I wouldn’t have predicted that Nintendo would release a music streaming service, but more surprisingly is that it’s actually good. Their pre-configured playlists, the ability to extend music to allow it to loop repeatedly for an hour, and the ease of the experience is… Well, look at the eShop. Nintendo has not always been the best at this sort of UX.
I listen to video game music quite a bit, and Nintendo has worked with some of the best composers in the industry. Most importantly, however, Nintendo hasn’t fallen into the trap of having all their game music sound like movie scoring. Big-budget games these days almost invariably fall to the orchestral side of things with their stings and swells, but Nintendo music still sounds distinctly video game-y.
If there’s one big downside, it’s that I can only play it off of my phone. But there’s another big downside, and that’s the fact that the music choices are extremely limited right now. It’s also a bit of a weird collection. How is it that we have Metroid Prime, the original Metroid, and the Famicom Disk System version of Metroid, but no Super Metroid? In fact, where are lots of other games? More specifically, where are the following games?
As a note, this list will only include games that Nintendo could conceivably host on their service. That is to say, game properties that they own. It would be great to see music from Nintendo-adjacent properties on here from other publishers, and that could happen, but let’s stick with the easy stuff. Hopefully, Nintendo will add these games soon.
Super Mario Bros. 2
I was nearly going to say Dr. Mario, but the Game Boy version of the music is already on that. And, okay, while not completely ideal, I can listen to 60 minutes of extended Chill. It’s good enough for science. So, okay, failing that, how about Super Mario Bros. 2?
Of course, I’m talking about the North American version of Mario 2, and not what we know as The Lost Levels. I feel the soundtrack of what was originally Yume Kōjō DokiDoki Panic is appreciated but underrated. It’s easily one of Kōji Kondō’s best works, especially on the NES. It has a bouncy, jazzy quality, but for some reason (possibly because its original association wasn’t Mario), it doesn’t get remixed into modern Mario soundtracks as often as tracks from Mario 1 and Mario 3 do.
I would imagine that we won’t have to wait too long for this one. Since Super Mario Bros. is Nintendo’s bread and butter and the music is so iconic, I expect getting all the soundtracks up will be a priority for them.
Pilotwings
Speaking of appreciated but underrated, here’s a soundtrack by Soyo Oka. I mean, all of her soundtracks should be on here: SimCity, Super Mario Kart, Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally. Jump Soyo knows how to spin a track. In the early days of the SNES, she created these songs that are paradoxically both haunting and intense. They often include a buzzy brass sound that just feels so emblematic of the console itself.
But while all her work belongs on the service, Pilotwings should be a priority. There’s something relaxing about the mix of slap bass and sweeping synth. It feels like calmly plummeting to Earth from 10,000 feet. A good match for so many moods.
Star Fox
Star Fox 64 is already on here, and that’s a reasonable pick. However, as good as it is, the soundtrack attached to its predecessor is much more memorable. Star Fox 64 was aiming for space opera and managed to hit it with pretty decent accuracy. I don’t know what Hajime Hirasawa was going for. Uncomfortable arousal in space?
The original Star Fox has an incredibly varied mix of songs ranging from mysterious to exciting to weirdly dancy. I’m not sure I even know of another video game soundtrack as loudly expressive as this one. The depth of tracks like Fortuna and Titania are just completely uncalled for, and it’s easy to get Corneria’s theme burned into your brain. I’m afraid that it might take a while for Nintendo to get around to adding this one, which is practically criminal. There oughta be a law.
F-Zero
It feels like Nintendo is just rediscovering the F-Zero series themselves, working to add all the games to their NSO services and releasing the well-received F-Zero 99. Now, if only they’d get around to re-releasing F-Zero GX or, y’know, giving us a new one.
Until then, it would sure be nice to get some of the series’ music on the service. Well, wait, remixes of Mute City and Big Blue – arguably the most well-known of the series – are available through the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack, so that’s something. However, those tracks, in all their modern glory, don’t hold a candle to how well the first game nailed its tunes out of the gate. After all, it’s where we got Mute City and Big Blue in the first place.
I’m not sure how to even describe F-Zero’s music. Excessive? If you play it while driving in your car, I can almost guarantee you’re going to find yourself unexpectedly speeding. I bet if you took your pulse before and after listening to a few of F-Zero’s tracks, you’d find a marked increase in your heart rate. It’s borderline offensive how high-energy this music is.
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
The Zelda series has a history of great soundtracks, so it’s hard to mark one for priority. Personally, I could listen to the Song of Healing from Majora’s Mask on loop all day and just get super depressed. But instead of doing that, maybe Wind Waker would be a better choice.
Wind Waker is a stark departure from the tunes featured previously in the series. While it still plays off some of the themes, it mixes in a nautical theme that gives each of the major islands a very distinct feel. Not only that, but the Great Sea traversal music is relaxing in a way that you don’t really find outside of, say, Breath of the Wild. It still feels very adventuresome, but at the same time, kind of peaceful.
The downside is that a lot of the individual tracks are reserved for boss battles, which are fine if you’re in the mood, but I don’t find them to be as interesting. On the other hand, I think Farewell Hyrule Kingdom, which is a melancholy remix of the Hyrule Castle theme from Link to the Past, is just too good. It can almost bring a tear to my eye.
Splatoon 2
Splatoon 3 is already on Nintendo Music, which seems appropriate since it’s the most recent. However, the playlist is pretty much just the songs that appear on the game itself rather than ones that were brought over from previous games (aside from remixes). That’s still pretty cool.
The problem I have is that I don’t really like the central band in Splatoon 3, Deep Cuts. I don’t hate them, either, but they don’t hit me the same way that Splatoon’s Squid Sisters, or especially Splatoon 2’s Off the Hook, does. Some of their songs are available in the song. So, an itch is being scratched, but just not as thoroughly as I would hope.
It’s a good bet that Splatoon and Splatoon 2’s soundtracks will make it to the service, I just hope it’s sooner rather than later. I love the series’ OST’s and being able to filter and sort by the in-game bands will be so rad.
Golden Sun
Back when Golden Sun first came out, every time I started up the game, I’d sit on the opening screen to soak in the overture. There’s a stunning amount of grandeur in every bit of the game’s music. By JRPG standards, the game itself isn’t terribly special (though it was impressive for a handheld game at the time), but the soundtrack itself feels huge. By itself, it made it feel like you were playing something important.
It’s a very unified soundtrack, so while you’ll get everything from relaxing villages to fights against powerful foes, it all feels thematically linked. You won’t suddenly get power rock out of nowhere like a lot of other games of its genre. Not that variation is a problem (it’s often preferred), but consistency can make it easier to listen through an entire soundtrack.
Super Mario RPG
I’m a bit surprised this soundtrack isn’t already included since the remake is still pretty fresh in memory, having been released just last year. However, by the choices made on the service, it’s obvious that recency isn’t really an indicator of whether or not a game’s soundtrack will be available. So, I hope they get Super Mario RPG’s soundtrack on there soon.
Kōji Kondō is a tough act to follow, and it was probably very tempting to play off of his iconic themes, but Yoko Shimomura went completely off in her own direction. The soundtrack is rather bizarre but incredibly appealing. A lot of it is a bouncy, brass-heavy, percussive sound. Sometimes, it aims for whimsy, while other times, it’s just exciting and fun. Every so often, it gets surprisingly emotional. I’m not crying. I was just cutting onions. I’m making a lasagna.
It would be great to see the remake’s OST on Nintendo Music, especially since the game also included the original score. When it was first released, I kept the game on my desk, listening to its songs while writing guides about balls.
Advance Wars
Speaking of recent remakes, Advance Wars recently got a gloss-up by Wayforward. If you weren’t familiar with the soundtrack of the classic GBA title, hopefully you are now. Advance Wars is a game that makes war uncomfortably cheerful. Like, cities are being occupied and fought over, bombs are being dropped, military hardware is being wrecked, and people are (assumedly) dying, but it’s treated more like a sport. It’s no more serious than if the COs were going out to play frisbee golf in the park.
And the soundtrack just completely underscores that. It’s largely just a collection of infectious pop-rock tunes with buzzy, distorted guitars and jaunty basslines. But what makes it stand out is the fact that so many hooks and riffs in the songs are as unique as they are catchy. A lot of these songs play on loop for half-hour-or-more long missions, so it’s probably important that they don’t get old very quickly.
There are also a lot of songs on the soundtrack. Every CO has its own theme, so even if you exclude the variations of tunes that play under different situations, you still have a long runtime. But there’s also a lot of variation in there. Beyond the pop-rock songs, there are more traditional marches mixed in alongside even heavier sounds. It’s a joy to listen to.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
This one feels kind of like cheating, since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate doesn’t strictly have much of an OST, rather it takes in songs from all the different series that get represented in the game and more beyond that. Sometimes, the songs are presented as they were in other games, and other times, the songs are completely remixed in interesting ways.
It’s maybe the least likely soundtrack on this list to make its way to the service. If it does, I’d expect it to arrive after a lot of other games are added to make overlapping tracks a lot simpler. But beyond that, SSBU contains a lot of songs that don’t belong to Nintendo. They would probably have to get permission from publishers like Capcom and Konami to put the whole soundtrack up. Otherwise, I guess they could exclude those songs. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s possible. I’m just not counting on it being anytime soon. I can’t predict the future, though, so who knows?
Published: Nov 1, 2024 04:50 pm