combined the block matching game with rhythm game elements. It sounds utterly bizarre but has to be played to be appreciated.