Nintendo just released its own music streaming app

Nintendo has announced and released its own music streaming app for iOS and Android.

The Japanese gaming giant seems to be going out of its way to talk about anything but Switch 2 with the roll out of the Nintendo Music app onto the App Store and the Google Play Store. This app offers fans the ability to listen to Nintendo soundtracks on their smart device.

You can access tracks from across Nintendo’s formidable library of properties. That’s decades of Zelda, Mario, and Pokémon games, not to mention Animal Crossing, Metroid, and Splatoon, as well as deeper cuts like F-Zero X on the N64 and Fire Emblem for the GBA.

Nintendo has built an app that broadly mimics the layout and operation of modern streaming apps, with a section for curated playlists based on various franchises, characters and moods. I’m thinking the Boss Battles playlist will be perfect for that hurried late night walk home.

You can also create your own bespoke playlists, and Nintendo will provide recommendations based on your Switch play history.

The company hasn’t forgotten that it’s a gaming company first and foremost, as evidenced by thoughtful features like Spoiler prevention, which filters out tracks from particular selected games. Some of these tracks, of course, are themes that are designed to go on way past the four minute mark, and these can be extended accordingly for up to 60 minutes.

It’s free to download, but you’ll need to be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber to access the app’s content. Nintendo promises that more music will be added over time.

Nintendo seems to be in the business of confounding its gamers of late. Earlier this month it surprised everyone by announcing a new alarm clock called Alarmo. This $99.99 device offers a number of scenes based upon your favourite Nintendo games and characters, and has a motion sensor to detect when you wake up.