Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal

The first games in the series that had a day and night cycle which reflected your local time.

Unfortunatly this is only utilized for two of the tracks in the games:

1. Wild Pokémon Battle (Day)
2. Wild Pokémon Battle (Night)

Since this game also includes the kanto region it also has some callbacks to the Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow soundtrack:

1. Trainer Battle (Kanto)
2. Pallet Town
3. Pewter City
4. Viridian Forest (Route 2)
5. Wild Pokémon Battle (Kanto)
6. Lavender Town
7. Gym Leader Battle (Kanto)

Compared to Viridian Forest the new one doesn't sound nearly as scary and has a more upbeat, but to be honest it's not really a forest anymore in this game, more like a sort of maze of bushes...

Lavender Town also doesn't sound as scary as in the previous games, it has been replace with a sad feel.

Goldenrod Game Corner is such a jolly and energetic tune.

Of the route themes Route 29 seems to have just burned itself into my mind.

Favorites

1. Ice Path
2. Goldenrod Game Corner
3. Champion/Red Battle
4. Ecruteak City
5. Wild Pokémon Battle (Day)

I really like the This cover of Ice Path/Dark Cave done by ToxicxEternity, so I'm influenced by it when I put Ice Path on top.