Talking Point: Where On Earth Are The Switch 2 Soundtracks On Nintendo Music?

Ohhhhh, Zeebraaaa, Zeebraaaaa, ZEEBRAAAAA!~

There I go, tapping the surrender button again to that undeniable Zebra Bananza theme. It’s carnival in stereo, a mash-up of rhythms pulled from every corner of Latin America—Brazilian samba kick, Cuban salsa slap, Argentinian tango sway. The instant DK pounds his chest and shape-shifts into the most shredded Zebra to ever exist, I’ll try crooning along with Pauline, though I am fully fluent in exactly zero Kong dialects.

Donkey Kong Bananza is basically a rolling jukebox, yet when I want to spin those grooves on my commute, guess what? Out comes the Nintendo Music app so I can crank u—hang on… it’s not there?

Nintendo casts a long melodic shadow, one it’s been slowly unveiling through the app it rolled out last year for NSO members. For folk already shelling out for SNES and Game Boy nostalgia on Switch, it’s a pleasant side-extra.

Personally, I’d prefer Nintendo just dropped everything on Spotify and Apple, but I get the craving for total control; plus the catalogue keeps fattening up week by week. This round, we got every single note of Pilotwings, not merely the SNES batch. A week earlier, Mario Paint swaggered in to match the NSO re-release. I still queue Super Mario Galaxy or Animal Crossing: New Horizons whenever I hop in the car.

Yet Nintendo is leaving gold on the table. We know entire mines of audio treasures are still buried—and the absentees are dizzying. Take Mario Kart World: a multi-genre buffet serving as the Switch 2’s launch soundtrack. Where is it?

The kart racer is two months old; if I’m jonesing for Crown City’s funky avenues or the languid strings of Steam Gardens, my only hope is a dicey YouTube rip that might vanish overnight.

Publishers, studios, and composers decide when (or if) their tunes go live, and some delight in day-one OST drops. Heavy hitters like Death Stranding 2 let you stream the whole album at launch. Atlus is a master of immediacy—Raidou Remastered hit stores and services simultaneously, and Persona 3 Reload followed suit after its arrival on PlayStation and Xbox. Hundreds of indie scores are streamable the same morning they launch—Bandcamp makes it easy.

The freshest game audio currently parked inside Nintendo Music? Pikmin 4, crafted by Kenta Nagata, Asuka Hayazaki, and Soshi Abe—though the app won’t name them. That entry’s already two years ancient; can you hand over cash for it anywhere else? Only if you stalk and splurge on that stunning Mother Onion vinyl edition with a mere 14 cuts. Nintendo is leaps ahead of where we were when I last ranted about this three years ago, yet its whole plan still baffles me.

I don’t realistically expect DK Bananza to pop up next Tuesday; firms such as Square Enix regularly wait several months or even years before pressing upload. I don’t fault anyone for wanting to let the jungle rhythms steep. Still, what better billboard for the open-road bliss of Mario Kart World than slipping the Super Bell Hill remix or the punchy title theme on the app right now? You don’t even need the full three-disc set.

In the grand picture, this is a mere sprinkling of irritation in a vast sea, yet remembering to credit artists, arrangers, and composers matters more to me than having every brand-new bop at release—especially since I’m not charged anything on top. Honestly, if Nintendo tacked another buck or two onto each month’s NSO fee to guarantee day-and-date Switch 2 soundtracks, I’d think about it.

They could even recreate that big Mario Paint stunt and bundle GameCube eras when fresh NSO catalog classics appear. Wind Waker is already aboard, but we’re still lacking Super Mario Strikers and F-Zero GX. Picture Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance arriving alongside its exemplary score in one fell swoop.

I have faith Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza will surface on the app eventually—six months, maybe twelve. Likewise, more GameCube gems will catch the sun, ideally tethered to their NSO launches.

I still wish Nintendo would get ahead of the beat. A lyric-video of Kong’s brassy anthem on Nintendo Today isn’t enough. I require the Freezer Layer track glittering in my earbuds, the Forest Layer loop easing my evenings.

Right now we may be looking at 2024’s best OST—perhaps one of Nintendo’s finest ever—in Mario Kart World, yet there’s no store link, no purchasable single, no legit stream. Without devoted archivists, we’d all be left scrambling for bootlegs. Does game music deserve better? I think so.

Do you want to catch the Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza soundtracks on Nintendo Music? Vote in our polls below and drop your thoughts in the comments.