Power-Up Motif

Many games use Power Ups; in many cases, these power-ups are timed. In many cases, an audio motif indicates the fact that the power-up is in play, vanishing the moment the power-up expires.

Related to Theme Music Power-Up, but not to Magic Music.

Examples of Power-Up Motif include:

• Mario games use this a lot.
  • The Invincibility Power-Up (Super Star)
    • Dun Dun Dun DunDuh DunDuh!
  • The caps from Super Mario 64 and DS
  • The Rainbow Star, Red Star, Fire Flower, and Ice Flower in Super Mario Galaxy
  • The Mega Mushroom from New Super Mario Bros..
  • Riding a Yoshi in Super Mario World
    • And Super Mario Galaxy 2
  • The Star in the first Wario Land game
  • In Mario Kart Wii, you can hear the motif if another racer using a Super Star or Mega Mushroom is nearby.
• Similarly, Super Smash Bros.. uses it:
  • Golden Hammer and regular Hammer items
    • Which were from the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
  • The Invincibility Power-Up Item
  • Luigi's Final Smash
  • DK's Final Smash
• Bang Shishigami's Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan from BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is a Super Mode that works like this: When you activate it, his power-up music begins to play loudly over the stage background music, until the next round begins.
• Bio Menace has a kind of rain-like music that lasts for the short time the invincibility potion lasts.
• Pick up the fast feet shoes in Jazz Jackrabbit and the level's music will speed up until they wear off; this is taken from Sonic the Hedgehog.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the Piece of Power and Guardian Acorn work exactly this way; they change the background music for a short time, and when the song stops the powerup was over.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog series uses this for its invincibility sparkles. The song was different for each game, but they all lasted the same amount of time and worked identically.
  • Also, as implied above, getting Power Sneakers to boost your speed increases the tempo of the current background music for their duration.
    • Except in Sonic CD where there's separate music for Power Sneakers — because the music was being played directly from the CD and couldn't be sped up.
      • The PC version of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island doesn't use the invincibility music, for the same reason.
  • When you earn an extra life, the jingle lasts for a couple of seconds and often completely overrides the background music.
• In Banjo-Kazooie, using the Wonderwing power changes the background music for the duration.
  • Whenever you get a special pair of shoes/boots in the Banjo-Kazooie games, the background music changes until the power is used/worn out.
• Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, when the title character ate a power pellet/pill.
• In ZZT, collecting an energizer (which provides temporary invincibility) causes the player to flash and also plays a jaunty tune. When the tune finishes, the energizer effect also stops.
• Konami's Noah's Ark has a theme for Time Stands Still powerup and Invincibility Power-Up black vial powerup.
• Trog has the pineapple theme when it's collected.
• The Sega Saturn version of Bug!! plays a fast version of the title theme when Bug gets a Stunt Bug powerup.
• In God Hand, whenever Gene releases the titular God Hand a fast version of Gene's Rock-a-Bye plays.
• In Puyo Puyo Fever, filling up the Fever gauge activates not only the titular bonus to flood your opponent's board, but also plays much bouncier music.
• Demon Sword also uses this for its invincibility power-up.