One of the most memorable aspects of the Pokémon game series over the years has been the catchy soundtrack. The latest entries - Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! - modernises the iconic tunes originally composed by Junichi Masuda in 1996.
If you would like to listen to the music in the latest Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch and don't always have time to actually visit Kanto, you can always opt with a digital version of the official Game Freak soundtrack. It's now available on iTunes in both the US and UK and can be purchased for $9.99 / €9.99 / £7.99. In total there are 122 tracks covering the new games and also the 1998 Game Boy release, Pokémon Yellow.
You may or may not recall this is the same Super Music Collection we posted about back in September. In addition to this digital release in the west, a physical version has been made available in Japan for 3,500 yen. It contains two CDs featuring the new games' full soundtrack, a luxury booklet filled with 60 full-colour pages and a special message from the original composer and also Shota Kageyama - who was responsible for the arrangement in the new games.
What did you think of the soundtrack in the new Pokémon games? Are you interested in a digital copy? Tell us below.
[source serebii.net]
Comments 26
Probably the only aspect of these games that is even remotely interesting to me. Nice to see them continuing to release Pokemon OSTs on iTunes.
Thrilled to see them release the Pokemon and Kirby soundtracks on iTunes.
Soooo... how about some Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Splatoon, Arms, Yoshi, Wario, F-Zero, StarTropics, Kid Icarus, Pikmin, EarthBound, Star Fox, Advance Wars, and Fire Emblem love?
@DarthNocturnal Yeah iTunes is prettty annoying
So..., no where else but iTunes? No Spotify, Google play?
I don't have apple, nor do I want one.... So how about make it available for a lot more people? Maybe? please and thank you
Don't laugh, but my favourite piece of Pokemon music is the incredibly cheerful and infectious intro for the "pre-schooler" type characters. They did away with it in Sun and Moon... am hoping that it features in this game. I think that they show up a lot on beaches...
You could listen to it on YouTube for free
iTunes is annoying anyway!
I really wish Nintendo would release their original soundtracks on iTunes too...
Unless this has the cycling theme from X&Y I'm not touching it. I love that jaunty little jingle.. and the lyrics I wrote for it.
What, no other platforms? I dislike iTunes and have very rarely used it. Spotify, on the other hand....
Eh, I'm sure these will hit YouTube at some point. That's how I listen to a lot of my game music these days.
@DarthNocturnal like a handful of songs from the game or just all 800+ songs in one collection?
@DarthNocturnal it’s just hard to imagine how immense that would be and how expensive it would. Like surely it would cost way more for over 800 sounds instead of like a few dozen!
@DarthNocturnal oh geez. That is a lot of songs for only $10. Are they all full songs or are some less than a minute each though? Because for example the Majora’s Mask soundtrack has some that are very short (some weren’t even background songs, just extended sound effects like opening a chest) and 100 songs that are mostly 30-40 seconds each is way different than 100 two-three minute songs.
I also imagine it might be noticeably more due to all the franchises represented. Let’s Go just has, what, three studios to pay? Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokemon Company? Smash would have quite a few first party studios and a handful of third party studios, all of which would require to pay for licensing (paying to use characters in a game doesn’t usually also cover to use them in merchandise), so I could see such a soundtrack being well over a hundred bucks at least (sorta like box sets of all the seasons of a TV show). Which I mean, great for people who’d want it, but I don’t know if it’d sell enough to warrant obtaining all the licenses again, as opposed to Let’s Go which has a $10 soundtrack (since every song is from a single franchise with only a few studios with stakes in it) and appeals to even casual gamers who played the games twenty years ago.
I could be entirely off base though on how the costs and licensing work, I admit that. And if it would end up being $50 (give or take ten bucks) it’d probably be worth it. Just speculation on my part based on the bits of knowledge I have, legalese isn’t my forte and I haven’t even looked into the size of the Let’s Go songs.
@DarthNocturnal true, sorry if I was crushing said dreams, like I said I don’t fully know the logistics of it all, Smash alone seems like a fairly complicated series to make entries too, especially now that they’ve brought in third parties. Though on the other hand it’s amazing to see studios that in most cases are competing for the same audience come together to give us such a content rich collaboration.
On the plus side, I think I remember they said the Switch can be used like a music player for the songs in the game, continuing to play them with the screen off? Unless I imagined that. It’s more restrictive but I mean, I carry my Switch most places anyways, I could get into that. Soundtrack for this game is a fanboy’s dream.
I really hate the music arrangements in this game. Thank god Shota Kageyama was working on this and presumably not the new Pokémon game for next year. His orchestrations here and for Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (and even most of his tracks in XY) completely sterilized anything interesting about the music. He wasn’t involved in Sun and Moon at all, and that’s the best soundtrack they’ve had in years. Minako Adachi and Hitomi Sato are so much better as composers for Pokémon—girl power, am I right?
just release a set of CDs smh
@Ttimer5 @DarthNocturnal I can tell you with certainty that these tracks will all be uploaded to SoundCloud and YouTube only about a month after they come out. Other than that, you can still import the CD and put it in an MP3 or something like that.
At least the Pokemon Company releases soundtracks. Wished others would do this...
Let's Go had decent music. All like 5 tracks. No distinct rival battle themes. Same with the rockets and Giovanni, etc. It's a minor complaint, but they really could have done more. (Or are different songs too complicated for new players?!)
At least the Champion music was an awesome rendition!
@PolarExperience
Yea I normally download/ 'pirate' my music anyways, but would be cool to have on other sites for more people who don't have iTunes and yes.
@DarthNocturnal it would take like 20 discs!
@SlowPokemon I highly disagree: the music is pleasant on the ears and very catchy. I keep getting the battle theme stuck in my head.
The second town theme is excellent as well; full of energetic synergy
@ShadJV Yes, they confirmed you could listen to the Smash soundtrack that way. I’m going to loop Bloody Tears forever
@Antraxx777 if you’re into the same pizzicato and piano orchestration for practically every single track then sure. I’m not, there are more interesting ways of making music sound pleasant through orchestration. I will say though, there are a couple where it genuinely suits the theme, especially the Trainer Battle and Lavender Town.
@ShadJV $50 is a huge understatement: it cost about that much for half of Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack, well, with import fees. The Smash Ultimate soundtrack would probably take 15-20 discs. It doesn’t cost much to print said discs, but then you have to factor in: packaging, packaging design, marketing, and probably remastering too (and, of course, licensing), as the songs were likely optimized for MP3 quality and a CD would need to be lossless, looped and with each song getting a fade out. The songs would also have to be reordered to maintain a listenable flow; a tough thing to balance for 900 songs!
Spotify? I don't give Apple money
Wish it was on Apple Msic
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