Songs in the Key of Panic: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

See also [[Variable Mix]], [[Critical Annoyance]], [[Theme Music Power-Up]], [[Musical Spoiler]].

*** This music is also used for other things (like if the thing you're standing on is starting to sink into quicksand).

** The music also gets faster when you damage most bosses enough. Naturally, they get harder.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' does it with the drowning music. Said music has been known to scare a surprising number of people.

** Also played if you're nearing the 10-minute time limit, or if you're in a 2-player match in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]] 2'' and the 1-minute time limit that plays when one player finishes the stage is down to 12 seconds.

** Also, ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]]'' does this again in The Doomsday zone, speeding up the music when your rings run low as [[Super Mode|Super/Hyper Sonic]].

* The player has ten minutes to defeat the final boss in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3''. The music becomes louder and more intense as the time limit nears its end.

* A ''[[Metroid]]'' game isn't complete without at least one of these.

* In the level "[[Doctor Strangelove|No Fighting in the War Room]]" in ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]]'', a different version of tracks from previous levels are played out as the time runs out. The very last track before the timer reaches zero is, for example, reminiscent of the intro to "Crew Expendable".

* In ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'', the music intensifies as the timer runs down during [[Timed Mission|timed missions]].

* In the 3D ''Zelda'' games, music will speed up in minigames when time is almost out. Similarly, timed switches in many of the games emit a series of rhythmic clicks or ticks which gradually become faster until the switch deactivates itself.

* In ''[[Battletoads]]''' Rat Race level, the music speeds up as Scuzz gets closer to the bomb.

* In ''[[The Journeyman Project]]'''s Mars Maze, the music creepily slows down and fades to a heartbeat and heavy breathing sounds as your oxygen supply depletes.

* In the ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' ROM hack ''[[A Super Mario Thing]]'', this trope gets taken to a bizarre extreme with 'Puzzle Panic,' a level that immediately starts the player off with 100 seconds remaining (thus triggering the speed-up), and playing an already rather frantic-sounding tune. Whenever the player enters a pipe, the time resets back to the 100 seconds, and speeds the music up '''''even further'''''. The nature of the level's puzzle means that this has to happen multiple times throughout the level, rendering the music a chaotic mess by the time the player reaches the end. Best demonstrated [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRw-eDaXHfw here,] in [[Raocow]]'s original playthrough.

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'''Music speeds up:'''

 

* In ''[[Tetris]]'' NES version, the music speeds up when the stacked blocks are nearing the top of the screen.

** ''[[Columns]]'' does the same thing.

*** ''Tetris DX'''s music has three levels of speed. the type B track has an entirely different second part which can only be heard on the second level of speed.

* An interesting subversion: in ''[[Mother 3]]'', when you are trapped by the Ultimate Chimera, the music doesn't change, but Lucas's ''heartbeat'', which you can hear over the music, goes faster and faster as his situation becomes increasingly dire.

* ''Winback'' does this at 50% health, then again at 25% health.

* As mentioned above, the ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' example doubles as this once the timer hits one minute.

* ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' did this in [[Timed Mission]] or high-alert situations. ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' takes it even further with every stage's track having an alternate "X" version that plays when an alarm is triggered or you are at a mission critical point.

* Many [[Battle Theme Music|boss battle themes]] are [[Boss Remix|sped-up remixes]].

 

'''Different tune is played altogether:'''

* ''[[Wizards and Warriors]]'' has a different, more sinister song that starts playing when you're low on hit points.

* ''[[Anarchy Online]]'' switches between different themes considering how well you are doing in combat.

* In the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series, fitting music plays if you trigger an alert. The first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' deserves special mention, as it provides [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnQRWJ7bIhs one of the more (in)famous examples] of this trope.

* In ''[[Pokémon]] Trozei'', as the screen fills up, dramatic music starts to play.

* In ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'' [[Musical Spoiler|Heavy Lobster's theme]] is pretty much [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdjcBIDIqy4 despair in musical form.]

* In the original MSX version of ''[[Valis]]'', the music turns ominous at low health.

* In the 3D ''Zelda'' games, a dissonant music piece [[Variable Mix|segues in]] when enemies are nearby.

* In ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'', the music switches to a more intense one when enemies arrive, and calms down when enemies are gone. This was dropped in the collector's edition, which played music from the CD (and only changed on victory/loss) instead of synthesizing it.

* When the music starts to change in ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'', you know something big and/or bad is about to happen.

* ''Zok Zok Heroes'', an obscure Japan-only [[Game Boy Color]] RPG, changes to a different battle theme when your hero is at critical HP.

* The game show ''[[The Cube (TV series)|The Cube]]'' switches the music to a more intense track when the player has only one life left.

* In the [[.hack GU Games]], if you stay out in an outdoors area for too long, a Doppleganger will appear on the map. If it notices you nearby, it deliberately invokes [[Nightmare Fuel]] as it slowly and [[Implacable Man|implacably]] walks towards you. The music will change from a generally calm and serene tune into something that can only be described as ''exceptionally scary'' and fear inducing. It also speeds up the closer it gets to you. Activating a Battle Zone in order to engage another monster will not stop it from following in after you.

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* ''[[Battletoads]]'' does it in several levels, including all the levels on a vehicle.

* Seth's stage music in ''[[Street Fighter]] IV'' becomes more urgent as the fight goes on.

* During the final lap in races in ''[[Split Second]]'', the background music will swell and become more tense. The effect is handled nicely as its crescendos happen after a bullet-time show-off of a wreck, which are usually triggered by the player.

* Boss music in ''[[An Untitled Story]]'' speeds up once the boss is down to 1 HP. All its bosses will have [[Turns Red|Turned Red]] by this point.

* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, as you wear the witnesses down in cross-examination, the music becomes more urgent and elaborate. This is actually a separate track on the soundtrack, the 'Allegro' version. In ''Investigations'', a 'Presto' version is heard during the final testimony of any of the antagonists. [[Crowning Music of Awesome|And it is epic.]]

* The [[Think Music]] on the Japanese game show ''[[Time Shock]]'' (hear it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6V5whgQF-Y here]) starts becoming increasingly tense starting at 30 seconds left. Also qualifies as the Hurry Music variant, as the same music is used in the "12 Answers" rounds, where a single contestant has only one question with multiple answers and 60 seconds to rattle off as many of them as they can (up to a maximum of 12).

* In a similar vein, on ''[[Late Night Liars]],'' as your 43 seconds counted down (and, no, that's not a typo), the music sped up, eventually reaching a really frantic pace in the last four seconds or so.

* In ''[[Touhou Project|Perfect Cherry Blossom]]'', once you got to the last phase of the Final Boss fight, a tenser remix of the Final Boss theme would play.

* In [[Wario Land]] Shake It, the music picks up at some hard to judge point in the middle of the third boss battle. Then even later it speeds up again to the point the creepy circus music is going by at mach speed.

[[Category:Score and Music Tropes]]

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]