Quote Originally Posted by Malver
Hmm... how about trying some 'background' tinting for special menus like Pause screens or the Main Menu... basically when the game action takes a break.
Not quite sure what you mean by background tinting? Could you provide a little screenshot or pseudo-code or something?
Oh an example is easy. Change the Hue and Saturation of the screen 'behind' the menu windows. What will it look like? Well go to shutdown Windows XP and watch your desktop change tint. There is probably the easiest example I can give you.

Oh and yeah... the reasoning is basically what Dom said.