Japanese green tea company ITO EN has launched a brand new TV commercial for its popular range of bottled ‘Oi Ocha’ drinks, leveraging a new partnership with pop group Dreams Come True. As part of this collaboration, DCT’s Masato Nakamura appears to have introduced a new arrangement of Sonic the Hedgehog’s ‘Green Hill Zone’ for the commercial’s music.
Nakamura, veteran Sonic fans will remember, was famously responsible for the 16-bit soundtracks to Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Mega Drive back in the 1990s. But, as a contractual quirk of his involvement in the games, the musician owns the rights to all of the music he composed for the Sonic Team classics. As a result, Nakamura is allowed to use and re-use these tracks as he sees fit (which he has in the past for other Dreams Come True songs, such as Marry Me which also features elements of Green Hill Zone’s music).
This specific arrangement of Green Hill Zone – and Nakamura’s use of the ‘Green Hill Zone’ name as the title of the commercial’s track – seems quite deliberately timed to coincide with Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary. On his blog and Twitter page, Nakamura has promised a full-length version of the song is coming soon, and name-drops the Sonic franchise alongside his admiration for the long-running series.
A rather strange, but welcome surprise from the original Sonic the Hedgehog composer (and hyper-successful pop star), we can’t wait to see what the full version of “Green Hill Zone” will turn out to be like.
Between this and the gnarly situation with Sonic 3… does Sega actually have the rights to ANY of the Genesis music? 🤣
Only the Sonic 3 & Knuckles songs composed by Jun Senoue, as well as the original Genesis soundtrack to Sonic 3D Blast (also by Senoue).
This is also why the Sonic 3 Stage Clear music has become the official victory theme – it’s the only one SEGA owns.
Was about to write the same thing as Falcon316.
This is also why Sega has to redo the music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles if they ever want to remaster the whole game but, other than an unreliable rumor from last week, there is nothing to suggest they are going that far.
On-topic, glad to see that Dreams Come True is still around.
I want to try that tea