Totaka's song: The search is on

by Kyle Orland { Dec 14th 2006 at 10:15AM }

A seventeen-note theme that has been hidden in Nintendo games for over a decade is finding new life as internet sleuths track down new instances in old games. Totaka's song is most easily accessible from the title screen of the SNES' Mario Paint, but the quirky ditty has appeared in over a dozen games featuring the work of Nintendo sound designer Kazumi Totaka.

Interesting trivia, but not too relevant to today's gamers until a few months ago, when Powet.tv compiled a video of the song's known occurrences and put out the call to gamers everywhere to track it down in other games. Within a month, video confirmation for instances in Pikmin 2 and Wario Land for the Virtual Boy had been obtained, and earlier this week Powet posted a video of the song in Luigi's Mansion.

MobyGames lists 24 games Totaka has worked on, including the recently released Wii Sports, and it's a decent bet that his song is buried somewhere in most if not all of them. And so the call goes out to Nintendo fans across the land. Let's harness the awesome collaborative power of the internet to solve a mystery that has been plaguing humanity for, er... well... not exactly plaguing but... oh, let's just figure it out, OK?

[Via Digg]

Tags: Mario Paint, MarioPaint, mystery, Nintendo, song, Totaka, Zelda

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

crono141 @ Dec 14th 2006 10:19AM

Thats kinda cool. I like easter eggs.

ivan @ Dec 14th 2006 10:25AM

now a cool remix should be in the works

Unimental @ Dec 14th 2006 10:25AM

That's really, really slick. Watch the video folks!

A quick glance at the post didn't really transfer the true easter-egginess of this little ditty.

I guess the hunt is on.

strider_mt2k @ Dec 14th 2006 10:47AM

That's extremely cool.

HotShotX @ Dec 14th 2006 10:41AM

Now that's a cool easter egg. One that spans multiple games and is very well hidden unless you can crack the code.

POWET.TV says the song is 19-notes however, may want to correct your post, Joystiq.

~HotShotX

Me @ Dec 14th 2006 11:15AM

This is what separates Nintendo from other publishers.... Nintendo has soul.

is @ Dec 14th 2006 12:23PM

Anyone tried playing it on the ocarina of time?

shivr @ Dec 14th 2006 1:09PM

its definatly in luigi's mansion, I remembered when I heard it again during the video :)

...

damn mario paint was a cool game... wii version pls

BPM? @ Dec 14th 2006 1:09PM

It is 17, HotShotX. Try humming it and counting the notes by hand.
Or, I guess you could just count the notes while watching one of those videos... but where's the fun in that?

Nick S @ Dec 14th 2006 1:37PM

shivr - "damn mario paint was a cool game... wii version pls"

Yes I really enjoyed it. I think it'd do good on the Wii and also the DS. Maybe they could link them so you can use the DS touchscreen and draw on the wii.

SuperJumpMan @ Dec 15th 2006 12:21AM

*Sob* Best Mouse based SNES game ever. Spent decades of hours dedicated to remaking snes charactors. Make a DS Version now dammit!!!

bm @ Dec 14th 2006 2:48PM

@BPMΩ: You're missing two. =p

Petey @ Dec 14th 2006 3:16PM

mario paint was fun! i loved the fly swatting game and making funny animations :D im suuuuurree i heard that song on the Gameboy Camera!! im going to go investigate, i want to be first with a new find!

DarkTetsuya @ Dec 14th 2006 4:48PM

For those keeping score, the song has already been found in the following games:

Animal Crossing: Wild World (2005)
Yoshi Touch & Go (2005)
Pikmin 2 (2004)
Animal Crossing (2001)
Luigi's Mansion (2001)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (1998)
Yoshi's Story (1997)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Mario Paint (1992)
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)

Also #2 mentions both 'Wario Land' on Gameboy, and WaveRace 64 (N64)

But I think this egg is neat.