Totaka’s Song Discovered in Mario Kart 8

Nintendo’s elusive tune, Totaka’s Song, has been discovered in Mario Kart 8 Yoshi’s Valley. The long running easter egg has appeared in numerous Nintendo titles, and a clever gamer has unearthed its hidden location in the franchise racer.

For over 20 years, Nintendo composer and sound designer Kazumi Totaka has hidden the 19-note melody in many titles. It is speculated that in every game Totaka has worked on, he has skillfully managed to sneak the song in somewhere. People have gone through great lengths just to discover this tenacious tune. Gamers have often spent countless hours inspecting every nook and cranny of a title, only to come up with nothing.

Discovering the song in Mario Kart 8 involves you turning off the stage music and driving up to a particular Yoshi in the Wild Yoshi Sanctuary, where he will begin to hum the iconic tune. The YouTube channel Somewhat Awesome Games has been credited with this discovery, and it has been confirmed this is indeed the infamous song. Fun fact: Totaka is also the voice of Yoshi, meaning he is singing is own song.

Patient and restless games have discovered the song after trial and error. With persistence it was found in Animal Crossing: City Folk.  The bus driver Kapp’n will whistle Totaka’s Song, but only after several minutes have passed of waiting at the bus stop. One of the more famous examples is in Mario Paint.  If you click the “0” in the title screen name, you will be presented with infamous jingle. Other titles have you at the mercy of luck. In Super Mario Land 2, you have to endure a lengthy wait on a random select screen, where the tune will start up out of the blue.

Have you ever accidentally or intentionally stumbled upon Totaka’s song? We can only hope we are the first to find it in another game.