Pokémon game soundtracks set to receive international releases on iTunes in 2014

[fenyx4]

This is a pseudo-remake of an earlier thread I had from some months ago, but I'm hoping more discussion can be encouraged nonetheless!

So, for those of you who didn't know, the soundtrack to Pokémon X and Y was released worldwide on iTunes today (for U.S. customers, that means $9.99 for the whole album of 3.5 hours split across 212 songs' worth of content, amounting to $0.047/less than 5 cents per song!), complete with bonus tracks from Pokémon Red/Blue/Green Versions and Pokémon Origins remixes of RBGY tracks (AKA, a bunch of the ones that played in the various Origins trailers)! :cer_boogie:
But here's where the news gets even better:

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With the recent release of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y on the Nintendo 3DS, the games made an audible leap with more dynamic, high-quality sound than ever before. To bring fans this feat of in-game production, The Pokémon Company International has today released Pokémon X & Pokémon Y: Super Music Collection on iTunes, the games' robust soundtrack which features enhanced sound quality of all the songs.

For $9.99, fans will receive more than 200 songs and 3.5 hours of music featured in the games. As an added bonus, the album will include a battle game music track from the four-part Pokémon Origins animated adventure, which begins airing Nov. 15 only on Pokémon TV (www.pokemon.com/tv) and on the Pokémon TV app for iOS and Android devices. The album also features five bonus tracks from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue from the original composer, GAME FREAK's Shota Kageyama [Junichi Masuda composed the Red/Blue/Green tracks while Shota Kageyama composed the HGSS tracks, so I'm guessing this is a typo...].

[S-HIGHLIGHT]This marks the first Pokémon soundtrack available on iTunes. Fans can expect more to come in 2014 from the Pokémon musical archives, including the soundtracks of:
· Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen
· Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver
· Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire
· Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl
· Pokémon Black and Pokémon White
· Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2[/S-HIGHLIGHT]

The Pokémon X & Pokémon Y: Super Music Collection album can be downloaded on iTunes now at the following link: https://itunes.apple.com/en/album/pokemon-x-pokemon-y-super/id741190064?l=en

Sources:
https://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_X_&_Y_Super_Music_Collection_live_on_iTunes
https://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=216841

Links to pertinent albums:

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Music Super Complete
Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver Music Super Complete
Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Music Super Complete
Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Music Super Music Collection
Pokémon Black & White Music Super Music Collection
Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 Music Super Music Collection (also contains previously-unreleased music from Pokémon Emerald Version and Pokémon Platinum Version)
Pokémon X & Pokémon Y: Super Music Collection (available worldwide as of November 12, 2013!)

Missing albums:

So basically, the only existing soundtrack missing from iTunes (to the best of my knowledge) is the one with the music from Red/Blue/Green/Yellow Versions, while the closest thing to a GSC soundtrack release is the compilation of GB Sounds music on the HGSS soundtrack.

Tl;Dr - XY music was officially released today on iTunes; TPCi announced today that albums for games of Generations 3, 4, and 5 will receive official, international releases in 2014!

So? Any thoughts on these releases? Will you be purchasing a single track, one album, or multiple albums? Do you lament the fact that, for some reason, the RBY soundtrack is the only soundtrack not yet available on iTunes, as well as the fact that GSC currently has no official soundtrack release? Are you absolutely mortified that the "Hidden Grotto" track from Black 2/White 2 hasn't been officially released on a CD yet?

(insert obligatory Pokémon victory theme/fanfare here!)

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My own opinion:

Also, I'm hoping these soundtracks become available on iTunes of other countries to make purchasing them easier...

Wish finally granted; OMG! :t385: (well, ALMOST granted; waiting until 2014...) Despite a few mis-steps (coughEventBlazikenitecough), Generation 6 continues to get more awesome with each passing day. XD Such a fantastic proposed international release of Pokémon main series videogame music has been on my "Pokémon wishlist" for a long time now (near the top) and is probably some of the best Pokémon news I've read in recent memory. I was worried that I'd have to get a gift card for the Japanese iTunes store in order to get the albums someday, but this significantly reduces the potential hassle, IMO. It would be great if the albums got more exposure and got released on other official online digital music distribution platforms. In any case, major thanks to Game Freak and The Pokémon Company International for pushing towards international releases of main series Pokémon videogame music! {:3}

It sucks that the existing RBY soundtrack is still left out from any sort of official release, as with the Yellow-exclusive and Crystal-exclusive music, not to mention the entirety of the original Gold/Silver music (and the forgotten B2W2 Hidden Grotto music, if you care about that sort of thing :P); I'm still hoping that these issues get rectified in the near future at some point. I'm guessing that "unused music" like the Ruby/Sapphire remix of the Legendary Dog/Cat/Beast/Gerbil/whatever battle theme (Battle! VS Entei/Suicune/Raikou) may never see the light of day on iTunes, but there's always hope...

 

[Flushed]

Oh wow this is actually really cool. It's interesting to see which are the most popular out of the songs (obviously the battle themes haha). I don't think this is a soundtrack I'll purchase, but it's still very cool to see the accumulation of the music that goes into the entire game. If they released the old songs with newer higher quality renditions, that'd be really worth checking out.

 

[moon]

I LOVE POKEMON SOUNDTRACKS. Wow, since I haven't played X/Y, I've actually forgotten to listen to the soundtrack at all up until now. I just searched youtube for a sneek peak and it's hard to believe that this comes from a pokémon game. I'm really happy that they will be releasing more scores on iTunes. I especially love D/P/P's music and R/S/E's - if they reorchestrate the Hoenn music I actually think it would have some of the best tracks.

 

[Brendino]

I do like the music of Pokemon X and Y, but I just couldn't see myself buying the games soundtrack (or any game's soundtrack, for that matter). Maybe it's just because if I want to listen to the music in a game, I actually go and play it, or just head to YouTube and give it a quick listen.

I am glad that they're releasing these though along with many of the past games' soundtracks, as I know it does appeal to quite a lot of people, even if I'm not one of them.

 

[Typhon]

I really like X/Y's soundtrack (it's definitely an improvement from the previous) so I'll probably end up getting this soundtrack album. There's a lot of soundtracks I love in X/Y, so I could end up getting this. I'm not a really big fan of buying soundtracks, so it's a yes/no for me.

But seriously I don't really need to but the soundtrack since I can go on a website or on Youtube, and then listen to it on there. The quality is not half-bad, and it's free and amazing. Unless they go copyright frenzy and remove all soundtracks, I probably won't be getting this. :<

 

[Atomic Pirate]

I might pirate download the RSE soundtrack. Brings back memories, that music.

 

[fenyx4]

For anyone who missed it, the soundtrack to Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen is on iTunes now. :D

The Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen: Super Music Collection is now available on iTunes for US$11.99 and UK£10.99. It contains 90 songs. The collection features adapted and orchestrated versions of the original in-game music from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, composed by Junichi Masuda, Gō Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki.

Source: https://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/w...n:_Super_Music_Collection_available_on_iTunes

There are a few bonus RBY tracks on it that weren't on the XY album release, so that's neat! Here's a repost of my opinions on the FR/LG English album release, and a mention of a possible reason as to why the price tag of the FR/LG album is slightly higher compared to the XY iTunes album despite the FR/LG song containing fewer songs...

And on a side-note, the English titles of the XY album's songs finally got their capitalization fixed on iTunes's listing (so now, it's "GTS" instead of "Gts"; "PR" instead of "Pr", "TM" instead of "Tm", etc.), so that's good! :)

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Amazing; tied with the XY English iTunes album release for the best news of 2013. :3 I honestly thought that we wouldn't get any more of the English album releases until 2014 (as an earlier press release implied), but the unexpected-so-soon English release of the FireRed/LeafGreen album just made my day (and hey, the red-and-green colors complement the Christmas/holiday season quite nicely)! :D I'm glad that we're finally getting more official English titles for the background music tracks and albums; the FireRed/LeafGreen English release is even more interesting because I can compare the official English titles to their previous Bulbapedia translations, such as "Trainer Encounter (Boy Chapter)" being changed to "A Trainer Appears (Boy Version)" (I really liked the term "Boy/Girl/Bad Guy Chapter", though.. :P).
I've especially been wondering how the English localizers are going to translate the titles of the encounter themes, especially with the "視線" character, since I've seen "Glance!", "Look!", and "Spotted!" used for it in the Bulbapedia translations across the different albums (although they more or less imply roughly the same meaning, it seems; I personally like "Glance!", because that's how it feels like whenever you're trying to sneak past those NPCs who constantly stare at your path all day...a mere glance is all it takes for a battle to be initiated.. XD). It's kind of disappointing that they opted for "Super Music Collection" as the subtitle rather than the cool-sounding (though arguably Engrish-sounding?) "Super Music Complete", but I guess they want to be consistent with the XY album title...

It puzzles me why the song titles weren't differentiated (as in, to distinguish the Red/Blue bonus tracks from their FireRed/LeafGreen arrangements); it seems that the English localizers have only done it for the Origins remixes so far on the XY CD... Again, this ambiguity can potentially cause confusion.. For example, the Red/Blue arrangement of "Final Battle! (Rival)" and the FireRed/LeafGreen arrangement of "Final Battle! (Rival)" (AKA, the "Kanto Champion battle theme") both share the same title, with only their track numbers (#89 and #70, respectively) and track lengths (2:34 and 2:37, respectively) helping to tell them apart (aside from listening to the actual music tracks themselves). Although these issues are rendered moot if the user can just manually edit the track albums themselves, in this case, I feel that the track titles should have been made distinct to begin with, if only for identification purposes.

I love how the "FireRed/LeafGreen Champion battle theme" has already risen to #2 #1 of Game Freak's Top Tracks on iTunes within two days. XD Kind of surprised that the Red/Blue arrangement of Kanto's Champion battle theme, despite being included on the FireRed/LeafGreen iTunes music release, isn't even on there at all yet (especially due to how the "First Installment Wins" trend seems to pop up a lot regarding the Pokemon videogames in the fandom; and even the Origins remix is doing better at the moment), but time will tell! The "FireRed/LeafGreen Gym Leader theme" is also doing well, not to mention Deoxys's battle theme! :D

What I found interesting is that they kept the two songs with Japanese vocals in the collection-that may explain the higher price tag despite fewer tracks.

If I were Atlantic, I'd be looking for a way to get the pop soundtracks from the first two movies up there (contrary to what you may think, these types of soundtracks do get put on iTunes-the catch is generally that you have to buy the whole album as a unit).

English movie soundtracks would be great on iTunes/digital distribution music platforms as well (not to mention all of the English Pokemon anime themes, and even 4Kids Entertainment's great background music).

That could indeed be the reason. :o And I'm glad that they kept those Japanese-vocals songs on the album, rather than just removing them from the soundtrack irrationally; many thanks to Game Freak, The Pokemon Company International, and any other individuals who helped to preserve and bring about the album release! I wish that users weren't forced to buy whole albums unless they wanted to (although I'm guessing that the "mandated whole-album purchases" practice nets more profit); the option of buying individual songs is good, too. Most Pokemon music is fantastic enough that I would have no qualms buying the entire album if I could, whether it be the "videogame background music" albums or the "English-exclusive anime/movie music" albums.

(This was a response to someone on Bulbagarden, but it retains some of my sentiments on potential soundtrack releases...)

Spoiler:

It's great that they are finally getting round to releasing the soundtracks of past games. I have already purchased the X & Y Super Collection from iTunes and am currently contemplating whether it would be worth buying the FR/LG one. The only reason that I am reluctant to do so at the moment is that it is more expensive than the X/Y soundtrack (which, to be fair was a steal considering the number of tracks on it) and I am a bit disappointed that it doesn't contain every major theme from Red/Blue when they have gone to the effort of putting some of them on there. I probably will end up buying it though, if only to support Game Freak and its very talented music composers. I usually prefer to own things in their physical form, but i'm happy to make do with having these digitally (not that we have much say in the matter, aside from importing expensive copies from Japan).

I hope that GF do eventually decide to release the RBY, GSC soundtracks in full as well as those for sidegames such as Stadium. Perhaps Nintendo and other companies will also follow suit with their games in the future, too; I was delighted when Nintendo issued the Ocarina of Time 3D soundtrack to the first wave of Club Nintendo members who had purchased the game. There is clearly a market for video game music so it's a shame to see so many companies not distributing their work globally, including Game Freak until now.

Agreed; the main reason why there are seemingly only ~10 Red/Blue tracks on there is that I think they were offered as bonus tracks (since they tie in well) for people who didn't have them during the Japanese release of the FireRed/LeafGreen album (as the Red/Blue music album, while released in Japan, was done roughly 8 years before the FireRed/LeafGreen music album release); with the English iTunes release mirroring the original Japanese release of the FireRed/LeafGreen album. I have no idea why the FireRed/LeafGreen album is more expensive (other than its age), although someone mentioned earlier that the slight increase may be a result of the inclusion of the vocal tracks.

The decision to purchase is yours, of course, although I think that the collection of RBY-exclusive bonus tracks on this album (some of which are technically re-releases, due to their inclusion on the XY album) is the best we're going to get for the time being of the Red/Blue tracks - consistently, I have seen no mention regarding any iTunes release of the Red/Blue/Green music album, whether in the 2013 English press release of the upcoming English iTunes releases of the Pokemon videogame music albums or in the 2012(?) Japanese press release that indicated the first mention of a lot of the videogame music albums being on iTunes at all. My guess is that it might be a rights issue or something (maybe because of the vocal tracks of the "Pokedex" or something?) since there was a multi-year gap between that release and the Ruby/Sapphire album release, because I don't see any reason not to release it (at the very least, SOME of the music should be OK to release due to their inclusion on the XY and FR/LG albums); it also just seems weird that the album of the original/classic music that helped to start the Pokemon franchise is the one that continues to go unmentioned/has the most difficulty in getting a proper iTunes release in its totality.

I guess Game Freak just skipped an album release for Gold/Silver/Crystal for some reason, but it would be very nice if there was a retroactive iTunes release of GSC music as well, so that all handheld main series Pokemon videogame music will have finally received proper iTunes digital releases worldwide, increasing accessibility multi-fold... Pokemon Stadium/sidegame music releases would be excellent as well, although I'm not sure whether the music rights are with the developers (like Genius Sonority) or with Nintendo; in any case, I hope for their releases as well.

And yeah, it's a shame that the majority of videogame music is currently unreleased officially online right now when a good chunk of it is viable for a market, but I'm hoping that this trend changes significantly in the near future for the many "videogame music" enthusiasts out there, such as ourselves. :D

 

[Boilurn]

To surprise everybody maybe, I'm not that interested. Although it's a great way to bring my song count right up, I'd rather put pop hits on my iPod than Pokemon jingles. I might however (If I did buy it) burn it on a CD to see how many of these songs will fit into the 80 minute time-limit. That might be quite a ridiculously high number like 50 or somewhere like that.

 

[Crunch Punch]

As much as I love Pokemon soundtracks (R/S/E being my favourite) I really can't see myself buying any of this. The sense of adventure and all sorts of other feels from Pokemon tracks really only is effective when I'm actually playing the game, and listening to it outside for fun... nah, really can't see myself doing that. It's still a nice gesture from Nintendo imo however for fans.

 

[fenyx4]

The Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver soundtrack has been released today on the English iTunes service! (and as a side-note, Red's Hawt Chili Pelippers gave me permission to revive this thread for this bit of momentous (IMO) news ;D)

The Pokémon HeartGold & Pokémon SoulSilver: Super Music Collection is now available on iTunes for US $9.99 and UK £7.99. The soundtrack contains 270 songs. The collection features adapted and orchestrated versions of the original in-game music from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, composed by Junichi Masuda, Gō Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki.

Source: https://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/w...r:_Super_Music_Collection_available_on_iTunes

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My comments:

Along with the HG/SS orchestrations, it's nice that it includes the GB Sounds rearrangements (demakes? dearrangements?) to resemble the original Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version tracks, although I'm hoping that an actual album release for the aforementioned original GSC tracks occurs down the line, since I've read that the GB Sounds instrumentation doesn't quite sound like the Game Boy soundfont...

Nice way to start off 2014, Game Freak/TPCi! ^^ This was rather unexpected as well; I thought we would have to wait a few months in 2014 for the next English release of the main series game soundtracks, but already we're up to the Johto-based tracks! :D The HG/SS rendition of the Johto Champion battle theme (Lance's/Red's battle theme) is the only piece from the game aside from the title theme that I've heard in full, and that theme alone could warrant the "must-get" status of the soundtrack for me; it's just too awesome for words. XD
The major theme I'm bummed about is that apparently the "GB Sounds" portion of the soundtrack is seemingly incomplete (judging from this article, "Discs 1 and 2" have approximately 171 tracks across them, so I'd expect the whole album to have closer to 342 tracks if it had all the GB Sounds arrangements, but it's actually closer to 270 tracks, so I'm presuming that some of the GB Sounds didn't make the cut, apparently... T_T), so hopefully the unreleased GB Sounds songs get official releases...someday.

I'm not sure on what to say about the English iTunes artwork for the album..the gold/silver/black coloration looks really cool, despite the cover's re-usage of Sugimori artwork for Lugia and Ho-Oh, as well as the same background effect that was used on the XY and FR/LG albums..

And a small tidbit - even though November 2013's English XY album apparently featured this, I just noticed that most of the "Glance! (insert Trainer class here)" songs are using "Trainers' Eyes Meet (insert Trainer class here)" for the official English translations. Though I initially preferred "Glance!", I'm warming up positively to "Trainers' Eyes Meet", especially/probably because it reminds me of the "Trainer's Eyes" PokeNav feature from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire (although in the PokeNav, "Trainer's Eyes" seemed more like perspective rather than the actual occurrence of 2 Trainers' eyes meeting...at least both instances are somewhat related to Pokemon battling/rematches, which is nice :)).

I'm puzzled about why the HG/SS Battle Tower themes (HG/SS DS soundfont and GB Sounds soundfont), which I'm guessing is the overworld theme inside of the Battle Tower, were labeled as "Battle Tower (Johto)"... To my knowledge, there isn't a Kanto "Battle Tower theme" to confuse them with, and the non-GB Sounds theme is technically Sinnoh's (or at least the outskirts of Sinnoh?), since HG/SS supposedly re-uses the Battle Frontier from the Sinnoh-based game Pokemon Platinum Version (unless the non-GB Sounds version uses the Platinum melody in conjunction with the HG/SS soundfont?).
It just struck me as odd.. Maybe it's to help distinguish it from the Battle Tower themes of Ruby/Sapphire and Emerald? (and potentially Diamond/Pearl; not sure whether the DP Battle Tower theme differs from the Platinum one) Although I don't know why they would start now, considering that lots of other themes need to be differentiated and that they didn't label the GB Sounds versions on this soundtrack... XD

In any case, I'm very glad that the HG/SS album finally got its English release... And now, I wait for the triumphant Ruby/Sapphire album's English iTunes release (which will totally blow all the other albums out of the water like an enraged Kyogre, with no trace of the event! :t382: Though I'll have to wait awhile for Emerald's tracks T_T) My guess is a February 11th, 2014 release date (since the FR/LG and HG/SS albums were both released on the Tuesday of the 2nd full week in the month, and the months have been consecutive so far), but even I can't say for sure; TPCi does its own thing. :P I would be quite surprised if they waited until February 14th, 2014, in which that would be the best Valentine's Day present I've ever gotten. XD ♥

EDIT:
I found this hilarious:

I love how a 4 second clip is still worth 99 cents! (Obtained an Accessory)

Source: https://twitter.com/toastyjustice/status/423127271201705984

Spoiler:

Also, the Johto Champion Battle Theme (non-GB Sounds version) managed to climb to #3 in one day (as of this writing) on Game Freak's "Top Songs on iTunes" English list, surpassing a boatload of XY songs; yes!

 

[moon]

Still don't think I'll buy it actually. While I adore soundtracks in general, HG/SS still has that same feeling that the tracks in FR/LG had; they are certainly remade and not original creations. They don't sound "right" somehow. I don't know if the quality or creativity in them is actually objectively lower, or if I'm biased since I heard the gen I and gen II music first and have somehow decided that they are better. Would be a pity if I'm that narrow minded haha.

And in general, I don't buy much music anyway, because most of what I listen to can be found on Spotify :3 Or youtube, if I can be bothered to go on and listen there. But it's a nice gesture that they release the music officially.

 

[acatfrommars]

I'll probably listen to the tracks on Youtube in my spare time, but I don't want to spend money on them. I'm glad that more Pokemon music has been produced but I don't want to spend money on it. My favorite music are the remixes, some with dubstep.

 

[oshawottlover13]

Pokemon Music Albums

As a lot of you people know, Gamefreak has been releasing soundstarck from every pokemon game recently. it is us to pokemon ruby and sapphire. What is your favorite song to listen to? Mine is the battle tower from Ruby and Sapphire. I've noticed that when you play it pretty loud with earphones, you can hear old timey gameboy sounds in it. it sounds amazing. i just wish the GBA had that good of a sound producer. I have more ruby and sapphire tracks than any other.

 

[Brendino]

I'm happy that they've been releasing the souindtracks of past games like this, even if I'm not someone that would buy them. Ruby and Sapphire did have some of my favorite music though, so if I ever did feel like spending some money on a soundtrack, it'd probably be this one.

And since we've already got a thread on this topic, I'm going to merge it over there, and the discussion can continue over there.

MERGED.

 

[Pendraflare]

For me, possibly, but i'm not too certain given that I can just listen to extended tracks on YouTube for free. I'd rather have 15-30 minute clips of the tracks than 2-3. It is a cool idea though.

 

[fenyx4]

HOENN CONFIRMED

Of all the soundtracks that I would comment on, it's just so unfortunate/jarring (for me, at least) that my remarks concerning one of my most beloved videogame soundtracks (the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire English iTunes release) would get delayed. XD ;-; I blame Twitch Plays Pokémon! >_> XD

Anyhoo, the best Pokémon soundtrack ever has been released, so we can all close up shop now! ^^ No, but seriously, still awaiting the soundtracks for Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, Pokémon Black/White, and Pokémon Black 2/White 2!

But yeah, thank God that this momentous occasion has finally arrived... Ever since I learned that the Pokemon main series videogame soundtracks were receiving iTunes releases, the soundtrack for Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions has been at the top of my wishlist! ♥ It's so weird that there's been a 10+-year gap between the English release of Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire and the arrival of those games' corresponding music album (which, unless the Pokémon Red/Blue/Green and (nonexistent) Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal albums ever get official iTunes releases, will be the longest gap that exists regarding the English iTunes releases)... But, truly, better late than never!

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My comments:

It's really nice finally learning the official English names that have become ingrained in my mind over the years. "Battle! (Wild Pokémon)", "Battle! (Trainer Battle)" (a bit redundant!), and "Battle! (Elite Four)", in particular, all rank in the top 5 of songs that I've heard played/looped the most in any videogame, EVER, mostly due to Pokémon "finding/chasing/catching/RNGing/whatever-ing", Battle Tower/Frontier battles in Hoenn, and repeatedly grinding for experience points against Hoenn's Elite Four and Champion.

On a side-note, although I guess the track listing for The Pokémon Company International's English iTunes release mirrors the physical and digital Japanese CD releases, it would've been nice if those "unused Generation 2 themes that were remixed with the Ruby/Sapphire soundfont" (like "Johto Route 38", "Pewter City", "Battle! Entei/Suicune/Raikou", "Radio Tower Infiltrated", and the various renditions of the Pokémon Contest theme (where each of the 4 sub-track was split into its own track)) were made available as additional bonus tracks... Maybe someday..

I love how the "Trainers' Eyes Meet" terminology for some of the track titles is more punny now, considering the PokéNav's Trainer's Eyes feature.. :P

-The track titles look nice for the most part, although some of the titles like "Museum" (which I'm assuming is referring to Lilycove City's Art Museum, seeing as the song "Oceanic Museum" has a slightly-more-specific name), "Battle Tower" (which is different from Emerald Version's track), and "Hideout" (referring to the Team Magma/Aqua Hideouts...?) could've used a bit more clarification.
-Good to see slightly more official English confirmation of the "super-ancient Pokémon" terminology (evidenced in the track title "The Super-Ancient Pokémon Awaken!") in regards to Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza.
-"Battle! (Team Aqua/Team Magma Leaders)" seems like a mouthful.. XD
-I was hoping for "Battle!/Victory! (Team Aqua / Team Magma)" to include the term "Grunt" (as more Grunts use those pieces of music as opposed to Admins), but oh well.
-Glad to see that the English title for "Heavy Rain" is confirmed (as "Heavy Rain" :P)! For some reason, the "unofficial" English title for that particular track has alternated between "Heavy Rain" and "Flood" for the longest time, but it's nice to have a concrete name for it now.
-For "Cave of Origin", I don't see why it gets to be the name of the track, considering you first hear it within Meteor Falls...?
-I was a bit surprised that the English localizers left "Room of Glory" as is; I thought they were going to localize it as "Hall of Fame Room", but it's good to know that that particular room behind Steven Stone's Pokemon League room/chamber has an English name now.. :)
-I had been wondering how the title for "Mt. Pyre's Outer Wall" (the old Bulbapedia translation that I saw) was going to be translated... "Mt. Pyre Exterior" makes perfect sense, although I always viewed that area more as a mountain peak/summit...


As for the English cover artwork, while it is decent and is properly consistent with the past English soundtrack releases, I would've liked to see the pieces of unique artwork used for the Japanese CD release (which apparently had custom artwork for Groudon and Kyogre on the front and back covers of the CD case, respectively; similar to the XY album).

In any case, I'm very glad that the HG/SS album finally got its English release... And now, I wait for the triumphant Ruby/Sapphire album's English iTunes release (which will totally blow all the other albums out of the water like an enraged Kyogre, with no trace of the event! :t382: Though I'll have to wait awhile for Emerald's tracks T_T) My guess is a [S-HIGHLIGHT]February 11th, 2014[/S-HIGHLIGHT] release date (since the FR/LG and HG/SS albums were both released on the Tuesday of the 2nd full week in the month, and the months have been consecutive so far), but even I can't say for sure; TPCi does its own thing. :P I would be quite surprised if they waited until February 14th, 2014, in which that would be the best Valentine's Day present I've ever gotten. XD ♥

Woo-hoo; called it (the English iTunes release date)! ^^ At first, I thought that The Pokémon Company International had actually waited until February 14th, 2014 to release the Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire album (since that's when I first saw the Bulbanews article about the album, although apparently the article was made 3 days late..) In any case, the Ruby/Sapphire album still made for a beautiful "love letter" (in musical form) from The Pokémon Company International and Game Freak! ♥

Since February 2014 and March 2014's dates align on the same weekdays, maybe Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum's corresponding English iTunes release will occur tomorrow - March 11th, 2014? (the second Tuesday of the month)

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As a lot of you people know, Gamefreak has been releasing soundstarck from every pokemon game recently. it is us to pokemon ruby and sapphire. What is your favorite song to listen to? Mine is the battle tower from Ruby and Sapphire.

Definitely a favorite; I like how Pokémon Emerald Version still found a way to incorporate that song (mainly in the Trainer Hill facility and all of those little rooms/houses strewn across Hoenn's Battle Frontier area) despite utilizing a different song for the revamped Battle Tower. :)

And finally, does anyone who has played the Japanese version of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire know what "BDタイム" (BD Time; officially translated into English as "Reel Time"), Track 39 on Pokémon Ruby & Pokémon Sapphire: Super Music Collection means in the context of the game?
That lone title has been driving me bonkers for the longest time (let alone that I've been unable to play at Mauville Game Corner long enough to hear said song in-game reliably XD). I thought that "BD" would stand for some terminology related to Japanese casinos, but my search didn't yield anything that remotely corresponds with "Reel"... >.<

And without further ado, CUE THE TRUMPETS!