The Legend of Totaka's Song: The History of a Musical Easter Egg Found in Mario Paint & Other Games
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- In 1992, a new face at Nintendo came up with a little ditty and then planted it hard to find places...(Chapter Markers and more below…)
Episode information
GTV 166 “Name That Tune" Season 9 Episode 6
Original Airdate: March 18, 2024
Produced March 2-17, 2022
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, all paid for with Gainful Employment™ while riding the train to work and home, back and forth, day after day, and lunch breaks too!
0:00 GTV ID
0:16 Mario Paint and the Origins of Totaka's Song.
2:28 Game 1: X (GameBoy 1992)
3:20 Game 3: The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls (GameBoy 1992)
4:02 Game 4: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GameBoy 1992)
4:22 Game 5: Link's Awakening (GameBoy 1993)
5:42 Game 6: VB Wario Land (Virtual Boy 1995)
6:04 Game 7: Yoshi's Story (N64 1998)
6:39 Game 8: Mario Artist Talent Studio (N64 Disk Drive 2001)
7:08 Game 9: Luigi's Mansion (GameCube 2001)
7:48 Game 10: Animal Crossing (GameCube 2001)
8:29 Game 11: Who's Dunnit? (e-Reader 2003)
8:44 Game 12: Pikmin 2 (GameCube 2004)
9:31 Game 13: Yoshi: Touch and Go (DS 2005)
10:00 Game 14: Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS 2005)
10:16 Game 15: Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii 2008)
10:37 Game 16: X-Scape (DSi 2010)
11:05 Game 16: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS 2012)
11:38 Game 17: Yoshi's New Island (3DS 2014)
12:01 Game 18: Mario Kart 8 (Wii 2014)
12:32 Game 19: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (3DS 2015)
12:53 Game 20: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch 2020)
13:23 Games That Don't Have the Song
14:10 Wii Sports Does NOT Have the Song!!
15:48 Super Secret Awesome Mario Paint Easter Egg!
Partial Transcript
In 1992, Nintendo released “Mario Paint.” A game that wasn’t really a game, but a drawing tool, similar to Mac Paint, only without the massive cost of owning a computer. Mario Paint was very fun, but the side items in the game were also very memorable. If you were tired of drawing you could take a coffee break and try out the mini game Gnat Attack. As well, the title screen had some interesting sounds and animations that rewarded you for daring to explore with your mouse.
It was a great to help anyone using a mouse for the first time, getting a newcomer quickly oriented. Little did we know that one of the longest running Easter Eggs in video games would be first discovered here. If you click the O in the title, everything on screen explodes, scrambles then reconstitutes itself. After which a short jingle is played.
This little melody, 19 notes in length is known as Totaka’s Song, credited to its composer, a member of Nintendo Sound Team, Kazumi Totaka.
Games that followed Mario Paint, with Totaka on board, featured the same song. In most cases, the song was hidden, often discovered by accessing a secret area, or simply leaving the game on for a certain amount of time. Most of these Easter Eggs would go unnoticed, but eventually the dedicated few would piece the puzzle together; that Kazumi Totaka was hiding his now-famous tune, leaving the challenge of finding it up to you, the player at home.
Not every single game featured Totaka’s Song, but many have. While others where it has not been found are still believed to have the song hiding somewhere in the game.
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My favorite letter in the Mario Paint title has to be R! There’s nothing more fun than making that little guy run around. I wonder what he’s saying anyway??
What the R's saying: ARRH!
The little fella’s saying Nintendo but backwards and sped up! “odnetnin!”
Relatedly, you might think a pirate’s favorite letter would be “R”, but it’s actually the “C”.
Ahh you made it to 15:47
@GTV-Japan what's the name of the song that starts playing at 0:16
There is just... density upon density in Japanese media.
This channel is such a treasure.
Thanks for everything you make!
you should’ve made the outro last for like 2 minutes and then play totaka’s song
I thought about that. Maybe next time.
@@GTV-Japan OMGGG HIII
I bet this song plays whenever Totaka enters a room 😅
Yes. But not immediately.
@@GTV-Japan after 3 minutes and 30 seconds, probably.
Only if he overstayed his welcome
Nintendo always had this "personal" touch, to me this is what elevates their games above all others.
I see that in many cases.
This opening Brady-bunch Totaka sequence is so brilliant.
Playing Link's Awakening DX now. Going to have to go back to Richard's house to hear it.
Oh man XD This song, is kinda magical. Always loved to hear it. Delightful.
Was playing Valkyrie No Densetsu recently. Learning Hiragana and Katakana comes in really handy for passwords in old Japanese games. I recommend all serious gamer should learn them.
Weeb
@shintube you mean Baltimore Colts coach Weeb Ewbank? We love him here! Johnny U too!
Don't call me that. That will break my fucking heart! @@shintube
@@Sarcophagus74 There's no insult more emotionally-devastating than... **CHECKS NOTES** a nonsense word taken from a webcomic that was used to reference an in-production business project.
@@shintubeウィアブーか？
Man, I spent so much time 'playing' Mario Paint. I used to rent it from a local store and they would put it into a plastic tub with the game and accessories.
ha! I think that's funny!
I love sneaky bull*hit hidden in games like this. it shows you know the creators had a really fun time developing the game.
As fun as you can get!
I remember my folks bringing me home Mario paint when my mom picked up my brother who worked in electronics at bradlees store along with Star tropics and battletoads. To say it was a great week in my gaming catalogue. I remember hearing the song and thinking nothing of it for years, thought it was part of the game. Who'd have known lol...i wonder if theres one in mario artist in 64DD
I remember it too. I thought it was unusual but that’s all. Actually if you click other letters while it’s playing it gets altered. Try I and hear it backwards!
@@GTV-Japan since I was the only cool kid who has a SNES and a pool everyone wanted to be my friend for the perks lol. My mom used to say hey u and u you don't even know my son's name you can use the pool share the game but this is your last visit.....that mouse for Mario paint is a hot highly wanted peripheral. I got a copy of a sealed Mario paint graded game pak. I only graded it cuz of the mouse. People paying big bucks for it. Also Luigi's mansion I thought someone found the kk...maybe it was just in the debug stuff
U got me thinking of where else there's more. There's another animal crossing in the works so I'm sure it's gonna be buried in it
@Retrogameplayer8000 yeah. Maybe someone’s ringtone.
@@GTV-Japan i hear ya, maybe someday the tune will show up in one of nintendos symphonies lol. Well I gotta catch a flight to D.C. They got me doing a weeks video engineering at the Capitol building for election crap. if I'm lucky I can sleep at the Watergate hotel lol....did you ever hear or see anything about the Nintendo owned hotel in your hood? I saw Paulo from Tokyos video it looked pretty badass. Curious if maybe someday we can collab on it and it's history. I got work in Tokyo in August to October after the Netflix stuff finishses up and gets it's airplay. Looking like it could turn into a monthly production for esports coverage and maybe drone racing. While I'm in Japan I was hoping to buy you a beer and a gigamac lol. Plenty of time so don't go booking any 6 months vacations anytime soon. I gotta hit the airport up, just started the car. Talk to you soon. There is WiFi on the flight atleast
Lovely. I've been following Totaka's song discoveries for years and I still learned a bunch here! Well put together, no fluff, well done.
I remember many (many) years ago there was a guy that did a series of videos on this exact subject! So it's definitely been one of my all time favorite easter eggs since. it's always been the tradition to get K.K. Song ASAP in each new installment ever since I discovered it in. this even had stuff I'd never seen before like that one in the mario artist 64DD game? so I guess people are finding new instances all the time, I love it. so it's nice to have all the known ones in one place.
The crazy driver always makes me laugh. Heres to more discoveries in the future 🐶
This video spawned in front of my eyes LMAO
If you play banjo kazooie. Roam around gruntilda's lair and you will hear this.
Epic secret coverage!
I randomly hum Totaka's song every so often. It's just so catchy! Thanks for this video and your uploads!
I’ve been doing the same thing a lot more often now
fuckin love totaka ;(
I'm so glad his song is still discussed today.
It was so fun learning about it years ago
Moments like these is why i love nintendo. Their games really go the extra mile
I don't always comment on the videos because many times I can't think of anything to say, but since I haven't done so in a while, I'll just say, thank you for showing us these things.
Hey no problem! I know you’re here! Have a good weekend!! 🍺
i've been fascinated with totaka's song ever since i heard it in mario paint as a kid
thanks for this video, your content's always so great and underrated
Thanks I appreciate the support
I wonder which game with this song delays the last note the longest, seems like they stopped delaying it since the GameCube era and it plays with a normal rhythm most of the time now.
Hmm good question!
This was neat. I wonder if there are any "homages" to this hidden in unofficial games. Like some Totaka fan who snuck it into his indie game or something.
Ya never know! … until ya do.
"Moyse", the name you have to enter in the German version of Link's Awakening, comes from Claude Moyse, the game's translator.
Yeah! I’m surprised to learn Nintendo was bigger than Sega in Germany 🇩🇪!
@@GTV-Japan I'm no expert, having been born in 1980, but I think that Sega's lack of success might be because the American video game crash didn't have the same repercussions over here. While I had an Atari 800XL and various friends had Atari 2600s, Germany overall was Commodore 64 territory. Atari's failure didn't put a dent in that at all, and gaming as a whole didn't have as bad a reputation because of it.
Also, arcades weren't common over here because coin operated games had more of a gambling connotation, so we only got the odd machine or two in random diners, airports, bowling alleys or other public spaces, not a whole bunch of them in dedicated buildings directed at kids.
So while Nintendo of America promoted the Famicom as an entertainment system with a toy robot and a VCR design to avoid getting lumped in with Atari, and later as a way to bring Arcade games home, it launched in 1986 in Europe as just another game system for kids without a gimmick to draw attention to it. And from what I can recollect, the NES didn't really take off until the Game Boy made gaming wildly popular, which more or less coincided with our version of Nintendo Power (called "Club Nintendo" over here) instilling brand loyalty in its readers. The chip shortage of the late 80s might have been another factor in Nintendo not promoting the NES as much over here.
The Master System made even less of an impact in 1987, having fewer ads, fewer games and no Club Sega magazine.
The Mega Drive fared much better for a while, but only until Sega confused parents with all of the add-ons and extensions.
And the Saturn and the Dreamcast only reached the most hardcore of gamers, never gaining the popularity of the Super Nintendo, the N64 or the Playstation. Or PCs, which became widespread around that time, as the heir of the C64 and Amiga.
I hope that wasn't too much rambling. I always find it interesting to look at other markets, and how different things went over there.
@MichaelHeide a lot of that are things assessed after the fact. I don’t believe a lot of the narratives anyway. It really comes down to marketing and games and for some reason it was very strong in Germany and having German translations
Probably helped a lot.
The German version gives you a completely new song if you use the name "MOYSE". (Claude Moyse was the chief translator back in the 90s for German Nintendo games, and he hid a lot of weird little jokes in translations, and somehow managed to get a completely different song in there. (Very German 90s Techno)
Yes that’s why I didn’t include it so that someone will try it out and be surprised
0:35 I remembered playing that in Mario Paint and glove going... "AHHH!" at the previous time mentioned and again at 0:40. I have that song in my library in the recent Animal Crossing. Catchy and simple. 🎵😊Good video.
Thanks for watching
Legends has it, that if you wait 2.30 after any GTV video, you will hear GTV-TV`s song! :O
My Easter eggs are in … you know what, never mind. Shhh
I wasnt expecting Yoshis New island to appear in this list. I found the music of said game really unremarkable. Especially with the use of the kazoo.
Kazoos are funny
Crazy how hidden some of them are!
Yeah. Who knows when the next one will be found?
It's always bothered me how the tempo of the song seems to suddenly slow down at the end, and last few notes of the song come much slower than you would expect.
I never really thought about it but I guess it kind of gives up
Chronological is the best order indeed.
I always loved that jingle! I first discovered it in Super Mario Land 2 in 1994!
Wow! Nice! What made you leave your gameboy on so long?
@@GTV-Japan When I got a game over for the first time, I was looking at the game over screen, with the coins (I had four during this time) disappearing and I thought the game soft locked (I didn't know how to use the Game Boy much at the time since I was young) and Totaka's Song played several minutes later and I was like "Huh? How did the game do that!?"
@spectrumbots4268 that’s still pretty cool
Oh jeez, Yoshi Touch & Go (or as my friends would say, Go & Touch Yoshi). I bought that game thinking it was going to be an actual 2D Yoshi platformer, and then the disappointment came in.
I just think of The Cars song of the same name
Love the quality videos man
Thanks!
You’re welcome!!! ☺️
I really love learning about these game that were before my time. The first game I experienced was Halo ce, sitting on my dads lap as a baby. It's fun seeing things like this :)
You might be the youngest person to ever see this channel. Anyway pass it along
Gotta love the subtitles of your videos. Weeeeeeeeeee honk^^
I wonder why sometimes there's a delay at the end of the tune, and why sometimes the last note is wrong.
I don’t know. Probably just to be funny. Or maybe it’s that the character made a mistake.
A true Nintendo legend!
14:04 To be fair, the Mario Artist Talent Studio example didn't play all 19 notes either.
I think I does but gets covered up by the background noise
8:38 the sound font reminds me of donkey Kong
yeah i hear it too!!
What a great video in the lead-up to Easter!
… that was my plan all along! 🪺
For some reason, Totaka's Song creeps me out more than most horror films. Something about it gets under my skin the same way Lavender Town's song does or the THX sound. Anyone else feel similarly?
I think I encounter the one in Animal Crossing City Folk by accident because every time I go to the city I always leave Kapp'n the whistle all the music the Main Boating Ride, Marine Songs 2001, and then there was that song because I was young at the time I didn't know what it was I hear the arrangement in Mario Paint possibly three years later after that peculiar medley keep me questioning and they told me what it was.
.
On a side note I've been playing Animal Crossing city folk back in 2011 before I heard they were making a new one on the 3DS later known to be New leaf on the Latin Club Nintendo magazine
That’s cool. I’ve never tried it before. I can see why it’s popular.
One of the questions I always had was why is there sometimes a pause on the last note or two?
That’s just how it was written
In links awakening moyse is actually a different song similary in the Canadian and french version their is a song for the name Lolo
Ha get out. Moyse was the German translator that’s all I know
@GTV-Japan Im not joking he changed totakas song into his own song in the oringal gameboy version
@bewearstar9462 well then it’s a nice surprise for anyone who tries it out. Just as I intended!!
Wait, so...where're the legend and the history of it in the video exactly?
All we've got is just a list of it's appearances, but the title said there's a Legend and there's a History.
Is there no history behind it?
The legend is that he made the song and hid it in some games. The history is that it started in 1992 and not every game has it and some have been tricked and that he’s still making music and the song could appear again someday.
@@GTV-Japan oh....ok, so there's indeed some history, it's just that it's kinda borring, I guess.
Anyway, thanks for the video and thanks for the answer, GTV!
@oldfan4049 history is often like that.
Do you like YMO?
I’m more preferential to Cosmic Invention.
@@GTV-Japan they're good too!
Early doors club!
This comment really lit my fire 🔥 🚪
6:31 "WE ATE ALL"???? THIS ENTIRE TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS "THE ASS HOLE"
I don’t know why you’d think that.
@GTV-Japan At least it makes grammatical sense unlike "we ate all" 😭
@NuevaBestia it makes sense because they ate all the fruit
Lol, I thought it was "The apple" but can't unhear asshole anymore
@@GTV-Japan maybe if it was "we ate them all"? Or "we ate all of them"?