Everybody loves a good song. While games are getting ever more impressive scores, they still haven’t quite mastered the art of a soundtrack. The need for streamer mode these days means using licensed music is even harder, but while video games shy away from a proper soundtrack in favour of original scores, Guardians of the Galaxy comes out swinging. It’s the best video game soundtrack since Saints Row The Third, not just because it has excellent tunes, but because it knows exactly how to use them.
Video games have always secretly wanted to be films, but the use of soundtracks is one of the biggest differences between the two mediums. When you think of iconic video game songs, you think of Persona 5’s Last Surprise, the melodic beeps of Pokemon Blue, or some soft, sad piano track as the screen fades to grey. With films, though you have instantly evocative original scores in the likes of Jurassic Park or Star Wars, you also think of (Don’t You) Forget About Me, Eye of the Tiger, Lose Yourself, and I Will Always Love You. These are songs that exist outside of that one cinematic moment, songs just as at home on the radio as they are on the silver screen.
Maybe Last Surprise and songs like it deserve more radio spins, but the fact is they don’t get them. That’s a separate argument. In the here and now, the fact Guardians relies on existing music elevates its biggest moments, and makes it the best use of a video game soundtrack in years.
GTA’s hugely varied, detailed, and curated radio stations are a marvel, and Cyberpunk 2077’s riff on them with original tracks from the likes of Us Cracks are even more impressive - but they’re just a background to the world itself. They’re just some music to listen to. And hey, that’s fine and essential to your agency within these virtual places. I often listen to music when I’m playing open-world games anyway, and I’ve written before about why we need an Alt-Z Lorde shooter. But Guardians and Saints Row do so much more with their music.
Guardians’ huddle mechanic in combat is divisive, given that it completely pauses combat, takes far too long, and soon feels repetitive - but the outcome of it is glorious. Once you reach enough style points, you huddle up and everyone becomes supercharged, all while slick ‘80s pop blares in the background. Since this is coming through Quill’s headphones, it’s an active piece of music in the world, and Quill’s cassette player itself ends up being involved in some major story moments.
It’s not quite on the level of Redbone’s Come And Get Your Love as heard in our cinematic introduction to Star-Lord, but it’s pretty close. Taking on Lady Hellbender’s greatest allies all to the tune of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go is a spectacular piece of direction, but it also brings me to Guardians’ soundtrack’s biggest problem - it’s entirely reliant on the huddle.
Most boss battles are long enough that you’ll get to huddle, but it’s up to you when you activate it, and the huddle boost doesn’t always last between phases. While injecting the biggest fights with ‘80s cheese is genius, letting me be the one to push the play button is ludicrous. The music should start right when the developers decide is the perfect moment, not whenever I feel like huddling up.
This is why, while it’s the best since Saints Row The Third, it still can’t eclipse it. There’s a moment in Saints Row The Third when you attack a rival hideout, and the game decides to blare out Kanye West’s Power while you rush in and hold your ground against the odds in a fit of carnage, mayhem, and bullets. While it lacks the guns-to-music beat, it feels fresh out of Baby Driver, like the scene could not exist if separate from the song; it is an essential piece of the jigsaw, not just an extra dash of seasoning thrown on top. Everybody seasons their jigsaws, right?
Guardians of the Galaxy is so close to understanding this, and for the most part, it works. So long as you huddle up during big boss battles, you get the intended effect. And I understand why huddles and music are tied together - thematically, it fits Star-Lord’s personality and backstory. But putting the game’s soundtrack, one of its crowning glories, on its most divisive feature and surrendering control of that soundtrack to the player just feels like wasted potential.