Line #5 Main/WaltzOnWater


1	In video games, there exists a shocking tendency to play waltz music whenever things get really wet. Maybe it's because the most famous waltz happens to be called "On the Beautiful Blue Danube", or maybe there's a slight phonetic similarity between the words "waltz" and "water". It could even be that waltzes and similar compositions are often described as "flowing", much like water. Or it may be because the distinctive tempo of a waltz is evocative of how people tend to bob up and down when submerged in water. Whatever the reason, 3/4 time is a favorite signature for video game music programmers to use for water levels.
2
3	Another common piece of music to use for water levels, especially with beaches, is a tropical-sounding tune, [[PalmtreePanic but that's another trope for another time]].
4
5	Compare SnowySleighBells, SteelDrumsAndSunshine, and JungleJazz for other types of music associated with a certain video game setting. See also RegionalRiff. Not to be confused with WalkOnWater (although ''those'' people could probably waltz on top of water if they felt like it...)
6
7	----
8
9	!!Examples:
10
11	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
12	** The first game in the series is the TropeMaker, featuring a now-recognizable waltz in its water levels.
13	** Subverted in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', which certainly has a waltzy feel to its own water level music, but the music itself is in 4/4.
14	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' has a waltz arrangement of its main theme for water levels.
15	** Averted in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''. The water level music sounds nothing like a waltz and is in fact somewhat of a cross between electronic music and soft rock.
16	** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' uses [[https://youtu.be/1E1iCCo_ZRg another waltz tune]] for its water levels. This one seems to take a lot of influence from the water music from the first Super Mario Bros, despite being a new melody.
17	** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'': the aquatic theme not only is a waltz but it is actually called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4uivOLzncc Waltz in the Lake]].
18	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' loves this trope. The music first heard when the S.S. Anne departs in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndGreen'' would later be heard as the surfing music of that generation. The franchise's most infamous use of this trope would be in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', which features surfing music with a French horn solo that helped make the generation infamous for water and trumpets.
19	* [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Neverland]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' has a waltzy theme that isn't present in its appearance in earlier or later games, and it has much more water than any other level in the game. However, the earlier games had it entirely on a pirate ship, and a later game was a prequel.
20	* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}''. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen There was going to be a water-themed world]], so composer Kris Maddigan wrote a sweeping waltz tune for its music. But after the water world was cut, this song was reworked and used for [[https://youtu.be/clVx1bccHpU Elder Kettle's house]] instead.
21	* In ''VideoGame/FatalFury3'', [[MsFanservice Mai Shiranui's]] stage is in an aquarium and her theme sounds eerily similar to a waltz song in both [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jklrG2YgAgU OST]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgJFup7UrJ4 Arranged]] versions.
22	* ''[[VideoGame/EarthwormJim Earthworm Jim 2]]'' features a variation on this. Beethoven's [[StandardSnippet Moonlight Sonata]], while too slow for a proper waltz, is used to similar effect in the underwater level "Villi People", where Jim briefly disguises himself as/is transformed into [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Sally, the Blind Cave Salamander]] in order to traverse a planet-sized [[WombLevel intestinal tract]].
23	* In ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet 3'', the level that introduces [[SizeShifter Toggle]] uses a remix of [[Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky "Waltz of the Flowers"]] as BGM. Since one of Toggle's abilities is walk [[WalkOnWater on]] and [[WalkDontSwim under]] water, this trope comes into play.
24	* In ''VideoGame/NavalOps Warship Gunner 2'', waltzes are frequently used as background music when you're not in combat.
25	* There have been several instances of aquatic levels in ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' being given waltz music:
26	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncu6d24xM_Y Sinking Old Sanctuary]], which plays in Stage 2, the eponymous flooded Greek ruins.
27	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xnmmrfouY4 Mortvia Aqueduct]] for the locale of the same name.
28	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ovOfGkYls Wandering the Crystal Blue]] for the underwater caverns of Somnus Reefs.
29	* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' occasionally has waltz themes for its wetter levels.
30	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEa-QuCPz3c Azure Millennial Woodlands]] for the third stratum of [[VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI the first game]], Azure Rainforest, the bluest and wettest area of the game.
31	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x3r9jhj2HQ Water Woods of the Submarine Ridge]] for the second stratum of the [[VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity third game]], Undersea Grotto, an underwater level loaded with aquatic animal enemies.
32	* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'':
33	** ''VideoGame/TouhouKaeidzukaPhantasmagoriaOfFlowerView'' introduces Komachi Onozuka, TheFerryman of the Sanzu River who guides souls to the afterlife. And while her boss theme, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Y3vLV835I "Higan Retour~ Riverside View"]] does switch into 4/4 in certain portions of it, much of it, including the iconic beginning part, is in 3/4 time. The remix in Videogame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody plays this straight by having the tune play in 3/4 time at all times.
34	** The third boss of ''VideoGame/TouhouFuujinrokuMountainOfFaith'' is Nitori Kawashiro, a {{Kappa}} with the ability to [[MakingASplash manipulate water]]. Her boss theme, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KkcwBE7vx0 "Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's 'Kappa' ~ Candid Friend"]], is in 3/4 time. The ''[[Videogame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade Hopeless Masquerade]]'' and ''[[VIdeogame/TouhouShinpirokuUrbanLegendinLimbo Urban Legend in Limbo]]'' versions are played purely in 4/4, subverting the trope despite her stage being in a ravine.
35	** Parsee Mizuhashi from ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'' is a downplayed example. Her boss theme, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVM92Yi2fNo "Green-Eyed Jealousy"]], is in 3/4, and she's a hashihime, a youkai that only appears on bridges that cross over water.
36	* ''VideoGame/MickeyMousecapade'': The theme for the second level, "[[https://youtu.be/OO0NZ9RlYtA The Ocean]]," is a sweeping 8-bit waltz tune. Slightly unusually for this trope, the level involves jumping across islands ''above'' the water rather than swimming in it.
37
38	!!Non-Video Game Examples

Context Main / WaltzOnWater