Mario Kart Worldincludes a Totaka’s Song Easter egg. Discovered by one astute fan, this easy-to-miss detail appears to be within reach shortly after launchingMario Kart Worldfor the first time.
Totaka’s Song is named after Kazumi Totaka, a legendary Japanese video game composer who collaborated with Nintendo on dozens of titles since the early ’90s. Apart from scoring games and handling sound direction, he’s also known as the long-time voice of Yoshi.Totaka’s Song has over three decades' worth of history, with its first appearance dating back toX, a 1992 Game Boy-exclusive space combat sim developed by Argonaut Games and Nintendo Research & Development 1. The melody has appeared in over 20 other games since then.
Mario Kart Worldis now confirmed to have joined theTotaka’s Songroster, with the iconic 19-note melody recently being found in the flagship game from theSwitch 2 launch lineup. The discovery was made by Reddit user CharizardTelephone, who initially didn’t set out to look forMario Kart WorldEaster eggs but changed their plans after hearing Mario humming a tune on the character selection screen.
Only One Mario Kart World Character Hums Totaka’s Song
After spending a moment thinking about this quirky feature, CharizardTelephone came to the conclusion that the character selector may be hiding even more secrets. Being aware of Totaka’s Song existence and knowing that its author has also voiced the protagonist across all theYoshigames, the player immediately scrolled over the friendly dinosaur. Sure enough, Yoshi began humming the iconic melody within seconds of the cursor idling over him.
CharizardTelephone shared their discovery on Reddit alongside some gameplay footage clearly showing Yoshi humming Totaka’s Song on theMario Kart Worldcharacter selectionscreen. The dinosaur seems to be performing all eight bars of the melody in a rhythm that is a bit slower than the classic version, making it more difficult to identify on the fly.
A very similar—if not identical—rendition of the melody also appeared inMario Kart 8andMK8 Deluxe, though it was significantly harder to notice. In those games, any Yoshi character had a chance to hum Totaka’s Song during races, but only on select tracks. The melody wasn’t recorded in replays, making it extremely difficult to encounter organically. Another secret thatMario Kart Worldshares with its predecessor is a LAN Play multiplayer mode, which can be accessed by pressing R + L + left stick while the “Wireless Play” option is selected in the main menu.
