The Nintendo music app presents excellent features, but also annoying limitations.

Nintendo's music is not easy to access. It's not available on streaming platforms, which leads me to search for songs from titles like Animal Crossing and Metroid on YouTube. Because of this, I was hopeful that Nintendo Music, a new app that was unexpectedly launched last week, would be the ideal place to listen to Nintendo soundtracks. However, while it features some interesting ideas, there are many frustrations and strange decisions that make it difficult for the app to meet my expectations.

The navigation in the app, available on iOS and Android but accessible only to Switch Online subscribers, is quite similar to other music services like Apple Music or Spotify. Users can explore songs from individual games or thematic playlists, which include aspects like characters, Pokémon battle tunes, or tracks perfect for looping. It's thoughtfully organized by game. For example, the fictional bands from Splatoon 3 have their own artist pages with biographies, and in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons section, playlists of K.K. Slider performances and instrumentals can be found. It's even possible to find a complete list of sailor songs by Kapp'n.

One of my favorite features is the option to extend the duration of certain songs to 15, 30, or 60 minutes. I have already used this feature to work with the music from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; the peaceful piano sounds of "The Great Plateau" are still wonderful even seven years later. I also appreciate being able to add games to a "spoiler prevention" list to hide information about games we haven't played yet, which could be useful to keep intrigue about a final boss.

However, the app has one major issue: it doesn't have many soundtracks available. Nintendo has over 40 years of titles they could include, but currently, there are only 25 games to choose from. There are only two Zelda games: Breath of the Wild and Ocarina of Time. Fire Emblem is the only Game Boy Advance game, and there are three NES games, two of which are Metroid titles. Interestingly, one of the "games" in the app is music from Wii Channels, which, to be fair, does have excellent themes.

Despite what could have been a comprehensive collection of Nintendo's vast musical history, this app instead reflects the company's more recent musical history. It's a significant disappointment that we can't listen to songs from Super Mario World on the platform. However, the situation is changing, albeit slowly. A day after the service launched, Nintendo added the soundtrack for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and soon after, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest also became available. The reveal trailer for Nintendo Music showed that music from other titles like Wii Sports, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Splatoon 2 will be coming, although no specific date has been given for their inclusion.

Another limitation of Nintendo Music is that it does not credit the people involved in creating the songs. Curiously, this gives more visibility to the fictional bands from Splatoon 3 in the app than to the legendary Koji Kondo. The app also presents other inconveniences, such as the inability to extend some songs without explanation, which can be frustrating. For example, I tried to extend the music "Phendrana Drifts" from Metroid Prime, but it was not possible, which is puzzling since it's one of the melodies that repeats while exploring that area of the game. While you can loop the song, it's not the same as having an hour-long extension. Additionally, when selecting how long a song will be extended, it starts over again, which can be a bit annoying.

Unfortunately, Nintendo Music is only available on iOS and Android, which limits its usefulness, as there is no desktop or web app. I would love to be able to listen to Nintendo Music from a Mac device or a desktop browser, as it is also not compatible with CarPlay or Android Auto.

For the songs currently offered, Nintendo Music is quite good, but there is so much missing content that makes me wonder if Nintendo launched this service with the intention of adding more titles later, possibly as part of the launch strategy for Switch's successor. This feeling of lack of depth resembles the frustrations I've had with other recent Nintendo products, like the Alarmo clock or the superficial Nintendo Museum; all present good ideas but are marred by strange limitations. Ultimately, Nintendo Music is not as complete as I would like it to be, which will force me to continue searching for much of the music on YouTube.