In 2016, The Pokémon Company (through distributor Overlap) published Pokémon Red·Green Super Music Collection. This album is a compilation of Game Boy Sound of “Pokémon” Will All Come In And Play CD (the OST to Red/Green) and GBA Pokémon Firered & Leafgreen Music Super Complete. And by compilation, I mean complete reissues of both albums in one package. The first two discs cover Pokémon Red/Green, while discs three and four cover Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen. The links above will take you to my review of the Red/Green OST and my dear friend Dennis Rubinshteyn’s review of the FireRed/LeafGreen OST.
With those reviews linked, I could stop here and say, “read those reviews; that about sums it up.” But I will continue because there are a few more things I would like to note about this soundtrack.
First of all, the physical print of this four-CD beast has some solid packaging. The artwork is brilliant, and there is plenty to go around. Even the disc art stands out with its lovely picture discs! You can see all of the packaging on the album’s VGMdb page.
Second, it’s strange the publisher didn’t bother to edit disc four. Specifically, the second half of disc four is a “best-of” set of music from Pokémon Red/Green. These are identical to the tracks from disc one. So it’s reasonable to say disc four’s arranged music could have been combined with the Pokédex entry tracks on disc two, making the package a three-disc set. Maybe the publisher didn’t feel it was worth the effort to move things around that way. Fair enough.
Third, and finally: publishing this album in 2016 was great timing as preparation for the Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! ・Let’s Go, Eevee! Super Music Complete publication that released in 2018. You get the Gen One music in Game Boy and Game Boy Advance form here, and then with the Let’s Go soundtrack, you get these beautifully orchestrated versions for Switch (as well as a bonus disc with the original Game Boy music in its Yellow variant form). Combined, collectors can wield a tour de force of Jun’ichi Masuda’s original Pokémon music. What a treat!
Given the relative obscurity of the previously published soundtracks, I think this set (catalog # OVCP-0006) is a reasonable option for fans and collectors. The only downside is that, unlike many other soundtracks, this complete set is not available as a digital purchase on iTunes (or, best as I can tell, anywhere else). FireRed and LeafGreen are available as separate digital purchases, but not this one. Check the usual online retailers if you want to add this one to your collection!
