Needledrop - 'Need For Speed: Underground 2'
One of the GREATEST games of all time, with one of the GREATEST soundtracks of all time. Come at me.
This is my favourite game from the Need for Speed franchise and if you want to contest my opinion then choose your two biggest friends and meet me in 10 minutes down the park for a fight. Amidst the golden era of video game licensing in the 00’s, there were some exceptional soundtrack choices which used music as a huge influencial element in the game.
Looking back at ‘04
First Experience
Needledrop(s)
1. Looking Back at ‘04
Need for Speed: Underground 2 (NFS:U2) is a cornerstone of racing game culture, diving deep into underground street racing with immersive tuner customization and vibrant urban environments. Launched in 2004 by Electronic Arts, the game sold over 11+ million copies, reflecting its massive appeal. Celebrated for blending high-speed racing with extensive car personalization, NFS:U2 captures the essence of early 2000s car culture in their fictional city of Bayview, making it an enduring favorite among enthusiasts and a critical success in the gaming world.
To be honest, it has been so long since I played Need For Speed: Underground 2 (NFS:U2), Most Wanted, or Hot Pursuit…that I’ve actually mostly forgotten the mechanics of the game. I then found a way to play it online and realised that the graphics I remembered were much better when I was playing it when I was younger, rather than now.
I had a similar experience playing the Diablo 2: Resurrection and after pressing the ‘go back to prehistoric graphics’ button I realise how far we had come in those 24 years. This has only been 20… but still! Let’s not forget that games got real expensive after this era so after the 2008 crash and going to university I ended up not owning a new gen console as it was too expensive. I now habitually wait a year or two after releases to buy them when Steam does a sale. I eventually only bought an Xbox 360 with the lowest memory (4gb) because when I was 10 I promised myself that if they ever remastered Perfect Dark I would buy it regardless of the cost. Lo and behold, Microsoft/Rare heard these rumours and knew I was a man of my word, so they clearly did that to get my cash. No wonder their shares went up from $21 in 2010 to $370ish in 2024. I digress.
Back in my hometown, there was a distinction between only 2 genres of identity when you were a teenager. You were either a ‘Mosher’ or a ‘Townie’. That’s it. The parameters of music choices reflected as much of your identity as your choice of tracksuit/New Rocks. There was also absolutely no way you would be a little bit of both - there was no sliding scale, it was an all out war. If you even mentioned ‘Usher’ you were forever banished to one side against your will.
Need For Speed: Underground 2 was a time capsule of early 2000s music culture, perfectly encapsulating the era's tug-of-war between rock and hip-hop/R&B. This game’s soundtrack was a refection of the battleground for chart dominance in the music industry, right there in your living room (or bedroom, no judgement here. IYKYK).
2004 was an interesting year for music, where the chart was very much dominated by RnB/Hip Hop, however it co-existed with artist such as Evanescence, Linkin Park, Green Day and Avril Lavigne. NFS:U2 had a fantastic RnB selection, but also included a spread of alternative/rock tracks, deeper heavier tracks too, and a trickle of derivative late 90s electronica. As you were able to turn tracks on and off, NFS did a good job of letting you customise your driving experience and identity, but leaving your playlisting on stock setting gave you the full experience.
Other heavyweight games with amazing soundtracks, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2, were both in the gaming charts around release of this game, setting a high competitive expectation for how music was perceieved in its importance within gaming.
People today would love to have this game remastered, but unfortunately there are only mods that can give you a close enough experience:
2. First experience
I’ve no idea how I got this game, or when I got this game, I may have borrowed it from a pal? My experience with driving games prior to this was fairly limited so I can’t figure out the initial willingness to play a racing game. I recall playing Ridge Racer on the N64 and successfully hitting every single wall and ending up not completing the game.
It was likely a recommendation. I was growing into music at the time, and knowing it has a great selection of tracks as well as a robust and fully customisable experience made it stand out from a standard racing game. I won’t go into the mechanics of the game, but if you’ve not played it, definitely swing by your nearest CeX and get yourself a slimline ps2 and this game. Or alternatively, join the many fans and sign the petition to get it remastered.
There were 2 types of playlists that exist within this game: One for the menu screens, and one for when you are actually in the car and racing. Within these 2 playlist categories, there were
The Boot-Menu track:
As soon as I booted up the game, I was met with music straight away, into its highly expressionate art style influenced from the urban car culture and the “2 Fast 2 Furious” overlayed with a post-Aero Frutiger interface, which made sense at the time I’m sure. But there was no escape from the music outside of the game as every option had it available. These tracks carried the ‘vibe’ of the aesthetic the game was trying to capture.
Final-Lap track:
Further on into the missions and getting more and more familiar with the racing soundtrack, there were a few stand out tracks to me. There were tracks that were full of energy and feeling that fit some of the tracks and experiences. One of the mechanics in the game was challenging random street racers between missions, and some of them were as difficult as some missions.
Those missions, when you couldn’t afford to buy new car equipment to make your car easier to drive/faster, meant you had to actually race. As I’ve already described - that’s a tall order. There is a function on the game where you can skip/change the track with a button while you’re driving which was essential to make this work. I ended up routinely skipping tracks to find the ones that locked me into flow state in those moments as they genuinely (placebo or not) helped me race better.
3. Needledrop(s)
Before we get stuck in to some of the tracks, here’s the playlist that Need For Speed’s spotify account made, so they recognise it’s an asset:
Now here’s the thing, there are big splits everywhere within the genres of this game. There are 2 types of playlists already that have completely different utilities and feel. Not only are the genre choices so different, but also the application of the music, that it would be impossible for me to ‘rank’ tracks from separate playlists against each other in this way. Nor do I want you to start labelling me as either a Mosher or a Townie. So, because in this space I can do whatever l want, I’ve chosen two. In alphabetical order:
Final Lap choice: Rise Against - Give It All
Right, look at the top comments of this YouTube video that has 38 million plays. Here are some quotes:
“10 years later. Still listen to this and feel like doing 160 mph“ (3.4k likes)
“Me driving my peugeot 206 in NFSU2 doing FWD Drift like a pro“ (3.4k likes)
“When this song goes on and you have full nos, you know you won.“ (1.6k likes)
“When this song is playing, I win every race.“ (757 likes)
I think people know what I’m getting at here. The track in itself finished so strong and is an adrenaline-filled, aggressive rock anthem that quite literally sings about giving your everything to something. That’s the track you need to win the races, and this would be my top choice for the Rock genre as well as the ‘Final Lap’ choice. I’m not alone in recognising how important this song choice was for this setting and how many people unified over its utility. It’s clear that ‘music as a utility’ is a real thing, almost a category in itself. This track stood out as part of the soundtrack because its use case for ensuring that you’re going to win a race is proven by multiple people recognising its use case independently. The triple threat of specific songwriting, aggressive performance and its inclusion in this context worked to both enrich the gaming experience and give an example of how to use the song that the band created for its original intention. Maybe it wasn’t written specifically for this, but the essence is still there.
This song has 151 million plays on Spotify, however it is tough to determine what success NFS:U2 had on this game using public information. You could take a good guess if you lived in a city like Bayview back in 2004 and heard some Peugeot 206’s steam by with homemade offset hood vents blasting this out of their windows. Without that data…we may never know.
Boot-Menu choice: Snoop Dogg feat. The Doors - "Riders on the Storm" (Fredwreck Remix)
This remix of a classic Doors song, featuring Snoop Dogg, was created specifically for NFSU2 and gained considerable attention due to the collaboration between a legendary rock band and a hip-hop icon. For the initial booting-into the game at the main menu, or driving around the city with the most obnoxious-coloured underglow lights on - this was the track. Here’s some top comments too:
“You got to admit early 2000's games had the best music“ (10k likes)
“Early 2000's No microtransactions, No dlc's, no early acces unfinished games, no toxic online players. it was pure joy with a great story and singleplayer campaign“ (4.2k likes)
“NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND 2 Press Enter Key @ 2004 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.“ (2.3k likes)
“This playing the background while you spend a hour customizing cars“ (1.2k likes)
Another running theme - shared appreciation of this track in particular as a stand out. Clearly a fantastic bespoke curation given that its reception and reputation here, and one that people have associated with the feeling that the game was trying to get across. Boasting 52 million plays on Spotify, this track’s streaming income (according to a royalty calculator) would have made the recording owner £178,000. So if the remaster ever got made, I wonder what could happen to that number…
TLDR:
Need For Speed: Underground 2 was an elite racing game that allowed players to customise their car as well as their playlist. There was a playlist for browsing the menu and one for the races. Some of these tracks stood out - Rise Against’s ‘Give It All’ was commonly used by players for intense and action packed races, and Snoop Dogg’s bespoke cover version of ‘Riders On The Storm’ garnered recognition in the shape of nostaliga for the feel of this game. These playlists reflected 2004’s culture - this high-calibre playlist has stood the test of time by helping recognise this game as one of the greats. If you disagree? I WILL see you down the park.