Happy Mario Kart World Music... (checks notes) S- Sunday?!
Nah, that can't be right, Nintendo Music drops don't happen on Sundays.
...except this one did...
WHAT'S HAPPENING??!!
Yeah, so, this was a surprise. I was playing WarioWare Smooth Moves last night when I looked down at my watch and saw a Nintendo Music notification informing me of the arrival of two new Free Roam playlists. I was flabbergasted, and for a moment genuinely wondered if it had actually been Monday the whole time and I somehow didn't realize it.
Obviously, that wasn't the case, but my mind was legitimately scrambled for a moment there. Nintendo breaking the Nintendo Music schedule is nothing new, we just got the Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Special Release last Tuesday, but in the nearly two year history of the service, I don't think we've ever gotten a weekend drop until now. It really caught me off guard.
Why would they do this? I have a few theories. Perhaps it could be due to the longer than usual gap between drops that resulted from the aforementioned Fortune's Weave special release dropping last Tuesday, or perhaps they're clearing the way for something else to happen tonight? I'm just spitballing, though. For all we know, the reason could boil down to 'we're Nintendo, we can, and no one can stop us'.
Okay, all that out of the way, let's talk about the drop itself, which features playlists with remixes hailing from a pair of travel-themed 3D Mario games, including Super Mario Sunshine ahead of its release on GameCube - Nintendo Classics later this week (which I still believe we're getting the game's full soundtrack alongside).
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This Week's Additions
- Free Roam with Super Mario Sunshine (4 tracks/10m)
- Free Roam with Super Mario Odyssey (10 tracks/28m)
The two playlists combine for 14 tracks totalling 38 minutes of music between them. A decent quantity, but there's some great remixes among them. The highlight of the Sunshine playlist is easily "Secret Course - Sky and Sea", which turns the fairly mellow original into a high-tempo, breakneck synth remix that features the 'Shine Get!' jingle at the end. In other words, it's incredible. It very much has similar vibes to the comical but equally amazing Baby Park remix from World.
On the Odyssey side of things, we've got the awesome remixes of both of the game's vocal things, "Jump Up, Super Star" and "Break Free (Lead the Way)", as well as a fantastic Rock version of Steam Gardens, one of my favorite songs from Odyssey. Stuff like Shiveria Town, Tostarena Ruins, and Peronza Plaza are great too, and Fossil Falls and Lake Lamode make excellent additions to my sleep playlist.
Some good stuff all around. Of course, this means we've gotten even closer to the end of this journey, leaving just a small handful of playlists to go, those being:
- Super Mario 3D Land
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Hard to believe there's only 4 left (again, unless I'm forgetting something), and, if you read my post on last week's World drop, you'll know that I was spot on with my predictions for this week... well, in terms of the playlists, at least. No way I was getting the date right considering there is no previous precedent for Sunday drops, so I'll take the W on this one thank you very much.
Looking at these last 4, I am unbelievably confident the remainder of those predictions will pan out as well. Here they are again as a refresher:
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Week 1 (8/10/26): Tie Into Sunshine's Release on NC + Odyssey is Here Too
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Super Mario Sunshine (CORRECT)
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Super Mario Odyssey (CORRECT)
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Week 2 (8/17/26): Super Mario 3D _____ Sub-Series
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Super Mario 3D Land
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Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
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Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
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Week 3 (8/24/26): The Grand Finale
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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
I simply can't see them dividing these up in any other way. 8 Deluxe is substantial enough to stand on its own and grouping the two 3D ___ games together along with Captain Toad just makes sense. So, yeah, I think we'll have the full Mario Kart World soundtrack in just over two weeks, which is exciting, but also kinda bittersweet. This has been a fun journey, and getting two Nintendo Music drops per week has been enjoyable, and assuming they go back to one a week when World's soundtrack is all said and done, I'm gonna miss that.
I do want to tack on one more bold prediction, however, regarding the final drop. I foresee the last Mario Kart World drop, which I believe will be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe by itself, being accompanied by an update for the actual game that adds the next two new Knockout Tour routes. Perhaps it'll be too soon after the previous 1.7.0 update, which dropped at the start of July, but I think it would be cool, and I just sorta have a gut feeling it'll happen.
As always, however, we shall have to wait and see...
