Level 1 Music Represents

The background music of the first level in many video games frequently becomes the theme associated with the series. Sometimes, the "first level" theme becomes so representative of the series that it supplants the planned Main Theme in later games and advertising material. After all, chances are that people will spend more time on the first level learning the ropes rather than admiring the title screen. Since most developers are aware of this, they'll be likely to spend a little more time on the Level 1 music, and perhaps put it in a higher number of levels due to the extra work put into it, further feeding into this trope. This trope is more common in linear games (like platformers and shoot-em-ups) as opposed to sandboxes or RPGs, where Level 1 is often either not clearly defined or played after spending an appreciable amount of time on the Traversible World Map.

A Sub-Trope of Bootstrapped Theme. If sequels continue to use the Level 1 music from the first game, it's also a form of First Installment Wins. If the Level 1 music gets remixed in a darker style, it's Dark Reprise.

---

Straight Examples of this trope include:

• The NES Batman game's first stage theme, "Streets of Desolation," is closely associated with the title and there are plenty of covers and remixes of the song, both because of its sheer coolness and because the Nintendo Hard nature of the game made it the most frequently heard tune for players.
• The Binding of Isaac: "Sacrificial", the theme of the Basement in the original game. While Rebirth is unable to officially reuse it due to copyright issues, the song proves popular enough to be associated with the game, and for several mods to add it back in, sometimes given a fan remix.
• Blaster Master: "Area 1 (Forest)." Remixes of this appeared in the first levels of Blaster Master: Blasting Again, Blaster Master: Overdrive and Blaster Master Zero.
• Cadence of Hyrule, an Intercontinuity Crossover between The Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the NecroDancer, does this for both continuities. The Legend of Zelda is represented, as ever, by its Overworld Theme, discussed below. Crypt of the NecroDancer's 1-1 music, "Disco Descent," serves the same purpose for the NecroDancer side. Music from both continuities show up in the game's music, but these two themes serve as the primary theme for each, most prominently combined in Tutorial and Kakariko Crypt.
• Castlevania:
  • "Vampire Killer" from Stage 1 of the original game.
  • Also "Bloody Tears," the overworld theme for the second game.
  • Also "Beginning," the Level 1 theme for the third game. These three tunes are featured more than any others across the series. For example, in Castlevania: Judgment, they're used as the respective themes of Simon Belmont, Carmilla, and Trevor Belmont.
  • Also "Divine Bloodlines" (also known as "Opposing Bloodlines"), the Level 1 theme for Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. It's more commonly known as Richter's theme, and has followed him into Symphony of the Night, Portrait of Ruin, Harmony of Despair, and Richter's Guest Fighter stint in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • "Ruined Castle Corridor", the BGM for the first area of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, is used to represent the game in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Celeste has "First Steps" in Chapter 1, which provides the main theme for the game as a whole.
• Contra has "Battle in the Jungle," which is remixed in Contra: Shattered Soldier and Contra 4. Unless you grew up with the Amstrad CPC port, whose only music was the second level theme.
• Most Zone A and Alpha themes in the main Darius games, several of which also appear in Groove Coaster, another Taito series. Examples include:
  • "Captain Neo" from Darius. Technically, it's the theme for all cave stages, it just so happens that Zone A is a cave stage. It's also not actually original to Darius, having first served as the attract demo theme for Metal Soldier Isaac II.
  • "Olga Breeze" in Darius II. The conversation between the pilots, including the infamous "I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi" line, is actually hard-coded into the music.
  • "VISIONNERZ" from Darius Gaiden.
  • "Good-bye my earth" from Dariusburst.
  • "Photoconductivity Suite No. 1 'Iron Fossil'" from Dariusburst Another Chronicle, which is actually only one part of a three-segment track that plays if you pick the game's uppermost path.
  • "Freedom" from Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours, notably the only in-game track in the series with lyrics.
• Diablo: The first Game's town theme (the Tristram Theme) is perhaps the most recognisable piece of music associated with the franchise, even making it into the second game. The main theme of Diablo II's Act I is also pretty popular on top of being a Spiritual Successor of the former. That game's main menu theme (later named "Baal") is also iconic and returned in the expansion's last level.
• Donkey Kong Country: "DK Island Swing," also known as "Jungle Level," or by the name of its rearrangement for Donkey Kong 64, "Jungle Japes." Slightly unusual in that the music changes tone halfway through in the original game, due to it actually being a mashup of two different pieces, but only the first half is usually remembered.
• Doom:
  • "At Doom's Gate" aka "E1M1" for the first game, "Running from Evil" for the second.
  • Final Doom, TNT: Evilution has "Sadistic," while its sister game The Plutonia Experiment has "The Imp's Song."
• The opening section of Dungeon Siege features music that seems to have been written with this idea in mind, as the name of that track is "Main Theme 1," and variations on the theme are used in places throughout the game, including during the Final Battle and the credits. The Final Battle theme was also carried over into the tutorial level for Dungeon Siege II.
• Dynamite Headdy uses a variation of the Level 1 music as its title theme.
• F-Zero: Mute City. It's telling that, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, though the game had Port Town: Aero Dive from F-Zero GX as its representative stage (so far the only time in Smash Mute City and/or Big Blue did not fill this role ^note though Big Blue from Melee was present as a Nostalgia Level), a remix of Mute City's theme was used as the "main" BGM for the stage while the actual Port Town theme from GX wasn't even selectable as an alternative track!
• Final Fight:
  • BGM 1 was remixed as Guy's theme in almost all of his fighting game appearances (starting with the original Street Fighter Alpha), and also served as Haggar's theme in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • A hip-hop version of the title theme would be used as Cody's theme in Super Street Fighter IV, which would in turn be rearranged for Cody's return in Street Fighter V.
  • Though mostly an original composition, Lucia's theme in SFV has some snippets from the opening cutscene of Final Fight 3, most notably the part where Lucia is first introduced.
• Furi has "Danger 6:24", The Jailer's battle theme, which gets a Dark Reprise during the final battle with The Star.
• Ganbare Goemon: The Stage 1 theme was remixed as the background music for Sundowner's Garden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
• Ghosts 'n Goblins: Haunted Graveyard, which was used as Arthur's theme for Namco × Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Project × Zone. Also used as an alternate Easter Egg theme for Shade Man's stage in Mega Man 7.
• Gradius: "Challenger 1985," whose melody also appears in the intro to the Stage 2 music for Gradius V.
• Haven (2020): "Home," which plays on the Islet where Yu and Kay land the Nest at the start of the game.
• While Ikaruga has a few songs to choose from, the Level 1 music is especially infectious and the main part of it is used again near the end of the game. The only other recurring song is a tune that plays for three bosses, including the one in Level 1.
• Journey to Silius: "Space Colony Ruins" which is better remembered than the title theme (although the former uses the same bassline as the latter in its refrain) and is reused for the last stage.
• Kid Icarus: Underworld is basically the theme of Pit and synonymous with his return in Brawl (with a riff of it becoming his and later Palutena's victory theme), and is referenced a decent amount as a Leitmotif for the side of light in Kid Icarus: Uprising. This may seem ironic for a theme called Underworld in a series starring a heroic angel where Light Is Good, and possibly like a simple decision of recognizability, but the context of its original early-game use in the Underworld area was for Pit's escape and comeback from the prison Medusa sent him to after seizing Skyworld - fittingly, the Overworld now under the villainous gorgon's control has a more treacherous and less upbeat theme. It's clear listening to the original title's soundtrack that Underworld being a significant heroic theme was the intention from the first game, as it shares an intro with the peaceful title screen music (though the two themes differ from there), and Sky Palace, the theme that plays as Pit soars to the final boss with the Three Sacred Treasures in hand, heavily incorporates the same progression recognizable from both themes, with the credits theme harking back to both Underworld and the title theme. Though, it probably doesn't help that very few people actually got past the Underworld stages.
• Kirby: Green Greens.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Overworld Theme. It also became remixed for the title theme after the original planned title theme (Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" for those curious) turned out to not be in the public domain in Japan at the time.
• "Final Battle," the theme of the titular fortress from Lufia & The Fortress of Doom.
• Lumines has Mondo Grosso's "Shinin'", the first stage of the original game. Or as many fans put it: SHININ', SHININ', SHININ', SHININ', SHININ', SHININ', SHININ', SHININ'...
• Mega Man Zero: "Departure," the theme of Zero 2's intro stage, would be remixed for Zero's Guest Fighter appearance in Onimusha Blade Warriors.
• Metal Gear: The Theme of Tara, the main infiltration theme in the MSX2 version, was later reused as Metal Gear's theme in Snatcher, as well as the VR Training theme in Metal Gear Solid and plays during Solid Snake's debut in the story mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Despite the first NES game using a different base theme, Snake's Revenge features a more upbeat rendition that plays during the first enemy base.
• Metroid:
  • Brinstar from the original. They played with it in the Video Game Remake, Metroid: Zero Mission — there, the item/save tunes are versions that sound far closer to the original game's, which has a different melodic focus than the versions that came from Super Metroid and one that gamers tend to be more familiar with. This is used to great effect when Samus gets her Power Suit back after being shot down by the Space Pirates, causing the modified later-game jingle to sound out, reorchestrated, in full force.
  • Speaking of Super Metroid, Theme of Super Metroid is also considered to be this by some as well.
• Mystik Belle: "Dubious Castle Safety Gigue," the Hub Level theme.
• Panel de Pon: Lip's stage theme. Notable in that the series has its own theme song, heard in the title, ending, and map themes from the original game.
• PaRappa the Rapper: "Kick, punch, it's all in the mind..."
• Puyo Puyo has the appropriately named "Theme of Puyo Puyo" from the first arcade game, which plays in the main course between Draco and Witch's matches. However it gained a lot more traction as the main theme for the series as a whole when SEGA took over, with the theme being used as a recurring leitmotif for Arle Nadja starting with Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary. It's also used as the main battle theme in Puyo Puyo!! Quest, the counterpart for "Korobeiniki" in Puyo Puyo Tetris, and the main menu song for Puyo Puyo Champions.
• R-Type: "R9, To the Front!"
• Rad Racer: BGM 1m, AKA Sunset Coastline.
• Raiden: "Gallantry."
• The first stage's theme from the first Rushing Beat game has appeared in all of the games. However, the theme plays in the last levels of the sequels instead of the first.
• Shantae has "Burning Town", which gets a new variation in every entry afterward (except Seven Sirens which takes place far from the town in question).
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Green Hill Zone from the first game. Because composer Masato Nakamura owns the copyrights to his Sonic soundtracks and Sega has to pay him royalties whenever they want to use 'em in later games, the original title theme rarely appears these days unless as a throwback (such as the title screen in Sonic Generations, itself a throwback to the whole series), as it's primarily Green Hill that Sega is willing to pay Nakamura royalties for.
  • "Escape from the City," the song that plays in Sonic's first stage of Sonic Adventure 2, is much more iconic than its actual main theme, "Live and Learn." The song, as well as the stage itself, was remixed (twice) for Sonic Generations.
• Star Fox: Corneria from the SNES original.
• Super Mario Bros.: The "Ground Theme." This also tends to be an inversion, however, as while the music plays on all the above-ground levels, it's mostly associated with World 1-1 specifically.
• The first stage music of Supra Mayro Bross returned for Supra Mayro Kratt as the stage select theme. Since then, it is considered the main theme of the series.
• The Tales Series has several main battle themes for each game. However, most crossover games tend to feature the first battle themes of each game.
• Valis: "Flash of Sword" (Stage 1), although the series also has an official recurring title theme, "Fantasm Soldier."

---

Subversions, aversions, and inversions include:

• Anarchy Reigns has many Leitmotifs for its characters, but the theme that caught on most is Tre-Dot's "Ruthless," which was used as the first song in-game from the demo.
• The Bionic Commando theme appears to be a straight example, being the Zone 1 music from the NES game, but in the original arcade game, the music is used on the second level.
• CAVE games, particularly the DonPachi series, are known more for their True Final Boss themes than their Stage 1 themes, simply because of the viral popularity and infamous difficulty of the TFB battles.
• Doom:
  • The first of the Wolfenstein 3-D levels in Doom II: Hell on Earth, a recreation of its E1M1, is set to "Evil Incarnate," the theme of the Final Boss from Wolf3D's Spear of Destiny Expansion Pack, rather than its original theme, "Get Them Before They Get You." Likewise, in a variation, the second secret level, a recreation of E1M9, uses the boss music from E3M9, "The Ultimate Challenge," rather than "March to War" it originally used.
  • Averted with DOOM (2016), whose signature song in public consciousness is "BFG Division," a mid-game battle theme.
  • Similarly, the most famous song from DOOM Eternal is "The Only Thing They Fear Is You" from the sixth level of the game.
  • Also averted with the PlayStation/Saturn versions of the first two games, whose most memorable tune is the orchestral intro theme, while the in-game MIDI rock has been replaced with an eerie, dark ambient score by Aubrey Hodges.
• Double Dragon:
  • The title theme is played during the final boss battle, but during the bonus sibling match that occurs when two players complete the game together, the music changes to the Mission 1 theme. This also holds true to the NES version, which has Machine Gun Willy as the penultimate boss and Jimmy Lee as the final boss.
  • The arcade version of Double Dragon II uses a Boss Remix of the title theme in its penultimate battle (again with Willy), prior to the final battle with the Lee clones. In the NES version, where Willy is absent, this remix plays during the tractor battle in Mission 6.
  • Super Double Dragon has a different title theme and the classic Double Dragon Theme is instead used as background music for Mission 5. The Japanese version (titled Return of Double Dragon) restores the Double Dragon theme to its rightful place and uses an arranged version of the Mission 1 theme from the original arcade game for Mission 5.
• In Dynasty Warriors 2, the theme for the Battle of Hulao Gate, "Jump Into the Battlefield," is extremely popular and well-known, even though the Battle of Hulao Gate is the second stage in the game after the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
• EarthBound Beginnings: "Pollyanna" is the overworld tune that plays at the start of the game when Ninten is the only party member. It is not considered the theme song for the game (that is usually either "Mother Earth" (the title screen theme) or "Eight Melodies"), but it is considered the theme for the Mother series as a whole.
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • "Bombing Mission" continues from the opening cutscene to the first few screens, with a musical transition between the two. The whole thing is iconic to the game.
  • By far the most well-known track from the game is "One-Winged Angel", the Final Boss theme.
• Lemmings. The most-remembered tune is "Lemming 1", which is the first level music in the DOS version. ^note A bug in this version makes the music rotation revert to "Lemming 1" every time you fail a level, so it's also by far the music you will hear most often. But in the original Amiga version, and most others, "Lemming 1" is the second level music, after the Can-can.
• The Mega Man series is all over the place with this trope:
  • Mega Man: Cut Man's theme is a straight example, as it is usually the first level selected.
  • Averted and subverted in Mega Man 2, where the title theme is used to represent Mega Man in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and the other iconic theme is the first level... of the final fortress, which also represents Mega Man in Smash Bros. as a MM2 medley with the title theme.
  • The retraux advertisement for Mega Man 10 featured a cheesy jingle set to the tune of the opening stage of Mega Man X, of all things. This might have been a nod to how, back when the Mega Man X series first debuted, the "X" was frequently mistaken for the Roman numeral instead of the actual letter X.
  • X keeps having opening stage music as his themes in crossover games, but which game's opening stage music they can't quite settle on yet. In Project × Zone, X's theme is that of Mega Man X4's opening stage. In Project X Zone 2, it's instead Mega Man X3's opening stage. In Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, it's Mega Man X's opening stage.
  • Reversed in Mega Man Zero where the first level's theme was Zero's theme from the original Mega Man X. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 averts this by using the Copy Zero battle theme from X2.
  • The Mega Man Legends subseries averts this by having "The Flutter Vs. Gesellschaft" theme from later in the game as the iconic theme for the subseries as a whole. The song would go on to represent Volnutt/Trigger in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Tron Bonne in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Project × Zone.
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance zigzags this for its boss themes. Though "Rules of Nature", the theme for Metal Gear RAY from the first stage, is incredibly iconic to the game, a similar status exists for LQ-84i's theme, "I'm My Own Master Now", since he was the boss fought in the demo, as well as for those of Monsoon and Senator Armstrong, respectively "Stains of Time" and "It Has To Be This Way", due to their respective bosses' meme value.
• Typically played straight in Namco arcade games but there are exceptions.
  • Pac-Man lacked any level music in the orginal game. However, the Intermission music is often used instead. A remix is the theme for Pac-Man's room in Namco Museum Vol. 1, and it's also remixed into the theme of the second set of levels from Pac-Mania, Pac-Man's Park, which in turn is used as a recurring theme in other games and as Theme Music Power-Up in the animated series Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. However, the music from the first set of Pac-Mania levels, Block Town, is used as part of a medley with the Pac-Man Park theme in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U.
  • Wonder Momo's theme isn't the level music but rather the theme that plays when in Wonder Mode.
• NiGHTS into Dreams… plays with this trope. While the main character's theme, "Dream Dreams," is considered the series' main theme, the first level's song, "Paternal Horn," is treated as a secondary theme and is used in every Sega Superstars game that features a NiGHTS level.
• Ninja Gaiden has "Unbreakable Determination" (aka "Ryu's Determination"), which despite being an iconic song from the series actually appears in Stage 4-2 of the NES original.
• Shinobi had a bit of a twist when represented in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Not only did the composers look to Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master for inspiration as opposed to earlier entries (including the Yuzo Koshiro-scored The Revenge of Shinobi), but the theme for its sole track, Seasonal Shrines, is a medley of two songs from III: "Idaten" (the Round 2-1^* and Round 5-1 theme)... and "Japonesque" (the Round 1-1^* and Round 6-1 theme).
• The Stage 1 music in Shockman is the title theme.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The title theme of Super Mario Bros. 2 was an arrangement of the underwater theme from the original.
  • Likewise, when Super Mario All-Stars gave each game their own title themes, they were all based on the underwater theme as well. In order, here are the All-Stars themes for the original Super Mario, Lost Levels and 3.
  • The most iconic music of Super Mario Sunshine is that of the Hub Level, Delfino Plaza, which is commonly used to represent the game in Super Smash Bros. and others.
  • Super Mario Odyssey is most associated with the vocal track "Jump Up, Super Star," which features prominently in the New Donk City stage. You'd think, from the previews so heavily advertising it (and the stage inviting frequent comparisons to Sonic Adventure's main hub world Station Square), that New Donk City would be the first level in the game. However, it's actually one of the middle stages. Going further, the main instrumental theme associated with the game is "Fossil Falls," which is the theme for the second level, not the first.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • In the original game for the Nintendo 64, this trope was in effect for most of the stages (including the aforementioned Mario, DK, Zelda, etc.). However, Kirby's stage uses "Gourmet Race" from Kirby Super Star instead.
  • Melee stepped it up with the Rainbow Cruise level, which uses "Slider" from Super Mario 64; said theme was used for the Grand Finale of the live orchestral rendition of the soundtrack (a recording of which was used as a subscriber bonus by Nintendo Power). Though the theme plays in multiple levels, and actually gains its name because it's used in all of the slide sub-levels (one of which is accessible very early in the game, though not right at the start), the level also cemented the tune as being associated with the absolute last non-Bowser level, Rainbow Ride.
• Inverted with Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Its most popular song is "U.N. Owen Was Her?" which only plays during the Superboss fight.
• Though Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is most associated with the Port of Adia theme, the actual main theme is played in the second level, the River of Souls.
• Similar to Touhou, the most famous song from Undertale is "Megalovania," the theme of (ironically enough) Sans, by far the most difficult Final Boss in the game. It even represented the game in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• The two themes most associated with the original Xenoblade Chronicles 1 are Gaur Plain, the overworld music from the titular second major area of the game, and "You Will Know Our Names", the boss battle music.

---