Nintendo Launched a Music Streaming App. Here's a General Impression.

On Nintendo's new music app, obviously in its early stages as of now.

Photo: Nintendo

Video game music is a rarity on most music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. But you’re almost never going to come across the music from Nintendo games on either service, meanwhile you’re likely to find the soundtracks for most games by Capcom, Square Enix, or Sony. As October 30th, that sort of has changed, with the fact that Nintendo has released Nintendo Music, an app with curated tracks from beloved video games for the purpose of listening to them on smart devices or your phones.

Given the way that Nintendo has been on a bit of an odd streak towards the end of the year, with their most recent hardware announcement being an alarm clock that was set to Nintendo music. But for someone like myself, whose DSi XL from a rough estimate of maybe at least fifteen years back is still working, and had the Mario Clock or the Animal Crossing Clock apps installed there, I didn’t really see that much to be gained from spending $99 there.

That’s where I thought Nintendo Music might at least seem different: the idea of a streaming app much like Spotify where music from Nintendo games would be all that’s available could at least be a convenient add-on for my daily routine. Besides, what could feel more nice about listening to old Nintendo music so that I can write along to whether it be here on Substack or for Cinema from the Spectrum. Because there’s nothing that puts my mind at ease quite like the soundtracks for a handful of Nintendo games that I think were pretty big parts of my childhood.

What can I say about the app itself though?

It’s very clearly in its early stages, and that’s about it. So many of the more famous soundtracks are missing at the moment, but we’ve still got the soundtracks from Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, and even the Wii menu themes - whether they be the Mii channel or the Wii Shop Channel.

My first impression of this app was just simple enough: I don’t think this was ready for release. I don’t think I can really say that it was ready for release because of the lack of variety in the soundtracks included. Most of the games that were included thus far have been games for the Nintendo Switch, which might be convenient enough given the fact the app requires a Nintendo Switch Online membership so that you can use it. But even the soundtracks that have been included thus far are mostly very easy picks, and oddly enough not Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Not that I’m mad with some of these inclusions, but I think that when you’re considering how many famous video game franchises Nintendo has been home to over the years, the fact that the available selection upon launch is so barebones is a bit disconcerting. In fact, since the release of the app and as of today, the publishing of this article, the only soundtracks that have thus been added to Nintendo Music were Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Donkey Kong Country 2. Which, even these picks I thought would have been no-brainers for the launch of an app dedicated to the music of Nintendo games.

What also caught me though, was the fact that while Nintendo Music takes on the look of any other music player app like Spotify or Apple Music, they would also list down the artist or composer in question. But Nintendo Music doesn’t do that. Which I think is innately baffling: where you would see the artists listed instead it’s just the title of the game in that place. It’s a bit disheartening, because of course many of us know who composed many of the most famous Nintendo themes (it’s Koji Kondo), but the fact that he’s not credited only works to erase the names of many developers who create these games we love dearly, just attributing it to a monolith.

It might not be something that’s on one’s mind, but even Spotify are much better at this than Nintendo is: Nobuo Uematsu is credited for every single Final Fantasy soundtrack which he composed, the Celeste soundtrack is attributed to Lena Raine, Hollow Knight to Christopher Larkin. But this isn’t an issue exclusive to Nintendo, for I wish I could even say the same about credits for Capcom or Square Enix half the time, especially when they’re also listed as being under “Capcom Sound Team” or “Square Enix Music” respectively. It’s a bit frustrating especially because some of us would also really want to know who’s behind some of these songs that we all love from games that we love.

But I think the most frustrating thing about Nintendo Music has just by far been this: it has crashed more often than not upon launch for me. It has crashed so often, and I’m trying to figure out why that is. And sometimes it takes so long to launch to the point that I wonder if this app was even ready for launch to begin with. Given how little music was available just yet, I was only left thinking that this was indeed a rushed job that came early because of demand. Which I will admit, I get it. I think that there are so many great tracks that we all love from Nintendo games we’d like to have on in the background while we’re studying and the fact that half of them are not even available on streaming services and you have to rely on YouTube for them can be a bit frustrating. Yet I think Nintendo might have jumped the gun a bit early.

Something that I will say I did really appreciate though about what Nintendo Music does offer, and I think is quite good for a music streaming service that is centered around video game music, is the addition of extended listening sessions. Not just by manner of having the same two-to-three minute track on loop so that you hear the beginning and end point all over again, but you can have the same track extend for up to one hour, as if you’re still in the same area within the game you’ve been playing for that long. I think that’s a nice addition, something that I wish Spotify could accommodate for the many video game tracks that are included in their library, but even then that’d also be too much to ask.

I’m sure this would all get better in the coming days, but I think that a company with as much a dominant presence in video gaming as Nintendo you’d expect far more given their reputation. Alas, I guess this is what we’re left with.