Activision
True Crime: New York City

I spent my childhood trying to figure out the fate of the little man in Defender once you had freed him from alien abduction and whether this game made any damn sense or had an end.

I have dismantled, armed with deep delinquency, hundreds of tibias in Sensible Soccer, but as an adult, the idea of finding myself masturbating a joystick saddened me a bit.

By inertia, there’s always a Playstation at home, and on two occasions, ten years ago, I fell for it. Only two games entered that console. The first was The Sims 2: a journey into the core of de-evolution.

And, not surprisingly, those tunes, a bit Muzak, a bit TSO, are by Mothersbaugh of Devo.

The other game was True Crime: New York City, a title that never received the proper recognition, mercilessly outclassed by the various GTAs.

It’s the story of a ghetto cop who was first a criminal and then turns, but not entirely, in the sense that if you want, you can make him a pimp-dressed cop extorting money from the Chinese guy at the supermarket. It’s up to you to decide whether to have him complete the mission or put him on a truck and launch him at a hundred an hour on a crowded sidewalk. I confess that after the tragic event in Nice, I often wondered if the author of that act had been trained with one of those 18+ games and not in some training camp. The game takes place in GPS-reconstructed Manhattan, and sometimes I would take poor Marcus (the protagonist) near the Statue of Liberty to make him die a suicidal death in the sea. Sometimes I would put him on a car to make him tour all of Manhattan with the radio on. Because if there’s one thing that made this gaming experience unforgettable, it’s the tracklist of True Crime: old school rap and masterpieces from CBGB, new rap shoots, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and, here too, a bit of elevator and kmart Muzak.

And here’s the list. If you know of a game that has a better one, let me know, because I’m still in time to continue calling myself an idiot in front of a video game.

Bad Brains - "I Against I"
Bob Dylan - "Knockin' On Heaven’s Door"
Danzig - "Mother"
The Ramones - "Beat on The Brat"
Interpol - "Slow hands"
Wu-Tang Clan - "Protect Ya Neck"
Jungle Brothers - "Straight Out The Jungle"
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - "New York New York"
Hatebreed - "Another Day, Another Vendetta"
Misfits - "Last Caress"
Blondie - "Hangin by the Telephone"
Sonic Youth - "Kool Thing"
Suicide - "Ghostrider"
Iggy & The Stooges - "Search and Destroy"
New York Dolls - "Subway Train"
Blue Oyster Cult - "Don't Fear the Reaper"
Bobby Womack - "Across 110th Street"
Television - "See No Evil"
Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Force - "Planet Rock"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
The Velvet Underground - "I'm Waiting For the Man"
Richard Hell And The Voidoids - "Blank Generation"
The Walkmen - "The Rat"
Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks"
Black Sheep - "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)"
De La Soul - "Thru Ya City"
Gorilla Biscuits - "New Direction"
Eric B & Rakim - "Paid in Full"
Sam Scarfo - "Homicide"
Marley Marl - "The Symphony"
My Chemical Romance - "I Never Told You What I Did For A Living"
Mobb Deep - "Shook Ones Pt. II"
Quicksand - "East 3rd Street"
Vordul Mega - "Neva Again"
Black Moon - "Who Got The Props?"
Jeru the Damaja - "D. Original"
Leaders Of The New School - "Case of the P.T.A."
LL Cool J - "I Can’t Live With Out My Radio"
Sick of It All - "Potential For A Fall"
The A.K.A.'s - "Shout Out Loud"
We Are Scientists - "Callbacks"
Redman - "Rush the Security"
Cam'Ron featuring Jay-Z - "Welcome to NYC"
Run D.M.C. - "Sucker MC's"
Kool Moe Dee - "Wild Wild West"
The Sugarhill Gang - "Rapper's Delight"
Public Enemy - "Bring The Noise (Chuck D Mix)"
DMX - "Where The Hood At"
Busta Rhymes - "Put Your Hands Where my Eyes Can See"
Agnostic Front - "Police State"
Digable Planets - "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like dat)"
Murphy's Law - "Crucial Bar-B-Que"
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - "Black Tongue"
Harley's War - "Criminal (4 Life)"
Skarhead - "New York Crime"
Dope - "The Life"
Kool G Rap and DJ Polo - "Streets of New York"
Biz Markie - "I'm The Biz"
Big Daddy Kane - "Ain't No Half Steppin'"
24-7 Spyz - "Yeah X 3"
The Bravery - "Honest Mistake"
Bloodsimple - "Blood In Blood Out"
Biohazard - "Shades of Grey"
Gang Starr - "Full Clip"
Big Punisher - "Twinz (Deep Cover)"
Vision of Disorder - "Imprint"
Mandrill - "Echoes In My Mind"
Helmet - "Unsung"
The Rapture - "The Killing"
Black Star - "Definition"
NaS - "N.Y. State Of Mind"
Slick Rick - "Children's Story"
Youth Of Today - "Break Down The Walls"
Cramps - "Wrong Way Ticket"
The Casualties - "Sounds from the streets (Death Toll)"
White Zombie - "Thunder Kiss 65"
Unsane - "D train"
A Tribe Called Quest - "Scenario"
Mark Ronson - "Bout To Get Ugly"
X-ecutioners - "Let Me Rock"
Black Rob - "Woah!"
Madball - "Pride (Times are Changing)"