Hotline Miami And The Rise Of Techno In UltraViolent Video Games

At the start of the Miami Hotline, he found some helpful tips. "Recklessness pays." Who knows how true this will be. A 2012 video game set in 1989 Miami follows an unnamed protagonist who first receives coded messages to initiate a killing spree and then requests. In the first chapter, an innocuous last-minute voice prompt to replace the nanny is actually an order to stab 6 mobsters in the apartment, and you don't know it until you're inside, covered in blood. knife in hand The game is ultra-violent and unforgiving, and frustratingly difficult for many players. It is also considered one of the most influential video games of the last decade.

Perhaps the best part of Hotline Miami is the haunting music that plays as you are thrown into the various murders. The soundtrack has nearly 15 million views on YouTube alone, and the overall fan sentiment is best summed up by the comment above: "It's great that this soundtrack comes with the game for free." Denaton game developers Jonathan Seiderstrom and Dennis Wedin knew from the start that an elaborate soundtrack was important to Hotline Miami . “It was very important that the music and the gameplay itself were not too video game-inspired because a lot of the inspiration came from movies,” Wedin explained via Zoom from his home in Sweden. Drawing heavily from the 2011 film Drive , they put a lot of emphasis on contrast: modern techno and retro graphics, beautiful animal masks and aggressive killing methods, bright neon colors and maroon blood.

Everything is intense, but that intensity is what makes it fun, especially when it comes to the soundtrack. The set list includes bass-heavy techno, hazy haze and experimental electronic music from Sun Ara, Coconuts and some as yet unknown Bandcamp artists. Even Drive's synth waves helped enliven the surface of Miami's Hotline through breaks and dialogue scenes. Söderström and Wedin spent weeks searching for the perfect music and listened to a total of "about 2,000 songs" before finding the right one. "In a way, we made a big mixtape," says Söderström.

The game's favorite tracks are taken from MOON, Steven Gillard's project "Portugal Through Massachusetts". He was just 16 years old when Söderström and Wedin came upon his first self-titled EP and offered him $400 per song. Being a high school student with an EP to his name and no promotion, it was amazing. "It's a strange feeling that the first thing I do is a cult classic," says Gillard Jumme. "It changed my whole life." A year ago, he was hospitalized for clinical depression and dropped out of school twice. “Then I was very angry with myself, angry with the world, angry with my village. Normal teenagers were in the thousands and had no real shelter." So he got into techno. Though there are no lyrics, all four songs — "Paris," "Crystals," "Hydrogen" and "Release" — are jangling, rumbling sounds. From basses to fierce hi-hat tones and stuttering synths.

This underlying concern makes MUN's songs perfect for Hotline Miami . Primarily created in Ableton, playing with presets and layer loops, his work focuses on dissonant melodic intervals and heavy BPM basses that raise the player's heart rate, an important part of the soundtrack's performance. A song like "Hydrogen" helps players focus while heightening their anxiety and fueling a desire for revenge. The overt repetition of loud techno helps take your mind off the uncomfortable feeling of trying to hit someone in the skull with a baseball bat or a machine gun before attacking. The Hotline Miami soundtrack doesn't just sound great; It's a pretty upside-down aesthetic mindset that intentionally helps players immerse themselves in the problems around them.

"Instead of engaging you cognitively, technology is actually trying to, as one neuroscientist puts it, free you from the 'rules of reality' and let your mind wander elsewhere without worrying about getting lost." Professor Berkeley and Music explained. Psychologist Dr. Susan Rogers. Combined with the game, the musical effect becomes a delicate balance of repetition, cross-modality and synthesis as a unique neural reward of the imagination that encourages players to stop in a playful way. "In the case of electronic music, it doesn't require cognitive effort," he continues. "You don't have to think about it to enjoy it."

Contributing to the indie gaming boom of the 2010s, Hotline Miami helped buck the trend of pairing adrenaline-pumping electronic music with fast-paced combat, vibrant color schemes and stylish kills. In recent years, this combo has been seen in games like 2022's Rollerdrome or 2019's Project Downfall . Maybe it's because they already have a deal with Hotline Miami , but video game publisher Developer Digital is eyeing a high-octane game with that kind of momentum. Ruiner is a brutal 2017 cyberpunk shooter set in the future, while Katana Zero is a 2019 neo-noir about an assassin who must kill enemies and change time to avoid attacks. Both games have icy techno soundtracks recorded on vinyl. Then there's My Friend Pedro , a creative 2019 side-scroller that went viral with its signature GIF feature. This game's ominous score looks like Trent Reznor threw a blade party.

"All of these games evoked strong emotions, whether it was laughter, excitement, or just incoherent screaming," recalled Developer's Robbie Patterson. The cross-model experience that comes with all these games rewards sensory overload—bright colors, fast movement, loud music that keeps you on your toes while you focus—giving relentless games a unique excitement. Patterson further narrows the circle. "In general, if a game comes along that looks weird and is fun to play, we're interested."

Anyone who has worked with Joystick knows that combining violence with techno is nothing new. In 1992, Mortal Kombat set the tone by literally ripping your opponent's spine, and the game's legendary theme song "Techno Syndrome" is not called "Mortal Kombat" despite the title screaming that their electronic opponents are free. . The song became the soundtrack to Pepsi's Sega Genesis marathons in basements across the country, causing such consternation among parents that Congress held its first hearings on video game violence.

If violent games are a way to engage in taboo activities like fighting without hurting others, it's their soundtracks that keep players hooked. Video game researcher and clinical psychologist Dr. Anthony Bean, the music acts as a bait that keeps the players going. Immersive and electronic music, especially faster BPM subgenres like techno, are particularly good at this. "This music is supposed to induce trance, and if we're stimulated visually, tactilely and aurally while playing, you have three of the five [senses] here," he explains. "This symbiotic relationship prepares us to get back into the game if we lose."

In other words, Mortal Kombat killed so Hotline could kill Miami . But what separates Hotline Miami from violent games of the past is how great it looks and feels year after year. When Söderström and Wedin designed it, they set one in the past and the other in the future, a decision that made the game incredibly repetitive. What's more, no game that follows his bloodline has surpassed him.