Video game music has come a long way from the rhythmic bleeps and bloops of vintage arcade stand-ups such as “Asteroids.” Now, with the likes of “Madden NFL 2005” posting record sales (more than 2.4 million copies sold in the three months following its release), the video game soundtrack has become yet another arm in the marketing machinery of every major record label. This album collects some of the year’s best background music, including plenty of duds (New Found Glory’s perfectly titled “This Disaster,” from Madden 2005), while proving that the best tunes for gaming are still adrenaline-pumping button-mashers like David Banner’s “Crank It Up” (“Fight Night”) and Andrew W.K.’s “Tear It Up” (“Nascar Thunder 2004”). Mystikal’s “Smashing the Gas (Get Faster)” (“Need for Speed Underground”) also succeeds by not taking itself seriously. The rapper barely holds back his exuberance as his flow grinds and pops like a car searching out a higher gear — perfect, it turns out, for taking that hairpin turn at 130 miles an hour.
