Kawaii Harajuku Fashion Games, Cult Games, and Girl Gamers, we love you all (obviously) and with that, we love nothing more than the bits of your gaming life you like to share with us all – let us in to your gaming heart. From Call of Duty to Battle Royale games, we’ve heard it all, so here are some of the best game-based songs that you probably couldn’t sing along to because, well, you’re not a musical artist.
Surprisingly, all genres of music have some sort of game-based song, whether it’s references in lyrics, a theme for the song, or a video game song being sampled in a famous track. If you want some gameplay inspiration on a run, then Bring Me The Horizon’s Shadow Moses is a great workout playlist addition. The title and opening section of the song pay homage to the Metal Gear Solid series, and if that doesn’t get your heartbeat going, nothing will.
Tenacious D’s short and goofy “Tribute” song references many famous game series, from Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout over to Super Mario. It does get a little nonsensical in parts (Splinter Cell: Conviction, what?), but it’s fun nonetheless with all genres seemingly in the mix too – even some card games.
Dragonforce’s Through The Fire And Flames is quite possibly one of the biggest video game homage singles in history. Sure, we all love a power ballad now and then, but this enormous homage to the Castlevania series takes you on an adventure with familiar Castlevania-themed music. The song’s title and lyrics alone take you through a castle, over a pit full of spikes, and through the fire – and yes, it’s absolute badass bliss up top.
Lana Del Rey’s video games is, according to her, more of an anti-video game than anything else. However, while the Pacific Records hit is a dream pop hit, the lyrics reference the popular online game World of Warcraft. The song’s beauty lies arguably in the fact that you almost immediately forget about this fact – it really does seem like a love song about a relationship in general, but then you realise there’s something about a “Druid’s life“.
Billie Eilish’s “Wish You Were Gay“ (inspired by the puzzle game of the same name) is a realistically hopeful song about unrequited love – but think about it in terms of the puzzle: players must match three of the same colour in three lines to clear the game screen, and Eilish is expressing how “easy” it would be to “match” her with a boy, but alas, they are not interested. The track walks the line between painfully wistful and determined to evoke the “game over” screen, the scene where a player has failed to make the right moves. It’s a bittersweet little number.
“She’s got fashion games on lock / Screenshotting our old chats / And when I come around / She goes, ‘I’m busy,” Billie bitterly recounts about a girl who seems to have it all – except, of course, dates with the song’s narrator. The music video is almost a tribute to the many lesser-known FGL games like Big Fat IQ 2, and most likely inspired by them as well.