Year: 2002
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Rom di Prisco
Number of tracks: 23

★★★★★

Hot tracks in hot pursuits

You can complain a lot about the sports games in the EA series, be it NBA, Madden or even the genre leader FIFA. However, what they usually manage to do, like GTA with its radio stations, is to publish a playlist with current and suitable tracks that, put simply, make you wanna play. For example, in Fifa 2013 I encountered Kraftklub, Fifa Football 2004 featured Kasabian and the one-hit wonder Jerk It Out by Caesars. That fits, that works.

Apart from that, this practice was also established in other sports games, namely the racing game brand Need for Speed. And while in FIFA and the like, the music only serves as background music for the menus, from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 onwards, you no longer blasted around the track with (beautiful) original compositions and 300 km/h, but with real songs from metal, rock and electro. In later iterations, the whole thing was adapted to the setting and zeitgeist, which is why more and more dubstep and wawashwuuuppdibums found their way into the game. As a rock fan, you can see this critically or as an opportunity; after all, with enough adrenaline you can even endure childbirth - especially as a man.

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002)

Fortunately, we haven't reached that stage yet in 2002, which is why Hot Pursuit 2 features bands such as Bush, Hot Action Cop, The Humble Brothers and the composer of its predecessor, Rom Di Prisco. As personal taste is even more important with 'real' tracks, there is probably little point in going into detail here. However, in my nostalgic transfiguration, these tracks will always remind me of exciting chases through national parks, cliff-top routes and alpine heights. If you're still looking for inspiration for your next ride across the German cross-country asphalt hell with no speed limits, you might find some musical stimuli here.

Nostalgia warning

The rating of the individual tracks is purely subjective and clearly colored by my own experience with the game. You can find out more in the article About Nostalgia.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Goin' Down on It	Hot Action Cop	5
02	Ordinary	The Buzzhorn	4
03	Wall of Shame	Course of Nature	4
04	Bundle of Clang	Matt Ragan	4
05	Brakestand	The Humble Brothers	4
06	Sphere	The Humble Brothers	5
07	Fever for the Flava	Hot Action Cop	4
08	Black Hole	The Humble Brothers	3
09	Cycloid	Rom Di Prisco	4
10	Flam Dance	Matt Ragan	4
11	Keep It Coming	Uncle Kracker	3
12	One Little Victory	Rush	4
13	Cone of Silence	Matt Ragan	3
14	The People That We Love	Bush	5
15	Build Your Cages	Pulse Ultra	4
16	Goin' Down on It [Remix][Bonus]	Hot Action Cop	4
17	Ordinary [Remix][Bonus]	The Buzzhorn	4
18	Wall of Shame [Remix][Bonus]	Course of Nature	3
19	Fever for the Flava [Remix][Bonus]	Hot Action Cop	3
20	One Little Victory [Remix][Bonus]	Rush	3
21	Keep It Coming [Remix][Bonus]	Uncle Kracker	3
22	The People That We Love [Remix][Bonus]	Bush	4
23	Build Your Cages [Remix][Bonus]	Pulse Ultra	3