Nintendo's latest bright idea is a music app, featuring a whole gamut of tunes from its game library, for Android and iOS devices.
It's out now and you can download the Nintendo Music app from the Play Store, or Apple App Store, and stream your favorite music from the various Nintendo franchises providing you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership, and you're in the US or Canada.
It's possible to download music for offline listening, as well as streaming, and you can create your own playlists, or pick from a bunch of premade playlists, all as you'd expect from a Spotify-style offering (albeit on the light and fluffy side, admittedly).
Curated playlists include themed efforts (such as boss battles for example), or mood-based playlists (energetic, chilled, and so forth), and as you might expect, recommended music is provided based on what you've been playing on your Nintendo Switch in recent times.
There's also the ability to extend and loop short tracks, if you really like them and want to hear a prolonged version - and also the ability to strip out music from games you haven't played. (If you're really strict about avoiding spoilers and want to avoid even audio-based spoiler material).
Nintendo has a decently wide library of classic games on the app to kick off with, and all the heavyweights are represented - Zelda, Super Mario, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Metroid, Mario Kart and so on - with more to be added in the future, the company promises.
Those who are curious might be interested to learn that if you take up a Nintendo Switch Online trial membership (for free), you can also try out the Nintendo Music app on your Android or iPhone.
Gym workouts will doubtless never be the same with the 'powering up' Nintendo playlist pumping through your headphones.
Why not Spotify?
There's some unhappiness online (isn't there always?), mainly focused on a lack of crediting the artists responsible for the tunes, and just some general bewilderment as to why Nintendo couldn't just put all these tunes on Spotify. It's hardly a shocker that Nintendo would want to keep its music cards close to its chest, though, and for existing subscribers, this is a pretty neat bonus app in our books.
Another recent innovation from Nintendo is a new interactive alarm clock, and 'Alarmo' is certainly an invention we didn't see coming - the same being true of this music app.
Whatever might be coming next? Well, the big hope is that the Nintendo Switch 2 could be, but hopes of an October reveal have now evaporated, and as we've observed elsewhere, we'll likely be waiting until next spring for the big sequel to the handheld.