The Importance of Sports Games Soundtracks

Today is the official release date of WWE 2K25 and the soundtrack kicks ass. It features songs like “Hurt You” by Spiritbox, “Curse” by Architects, “PACKAPUNCH” by Joey Valence & Brae (ft. Danny Brown), and “Suffocate” by Knocked Loose (ft. Poppy) as well as others from Eminem and JID, Jelly Roll, $uicideboy$, and Gojira. Video games play an underrated role in music discovery for many. Some of my earliest musical preferences were formed by the sports games that I played as a youth. Sports games, unlike other games, have a unique opportunity to showcase non-diegetic music because of the need to navigate various menus and settings screens in order to begin the game proper. This means you will be spending a lot of time listening to the jukebox cultivated for the game. Oftentimes, when done well, players will recall the songs in a game before anything else related to the experience. Don’t believe me? I had a copy of ATV Offroad Fury on a shelf and my friend noticed it and said he remembered his brother used to play it. I noted that the game was the first time I heard “Spoonman” by Soundgarden. He texted his brother to ask if he remembered the game and his brother texted back “Yeah, it had Spoonman on it.” So come along with me as I look back at some sports games from what I refer to as the Formative Years of my music discovery journey.

ATV Offroad Fury (2001)

This one is kind of hard to fit into the timeline because, at the time of its release, I lacked the fine motor skills to operate a Playstation 2 controller. I played it throughout my childhood because it was timeless in the sense that it didn’t have players and rosters that became outdated every year. It was one of the first if not the first video games where I noticed the soundtrack and adjusted my behavior to accommodate listening to it. The game had a mode where there would be traditional races with all of the jumps and winding tracks that you would imagine from such a game, but there was another mode where you could free-roam and ride your ATV around a vast landscape. I would choose to play the latter because there was no time limit and I could ride around doing tricks in a canyon listening to all the songs. As previously stated, my favorite and most memorable song in the game was “Spoonman” but other songs that stand out are “Isolate” by …Bender, “Jerry Was A Racecar Driver” by Primus, “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains and “Denial” by Sevendust (they’ll be back).

Smackdown Vs Raw 2006 (2005)

The first wrestling game I ever had was my first introduction to heavier music and I want to say hip-hop in general. The majority of the songs on the soundtrack are produced by Bumpy Knuckles (aka Freddie Foxxx) who contributed two songs of his own and also produced and is featured on John Cena’s rap album “You Can’t See Me” released earlier the same year as the game. I couldn’t find any information on any other rappers listed on the soundtrack Vada, Billy Ray, Ron J, and Poet. I assume they were somehow connected to Knuckles and were brought in specifically to make songs for the game as many of them have lyrical themes related to or directly reference wrestling. They’re not great songs but I didn’t know any better at the time. Speaking of not knowing better at the time, there was a remix of “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth made by Steve Tushar that has been implanted in my brain so deeply that the original version of the song sounds incorrect to me. Other songs that stuck with me are “Pieces” by Dark New Day and “Unretrofied” by The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 (2006)

We now enter the Nonpoint era of the franchise, both they and Three Days Grace have two songs featured in the game, '“Bullet With A Name” and “Alive and Kicking” from the former and “Riot” and “Animal I Have Become” from the latter. This soundtrack shifts its focus from rap to the hard rock and nu-metal of the time with other big names like Godsmack and Rise Against also providing songs. I want to give a special shoutout to Black Stone Cherry for “Lonely Train” being one of the songs from this soundtrack that I will still go back to and listen to when I’m feeling nostalgic. After the rap songs that were featured in the previous game they had no right to secure a song as good as “The Champ” by Ghostface Killah but they only bloody went and did it. I would say it is the most underrated song in his catalog. Many people think of this as the best game in the Smackdown Vs Raw series, I would say it definitely has the best music.

MLB The Show 2007 (2007)

No joke, this was my introduction to Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. Take a minute to think about how wild that is. I was eight years old when this game was released. I didn’t know how to find music that I liked, I didn’t know which were the good radio stations. All I listened to was the classic rock that my dad played in the car and whatever was on the pop stations my mom listened to. The way I found out about two massive bands in the emo genre, that would become my favorite in the coming years, was through a baseball game that I got because David Wright was on the cover. I didn’t even associate “This Is How I Disappear” with My Chemical Romance until I independently listened to them four or five years later and realized I had been listening to them for years. “Carpal Tunnel of Love” I knew was Fall Out Boy because “Thnks fr th Mmrs” was getting radio play around that time. They became my first favorite band. There were other great songs in the game too like “This Could Be Anywhere Else In The World” by Alexisonfire, “Joker & the Theif” by Wolfmother, and “Antisaint” by Chevelle. This is probably the most influential game for me musically.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 (2007)

This soundtrack continues the Nonpoint era with their song “Everybody Down” off of Vengeance the second Nonpoint album to be featured in as many years. There isn’t as much variety in this installment with AM Conspiracy, Project 86, and Sevendust (told you) all contributing two songs to the tracklist. You could see this as laziness or focusing more heavily on capturing the sound they wanted for this game. I won’t tell you how to feel about it but I would’ve appreciated more variety as being on the options screens just felt a bit tense this time around. Puddle of Mudd also contributes their song “Famous” but the highlight for me is one from a band making their second appearance on the list, Chevelle. “Well Enough Alone'“ is the second song from their album Vena Sera to be featured in a sports video game soundtrack in 2007, wrestling to baseball is about the widest net you can cast as far as sports games so kudos to ‘em. I did own Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 but I honestly can’t remember a single song that was on there so this will be the final entry from the franchise. From the three games, I would say that the song I listened to most outside of them was “Riot” by Three Days Grace.

MLB The Show 2008 (2008)

They did something interesting with this game. The jukebox was comprised of a lot of older songs and a few classics with very few contemporary songs. It was the first time I had heard The Ramones with “Blitzkrieg Bop” being featured. Other older songs include “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy, “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” by ZZ Top, and “Low Rider” by War. At least the last one made sense to me at the time because George Lopez had just ended its run and was getting syndication on Nick@Nite. The only newish songs were by Queens of the Stone Age, Hot Hot Heat, and Franz Ferdinand. The latter two I can’t for the life of me remember, even after having listened to them ten minutes ago. The song that stuck with me the most from this game was “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest which I had a false memory of being on another game as well. I often quote “Phife Dog my name, but on stage call me Dynamite” to looks of confusion. Yeah, this was a weird one.

Madden 09 (2008)

The final stop on our tour through the formative years, I was playing this game during a time in my life where I learned how to use the internet to find songs and I may have even had an iPod Nano at this point. That means that I was able to listen to songs from the game during the period of time when I was playing the game while I wasn’t playing the game. The pipeline from discovery to fandom was shorter than ever and I think this was the first step in what ultimately led to video games having a reduced role in my music listening practices. “We Made It” by Busta Rhymes (ft. Linkin Park) holds a special place in my heart as a fun track that not many people know about. There were songs from bands that I would in the near future listen to regularly like “Worlds Away” by from First To Last, “Desperate Times. Desperate Measures” by Underoath, “Never Wanted To Dance” by Mindless Self Indulgence, and “Undead” by Hollywood Undead. Yes, I listened to Hollywoods Undead quite a bit in my early teen years, I stand by their first 2-3 albums and I will not be accepting any of your judgement. Other large bands that contributed songs were Shinedown, In Flames, Trivium, The Offpring and Disturbed. “Hell Yeah” by Rev Theory is another one that everyone has heard and Gym Class Heroes joined the fun as well. It was a great one to go out on.

Thinking back on these games and songs is a little bittersweet because with a lot of them I have clear and distinct memories of a place and time. I can feel myself sitting on the old red couch that we used to have in the basement. I can feel the controller in my hand. I can feel my eyes dart quickly to the bottom right corner of the screen when the song changes to see which one was next. I had my favorites and I would feel so satisfied when the one I was hoping to come next did. That time spent riding around on my customized ATV trying to time my jumps to points in a song is so precious to me because it was so simple. It was just fun, I can’t help but smile adn have a sense of longing when I think about the hours I spent with these songs and discovering what I liked. I hope some kid is out there right now playing WWE2K25, finding out that they like Architects, and it leading to a love for music and engagement with the community like it did for me.