Nintendo Music brings classic game soundtracks to mobile devices

• The app features game soundtracks from across Nintendo’s franchises but requires a Switch online subscription to access

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Nintendo has launched a new mobile app called Nintendo Music which features swathes of game soundtracks from across the company’s franchises.

Whether it’s The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mario, Pokémon or even Animal Crossing, each series features multiple playlists built around themes, specific games, characters and more.

The only catch is, Nintendo Music is exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online members.

No spoilers!

This latest Nintendo product is available exclusively on iOS and Android but requires the Switch-based subscription to actually access playlists for streaming or for download.

But for those who do pay for Switch’s online services, they can now use the app with or without a Switch to hand.

With over 2,000 songs featured as of launch, users can create a huge range of their own playlists and even automatically filter out “spoiler” tracks from games they haven’t played yet – named boss themes being the likeliest candidates.

Going beyond a simple music player, Nintendo has also designed certain tracks to be extendable based on each user’s preference.

Since many game soundtracks are designed to loop while players are in a certain area or battle, they can also select how long to keep songs looping in Nintendo Music – whether it’s 15 minutes, an hour or somewhere in-between.

The app was stealth-dropped after a surprise announcement on YouTube, similar to the sudden release of Nintendo’s alarm clock named Alarmo earlier this month.

Nintendo has recently been taking down its OSTs that fans have uploaded to YouTube, previously thought to simply be the latest example of Nintendo’s litigious modus operandi.

In retrospect, with the sudden release of Nintendo Music, this appears more likely to be a move to centralise soundtracks to the new app, taking down competitors and giving fans one more reason to pay for Nintendo Switch Online.

The app’s launch hasn’t been without controversy. A report by Game Developer noted that the console giant doesn’t credit the composers that created the music.