Creative Closing Credits
"The end credits for Pixar films are more entertaining than half the films I see."
Closing Credits usually consist of a black screen and white text. The names of the cast and crew scroll slowly up the screen, while some sort of music plays. After the Crowning Moments of Funny, Heartwarming, Tear Jerker, or Awesome, they're pretty anti-climatic. Most people leave once the credits start, because hey-- Closing Credits are boring.
But they don't have to be! Sometimes, the producers shell out a bit of extra coin and the result is closing credits with awesome music, awesome graphics, and an awesome concept. These credits exist to entertain the audience even after the film is over, so they'll stick around—and the cast and crew will finally get some of the recognition they deserve.
Or they would, if the audience weren't distracted by the totally awesome credits.
Some of these are in the form of a Where Are They Now? Epilogue or Hilarious Outtakes, but most are simply interesting takes on the credits sequence. See also Credits Montage, Mini Game Credits, Finale Credits. Compare Credits Gag (a joke within the credits), The Stinger. Contrast Artistic Title.
If you have further interest on the subject, Forget the Film, Watch the Titles and The Art of the Title Sequence are entire sites devoted to showcasing creative closing and opening titles (with accompanying Word of God and videos).
Anime
- End of Evangelion has the ending credits in the middle, between the two "episodes" that make up the movie. This was done so the ending could cut to black. The credits also spiral up the screen while spinning.
- The final episode of the OVA series El Hazard the Magnificent World ends with a series of pastel drawings under the credits, which show selected bits of "what happens after".
Film -- Animation
- Every Pixar movie save the first Toy Story had unusual ending credits:
- Hilarious Outtakes appear in Toy Story 2, A Bugs Life, and Monsters, Inc. Monsters, Inc. also features a company play based on a throwaway line from earlier. Monsters Inc.'s opening credits has a 2D effect of monsters wandering through all the doors like they were Scooby-Dooby Doors.
- During the credits of Cars, the cast goes to the movies (drive-in, of course) and we see clips of vehicle versions of previous Pixar movies. For bonus points, Mack (voiced by John Ratzenberger) raves about certain characters before realizing they're all voiced by the same guy.
- Finding Nemo's credits featured the characters swimming through and around the credits (including Mike from Monsters, Inc.)
- The Incredibles had a very stylistic montage recapping the film during its credits, evoking the work of master movie title designer Saul Bass (it's actually a spiffed-up version of the film's early storyboards; originally it was all going to be animated in this style).
- Ratatouille used stylised hand-drawn animation, similar to The Incredibles for its end credits.
- Which makes sense, since both The Incredibles and Ratatouille were from the creative film genius Brad Bird. He likes to make sure the audience is never bored, and comes up with some really dazzling stuff.
- The end credits of WALL-E, which is pretty much a mini-movie (and rough history of Western Art) after the movie is over, depicting the renewal of Earth. It even has its own Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, with the boot.
- Also serves to make clear that humans survive the recolonization of Earth; some test audiences were concerned that one sprout wasn't enough to prove that they wouldn't die out. (The closing shot of the field of plants right before the credits was likewise added for that reason.)
- Up has the credits in the form of Ellie's scrapbook that's been added to by Carl and Russell.
- Toy Story 3 has a kind of Where Are They Now? Epilogue montage during the credits. Suffice it to say that the story simply doesn't end when the credits begin.
- Even some non-Pixar Disney films have some. Brother Bear has clips of Kenai, Koda, and even Rutt and Tuke, which is followed by Phil Collins singing Take a Look Through My Eyes and No Way Out (extended version), and then the hilarious Koda proclaiming that no fish were harmed in the making, which is quickly followed by a bear running across the screen, chasing a fish yelling "HE"S GONNA EAT ME!". After Koda covers the screen, the sound of a bear swallowing can be heard. Cue end logos.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which works as a kind of epilogue to the film, has a 2D animated epilogue that includes Shout Outs, Mythology Gags, and lots and lots of rainbows.
- The Simpsons Movie includes gags of the family sitting in the theater watching the credits for their own movie.
Bart: Come on, dad, let's go! I've been holding it in since they put the dome on the town!
Homer: A lot of people worked hard on this movie, and all they ask of you is to memorize their names.
- It would've included Comic Book Guy's scathing critique of the film, but it was rejected in previews.
- The end credits for Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit feature absolutely hilarious flying bunnies. Crossing over with Credits Gag, at the very end, the line "No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture" comes up. The last rabbit rises until he bumps his head on that line and falls squealing off the screen.
- Kung Fu Panda has cool and funny credit s at the beginning, then some pictures showing bits of the life of the protagonists after the film, some kinda heartwarming (namely, Shifu and Po's father playing Chinese Chess—Shifu's losing! -- or Tigress making her own comical impersonation of Shifu).
- Credits of Kung Fu Panda 2 show Po's adventure in the radish basket.
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa had 3D paper cut-outs of the characters.
- Bolt had a children's book-looking epilogue pictures that showed Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino living happily with Penny on a farm.
- Coraline had the real angel and Other demonic Scotties flying around the credits, playing with the jumping mice's ball.
- The Princess and the Frog had stylised credits similar in tone to later Pixar movies, depicting places from the movie and Tiana and Naveen doing romantic things together (in both amphibian and human form).
- Nine had the credits floating up out of the open Talisman.
- The credits of How to Train Your Dragon roll on yellowish parchment and are accompanied by concept art that also served to inspire the illustrations in the Dragon Manual.
- Despicable Me has two minions trying to reach towards the screen and play with the effects of 3D while another minion referees.
- Cats Don't Dance shows a series of posters for historical and recent blockbuster movies, in which the Real-Life actors' images are supplanted by the film's own animal stars.
- Don Bluth is fond of this. All Dogs Go to Heaven has a continuously moving background of painted clouds, Rock-a-Doodle has a colorful, abstract background consisting of huge music notes scrolling up, The Secret of NIMH frames the credits with delicious illustrations, etc. The Land Before Time showcases the lush Great Valley
- Tangled has stylized credits of various scenes from Rapunzel and Flynn's adventure. They were animated by Shiyoon Kim, and you can check out a few pictures of them here.
- Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole has the film's events as a pretty shadow puppet show.
- The ending credits of Steamboy taking the form of a Where Are They Now? Epilogue.
- Shrek 4 had a Dance Party Ending followed by a "collage" of characters from the first three films (minus Artie); the rest of the credits were on Rumple's fancy parchment paper, with inverted versions of the first film's credit illustrations.
- The Tigger Movie ends by showing different scenes re-drawn in a style resembling that of EH Shepard, the illustrator of the original Winnie the Pooh books.
- The 2011 Winnie the Pooh has a closing sequence which starts with stuffed animals arranged in re-enactments of the movie's scenes, then proceeds with the animated characters interacting with the credits themselves.
- Or getting Squashed Flat by the credits, in the case of Rabbit.
Film -- Live Action
- Secondhand Lions, in a bookend style.
- Last Holiday did the kind of epilogue ending, where it tells you what happened to everybody.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban did its credits in the style of the Marauder's Map.
- Goblet of Fire had the credits as smoldering bits of paper coming out of the title goblet.
- Half-Blood Prince has swirling black ink drops in amber liquid. (reproducing how wizards apparate, the effects added to the Pensieve, and such)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events featured very stylish animated scenes of the Baudelaire children escaping from Count Olaf.
- Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey: We learn the rest of the story during the credits, in a Where Are They Now? Epilogue.
- The Boondock Saints: They show "Real Life" Man On The Street interviews about the eponymous Saints during the end credits.
- The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ended with brilliant artwork of all the characters (actually photos morphed with hand-drawn art), scenery, and anything else the artists managed to make into wonderful sketches.
- Peter Jackson used credits on black for the first two films because he wanted to save the special credits for the real ending.
- The Cannonball Run pretty well started the Hilarious Outtakes form of credits sequence, and most Burt Reynolds movies had outtakes playing over the end credits.
- Jackie Chan borrowed that after he was in The Cannonball Run, so lots of his movies have outtake credits as well.
- The 1956 version of Around the World in Eighty Days has an animated recap of the entire movie.
- Spice World has a scene of the various actors complaining about their roles under the credits.
The Nostalgia Chick: "We know the movie was Spice Crap! We did that on purpose!"
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer has all sorts of short vignettes during the credits.
- In Deathstalker 2, the end credits include Hilarious Outtakes.
- At the end of Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, the Count wanted to count all the people who worked on the movie.("That is 267 incredible, colossal credits! HAHAHAHAAA! I LOVE MOTION PICTURES!!!! HAHAHAHAAAA!!!")
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie has Mike and the bots go back into the theater to riff on their own credits.
Crow: "'Puppet wranglers'? There weren't any puppets in this movie!"
- The Dance Party Ending during the end credits of Slumdog Millionaire.
- Hot Shots have sufficiently long credits, over a montage of many of the visual gags in the film. The credits also contain trivia, recipes, and end with "If you had left the theatre when these credits started, you'd be home by now."
- While it pales in comparison to most of these examples, Se7en had odd credits that scrolled down (this was to add to the already horrific ending) and if I recall correctly looked as though they were written with a faulty typewriter and then had the color poorly inverted.
- Drumline had twisting, curving credits along with diagrams from the drummers' manual.
- Shoot Em Up had some extremely stylized credits - for example, a drop of blood color-shifts into a drop of milk, which becomes Monica Bellucci's character's breasts.
- Three Hundred had stylized credits that evoked scenes from the movie.
- The Mummy Trilogy:
- The Mummy 1999 and The Mummy Returns: the is pulled down CGI passage ways while hieroglyphics morph around and into the credits.
- The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor had stylized credits that looked like a cross between Three Hundred and Kung Fu Panda.
- Alice in Wonderland had a very pretty scene for the cast list and Avril Lavigne's song that showed the clouds shifting, mushrooms growing (and glowing) and the bare Goth Spirals branches blooming to show that Underland is healing after the Red Queen's defeat. In the 3D version, this is windowboxed, with the growing fauna spilling out onto the blank areas of the screen, giving the impression that the screen is a window to Underland. Can be seen here.
- Moulin Rouge's credits appeared to be projected from a roll of film/paper that at one point is taped together.
- Kill Bill Vol. 2s credits aren't all that unusual, it's just that there's so many of them: the opening credits, the end credits that show clips of everyone with a speaking part from both films, the crossing out of the Death List Five except Elle, who gets a ?, plus the credits from the first film.
- The Dawn of the Dead remake's end credits starts with clips from the rich jerkass's video camera (which appears to be a parody of Paris Hilton's infamous sex tape), then shows the survivors landing on an isolated island.
- Closing credits of Married To The Mob show various (non-hilarious) outtakes.
- West Side Story had most of the credits as graffiti—I'm talking about almost Room Full of Crazy-levels of writing on walls, doors, dusty windows, and street signs. These literal Walls of Text were arranged by Title Sequence master Saul Bass.
- Shallow Hal and Stuck On You (both by the Farrelly Bros.) had short video clips of every single person who worked on the film.
- Both Never Been Kissed and I Love You, Beth Cooper featured high school-era photos of the stars, director, writers, producers and other crew members. Which in the case of the latter made for an amusing contrast between Hayden Panettiere and Paul Rust.
- The credits for Enchanted featured animated silhouettes with a "woodblock printed paper" background.
- Dreamgirls not only had clips from the movie but sketches of the costumes and sets for their respective credits.
- The first Austin Powers continued the groovin' '60s vibe with a "Blow-Up"-style photo shoot with Austin and Vanessa, and then a full musical number with Austin's band featuring Matthew Sweet and Suzanna Hoffs.
- The second one plays various scenes during the credits.
- The 1968 mess of a counterculture comedy Skidoo has all the closing credits sung by Harry Nilsson ("Copyright M-C-M-L-X-V-I-I-I by Sigma Productions Incorporated - your receipt's on fire...").
- The closing credits of Lethal Weapon 4 show a pin board holding photos from all previous movies, including mostly behind the scenes photos, with "Why Can't We Be Friends" playing in the background, giving the whole series a warm, family like, closure.
- Sherlock Holmes: The end credits feature fantastic illustrations of scenes from the movie mixed with the clips themselves. Art of the Title did an interview with Danny Yount about the sequence here.
- School of Rock has the end credits roll over the closing scene of the kids playing ACDC. Halfway into the song Jack Black suddenly begins singing about the credits, and pointing to random names in the credits and saying things like, "I don't know that guy."
- "Movie's almost over! But we're still onscreen! Everybody's rockin', yeah we came from Horace Green!"
- The closing credits of Repo Man scroll downwards across the screen, not upwards, in a possible Shout-Out to Se7en.
- More likely to be the other way around, as Repo Man (not to be confused with Repo Men) came out in 1984, eleven years before Se7en.
- Bird On a Wire (1990) and Sticky Fingers (1988) have the credits scrolling down as well, but the latter also has them tilting left and right as they scroll before finally tipping over and falling out of frame at the end!
- More likely to be the other way around, as Repo Man (not to be confused with Repo Men) came out in 1984, eleven years before Se7en.
- Interspersed within the credits of Wild Things are a series of short scenes that tie the rest of the movie together, including a final one that ties Bill Murray's character with Neve Campbell's.
- Big Money Hustlas has the closing credits play over a gunfight that happens in a funeral, with unexpected revivals on people who died! Big Money Rustlas has a similar ending, this time set in a saloon.
- The entire end credits sequence for Tapeheads is a Call Back to the first video the main characters did (a commercial for Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles) with Roscoe rapping about what happened to the boys, and how his chain has grown, among other things.
- Some consider the ending credits for Robin Hood (2010 film) (with Russell Crowe) the best part of the entire film—not because the film was terrible, but because the credits are so awesome.
- An apparent tradition in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although some movies (not listed here) have Creative Opening Credits instead:
- Iron Man smash-cuts to the credits right after Tony Stark says "I am Iron Man." The end credits song, is, of course, "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath. It plays while the credits zoom in and out of blueprint-style graphics showing the schematics for the Iron Man armor and other devices from the film.
- Thor has end credits set in an otherworldly cosmos.
- The end credits for Captain America the First Avenger is set against various 1940s propaganda posters, befitting the tone of the movie.
- The Avengers has its credits set against various icons and gear associated with each Avenger (Captain America (comics)'s shield and uniform, the Iron Man armor, Thor's hammer, etc.).
- The Matrix series had the credits appearing from a line of Matrix code running horizontally across the screen, leaving the credit line(s).
- The Doom movie had the credits in the same vein as it's first-person segment, complete with the names getting shot and killed. The only names to not get shot are those of the actors that played characters that survive, or of the backstage staff. The Rock gets particularly shot up, as he's the film's equivalent of a Final Boss
- Tropic Thunder, alternates between Tom Cruise in a fat suit dancing to rap with scenes from the movie which get stylized "splash pages" for actors and the such.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader recaps the film using the original book illustrations by Pauline Baynes.
- Superman III and Supergirl had most of their closing credits coming towards the camera in a staircase manner.
- Short Circuit finishes with a recap of the entire story (including a few deleted scenes that don't appear in the movie proper).
- The end credits for Young Sherlock Holmes are accompanied by a sleigh-ride across snowy countryside supposedly carrying Holmes after he's taken his (temporary) leave of Watson but which, at the very end, proves to have been taken by Sherlock's thought-to-be-dead archenemy Rathe, alias Moriarty.
- The German comedy Men... has the end credits rolling in front of parallel elevators on which the cast and crew are riding, coming into shot with their credit and moving up or down.
- The end credits of Snake Eyes roll over a busy construction site, presumably the site of a new casino to replace the one that was destroyed at the climax of the film. The camera closes in further and further until it focuses on one construction worker leaning against a pillar. Once he leaves, it turns out his hand was blocking a red jewel embedded in the concrete. The jewel was part of a ring that belonged to minor character Serena, who had been killed by Big Bad Kevin Dunne, then thrown into a cement mixer.
- Horror comedy Waxwork II Lost in Time has the credits roll over a music video for the rap title theme tune "Lost In Time". As well as displaying clips from the movie and behind the scenes moments, the video also features the cast dancing around in the various sets used throughout the film.
- Knocked Up's end credits featured baby pictures of the cast and crew.
- Going hand-in-hand with the film's ending, the first part of the end credits for Rise of the Planet of the Apes roll over an animation of international patterns spreading the ALZ-113 virus across the globe.
- The Raven's end credits are rather creative, with a sort of raven made of blades.
- The Fourth Kind's end credits are accompanied not by music but by (supposedly) real phone calls made by people who've encountered aliens, with the time and date of each call appearing on screen.
- Alongside the end credits for Honey we see the first major music video to be choreographed (in-universe) by the title character, Blaque's "I'm Good." It is also the first music video in history to give the choreographer on-screen credit along with the singer and song title.
- The second Gremlins film appears at first to have fairly standard closing credits, except that Daffy Duck periodically shows up out of nowhere to make snarky comments at the audience ("You're still here? Don't you people have homes?") This is especially random since the movie had nothing to do with Daffy or the Looney Tunes.
Live Action TV
- For several years, the closing credits of the British Soap Opera Crossroads reflected the title by alternating horizontal and vertical roller captions.
- My Name Is Earl had outtakes over the credits after the episode which frequently referenced Smokey and the Bandit.
- Blackadder the Third ended each episode which its final scene frozen and turned into a woodcut-style illustration, which would then scroll upward and reveal the credits as a theater program from a Regency-era play.
- Blackadder 2 ended each episode with Edmund walking away from the camera into a garden, while being followed by (and interacting with) the minstrel singing the closing theme.
- Police Squad!'s gag ending. The characters in the last scene all freeze in place as though the last frame of the scene has been frozen to allow the credits to roll over it (similar to how credits were handled in many live-action adventure series over the years). The credits do roll, but the film keeps rolling as well - it's the actors who aren't moving! This allows for all sorts of weirdness (see the show's article for more on this).
- Ernie Kovacs would frequently end his shows with creative end credits. For example, one program featured credits over vignettes where a Snidely Whiplash-style villain unsuccessfully threatens a damsel in distress.
- Nickelodeon uses this concept to announce winners at the Kids Choice Awards: Names on T shirts, faces on banners, etc.
- The Monkees Christmas Episode has the behind-the-scenes crew and office workers saying hello to the camera during the closing credits.
Video Games
- The closing credits of the third Jak and Daxter game are accompanied by the models of many characters doing the standard walking animation with the ability to rotate them and adjust the camera.
- Several games like to put their Concept Art Gallery in the end credits, such as Fahrenheit (2005 video game) and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
- Throughout the entire game of EarthBound, a man in a top hat descends from the sky and takes a picture of your party every time you step in one of many spots throughout the game for seemingly no reason. After the first credits sequence which credits all the game's characters, the real credits afterwards contain a montage of all the picture spots you found.
- Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories had various characters walking in on the sides while they displayed the true quality of the GBA by playing the full vocal version of Simple and Clean with almost the same quality as on the PS2.
- Similarly, the credits of Kingdom Hearts II had a Where Are They Now thing going on, showing small videos of the different characters Sora met in his journey after all the problems were took care of. Special mention goes to King Mickey finally returning to his Queen and subjects at Disney Castle. Little guy earned it.
- This in turn was carried on in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Many of these allude to future events and themes that would play on later, from Isa and Lea buying sea salt ice cream from Scrooge McDuck to Experiment 626 flying off to a mysterious blue planet. Again, one of the most touching moments involves King Mickey, who, having failed to save the three heroes, returns the star shard and his keyblade to Master Yen Sid and turns to walk away... Only for Yen Sid to return the Keyblade to him, signifying that he passed the Mark of Mastery exam.
- Final Fantasy IX had various FMV clips from the game play on the side of the scrolling credits while they turned on the vocal version of the game's theme: Melodies of Life.
- Final Fantasy VIII did it first, showing the various craziness of the main party characters as they celebrate in Balamb Garden. It's not until the very, very end of the credits that you get confirmation that Squall is still alive.
- Super Smash Bros.. lets you pause, accelerate, target, or warp the end credits. The two sequels turn the credits into a shooting minigame.
- Not to mention that in Brawl, the actual credits are overshadowed by the awesome mini-movie at the right side of the screen, featuring scenes of the entire Subspace Emissary that go pretty well with the credits music.
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has a minigame during the credits where you ride a bike with Doronjo and her lackeys. It even unlocks another minigame! And if you were playing as Roll, you can fly her broom instead.
- Capcom seems particularly fond of this trope:
- Almost all of the Mega Man Battle Network games have this, with 3 being a particularly good example.
- The World Ends With You has Lullaby For You (not used anywhere else in-game) playing over the credits, in addition to (mostly) unused scenery and character art.
- Scribblenauts has an interesting variation on this trope: All staff members shown in the credits can be written and used in the main game once you know their names, Edison Yan being particularly helpful.
- The ending credits for both Warcraft 3 and its expansion feature little extras like a concert, a Hilarious Outtakes Shout-Out to a scene in the previous game, and a football game.
- Many JRPGs have scenes that play out during the credits. Sometimes these are just montages of previously seen scenes (Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Cross, Wild ARMs games) but sometimes they will show new footage (Xenosaga, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VIII).
- The credits of Final Fantasy XII show sepia-toned concept art of the setting and characters by the main artist, Akihiko Yoshida. Considering the amazing similarity both of the game to The Lord of the Rings series and Yoshida's art style to that used in the art for the Return Of The King's credit sequence, it's almost certainly a Shout-Out.
- The end credits for Doctor Robotniks Mean Bean Machine features a roll call for all the opponents you faced, which is the only way to learn the names of some of them.
- In Street Fighter EX3, while the credits roll, your fighter is placed at the center of a room in which you have to fight waves of opponents. Not fighting will not deny any benefits to you, nor will it spring a Kaizo Trap, but the enemies come in such a sheer number that you're sure to take one hell of a wallop if you just stand there. Thankfully, their strength is inversely proportional to their ranks...
- In the DS version of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, you can find some pretty interesting "fingerprints" during the credits.
- All the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games, in fact, feature credits that act as a sort of Where Are They Now? Epilogue for the various characters you've met.
- God Hand: Officially the most awesome ending credits scene ever.
- In the end credits of Legacy Of Kain: Blood Omen, one of the dev team yells "Coffee time!" over the music.
- Crash Team Racing, Naughty Dog's last Crash game, features all the playable racers (and Oxide) dancing over the end credits, overlaid with short text blurbs telling what happened to them all after the game's events. After the credits, the player is also treated to a Concept Art Gallery slideshow with sketches, character designs, and promo renders of every game in the series so far, as a final farewell from Naughty Dog.
- Typing of the Dead has a hilarious interactive credits sequence where you can type out the developers' names as they appear to make zombies dance.
- The outro of New Super Mario Bros. Wii has every letter of the credits as unique brick block. You can destroy them to find coins, with up to four players competing, the player with the most coins at the end "wins". (Yes, the minigame consists of smashing the credits to pieces for coins.) Or you could just watch everyone dance along to the music.
- Borderlands' first piece of DLC "The Zombie Island Of Dr.
ZNed" takes this to its logical conclusion by subverting the Anticlimax Boss by having Dr.ZNed come back as an undead abomination, scream "It's not over yet!" and include a proper final boss fight.- The main game also has a sweet song and claptrap-style logos accompanying the scroll.
- Wario Ware: Smooth Moves has everyone who worked on the game appearing as a Mii on a stage. You can move a portable hole around the stage and try to make the Miis fall through it.
- In the Collectors Edition of Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, there's a math puzzle in the end credits. Solving it gives you a seven-digit number. If you then replay the game, you can enter that number into a certain telephone and get a message about an upcoming Ravenhearst sequel.
- Portal's credits have an early-eighties computer effect, using ASCII symbols which show the lyrics to the end song playing alongside various symbols and models from the games in this format.
- Portal 2 works similar, except without any symbols or models, and the credits end with the computer shifting down revealing the middle of space, where Wheatley was sentenced to be for all eternity. The Space Core is just there because it wants to.
- The original Sam & Max Hit The Road let you play shooting gallery (with Max) while the credits were rolling.
- Cave Story: In lieu of a credits list (it would be too short, considering just one guy made the game all by himself), the game ends with a roll call for all the characters, enemies, and bosses. These are accompanied by pixel art renditions of scenes from the story, and cutscenes showing where the characters end up after the end. These scenes change depending on which of the Multiple Endings you got.
- The end credits of Sacrifice feature a Machinima in which all the people who worked on the game, each represented by a different one of the game's character models, come out and take their bows.
- The last level of Assassin's Creed II plays out beneath the credits.
- In Super Karoshi, the ending credits are a playable level. The last line of the credits are Spikes of Doom.
- In Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, the credits are a minigame in which you can smash piñatas to earn the extremely useful wishing well.
- Katamari Damacy has you roll up the countries in the world during the closing credits.
- The PlayStation 2 sequel has a credits minigame where you [[spoiler:run from the King of All Cosmos, using the Sun as a Katamari to roll up all the current Fans and Cousins. That's right: the freakin' sun.
- Guitar Hero III, where you actually PLAY the end song "Through the Fire and Flames"?
- World Tour uses "Pull Me Under" by Dream Theater, 5 uses "21st Century Schizoid Man", and Band Hero uses "American Pie."
- Instead of a final encore, Warriors of Rock (on the 360 and Play Station 3 versions only) has a special staff roll with cut-outs of Neversoft employees being loaded into a demonic looking rocket that gets blasted into space. While the sequence may have been to honor the fact that this was supposed to be the last GH game developed by Neversoft, the later announcement that the franchise was most likely being canned may have given it a greater meaning.
- Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood has the game's characters giving the credits in dialogue. Yes, seriously. Omega eventually joins them.
- Playing as Sonic, you can eventually tell Tails to shut up. This brings you back to the title screen.
- Speaking of Sonic, Sonic Colors has a credits sequence in which you can run on, jump into, homing attack, boost, and use Wisp powers on. While the Sixteen-Minute-long credits sequence plays the game's theme, Reach For The Stars, the ending theme, Speak With Your Heart, and some orchestrated stuff. You pretty much get bored after Reach For The Stars.
- The Super Monkey Ball games tend to turn the ending credits into minigames. Mostly they ask the player to gather bananas (which counts toward the overall score), but bumping into the letters of the credits makes you lose bananas.
- In the Master Modes of the Tetris the Grand Master games, if you reach and pass level 999, the game doesn't end. The board clears, the credits begin to roll, and an extra stage starts in which you must survive 60 seconds at maximum speed. In TGM2+ and TGM3, pieces become invisible 5 seconds after lock. If the player gets a high enough grade in normal play and passes through all sections by specific time standards, this could turn into an invisible roll instead, in which all pieces turn invisible the instant they lock, forcing players to go entirely by memory. Clearing this invisible credit roll is the only way to reach the highest possible grades. Good luck!
- After defeating the Final Boss of Bayonetta, the credits start to roll, but then Jeanne stomps them and the two of you have to destroy Jubileus's corpse before it destroys Earth. After that sequence, a Call Back to the prologue begins, followed by the real credits and their spiffy music. At three points during those credits, you have to relive a scene from the game to earn a medal (the first fight with Jeanne, the first out-of-body Cereza defence, and then you take control of the final graveyard fight). Therefore, the credits are incorporated into the gameplay.
- This trope is traditional in the Call of Duty series. The first game and United Offensive 's credits show several American paratroopers blowing through the German ranks with no discernible reason. Call of Duty 2 's credits show a squad of Rangers rescuing Captain Price from the Germans, in a sequence designed to use all the game's scripted animations in one level. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare shows the POV of an AC-130 gunship's gunner while he casually disintegrates dozens of enemy soldiers with the gunship's armament. Modern Warfare 2's credits shows museum visitors looking at exhibits containing dioramas of the game's levels, which is somewhat less awesome than the others.
- Left 4 Dead lists the four survivors as actors in a movie, with the player's handle as the actor playing their chosen character. At the end of the credits, the number of kills is listed as "X zombies were harmed in the making of this film."
- And the survivors that didn't make it are listed under In Memory Of.
- Teleroboxer for the Virtual Boy had the robot hands in first person perspective that were used during the game. Pictures of the developers come into perspective and the hands start punching them, making them hilariously deformed before they are thrown into A Twinkle in the Sky- er space. At the end the player can punch the Nintendo logo for a while.
- In Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble you get to control the character you ended the game with to break rocks that hold the names of the developers.
- The first Pokémon Ranger game let you explode the text by tapping it with your stylus while Where Are They Now-type scenes play on the top.
- Keeping with Pokemon, HeartGold and SoulSilver's credits are really, really sweet. Dancing Pokemon, gym leaders screwing around, TR getting chased by Lance, Silver kicking you...
- Pokémon Black and White initially displays sweeping close-up views of Reshiram (in White) or Zekrom (in Black) during the end credits. Afterwards, you get to see N flying off on the dragon that appeared during The Stinger. The end credits after beating the True Final Boss don't have a gimmick, though.
- Keeping with Pokemon, HeartGold and SoulSilver's credits are really, really sweet. Dancing Pokemon, gym leaders screwing around, TR getting chased by Lance, Silver kicking you...
- In Pandemonium, the end credits are a level, although it's very straightforward and your life meter isn't present, making you unable to die. There is even a secret.
- Jade Empire's credits are talked over partially by the must-mentioned but never seen wife of Hou, then by the "actors" playing two of the supporting cast - their conversations cover the difficulties of filming, the interwebs, Shout Outs to Star Trek, not getting typecast and exactly what she does with that banana on stage. And then your mentor telling you about the time you were decapitated as a child, but got better after walking it off. And then exploded a mountain by punching it. In Space. The credits can be seen here [dead link] , Hou's section starts at just before three minutes in, Dawn Star and Sagacious Zu at a little past five minutes.
- In the 2008 Prince of Persia, the credits play over the last section of the game; then, inexplicably, they roll again after you finish it.
- Devil May Cry 4 challenges you to defend Kyrie from waves of scarecrows for ninety seconds, which is of course made more difficult by the credits obscuring the entire screen. There's a bonus cutscene at the end, though.
- Likewise, the third game sets Dante against an endless tide of enemies. Killing one hundred of them gives you The Stinger, which confirms Vergil becoming Nero Angelo.
- In the credits of Kirby and The Amazing Mirror, you can keep shooting the already defeated boss as the game counts your number of hits.
- Kirby Mass Attack put a cute fishing mini-game to play with the credits.Also, one of the medals required for One Hundred Percent Completion is only found there.
- Loco Roco 2 has the Loco Rocos on the credits, letting you tilt them around as normal and collecting fruit to make them grow.
- MadWorld has the announcers viciously verbally violating the staff associated with the game. Including the script-writing "bastards who keep putting words in their mouths."
- The credits of Rock Band are accompanied by a photo of every named Harmonix staff member rocking out.
- The credits of Super Mario Galaxy 2 allow you to jump all over the place (and yes, you can even die in the credits).
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy game allows you to destroy the credits as they roll though there is no point.
- Barrow Hill shows some creepy cinematic-style images and spooky landscapes from the game during its closing credits.
- beatmania IIDX 13 lets you use the turntable to pan around the abstract monochrome geometric world ... thing you float through over the staff roll.
- Later beatmania IIDX installments let players play through their ending themes.
- Ehrgeiz takes the cake by making you fight the True Final Boss during them.
- Dawn of War shows the sync kill animations from the game alongside the credits.
- Super Mario RPG ends with a parade of the game's entire cast, filled with plenty of visual gags and ending at night with a fireworks display that changes depending on a relatively minor mechanic from earlier in the game.
- Escape From Ravenhearst, a game in which you must spot objects whose appearance shifts back and forth, has some of its closing credits shift between the real names/headings and jokes.
- Zombies Ate My Neighbors combines this with Developer's Room. The credits are a playable level called "Monsters Among Us", set in the Lucasarts offices, where you not only rescue people and kill monsters as usual, but also meet all the developers of the game. And George Lucas.
- Punch-Out!! on the Wii lets you punch the names in the credits. The important part is to look out for weird symbols, misspellings, and the names of characters from the game in particular.
- The Sega Genesis Altered Beast allowed to punch too.
- Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure sees Flynn comment on the credits, mostly congratulating himself and encouraging the player to go into the Playable Epilogue. Then he goes meta (at about the three-minute mark).
- Age of Mythology has Hilarious Outtakes of the game dialogue ("Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue; I'm gonna kill you, Doodley-doo").
- Creeper World 2: Academy features a playable level in its credits.
Western Animation
- Daria, with its alter-egos credits showcasing the characters of the show in an array of alternate personae, costume and even other animation styles (for example, Quinn as Hello Kitty, Mr. O'Neill as Mr. T, etc.)
- The movie "Is It Fall Yet?" had supposed bloopers, while "Is It College Yet?" used the "alter-ego" format for a not-necessarily-canon Where Are They Now? Epilogue.
- Wakfu: The credits of each episode have a small scene acted out by a character or characters from that episode alongside them. The first four episodes are simply the main characters introducing themselves, but the following episodes all have little skits attached. The series Finale's credits show most of the secondary characters and what they've become.