"Battle (VS Trainer" from Pokémon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow on the Game Boy (1996, 1998).
Composer: Junichi Masuda
Album: Pokémon Red/Green Super Music Collection, Pokémon LP
Label: The Pokémon Company
Developer: Game Freak
All the hubbub the last couple of days has been about Pokémon's 20th anniversary (although not released in North America until 1998), and I thought what better way to celebrate the 20 years that monsters have been invading our pockets in little round balls than to expose some of that glorious music that Junichi Masuda composed. From a soundtrack of 40+ tracks (which is rather impressive for a Game Boy game), I decided to showcase "Battle (VS Trainer)."
Now, I know that there are plenty of people who could tell you which Pokémon is making which sound once they start making noises around 01:39 and which sound effect is actually one of their attacks and not the Pokémon making their name/call/noise. I should also say that I haven't actively played my copy of Pokémon Red for at least a decade, although I will occasionally turn it on just to make sure that the battery is still functioning and my save file hasn't been erased (again).
My reasoning though behind deciding on this track in particular is that while it is a frequently heard track, along with "Battle (VS Wild Pokémon)" and the "Pokémon Recovery" jingle, I wanted to use a track that was exciting yet still very familiar, but not used as frequently as the above songs. (Damn, does that make me a hipster?) Plus, I really like the inclusion of the various Pokémon sound effects that have been inserted after the song has made it's full lap.
Now that I think about it, I could probably do a Game Scores article about Junichi's score for Pokémon, so I'll go and find a spot on the back burner for that one.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
