The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 had a massive impact on my taste in music.

I just wanna skate skate skate skate skate skate
Bladers gonna hate hate hate hate hate hate
Skate it off, skate it off

Thanks i hate it

The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 had a massive impact on my taste in music.

Need for Speed was that series for me. Pendulum, Justice, The Qemists, Junkie XL, Hyper, Madeon, Feed Me, Nine Inch Nails, Celldweller, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Noisia, Haezer... Man NFS had some killer soundtracks.

This but WipEout
Riders on the Storm. But afair it was Snoop Dogg who made the Version for NFS.
Vice City for me.

So here I am.

Doing everything I can.

Holding on to what I am,

Pretending I'm a super man!

You are in my brain

What's so great about Taylor Swift? Everyone talks about how "great" Taylor Swift is. Taylor Swift isn't so great. She never got her picture on a bubble gum card. Have you ever seen her picture on a bubble gum card? Hmmm? How can you say someone is great who's never had their picture on a bubble gum card?

if I die before i wake..... at least in heaven i can skate.....

My brother's friend died young when we were in school, and definitely played Tony Hawk.
My brother bought him this song for the funeral. Not sure if the parents appreciated/understood it, but it was a nice thing nonetheless.
'Cause right now on Earth I can't do jack... Without the man up on my back

It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime
What better place than here, what better time than now?
All hell can't stop us now!

SKATE 2 had a totally banging soundtrack. No Swift. She has a terrible reach into the skate game history books.

I remember hearing WAR and The Clash while playing the demo - totally sold it for me

I still play Tony hawk soundtracks on Spotify in my car

Need for speed underground was the first game for me that made my head bop.

S-tier soundtrack on THPS2, hard agree OP

I still listen to the THUG soundtrack, shifting away from the NOFX/QOTS/Bad Religion/Social Distortion bands I was into when I played as a teen, towards other songs I overlooked:

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device
- Literally written during and about the Troubeles in N Ireland, fantastic punk/protest song.
- https://www.50thirdand3rd.com/stiff-little-fingers-suspect-device/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on6DxBgfsDY
Smoke Blow - Circle of Fear
- My first foray into Kraut Rock. This whole German Angst album is pretty good.
- https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=6ruaKlr3Pms
Mastodon - Crusher Destroyer
- Not their greatest song, but it defintely opened me up to their rest of their stuff.
- https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4-5WSkJDg (this song gets good for exactly 30 seconds at the 1:00 mark)
Assorted Jelly Beans - Rebel Yell
- This song used to irritate the hell out of me when I first heard it. Babyish, lazy, unfocused?
- https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iPRkURH8pCk
- As I got older, I started to appreciate the creativity and the many mood shifts within it. I count at least 5 distinct shifts. It's a patchwork of several different songs squashed together brilliantly.
- Plus, try to match the tempo of the singer when he sings at 0:37: The spotlight's shining, heard you had something to say
  The hourglass is pouring, your boring crowd fades away It's harder than it sounds

If Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was so good, why didn't it feature any Taylor Swift music?

(massive /j I like both)

Fully, a MASSIVE amount of what I'm into now came from Tony Hawk games and [adult swim] and the trajectory that put me on. [adult swim] was for sure the MTV of my generation.

By the time I was watching MTV, it was still some TRL and music vids, but also a big dose of Room Raiders, etc... And it eventually fell out of fashion. [AS] definitely had their finger on the pulse of what the cool cats were to tho. Such a hip scene. I still vividly recall a bump for Boondocks featuring Flying Lotus' song Massage Situation that felt mind blowing.

Weird to think where I'd be without either.

This is why I am fucking terrified of Gen Alpha raised on Elsagate-style youtube shorts.
Wonder what the media trajectory of growing up watching your beloved cartoon friends unexpectedly mutilated as their chubby little baby fingers scroll into the weird part of youtube
We are gonna get some uniquely fucked up people in the next two decades.

How about need for speed most wanted 2005

Excellent point.

starts listening the bomb rush cyberfunk ost and wonders what it would be like to switch the soundtrack for both games

Someone please make a custom ROM of THPS2, but with all the songs changed to be AI-powered covers of the soundtrack by Taylor Swift.

Noooooo
Yeah. AI covers!
Edit. I completely missed that you said ai powered, lol. Fistbump

Same, dude. THPS2 was massively influential for my generation.

Never been a skater myself after having had a neck injury in third grade, when I first tried it. But the music stuck.

If it's not in Vice City, I don't want to hear it.

"Hate" is a strong word, but I really, really, really don't like you.
Hold The Line brother!

You make a fantastic point

Wip3out did this to me

If I told AI to make a pop album Taylor Swift's music is what it would compose

He would probably rock a mean parody
- Thank you for reminding me. I am about to release the first Al powered AI bot. It only responds in comedic polkas.

Trouble feels like a good song to rack up a massive combo line.

I know its a good song to rack up lines of coke to.

I know some of us don't consider later seasons canon, but imagine hearing that from a little girl who hung out with Billie Eilish.

it's not even on Spotify

(I haven't been following for updates I just remember the headlines when she pulled it)

Is the same way, but with the Pikmin series

Who?

Pretty sure she was not born yet when the first one came out

She's 34 and the first Pro Skater came out in 1999
- Oh yeah, I remember all her albums from when she was 10 :D
She was born, but that's the joke that she's too young to even have had a chance.
- She could have been in the 1+2 remake.
- Errrm, I'm pretty sure her age, while being a huge factor, isn't the only thing that prevented that happening. She's not exactly on a similar vibe as Anthrax or Millencolin.
  I mean, neither Britney Spears nor Christina Aguilera made the cut iirc, despite their popularity in the same era.
- I'm feeling pretty old these days. Wouldn't have surprised me if she was born 2 years after

being in a video game doesn't mean the music is good....

Bruh, seriously? Have you even heard the Tetris theme played in all its glory on a motherboard internal speaker? That shit slaps.
- I learned how to play Tetris on bass. It annoys the hell out of everyone when I play it. I love it.
- lol kind of what i was getting at... for any devs in here, the surest way to make someone despise what you consider to be "good music" even more than they already do is to FORCE them to listen to it. saying that because i'm doing another playthrough of death stranding.
  oh, the choices are listen to your fucking terrible music, or have no audio at all? guess i'm playing as a deaf person then.
  i would never try to impose the music i like on someone else. wtf even is that?