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Variable Mix: Difference between revisions
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** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' saw the Clock Town theme change depending on what day it is (and, therefore, how close the end of the world is). The first day is upbeat and cheerful, the second day is faster as people begin to realize that the moon is getting bigger. On the third (and final) day, the music is frantic, with a very ominous backing-track.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|Wind Waker]]'' saved the trumpets in the overworld melody for when Link was traveling at full speed. In battles, dramatic flourishes are added as you hit enemies, and in boss fights, different variations of the boss's theme are used (e.g. the Helmaroc King's music gets a bass line once you remove his crown.)
*** The Mini-Boss theme gets a special mention, as it has versions for- sword sheathed (Soft), sword drawn (Hard), near enemy (drums are added), low health (fast), landed attacks (the added chords as per usual), landed ENEMY attacks (pitch lowers while the song speeds up), and even a specific horn roll plays while using the spin attack. All of these layers play independently, immersing the player into the action better than any other song in the game, but unfortunately, these battles typically only last a few minutes tops.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]'' has two [[Boss Battle]] themes, the bleak theme when the boss has an advantage, and the upbeat theme once Link finally gets close to its [[Achilles' Heel]]. Furthermore, in Hyrule Field, if you get on your horse, trumpets and other "epic" instruments are added to the music's arrangement, as well as additional melody phrases. If you stand still for a while, the music will slow down into a soft backing track; running off again will cause it to continue. As the sun sets, the music slows down, and segues into the nighttime music. In the morning, when the sun rises, "morning" music plays and leads back into the theme. Finally, once you reach {{spoiler|Hyrule castle}}, the music starts out as the {{spoiler|Hyrule castle}} theme, but slowly turns into {{spoiler|Ganondorf's}} theme, one instrument at a time, the closer you get to the end, until you reach the end, where the former's theme is completely drowned out by the latter's.
*** Also, in the Sacred Grove, Skull Kid's trumpet is added to the music if you're near him, and there's a variation of the music if those puppet things of his are near you.
*** Also used awesomely in the final boss battle against {{spoiler|Ganondorf}}. When you go into a chance, which is when both you and him have [[Blade Lock|swords locked]] and are [[Button Mashing|trying to push the other down]], the music will change depending on which side is winning, sounding ominous when {{spoiler|Ganondorf}} is winning, and playing the game's main theme when you are winning.
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* ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi]]'' did this with the Alucaneet Palace theme only. The subdued BGM you initially hear is performed by a rather spare number of instruments, but for each musician you rescue in the field, an instrument is added to the orchestra until the palace theme sounds downright energetic.
* Both ''[[Ganbare Goemon|Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon]]'' and ''Goemon's Great Adventure'' utilize this effect in the castle areas, with the music changing to reflect the player's progression.
* ''[[Mushroom Men]]'' has various environmental pieces that make sound effects in time with the background music, such as sparking electrical contraptions and dripping faucets. The "Jackalope" boss also features music that gets more and more intense the more damage has been dealt to the boss.
* In ''[[Okami]]'', going into important and/or busier areas of some maps would add an extra layer of music.
** Most "overworld" musics have two versions. Which one is playing depends on plot point and the time of day, most of the time.
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* ''[[Need for Speed]] III: Hot Pursuit'' did this in spades, and did it VERY well. There were a limited number of courses in the game (the total being nine) and all courses except {{spoiler|Empire City}} shared music with another course. Still, each course had two music tracks: a rock and a techno track, meaning ten pieces of music (outside the menu themes). However, each of these tracks was composed of three second segments that when placed together usually totaled well over 10 minutes of music (and in fact, many of these segments never made it into the official soundtrack). The music flowed absolutely seamlessly, which is a good thing, as the music would change depending on three main factors: Your location on the course (where you were), your rank (in the race) and your speed. There was even a special bit that played when you crashed, as well as one when being chased. Given the fluidity and constant changing circumstances of a vehicular racing game, you can imagine the challenge this must have been for the composer.
** This also applied to some tracks in NFS II but [[Captain Obvious|didn't have the chase segments]]. Examples could include Gore (for the track in the U.S), Corroboree (for the track in the [[Land Down Under]]), Sanquoa (for the track in Canada), and some others while some tracks didn't share this variable mix, such as Halling Ass and Headless Horse for Norway's Proving Grounds (since it was a simple oval track so a variable mix would've been quite unnecessary).
** ''[[Need for Speed]]: Most Wanted'' does this as well, albeit only during the Cop Chases. While it can get a little repetitious sometimes, it's still (arguably) the best music in the game.
== [[Fighting Game]] ==
* In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'', the main tracks of the stages Summit and Yoshi's Island constantly change in tone and tempo to match the current state of stage (Though the Summit music is a single audio track that's merely ''timed'' to match up with the stage's various events; if you're playing in Slow Brawl, for instance, you'll hear the audio desynch from the onscreen events).
* In ''[[Def Jam Series|Def Jam - Fight for New York]]'' used a variant that revolved around the [[Limit Break|Blazin' Moves]]. Most stages in the game have instrumentals of various hip hop songs as their BGM, which cuts out to one of a few slightly more intense, shorter loops whenever someone activates their ability to use a Blazin' move. If the successfully pull the move off, [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] or some other brief, suspenseful leitmotif plays in the background while the attack is being performed, and, if the Blazin' move is used when the opponent's health isn't in the danger zone and is able to continue fighting afterward, the normal music resumes and for about ten seconds afterward the lyrics of the song play before cutting back into a looping instrumental again. A lesser example occurs whenever you use a submission hold, with disk scratching and various generic sound effects thrown in.
* In ''[[Street Fighter X Tekken]]'', the music increases in intensity for each round of a match. In addition, a flange effect coats the music when the player's current character's HP is below 25%.
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* The ''[[Halo]]'' games, particularly the [[Halo 2|second]] and [[Halo 3|third]], use what the composer calls "quantum music". A piece may have an intro, followed by a looping middle section that may have different variations depending on the player's actions, and an outtro, again triggered by the gameplay. The music fades out after a certain time if no dynamic triggers are activated. "Glue" musics consisting of short loops (typically drone ambient) are used to transition between larger pieces.
* ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'': The music is mostly silent, with the occasional drums, but if an alarm goes off or something, it will segue to a [[Battle Theme Music]] piece, ending once the alert is stopped. And during [[Timed Mission|timed missions]], the music intensifies periodically [[Songs in the Key of Panic|as the clock runs down]].
* ''[[Far Cry]] 2's'' battle music had a bad habit of fading in whenever the player fired a shot, regardless of whether or not there were any enemies around.
* In ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' and ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', each stage has a "danger" variation of its music.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'', an FPS taking place in the Spy Sixties, features both sneaking and flat-out shooting elements, and the music rises and falls appropriately if you blow your cover.
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== [[MMORPG|DJHeros]] ==
* ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' has two themes for each area, one for exploration and one for battle. There are around five transition points in each track - once a battle begins or ends the game will wait for the next of these points and cue the transition to the other theme.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the PVP only zone Wintergrasp uses a number of different songs dependent on what's happening in the zone at the time: three or four calm tunes for when battles have died down, and an equal number of high energy war songs when players are vying for the fortress.
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** Gruntilda's Lair alone had at least 11 different themes that would blend seamlessly from one to the next: The base theme music, the underwater music, and one for each world that would play when you approach a world's portrait or entrance, with an arrangement appropriate for that world. Cheato's theme may also count - it's not a variation on the Gruntilda's Lair theme but the music switches from the lair theme to Cheato and back when you approach/walk away from him, with one fading out at the same time the other fades in so that it feels seamless.
** In ''[[Banjo Tooie]]'', there was a glitch where after beating Mr. Patch, sometimes every variation of the Witchyworld theme would play at once until you exited the tent.
** Also done in ''[[
** Basically, Rare (David Wise, Grant Kirkhope, Eveline Fischer, ect.) loved this trope and used it at every opportunity.
* Happens in ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'', albeit not on the fly. The main hub theme has variations depending on whether or not you're near DK Island, near the Kremlings' fortress or in one of the level hubs.
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** ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' reused the tune for [[Lava Lava]] Island, and each area of the map had a different mix of the tune. In fact, lots of areas in the game were like that, but the most dynamic had to be Toad Town, where the different parts of the tune would actually fade in or out as you approached various areas.
*** Toad Town has its own theme song, and certain parts of it have their own themes, which are in the same key as and in sync with the Toad Town theme. When you are near one of these parts, you can hear the special music just a little bit, and when you are ''in'' said part, the special music is all there. The main theme can still be heard faintly, as if it were coming from outside.
** In ''[[Yoshi's Story]]'', the music changes depending on your health. When you're down to your last health point, the music slows to a crawl. When you're invincible, it changes to an electric guitar version of the level theme.
* ''[[Ristar]]'' has a [[Band Land|music-themed level]] in which the objective was to deliver metronomes to birds found throughout the level. For each metronome returned, a portion of the level's background music was replaced with a choral melody.
** The final boss theme isn't a layered track like Planet Sonata, but it aims for this effect in spirit. It's timed so that the slow part lasts almost exactly as long as it takes to wear Kaiser's first phase down, the accelerando takes place during his first black hole attack, and the fast, frantic part goes into full swing when he [[Turns Red]].
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* In the pre-''[[Sonic Adventure|Adventure]]'' ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games, the BGM currently playing would speed up if you got the super shoes (only ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD|Sonic CD]]'' and the Saturn version of ''[[Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island]]'' didn't do this — presumably technical limitations since they were playing direct from audio CD).
** ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' gives us Mystic Mansion with its segmented level theme; different segments play and loop depending on where in the level you are, transitioning at noticeable "checkpoints". You can hear them all in sequence in the [[Sound Test]]. The preceding level (Hang Castle) toys with this as well, albeit differently. Its two themes are interchanged virtually seamlessly as you go from normal castle to upside-down castle and back again.
** In ''[[Sonic Generations]]'', the music would get more intense when boosting in Modern Sonic's stages.
*** This originated in ''[[Sonic Colors]]'', where, upon boosting, the prominent instruments in the BGM would be drowned out a bit, allowing the drum & bass to come center stage. Diving underwater with Sonic in Aquarium Park also creates subtle changes in the music.
*** Reversed in ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' where the drum & base would be drowned out, sometimes completely, when boosting.
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** The "mellow mix" would also trigger if you lost a significant chunk of your population (about 50% or more) in battle, basically the game telling you you're losing.
** Also, there's special music that plays whenever Meteor Storm is used.
* The Westwood/EA RTS games introduced this feature with their SAGE engine-based RTS Games (Emperor and newer). It is especially notable in Red Alert 3, which has tracks that change based on varying levels of intensity of the fighting. This includes substantial and instant music changes for such things as suffering a super weapon strike, where it goes from intense fighting music to very hard, "You're SO about to die!" track.
* Supreme Commander featured this to break up its repeating, low intensity track
* Take [[Up to Eleven]] in the ''[[Pikmin]]'' series, which would subtly change the music depending on what time of day it was, whether or not you were in combat, carrying items back to the ship, or just walking around, and - in the sequel - how deep into a dungeon you were.
** The music for the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Pikmin]] 2'' may be the most complex example on this list. The boss has four weapons that must be removed, and every time you take a weapon off, the music will gain some new element. That means five different versions of the main battle theme. Also, the music will briefly diverge to a different theme whenever a weapon is used, and every weapon has its own theme. In total, there's ''nine'' themes.
** The same game also featured different background music depending on which captain you were currently in control of, with Louie's sounding more silly. When you cleared a level of its treasures, the Pikmin following you would also occasionally sing along with the music.
* ''[[Demigod]]'' plays more frantic music if there is a large-scale battle going on nearby and you are on low health.
* ''[[Dune II]]'', being MIDI-based, is not a pure example of this trope, as it is all distinct background music tracks; however, each of the tracks in the game is less than 3 minutes long and fade out, and all of the tracks segue into one another, allowing them to fade in and out smoothly whenever the tone of combat changes.
* ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' used redbook audio, and made an attempt at this. The first attempt wasn't that good, since it always took the first "battle" music track but this was fixed in a patch. Even after the patch, the transition was sometimes jarring, and was always associated with a 1/2 second delay because of the CD drive switching tracks.
* In ''[[Z (video game)|Z]]'', the music gets more intense as the situation gets more intense.
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