Nintendo Just Launched a Music Streaming App, and It’s Surprisingly Good

Nintendo’s on an odd streak going into the tail end of the year. Its major hardware release for 2024 turned out to be a big, loud alarm clock. Anybody who pays for Nintendo Switch Online can download Nintendo Music to listen to music from the Japanese game maker’s most beloved properties. What’s even more strange than the fact this now exists is how good the app is, even at this early stage.

Nintendo Music is available on iOS and Android starting today. The app includes tracks from a handful of properties, including the Mario games, Metroid, Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, and Starfox. There are also tracks from lesser-known franchises, like Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for the Game Boy Advance or Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS.

After a quick perusal through the list, I couldn’t find any true deep cuts, as much as I wanted to find the songs from the Mother (AKA, the EarthBound) games. However, there is indeed the Wii Shop Channel music, which, in this writer’s humble opinion, is the best menu theme ever created. Once you jump in, you’ll likely find yourself disappointed that one of your favorite games isn’t on the list, even though there are still bangers like the Metroid Prime soundtrack.

Nintendo Music includes more curated playlists for specific characters, like Bowser or Yoshi; other playlists should match your mood with titles like “Good Night” or “Powering Up.” You can create your own playlist as well. There’s even a feature that lets you hide songs from certain games if you don’t want to spoil the game’s tunes. However, the best addition may be the ability to extend tracks to up to 60 minutes for when you want to hear the opening theme to Animal Crossing: New Horizons ad nauseam (because, face it, of course, you do).

I wrote this article listening to the themes from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and yes—if you were wondering—it’s a real trip down memory lane. For each track, Nintendo includes a screenshot from the section of the game when you want that “oh, I remember the Deku Tree theme” sensation. Hell, there’s even a separate playlist housing all the ocarina songs from the 26-year-old Nintendo 64 game.

Nintendo Switch Online is normally $4 or $20 annually. It unlocks features like cloud saves and online gaming on the Nintendo Switch. It also grants access to Nintendo’s back catalog of select past titles from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64. Whether you think any of that is a good deal is up to you, but Nintendo Music has no additional cost to subscribers, so you might as well try it out if you’re already paying.

The app leaves a good deal of headroom for Nintendo to add even more music from its long, long library. Of course, you can still search for the same song selection through YouTube, but Nintendo Music adds enough extra, exclusive features that it’s actually worth trying. However, if I want excellent remixes, like Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which is made entirely of foley from Super Mario 64, I’ll still have to look elsewhere.