History Main / WastedSong

%% IMPORTANT NOTICE!
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%% This trope is about songs being disproportionately long compared to the amount of screentime it gets.
%% It is not about songs you like but are not played enough to your liking.
%% Tv Tropes does not accept Gushing or complaining, so please do not bring up the quality of the song in question.
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Nowadays, even the most obscure and minor works have [[AwesomeMusic soundtracks of epic, Herculean proportions]]. Every event needs its own special song all to itself. However, sometimes people can get a little overzealous with the allocation of songs. Thus is born the Wasted Song--a good (and sometimes even amazing) tune that barely gets any screentime.

Maybe it's laid over a scene that's shorter than it is--or maybe the characters just won't stop talking over it. Maybe it only shows up in one out-of-the-way portion of the BonusLevelOfHell, which is [[NintendoHard almost impossible to reach]] for all but [[HundredPercentCompletion the most dedicated players]]. Maybe it only plays for a short period of time near the beginning of the game, which becomes LostForever after a certain point. Maybe it was written for a specific BossBattle. Maybe a TV show has an awesome ending theme that gets covered up by ads for the next show. Or maybe it's just put into the game in such a way it's hard to find. The end result is that the song feels... wasted. Like it didn't get the credit it deserved. More casual players or viewers may feel upset that they've missed it, if they succeed in noticing it at all. The moderate will then rush to the Internet and search Youtube, knowing that the hardcore have already [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil downloaded the OST off the Internet]] and may have put it up for all to hear.

That is, if the developers didn't shaft the song there, too. [[BigNo Noooooooooooooooooo!]]

If a game is [[NintendoHard really hard]], the song may seem wasted as you rarely hear more than a few bars. However, a good enough player can usually hear the whole thing (or near enough), so it doesn't really count.

Occasionally, this manifests as a tune found in the "SoundTest" mode of a video game's options which isn't actually played anywhere in the game. Sometimes, this song was simply included in the sound test as an EasterEgg. Other times, it's from a part of the game that was DummiedOut.

See also CutSong, which doesn't even play in the first place.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime]]
* The ''SonicOVA'' had this intense, islandy, techno track known as, "South Island". And it was only used for about five seconds, through a crackling stereo no less. It was used in trailers for the OVA too, so, luckily, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQsV2wqOniU people managed to rip the entire track]].
* Most of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'''s score can qualify for this, but a particularly blatant example is "Adieu," a smoky torch song based off of the recurring music box melody "Memory." On the soundtrack CD, it's a full-fledged, six-minute song. In the show, all we get is the very last stanza at the beginning of "The Real Folk Blues, Part I" and the opening verse at the beginning of "Speak Like A Child." One episode also treats us to the very beginning of an opera rendition that wasn't even put on any of the [=CDs=]!
** "Car 24" plays for about 30 seconds of screentime.
** "Farewell Blues" is another one to that list. It uses another frequently-used melody (also heard in "The Singing Sea," and "Stella by Moor") but without lyrics that make the song much more emotional.
%% The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea15AeegmTE&fmt=18 old trailer]] for ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' features an incredibly awesome tune that is %% never used again, and doesn't appear in the OST. Oh, but part of it is used in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tucJGUq9rZk&fmt=18 %%fake movie trailer]] in the ''{{Mai-Otome}}'' omake.
%% Likewise for this ''{{Gankutsuou}}'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXvyrQv_5M&feature=channel_page trailer]] which has an awesome %% techno music that isn't in the OST or in the series.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWPzcnzP3k8 "Young Knight of the Lance"]], [[{{Leitmotif}} Erio's theme]] in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha [=StrikerS=]''. A piece that lasts around two minutes... and only used during his TransformationSequence that lasted around twenty seconds.
** Tiana Lanster's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H367cs3Qvo0 "Comet Shooter"]] similarly got cut back; even though it gets reprised later in the series, they still don't use the longer version of it.
* "I Shinji" of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': the series only uses the song once and only about twenty seconds of it.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlL2Soci6eY&feature=channel "Rei III"]], a more powerful version of Rei's leitmotif, was never even used.
* The one-off ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' anime special ''Explorers of Sky: Beyond Time & Darkness'' have renditions of the track [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP_AUhCJP6I "Sacrifice"]]. The first, which plays when Grovyle, Chimchar and Piplup cross the boundary of the the ocean and head into the Hidden Land, is a fully orchestrated version of the track but with triumphant horns and drums added in. The second version, which plays when Grovyle suplexes Dusknoir, then suplexes him again through the portal to the [[BadFuture future]], is a fully orchestrated version of the track but it is played much slower pace, giving it a mournful instead of triumphant feel. Both pieces are played during sections where there is a lot of speaking and background noise, in addition, they only last a few seconds (22 seconds in the case of the first instance and roughly 10-15 seconds in the second instance).
* One of the [=OSTs=] for ''SamuraiChamploo'' contains a track called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuKcl8e_7J0 "World Without Words"]]. The song got less then 20 seconds of playtime in the entire series, used only for a brief fight between Mugen and Okuru.
* Several songs from ''Anime/CodeGeass'', mainly its sequel, qualify. Many tracks are only used once, and even if they are heard in their entirety, they are never heard again. The first season had numerous tracks that showed up regularly, with only a couple of unused ones on the OST. However, R2 is filled with tracks that are either heard once (or twice at most), such as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJniLZSV4fA "Le Repos Du Guerrier"]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Y9xeWP6Hk "Check Mate"]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueQjSO1N61w&feature=related "Siegfried"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-XqUew00Lw "Love is Justice"]], and some that didn't even get used ''at all'' such as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_00HM6zxRg&feature=related "Prodigy"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De5CYOaDJz8&feature=related "Dark Activity"]].
* The famous [[FanNickname Burger-kun]] of ''DarkerThanBlack'''s second season had a rockin' guitar theme that was oddly reminiscent of the ''KingOfFighters''. It never played again.
* The soundtrack for ''RahXephon'' was composed by big name jazz artist Ichiko Hashimoto. A lot of the three [=OSTs=] worth of music she created didn't even appear on the show. Some of the most outstanding tracks, like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUspD-KneCk "Fate of Katun"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bfkfRK30_8 "Flying Fighter"]] were only heard as snippets of music listened to by characters.
* There was a melody that played about 10 minutes into the final episode of ''WolfsRain''. It may have been based on a backwards midnight sonata.
* The second ending song to ''HanamaruKindergarten'' fits along with the ending's theme--the show recast as a space drama. In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzVK-DBXctA the ending itself]], it's a little under half a minute long and truncated. The full version is nearly seven minutes long, operatic, and has ''several'' epic guitar solos.
* ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds}}'' has this in the early episodes. For the first 15 or so episodes, whenever Yusei started to get serious in duels, a ''very'' different version of "Yusei Battle" begins playing. Neither version of the Sound Duel [=CDs=] have this version of the track on them. Although there's a chance that the third one will have it.
** Another song, apparently called "Hopeless Battle", was played a few times during emotional moments early on. The ripped song was removed from Youtube and not released on any of the soundtracks.
* Similarly, ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' has a TON of [=BGMs=] that never made it to the two Sound Duels it had. Camula's theme ''needs'' to be released.
* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' has the "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05qjYHlhOzs Theme of SSS]]", which is played more than once but never in its entirety (which is under two minutes to begin with). Additionally, multiple other songs included on the OST were never played once.
* ''NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' only used [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUAFb711zI&feature=feedlik this catchy theme]] in its original Japanese trailer.
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' - this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1Xbd1-DOo sad song]], which is not even titled, plays [[spoiler:after Genkai's (temporary) death]]. This song does not appear on the official soundtracks, and the version linked was clearly ripped from the show - you can hear footsteps echoing over the end. It was never played again, which is a shame because it may be the best song in the series.
* The ending for the second season of ''QueensBlade'' is sung by the TerribleTrio and has 3 variations, one for each girl. While [[CuteMonsterGirl Melona]] and [[PyramidPower Menace]] got to sing their variations several times, [[CuteGhostGirl Airi's]] only appears ONCE, and on the second to last episode at that (The finale doesn't have the ED). Clearly a ploy to sell more [=CDs=], since Airi's the EnsembleDarkHorse, but still.
* ''SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration: The Inspectors'' got an awesome new opening on episode 24... out of 26. At this point might as well stick with the first one. Oddly the second ending came on the series' midway point like usual.
* A similar deal happened to ''{{Dancougar}}'', which got their second, beautiful opening and ending themes on episode 34 out of 38. Not as bad as other examples, but kinda wasteful to give new songs to a series about to end.
* "VISION" from the ''{{Needless}}'' soundtrack might as well count, because it is only heard for less than thirty seconds in the entire series.
* In ''GundamWing'', each of the five Gundam Pilots has his own theme song. However, only Heero's[[note]]"The Wings of a Boy Who Killed Adolescence"[[/note]] and Wu Fei's[[note]]"When the Dragon Submerges, Everything Ends"[[/note]] appear more than twice. Trowa's[[note]]"In the Returned Scent of Blood and Gunpowder"[[/note]] plays once, Quatre's[[note]]"Looking for Peace Hiding in the Corpse"[[/note]] twice, and Duo's[[note]]"Black Wind Inviting to Death"[[/note]] never shows up at all...unless you play ''SDGundamGGeneration''.
** Similarly, a battle theme for Zechs ("Zechs Comes") is possibly the most exciting piece of music in the series... and only tiny excerpts from it get played here and there.
* In the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' we have the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl9VeAtnKbA "Darkness In My Heart"]] as sung by Creator/CrispinFreeman. It's a really cool song, but it's utterly impossible to get outside of a muddled clip from the show.
* There are two versions of the song ''Only A Memory Away,'' from the English dub of ''Manga/SailorMoon''. The original was a sombre, somewhat sad song that played during a pivotal moment. The version released on the soundtrack was more upbeat with different lyrics. The former is considered by most fans to be the superior song, which is a shame, as the only way to hear it is through watching the episode.
* The American ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' soundtrack had [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzApzm5M-8Y&feature=channel_video_title Episodic Trunks]] a surprisingly slow, calm song that was never heard in the show proper.
* From ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', we have [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjt7gUS4CPI Numquam vincar]], which is dark and epic and combines dramatic violins with an electric guitar bridge and drums all throughout. It could easily pass as the music for a FinalBoss, but it's only played in one episode, for a grand total of ''maybe'' thirty seconds, against a minor Witch who Homura kills with no effort.
** Of course, the song is not about Homura killing the Witch, is about [[spoiler:[[ShrinkingViolet Homura]] decides to [[StopHavingFunGuys stop screwing]] [[DeclarationOfProtection around]] [[LetsGetDangerous and starts become]] [[TookALevelInBadass very,]] ''[[UpToEleven very]]'' [[TookALevelInBadass dedicated player.]]]] [[GratuitousLatin "I Will]] [[HeroicResolve Never Be Defeated"]], indeed.
* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', during the first half of the anime, there's a theme that sounds like an insane marching theme that plays on occasion when a character is realizing what a danger Johan actually is. Oddly, it never appeared in either OST.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The music when [[StarWars Luke finally goes after Vader]] after [[BerserkButton threatening to turn Leia]], "The Dark Side Beckons" ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ynajjjzlw&t=02m10s On this video]]), was apparently not in the first soundtrack release. The 1997 release of the soundtrack includes all the music from the movie (except for the end music from the original theatrical release), including this cue. It is found in the track "The Battle of Endor II".
** It gets its glory in the game ''[[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Outcast]]'', where it is used as the final battle's theme.
** The epic victory music at the end of ''ReturnOfTheJedi''. Not even named or featured on the soundtrack, it can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGhlumAtAGc&feature=fvw here]], though it was clearly ripped from the movie (credit riff kicks in at the end).
*** Again, that music was only on the special edition soundtrack - more justifiably this time, in that it wasn't the original music for that portion of the movie. Known as "Victory Celebration", it is in fact linked to the end credits on the soundtrack as well as in the movie.
** The Max Rebo Band number "Lapti Nek", which was replaced by "Jedi Rocks" in the special edition, was only released on the original 1983 soundtrack, [[MissingEpisode the master tapes since having been lost]], and the film version, which has different lyrics, was never released at all.
* "Navras" from ''[[Film/TheMatrix The Matrix Revolutions]]'' is a [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome chilling but energetic]] piece [[OminousLatinChanting with haunting Sanskrit lyrics]]. It's not played at all during the movie, it's played during the credits and the song is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9qqLrdOzDg 9 minutes long]].
** Not really. When Neo goes into the Matrix for the final time, it plays, just the orchestral part, which is called "Neodammerung" on the soundtrack.
* "Show Me Your Spine" from ''{{Robocop}}''. To quote TheOtherWiki, "In the Nightclub scene of the movie, the song by P.T.P was played. P.T.P was a short lived side project consisting of members of the band Ministry. However, this song was not available in any official form and could only be heard in the film. It was eventually released in 2004 on a compilation album called Side Trax by Ministry."
* In ''TheGoodShepherd'', there is an arrangement of "Oh Shenandoah". Of course, we only hear part of it, and in the background behind the dialogue. It is MIA on the soundtrack, and hours of aggressive searching on the internet have turned up fruitless.
* "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi" from ''JaaneTuYaJaaneNa'' became extremely popular among {{Bollywood}} fans. However, some of these same fans were dismayed that its picturization pretty much just shows Aditi sulking and Jai following her around.
* And similarly, a techno song from ''The Replacements'' (no, not [[TheReplacements that football movie]]) called "Heart," played during the final huddle and line of scrimmage for about 15-20 seconds tops. Shown on the credits, absent from the soundtrack.
* "Sway" and "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" from ''Film/DarkCity'', or at least the versions from the Director's Cut, with Jennifer Connelly singing. The theatrical cut has Anita Kelsey singing these songs--these were the versions that appeared in full on the soundtrack album.
* Indie musician SufjanStevens made an art film called ''The BQE''. TheStinger at the end of the film featured two songs--an untitled noise-music piece, and "The Sleeping Red Wolves"--which are completely omitted from the soundtrack album.
* Music/{{Disturbed}} recorded "This Moment" as a straight-forward fight song with the intention of putting it in a film. They chose ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', who played it for a few seconds, then later during the end credits, and not during the fight scene the band was probably hoping for.
** Another example would be "Before It's Too Late (Sam and Mikaela's Theme)" by the Goo Goo Dolls, which they wrote ''specifically'' for the film (it only got a brief instrumental segment in the actual film). These two songs showed up in the soundtrack as the only two pieces of original material, which was otherwise made up of popular licensed songs (in particular, "What I've Done" by LinkinPark, which got far more focus of these).
* ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' has during [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt10-aczf_U the scene where the Kurgan is recklessly driving through New York]] a version of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpaiMNC3MVw "Theme from New York, New York"]] by PopStarComposer Music/{{Queen}}. That isn't available anywhere else, and the film doesn't even play the full song!
* Hans Zimmer felt this way about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiYQF3Rh0rw the short cue underscoring the parasail scene]] as Jack and Elizabeth escape the Flying Dutchman towards the end of ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End''. The composer lamented the fact that he'd used up such an amazing melody on a single scene. It didn't appear on the official soundtrack release, though a subtly-altered version is part of the "Marry Me" suite from the four-disc collector's edition release of all three soundtracks (meaning fans would likely have to re-purchase three OSTs they already owned just to get hold of the bonus disc of new material).
* ''{{Ghostbusters}}'' originally had a different theme song, performed by Hughes/Thrall, before being replaced with the now-famous Ray Parker Jr. song. The original song was only ever featured in a 1983 teaser trailer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* BillBailey [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhslOhxl_M laments in his stand-up routine]] that the theme tune from the BBC's snooker coverage ("Drag Racer" by Doug Wood) never gets played in its entirety.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh1RIBRbR_8 Somebody tell Bill]].
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episodes "The Doctor's Daughter" and "Turn Left", an unspeakably epic, heroic theme plays near the end of each episode. It's on the series four soundtrack as "A Dazzling End", but the end of the song has been completely changed.
** Also in ''Doctor Who'', the original version of "Song For Ten" from "The Christmas Invasion" was never released.
*** "Evolution of the Daleks" was only put on the soundtrack in a slowed-down way, instead of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQHDUxEFkw&fmt=18 fast, hectic version]] used in the show.
*** "Rise of the Cybermen" and "Age of Steel" had several tracks never released on the soundtrack [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTG1o__VUo4&feature=related including many variations of the Cybermen theme]] that are even more awesome than the one released on the soundtrack.
* In ''TakeshisCastle'' a final battle theme plays for the Final Showdown. Unfortunately due to the commentary it can be hard to hear and as it's generally a curb stomp battle it's often cut short. Might never have even been played fully.
* ''Pokémon Smash'' has an ending theme, "Endless Fighters", which is something its successor ''PokemonSunday'' lacked for a while. However, the reason Sunday stopped having an Ending theme was because the credits made very short and the announcer would talk over them, and that's exactly what happens to Endless Fighters.
* Most of Fat Segal's contributions to the ''Series/{{Skins}}'' soundtrack suffer this. "Whitecap Widow" is an astonishing five minutes of music, but you wouldn't know it from the half dozen distinct chunks it gets sliced into during Emily's [=S4=] episode. (And that's only if you can find the full song before it gets yanked off his Myspace page...)
* [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]] had ''Black Market'' from the episode with the same name. It was barely heard in the background as Lee walked into the Prometheus. These days, it is considered the only thing good about the episode and, by some, one of the best songs of the Season 2 soundtrack.
* Series/SixFeetUnder often used pre-existing songs but had a pretty strong soundtrack of its own, with very atmospheric leitmotiffs for the myriad characters, not to mention the haunting tunes from the Season 3 ending and GrandFinale credits. None of those songs were in the show's soundtracks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* {{Radiohead}}'s song "Cuttooth" is considered by many fans to be one of their best songs. So it deserves, at the very least, an inclusion on an album, right? Nope. It was released to no fanfare as the b-side to the "Knives Out" single. And The Fandom Raged.
* Music/FiveIronFrenzy felt their album ''Electric Boogaloo'' ran too long, so they cut three songs. One of them got significantly reworked and appeared on their next album; the other two wound up on ''Cheeses (of Nazareth)'', FIF's collection of b-sides. One of these songs relegated to ''Cheeses'' was "Kamikaze". Reese Roper (and possibly some other FIF members) eventually came to the conclusion that "Kamikaze" was one of the best songs the band ever wrote, and that it should have been released on a better album.
* Johann Sebastian Bach's church cantatas and other religious works, while beloved today, remained very obscure for more than a hundred years, as they were written to be performed just ''once''. The cantatas were only rediscovered after Felix Mendelssohn revived interest in Bach's music by conducting the first performance of the ''St. Matthew Passion'' since the ''mid-1700s'' in 1829. A great many of Bach's works were lost forever when his wife decided to use his older scores to ''wrap fish''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQKZD4D3sTw "The Future" Frankie Kazarian's theme]] in the Wrestling/{{WWE}}. Totally awesome, right? Too bad Kaz's WWE tenure lasted all of 4 weeks, all of which were spent on a BShow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* "And" from ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' has its three verses separated by long stretches of someone else's monologue. It's conspicuously absent from the cast recordings, and was not in the movie.
** Similarly, "The Wizard and I(Reprise)" and "Wicked Witch of the East" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', which were also omitted from its cast album.
* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil shows occasionally suffer from this. At least two of the music pieces from ''Amaluna''; the [[SofterAndSlowerCover slow reprise]] of "O Ma Ley" heard when Romeo meets Miranda face to face, and the short metal tune when the Valkyries make their entrance and fight off Cali and his minions, are absent from the soundtrack album. Some of the album songs are noticeably trimmed down, e.g. "Elma Om mi Lize" is missing the drum solo from the blacked-out Meteors segment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* DisneyThemeParks have literally thousands of individual audio elements, many of them music that is heard all too briefly.
** Splash Mountain at Disneyland CA in particular has several, including "Laughin' Place" - of which only 0:41 of its 1:27 loop will be heard on any one ride-through, and then there are multiple versions heard in that time, including a surprisingly addictive versions with bees "singing" the song - and "Burrow's Lament," a slow minor-key version of "Laughin' Place" with new lyrics, plus an alternative, shorter instrumental piece based on Burrow's Lament (revealed by files that have turned up on the Internet to have been made by [[DummiedOut cutting down a full-length alternative version of Burrow's Lament]]). Burrow's Lament is heard for around 15 seconds at most, and the alternative version is mostly drowned out by the final lift hill.
*** Thankfully, all of those pieces have been released in full (even the singing bees!) as parts of the "Splash Mountain" track on the newest version of the Disneyland "Official Album" 2-CD set.
** Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World uses a bluegrass soundtrack different from Disneyland's, which includes a catchy steel-guitar-accompanied instrumental version of "How Do You Do" between the end of the first set of lift hills and the first descent, and a similarly styled version of "Laughin' Place" which has to compete with vocals to be heard. The singing bees were also re-recorded specifically for WDW. Unfortunately, WDW's "Splash Mountain Medley" Official Album track is not nearly as complete as Disneyland's.
** The Haunted Mansion at Disney World has a piano version of its "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" theme tune that is barely audible due to weak speakers playing it, the standard organ-dirge version of the song playing nearby, and the "Ghost Host" narrating loudly all through the piano room scene.
** The queue/"area" music for any ride that either has a very short wait or which one uses FastPass to skip the lines for becomes Wasted Music. Some of it is very good, but will only be heard briefly. Sometimes even the long normal line provides little help in hearing it, as the speakers may be placed poorly and leave it inaudible from certain points in the queue. Only a handful of tunes are available on park [=CDs=], and many have never been released, even on the "Forever" CD kiosks that allowed people to take home an impressive amount of park music.
** Mission: SPACE has its own theme song, called "Destiny," which is heard only in the ride's exit hallway (and ''not'', as one might expect, in the game room at the end of that hallway, or the gift shop after that). There's a cut-down version (argh!) on the park soundtrack album, which is generally the first time people realize it even exists.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games Part 1]]

[[AC:ActionAdventure]]
* The main [[CityOfCanals canal area]] in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' normally has no music (instead, you get to hear the BigBad giving speeches), but if you sit around, a unique song, "Channel Surfing / Something Complete Different" starts to play. It's a pseudo-remix / SuspiciouslySimilarSong of one of the game's [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome more awesome songs]], "Akuda House Propaganda." However, since most people will be in and out of the area before the speech finishes, many players don't even know the song exists.
** Some fans of the game thinks that "Dancing with Domz" suffered from this.
** Also "Safari", which is only played in the area in front of the lighthouse, so you probably won't hear most of it unless you stop to talk to the kids when they happen to be outside. Oh, and by the time the plot gives you a reason to return there the song is gone for good.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' does this with the song that plays during the Final Showdown mission, along with the song that plays in The Tenements and the song that plays in the first half of the mission "Nice Outfit".
* ''Videogame/MetroidZeroMission'' has the Space Pirate Mothership Theme, an eerie techno beat that plays [[spoiler:when you've been stripped of your suit and have to [[StealthBasedMission sneak through]] their ship [[NoGearLevel without any weapons or armor]]]]. The song is almost four minutes long, but you'll only hear about 20 seconds of it before you're spotted by an unavoidable pirate and the alarm music plays. Even when you ditch them, the original sneaking music never plays again.
* ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}: SymphonyOfTheNight'' includes quite a few catchy songs (and levels for that matter) that were added onto the Saturn version of the game, making any owners of the game for any other console out of luck. These songs are also notable because the levels and fights that feature them aren't particularly long, thus it's easy to miss a large portion of the songs. Some of the songs missed out by many players include [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kJEcYoWJ0c this]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q809Fmxogcg this]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSQsM7o4oI8 this]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKhaSCy8j4&feature=related this]].
** The Wasted Song on ''both'' versions, however, is the prologue song, which plays when Richter is on the way to Dracula's throne. No enemies in sight. And Dracula's {{Leitmotif}} took over when they fight.
** The ''Akumajou Dracula'' Sharp [=X68000=] game (which was later given a [=PS1=] port known in Western territories as ''Castlevania Chronicles'') has a pretty catchy loading theme that you don't hear anywhere else. However, it does get reused in ''Castlevania: The Adventure [=ReBirth=]'' as the Stage 4 music.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is the worst offender of the series, by far. The game has plenty of awesome tunes, some of which are among the bests in the franchise. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them only appear once or twice, with VERY LITTLE screen time. Many players pass through the game without noticing most of them. It's a pity, considering it's the first entry in the series that features a full orchestra.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle Of Seasons]]'' had a "Pirate ship un-beaching cutscene" music, which was a location music in ''Oracle Of Ages''. Conversely, the "pirate ship" location music of ''Seasons'' becomes a Wasted Song in ''Ages'', since you can only get into the pirate ship once in the entire game. The sad part is that they were almost the two coolest songs in the game. First is available [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCg38XkGVco here]].
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina Of Time]]'' the warp songs have the relatively boring first section that you actually play, but they all have quite elegant second sections that most people miss because they're mashing the A button to warp as fast as possible. It's a shame, really.
*** Only the first section of the Fire Temple music (before it reaches the [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Arab Chanting]]) was included on the OST mainly thanks to said chanting's sounding similar to Muslim prayers. And in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the ominous [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_MeTcSg_o Shadow Beast battle theme]] was not on the OST either.
** What about the fanfare from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' when you recover your sword? A quartet of arpeggios and a few harp notes, then a 4-bar ThemeMusicPowerup letting the whole damn island know that Hyrule's resident ass kicker has truly arrived. Only played one more time in the game (when Marin joins your party), never again in the rest of the series, and most (if not all) renditions don't seem to know it exists.
*** For that matter, the music that plays after you leave Marin and Tarin's house for the first time is, if memory serves, not played anywhere else.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' has a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kLMVJiMQQ&feature=related remix of Ocarina's Jabu-Jabu Belly theme]], which logically comes after the Deku Tree and Dodongo Cave remixes. But you can only hear it when you're talking to Jabun, a dialog you could easily skip (especially considering the fact that Jabun speaks a language that's unreadable outside NewGamePlus). [[ContinuityNod Since the two other remixes are played in the two first dungeons of the game]], this one is likely supposed to be played in [[DummiedOut some scrapped water dungeon]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures'' has a lengthy puzzle in the form of the Village of the Blue Maiden. Once you've finally sorted out everyone's problems, you get an upbeat version of the classic Kakariko Village theme that only lasts until you leave that screen. Fortunately, it was later used again in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' without any need for remixing.
*** It does make a second appearance in one of the multiplayer Tingle's Tower mini-games... at the beginning and end of an area that (mostly) plays an entirely different song, and which you're only going to hang around in for around ten seconds tops.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has the tracks "Toroko's Theme" and "White", songs heard on the title screen only if you succeed in finishing the game's bonus stage quickly. White isn't even included with the soundtrack that is downloaded with the game's "deluxe" edition.
** There are also a couple of other songs that were never used at all. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-RdTjI5bmg Wind Fortress]] is easily the [[CrowningMusicofAwesome best among them.]]
*** Until [[UpdatedRerelease Cave Story+]] came along with the eponymous [[BonusDungeon Wind Fortress.]]
** "Break Down", the music that plays when [[spoiler:the island breaks down]] in the normal ending, is very epic and very short, since it plays during one of the game's very few fixed-length cutscenes, and is also cut short in the version of the soundtrack most people have. (Full version of the soundtrack [[http://www.mediafire.com/?ijnqxzykcnz here]].) It becomes even shorter in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5E73q2WCAg the Wii version]] because there's a longer intro so the song gets cut off during the cutscene before the melody even really starts.
* The song "Buzz Buzz" in ''MushroomMen.'' In plays in exactly one, relatively small area: In the second "true" level, while fighting the bees. Once you defeat them--and it won't take long - the song goes away. But listening to the song in the SoundTest reveals that it goes on for quite some time before looping - and it's pretty sweet, with hissing, buzzing, bee-like vocals, and a cool vibe.
* The North American and European versions of ''VideoGame/GoemonsGreatAdventure'' disgracefully omit the quirky "Impact" theme, which were the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]] in the prequel, ''MysticalNinjaStarringGoemon''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-6arYwxCZg Here]].
** Not to mention there are full instrumental versions of both songs, as well as the games' theme songs, also available on Website/YouTube.
* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' had a particularly awesome remix of the ''[=SF64=]'' Area 6 music in the sound test, and nowhere else.
** It also had the amazing [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJEREWvTUpg "Dark Ice Landing Strip"]], which played only once, in an area that a competent player could get through in around 10 seconds.
* ''[[EccoTheDolphin Ecco: The Tides of Time]]'' has a great little song called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JQ-Hi43pnc Convergence]] that remixes just about every major theme in the game. Too bad you only hear it as you restore the Asterite...
* The ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean At World's End'' video game [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames is fairly mediocre]], but has some excellent music that isn't in the films at all, especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cdnWECXRoM this]] variation of the Kraken theme.
[[AC:ActionGame]]
* The PS1 version of ''TombRaider'' has a few unused tracks that can be heard by putting the game disc in a CD player. These include a slowed-down version of the secret sound, a reprise of the main theme and an alternate, more climactic mix of a different track. There's also a short reprise of the chase theme that is only used once in-game, in Palace Midas. Also, the two songs that were remixed in Tomb Raider: Anniversary (as "Explorer Theme" and "Waterfall Room") are each only heard twice in the entire game.
** Also, in the early games, music is activated by triggers like stepping on certain tiles, and any new music or sound being triggered will override anything that's already playing. At least in the earliest of them, this often results in the catchy theme music that's just getting good being interrupted for the sake of a two-second ScareChord unless you stand around and listen to it.
* The SNES game based on the live-action ''{{Flintstones}}'' movie has ''five'' entire tunes which are literally not used in the game at all, and are only available via the game's sound test. Naturally, they're all quite catchy; [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBWjVglSVGk this atmospheric tune]] is particularly outstanding.
* VideoGame/{{Bastion}} has the awesome ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWAcgefsQQ 'Spike in a Rail']]'', which is played during a single stage, which is [[AutoScrollingLevel auto scrolling]] and has a lot of narration over the music. And once you beat it, as with every level, you can't go back.
** The first part of "Mine, Windbag, Mine" that plays over [[spoiler: The Kid collapsing after the final stage]] is skipped over in the official soundtrack.

[[AC:AdventureGame]]
* ''ChibiRobo'' has Telly Vision's "theme song," "Teriyaki Blues". While he'll attempt to sing it for you several times throughout the game, playing the intro alone, he'll always get interrupted in some fashion before he gets to finish. The only way to hear the full song is to complete a [[GuideDangIt fairly unintuitive sidequest]], and then complete Funky Phil's sidequest. Then talk to Funky Phil, select the second option, and then "Teriyaki Blues." Telly will then, ''finally,'' sing the complete song for you in a completely unique version of his signature [[SpeakingSimlish simlish]] babble.
* Used ''as a plot device'' in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 5: Passionate Patti Does A Little Undercover Work'': Larry's memory of his past adventures has been wiped because his previous game, ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 4: The Missing Floppies'' has been stolen and destroyed, and Patti recognizes Julius as the culprit because she catches him humming the love theme from that game...which she herself wrote.
* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth'' has one. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXM55v2caLs "Blue Badger March"]] plays very briefly at the beginning of the third case, and then is never heard again. Oddly enough, it also happens to be one of the few tracks to be given [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Ssmzg-clI an orchestral arrangement]] for the bonus soundtrack CD.
** ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG07jTsq5mA "Reminiscence ~ The Bitter Taste of Truth"]], which plays only twice.
** Investigations 2 has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDduNMXCTJM Logic Chess: Allegro]] an extremely fast-paced rendition of the Logic Chess theme... that only plays ''twice'' in the entire game. During the Logic Chess battles with [[spoiler: Bansai Ichiyanagi]] in Case 4 and [[spoiler: Yumihiko Ichiyanagi]] in Case 5.
** The low remix of Great Revival that plays when Edgeworth shows up to [[spoiler:take over the prosecution of Matt Engarde's trial after Franziska has been shot by De Killer]] plays a grand total of ''once''.
* ''Death Gate'' does the "long music over short moment" thing A LOT. In a way, it does kinda add to the atmosphere, since you'll never hear some of the looping points. However, given the astounding quality of the soundtrack, not releasing an official OST was an insult to the fans. Even bigger insult? The unofficial OST rips are all either GM or MT-32 and Death Gate's music was composed specifically for Adlib soundcards... and sounds terrible on both GM and MT-32. The Adlib OST rip is either incredibly rare or doesn't actually exist.
* ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' is a game with a great soundtrack that perfectly captures the mood and setting, especially the melancholy music in the Blood Island hotel. There's a spare room off the upstairs hallway which contains only one puzzle, and thus only one reason to go into that room, and the music in that one room is a moving, haunting little melody that sounds like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGuzSkqKK5M&feature=related this]].
** ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' contains a fairly bland song played in just two areas surrounding a waterfall, which you can't even hear very well due to the noise from said waterfall. The [[VideoGameRemake Special Edition]] contains an [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmZ2QARXDtI absolutely gorgeous]] arrangement of this song, which also goes almost unheard.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKyrandia'' features [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9phSr8EVDY a rather long and catchy tune]] which plays in exactly one room in the entire game: the emerald room of Serpent's Grotto, which is completely optional. Most players never hear more than 10 seconds of it, if even that much.
* Telltale's ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has what is quite possibly the best track in the game during the climax of Episode Five. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6-9QF-qw08 "Armed With Death"]] plays during Lee's OneManArmy moment in the streets of Savannnah against an insane number of [[NotUsingTheZWord walkers]]. It's a shame you'll only hear about 45 seconds of a track that's at least twice as long. In fact the full track itself had to be edited into the extended version used for the link.

[[AC:BeatEmUp]]
* The fanfare at the end of each level in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheRound''.
* ''MadWorld'' has a song called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TZ9wkpOahE "Crimson Rain"]]. The first time this song was actually ever heard was before the release of the game and it was played in one of the older trailers. The song is played right before you go to fight the third boss in the Mad Castle area. The only way to hear the full song is either pausing game or have Jack just stand there before entering the church to face the boss.
* ''Super VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' has many music tunes that were composed for the game, but never used. A few of them can still be heard in the Japanese version's (''Return of Double Dragon'') sound test (Duke's Theme) or levels (Las Vegas and Chinatown), but most of them were never uploaded to the game's code and can only heard from the original demo tape (which can be downloaded [[http://doubledragon.kontek.net/music/musicsdd.html here]]). Likewise, in the US version, the classic Double Dragon theme only appears in Mission 5, instead of at the title screen and FinalBoss battle like previous games and the JP version, replaced in the former's title and final stage by a mediocre tune that was originally planned to be the credits music, and was left unused in the latter.
* Ultraverse Prime for the Sega CD features music by Tim and Geoff Follin. The title music, a seven-minute rock piece in the style of Deep Purple, cuts off about three and a half minutes in, cutting off half the song. It's CD Audio though, so it can be listened to in a regular CD player....... Or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuFXcgs606k Youtube]], for that matter
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AgJq48fcySk#t=83s BGM2]] in ''FinalFight'' is only played on Round 1-2, which is a really short stage compared to the rest.
* Likewise, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caaAkS2fi2s For Metro City]] in the third game is only played in the first part of Round 1, which can be cleared in less than a minute.
* ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld''[='s=] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7c1KDmxKUA shop theme]]. On one hand, you'll hear the first few bars a ''lot'', given how many times you'll be taking a snack break to boost your stats. On the other hand, the entire loop lasts a minute and a half-- the longest single music loop ''in the entire game''-- and in most cases, you won't even get to the awesome acoustic guitar solo by the time you've left the shop. Oh, and to add insult to injury, the official soundtrack CD doesn't even give this tune a single full loop before fading out, unlike ''every other song on the soundtrack''.
** While a wide variety of songs get looped for most of the level (which tends to be pretty long), the song Suburban Tram only plays while you're on said tram. You can be done with that particular part of the level in about three minutes, which is enough time for the song to loop once, and then it's never heard again.

[[AC:DrivingGame]]
* ''DiddyKongRacing'' has a secret melody found only in its soundtest. It's very silly, but quite catchy.
* The demo in ''Uniracers'' plays a bitchin' up-tempo hard rock song (the whole soundtrack is like this). Frustratingly, however, the return to the title screen always cuts it short, leaving the listener to wonder what the rest is supposed to sound like, if there was any more.
** You do realize that you can just download a rip, right?
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbSEmRlQxk Or here.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{F-Zero}} GX'' is rife with this trope. Each and every of the 41 characters have their own theme music, and they only ever show up in the information screens for that character and during replays.
** Even worse are the tunes which play exclusively during the story mode cutscenes, which are talked-over, often cut-short, and have yet to be found released separately ''anywhere''.
** The song "Paper Engine" plays only in one course, which is unlocked by putting a game save into ''F-Zero AX'', the arcade version. The number of such arcade machines outside of Japan is in the single digits. Thus, few who play ''F-Zero GX'' will ever get to hear this song unless they hack for it.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUMMekS8Gs F-ZEEEEROO! F-ZEEEROO! F-ZEEEERRROOOOO!]]
* The results screen music from ''VideoGame/MarioKart64''. It turns out that it has a hidden song that you get to hear after letting the music loop '''64 times'''! That's like around 50 minutes! Who's gonna stare at the results screen for that long? [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqqsewbj5Qw Here's the song, by the way]].
* ''TestDrive 5'' features "Leid und Elend" by KMFDM, but only as a 30-second clip on certain point-to-point courses and {{loading screen}}s. Similarly, in ''Test Drive 6'', "Dog's Life" by Kottonmouth Kings only appeared as a 30-second loop on the Honolulu Reverse course.
* Most of the music in ''TwistedMetal Black''. The songs run on quite a while before looping, but due to the VariableMix nature of the music, you'll only hear a few small parts of them at a time, and you'll be focusing on the action anyway. Worse, half the music was ommitted from the OST.
* Grievously averted by the ''{{Trackmania}} Canyon'' trailer, which was about a minute long. Many fans wanted to know how to obtain the full length song. Unfortunately it really was only one minute long. Sadface.
* [[SegaSuperstars Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed]] has several examples. First, several of the levels, [[SuperMonkeyBall Temple Trouble]] in particular, have tracks that change at different sections of the level. Unfortunately these sections tend to be rather brief. Therefore the remix of Jungle World that plays in the boat sections of Temple Trouble, and the remix of [=NiGHTS=] and Reala that plays in the Nightmare sections of Dream Valley are mostly missed by players.
** Another instance is some characters' All Star themes, which are mostly cut off due to how short the All Star attacks are. Examples include Metal Sonic's remix of his theme from Sonic 4, and Knuckles' remix of Unknown from M.E..
* The {{Amiga}} classic ''Super Cars 2'' has an incredible Barry Leitch theme on the title screen that you'll skip through in about fifteen seconds (long before the breakdown about two minutes in), to be replaced with an even more incredible one for the ''options'' screen. Fortunately the options music comes back between races during the dialog and weapon select parts.

[[AC:FightingGame]]
* The song that plays in the character bios section in ''Eternal Champions'' is hauntingly beautiful, easily the best track in the game. However, the bios are long enough that you'll hear the whole thing if you just read one.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'', Giga Bowser's theme manages to take Final Destination's theme, which was rousing enough to begin with, and amp it up even ''further''. For some reason, it also only seems to exist for that one special, end-of-game BonusBoss fight. That's counting the SoundTest.
** ''Brawl'' includes an awesome remix of ''Melee''[='s=] menu theme, only appearing in BossRush mode and custom stages. It is one of the better remixes in Brawl.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3izkg1NBonc Cruel Brawl]] theme is only played in... well... [[NintendoHard Cruel]] Brawl. It's not unlockable, and cannot be listened to in the SoundTest - the player pretty much has to pause during Cruel Brawl in order to hear it in its entirety.
** There are songs that you can only hear during certain movies in the Subspace Emissary, such as the Wild West version of the ''LuigisMansion'' theme heard during the "King Dedede Steals..." movie, or the melancholy version of the ''Brawl'' theme heard in movies such as "Ganondorf Takes Command", or the stirring rendition of the ''FireEmblem'' theme when Marth first unsheathes his sword, etc.
** ''Brawl''[='s=] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EOfNCoNOyI "How To Play" music]] amounts to this trope; it only plays during the "How To Play" video and cannot be accessed in the game's Sound Test (and said song ''actually'' originates from '''''Melee'''''[='s=] "How To Play" video).
** An early trailer for Brawl featured [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKGaOIQ7Tc this rockin remix]] of the Brawl main theme, only to not appear in the final game at all. Granted, Brawl has a ton of remixes of the main theme, but it's a shame one of the better ones got cut.
* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters '98'' has two songs made for Orochi Chris and Orochi Shermie ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzOJ0qMP7_w "Mad Fantasy"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0z6BhHDET4&feature=related "Fanatic Waltz"]]). However, it's almost impossible to hear them in regular gameplay, as the Orochi Team never show up in Arcade mode as regular opponents, and going into Practise mode and selecting them there doesn't bring the music up either. Fortunately, the UpdatedRerelease ''Ultimate Match'' corrects this by featuring the team as midbossesin the Arcade mode.
* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' does this to all character themes, since they only play in rival battles. Need we mention that not all characters are anybody's rival?
** Fortunately, they can also pop up in online mutiplayer lobbies. The ones you're only in for about 15 seconds.
** ''Super Street Fighter IV'' solved that problem by having an available option for character themes to be played in Versus Mode after you beat Arcade Mode once.
** As well as introduced another problem in that Akuma and Gouken's actual character themes do not play.....rather, their rival fight themes against Ryu, which are remixes of his theme, play.
* "Love So Blue" plays only for the final Noel vs. Nu battle in the true ending of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue''. Noel has an infinite super bar for this battle, so you'll probably win it in 10 seconds. Fortunately, the song shows up in Sound Test and the console versions let you pick it in Versus mode.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 2'', Baek is the only sub-boss character with a theme that isn't recycled from the first game, and since the Mid-Boss music is used for all mid-bosses in 1-player mode, it can only be heard in VS mode.
** There is a reason for this. The original Arcade version of the game has an option to have either Jun and Lei or Baek and Lei as the new starting characters. As a result, Baek's music can be heard if facing him as a normal opponent (once unlocked) rather than as a sub boss.
** Several Tekken games have [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpiNdRtOwIg fantastic]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtoENQ6hUg&feature=fvst credits]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P105sRdmHRQ themes]]. Each and every one can be skipped through (and likely will be) after playing for all of four seconds.
* ''Tekken 1'' and ''2'' have the Name Entry music, a wonderful chillout piece. The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKLc7oOxTM one]] in ''Tekken 2'' is a slower version of the ''Tekken 1'' music, but they both loop.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fighting game ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', the menu theme is so divine that you'll waste perfectly good game playing time just sitting at the menu listening to it. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6TSRuisjc Have a listen to it.]]
* Hidden in the disk data of ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3]]'' is an unused theme for [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a dropped stage]] based around {{Okami}}. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0EPFsrpd60 Take a listen for yourself]].
** Even if it WAS used... it still would have fallen under this trope, along with all the other Stage themes, as by default, character themes are used instead and most people don't switch the setting. And [[AceAttorney Phoenix Wright's]] Turnabout Mode still overrides the stage music the same way he does character music.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheFighters'' has at least three unused tracks. One of which is the theme for an unused arena Sunset Town. Death Egg Hangar also had a frantic rock theme composed, however the stage has no music in the arcade version, while it's ''Sonic Gems Collection'' port uses the "Sonic vs Knuckles" theme instead. Even if it had been used, the thirty second limit of Eggman's battle means you still likely wouldn't have heard much of it. Both are available in the latter's sound test however (another random track is completely unavailable outside the OST however).
** The UpdatedRerelease for XboxLiveArcade and PlaystationNetwork allows you to select any song as the Main Menu theme with the Left and Right triggers, including the unused tracks. Not really any better than the aforementioned sound test, but still something.

[[AC:FirstPersonShooter]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' has several soundtracks that are only played in one level. One of them is the CrowningMusicOfAwesome, "SPLASH!", which only plays in the final level. That makes sense, however other soundtracks, such as the awesome Rushing, second only to SPLASH!, is played in only one level, along with FATMAN, another awesome track that plays only in the third level. Yet another example is the oddly-named Chomber, which plays only in the seventh level, despite being awesome. Another decent, [[SoundtrackDissonance yet unfitting]] soundtrack is Guardians, played only on the level Blaspheme Quarantine. None of these soundtracks play on particularly epic levels, except for SPLASH!. All other soundtracks, including the Pfhor Ship soundtracks, are played at least twice.
* Most of the boss themes in the ''MetroidPrime'' series are single use. Arguably, this actually makes them ''more'' effective because they're made with that specific boss in mind instead of just trying for "generically epic".
** Particularly memorable is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89iW8BRd42I Hive Totem theme]], which is heard once in its full version, over the second boss of the game (and later returns in truncated version for another boss). Why they used a song this great for only two miniboss fights is beyond most human logic, especially considering how mediocre the default miniboss theme is.
** Even worse, a glitch in the game caused the first few seconds of Flaahgra's theme to loop endlessly, and it wasn't restored to [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome its full glory]] until the PAL Version.
** The Phendrana Drifts Depths song in Prime is probably the best world music in the game, but restricted to a small recess of the Drifts that you don't see much of.
** ''Metroid Prime Pinball'' contains a version of the Magmoor Caverns theme (itself a remix of Lower Norfair from ''Super Metroid'') that can only be heard when waiting for a local connection to play the multiplayer table. It doesn't even play during the match itself.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLOkc9MwFHs The title screen theme]] of ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''. If you just press Start when the titles come up, the only time you'll hear it it is an excerpt during the final cutscene (the credits play the menu theme instead).
* In ''VideoGame/{{DOOM}}'', the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlWDSvNSzlA "I Sawed the Demons"]] is only played in the first map of the second episode. It's a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong MIDI version]] of AC/DC's "Big Gun", [[strike:which is why]] but it still rocks.
** The same thing happened in ''Doom II'' with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhCNx-8Qos "Into Sandy's City"]], which was only played for map 09.
*** And "Running from Evil", SuspiciouslySimilarSong of Megadeth's "Hangar 18" is played only in the first and fifteenth levels, nowhere else.
** The song "At Doom's Gate" is only played for the first map of the first episode, and it's a very short map. Ironically, this is perhaps the most recognizable song in the Doom soundtrack, though this may be a case of FirstInstallmentWins.
*** The [=IDMUS=] cheat lets you use any song in any level.
** The Playstation version of ''Doom / Doom II'' replaced the... ''interpretations'' of rock songs in MIDI format with atonal ambient noise, but instead of the six second ScareChord [[http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/pc%20doom/Doom%2001%20-%20Title%20Music.mp2 title music]] it had [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome an epic march]] that tended to last for all of the few seconds before the player pressed start. The full song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18kQ7kvrrQcan be found here]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' uses [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlN9jdQFSc&ob=av3n God's Gonna Cut You Down]] by Johnny Cash but only in a short trailer.
* Although most of the music from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2's'' series of trailers, ''Meet the Team'', have been added to the actual game as menu music one-to-two updates after the trailer with the music has been released, the songs from ''Meet the Demoman, Meet the Engineer,'' and ''Meet the Sniper'' have yet to be added. Granted, the songs from ''Meet the Engineer'' and ''Meet the Sniper'' are copyrighted (With the song The Engineer plays on his guitar being a song by the band "Wilco" and The Sniper's theme being a remix of the title theme from ''MagnumForce''), explaining why they only appear in the trailers, ''Meet the Demoman's'' fast-paced, bagpipe vs. trumpet ending song is fully owned Valve, and Valve may be slow, but this song appeared in the second or third trailer and still hasn't showed up outside of ''Meet the Demoman'', while ''two'' songs from the most recent trailer, ''Meet the Spy'', were added as menu songs ''within a week'' of the trailer's ''unnofficial'' (Read: leaked) ''release''.
** Averted for Meet The Demoman. It was added to the menu music files under the name "Drunken Pipe Bomb" for the Soldier Vs Demoman update's release.
** Meet the Engineer's music is now in the game as of the Engineer Update. Still no sign of Meet the Sniper.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}} 1'' had the infamous [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Cq26ESYz0 "Lost Song"]], which was only used once in the game, on Assault On The Control Room, and not included on the OST. Fortunately, it was released as a download, and more recently remastered as "Arborea Above" on the ''Anniversary'' soundtrack.
** The second game has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i_TTUhkN9A&feature=related this variation of In Amber Clad]] that's played only on Delta Halo after the battle with the dropship reinforcements at the beginning of the level, [[SequenceBreaking which most players skip]].
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFxRAurzH5k This percussion-based piece]] is heard on Quarantine Zone, only lasting about 45 seconds, and doesn't appear on the OST at all. On the same level, the song "Reclaimer" only plays about halfway before fading out. Same with "Pursuit of Truth" on High Charity.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE5wbumbPZ4&playnext=1&list=PL40BEF8E6AA5914EB A droning choral track]] starts up in Cairo Station after you return to the Armory and plays until the outside area, but this also didn't make it onto the OST. The only other time it appears is after crossing the Hanging Gardens on Gravemind.
*** The final level of ''{{Halo 3}}'', while you're going up the tower to the control room, has a variation of the middle part of "This is Our Land" with a distinctive drumbeat heard nowhere else in the game, and which was also omitted from the soundtrack.
* ''Film/GoldenEye'' has a music track that sounds like jungle music, but no music is heard in the Jungle stage, apart from a few seconds when you encounter Xenia (which does sound like a VariableMix of the unused jungle theme).
* "Triage at Dawn" (mistakenly called as "Path Of Borealis") in ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]''. It only plays for about half a minute when leaving Ravenholm, and doesn't play anywhere else. That didn't stop fan remixes and extensions, though.
** ''Half-Life 2'' did this a ''lot''. The music was good at setting the scene, getting you pumped, and so on, but it never lasted more than a minute. Everything you hear is Combine chatter and gunfire.
** The first game had some awesome tracks, but the problem was that it was all too easy to "waste" them by reloading a save point that was past the trigger for the track.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjLkGGGGZo "Oblivion"]] from ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 2'' only plays during a few short cutscenes, and is completely absent from the PC version, due to CD audio space limitations. It actually is indefinitely long, since each instrument sequence/loop is a different length, so they slowly drift out of sync. The PC version also had several of its songs shortened to fit the Redbook audio space on the CD, so some of the otherwise awesome music pieces are missing their most epic parts.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-vAyQJenrw "Approaching Colditz Castle"]], a CutSong from the first ''MedalOfHonor'', did get used in ''Allied Assault'', but only the first half of the song. Likewise, in that game, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8YpaIoqte0 "Securing the Codebook"]], another returning piece from the first game, is only used during the Behind Enemy Lines briefing, and at the beginning of the Siegfried Forest level as a short non-looping snippet (The full version does appear in one of the {{expansion pack}}s). The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYfkad4Ko5A first variation]] of the Nordhausen theme can be found in the music folder, but [[DummiedOut isn't used anywhere]], at least in the single player campaign. In ''Frontline'', there's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cNGFZQKSxs The Halftrack Chase]], which has quite alot more than you hear in-game, as only a few segments are used, during the truck RailShooter sequences. The full version of "Halftrack" was finally put to use for the second level of Mission 2 in ''Allied Assault: Spearhead'', where you actually ride on a halftrack.
* Due to its use of dynamic music (the music is split into many parts and dynamically remixes itself according to the situation), the official OST for ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' only represents roughly one third of the actual music in the game.
* The UpdatedRerelease of ''{{Descent}} II'', while featuring extended versions of the Redbook songs, pushed some of them onto the ''Vertigo Series'' disk, and changed the order of songs. Since the game only uses audiotrack 3 and up for gameplay, "Glut", "Cold Reality", and "Crush" got wasted as a result. This can be rectified with the Jukebox in the ''D2X Rebirth'' sourceport.
* ''Descent 3'''s official soundtrack release only had about half the music from the game. Jerry Berlongieri did release mp3s of some of the missing songs (which can be found floating around the net, although his own mp3 page no longer exists), but the others (such as the awesome [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVo4ejqPtho Level 13]] theme) can only be obtained by extracting the VariableMix segments from the game files and mixing them together.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' has two rock concert songs that plays during the finale of Dark Carnival, but you are unlikely to hear them in their entirety due to the Tank fights that happen in between zombie waves having their own remixed themes playing. You can listen to the songs on the jukeboxes in certain maps, but the AI Director will throw zombies hordes at you for idling too long.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has several party music themes that play at the party in Diamond Heist, but the songs stop playing the moment the alarm is triggered. You also can't stick around to hear every single song due to the patrolling guards. Only one of the songs from the party is on the game's official soundtrack.

[[AC:FourX]]
* This trope accurately describes ''every single Alien theme music'' in the PC Strategy Game ''{{Ascendancy}}''. When you meet/speak with any of the alien races, its unique music plays... and stops after about 30 seconds, sometimes in mid-movement. Extracting the files from the game reveals: the rest of the music isn't even there.

[[AC:HackAndSlash]]
* ''NoMoreHeroes 2: Desperate Struggle'' has several awesome pieces of music that are inexplicably played for ''very'' brief segments of the game, so often that it's a wonder that [[NoFourthWall the game doesn't lampshade it]]. The epic [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojfclpZEW_o& "No More Riot"]], which could easily double as a boss battle song, is only heard in the enemy-less stretch before two battles(Rank 50 and Rank 4, specifically), when the player is probably spending more time saving(where no music at all plays) than listening to the BGM. [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrTrwhY-50s "The Lost Spaceman"]]]] is heard only on the [[BreatherLevel bike ride]] on the way to Rank 3,'' and then never again. However, the most egregious example is the beautiful [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whxZvBOhiVM "An Assassin Named..."]], which gets about a minute of playtime in part of the final area of the Rank 2 level...and for most of it, it's drowned out by the MostAnnoyingSound of the enemies.
** In the first installment, a rather catchy tune plays at the beginning of the fight against Holly Summers. Then, you fall into a hole, a cutscene is triggered, and the music changes for the rest of the fight, never to be heard again.

[[AC:MechaGame]]
* The commercials for ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars: Original Generation 2'' and the UpdatedRerelease ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars: Original Generations'' both feature an epic remix of the song "Machine Soul" that has never been released on CD or in any other format. Cue the BigNo.
** In that same vein, hacking into the data files for ''SuperRobotWarsAlpha 3'', revealed that the GetterRobo team had a ''second song'', the series' first ending "Gattai! Getter Robo", on the disk, but ended up having its first theme, "Getter Robo!" used ''again''.

[[AC:{{MMORPG}}s]]
* ''MapleStory'''s Evan Promo Video. Twenty seconds of pure awesomeness.
* In ''RagnarokOnline'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow6uQyPlXyg Retro Metro]] only plays in one rather unpopular dungeon. That might not be too huge of a problem... but the fact that said dungeon ''was simply '''made inaccessible''' in a recent patch'' certainly is. At least you can always go to your BGM folder and listen to it whenever you want to.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN61-FfozBM "Good Morning"]] is played on Nameless Island during the daytime, something that is shown only once in the game.
* So far, every expansion of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has come with its own fully-orchestrated (complete with OminousLatinChanting) title theme: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HJLLQLP6AE "Burning Crusade"]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDdVZkR1W7M "Wrath of the Lich King"]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pggq5pAATA4 "Cataclysm"]]. The average player will never hear any of them for more than the few seconds it takes to log in. The music also plays when players create their characters, though, and people can remain on the title screen for a while if something on their end or the game server's is preventing them from logging in and they make multiple attempts.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIMAGINE'''s battle theme, starts getting awesome over 1 minute into the song. However, since most battles last no more than 15 seconds, it's impossible to listen the good part of the song in-game, being stuck to the annoying hig-pitch beginning of said song. The original battle theme is also loved dearly by old players, but after the implementation of Chain of Curse, that battle theme isn't used anymore. It's still in the bgm folder, but since version 1.605 the bgms have been encrypted, so it can't be simply played from the bgm folder normally.

[[AC:Multiple]]
* "Totaka's Song" is a brief signature tune which Nintendo composer Kazumi Totaka inserts into nearly every game he works on. It's usually hidden away and will only play under conditions which are either so obscure you'd never think to try it, or very difficult to achieve.
** ''MarioPaint'': Click the O in "MARIO" on the title screen.
** ''SuperMarioLand 2: 6 Golden Coins'': Wait 2 minutes, 40 seconds on the Game Over screen.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'': Go to Richard's villa and wait for 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
** ''VirtualBoy Wario Land'': After the credits, wait on the end screen for 1 minute, 15 seconds.
** ''Yoshi's Story'': Wait 2 minutes, 10 seconds on the Trial Mode level-select screen.
** ''Luigi's Mansion'': Wait 3 and a half minutes on the Training Room controller-configuration screen.
** ''AnimalCrossing'': Approach K. K. Slider when he plays music on Saturday night and request "K.K. Song".
** ''{{Pikmin}} 2'': Wait on the Treasures Salvaged screen for 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
* For the computer program ''[[http://www.clickteam.com/website/world/download-centre-retired-products The Games Factory]]'' (the first one), some of the tutorial games (included depending on what could be downloaded) have MIDI music, but the playtimes and/or time limit cut the music down to 30 seconds out of a minute or two before it starts over.

[[AC:PlatformGame]]
* The ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series seems to have a thing for this:
** The song "Ice Cave Chant" from ''Donkey Kong Country'' is used in only one level of the game--every other song save the final boss theme is used at least twice. It's a great song, too, like all DKC music.
*** In the GBC port, the track was used in the outdoor snow levels, while the "Kremlantis" track was used for the Ice Cave.
** ''Donkey Kong Country 2'' has several such songs. "Ship Deck 2" (called "Snakey Shantey" on the English soundtrack release), a more shanty-like version of the main deck theme, only plays through one stage (Rattle's Battle), but can be briefly heard at the end of an unrelated underwater stage. The Haunted Hall theme only plays in one stage which happens to be noisy, on rails, and containing bonus stages in places such that a fast player can make it through the stage and never hear a full loop of the song. Then there's Bad Bird Rag, which only plays during the latter half of the final level.
*** Said "unrelated underwater stage" is probably Glimmer's Galleon. In the GBA version, it only plays the ordinary ship deck music (Klomp's Romp) at the end, limiting Snakey Shantey even more. There's also the K. Rool death theme, which exists in the game's music code but never plays in-game, allowing the final boss music to continue playing as your character dies.
*** In the GBA port, "Run, Rambi Run!" does not play in-game (it's replaced by Bad Bird Rag, boosting the song to two uses), yet is still accessible in the Music Test.
*** "Mining Melancholy" actually gets a decent amount of play, as it appears in every stage set in a mineshaft-type area, but for whatever reason it was not included on the game's official soundtrack.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry 2'' gives us [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUGU_Zlf9tU "Disco Train"]], a really catchy tune with a decidedly funky bass line. Sadly, it's only played in the [[MinecartMadness rollercoaster levels]], and, as such, unless you stick around on one spot for a few minutes, it's going to be drowned out by the screeching of the rails. The fireworks constantly going off in the background don't help, either.
** ''DonkeyKong64'' has a number of pieces used only in a small area, but the standout in terms of oddness is probably [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qmNY5KI4s "Mad Maze Maul"]]. For some reason, a seemingly ordinary Bonus Barrel mini-game got its own track, as opposed to every other bonus barrel having the same theme elsewhere. It's much more upbeat and jazzy than the song used in the other barrel mini-games, too.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6QJ1m7EQ3I "Use Your Head"]], widely considered to be the best song from the original ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' soundtrack, is played very briefly in the "helicopter" area of the last stage. It takes approximately twenty seconds to pass this part, but the PC/Sega CD version of the song goes on for 3 minutes before looping (and includes a wicked guitar solo.)
** That particular song gets used a fair bit more in the Genesis/Megadrive version; appearing during the mechanical chicken battle and in the fight against Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt.
** This song appears again in the Beast Chase level in the [=PlayStation=] game ''VideoGame/{{Wild 9}}'', which also had Music/TommyTallarico as its composer. Interestingly enough, the ''Wild 9'' game disc, due to using standard Red Book Compact Disc Digital Audio for its music rather than a proprietary format as with most [=PlayStation=] games, also serves as its own OST (when played in an ordinary CD player or computer disc drive), with "Use Your Head" being track 10 (track 1 on the disc being the game data track, with everything else being Compact Disc Digital Audio). (The CD version of ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' also uses Red Book audio.)
* Track 10 in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'''s SoundTest isn't played anywhere else in the game, and it's pretty good, too. It's actually from the famously DummiedOut Hidden Palace Zone.
** Death Egg Zone's theme is surprisingly long, considering it's only heard in one really short hallway before the final boss fights. You only end up hearing it for the -5 seconds it takes to run into the room with Silver Sonic, who inexplicably has the standard boss music instead of the rest of the Death Egg Zone theme.
*** Death Egg had a DummiedOut second act in the beta version, meaning it was originally supposed to be a full length stage, the reason for the song length.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdvance'' has a similar situation at work- the final stage, the X-Zone, is nothing more than a boss rush; you spend no more than a few seconds outside of boss fights playing normally. However, the music used exclusively for this stage is quite long...
** The theme for the options menu in ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' is a full orchestrated piece.
** Also from ''Colors'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=401mLV1oEqY the theme to the Terminal Velocity overworld map]] could easily have been used for an actual stage, but instead it's subject to playing on the one map screen you'll be spending the least amount of time on.
* The first phase of the final boss battle in ''Donkey Kong '94'' for Game Boy is accompanied by the longest (1:25) and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXaDv4B6EW8 most complex song in the game]]: a chiptune guitar imitation that goes into a ridiculous "solo" a minute in. But the battle itself takes only a few moments to beat if you're good enough.
* The cutscenes in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' are filled to the brim with original compositions. In an interesting move, the company that made the game (Double Fine) released a "cinematic soundtrack" for the game, consisting of all the cutscene music remixed and performed orchestrally.
* The original ''{{Banjo-Kazooie}}'' has several unique, one-off melodies for a few relatively tiny areas, such as the houses of Nabnuts and Gnawty in Click-Clock Wood, and the Twinklies' mini-game (which you can't play once you've gotten the Jiggy for it) in Freezeezy Peak.
* The Dr. Wily stage intro song in ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' is 13 seconds long, but the longest you get to hear of it are about 5 seconds.
** Proto Man's theme is an infinitely better example of this: you've probably only ever heard the initial whistle part in the actual game. The only way to hear the rest of the song during the game is to use a certain [[GoodBadBugs Good Bad Bug]] on the second controller to prevent the game from switching to the actual ending music.
*** Or just hit Start as soon as Mega Man enters the room. Music plays all the way through.
** Also, ''Wily Stage 5 & 6''. Since each of these these stages only consist of a single room followed by a BossBattle, you'll probably only hear the first few seconds.
** The Robot Museum theme in ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'' is a nifty blend of the level themes for a few classic Robot Masters, but you probably won't hear most of it before you walk into the boss room (which is ''right in front of you'' when you start the level!)
** ''VideoGame/MegaMan8's'' awesome intro music is, sadly, nowhere to be found on the OST.
** There's a track in ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' played only during the racing minigame you can do at the KTOX television station. The most you'll ever hear of it is 29 seconds, and that's only if you keep your race rank on the technical course at D ''and'' grab all the time extension cones. The worst part is that at the 25-second mark, a snazzy sounding saxaphone starts to play.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZakd6FxWOA Undernet theme]] in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork Mega Man Network Transmission]]'' is probably one of the best, most energetic songs in any of the post-Classic games, but you spend so little time in the two areas it's used that you'll probably barely hear any of it if you don't ever stop to smell the roses.
* The single BandLand sublevel in ''Vexx'' has a long, unique, jazzy melody that starts out slow and builds to a frantic pace. It's quite long, but it only plays in that one area.
* ''VideoGame/SonicRushSeries'''s DS Download Demo version had stage music remixes made using only the DS' PSG sound chip, such as "What U Need Is PSG", a remix of "What U Need", lending the songs a Game Boy Advance-like sound quality. This was presumably done to lower the amount of space needed for the download.
** The PSG mixes appear in the retail game's stages if you're playing a local multiplayer race.
* In ''SuperMonkeyBall'', the "Monkey Target" minigame has, scattered among the larger targets, a small cylindrical object that's very difficult to hit. As it turns out, landing on the object gives you a special fanfare (which ''might'' be shared with other similarly tiny target spaces).
* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' has several pieces of music that are used only in one obscure place. The biggest offender is the Hedgehog Hammer theme, which is used for a particular minigame, but ''only'' if you play that minigame through the main menu - if you go to it in the adventure field, which is how you have to access it the first time, the adventure field music plays instead. There are also a number of tracks used only in single cutscenes.
** Similarly, "Calm After The Storm" is supposed to be the Egg Carrier music after it ditches in the ocean, but is only played in one cutscene, while the regular Egg Carrier theme is still used when you travel around the now-abandoned carrier. A shame.
** The game's theme tune, "Open Your Heart", plays in instrumental form in several places, but the full version only plays during the final credits. A truncated, looping version plays for the final boss battle. Or at least, over the first part of the final boss battle. The part which, if you know what you're doing and have a bit of luck, lasts significantly less time than the first verse.
** Not to mention Snowy Mountain, in Ice Cap from the same game. It only plays in Sonic's first section of the level which is cleared in 30 seconds, and is a really ambient song which after about a minute in has a pretty awesome guitar solo.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'''s "Supporting Me" is a very soft, almost poignant tune, with the typical semi-inaudible lyrics we've come to expect from Shadow's stages (see White Jungle and Final Chase)...which you will likely be unable to hear due to the rather ''loud'' boss you're fighting at the time, the Biolizard. Thankfully it got included on the soundtrack CD.
** ''Adventure'' is full of songs where you only hear 90 seconds or so but go on much longer. "Azure Blue World" (Emerald Coast) is an excellent example. The song itself is almost 4 1/2 minutes long.
* On another Sonic note, ''Mega Collection'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G82lehdcQrg&feature=channel&fmt=18 this]], which is never used at all. As it turns out said song went along with a similarly DummiedOut [[http://tcrf.net/Sonic_Mega_Collection video that showed off the capabilities of the Sofdec video codec.]]
* ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' contains a rather neat remix of ''E.G.G.M.A.N'' by Paul Shortino. Unfortunately, the segment used in the game is less than 30 seconds long, only used in one cutscene and is buried in the SoundTest behind the anonymous "Event" title. The full version of the track did eventually appear on the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H34JxbKDCYA "Lost And Found"]] soundtrack CD, however.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0XOLM9FPw "Here's a Little Bonus Room"]] from ''VideoGame/{{Skullmonkeys}}''.
** Its predecessor, ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'', also had one: Backtracking to the first room's basement after [[spoiler:Willie dies]] and reading one of the notes from the mailbox (which were formerly written by Willie) will give you new background music, as well as a series of taunts from Klogg.
** Much of the stuff played by the radio might count, as you only need to tune one song randomly chosen by the game from a sequence of about five. Although most of the stations after the sequence only play surreal sound effects, not quite songs.
** The demo game of ''The Neverhood'', (that is, the one that came on the PC Gamer Magazine disk) had a haunting melody that involved whistling; it was not included in the finished product.
** And what about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tCFrI8TQgw&feature=related "Psychedelic Boogie Child"]]? You can hear it ONLY if you collect ALL 1970s marks from Monk Rushermore + all secret marks. Then you need to go in the secret level and from there you can go into 1970s level. Btw. Once you drop in one of the level(s), you can't get back.
* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' has a really cool "[[AwardBaitSong pop vocal]]" song in the credits, but because it's preceded by a lengthy orchestral piece, it fades out immediately after one verse and chorus have passed. The CD soundtrack version is just as short. It's hard to believe that's all they recorded.
* The ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' Jukebox, which comes with the game itself, has a number of songs that didn't make it to the final version, such as "Aqua Wish" (presumably for some underwater area) and "Good Morning Mom" (which might have originally been used in the FinalBoss fight with Mother), as well as "prototype" versions of songs that are used in-game. Additionally, there's a "song" in the game that basically just simulates nighttime sound effects, and it plays in one, and only one part of the game: when you make the surface go into nighttime as part of the steps to unlocking the BonusLevelOfHell.
* The official soundtrack for ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar Ultra'' lacks quite a lot of songs from the game, such as the creepy [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY0gm--zv6k Final Four]] theme from "The TRUE Arena".
** The music for Corn Hall in "Gourmet Race", in both ''KSSU'' and the original ''Kirby Super Star'', is a minute and a half long; you'll spend about 40 seconds in the course. The game does have a SoundTest, but it's not unlockable until far after you first hear the song.
** ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Air Ride'' has very nice musical pieces, one of which is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piJ4SjRvtZ4 "Target Flight"]] (an orchestrated version of ''Super Star'''s "Cocoa Cave" music.). The entire song lasts for at least 2 minutes, and it's very awesome indeed. Too bad that the actual Target Flight event only lasts 15 seconds long. At least the SoundTest is available right off the bat.
** [[FinalBoss Miracle Matter]]'s theme in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards''. It got sandwiched in between other themes that became far more well known, such as the theme of the entire world, the theme for the second level of the world, [[spoiler: and ESPECIALLY the True Final Boss's theme.]] Thankfully, the creators remembered that the song exists and put it in one of the new challenge stages in ''Kirby's Dream Collection''. [[spoiler: Smash Challenge EX, to be exact.]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaSg-4nZTbk The ending theme]] of ''[[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi's Story]]'', naturally, plays only upon clearing the game, but since it's a short game, it's not very difficult to hear. However, it's noticeably absent from the official soundtrack to the game.
** There are actually '''three''' soundtracks released for the game: ''Music To Pound the Ground To'' (the Amercian soundtrack, which includes only 15 tracks, yet presumably includes the ending theme), ''Love, Peace & Happiness'' (the European 28-track-long soundtrack, which is the most common version to find on the Internet), and the Japanese soundtrack (which includes a whopping ''50'' tracks, including the bonus track "Yoshi's Staff Voices," [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSKfg8aLCoo which can be found here]]).
* Possibly the bonus music for the Mona Pizza song in ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'', you basically have to bought ''VideoGame/WarioWare Twisted'', put the game in the GBA slot, started ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' and then got the Toy in game. Oh, and [[NoExportForYou the WarioWare Twisted was never released in Europe]].
* The Sega Genesis video game ''{{Contra}}: Hard Corps'' includes in its sound test a theme titled [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zApy7OEV0U "Jurassic Dope"]]. This song is heard in only two areas of the game. One is nothing but a very brief cutscene consisting of a text box, a selection of two choices, and one more text box afterward. The other instance is a second cutscene, this one with a whopping ''one'' dialogue box. The song itself is a minute and a half in length. Unless you're an extremely slow reader, you won't be hearing the whole thing ingame.
** Another song from Hard Corps that went almost unheard was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCrAN1TPwns "Moonlit Army"]], also played at two distinct points in the game and abruptly gets cut off after half a minute at best. The song itself lasts nearly two and a half minutes, and slowly becomes more intense and elaborate. Not that you would ever get that close to truly appreciate it.
* The background theme of the Game Boy puzzle-platformer ''Altered Space'', which runs nearly a minute and a half, restarts every time a new room is entered-- and, to add insult to injury, takes a whole ten seconds to actually start up, when most rooms will be visited for only a few seconds.
* In ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}: The Video Game'' (2009), Ray Parker Jr.'s iconic Ghostbusters theme song is used. During the opening cutscene, the song stops abruptly shortly after the verse starts. Similarly, the theme fires up over the ending credits, only to come to a badly-edited halt seconds later. The only other time the theme is heard in the game is during loading screens, which only appear after your character dies. Even then, the song never plays for more than 30 seconds. If not for the above, this trope could have been considered averted, as the game uses all of the movie's original score, even including some portions that were never used in the movie.
** But then, it's not like that song is unattainable elsewhere.
* The Emperor's theme in SNES ''Super Return of the Jedi''; it is heard in a few (short) cutscenes and as the background music in two (also short) levels, but the game switches to its standard boss theme when you actually confront Vader and (more noticeably) the Emperor himself.
* The final boss theme from the [[NintendoHard nightmarishly]] [[SpikesOfDoom hard]] sixth ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' game is an awesome remix of the Sigma themes from the first two games. You'll probably defeat the boss within twenty seconds.
* The ''BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' commercial has one of the best songs they ever made, but the game's theme song but was changed into something more playful. Thankfully, you can see the commercial and hear the song on the official site.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand 4'''s final level is the Golden Passage. It has an [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome awesome, mildly creepy, and perfectly fitting song]]... that you will never hear in-game. The Frog Switch is located directly below the level entrance, meaning you only hear about half a second of the song. Pausing doesn't work- it just stops the music.
* ''{{Rosenkreuzstilette}}'' has an egregious example of this. Sky God Corridor's "Dark Purple Moon" is perhaps one of the more epic songs in the game - and yet it not only gets wasted once, but ''twice'' - for the confrontations with Grolla and her grandpa. At least they have a soundtrack somewhere....
** Also, the password track, "Snow-Covered Ground", which depending on how you see it, loops for either half a minute or a whole minute and a half. Definitely between stages, when you're shown a password, but even when you're entering one, you probably won't take long enough naturally to hear the "ending" part of the loop. (Anyone wanna explain better?)
* Papu Papu's boss theme from the original ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot1996'' is surprisingly good, but considering the boss is ridiculously easy to beat (even by [[HardLevelsEasyBosses this series' standards]]) few players ever heard very much of it.
** Dr. N. Brio actually had his theme remixed for ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack'' like the other returning bosses, except you only heard short bits of it twice throughout the entire game; once when he contacts Crash after you collect the first gem, and twice when he contacts Crash after you collect all the gems. Good luck trying to listen to his theme, as N. Brio's voice pretty much drowns it out. Thankfully, Josh Mancell finally released the full track on his [[https://www.facebook.com/pages/music-by-Josh-Mancell/106760029361776 music fan-page]], so now we can listen to the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE0FYOk2LAI&feature=related track]] in its crystal-clear glory.
* In ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrLdWOWLpH8 this "below decks" version of the Airship music]] plays only in a very small area, which is the room right before the first fight with [[OverlordJr Bowser Jr.]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50iJZlkHvyU This music]] is used in the options menu of ''Daffy Duck in Hollywood'' for Sega Mega Drive. Let me just reiterate that: it's used in the '''options menu'''. Who spends over two minutes on the options screen?
** Oh, even better? It's also used on the Game Over screen. For all of ''ten seconds''. It's almost as if Daffy himself were directing the music choices.
** In the comments on that [=YouTube=] video, [[WordOfGod Matt Furniss himself]] has confirmed that the developers took an unused level theme and just slapped it on the options screen.
* The Wii version of ''ABoyAndHisBlob'' has a sound test mode that's laid out like a level of the game--you have jellybeans to use there for navigation, and you listen to songs by feeding the many blobs scattered around the level jellybeans. However, dropping a Hole bean in a ''very'' specific spot lets you access a ''tiny'' underground cave. It has four blobs that play remixed versions of the BGM from the ''original'' NES ''A Boy and His Blob.'' They're not used anywhere else in the game, and ''getting'' to them is very nearly a GuideDangIt. Which is a shame, because they're nice remixes.
* The Subspace music in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' (a remix of the Overworld music from the first game) runs a bit longer than the time you are allowed in Subspace (and you cannot pause there). A trick involving a super star and perfect timing will replace the normal stage music with the Subspace music (and allow you to pause and listen to the "bass and percussion" version of the track).
* The lava overworld theme in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' for the DS. It's refereshingly unlike anything else in the entire ''Mario'' series. It's only used in three levels, and two of those require you to hurry through them, so you won't have much chance to enjoy it outside of YouTube.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', many themes come under this. You've got any of Squizzard's themes, because the battle is the only place in the game with a different fire flower theme, the final battle music, because it's over in about ten seconds, the Boss Blitz Galaxy music (it's actually got unique music, but you never hear it because the boss themes override it) and the Perfect Run level themes, all from the original Galaxy, and all found in two screens maximum.
** Two screens that you ''will'' play [[NintendoHard again and again and again]].
** Also in ''NSMB'', the Starman (invincibility) theme is only played for a few seconds. Nothing special, right? Actually, this game's Starman theme is the one from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', whose Starman theme is quite unique compared to those from other Mario games. Sadly, the actual unique part of the theme does not play in-game; the entire theme is only accessible in minigames or through cheats.
* The awesome ending theme of ''SonicTheHedgehog 3'' (the basis for MichaelJackson's "Stranger in Moscow) can only be heard if you play it without ''Sonic & Knuckles'' locked on. They replaced it with a medley of the level themes in ''S & K'' and ''S3 & K''.
** Locking on ''S & K'' also overrides other ''Sonic 3'' themes, such as the mini-boss theme and Knuckles' theme; those tracks' counterparts from the former play instead, even in the levels from the latter.
* The NES and Game Boy versions of ''VideoGame/DuckTales 2'' have an excellent little piece of swing-ish music that plays enroute to the final boss - during a sharply truncated stage with no enemies and no reason to linger. And then it gets mostly drowned out by dialog SFX when it starts looping.
* The SNES version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia'' has three one-time level themes; Level 17, Level 19, and Level 20, the first and last of which only consist of short corridors ending with {{boss battle}}s.
* In ''EpicMickey'', Mean Street has its own battle theme, a heavier, faster-tempo remix of the city's main theme. It goes for about two minutes without looping. However, the only time there is a normal battle in Mean Street, it's just three of the weakest enemies in the game, so the battle is over within several seconds.
* In ''VideoGame/BionicCommando''(NES version and its remake), the catchy Area 8 music plays exclusively in that stage. The only other level with unique music is Area 12, but that at least makes sense, since it is the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
* ''RaymanOrigins'' had an absolutely [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8YsemYwih8 amazing final boss track,]] that was cut along with the final boss itself. Luckily, it's available on the official soundtrack.
* Similar to the ''MegaMan'' examples, the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UEvXaXMWiQ Rainbow Transport]] music from ''VideoGame/KeithCourageInAlphaZones'' is 19 seconds long, but in-game, it plays for all of 3 seconds.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games Part 2]]

[[AC:PuzzleGame]]
* How long do you spend at the map screen in ''KatamariDamacy''? [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9fOAG5Xz8 Probably not 3 minutes and 13 seconds]]. Probably not even the minute it takes before the oom-pah band comes in.
** The song still plays while you're viewing your collection, so it's not too wasted... now, on the other hand, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD3LDEHuaxo "Wanda Wanda"]] is played exactly once - during your first run of the first stage, and before that, when you start the game, you get to hear a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxfVEl1998 neat techno mix thingie]] of the basic "na na" theme during the tutorial.
* ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster 3'' has several:
** A relaxing tune plays in Master mode when the "speed level" is between 500 and 700. However, if you're playing particularly well, it only plays for one section, so you rarely hear the second half of it.
** The game data has a DummiedOut song named "[=sakura2=]", probably intended for the Sakura mode but was never used. It's completely inaccessible in the game.
** Poking around in the game data also reveals that the music which plays in the rule/mode select menus is over a minute in length. Being an arcade game, menus all have time limits, and even if you stall as much as possible, you'll never hear more than the first third of the track.
* ''Tetris DS'' has "Ancient Tetris", a nice remix of the original Type A/Korobeiniki song. Unfortunately, it only appears in level 20, and given the speed of the game at that point it won't go on for long, unless you abuse infinite rotation, which is normally a ScrappyMechanic. Even in the Endless mode the music switches back to level one when you beat level 20.
* Tetris DX' Type B Music is longest and most elaborate at the "intermediate" level of Danger. you'll never hear all of it unless you let the tetriminos stack up to the appropriate height on a lower level, and then let them soft drop.
* ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}} 3D'' had a fairly lush soundtrack, but a couple of the best tracks were only used very scarcely. One track - an alternate garden theme - did, in fairness, get used extensively in the practice levels, but the alternate Egyptian theme was an incredibly cool piece of rock music with a very cool guitar solo right in the middle, and it only got used in two levels, 30 stages apart. Although, they were both fairly long levels, so it's only a minor offender. Still, given the number of egyptian levels, and the ridiculously badass nature of the piece of music, it's a crime it didn't get used more.
* Whereas the Amiga version of Lemmings (and most of the standard ports) cycles through the 17 tunes so that each is heard the same number of times, the SegaGenesis version has a highly irregular matching of tunes to levels. "Rondo Alla Turca" only appears three times.
* ''VideoGame/{{Panel de Pon}}'''s final boss theme, ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHg1_AloGEk The Place where Evil Sleeps]]'', is an epic {{Ominous Pipe Organ}} {{Crowning Music of Awesome}} that plays during matches against the Goddess of Light, Cordelia. In the American localization, ''Tetris Attack''? Relegated to a short monologue from Bowser, whose [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xrfzL_a2n8 actual stage theme]] (which plays on Thanatos's stage in PDP) is decidedly less epic.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JUVSPpO9ZE Lip's stage theme]] was relegated to gameplay tutorials - which you never have to watch in the first place - when ''Tetris Attack'' gave Yoshi a unique stage theme.
* ''Pokémon Trozei!'' has a couple of surprisingly awesome [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcmqmM9J3k unique]] [[http://youtu.be/BCKtlJipgd8 tracks]] that only rarely play on higher levels of the unlockable Forever mode. Considering how quickly the game will be moving by the time you reach that point, you probably won't be hearing very much of them.

[[AC:RealTimeStrategy]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyY1M2UY69o "Revolution"]] plays in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' if you elect to revolt during the Industrial Age instead of heading to Imperial. It's a sweeping piece that makes beautiful use of its brass instruments, but it's unlikely to come up in a game because accessing it cripples your economy in exchange for a powerful but brief military edge, and many players prefer to end the game before the option even comes up. On top of that, it barely lasts a minute and ''will'' be interrupted if you do the sensible thing and use your newfound military might to attack the enemy base before your edge wears off.
* ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' uses "Through The Fire And Flames", an amazing power metal song almost 7 1/2 minutes long...for a chase scene that lasts about one minute. Especially jarring for longtime Music/DragonForce fans, of course.
** Also, in the music video for said song, they cut out most of the bridge/interlude and the last verse.
* In the original ''{{Pikmin}}'', one of the only times the music changes in the game is during the lone fight with the [[ThatOneBoss Beady Long-Legs]].
** Some of the sub-levels in the Glutton's Kitchen, one of the more obscure of the many dungeons in ''{{Pikmin}} 2'', have unique melodies that don't play elsewhere.

[[AC:RhythmGame]]
* While most of the songs in Harmonix's ''Frequency'' fall under this, the fan favorite "Motomatic" can only be found in the game, and full version of the song are virtually impossible to find. It's a gem lost in time.
* ''BeatmaniaIIDX'' has the song "Skin", a song that appeared once in the arcade version of ''Beatmania IIDX 3rd Style'' and never appeared in the series again, not even on a console release.
* ''[[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution DDRMAX]]'' has the Eurobeat songs "Flash in the Night" and "Follow Me", which were never included in any other arcade versions, nor any console versions outside of Japan, probably due to licensing problems. "Baby Love Me" from ''MAX2 AC'' was also never repeated or exported.
** Many other songs from the Japanese series still have yet to appear on a US version, again due to either licensing issues or CulturalTranslation. And since TaQ left Konami, none of his songs have been repeated.
* ''{{DJMAX}} Technika'' has "The Night Stage". Whereas every other song gets appearances in at least two modes, or appears once in an easy-to-access manner, "The Night Stage" gets only one use: in the Cotton Candy set as the more difficult boss song that can only be obtained by hitting at least 95% of notes in the first 3 stages with a "MAX!!!" judgment, which is a fairly difficult feat unless you've been playing for many months. You can also play the song in a special championship set...[[BadExportForYou that only appeared on the Korean version's Platinum Crew service.]] ''Technika 2'' recitifies this by allowing you to play the song any time you want in the Black & White set.
* If you played the ''Japanese'' home version of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution 7th Mix'', unlocked a mode called Endless Mode, then enabled an option to give yourself periodic "break stages" (where the game lets you pause indefinitely after every few songs), you'll get to listen to a song called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l7ObEWtKwE Feelings won't Fade]] when the break stage comes up. Apart from being included in a limited-release special soundtrack CD, this song didn't really get any exposure until many years later.

[[AC:Roguelike]]

* In Dark Cloud, Norune Village has a theme which can only be heard before you begin rebuilding it. Which is probably just a walk accross the map unless you stand around to hear it.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'', there are catchy remixes of the themes for the Ragged Mountain, Hazy Pass, and Holehills. The problem is that neither of the ways you can hear them are very convenient. The first is by revisiting those dungeons after you beat the game (Something you'll likely have little reason to do), then being sent to an alternate version of those dungeons while you explore them through a rare and random event. The second is by listening to them at the Musical Paradise (More or less the game's soundtest), but said songs are only unlocked once you've gotten your Paradise rank to Perfect, which requires getting 99,999 points and is probably the last thing you'll accomplish in the game.

[[AC:RolePlayingGame]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD3SMmAFUjE Saturos's battle theme]], the most popular song from ''VideoGame/GoldenSun,'' is played twice in the game; the first time, it's in an unwinnable battle that's over in 5 seconds. The second time is 25% of the way through the game. In the sequel ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age'', it is the theme for the BonusBoss Star Magician. It can be heard at any time via a secret SoundTest (which you'd never find if not for GameFAQs). In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', Camelot apparently thought the few times it was used in the GameBoyAdvance games wasn't enough, so in ''Dark Dawn'', it's the BattleThemeMusic for ''all four {{Bonus Boss}}es'', one of which is the aforementioned Star Magician, who makes another appearance along with Dullahan, the latter of which reprises his position as the hardest boss in the game. The song's appearance in ''Dark Dawn'' makes it one of the few tracks to appear in every game in the series in some form, despite starting out as an example of this trope.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPVP5V_nR5o The Linked Battle theme]] qualifies as well (if not more), since the only way to hear it outside of the two-player battle mode (which many have likely never tried) and the aforementioned SoundTest is a brief scene in the first game when you automatically outrun a boulder in a mine. And that only lasts the first 10 seconds. It was also used again during the dice game in ''The Lost Age'' -- ''if'' you decide to double up.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjQLhg4hTxM Jenna's battle theme]] is an aversion; it only plays during the prologue, but you can use an EasterEgg to get it in any encounter without a special theme (said easter egg can be used only after you can beaten ~over 2/3 of the game)
** There's also the boss theme that plays when fighting [[BadassNormal human characters who cannot use Psynergy]] ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz5fujEpN-s Non-Adepts]]). Naturally, it only plays twice.
** Did you know that Briggs has a {{leitmotif}} ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRUOauz4ATE "There Goes Briggs!"]])? ''It only plays in one of his cutscenes.'' Briggs is also one of the two BadassNormal bosses mentioned just above, so he gets two {{Wasted Song}}s in his honor.
** ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' has a nice remix of Vale's theme from the first game that plays in Patcher's Place, which like Vale was in the first game is the first town encountered in the game. Due to a PointOfNoReturn very early in the game, it can't be heard again without exploiting a [[GoodBadBugs Good Bad Bug]] (which isn't available until the very end of the game) or using a cheating device. (This is averted with the music that plays in Carver's Camp in the same portion of the game, which can be heard anytime later in the game since it isn't limited to one town like the redone Vale music.)
*** Belinsk's theme falls under the same fate. It has a very upbeat and Russian sounding music, but once [[spoiler: the Grave Eclipse is triggered]], you lose access to the city for the rest of the game until you beat the final boss. The song can be heard again in the game's ending when the party travels back to Belinsk one last time before leaving for home.
* VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue has a song that plays while controlling a boat in the overworld. But there's only one part in the entire game where you use the boat and that one voyage lasts a grand total of 8 seconds. And then you never hear the song again. WorkingDesigns actually sped up the song in the English version just so people could hear the whole thing.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' has "Schala's Theme" - since the only time you hear it is in her bedroom and once later on in the Terra Caves after finishing the Mountain of Woe; and again, you'd only hear the full version if you set the controller down and don't advance the dialogue.
** The NintendoDS version does not restore the first half of Frog's theme, which turns an already epic song into an even more epic one. Fortunately the full version is on the soundtrack and was even given notice in the Video Games Live concert medley for the Chrono games.
** There's a slow movement of sorts to [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Lavos' Theme]], taken from "The Last Day of the World". It's in the data, but the looping point is set right before it starts.
*** Yes and no. In the original SNES version, it depends upon the scene whether or not the slow movement will be heard. For example, minor cutscenes (such as Lavos' impact in 65,000,000 BC) will play the "short version", as will going to Lavos very early in New Game + or fighting Lavos long enough in the Ocean Palace. However, other major scenes, such as the very first Lavos cutscene (in Arris Dome, heard only if you put the controller down) and using the bucket to go to AD 1999, with grant you the full version.
*** Changed in the DS version. Every time the Lavos's theme is heard, the full version will be used, despite the situation.
** Another one that's wasted is the "full version" of Crono's theme. This only plays in the attract screen if you leave the title screen alone. Normally Crono's Theme plays three times, but then switches to an epic closure. Music rips from the game itself can't reproduce the work because either the loop is always stuck where it is, or the part of the song is finally loaded into the sound memory.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''
** "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMntblDX0Bg&fmt=18 The Dream that Time Dreams]]" (frequently [[SpellMyNameWithAnS translated as]] "Time of the Dreamwatch"), an absolutely epic piece that recalls some of the melodies from original ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' songs (as well as the theme of VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers, "Distant Promise") in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'''s signature style. It plays in exactly two places: one of the more obscure MultipleEndings, and the game's ''AttractMode''.
** The Home World Termina theme's intro doesn't get much use. You'll hear the Home Termina theme quite a bit in the one in Another World [[spoiler:after Porre takes over it]], but that's a shortened version that opens with a crescendo of bagpipes that normally plays after the part cut in this situation. The easiest way to hear it is during a small scene in which Glenn is asking for bellflowers from a merchant at the entrance of Another Termina, but the music for that version kicks in right after the conversation ends. As for Home Termina, for some reason later in the game its music is replaced by Fossil Valley's music, "Drowned Valley."
* In Flower Fields in the original ''VideoGame/PaperMario,'' two areas had completely unique music that isn't played anywhere else in the game. One of them was in the area with Petunia, while she's being attacked by Monty Moles. It has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM5AO0FND7c surprisingly epic music]]. The second is in the tower with the fallen Sun, which has a gorgeous, Spanish-style melody... that completely vanishes after you rescue it. Bummer. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOS-yu_c1C8 Good thing it didn't vanish from the Internet, eh?]]
** Additionally, "The Master!"-- a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOmjYCnx-ds fairly epic battle theme]]-- only plays during a few optional fights in the game's Dojo, after which point it's LostForever. This wouldn't be so bad if the song weren't conspicuously absent from the official soundtrack. The song ''was'', however, present in the follow-up "Lost Tracks" soundtrack-- in severely clipped form, lasting significantly less than the full duration of the song.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxnDp6QV_Ow a cutesy mash-up of Geno's theme]] and the main overworld music from ''Super Mario World'' that plays precisely one time in the game itself, during the cutscene in which you meet Gaz, and then is never heard again. It did make it onto the soundtrack, [[NoExportForYou but, of course...]]
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17JDRUDgxVo a nice remix]] of one of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'''s overworld themes that plays when Mario rides the blimp to Glitzville... but the only way to hear more than six seconds of it is to wait on Chapter 3's introduction screen, which only pops up once in the entire game.
** ''The Thousand-Year Door'' also has a tune that goes for nearly two minutes without looping... used only on its ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZoCLi000js&fmt=18 file selection screen]]''.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' includes a fast techno/electronic song for the Darkness you have to fight - and the first time you fight her, it's inevitable that you die. It's basically the only thing you have to look forward to by the time you have to fight her again... and again (you will not beat her the first time, no matter what). The rest of the music gets repetitive.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' brings us Gau's theme. Other than a remix in the medley at the end of the game, it plays exactly twice. One is a short scene when you first meet him; the other is when Gau meets his father in an entirely optional event that doesn't give any other rewards. Shame too; it's a wonderfully soothing (synthesized) cello piece.
** Also as a wasted ''sound effect'' is Kefka's original laugh. Though heard almost every time he appears, it is only heard once in the official OST (in the middle of a very long track of the final battle music). Furthermore, the Playstation and Gameboy advance ports of the game did not have the same sound specifications, which makes it sound really garbled and off-key from the original. However, the VirtualConsole version is based more directly on the original version of the game (down to using the original MarketBasedTitle of ''Final Fantasy III'' outside of Japan), so at least it be heard normally on a newer system.
** Gogo's Theme. It only plays inside the Triangle Island dungeon, which is absurdly hard to find and fairly short.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has "Birth of a God", a variation on Sephiroth's theme song which plays only during the first stage of the final boss fight... a fight which, since the player is powered up to GameBreaker levels by this point, is usually over in less than a minute.
** The "Jenova Absolute" battle theme immediately prior is likewise excellent, and the battle is over far too quickly. At least the third battle song in this row, "One Winged Angel", doesnt' get wasted.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has an Irish jig which is one of the most fun pieces of music in the game. You can only hear it in two places: first, by picking the jig instruments during the concert partway through the game (which seems counterintuitive, as it's meant to be romantic); or second, by finishing the Shumi Village sidequest (in which case the music seems completely inaccurate to the setting). The track does not appear on the official soundtrack.
** Even worse is the terrible misuse of "The Legendary Beast", which only plays when Griever uses his ultimate attack, which theoretically happens after a certain point, but because by that point you're likely to be at GameBreaker status, you get to hear about 30 seconds from a brilliant piece of boss fight music, although the intro is at least synched to the attack so they're 30 really good seconds.
** In regards to the Irish Jig, if you're feeling malicious, you can choose half instruments from the sexy-lounge-song version of "Eyes On Me" and half Irish Jig instruments, just to giggle over the chaos that will undoubtedly result... Only to discover that they're in the same key and non-clashing tempos, and there are no train wrecks to be had. TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything, sadly. (Also, the Irish Jig can be gotten at if you play a PSF file for it on a compatible media player; on Windows, this can be done by downloading Neill Corlett's [[http://www.neillcorlett.com/psf/ PSF plugin for Winamp]] and on Linux the Audacious media player has built-in support for the format.)
** If one were to listen to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr4eB0WOwN0 "The Oath"]] prior to playing ''FFVIII'', they would surely come to the conclusion that such a great song would be used often during the game's awesome cutscenes. While it does appear in a couple good cutscenes, it seems to last no longer than several boxes of dialogue.
** A particularly {{egregious}} case, since The Oath is the ''main characters'' theme.
* This is slightly different, but still on the theme of poorly-utilized music: "Zidane's Theme" from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' is a very, ''very'' long track which only plays during one very, ''very'' short cutscene early on Disc 1. Hence, you're only likely to hear about half the track, if that. This isn't a huge loss, because the music isn't actually that good, but noteworthy because, toward the end of the track, a melody plays which shows up on Disc 3 as "Unfathomed Reminiscence." It's a neat bit of thematic connection that no one would ever hear unless they put the controller down and didn't advance in the dialogue at all.
** Also from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'': "Feel My Blade", which plays during the mock battle with Baku on stage at the beginning of the game.
** Let's also not forget "You're Not Alone". Only played during one scene in the game but still considered amongst many fans to be one the better, if not the best, song in the game.
*** Also one of the best moments in the game. [[spoiler:Zidane just learned he was created specifically to replace Kuja in order for Terra to assimilate Gaia. [[HeroicBSOD And does not take it very well]]. His friends help him snap out of it, though.]]
** Fortunately averted with the awesome "Vamo' alla Flamenco". The scene it plays over is one of the very earliest (Zidane's on-stage sword duel), but it's reused later for the Chocobo Hot and Cold minigames.
** The theme for Fossil Roo. It plays for the dungeon's first couple of screens, but the rest of the dungeon uses the same music as Gargan Roo.
* The last underscored scene in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' (Yuna's speech in the Luca Blitzball dome) is accompanied by a poignant melody which lasts about 70 seconds has not been heard at any point earlier in the game. Knowing Uematsu's habit of repeating his strongest material ad nauseam, it's hard to understand why he let this final minute of music go undeveloped.
** The song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWE0nlhpdq8 "Seymour Battle"]], like "Birth of a God", is a song that plays during the last battle with Seymour, whom at that point in the game is probably child's play compared to your overpowered characters, making it easy to miss a lot of the song. It's a pity because the song is exceptionally good and catchy, and it's ''not'' on the SoundTest.
** Similarly, the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxqsTfDgC4 "Decisive Battle"]] which, in the original Japanese and North American versions, only plays during the AnticlimaxBoss battle right at the end of the game. The International and PAL releases reuse it for the fight with [[BonusBoss Penance]].
** And let's not forget Lulu and Wakka's [[{{Leitmotif}} themes]]. Lulu's only plays in one totally optional scene, and Wakka's ''never'' (however, both are actually in the SoundTest.)
* From ''VideoGame/{{Grandia}}'', "Deck Swabbing", which plays during a small mini-game near the start of the game. You can play the mini-game as many times as you want, but once you choose to leave the area, the game - and this track - is LostForever.
** The track is also in ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' for a minigame.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' game has two overworld themes: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaPXShP9D0Y "Pollyanna"]], which plays when Ninten is traveling alone, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWzZoGW1B5c "Bein' Friends"]], which plays when you have at least one more person in your party. Both are excellent, but you can guess which one you hear ''way'' more of. Ironically, "Pollyanna" has often been considered the main theme of the series and appears in every game in some form, while "Bein' Friends" only appears in the first game.
** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyo-bisJ1L4&feature=related "Fall of the Pig King"]], which was taken out of the final game.
** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' has "A Railway In Our Village!" an ''incredibly'' catchy town theme which only plays in Tazmily at the beginning of Chapter 4 and never plays again once you leave town or save/load the game. Then there's the battle theme "Formidable Foes," an arrangement of the Oh-So Snake's boss music, that is never used in-game but is still featured on the SoundTest.
** Also in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9rFvZ_n75s "Even More Intense Guys"]], played only during the battle with the Rhinocerocket Mark II... which isn't a boss of any sort, just a powerful mook.
** And then there's the 8-bit version of "Please Don't Eat Crackers in the Cinema", which only plays in the theater in Chapter 8 and ''isn't'' on the sound test. There are several other examples of songs that weren't included on the sound test, as well.
** There's also the Sunshine Forest music which starts in Chapter 4 and ends when [[spoiler:Everyone moves to New Pork City]]. Although it's present in the game for a fair amount of time, you'll only rarely be visiting Sunshine Forest in Chapter 4+ , and the track itself doesn't actually have a name, as it isn't in the SoundTest.
** There's also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THVT-MsBtP4 "Barren Factory"]], which is only used at the Clayman Factory in Chapter 7, when you never even have to go there.
** And the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFFNzipmvoY Green Train Theme]], which only plays when you, er, ride the green train, which is an EasterEgg.
** The epitome of this trope in the MOTHER series, though, has to be [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUtO0RrR67Q the]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA0UC3D_Zoo five]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o-cxJ6z_oA songs]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7qCN7otNvU that]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21FRBqqhFAc play]] on a completely optional, out-of-the-way jukebox in the middle of nowhere in MOTHER 3.
** In ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'', there's the haunting Snow Man theme, which is only played once in the game, during the brief moment where you play as Jeff inside his school. Once you leave the school, you never hear it again.
** The present version of the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Cave of the Past]] has a short, yet unique and atmospheric track (which actually is partially a sped-up [[{{Sampling}} sample]] of the [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} French]] national anthem, "La Marseillaise") that can't be heard anywhere else. The only way to hear it before heading there past a PointOfNoReturn (which doesn't last long as the party goes past another PointOfNoReturn right after that to get to the past version of the cave) is by entering a small DisconnectedSideArea of the cave from the Lost Underworld's world map, which may happen when looking for the last My Sanctuary dungeon but entering the wrong cave. (The past version that the party spends considerably more time in, due to being under [[BigBad Giygas's]] control, uses a completely different and eerie theme fitting for that version.)
* Each town in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has a unique town theme that plays there and there alone. Lahan, Fei's DoomedHometown, has a really good one. Fill the blanks in yourself.
** There's actually a vocal remix of the overworld theme, "Stars of Tears", which never plays in the game. It is, however, contained on the game CD along with a montage of FMV scenes from throughout the game, and is available on the official soundtrack.
** You can hear "My Village Is The Best" (the theme from Lahan Village) when you reach Shevat.
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games have several pieces of largely incidental music that occur when you confront trainers. Some of them are surprisingly good, despite the fact that you'll almost never hear more than 10 seconds of one.
** Unless you don't press the button to enter battle until the song ends; They can last a while.
** This includes the Kimono Girls in ''Gold'', ''Silver'', ''Crystal'', ''[=HeartGold=]'', and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' who even have their own intro theme that can only be heard before fighting them.
** Think the Kimono Girls have it bad? The police officers in the same games as them have an intro theme that's a redone version of [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue the first generation's]] intro for encounters with most male Trainers. In contrast to how the same games' redone version of the first generation's typical female encounter theme is used quite often, there are a measly two police officer battles in the game, and they can't be challenged to a rematch. ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' only increased its use slightly by having battles with Double Teams (duos consisting of a male and female Ace Trainer) use it as well, but this doesn't help much because they ''can't be challenged to a rematch either''.
** There's a special music track that plays when you're choosing your starting Pokemon in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and later ''[[UpdatedRerelease Emerald]]''. This is the only place it's used, and it's a bit similar to the Team Magma theme from ''Ruby'' and ''Emerald'', so it's easy to forget it existed. Fortunately, ''Pokémon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire'' have this track as part of their soundtracks (and have a SoundTest, which has it as track number 18) for those who didn't forget about it. In it, it plays when the timer is running out for events that are timed, such as catching a Pokémon.
** Later ''Pokemon'' games started writing unique compositions for all of the "Legendary Pokemon" encounters, including the "special event Pokemon." Most of those can only be fought by going to special Nintendo-hosted events and getting unique items put on your game cart. And not all events even GIVE you these items - some just give you the Pokemon, so you never have to fight them. The [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqgbvPmEIg Deoxys theme]] is a good example of this - a deliciously creeping techno vibe that most people will never get to hear.
*** The Deoxys theme is such a wasted song it could very well be this [[TropeNamers trope's namer]]: You only hear it in Birth Island, which is only accesible by a event-exclusive key item that was distributed only twice in Japan and never anywhere else. What's curious is that every legendary that was catchable in the main GBA games is also catchable in the DS games, except for Deoxys. Which means that its theme was the only one to not get carried over and remixed for the new audience.
**** The event-exclusive key item in question was distributed in the United States once back in 2004, in only three locations. Europe got a better deal where they could send their games to Nintendo to get the item loaded.
*** If you lived in Europe (Or at least Britain), the event wasn't simply "send your game to Nintendo to get the required item". You had to collect the letters D, E, O, X, Y and S from adverts for Emerald in certain magazines. When you collected all the letters, you then had to go to one of a VERY select few Cinemas (yep. Cinemas.) at which point your game would then be loaded with the item that allows you access to Birth Island.
*** [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q6z_1cCvVjA Arceus's theme]] is unlike any other music in the game - and of course, you'll only hear it if you go to a Nintendo event. ''FOR A GAME THAT IT DOESN'T PLAY IN.''
**** To clarify: The song was in the data of ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platinum'' but was DummiedOut. ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' allow you to hear it via the Sinjoh Ruins event, activated by bringing an Arceus from a [=DPPt=]-exclusive event to the Ruins of Alph and attempting to enter the researcher's building. The music is played during the 'creation' cutscene towards the event's conclusion.
*** The very first unique Legendary song in the series--and one that many fans still believe is the best--is the theme of the legendary beasts, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. These are roaming legendaries, which makes them prime candidates for the Master Ball - but if you chuck that ball at the start of the battle, you'll hear maybe the first two seconds of their theme before they're caught and the battle ends. This technically applies to any Pokemon with a unique theme, but roaming legendaries are such a hassle that most players save their Master Ball so they can catch them on the first try, making this a particularly annoying example. Though Suicune isn't a roaming legendary in ''Crystal'', so you do get to hear the song in a proper legendary battle.
*** [[VideoGameRemake HeartGold and SoulSilver]] up the ante on that one, giving each of the three beasts their own theme. On the bright side, if you don't use your Master Balls, expect to hear the songs ''[[ThatOneBoss a lot]]''.
** ''All'' of the game's overworld music is replaced with "Drought" in ''Ruby'' and "Flood" in ''Sapphire'' and ''Emerald'', but only during that brief period of time when Groudon and/or Kyogre are causing natural disasters. As soon as they're caught/defeated, it never plays again.
** The N64 game ''[[VideoGame/PokemonStadium Pokemon Stadium 2]]'' has an awesome remix of the fan-favourite Dark Cave theme. The problem? The only time it ever shows up is during the Gym Leader Castle, after Clair is defeated and you get a message from the Elite Four, which unless you stay on the message and wait, only lasts for a few seconds, and can't be heard after that until Round 2 (which, again, is just for that one bit).
** Most players assumed that the Battle victory music from defeating a boss trainer is only a few notes, as the dialogue with these characters after battle doesn't last long. Unless you wait to advance the dialogue, the only time you'll hear this tune in full form is after the final battle with your rival.
** In the original Red and Blue games the pokeflute could be pulled out and played at any time, but only a few notes would come out. If you wanted to hear the whole song you had to use it to wake up a Snorlax (of which there are only two in each game) and even then you get to hear one full playthrough the song each time and that's it.
*** An even worse example from ''Red'' and ''Blue'' was the 'follow me' music heard only twice in the entire game, and never beyond a few notes. Fortunately, the second play of it could be incited an unlimited number of times, but it didn't even get to the half way point before being cut off. The only way to hear the full rendition was to exploit a glitch in Pokémon Yellow. (Note that this is not the case in the remakes; the Teachy TV tutorials play this music so it can be heard anytime in those games.)
** In Black and White, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQF7uBZ0zE this absolutely beautiful track]] only plays in the Champion's chamber after [[spoiler:N's Castle]] appears, and on the bridge to said castle... you'll likely hang around there for all of fifteen seconds.
*** There's also [[http://youtu.be/kJGUaD6Qd64 this very eerie and haunting rendition of N's theme]], heard only in a single, optional room in the aforementioned area that you can only visit once.
*** Lastly, there is an [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-B2cnSqPy8 incredible remix]] of the Kanto Champion's theme from [[Videogame/PokemonRedAndBlue the first generation]] which was only found by hacking the rom and, to the best of anyone's knowledge, was not used ''anywhere in-game''. It was later found to be programmed to play ''only'' at the grand finals of the Pokémon Video Game Championship tournaments, which only happen once a year.
*** In the [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]] games (including the remakes of the Generation II games, which originally did not have this trait), this often ends up being the case for victory themes, because the game automatically advances the post-battle dialog and exits the battle screens after that. It's especially a problem with Team Galactic's victory theme, which only plays for several seconds before getting cut off, unlike the one Team Aqua and Magma had in the previous generation (and Team Galactic has a completely different victory theme than those two). However, this was corrected in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', which only exit the battle screen when the player manually does so, so the victory themes loop endlessly until then. It helps that the victory themes in that game (with the exception of Team Plasma's) are taken from ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' for those who liked the ones from those two.
** The Black and White soundtrack includes a number of bonus tracks, including [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgLBligLJPU 'Sayonara -refrain-']], an extremely beautiful orchestral remix of 'Farewell', a song that plays at the end of the game. Sayonara, however, isn't even coded into the game - if not for the internet, only those who bought the soundtrack would ever hear it.
* In most ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' games, the opening song, which tends to be really good, can be heard any time one starts a new game or loads a save. In ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 5}}'', however, the opening only plays once, about 10-15 minutes into the game, and never plays again.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'', both the intro and ending themes were translated into English and re-recorded by an American artist. However, while the soundtrack has English tunes, they are with different lyrics and sung much more badly by the original Japanese singer. The tracks that actually play on the American release are not available on any soundtrack.
** The same thing happened with ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 4}}''. In fact, it's worse: the American artist recorded not only a short version for the game, but a ''full length'' version that isn't even played at any point in the game.
*** The full length version of ''Wild ARMs 4'''s opening plays during the final part of the final battle. Which can potentially be over within the amount of time it takes to play the first verse of the song which you'll have heard in the intro many times already.
* The original ''BreathOfFire'' had the unheard tavern song only implemented in a DummiedOut bar in the guarded city of Nanai. The only way to access the bar was to use a DummiedOut developers tool, the [[WarpWhistle Dragon Warp]], which could be added to your inventory through a hex editor.
** Much lesser known, but a second, ''completely'' unused song is also hidden away in the game. It's fairly short, but surprisingly epic.
* In ''LegendOfDragoon'', the final boss has a different theme tune for every one of its forms... but they only play in the cutscenes of him changing into said forms; once the actual battle starts, the music reverts to that of his first form.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' has plenty of tracks that appear once and aren't even on the offical soundtrack (included with the game), examples include "Reach Out To The Truth" (the main battle theme) with a different opening that plays only in the first battle, "The Genesis" the (true) final boss's battle theme, "Fog", the final DiscOneFinalBoss's theme and "Back side of the TV" the dungeon lobby theme. There is also the beat that plays during the phonecall with Yosuke on 4/16 and when talking to Adachi on 4/17 (Zone Time), this isn't an exceptionally good song, but deserves mention because it's played so quietly that some players won't notice that it's playing.
** The only way to get the ''entire'' soundtrack is if you bought the Social Link Expansion off of Amazon, which included the "Side B" soundtrack that contained everything left off of the first disc. This swag collection was sold in extremely limited quantities and is now going for over $200 on auction sites. Thanks Atlus!
*** There are a handful of songs that didn't even get onto the "Side B" CD that were used in cutscenes. If you want a good example, look up the anime cutscene of Yosuke's Shadow forming on Youtube; there's a version of Awakening during it that's played with a kick-ass bass solo replacing the piano at the beginning.
** Likewise, ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' had several songs that played at only during specific events. For one case, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbwApAvX4VY "Shadow"]], which plays roughly 45 minutes into the game and is never heard again. Keep in mind that this is a game that, on average, takes 70 hours to complete. Once again, the official soundtrack in the US only contains about half of the songs in the game. Note that the Japanese [=OSTs=] of both ''Persona'' games contained every single track.
** The Original Version of ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' had [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qbINMJuWBs "Awakening Legend"]] which plays only when a Persona awakens (which is only about 4 or 5 times) and is not in the remake.
*** And for that matter, many other songs are only played a few times in the whole game. The [[{{Leitmotif}} character themes]] are among the best songs on the soundtrack, yet aren't even played more than once or twice. The SEBEC route FinalBoss gets ''two'' themes, an intro BGM and pre-battle theme that are only played once and twice respectively. And the list goes on...
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bbAh7MI9Ss "World Map -Real World-"]], which only plays at the beginning of the game, when you're exploring Tokyo before it's transformed by The Conception.
* The original ''BatenKaitos'' had a music list that was unlocked as the music pieces were found in the game. This, presumably, would have included the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome awesome final boss theme]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lB0b0fHbAY "Violent Storm"]]...if the game had had a NewGamePlus option. Mercifully, it's at least on the soundtrack.
** The song actually can be unlocked in the game's SoundTest, but it's a GuideDangIt of epic proportions: the shampoo magnus must be left to age for ''336 hours'', whereupon it turns into a different magnus and, for some reason, unlocks the songs from the final battles/cutscenes.
** Even worse than the final boss theme is the PostFinalBoss theme, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3vUe3b4o_M&feature=related A Last Villainous Quip]]. You'll probably hear Violent Storm all the way through, but this battle can be over in one turn if you know the trick.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyXIN_A8vOQ&feature=related Soul Poetry]] only ever plays ''on the Game Over screen''...which most people will just mash A to get through as fast as possible.
** Both games have ''astonishingly'' beautiful themes that play on the world map...someplace where a player is likely to be for all of ten seconds at a time. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIAnkWRfJDE Between The Winds/Valley Of The Wind]] from the first game and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIvriKH-ynQ&feature=related The Boundary Between the Wind and the Earth]] for the second.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgXf4Kvj-p4 Chaotic Dance II]], which is played in ''three'' early game boss battles, after which it's never heard again. A similar fate befalls [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Lygkb2lCk Poacher]], heard in five battles, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF1bq34TgYQ&feature=related A Road to the Dignified Future]] (Verus' theme), which is only heard in a few short cutscenes, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W17-57Juw0I&feature=related Bitter Enemies in the Same Boat]], an awesome ThemeMusicPowerUp song that plays twice.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', Bartz theme is only played in two places. A flashback detailing some of his past... and in his hometown. [[DoomedHometown You can never hear it again past a point in the plot.]]
* ''ArTonelico2'' has some great OminousLatinChanting play in a cutscene before the final boss - for about a minute, before it cuts to generic "bad things are happening" music. It's not on any of the three soundtracks, it's not in the sound test mode, and it doesn't even have a name.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytJ8jcBw5E0 EXEC_]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbO6XlFwvjE HIBERNATION/.]] would definitely be the biggest offender here, though, being a ''fourteen minute'' song that you'll most likely hear only in bursts of thirty seconds out of a couple cutscenes, since battles intercede with their own music. Thankfully, this song, and all the hymms can be found in the sound test and on the [[NoExportForYou Hymmnos Concerts]].
* "Karma", the main theme for ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' is a glorious song but is only played in the opening. Songs with variations of the tune, ('Promise' and 'Meaning of Birth') are only played once each in a single playthrough, though fortunately both versions of the game have a sound test that is unlocked after finishing the main story.
* ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' has the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVMp_6b5EI&feature=related "Influence of Truth Appearance"]]. It plays for two battles. The first one won't last long if you're at a decent level. The second battle will be even shorter if you've been taking advantage of item creation.
** ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Cx67de1jg Like the Wind]] which only plays once and for very briefly: [[spoiler:at the end of the scene before the fight against Tamiel.]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' has Brave Fight, which plays during the [[TurnsRed second phase]] of the fight against [[spoiler:Murdaw]]. [[spoiler:Fortunately, it also plays whenever you fight a Sealing Fiend, and there's three more of those guys.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'' has the underwater theme... which, outside of the CreditsMedley, plays for about three screens max in an area that's optional for 98% of the game. It also has the version heard while Mario and Luigi are inside Bowser, which considering is not required when he's underwater... is heard even less.
** Also from ''Bowser's Inside Story'', there's one very calm and soothing general-purpose theme that plays about four times in the game: once while meeting Broque Madame, once while talking to Princess Lipid in the Flab Zone (who only appears once), once while putting together a puzzle (the other puzzles you gain access to later on play the game's happy theme instead), and once during a LeaveTheCameraRunning segment while drilling into the Lumbar Nook (which can be skipped using a certain button code!). The only other time you'll hear it is if you lose to a boss in The Gauntlet, which of course is a completely optional area.
* ''IcewindDale'' has several musical pieces that weren't in the final release of the game, but ended up in the OST as bonus tracks. Particularly glaring that most of those missing tracks were battle themes and several fights (including the final battle) in the game didn't have * ANY* background music.
* ''SuikodenII'' has what's most likely an accidental example, presumably only in the North American Playstation version. There were supposed to be three war battle themes, but due to what appears to be a bug in the way the game handles its own XA audio, only "Battlefield Without Light" is ever heard in-game... and of the two unplayed songs, only one, "War", is present on the OST. (The other is still on the game disc, however, and can be heard using any XA audio player.)
** Works fine on the PSP port of ''Suikoden I'' and ''2''.
** ''Suikoden II'' also features the other type of wasted song in the form of the duel songs, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXlZ1b8E8nI "The Time for Confrontation"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VngU5-CrRnE&feature=related "Mad Luca"]]. Although each is over a minute long, duels rarely last longer than that, usually only ending in a matter of seconds, so most people won't hear the whole song in-game.
** ''SuikodenIV'', meanwhile, gives us "Scenery of a Nameless Island", a nice mellow song that plays on Lime Shelf Island, Mountain Mass Island, or Donut Island, but only before recruiting [[TreasureHunter Rene]]; once she joins, the song is permanently replaced by the treasure hunt theme on all three islands instead. With the former two islands being far out of the way and having little value except for the treasure hunt minigame itself, it's very unlikely you'll make the trek to them before you've met Rene, and Donut Island, where you actually meet her, is very tiny, with no random battles. Odds are, most players will hear about 30 seconds of this song, tops.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhFFBAEuKMo "True Nature of All"]] in ''ValkyrieProfileLenneth''. Only appears as the final boss theme on the A Path.... which is LUDRICOUSLY HARD to reach without a guide. And theme is NEVER, EVER used again in that form, not even in Covenant Of The Plume, where it fits the A Path battle of that game as well as, if not better than Lenneth (Since Wylfred really learns the True Nature of everything)
* In what is perhaps the strangest example of this trope, if you insert the ''MonsterRancher'' game into a regular CD player and skip to track 2, you'll be greeted with some weird (but surprisingly catchy) techno music, which never shows up in the actual game.
** Many of the songs in ''MonsterRancher'' will only be heard in their entirety by players who are very slow readers or who like to visit the sound test menu. This also includes many of the battle themes, as battles only last 1 minute, but most battle themes are a bit longer.
* The demo of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' had an alternative "Prelude" remix and different music for the opening than what was used for the same scene in the final version of the game. These tracks are in full game, but DummiedOut, it is possible to play them via a sound test. However, said sound test is in the Developer's Room which is ''itself'' DummiedOut, and can only be accessed by using a GameShark.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has a few pieces that are played a couple times in the game and are never heard again, especially near the beginning of the game. One being the song Moonlight. It is played twice at the beginning of the game and is never heard again. You probably would forget it existed until you replay the game. Another one is Kratos' theme, which is only played a few times at certain parts of the game. As well as Lloyd's father, Dirk's, theme. It is played four or five times through the entire length of the game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} Episode II'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ye6GDcXbfI "Fatal Fight #2"]], an incredibly epic song that is one of the highlights of the game's soundtrack. Of course, it's completely absent from the game itself and the scene it's supposed to be played over instead features a less-epic track. It's even timed to match up with the fight and everything. Seriously, just watch [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWDiYrvG1Qg this video]] and start playing the song right after Margulis says "I see you still talk too much" and thrusts his sword at Jin. The low-rent "Fatal Fight #1 (Jin and Margulis)" also gets some extremely brief play at the climax of the prologue, but it's far less impressive than the second version. Luckily, ''Episode III'' brought back a slightly modified version of it in a very relevant boss battle towards the end of the game, where the whole song can be heard in the fight.
** Also unused in ''Episode II'' are both versions of "Bitter", a track used in several of the cinematic and gameplay trailers but absent from the game itself. The ironically named "Image Theme of ''Xenosaga Episode II''" also doesn't get any play save for the trailers. Just like "Fatal Fight" the low-rent "In the Beginning There Was..." is played over the New Game/Continue screen instead.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', you've got ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0DE5zyRI6U "Unfinished Battle"]]''. It's one of the best battle themes in the game ([[AwesomeMusic or any game, really]]), but it only plays once, during a cutscene and the subsequent battle after that. Even though [[spoiler:Metal Face]] is present during the battle, the song never gets played again during your actual fights with him. And it's not even looped, so after it plays once, the regular combat music starts playing again.
* The AttractMode of ''The7thSaga'' plays a good piece called "The Seven Apprentices"... and ends before the final eight measures of the piece can be played and the loop point reached. The piece cannot be found elsewhere in the game.
* ''Cosmic Fantasy 1'' has a 4 minute 22 second vocal theme song, featured on from idol Tomomi Nishimura's 12th album, but it only plays over the title screen, which you'll probably see for all of 5 seconds before going to the load screen, which has its own music. Even the end credits use a different song.
* The music for the lifting of the [[spoiler:werewolves']] curse in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is one of the most beautiful pieces... yet scarcely a minute long.
** And it's not even on the CD! (Yet tunes you hear so often they annoy you - 'Behold, you're fighting darkspawn again! - are.)
** Of all the battle songs (most of which are unremarkable), the most memorable is the Battle for Lothering. It's rather melancholy, vaguely heroic...and you'll hear it a grand total of ''once'' in the entire game.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} III'', "Theme of Chester" lasts 2 minutes before looping, but only plays in the short corridor leading to the Ruins boss. It got somewhat better use in the remake.
** The music that plays at the entrances of dungeons, "The Boy Who Had Wings," won't get a chance to play completely unless one waits outside (such as to regenerate HP), because dungeon entrances aren't very long sections and they contain no enemies. Like the above, it got significantly better use in the remake, in which it plays in any area outside of a dungeon or the town of Redmont. However, this demoted the old world map theme, "Prelude to Adventure," to Wasted Song status since it only plays if, for some reason, one decides to step outside of town before it's time to go to the first dungeon (though since a save point is located just outside of town, it isn't too hard to miss).
* In ''VideoGame/NieR'', the song "Gods Bound by Rules" only appears during the boss fight in the Barren Temple. While it's a fairly challenging boss fight, and you're likely to hear it all, it's notable for being one of the only songs neither repeated nor variated in gameplay. Nearly every other song is. And yeah, like the music from the rest of the game, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the track owns face]].
** There is a duet version of Song of the Ancients, the song Devola sings. It can only be heard by completing a sidequest to make Popola a GargleBlaster so she can work up the nerve to perform with her sister. While it's not a hard sidequest, it's easily missable, and even if you do complete it, you only hear the song once.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} VII'' has three boss themes. One is played for normal bosses [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CLYKYqZJ0w here.]] They are rather long fights, so we get to hear it a LOT. The Wasted Song is another boss theme that plays a grand total of four times in the game: [[spoiler: Adol's duel with Geis, Adol's coliseum match, the dragon knights in wind town, and the first fight with Scias]] Three of those fights [[spoiler: Geis, Scias, the Dragon Knights]] are likely over before the song loops once. It's called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVNH7wj8nyU&feature=related Crossing Rage.]]
** Same with the other long rarely-used boss themes that only play during short battles, such as "A Great Ordeal" from ''Ys IV'', "Armored Bane" from ''Ys VI'', which only gets used once, and "Black Ark Unveiled", which is replaced by "The Depth Napishtim" after the short first phase.
* ''LostOdyssey'' had a particularly awesome boss track, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35trrTooucQ "Battle Conditions"]], which only plays during 2 fights in the game. The DLC added one additional use of the song, but even so the song is still hideously underused and far outshines the "regular" boss tracks in the game.
* Every party member in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has their own theme track, most of which are only played during their recruitment and loyalty missions. The different missions mean that while some themes show up fairly often, a few (like Samara's or Jacob's) are only heard a few times in the entire game. There's also the music that plays over the GoldenEnding, although that doesn't quite count, since it's a reprise of a piece from the original game.
** The ''Arrival'' DLC level has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZNBeaRscvo Captured]], a surprisingly relaxing song that only plays [[spoiler:when Shepard is locked in the med bay at the Project]].
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihD0AITWlGs&feature=relmfu Reaper Chase]]. In normal gameplay, you'll hear about fifteen seconds of it; the scene it was supposed to play over ([[spoiler:Shep and co. are chased across Rannoch by a very angry Reaper]]) was replaced.
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh: The Sacred Cards'' had a couple of these; the lategame battles against [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XCbULh7Wvs Ishizu Ishtar]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dTn7W5VWNg Yami Yugi]] used neither the standard boss theme nor the Ghouls' boss theme, and neither of these opponents can be faced again once they are defeated.
* ''TheLastRemnant'' has ''two'' suitably climactic tracks for the final battle against [[spoiler: [[BigBad The Conqueror]] and [[TheDragon his lieutenants]]]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgTyaLoCCDo Nisus]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMaFsudO46s Schismogenesis]]. However, if your party morale becomes too high or too low for several turns (the latter is especially prone to occurring due to how [[ThatOneBoss freaking hard]] the fight is) then the battle music will be overwritten by the [[BattleThemeMusic relevant music theme]] for that level of morale, which you've likely heard dozens of times throughout the game. It then irritatingly stays like that for the rest of the fight; it's unlikely you'll even hear the second track.
* ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' has a couple. "Hydrangea" is ridiculously obscure. It can only be heard in a single private action in Central City, only if you're playing as Rena, and only if you have [[GuideDangIt Chisato]] on your team. "Star Ocean Forever" is only played in the "victory lap" after beating [[BonusBoss Gabrie Celeste]] in the [[BonusLevelOfHell Cavern of Trials]]. Not an easy task. And once you leave the cave and return, the normal music plays there once again.
* In SaGaFrontier2, the amazing soundtrack was composed by MasashiHamauzu, but sadly some songs are only heard once or twice, and there are cases where you can miss some songs very easily:
** One of the most notable example is without a doubt [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-rIf72KYFE Interludium]], a song which is played only once in the entire game, during Ginny's birth. The scene in question only consists of 5 or 6 dialogue boxes, which take roughly 10 seconds or so to read, before cutting out to the scenario map, ending abruptly a 3:31 beautiful song.
** The most wasted song of the game is definitly [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTWSq0hJZI Rosenkranz]], an incredibly beautiful piece of music, which can only be heard after you defeat the final boss [[NintendoHard (if you ever manage to defeat it)]]. The worst part, though, is that the player will only hear about 30 seconds of the whole thing (1:56), before the song is brutally cut for narrating reasons. Please note that this song had a Piano version (for the ''Piano Collection Album : Rhapsody on a theme of Saga Frontier 2''), under the name "β 1", which is magistral.
** The Freudenbezeigung (I, II, III and IV) songs are almost never heard in their entirety by the players: these are the battle ending songs, and in cases you don't level-up anything, the players will only hear the 4 first seconds before the game skip to exploration mode. Even if you happen to level-up some caracteristics, it's very easy to glance through these, and to end the battle. Unless players stop intentionnaly to hear the full rendition of the songs, most won't discover what lie after the first seconds.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=116lDbHlfRM&playnext=1&list=PLF09D44AD07ECE4D5&feature=results_video Manie]] is a weird example. The song is the first one the players will hear during the credits of the game [[NintendoHard (if you ever reach the credits)]], but most players don't realise that this song is also the boss theme of the Tone Lord. For those who didn't play the game, the Tone Lord is a skippable boss in the last dungeon, and most players will never fight it: you need to sacrifice a character in your sub-party in order to duel it. Since you only have a limited number of characters you can sacrifice, and since it's more interesting to kill others Lords in order to weaken the final boss (especially the Stone Lord which can grant the final boss [[ThatOneAttack a spell which can petrify your whole party]]), most players never fight the Tone Lord, and no guide will advise otherwise.
** Finally, there is the song that plays when you fight the last form of the final boss ([[RuleOfThree if you ever]] (yes, again) [[NintendoHard manage to defeat its initial form]]): the grandiose, breathtaking and ominous [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycl1izdztcg Todesengel]]. There couldn't be a more perfect song for the home stretch of a fight which can take [[MarathonBoss a very long time]] to complete.
* [[http://youtu.be/eVVXNDv8rY0 "Dragonborn"]], the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome awesome]] main theme of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', plays nowhere in the game except the main menu, which players usually skip past in a couple seconds. Contrast ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', which has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DORtFo2MAE0 "Nerevar Rising"]] as one of the traveling songs, and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', which has most of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3kV1QqQIDM "Reign of the Septims"]] as the BGM to its opening cinematic.
* DarkSouls has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sur4qN_4Oi8 Pinwheel's theme]]. It's a very eerie and atmospheric tune that perfectly suits the HumanoidAbomination necromancer living in a coffin deep in the Catacombs. However, Pinwheel is a ''massive'' BreatherBoss, to the extent that a prepared player can stomp him flat in less than ten seconds.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFwW3xUvrxw "Battle of Stoicism"]] suffers from this to a lesser degree. On the one hand you can hear it as much as you want, providing you're willing to [=PvP=], though you may have other things on your mind instead of appreciating the soundtrack. At least Pinwheel's theme made it onto the [=OST=].
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has the music when the Lone Wanderer [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGiqPD3QLA leaves the vault]] for the first time, which only runs for about 34 seconds, and is not heard anywhere else in the game nor on the soundtrack.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has a rather long [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzAePefXPXM credits theme]] (about 3 minutes), but only 30 seconds of it appears on the OST, in the track "The Doctor is In", which is the segment heard when the Courier leaves Doc Mitchell's house for the first time.
[[AC:ShootEmUp]]
* The entire soundtrack of ''Lords of Thunder'' for Sega CD is constantly drowned out by the loud noise of firing your weapons, but nearly every song is a masterpiece. Every stage theme uses live guitar and is at least 4 minutes long and has at least one radical solo. Luckily, there is a SoundTest.
* ''[[{{Gradius}} Salamander 2]]'' has three songs--all remixes of ''Life Force'' and MSX ''Nemesis'' songs--that can only be heard on the 2nd loop, in which continues are disabled. If you use programs that allow you to listen to music off of arcade [=ROMs=], you'll find that you cannot access these songs normally; you have to start up the ending theme before you can listen to any of these songs.
** ''{{Gradius}} III'' (arcade version) has a secret song that is a medley of songs from ''Gradius I'', ''Salamander'', and ''Gradius II''. It can only be heard by destroying a hard-to reach MookMaker on Stage 3.
* ''MetalSlug 3'' introduced levels with multiple paths to the series, though some paths are hard to find without reading a guide first. Some of these completely optional paths have songs unique to them, one of the best being [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVnvgJeTq2w this one.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Zanac}}'' includes an unused song in its sound test. Not even used in the SecretLevel, which uses the same music as the final stage.
** Actually it can be played on "Arer" 10. When destroying the boss and pressing certain button combinations, it starts to play until the next boss.
* In ''Super VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' (arcade), the song "Hotter than Hell" sounds like it should have been used for the FinalBoss, Jagger Froid, but instead it got used for the short MiniBoss battle of the final stage, and when you reach the final boss, it switches back to the regular stage music. However, in the NES version, it was used for the main theme of Stage 6, the equivalent of the arcade's final stage.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', the music "Recapture" is used solely for the Chapter 2 boss. All the others except for the FinalBoss use "Butsutekkai" for their battle theme.
* Most boss themes in ''VideoGame/ThunderForce VI''. Unless you're using the Phoenix, [[HardLevelsEasyBosses boss battles tend to be over in less than 15 seconds]], which is a damn shame considering that some of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgNaVzWRP6Y&fmt=18 boss]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7qRTscDmgQ&fmt=18 themes]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhtTBMXy9ro are]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mv11mjnRCY pretty]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TUROyH52XY awesome]].
* In ''{{Contra}}: Shattered Soldier'', the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome awesome]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pZyKzpwwzo "Critical Moment of Contra"]] is played during the penultimate boss battle, and lasts about 3 minutes before looping, but you'll probably only hear about 20 seconds of it before the fight is over. Heck, the OST doesn't even have the full length of the song loop.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games always have a separate theme for the credits, which is usually several minutes long when the ending takes maybe half as long if you take your time scrolling through the text. Thankfully, it's also always accessible through the Music Room (a Sound Test for music only, no sound effects).
** ''Touhou Hisoutensoku'' also wastes a song well; [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rom0-LKuUJU Our Hisou Tensoku]] plays only in a couple of dialogue sequences before some of the last fights in story mode, and while it's available in the music room... It's something you would expect to be able to fight to. Alas... there is also a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvjO4rhkh0 somewhat extended version]].
*** Thanks to the frequency of fans to remix, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH9v3efc6Ew no song from any ''Touhou'' game will ever go to waste]].
** Another example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Z7-NpA-Lk "A God That Misses People ~ Romantic Fall"]], which takes 2:15 to loop, but unless you take a really long time to finish the midboss battle, let the game sit for a long time at the start of the first cutscene, or play it on a really laggy computer, you'll have to go into the Music Room to hear the last 45 seconds.
*** This happened quite a bit in the PC-98 game. The worst are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr8e4p03QFk&feature=related "Orange"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJYg6BP6k0U&feature=related Sara's]] themes, who, despite being stage one bosses who can be defeated in 30 seconds, Orange's goes almost two minutes without looping, and Sara's actually does pass two minutes. In all other Touhou games, the stage one boss themes are the shortest so they can fit the battle.
*** Another is the final theme of the final boss of the very first game, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZaFmz8XvrM "Civilization of Magic"]] and thus one of the most obscure in the series. The battle itself can be finished in less than twenty seconds, but the song doesn't actually loop until over 2 minutes
* ''RType Final'''s title theme only lasts for 20 seconds on the title screen. The full version can only be heard in the secret Stage F-B.
** In the SecretLevel Stage 6.1, the music "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqhuFdPKTcQ Accident and Oblivion]]" is replaced by the boss theme after less than a minute.
* Most songs in ''RayStorm'', due to them being significantly longer than the stages.
** The PSX and PC versions of ''Ray Crisis'' use a rather awesome [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADE3w9iyQCE exclusive music piece]] for Special Mode that has not been released on any official soundtracks.
* The music for the Area 1 boss in ''{{Rez}}'' is different from the main stage music, unlike the other bosses, and doesn't appear on the OST. Also, the version of "Protocol Rain" on the OST is different from the game.
* In the TurboGrafx16 CD version of ''VideoGame/WonderBoyIIIMonsterLair'', some of the stage themes run on a bit longer than the stages, and the boss battles time out before the music track plays all the way, so you can only hear the full songs on a CD player.
[[AC:SimulationGame]]
* Most of the songs in ''AceCombat'', at least in the newer games, get at least one full loop during standard game play, either due to being relatively brief or appearing during levels that take quite a bit of time to complete. However, there are a couple of exceptions. For example, in [[AceCombat Ace Combat 5]], the song "Grabacr" gets played only at the end of Chapter 25, where you have to shoot down four planes. It is not difficult for even a less experienced played to shoot all four down in a minute or two, thus missing the nearly 5-minute song. Another case is "The Unsung War," which plays during the very final level, and only plays in full if you run out of time, which is pretty much impossible unless you're trying to run out of time.
* ''AnimalCrossing'' has several songs that only play for a few hours... every ''year.'' In addition, every "hour song" (i.e. songs that play for an hour each day, with there being one song for every hour of the day; see below) in the game has a unique mix that only plays when it's snowing (which only happens starting in November and ending late February, when it stops snowing and the snow that ended up on the ground in December melts), for example, and each festival has its own melody - like the Meteor Shower music in the original and the Fireworks theme from ''Wild World.'' The hour song for 2 AM in ''Wild World'' (later used in ''[[MarketBasedTitle City Folk]]''/''[[MarketBasedTitle Let's Go to the City]]'' as well; however, the original played a different song at 2 AM) is so nice, it got a special remix just for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl.''
** Not to mention, the live versions of K.K. Slider's songs in general... yeah you can get a bootleg, but they tend to be by FAR inferior to the dog's live performances... once a (literal) week.
** Speaking of Brawl, the Smashville stage will only play certain K.K. songs if you pick his stage on Saturday night, and these are ''not'' found in the SoundTest.
** Oh, and the "K.K. Song"? It's been heard in other Nintendo games, where fans know it as "Totaka's Song". Makes sense, as K.K./Totakeke is a "animal version caricature" of Kazumi Totaka (see above).
** ''Wild World'' (and later ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'') made up for the limited time snow versions of the hour songs can be heard by making very similar versions play when it rains, instead of having the same song play when it rains regardless of what time it is. The catch? ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' use a completely different hourly soundtrack from the original, so this doesn't solve the problem for that game.
** The fact that every hour of the day has its own track means some songs are hard to hear within the game itself without cheating, for a different reason than a lot of wasted songs -- some play when most players are likely to be asleep. Although early-morning tracks tend to be short loops rather than being anything special, there are exceptions, such as the above-mentioned 2 AM track from ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'', and oddly enough, the equivalent from the original game as well, which in contrast to the calm and pleasant one from the other games is oddly upbeat and catchy for something that plays at such an hour. The fact that weather conditions are random means it's even harder to hear the versions of said songs that require snow, or, in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'', rain.
** Even the title screen of the Gamecube Animal Crossing has this. The title song goes on for another good thirty seconds after the intro cuts it off and loops. The only way to hear it is to actually open the lid of the Gamecube while it's running. The song will continue, but the intro will be interrupted until you close the lid again.
* Happens all too often in ''VideoGame/MitsumeteKnight'' : several great tunes happen to be used in one-time only Events, the most infuriating examples being "Me and Myself ~ Priscilla (Princess Version)'s Theme", "Entrusting to the Wind", "Lost Timbre", "Salishuan the Spy", and "Sorrowful Sword". The Theaters themes also suffer from this, as players will tend to go straight to the question part of the date, instead of sitting for one minute on the same screen.
* The cooking song in ''LostInBlue'' is usually only ten to fifteen seconds long at most, because any longer would completely ruin the food. It's a pity, as there's no soundtrack player to listen to it other than ruining your food and having the timer reach 99.

[[AC:SportsGame]]
* The music that plays during the TrainingMontage sequences in the Wii ''PunchOut!!'' lasts for maybe 15 seconds before being cut off as the montage ends, just as the song starts to pick up. There doesn't seem to be any way to hear it outside of these montages - it isn't even in the sound test- so the entirety of the song goes unheard.
** Likewise, opponents have their own arrangements of the main theme for Exhibition Mode, which are all accessible in the sound test. However, King Hippo and Don Flamenco each have their own unique versions of the music for their Career Mode fights as well. These are not included in the sound test, which is especially sad since Don Flamenco's version is a CrowningMusicOfAwesome.
** King Hippo has "knocked down" music. The issue? Any time he is downed it is an auto KO, so there are only two ways to hear it: knock off his crown to hear it for a few brief seconds, or unlock his sound test.
* The par putt music from ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'' for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. You are unlikely to hear the second half of this piece of music unless you do it deliberately, since 1) par putts are generally short, and 2) the music lasts only one putt. You are slightly more likely to hear it in multiplayer, but even then, still unlikely. The fact that this track is not in the game's official soundtrack hurts it even more, but luckily, there is a recording of it [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=d8z8u4hCK4M here]] (the relevant part starts at about 0:18).
* In ''VideoGame/SaturdayNightSlamMasters'' each wrestler has a complete entry theme. You'll hear the 1st 5 seconds of each if you ''don't'' skip them.

[[AC:StealthBasedGame]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' has "Countdown To Destruction", an epic electronica track that plays during the timed sections. However, because of the way the Plant chapter is structured (several small rooms connected with short outdoor sections) and the fact that no music plays during the outside sections, the player isn't likely to hear more than ten seconds of the track before it goes silent (and when they re-enter the next area, it starts from scratch). The piece is something like four minutes long.
** The main characters's themes deserve a mention. Raiden's theme is a gorgeous song played on a live piano, and Otacon's theme is a dark orchestral version of "Memories of Hal". Neither were featured on [=OSTs=], and Otacon's theme plays for only half a minute before it's truncated by the next cutscene.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'', the awesome music that plays when you fight Night Sight plays for him alone. He's not an important boss in terms of story (even the boss battle against Gray Fox uses the standard boss battle theme), is usually over and done with in acouple of minutes - and the track never showed up on any [=OSTs=].
** In fact, that music was removed from later versions due to accusations of {{plagiarism}}.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has an incredibly epic, yet equally short (read: five seconds), piece during our first real introduction to Grey Fox (while he impales a soldier in the air).
** The Twin Snakes, the remake of ''Metal Gear Solid'': never had an OST released, and when it's fairly easy to find unofficial rips of the gameplay songs the great quality music from the cutscenes is imposible to listen outside of the cutscenes itself. Worse yet, the trailers of the game featured a lot of awesome tunes, including the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2xAiJHAW8 main theme]], all of them completely absent from the final game.
*** Every boss fight in ''Twin Snakes'' has its own theme, and every area has unique music when Alert Mode is triggered. Needless to say, there's a lot of quality soundtrack that you won't be hearing much of during the actual game. For instance, one of the most popular songs on the soundtrack only plays when you [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrE5BctwkRU trigger Alert Mode in the Armory]], leading many players over the years to do so deliberately.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has a mix of "Snake Eater" that only plays during the final fight with [[spoiler:The Boss]]. It's never been released on any official CD, and it's quite hard to find on the Internet. Also worth mentioning The Boss's theme that plays during the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2xAiJHAW8 radio conversation with her]] at the beginning of the Virtuous Mission to not be heard again and of course to not be featured in any soundtrack.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' also has a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8WXIT0H5Ig quiet, piano version]] of "Snake Eater" that plays during flashback cutscenes. It isn't on the official soundtrack or in-game Walkman.
*** However, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTblw_-NGO8 it has been ripped from the game in high quality]], so all hope of hearing it is not lost.

[[AC:SurvivalHorror]]
* The introduction theme for the Magician in ''HouseOfTheDead 2''. While the song last at least 2 minutes, only the 19 first seconds are heard ingame.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xi-CxR-a2o "Rave On"]] is by far the most popular ''{{Killer7}}'' song. It's about five minutes long, and the fifth minute is the best. It plays once before and once after each miniboss fight, on an otherwise un-noteworthy staircase that takes less than 20 seconds to traverse. Given that Killer7 is a MindScrew, and given {{Suda51}}'s tendency to troll his players, this may actually be intentional.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mUAV21dHAI "Wreckage of the Mad Experiment"]] from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' can only be heard in the secret experiment room that requires you to use the fingerprint scanner in both scenarios. [[GuideDangIt Which most players will miss]]. By the way, it's actually a rework of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knZF9TUwBkc the RE 1.5 trailer theme]]. It was also heavily remixed as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8G1G19n7jg "Live Evil"]] in ''Umbrella Chronicles''.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwp-pAZJbwk "Goodbye, Leon"]], [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome one of the most awesome]] [[TearJerker heart-wrenchers]] in the series, only gets used in the A scenario, and ends once Leon exits the room.
** The first game has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duzC-H6BrYo "Concealed Passage"]], which plays in the underground hallway after the boulder smashes the wall, it ends after you leave the hall and is never heard again. Also, one of the few songs that wasn't remixed for the GameCube [[VideoGameRemake remake]].
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDAuxEUHcQo Plant 42's theme]] is only heard when playing as Chris, and then only if you chose to take Rebecca with you or delivered the Serum to Richard. In all other cases, the battle uses [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flNCnx7LvZ0 the Black Tiger's theme]] instead for some reason.
*** Speaking of that, the Yawn and Black Tiger battle themes were not included on the remake's official soundtrack CD, ''Biohazard Sound Chronicle: Disc 4''.
* ''SilentHill2'' contains a hauntingly beautiful acoustic version of one ending theme, "Promise", that plays during James' "I got a letter..." reflection at the game's opening; it ends along with the cutscene and does not appear in the OST at all, dammit.
** Good news, fellow tropers. [[http://www.silenthillmemories.net/music/sh2_csts_en.htm There's a website that has the song]]. It's called "Letters".
** A number of ambient music cues in the series are only heard when going through certain doors or backtracking into rooms you don't necessarily need to. For example, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9kFxGq5-s this horrifying music]] from ''SH 2'' is only heard if you backtrack through the clock room (via the DoorToBefore to the north stairway) after returning from the east wing of the Woodside Apartments (as opposed to going back through the courtyard). Obviously, most of these are omitted from the official soundtracks.
** ''SilentHill3'', somewhat reversing this trope, had a really beautiful long vocalise, "Lost Carol", that only got 30 seconds on the OST.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEMX6HRAIUI Despair no longer.]]
*** The awesome [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQvOnyyXAQ Results Screen music]] was omitted too. And most people will only hear the beginning of it. To add insult to injury, there's a DummiedOut music track that sounds like a remix of ''SH 1'''s results theme. The former may have been meant for use elsewhere.
*** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1vfpC-Odw Possessed Ending music]], an OminousLatinChanting piece, also not on the OST.
** ''SilentHill1'' had several songs left out of the OST, including Kaufmann's theme, the full version of Lisa's death music, and the climax of the chilling [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PXEgoqZ9mk dead-end alley music]] (only the industrial ambient noise from it was used in the soundtrack).
** "Terror in the Depths of the Fog" is not played anywhere in the main game of ''SH 2'', it is only heard at the end of the "Born From A Wish" scenario in the UpdatedRerelease.
** ''SilentHill 4: The Room'' had quite a nice song called "Melancholy Requiem", which is about 4 minutes long. It is only played during the game's intro, where it lasts about 40 seconds, and after that most people promptly forget all about it.
** "Silent Hill: Homecoming" gives us "Elle's theme" which is only an instrumental in the final game, "Alex's theme" which is briefly heard on the radio and "One more soul to the call" which is only on the title screen demo.
*** Same for "I Want Love" from ''SH 3''. Only the first verse is used in the game.
** In a similar vein, each nightfall in ''{{Shenmue}}'' featured the opening to a very pleasant acoustic guitar song that is never heard anywhere else in the game nor the OST.
* ''VideoGame/SweetHome'' has a rather poignant scene where [[spoiler: Yamamura dies in an horrific and very graphical way]] and a sad tune plays... which is heard only for 20 seconds at best. [[BodyHorror Not that you're paying]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath too much attention]] [[ImMelting to THAT detail]]...

[[AC:ThirdPersonShooter]]
* The music for [[FinalBoss Alraune's]] first form in ''VideoGame/PN03'' is an [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome epic remix]] of the main boss theme, but this form is usually defeated in less than 15 seconds. Before that, the EscapeSequence in Mission 9 has an epic orchestral piece of music that is not included in the most available soundtrack rip, and it's drowned out by the blare of the warning sirens.
* ''S4League'' has a song that only played when you become the randomly-chosen Chaser in Chaser Mode, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM5CWzvO5SU "MonoXide"]]. If you play a lot of Chaser matches where there are many players, you probably will not hear it a lot. Moreover, if you wanted to listen to this song outside of the game legally, you had to purchase a limited-edition, limited-print-run soundtrack...that is, until the song was included in the soundtrack for ''{{DJMAX}} Technika 2''.
* The second Aljir Prison level in ''SyphonFilter 2'' has a different ambient BGM than the first, but most of the time it will be overridden by the danger music. Galbadia Hotel's rip of the soundtrack doesn't include it either.
* ''{{Warhawk}}'' (PS3) is possibly the worst victim. A full CD-length soundtrack is available on iTunes, but aside from the menu music the songs are only played in 15-second stings when something dramatic happens during matches.

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]
* Many songs in the ''FireEmblem'' series are played in one or two events - sometimes in the middle of a level- and never heard again. There's also a ton of battle themes which are played once for 10 seconds. Luckily, the games have {{Sound Test}}s.
** ''[=FE6=]'' features [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvRTCcGlTPA "In The Name of Bern"]]. It's a very unusual song for a strategy game that only gets more unique as the song progresses, but you're unlikely to hear any more than a few seconds of it. Such a waste.
** From the same game, the haunting [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCW7kazmmj4 "Shaman In the Dark"]]. The boss battle it appears in is not only very short, there isn't even a text box to wait on to listen to more of it. If it weren't for the SoundTest, you'd never know it had those great organ parts.
** The trope is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Yuka Tsujiyoko, composer of the series, in her comments in the booklet of ''Fire Emblem : Seisen no Keifu'''s OST, in regards of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bfXWL2D8FU Track 1-26, "Ending Parade"]]:
---> (translated from Japanese) '''Tsujiyoko''': It's the complete version of the tune "Wind Crusader Holsety". This tune is a tune that can't be heard if you don't do your best at [[NintendoHard finishing the game with a good rank]]. By all means, persevere and listen to it.
** In ''Blazing Sword'', the track "Respite in Battle" only plays if you have Hector and Lyn get an A support before Chapter [=29x/31x=] and have them talk in that chapter. Said chapter is solely devoted to shopping for five turns, so it's likely you'll just bring Eliwood/Hector and high-movement units (and Bartre in Hector's mode to recruit Karla), making it doubtful Lyn will even be there to talk with Hector - and if she is, there's no indication they can talk unless you move them next to each other.
** ''Path of Radiance'' had [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izi2qKL_XoQ Victory is Near]] as the music that cuts in when you've eliminated all the enemies from the map (most games in the series have similar songs). However, perhaps due to a glitch or large oversight, it only plays in chapters 1 and 6, and never elsewhere. This is rather significant since the song itself appeared in ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', in spite of being so forgettable.
* Just about ''any'' song in ''Kamidori Alchemy Meister'' qualifies. The tracks for the maps are generally cut short by the battle themes, which last only a few seconds before returning to the map theme. If you go to the BGM player, the tracks are actually rather lengthy. Not that you'd know normally.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWvi_RQOfQ Surpassing the Wall]], from VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance. The final boss in that game has two parts - the first phase which is hilariously easy and is over with basically no trouble at all, and the second phase which actually deserves the "final boss" moniker. Surpassing the Wall plays only in the former. In a game with over 300 missions, hearing such a well-composed piece on less than half of a single one is more than a little jarring.

[[AC:TurnBasedTactics]]
* The full version of Wormsong - the ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' theme song - can only be heard by putting the game disc in a hi-fi. The version played in game is just a tinny midi of the chorus.
** Speaking of, there's a full techno remix of one of the main themes buried in Worms World Party, but only if you stop and wait on multiplayer match standings screen (after all rounds are played) for about a minute.
*** ''Worms 2'' doesn't use Wormsong at all, because it doesn't have a title screen.

[[AC:VisualNovels]]
* The more upbeat songs in [[VisualNovel/SwanSong Swan Song]] are generally left unplayed later on in the game due to the dark atmosphere. There ''is'' a BGM player, but it's only available after going through the lengthy game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has generated about a dozen albums of music, and without counting all the remixes less than half of the songs have been played in the comic's flash sequences. A few others have only played shortened versions. Any of these may get their screentime in the future, but likely not all of the best produced so far.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-vCEaJZPQ This rendition]] of the ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'' theme song is heard very briefly in Karena's debut episode.
* ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' has two that most fans agree on: the barely-heard instrumental (no lyrics are heard) "Crush my Battle Opponent's Balls", "Impeach God" and "I'm Downloading Your Soul". They and a few other show songs were excluded from [[{{Defictionalization}} the albums]] in favor of original songs. "My Inner Child Tied and Beaten in My Trunk" was formerly one of these, but the official Youtube account recently uploaded it.
* Right before the final episode of ''MoralOrel'' was shown the creator (Dino) plays a song about a man hating himself during Christmas. A title card by the creator even says "This song isn't in the episode. It should be." or something like that.
* ''RugratsInParis'' has three: the version of T-Boz's "My Getaway" played in the plane (which is less R&B-ish and more pop-ish than the one in the soundtrack), the babies' travel song, and the Princess' song.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' commentary it is revealed that full songs were written for the Cartman's band "Faith+1". However due to lack of time they only played a small amount of each song. WordOfGod says they may be release the full songs on a CD, so far they haven't.
* The problem with the soundtrack of ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn'' isn't that the tunes are cut short, but that they're ''too silent''. The lack of music in most of the scenes is often cited as one of the movie's many shortcomings, but it really is there, just barely audible.
[[/folder]]

----

** This song appears again in the Beast Chase level in the [=PlayStation=] game ''{{Wild9}}'', which also had TommyTallarico as its composer. Interestingly enough, the ''Wild 9'' game disc, due to using standard Red Book Compact Disc Digital Audio for its music rather than a proprietary format as with most [=PlayStation=] games, also serves as its own OST (when played in an ordinary CD player or computer disc drive), with "Use Your Head" being track 10 (track 1 on the disc being the game data track, with everything else being Compact Disc Digital Audio). (The CD version of ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' also uses Red Book audio.)

* ShinMegamiTenseiIMAGINE's battle theme, starts getting awesome over 1 minute into the song. However, since most battles last no more than 15 seconds, it's impossible to listen the good part of the song in-game, being stuck to the annoying hig-pitch beginning of said song. The original battle theme is also loved dearly by old players, but after the implementation of Chain of Curse, that battle theme isn't used anymore. It's still in the bgm folder, but since version 1.605 the bgms have been encrypted, so it can't be simply played from the bgm folder normally.