Pokemon Red and Blue launched for the Game Boy in 1996 in Japan and 1998 internationally, with music composed by Junichi Masuda. Its trainer battle theme became one of the most recognised pieces of chiptune from the handheld era, limited by the system hardware to simple channels that gave it a distinctive bite. As Pokemon grew into a global franchise, remixes, covers and gameplay clips kept the original loop circulating online. It remains widely used because its melody signals a battle instantly, even to viewers who never played the originals.