Kazumi Totaka (戸高 一生,Totaka Kazumi; born August 23, 1967)^[1] is a Japanesevideo game composer and sound director who is best known for his various compositions in manyNintendo games. He occasionally does voice acting as well, most notably voicingYoshi from theMario series, andCaptain Olimar from thePikmin games. He also directed the development ofWii Music.

Totaka has worked for Nintendo since 1990.^[2] One of his most famous compositions is the 19-note "Totaka's Song", which is left as aneaster egg in many games he has composed for.

Totaka has voiced several characters for Nintendo games. He mostly voicesYoshi, but he also voicesProfessor E. Gadd,Captain Olimar,^[3]Birdo,K.K. Slider, and formerlyShy Guy from 1997 to 2002.

The character K.K. Slider inAnimal Crossing is named Totakeke (とたけけ) in the Japanese version. This name could be derived from how Totaka's name is said in Japanese (Totaka K.) as last names usually come before personal names in the language. K.K. Slider is likewise said to be an animal version caricature of Totaka.^[4]

At theMario & Zelda Big Band Live concert, some fans shouted "Totakeke" while the host grabbed a guitar and gave it to Totaka. Totaka then sat down on a chair like K.K. Slider whileShigeru Miyamoto held a picture of K.K. Slider next to Totaka.^[5]

"Totaka's Song" is a short, 19-note, 8-bar song hidden in almost every game Totaka has written music for as aneaster egg.^[6][2] Its first appearance was in the Game Boy gameX, released in 1992. Later that year, it appeared inMario Paint, where the song was first discovered; it plays if the player clicks on the O in "Mario Paint" on the title screen.^[2][7] It also plays inSuper Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) on the game over screen.^[8]

The song appears through two different methods inThe Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993), as well as its1998 re-release and2019 remake; one is if the player waits in the house owned by the character Richard, the other is if they name their player character "Totakeke" or "Zelda" when starting the game. The latter method was only available in the Japanese 1993 and 1998 versions of the game, using the "Totakeke" method (spelled as "とたけけ"). The 2019 remake added the "Totakeke" method to international releases, as well as the "Zelda" method which plays a remixed version.^[7][9][10] The song plays during the closing credits ofVirtual Boy Wario Land (1995).^[9] It plays inYoshi's Story (1997) if the player stays on the Trial Mode stage select screen.^[11]

InLuigi's Mansion (2001), Totaka's Song will play if the player stays on a screen describing the game's controls.^[12] In some games of theAnimal Crossing series, K.K. Slider will play it on his guitar if the player selects "K.K Song" for him; after this, the song will be available for the player to listen to in their house.^[9] InPikmin 2 (2004), there are two ways to hear the song. One is if the player stays on the "Treasures Salvaged" info screen. The second appears if the player enters one of the game's cave dungeons without amemory card in theirGameCube, and stays on the screen telling them to insert a memory card or else they cannot save their game. The latter method was discovered in 2019.^[13][2] InAnimal Crossing: City Folk (2008), the characterKapp'n will whistle the song if the player stays on a screen in which he is present.^[14] In 2010, Totaka's Song appeared inX-Scape, the sequel toX.^[9]

InMario Kart 8 (2014), one of the Yoshis standing on the side of multiple racetracks in the game will sing Totaka's Song.^[15][16] Totaka sung it as the voice actor for Yoshi in the game.^[14] InAnimal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (2015), if the player scans in the K.K. Slideramiibo card with their3DS, the next time the player uses aturntable, Totaka's Song will play.^[17]

InMario Kart World (2025), if the player waits long enough on Yoshi in the character select screen, he will begin to hum, eventually humming Totaka's Song.^[18][19][20]

• Kazumi Totaka's Song atNinDB

• 1967 births
• Composers from Tokyo
• Japanese male composers
• Japanese male video game actors
• Japanese male voice actors
• Living people
• Nintendo people
• Japanese video game composers
• Kunitachi College of Music alumni

• CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Articles containing Japanese-language text