Remember that time I dedicated a week to writing about the soundtracks to all extant Pokémon games? So do I! Here it is! All of it!
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Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
"The full-colour graphics were streets ahead of their predecessors, and the blippy chiptune of the Gameboy Colour games, charming to be sure, could not hold a candle to the bold and brash soundtrack of the Hoenn region. A bracing electric bass solo accompanies the player up the smoky reds of a volcano, soothing strings conduct the way across Hoenn's cool blue seas and, most excitingly, a decent facsimile of an orchestra propels its ways through the rich, dense jungle. So sharp and intricate and precise were the instrumentations on that grueling trek to Fortree City that they shone bright, even through the battering rainstorm. The booming timpani, rolling snares and crashing cymbals are thrilling enough, but the superlative brass sections would go on to attain coveted meme status, becoming a shorthand for the sense of unadulterated excitement and joy Ruby and Sapphire brought to the Pokémon series."
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen"Seeing as I personally err on the the side of change rather than conservation, the better tracks in my books tend to stretch further from their eight-bit subject matter, treating the chiptune as inspiration rather than guide. The slithery theme for Viridian Forest transforms a jarring jackhammer into an ominous xylophone riff that almost sounds like sonar pings. It is as if the games wants you to subconsciously expect someone or something to creep up on you. When cruising aboard the lavish S.S. Anne, a dry, obnoxious exercise in counterpoint imitating a Bach-lite harpsichord becomes a relaxing, pastoral balm set to piano and strings. The juttering quasi-tango of the Lavender Town graveyard is given space to breathe with the expanded sonic palette of the Gameboy Advance. The unnervingly modal melody is played on what I believe is a shakuhachi, a Japanese instrument similar to a flute, and finds it a much better fit than simple electronic beeps."
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Pokémon Diamond and Pearl"The florid embellishments that defined the Gameboy Advance soundtracks were shelved, and a softer, jazzier tone was struck. Though inevitably broader and less focused, it is nonetheless very pleasant. Unexpected melodic and tonal shifts are woven into the fabric of the game from the very beginning. Your childhood friend invites you to Lake Verity, just by your hometown, where you used to play as children, seemingly oblivious to the unnerving contrast between gentle harp arpeggios and a rigid breakbeat. When visiting a Pokémon Centre at night to heal your precious buddies' wounds, a smooth brass section plays straight against a softly swung piano interpolation of the same tune fans will recognise from every Pokémon Centre since the series' inception.
Later in the game, you must climb the unforgiving slopes of Mount Coronet, accompanied by only your wits and a nervous, stumbling polyrhythm. The melodramatic crescendo mirrors your fear, building to a stuttering flourish, then drags right back down as your conviction ebbs. Apprehensive scraps of melody flutter in the gale. With every repetition, it almost gives up. But it soldiers on through the chill and the storm. And so must you."
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Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver"In an engaging and refreshing step forward, the soundtrack stretches much further from the original than FireRed and LeafGreen did from Red and Blue. Several tracks have indeed been completely restructured. Johto's labyrinthine capital Goldenrod City has replaced its square belltoll with a chirpy new ditty. Similarly, Cherrygrove City has swapped out its austere waveforms for a lovely seaside picnic. The decadent piano improvisation that greets the player upon entering the scenic National Park is the soundtrack's boldest moment, and never fails to enchant."
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Pokémon Black and White"Black and White began the inclination to shift focus away from the music, allowing it to discreetly engender mood from the background instead of leading the charge as it had in the past, at least in theory — most tracks the player hears in Unova are simpler, compositionally and instrumentally, but have not been softened as befits subtler background music. As a result, Black and White tend to blare unpleasantly. Visit any city — the loopy brass figure from the tiny airport of Mistralton, the heaviness of the potentially nimble Lacunosa ditty, the insipid xylophone dance around the Icirrus maypole — and you will find music that is coarser and somehow feebler than any from past regions."
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Pokémon Black 2 and White 2"Improvements were made to the region and the soundtrack, to be sure. Extensive upgrades were appended to Unova's uninspired hexagon, soundtracked excitingly and diversely, but the glut of dull tunes from the earlier games was left largely untouched. The happy lilting melody of the shiny new routes in the southwest is charming enough, but after crossing the sea to the mainland, the Castelia docks still harass the player with the same shrill faux-saxophone."
"Among improvements made to the soundtrack is the reworking of the rousing theme that played identically within every gym to match the personality of each locale. A slinky, slithery arrangement accompanies the climb through the threads and cocoons of Castelia's bug-type gym. To the north in Nimbasa, you must challenge a gauntlet of models strutting along a catwalk to the screams of an adoring crowd, barely audible over the pounding synth-strobed club mix. When leaping across lilypads and lotuses in Humilau's aquatic zen garden, a correspondingly soothing loop of chilled-out guitar and relaxed vibraphone keeps you level-headed. Credit where it is due: this is a clever idea, and it's a crying shame GameFreak shelved it after a single release. But when stepping out of Nimbasa's club with a shiny new badge to your name, you are still assaulted with the same overcaffeinated horn section utterly failing in its attempts to be cheery."
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Pokémon X and Y"Tragically, as the beats have finally come into their own, much of the sonic pallet has tripped and plunged headlong into the uncanny valley. The faux orchestra that boldly stalks the player through wind and rain sounds at once the most and the least realistic yet. Strings swell, horns blast and percussion booms, but far too cleanly, too squarely, too perfectly. These are the flattest and most generic route themes GameFreak has ever published. Past games were soundtracked like actual games, but X and Y aspire to symphonic heights the 3DS is simply incapable of reaching. Thankfully, the sonatas are mostly confined to the passages between the charming locales of Kalos. The themes for most of the cities and towns are simple and unambitious background affairs meant to supplement the games' content rather than be it. A gentle chiming tune vaguely unsettles visitors to Anistar City, intrigued by the large crystalline sundial overlooking the ocean. Charmed by a mystical pealing waltz, many who stumble across Laverre City in the middle of a forest fail to heed the warning of the clock tower built into an enormous tree in the city's centre — its face displays thirteen hours."
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Pokémon Omega Ruby andAlpha Sapphire
"GameFreak played the remake card straight with HeartGold and SoulSilver, doing little more than bringing the graphics into line with contemporary standards. Fortunately for us, this little more included substantial improvements to an already engaging soundtrack. Here, the reverse has happened. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, for all their glorious scenery and tightly-focused plot, plainly have not the faintest idea how to port the charmingly persnickety Hoenn soundtrack to the 3DS.
Virtually every track is an exact replica of its third-generation counterpart. No effort was made to modify the music of Ruby and Sapphire to better suit its new technical limitations. Where the bright, intricate orchestrations of Hoenn were complemented by the nimble sonic pallet of the Gameboy Advance, the 3DS blunts a vibrant and exciting anthology into a clumsy, disappointing mess."
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Pokémon Sun and Moon"Sun and Moon have come through the growing pains of generation six stronger, more focused, and far more cognisant of what works and what doesn’t. The unrelenting beige that bogged down Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has been thrown into the trash where it belongs, letting different colours shape different moods from the background where GameFreak has decided to put them. The Team Skull motif invokes appropriately grubby record-scratching while the sweeping piano figures of the Aether Foundation reinforce their stylish aesthetic. Spiritual successors to blockbusting tracks like earlier legendary battle themes and are more subdued and textured. The Solgaleo/Lunala fight relies more on dazzling visuals than burning a melody into your mind, as does your showdown with the Symbiot in the Aether Paradise. Even Lillie’s theme blossoms as she does, from a nervous teetering waltz to a stoic, propulsive march."
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