The Madden Effect

               All my life I've been a sports gamer.  Back in the days of Super Nintendo I was playing NBA Jam, then moved on to Triple Play 2000 for the PS1, all the way to NBA 2K11 (soon to have 2K12) on PS3.  I have my favorite franchises, I've given a fair shot to pretty much all of them out there.  I am an avid supporter of the MLB The Show series on PS3.  It is far and away better than the MLB 2K series that is available.  In fact, because for one year I only had an XBOX 360, I was forced to play MLB 2K9 and realized just how much better The Show was.  Due to this fact, I bought myself a PS3 so I could go back to the true baseball franchise (which is PS3 exclusive).  I've also collected the NBA 2K games for the past several years and they are some of the best games I have ever played.  NBA 2K11 may be my favorite game ever made.  Like The Show, the NBA 2K series has an opponent that is so inferior to it, it's embarrassing.  If you buy NBA Live over NBA 2K, you enjoy torturing yourself.  Of course, that's also impossible because the 2K series has driven the NBA Live series into extinction.  I'm one of those people who maintains that ESPN NFL 2K5 was quite possibly the best football game ever made, but unfortunately, Madden bought the exclusive rights to the NFL gaming market, so we'll never know what could have been.  Madden has been great some years and awful other years.  This past year's Madden (12) is phenomenal if you ask me.  I'm not so much an NHL gamer, but I've played them.  NHL 10 was a great game with my boy Patrick Kane on the cover.  While I don't consider wrestling to be a true sport, I did partake in playing some of the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw video games, which were a lot of fun but I've since stopped playing them.  This list will even include some songs featured on the insanely fun & popular Tony Hawk series.  This is not strictly NFL, MLB, NHL, & NBA games.

               The reason I bring all of this up is because I just recently put all the songs off of the Madden NFL 12 soundtrack on to my iPod and it made me realize the effect a video game can have on music.  There have been plenty of songs & artists I have been introduced to because of video games that I otherwise would not have known about.  Maybe it's the association with a badass game that I enjoy that makes the songs better, but I'd like to believe I genuinely enjoy these songs.  In this post, I'm going to share some of my favorite songs from video games I've played over the course of my lifetime.  Going off what I included, I would think it's safe to say that Madden NFL 12, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Madden NFL 09, & MLB 07: The Show have my favorite soundtracks.


Mind Your Manners - Chiddy Bang & Icona Pop (Madden NFL 12)

6 Foot 7 Foot - Lil' Wayne & Cory Gunz (Madden NFL 12)

All Around the World - Theophilus London (Madden NFL 12)

Architects - Rise Against (Madden NFL 12)

Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest (Madden NFL 12, MLB 08: The Show)

That Ain't Classy - Classified (Madden NFL 12)

Back for More - Five Finger Death Punch (Madden NFL 12)

Boom - Snoop Dogg & T-Pain (Madden NFL 12)

Champion - Chipmunk & Chris Brown (Madden NFL 12)

Colours - Grouplove (Madden NFL 12)

Last Man Standing - Asher Roth & Akon (Madden NFL 12)

Worlds Away - From First to Last (Madden NFL 09)

We Made It - Busta Rhymes & Linkin Park (Madden NFL 09)

Undead - Hollywood Undead (Madden NFL 09)

Never Wanted to Dance - Mindless Self Indulgence (Madden NFL 09)

Don't Stop - Innerpartysystem (Madden NFL 09)

Workin - Young Dre the Truth & Good Charlotte (Madden NFL 09)

Wolves At the Door - Senses Fail (Madden NFL 09)

The Real World - The All-American Rejects (Madden NFL 09)

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures - UnderOath (Madden NFL 09)

On Top of the World - Boys Like Girls (MLB 2K9)

Steal My Sunshine - Len (MLB 2K9)

Should've Tried Harder - Hey Monday (MLB 2K9)

Right Now - SR-71 (MLB 2K9)

Feeling This - Blink-182 (Madden NFL 2004)

Way Away - Yellowcard (Madden NFL 2004)

Young Cardinals - Alexisonfire (NHL 10)

Know Your Enemy - Green Day (NHL 10)

Kids in America - MxPx (NHL 10)

Into the Light - Papa Roach (NHL 10)

Keys To the City - Ministry (NHL 10)

Gravity - Embassy (MLB 07: The Show)

Nightmare - Halifax (MLB 07: The Show)

Caught In a Rundown - Over It (MLB 07: The Show)

Hang 'Em High - A Static Lullaby (MLB 07: The Show)

This Could Be Anywhere in the World - Alexisonfire (MLB 07: The Show)

The Carpal Tunnel of Love - Fall Out Boy (MLB 07: The Show)

This is How I Disappear - My Chemical Romance (MLB 07: The Show)

Oh! Gravity - Switchfoot (MLB 07: The Show)

We Don't Care Anymore - Story of the Year (MLB 06: The Show)

Everything is Alright - Motion City Soundtrack (MLB 06: The Show)

Going Through Changes - Army of Me (MLB 06: The Show)

Prototype - City Sleeps (MLB 06: The Show)

Well Enough Alone - Chevelle (WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008)

Bullet With a Name - Nonpoint (WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007)

Symphonies - Dan Black & Kid Cudi (NBA 2K11)

Beautiful Disaster - 311 (MLB 11: The Show)

Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones (MLB 08: The Show)

Superman - Goldfinger (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater)

Blood Brothers - Papa Roach (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2)

Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against the Machine (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2)

When Worlds Collide - Powerman 5000 (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2)

Armageddon - Alkaline Trio (Tony Hawk's Underground)

Big Bang - Bad Religion (Tony Hawk's Underground)

Like the Angels - Rise Against (Tony Hawk's Underground)

Wash Away - Alkaline Trio (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Rise Above - Black Flag (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Who Is Who - Dropkick Murphys (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Search & Destroy - Emmanuel (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Start Today - Fall Out Boy (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Everyone Is Someone in LA - Felix da Housecat (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Holiday - Green Day (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Astro Zombies - My Chemical Romance (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Fix Me - Rise Against (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Sonic Reducer - Saves the Day (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Institutionalized - Senses Fail (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Suburban Home/I Like Food - Taking Back Sunday (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

House of Suffering - The Bled (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Ever Fallen In Love - Thursday (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)

Fat Lip - Sum 41 (X-Games Skateboarding)

A Place for My Head - Linkin Park (X-Games Skateboarding)

It's Tricky - Run DMC (SSX Tricky)