After my earlier look this week at the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire OST, I decided to take a look at one of the older generations, and with the Second Generation being my favourite set of games, I thought it was time to head back to the Gameboy Color days…
10. Title Screen
The first time I switched my Gameboy on with Gold in it, and heard this! So many good memories!
9. Celadon City/Fuschia City
Aww, it’s a nice happy theme tune for the larger cities in Kanto. I’m still annoyed the Pokémon Safari in Fuschia was shut though. I can remember feeling as though that was one of the biggest let downs I’d had in a game so far the first time I found out after looking forward to the “new” Safari Zone… Ah well, at least that was sorted in time for Heartgold/Soulsilver ten years later.
8. Buena’s Password (Pokémon Crystal)
Best radio show ever in the games! Come on, who didn’t save up their points in order to buy a load of Rare Candies? Though, it always upset me a bit that I had to wait to hear this track, once a week, on a Wednesday at certain hours, and if I missed that slot, that was it for a week.
7. Route 1
This is more in the list because of the fact I have good memories of when I found out you could catch wild Furret here, and all the time I spent on this route in the early morning trying to catch one. Now, for the people who know about my fourteen-year love affair with Furret, you’ll know why the route where you could catch them wild for the first time holds a special place in my heart.
6. League Champion
Ahh, the memories of fighting against Lance with my rather underpowered Meganium and Pidgeot combination way, way, way back. To this day, I still don’t know how I won that fight first time round. Think I got lucky with Thunder constantly missing my Pidgeot… Then this music plays after you defeat Lance, and you become the Pokémon league champion! …and then you discover you’re only about half-way through the game and you have the region of Kanto to explore as well.
5. Diglett’s Cave
Of all the remixes of the first generation tracks found in the Second Generation, I think this one of Diglett’s Cave is the best. It still sounds so much like the original and it keeps the feeling of the original, but it’s just so much better.
4. Ecruteak City/Cianwood City
My favourite of the town/city themes in the series, I think. Something about it is so nice and peaceful, compared to that used for the “busier” cities in the game, like Goldenrod or Cerulean City. And considering you’ll be spending a lot of time in Ecruteak City in particular, for plot reasons in this game, it’s good that the theme for it is good. Saying that, I still think after all these years, that Cianwood City was really a big enough place in-game to have warranted a separate piece of background music.
3. Suicune/Entei/Raikou Encounter (Pokémon Crystal)
Ah, one of the exclusive tracks for Pokémon Crystal. Much, much better than the legendary battle music used in the other two games, I think. It does a good job of adding to the sense of urgency you have to capture the Legendary Beasts before they decide to flee (minus the Suicune battle, where Suicune actually sticks around for the fight in Crystal). I always remember that feeling of excitement I had when hearing this upon going into the black screen just before a wild Pokémon encounter in Crystal, and knowing I would be fighting one of these guys, and not a run-of-the-mill Pokémon. I have a feeling this was also the first exclusive music for a Legendary Pokémon encounter solely, in the series as well…
2. Ilex Forest/Ruins of Alph
I do think this is better suited for the Ruins than it is for the forest, but I like this one a lot. Though, I think this is to do with the fact this was always in the background when trying to figure out those slider puzzles in the Ruins of Alph and that feeling of satisfaction I got when I managed to complete all four of them. I confess, I always somehow manage to mix up the Kabuto puzzle’s claws on the first go round…
1. Dark Cave
Ah, good memories of stumbling around the Dark Cave when you first enter it just before you hit Violet City, and before you get Flash. I was always quite proud of the fact I learnt to navigate it and was able to grab all the items you could before stuff like Strength and Rock Smash was needed, without getting lost. And I do think this makes a good cave theme as well. I was always pleased that later on in the games, this theme makes a return for the Icy Cave on your way to Blackthorn City.
And that’s my favourite ten tracks from the original Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal. I will confess, I much prefer the OST for the older games than I did the OST for the remakes, and I was disappointed with the Heartgold/Soulsilver remixes of these tracks. At least they included the item in that game which let you switch to the old OST. That was decent of them.
Written by Karen