Suspiciously Similar Song / Pokémon

• Pokémon Red and Blue:
  • The song that plays in Route 1 sounds suspiciously similar to "Polly Wolly Doodle". If you listen closely, the harmony sounds a bit like the "Flea Waltz".
  • The "chorus" of Cinnabar Island sounds near-identical to that of "Sing Hosanna"...
  • The “Hurry Along” music sounds very similar to the song Paint Your Wagon from The Simpsons.
  • The first few bars of Prof. Oak's lab theme (and later the theme for his radio show in Gold & Silver) sounds nearly identical to the first few bars of the "Chinese Dance" (or "Tea") from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. It also bears some strong resemblance to the old sea shanty "Goodbye, Fare Thee Well".
  • The B section of the Game Corner music is suspiciously similar to the B section of the Main Theme for Bubble Bobble. Silva Gunner picked up on it.
    • On the subject of Bubble Bobble, the Gym Leader Victory theme also sounds very similar to its Main Theme A section.
  • The S.S. Anne theme is based on "Pachelbel's Canon in D".
  • The second route theme sounds very similar to (but is much more cheerful than) the first level theme from Contra: Hard Corps.
  • The Indigo Plateau theme has drawn some comparisons to Mt. Itoi from Earthbound Beginnings. Especially considering the fact that they're both the themes to their respective final levels.
• Pokémon Gold and Silver:
  • The theme for Route 29 sounds very similar to both the original Route 1 theme and "Oh Susanna".
  • The first part of the theme for Route 30 is similar to Blaster Master's Area 1 theme.
  • The Goldenrod City music sounds similar to "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)". Considering the bicycle shop is located in Goldenrod, and a remix of the Goldenrod City theme plays when riding the bicycle, this might have been intentional. It also shares similarities with "Anytime You Need A Friend" from the Home on the Range soundtrack (released almost four years after Gold/Silver's US release).
• Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:
  • Route 209 shares an extremely similar tune to the choruses of Electric Light Orchestra's "Telephone Line", Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes", and Green Day's "21 Guns".
  • Route 210 is very reminiscent of Part 3 of the Genesis epic "Supper's Ready" ("Ikhnaton And Itsacon And Their Band Of Merry Men").
  • The main riff of Route 225 seems to be an homage to "Jump" by Van Halen.
• Pokémon Black and White:
  • The music in the Celestial Tower sounds quite a bit like a mix of the "Green Memories" & "Secret of the Forest" tracks in Chrono Trigger, "Sanctuary Dungeon" in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and "Chronopolis" in Chrono Cross. Remarkably, it starts off already sounding very Chrono-ish through the intro, and then when the primary melody comes in, the first few bars are practically a note-for-note copy of "Secret of the Forest". It might be dismissable as a coincidence if it was only the intro, but the fact that it happens twice in the same piece strongly suggests that the composer definitely had the Chrono series in mind when he wrote this piece.
  • While we're on the topic of Pokemon B/W and Chrono Trigger, the music in Icirrus City shares the same beat and time signature, along with very similar instrumentation and overall feel, as CT's Millennial Fair music.
  • The encounter theme for the backpacker sounds similar to the Mickey Mouse Club March. SiIvaGunner noticed this one too.
  • Let's add some Touhou Project. The Final N battle theme has parts of "Now, until the moment you die" from Touhou Reiiden ~ Highly Responsive to Prayers about 0:47 onward.
  • The opening bar of the "Farewell" track is pretty much exactly the same as the start of Mother 3's famous "Love Theme". Other parts bear resemblance to "To Far Away Times" from Chrono Trigger.
  • Route 10's music has also been compared to "Run, My Dog, Run!" from Mother 3, while the surfing theme sounds very similar to "The Green Train's Fun, Too!" from the same game.
  • Parts of the Mistralton City theme sound very similar to the original Star Trek theme.
  • Castelia City's theme sounds like The Adventures of Mini-Goddess's first ending theme.
  • The Victory Road Theme is somewhat similar to "Fanatics' Tower" from Final Fantasy VI.
  • A Hot-Blooded rival from the Big Applesauce who wears red. Are we talking about Ken Masters from the Street Fighter series or Hugh from B2W2? The reason why this entry is here is how similar the opening of Hugh's encounter theme is to that of Ken's theme in Street Fighter Alpha
• The Surf theme in Pokémon X and Y is (with the exception of a single skipped beat at the end of the loop) bar-for-bar like the theme from the Comet Observatory in Super Mario Galaxy. Transpose the Surf music one semitown down and increase its tempo from 156 to 175 and they literally can play in sync with one another.
• The Kahuna battle theme from Pokémon Sun and Moon has a similar melody to T-Square's song "Triumph", which used to be the opening theme to a Japanese horse racing TV show.
• Pokémon Sword and Shield:
  • The Battle Tower theme is sounds an awful lot like a pitched up version of the final song from the unofficial Homestuck fan album, The Baby is You. While Toby Fox is known for reusing musical motifs, It's not clear if this intentional.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
  • The Monster House theme's first few bars sounds very much like the first couple verses of the famous Mission: Impossible theme.
  • The Primal Dialga theme from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky is suspiciously similar to the Bowser Jr. battle theme from Super Mario Galaxy. The song's structure more closely resembles Hirose Kohmi's "Promise (Get Down)", especially the BUS remix.
  • Team Charm's Theme from sounds suspiciously like the theme from Charlie's Angels.
• The music that plays in Fall City Harbor for Pokémon Ranger sounds very much like Peach's theme from Super Mario Galaxy.
• The theme for Serene Village in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is almost a swung rendition of "Kids Run Through the City" from Final Fantasy VI.
• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
  • It's been noticed that the theme of the Treasures of Ruin sounds suspiciously similar to, of all things, the memetic Punjabi pop song "Tunak Tunak Tun", to the point where it's been memed upon by the community, with some even making mashups of the two themes.
  • The theme of Area Zero sounds somewhat similar to Another Medium from Undertale. It helps that Toby Fox composed both.
• The first anime dub theme sounds very similar to Bonnie Tyler's song Holding Outfora Hero. This is best seen with the cover versions heard in Pokémon: The First Movie and its CGI remake Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution and the second trailer for ''Pokémon Detective Pikachu", which first uses an instrumental for anime dub theme, before switching to the chorus of "Holding Out for a Hero."

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