When Nintendo announced its new music app last week, I excitedly downloaded it to my phone. I thought I would finally be able to listen to the superlative soundtrack The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom without resorting to rips on YouTube.
I was wrong. It wasn’t there. Neither were the soundtracks Tears of the kingdomor The Windwakeror A link to the past. No Super Mario World or SuperMetroid. No F-Zero or Super Smash Bros., not to mention Xenoblade Chronicles, Rhythm Heaven or WarioWare.
Available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Nintendo Music launched with just 23 soundtrack albums: eight Switch games and one or two from each of the company’s previous systems, excluding the Wii U and 3DS. There are some all-time classic scores here, such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time And Mario Kart 8 Deluxebut as the launch catalogs call it, it is extremely limited. For an app so clearly modeled after the services on which Nintendo has thus far refused to publish its soundtracks, such as Spotify and Apple Music, that’s an odd choice.
These apps are structured to help users browse vast music libraries and organize their listening experience within them, and Nintendo Music seems to be no different. The app is familiar and easy to use, it’s quite full-featured and well-put together; you can download songs, create your own playlists, or browse official playlists organized by theme, character, series, mood, and more.
But if you currently use the app like any other music service, you’ll run into the limitations of the catalog. The same songs and soundtracks keep coming back. When I’m in the mood to relax, there’s only so many times I want to hear “Phendrana Drifts” from Metroid Prime or “Aquatic Ambience”. Donkey Kong Landno matter how great they are. An official Mario playlist with nothing out Super Mario World or Super Mario 64 on it feels absurd.
In the here and now, Nintendo Music feels hampered. But – literally as I write this – I just received notification of a new soundtrack release Donkey Kong Land 2. Ooh! Super Mario Bros. Miracle was also added the day after launch. It looks like Nintendo plans to add new music at a fairly decent clip. And every notification from the app is a little dopamine hit of curiosity, excitement, or nostalgia.
Could there be a method to Nintendo’s madness? I think so. Nintendo goes Nintendo, and the content branding approach of the streaming age – where you drown your customer in content and then let an algorithm sort it out for them – was never going to be the Kyoto company’s approach.
Nintendo is far too deliberate and cunning for that. The company has always seen great value in building its back catalog – and in carefully controlling access to it. In the case of the music app, this strategy has put it in the somewhat ridiculous position of trying to create scarcity where there is none; you can find almost any Nintendo music you want on YouTube, and there’s a bustling cottage industry of lo-fi covers of Nintendo songs on Spotify and elsewhere. Nintendo is often accused of being overzealous in policing its intellectual property, and this app could be seen as another example of that.
On the other hand, Nintendo Music honors the work by giving each soundtrack its own moment. Lacking many personal favorites, I enjoyed exploring the soft, folky jazz of Animal Crossing: New Horizonsa score I didn’t know before. When Echoes of wisdom finally subsides, the intensity of my listening pleasure will certainly double. Delight, discovery and surprise are much more possible than in one giant library dump. You can have too much of a good thing, and a little focus goes a long way.
It’s such a typical Nintendo approach. The app is full of them, both good and bad. Bad: the lack of credit for composers and musicians, unfortunately typical of a company that likes to present each work as if it emerged entirely from an anonymous creative mothership. Good: the Extended function, which allows you to repeat certain songs for up to an hour, and the care and attention that has gone into its composition. The app is packed with clever, unique playlist ideas that come from a deep understanding of the games, such as the collected songs of Animal Crossing’s troubadour dog KK Slider, or a Zelda: Breath of the Wild playlist focusing solely on the overworld themes. It’s funny that the app essentially manages the shuffle feature by changing the track order of the official playlists every day, whether you like it or not. That is randomization and customization the Nintendo way, that is, as Nintendo sees fit.
Nintendo Music is contradictory, even conceptually silly – and its current scope is frustrating. But if it was done any other way, it wouldn’t feel like a Nintendo thing. I find that strangely reassuring.