[8] A remix of "Games Without Frontiers" by Massive Attack and Dave Bottrill was included on Gabriel's 1993 single "Steam"; this version later appeared on the Flotsam and Jetsam album in 2019.

[10] Gabriel opted not to publicly reveal that the backing vocals on "Games Without Frontiers" were from Kate Bush until the single was successful.

[11] The song's title refers to Jeux sans frontières, a long-running TV show broadcast in several European countries.

Teams representing a town or city in one of the participating countries would compete in games of skill, often while dressed in bizarre costumes.

[13] Gabriel's 1991 performance of the song from the Netherlands was beamed via satellite to Wembley Arena in England as part of "The Simple Truth" concert for Kurdish refugees.

"[15] The lyrics "Adolf builds a bonfire/Enrico plays with it" echo lines from Evelyn Waugh's V-J Day diary ("Randolph built a bonfire and Auberon fell into it").

[13][17] During the intro, a synth bass and an angular slide guitar figure enter with Kate Bush's vocals, creating a "dark sonic environment" as described by AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey.

[20] Footage from Olympic sporting events were featured along with a series of facial expressions from Gabriel, which were projected on television screens that change in time with the music.

[13] Gabriel observed that the original music video attracted some controversy: The idea of the song was countries behaving like playground kids.

[13]In 2004, the music video was updated to include excerpts from the films Active Site, Spiral and Grid by Israeli artist Michal Rovner.

[20] Visuals from Duck and Cover, a 1951 educational film teaching children how to survive a nuclear attack, are also featured at the end of the music video.

[20] The photo in the single artwork was taken by Hipgnosis and designed by Storm Thorgerson, who utilised a technique developed by Les Krims where images from a Polaroid SX-70 camera are squashed to create various visual effects.

"[22] Mark Beaumont of Louder Sound identified "Games Without Frontiers" as an "ultra-catchy" song pertaining to global tensions.