Topic: Nintendo Music

[Khushrenada]

Nintendo actually did an idea I'd had in mind for a few years now. An app for their OSTs to play and stream their music. I've seen people complaining for some time about Nintendo issuing copyright takedowns for people on YouTube who have put up videos and compilations of Nintendo OST. Often with comments from users that they wish Nintendo would make their music available to stream or purchase instead of just taking down the OSTs other people have gone to the trouble of making available. Well, now that request is finally happening but will it give the people what they want?

Nintendo's going the NSO approach of having a few titles available at launch and then slowly adding more soundtracks to the app. It appears that there will be an addition every Monday evening. It's one of those things that will no doubt garner complaints from fans who would like to see some specific OSTs now and question why Nintendo won't just put everything they have up at once. It does seem like they could probably at least done two OSTs a week but one per week is what it's been so far. I do get that by doing the slow drip release, it does keep a conversation happening about the app. It's a way of marketing even if sometimes that conversation might be hearing that Brain Age music has been added might get a shrug and everybody immediately forgets about it for the week. 

Personally, I've liked having the app and have been relistening to a few OSTs that I hadn't heard in a while. Usually been playing it when driving, not so much at home on its own. There are some soundtracks I'd really like to see added sooner than later so hopefully the wait isn't long for some of the good stuff. I'm also ok with the drip feed because it's been letting me work through what's available a bit more slowly while replaying some stuff and to keep up with what's being added. I still haven't listened through everything although part of that also is because I'm not sure yet if I want to listen to some soundtracks for games I haven't played before and hear the music now instead of possibly later. 

I also just discovered yesterday that I was missing some tracks. I downloaded DKC, DKC2 and BotW so that I could play them while driving and after listening to them a couple times over, it occurred to me that they were incomplete soundtracks. DKC was missing a couple tracks I could think of instantly and BotW didn't have the music for exploring inside the Divine Beasts which I rather liked. I was wondering why Nintendo was only selecting some songs for an OST instead of putting the whole thing on the app. Surely, that would get people complaining. On closer inspection, these are loafers I discovered I had just been clicking on the Top Tracks selection that first appears when selecting a game and not the All Tracks option just a bit further below. D'oh!  On doing some comparisons now, it seems like most of the OSTs are getting loaded. For DKC, I see nothing missing when comparing all the tracks to an OST on YouTube and their track listing. With DKC2, the only track I see missing on the Nintendo App is for The Flying Krock (the overworld map screen in which you can fight K.Rool in his airship) and the Bonus Level Intro. Not really dealbreakers or anything I'm going to seek out but I'm not sure why they'd have been omitted either. Considering today's update with Brain Age has like 6 tracks that are 5 seconds or less, it would seem like Nintendo would be including everything for a game's OST.

From the reveal trailer of the app, when it said more music would be added over time, the following games were shown:

Wii Sports (Now on the app)
Super Mario 64 (Now on the app)
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Now on the app)
Splatoon 2 (Now on the app)
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Donkey Kong Country 2 (Now on the app)
F-Zero X (Now on the app)


The updated music so far has been:
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Donkey Kong Country 2
Wii Sports
F-Zero X
Brain Age
Splatoon 2
Wave Race 64
Skyward Sword
Super Mario 64


What music are you hoping to see show up? Should we do a competition to guess what next Monday's OST addition will be?

[NWR_insanolord]

It’s not directly from the games, but I’d love to see them put the music from the Zelda symphony concerts on there.

[Khushrenada]

Can you use the forums normally now, Insanolord?

[M.K.Ultra]

I am usually opposed to having to get a new app of any kind, but I actually like this one. It is easy to use and the music quality is nice. I also like the themed playlists such as being able to listen to all the Rosalina music in the app. I am looking forward to the Splatoon 2 music being added which makes me want the music from Splatoon as well.

[NWR_insanolord]

Can you use the forums normally now, Insanolord?

No, I'm still stuck on the mobile version because I couldn't get the trick to switch themes to work right.

[Caterkiller]

I wonder why some of the sound tracks are incomplete? It's Donkey Kong Country 2's, Jib Jig, that made me realize songs were missing. No way it's legal issues right? Gotta be some strange oversight.

One OST that I never thought I'd be so attached to is Kirby Star Allies. My son was so into that game a few years ago that I guess I just tuned out most of the music while playing. Now that I listen to it I'm finding so many of those songs really nice and already nostalgic.


This thing is a winner so far.

[Khushrenada]

I wonder why some of the sound tracks are incomplete? It's Donkey Kong Country 2's, Jib Jig, that made me realize songs were missing. No way it's legal issues right? Gotta be some strange oversight.

Jib Jig is on there. You are probably just missing it by making the same mistake I did. I talked about it in my OP but here's the relevant point:

I was wondering why Nintendo was only selecting some songs for an OST instead of putting the whole thing on the app. Surely, that would get people complaining. On closer inspection, these are loafers I discovered I had just been clicking on the Top Tracks selection that first appears when selecting a game and not the All Tracks option just a bit further below. D'oh!

Make sure you select All Tracks when looking at DKC2 and you'll see it there.

One OST that I never thought I'd be so attached to is Kirby Star Allies. My son was so into that game a few years ago that I guess I just tuned out most of the music while playing. Now that I listen to it I'm finding so many of those songs really nice and already nostalgic.

Nice! I still need to play Star Allies. I was close to doing it to. I had taken it from the shelf and had it sitting next to me on the couch. This is the next game I'm playing, I told myself for when I finished something else. Then just didn't play anything for awhile and finally put it back on the shelf to tidy up and have forgotten about it again. 

For Kirby, I'm waiting for the SNES Super Star and Dream Land 3 games along with Kirby 64 for the more nostalgic Kirby sounds. But I will be curious to relisten to other games like Mass Attack or Triple Deluxe since it's been years since playing them and can't remember their songs too well. Will it bring back memories or not.

Also curious how the might handle some of the Smash Bros games. Will they have Sonic or Metal Gear music or other third party character songs?

[Khushrenada]

Wave Race 64? Aw man. I was hoping for Wind Waker to get that GameCube count up.

[Khushrenada]

After that Wave Race surprise, Nintendo has dropped the Skyward Sword OST we knew was soon on the way from the app trailer. That just leaves Super Mario 64 and Wind Waker as the two known OSTs that are supposed to be added soon.  Once those drop then it will really be a wild guess as to what might come next.

Also, I don't know if this happened with the latest update or sometime during the past week but I notice that Nintendo has sort of doubled up on some OSTs. For instance, Breath of the Wild now appears under Switch and the Wii U section. Mario Kart 8 does as well although its kind of incorrect by doing so in that Deluxe for the Switch has all the bonus tracks that have been added so it makes sense for all of those songs and that music to be included on the Switch side but Wii U does not have access to all of those tracks so having that same OST and music be shown for MK8 Wii U is technically incorrect. Yet, why go through the work of having a technically correct OST for Wii U and then have the bigger correct OST for Switch? It's just kind of funny that Nintendo realized and decided that these games also existed on Wii U so they could be considered Wii U OSTs also. With how much of the Wii U games have been imported, it would have made that section seem so tiny if they never included entries for both. Yet, do we really need options for both? Skyward Sword now shows for both Wii and Switch since it got ported to the system also (something I'd kind of forgotten about) Metroid Prime: Remastered now shows for Switch using the exact same songs and list as the GameCube Metroid Prime tracks that the app launched with.

This now makes 3DS as the biggest / most outstanding system to not have any OSTs showing on the app. (There's also Game Boy Color though maybe those games will just stay grouped in with Game Boy. There's also Virtual Boy but does anyone expect OSTs for that system to ever show up here?) However, there is Ocarina of Time showing in the N64 section. Ocarina of Time got a port to the 3DS so does this mean it should be showing in the 3DS section also? If Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword are getting posted in two system libraries, why not OoT? And then, of course, is the question of where does the porting end? OoT was on the GameCube as well along with the Master Quest edition. It was on the Wii and Wii U via the Virtual Console and now on Switch with the 64NSO app. Will it just be based on physical release? If so, what will Nintendo do about digital only games like The Stretchers or Kirby's Dream Buffet? Release an eShop section on the app? I'm curious to see what will happen now with Super Mario 64. It was ported to the DS. Will it show up for both N64 and DS? Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. It included the original tracks along with rearranged music. If it gets released on the app, will it include both the old and new or will it separate the old to the Wii and the new to the Switch? Or will they just included the same music combined of old and new under both the Wii and Switch entries? Ah, fun decisions ahead for those working on this app.

What do you think? Will OoT suddenly become the first entry for the 3DS section? If not, what game do you think will be the first to break through for the 3DS? I want to be bold and say Pilotwings Resort but I'd much rather see AC:New Leaf or Super Smash Bros. for 3DS sooner than later.

[M.K.Ultra]

I am replaying Kid Icarus Uprising on 3DS now and I have been really enjoying the music. I don't have the best headphones so it would be nice to hear the music uncompressed on my home stereo. Also I have been loving the Splatoon 2 music!

[Khushrenada]

So, I was right. The updated OST libraries of putting duplicates over multiple systems, like Wii U and Switch of Mario Kart 8, was something done last week. When on the home screen and clicking my user icon, there's a menu that mentions updates and clicking on that had a little blurb about that duplication being done.

After pining for the Wind Waker OST, of course we get Super Mario 64 this week instead. The old video game trope of never getting the item you want while getting everything you aren't asking for lives on. I did not expect the N64 to be the system pulling away in second place with available OSTs but here we are. Perhaps it has something to do with all that N64 NSO emulation work.

Wind Waker is now the last known or expected OST still left to grace the app after the reveal trailer. Does that mean next week is its time to shine or will it be put off another week and something else is thrown out of left field? (Like Super Mario RPG. Let's start pining for that top level soundtrack.) Maybe we see our first 3DS game next week if Wind Waker continues to be lost adrift in the ocean of OST content to come.