is a Japanese

video game composer Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

and sound director who is best known for his various compositions in many

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

games. He occasionally does voice acting as well, including

Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in ''Super Mario World'' (1990) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Yoshi is the title character of the List of Y ...

from the ''

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

'' series. He also directed the development of ''

Wii Music ''Wii Music'' is a music video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released in Japan and North America in October 2008, and in Europe and Australia in the following month. ''Wii Music'' is part o ...

''.

Works

Characters portrayed

Totaka has portrayed several characters for Nintendo games. He mostly voices

(first appearing in ''

Super Mario World ''Super Mario World,'' known in Japan as is a platform game, platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and A ...

''), but he also voices

Shy Guy "Shy Guy" is a song by Jamaican recording artist and songwriter Diana King for the movie soundtrack album '' Bad Boys''. It also appeared on King's debut studio album, ''Tougher Than Love'' (1995). The song was written by King, Kingsley Gardner ...

(1997-2002),

Professor E. Gadd The ''Mario'' franchise is a video game series by Nintendo. While Nintendo is usually the developer and publisher of games in the franchise, various series are developed by third-party companies, such as Hudson Soft and Intelligent Systems. ...

Captain Olimar is a main character from Nintendo's ''Pikmin'' video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto. He first appeared in ''Pikmin'' (2001), which led to the development of three additional games; two of them featuring Olimar as the protagonist. Olimar ...

Birdo Birdo, known in Japanese as , is a fictional character in the ''Mario'' franchise. Her first appearance was as an enemy in '' Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic'', which was localized for English-language audiences as ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. Since th ...

, and

K.K. Slider , more commonly known as K.K. Slider or K.K., is a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise. One of the franchise's most popular characters, he debuted in the title ''Animal Crossing'', and has appeared in every installment si ...

K.K. Slider

The character K.K. Slider in ''

Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was conceptualized and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In ''Animal Crossing'', the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabi ...

'' 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. Totakeke is said to be an animal version caricature of Totaka. At the '' Mario & 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 while

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

held a picture of K.K. Slider next to Totaka.

Totaka's Song

"Totaka's Song" is a short, 19-note tune hidden in almost every game Totaka has written music for as an

easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...

. It was first discovered on the title screen of ''

Mario Paint is a video game developed by Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsm ...

'' and was later discovered as having originated in the Game Boy game '' X'', which predated ''Mario Paint'' by two months.

References

External links

Kazumi Totaka's Song
a
NinDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Totaka, Kazumi 1967 births Japanese composers Japanese male composers Japanese male video game actors Japanese male voice actors Living people Musicians from Tokyo Nintendo people Video game composers