Your Favorite Racing Game Soundtrack

[BioMechanic]

Originally posted by StriderKyo
MSR was appalling...it was like karaoke night at John Tesh's house.

You're absolutely right, but see, that's exactly why I dig it so much. Sure, the songs were highly cheesy and tongue-in-cheek, and so were the hilariously tacky fake radio ads and announcers. The Tokyo stations were all in clipped Japanese (I'd die for a translation), the London stations were perfectly British and foppish, and the SF stations were a dead-on Euro comedic impression of what they think US radio is like. That country song with the "she had to buy some underwear/and asked if I could take her there" line? Hilarious. That ridiculous "Let's Get It On Tonight" faux rap number? Examples of inspired, witty metaphorical musical/culture joking at its finest, in both cases.

I can certainly understand your reaction, but when looked on with a less serious eye, the MSR car stereo is revealed as a brilliant work of black European comedy. Maybe not as blatantly silly as GTA3's radio, but every bit as funny - just in a more subtle fashion.

Besides, you gotta admit some of the Tokyo instrumentals were pretty cool. All told, I doubt you'll hear a soundtrack like that ever again in a racing game - it was a unique and very welcome twist, instead of tired licensed stuff or been-there techno. An important reason why MSR is one of my all-time favorite games.

[StriderKyo]

Originally posted by BioMechanic
The Tokyo stations were all in clipped Japanese (I'd die for a translation),

The Tokyo stations were weird, because they obviously weren't native speakers. It all sounded pretty awkward, but of what I could understand, there wasn't anything very funny.

I can certainly understand your reaction, but when looked on with a less serious eye, the MSR car stereo is revealed as a brilliant work of black European comedy. Maybe not as blatantly silly as GTA3's radio, but every bit as funny - just in a more subtle fashion.

I guess...the problem is that you have to listen to it over and over and over again as you go through the game, which takes quite a while. I was able to laugh at it for a while (especially the disco station - dig the Rick Astley sounds!), but the joke wore thin, and all I was left with was wack music. It certainly wasn't as funny as the Ridge Racer V guy, who sounds like he spends the whole game hitting on you, as he mispronounces words like "rew-kie" and "calm-fort".

Besides, you gotta admit some of the Tokyo instrumentals were pretty cool.

Yeah, they were alright.

[MechDeus]

BioMechanic knows what's up. I personally thought the fake Will Smith was the funniest thing on there.

I could go the cop-out route and say "PGR with a custom soundtrack!" but that would be negating the point of this thread. To that: Spyhunter. Wipeout comes fairly close behind.

[johnk_]

DC's Test Drive: LeMans by far.. i had to have this music, so i manually recorded it off the game.

i also liked F-zero's tunes, tokyo xtreme racer, and wipeout xL

[Technosphile]

Hey:

I'm surprised Daytona USA isn't getting more mentions. Singing along as you race rules.

"We're gonna flyyy, skyy hiiiiighhhh!!! Blue, blue skyyyy! Blue, blue skiiiies I seeee!!"

-Technosphile

[opa-opa]

Daytona, by far.

Others:
Power Drift
Outrun

[Shooting Love]

hey, good post BioMechanic
(not that you need my validation or anything)

anyhow.
Scorcher is the first game that came to mind upon seeing this thread,
however I can't believe I forgot about Outrun.
and of course: Daytona, everthing about that game was perfect (arcade).

Seeing Super Mario Kart mentioned brings to mind one of the most shameful moments of my life. I know you all wanna know , so here goes.
At the time SuperMarioKart was released I basicly lived at my Nintendo owning friends house (really I spent more time there than at my house from ages 4-17, but that's another story) These were the days of the ultimate Sega-Nintendo rivalry, and of course I was a SegaHead and obviously I was too cool to give MarioKart a chance. I mean, how could you? It just looked and sounded so gay. SO the long and the short of it is, these guys played constantly, and played nothing else -nor ever ran around outside anymore. I was always hanging out there though, and the house was constantly filled with the sound of someone playing MarioKart. It drove me Friggin' Nuts! Really! On one mirraculous day no one was playing. I snuck over to the SNES unit, pulled out MarioKart and slid it under a nearby dresser. It was only a temporary joke to see how bad they'd all flip out, but something evil arose from deep within me when I saw how desperate they actually were to find out where the cart went to. Eventually they came to me knowing I couldn't stand them playing it all the time, and I denied any knowledge. I can't remember how long it was before I finnaly remembered to dig it up -it was that long that I'd forgotten about it. But by the time I revelaed what I'd done some other new game was in the house and no one really cared anymore, though my best freind that lived there could hardly believe I could be that much of an asshole. It wasn't till years later at his older brother's apt, that I finnaly realized the greatness of BattleKart. and again it was played incessantly, and on more than one weekend even running the counter up to 99 to 99. And we all live happily ever after.

[gameoverDude]

Enduro Racer
Out Run
Power Drift
Chase HQ
Super Chase (by Yasuhisa Watanabe, who is doing the BGM for Border Down )
Daytona USA (unless you're talking about the CCE remixes... blech to them)
Ridge Racer series, especially the first one (Rotterdam Nation is probably my favorite RR1 track), RR2, and RRV (Mijk VanDijk's "Burn Out" is a great track)
Side By Side 2
Battle Gear 1 & 2
Ferrari F355 Challenge, especially "Scarlata"

[Regus]

Nothing will ever match Daytona.
Honorable mention: Hydro Thunder

[Pepsiman]

I've always had a soft spot for the music in Top Gear 2 for SNES