History Main / TitleThemeDrop

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' is particularly of note due to its theme (which contains Latin lyrics) being used for half of the game's original songs that weren't from other games. Not to mention the fact that the ''Brawl'' theme plays at the end of the game and also displays the translated lyrics as it does so. Additionally, the actual theme plays [[spoiler:during the cutscene where the Subspace Gunship is destroyed.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fighting games use this even more often than the main shoot-em-ups. The new title melody is used in the final battle intro in ''Immaterial and Missing Power'' and in all battle intros in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' and in both in ''Hopeless Masquerade'', and all three in ''Unthinkable Natural Law'' are remixes of [[PlayingWithATrope different parts of its title theme]].

** Infogrames' ''VideoGame/TheSmurfs1994'' uses the theme tune as part of its soundtrack in various levels of the game.

* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', the title theme plays when the player visits Arvahn and discovers the origin of the King of Shadows.

* Episode 11 of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' has a soft piano cover of the series ending theme playing when Kaguya starts going into depth about just how much of a StepfordSmiler she is in regards to her family life.

** Though not quite the trope, the {{Leitmotif}} of the story's {{Mysterious Informant}}s sounds very similar to the title theme as well.

** "Testament of a Hero" plays when the last stage of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Lao-Shan Lung]] battle is reached, which is coincidentally the only place where you [[PlotArmor can actually kill the thing.]]
** When [[GiantEnemyCrab Shen Gaoren]] reaches the final area of the same place where Lao-Shan Lung is fought, the main theme of of ''Monster Hunter 2'' plays.
** In ''Monster Hunter Tri'', "Testament of a Hero" plays after you hit the Jhen Mohran with a Dragonator in the second phase. The same applies to Dah'ren Mohran in ''Monster Hunter 4''.
** In ''Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate'', "Testament of a Hero" also plays when landing a successful Demolisher hit on Gogmazios in the second phase of the battle.

** Both ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' had their title screen music play during the FinalBoss battle.
** Most ''Sonic'' games beyond those do this as well. Heck, it's one of the few redeeming qualities of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days A Skeptic]]'', the title theme returns at the start of the final day, where you are [[spoiler:hiding in the maintenance shaft, the rest of the crew murdered save for the ship's doctor who on the previous day was all set to butcher you for body parts]]. It continues to play over [[spoiler:the ensuing conversation between you and William]], echoing the opening segment of the game.

[[folder:Beat 'Em Up]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' is particularly of note due to its theme (which contains Latin lyrics) being used for half of the game's original songs that weren't from other games.
** Not to mention the fact that the ''Brawl'' theme plays at the end of the game and also displays the translated lyrics as it does so.
** Additionally, and perhaps better fitting the trope, the actual theme plays [[spoiler:during the cutscene where the Subspace Gunship is destroyed.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', the final boss plays a fast remix of the title theme. These are also the only two places you ever get to hear the main Metroid theme in the game.
** In ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'', the title theme appears fleetingly as the intro for the [[spoiler:Mutated Emperor Ing]]'s theme.

* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' [[GameMod ROM hack]] ''VideoGame/RockmanNoConstancy'' uses its title screen theme for the final stage.

* Both ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 games]] had their title screen music play during the FinalBoss battle.

** Most of the early ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games used their title screen themes as their invincibility themes.

* [[VideoGame/{{Klonoa}} Klonoa: Door to Phantomile]] has its world map theme dropped during the final cutscene. [[spoiler: It's the Song Of Rebirth.]]
* In the first ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' game, the theme tune was remixed into several different songs that played throughout four or five different levels.
* In ''VideoGame/SmurfRescueInGargamelsCastle'' for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}, ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' theme tune plays when you first turn on the game and right when your game ends.

[[folder:RolePlaying Games]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', the theme heard on the "load game" screen shows up the first time an Aeon is summoned.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest'' plays the title screen music after you defeat the final boss and the mysterious old man shows up. Appropriate when you consider those are the only two scenes in the game to show [[spoiler:the crystal of light]].
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', the BootstrappedTheme Prelude plays during the title screen and while at crystal rooms. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', this overlaps with {{Leitmotif}}.

* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum]]'', a remix of the title screen music plays in the Hall of Origin.
** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black/White]]'', the Pokémon main theme plays when facing a Gym Leader's final Pokémon. [[spoiler:It also plays when the Gym Leaders confront Team Plasma in the ending of the main storyline.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' plays the haunting menu music as Shepard encounters [[VirtualGhost Vigil]], and learns how the Prothean's HeroicSacrifice allows a chance to stop the Reapers.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' the title theme plays when [[spoiler:you heal the dying tree Yggdrasil in the past, preventing it from being dead in the present/future and allowing you to use magic in the rest of the game]].

* In a bizarre example, Snake Eater, the Title Theme for ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|Snake Eater}}'', randomly starts playing when the player ascends a particularly long ladder.
** It's also played straight - a slightly rearranged version plays during the final boss fight. When it ends, it's game over.

* Happens in episode 13 of ''Manga/WeddingPeach''.

%%* Happens a lot in the ''Anime/PrettyCure'' series.

* ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'': In episodes 12 and 13.

* ''Anime/OnePunchMan'' has the title theme play towards the end of Saitama's fight with Boros.

* ''Anime/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' does this in several moments during the course of the series. For example:
** In the final episode of [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Part 2]], the first OP for the anime series ("Sono Chi No Sadame") is used when Joseph Joestar [[spoiler: manages to successfully defeat the BigBad of the installment, Kars]]. Specifically, the song begins from the second verse onwards.
** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], the OP for the first half of the season ("Stand Proud") appears twice in the installment, during the recap of the 'Tarot Arc' in the end of the first half of the season; and played once more during a recap of the motives behind each major protagonist of Part 3 in Episode 39.
** The last four minutes of [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Part 4's anime adaptation]] is played off with the entirety of the final OP of that season, "Great Days". However, this version of the OP is done by '''every''' previous OP singer in the series up until that point.

* In ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' when Elliot and ET go out on Halloween, ET(under a ghost sheet) is drawn to a child dressed as Yoda and says "Home! Home!" as a bit of Yoda's theme from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' plays. Both films were scored by John Williams.

* ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' regularly used both its opening and closing themes as BackgroundMusic.

* ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' used the opening theme heavily in episodes 11 and 12 as background music to drive home how similar [[spoiler:Shiori]] is to the main character (who the song appears to be about).
* The final episode of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Evolution-R'' uses "Give a Reason" (the OP song from earlier series ''Slayers NEXT'') as background music during the [[spoiler:battle against Shabranigdu]].

** Excerpts of the ending themes often turn up - for example, in the R series a slowed-down instrumental excerpt from "Otome No Policy" often appeared as background music (albeit in E major rather than Eb major).

* The opening theme of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', "Innocent Starter", receives a NostalgicMusicBox remix that appears in ''TheMovie First'' remake. It serves as background music for the quiet moment after Nanoha and Fate's second battle, where Nanoha finally resolves to reach out to Fate and find out why her eyes seem so lonely while Fate prepares to meet [[AbusiveParents her mother]]. A violin cover of the ending theme, "Little Wish", also plays when Nanoha and Fate exchange their hair ribbons and say goodbye at the end of the movie.

* In ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'', the melody of what little there is of a theme song shows up as background music in a few episodes, usually at the end of the episode.

* ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' regularly used both its opening and closing themes as background music.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the theme song can often be heard in the background music, sometimes in clever ways (such as just using the basic chords).

* Happens... [[{{Understatement}} fairly regularly]] in some variation on ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''.

%%* Happens a lot in the ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' series.

* In the '80s ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, the main action theme that played while the Turtles kicked butt is actually a countermelody to the title theme and is actually present in that song as a harmony line.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'' episode, "Mall Pups", the main theme plays (without the singing) when the pups are running away from Lt. Pug in the mall.
* In the first episode (and pilot) of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', the theme song plays as the kids are working together to break T.J. out of detention.

* WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends does this in every episode.

* The closing lyrics of ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'''s final song, "My Guiding Light", uses the ''"Elena, Elena"'' chant from the theme song.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' uses this device fairly often with its title theme, "Dearly Beloved", although it generally uses alternative arrangements such as "Friends in My Heart". The only cases where the title screen's arrangement is actually used is in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth By Sleep]]''[='s=] ending, and in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' as the solution to a musical problem, which also makes it a ThemeTuneCameo.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', the finale chapter [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zags]] this. The music is called Id ~Purpose~, meaning it's a variant of Robin's theme. The fact that it starts playing after [[spoiler:Naga heals and blesses the party]] means this counts as a ThemeMusicPowerUp. It counts as this trope because a variant of Id is what plays on the Main Menu, when selecting a new game and such (which can make any time Id or one of its variants appears a TitleThemeDrop, most notably with the variant exclusive to the bosses in the future past DLC). It sounds the furthest removed from Id (for reasons such as having latin lyrics), however, and you might need the name to tip you off that yes, this is Robin's theme, so it might be a [[SubvertedTrope Subversion.]] But if you let the song go on long enough, you'll begin to easily recognize the music, though not as Id, but rather the theme of the entire series that's always used on the title theme. This also counts it as a ThemeTuneCameo, especially since there's no trace of it being based on Awakening's particular version of the title theme, but rather the more common version across the series. The lyrics are also the same ones that were made up for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''.

* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' [[GameMod ROM hack]] ''Rockman no Constancy'' uses its title screen theme for the final stage.
** In the actual ''VideoGame/MegaMan II'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy, the title song plays during the final stage too.

Also compare DiegeticSoundtrackUse, where the tune makes an appearance in-universe. In fact, compare very carefully, because it is very easy to confuse these two tropes and they often have overlap.

Also compare ThemeTuneCameo, where the tune makes an appearance in-universe. In fact, compare very carefully, because it is very easy to confuse these two tropes and they often have overlap.

* ''Manga/MakaiOuji'': The theme song plays in the climax of episode 12.

* In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]]'', the refrain of the credits song ''Into the West'' has the melody of the Grey Havens theme (which also plays as Gandalf and Pippin talk about what's after death, and as Sam carries Frodo.) In a similar vein, the credits song for ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'' is based on the Misty Mountains song sung by the Dwarves, which is also used as a leitmotif.

* In the ''[[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians 101 Dalmatians: The Series]]'' episode, "Mall Pups", the main theme plays (without the singing) when the pups are running away from Lt. Pug in the mall.

** ''Kamen Rider'''s sibling franchise, ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', also sometimes does this, most often done when a brand new "full combination" mecha debuted, which usually happens after quite a struggle.

* Similarly, ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' does this quite often when the MonsterOfTheWeek is defeated, especially the [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers original series]].