Takenobu Mitsuyoshi is famous for his vocal contributions to classic Sega titles like Daytona USA and Sega Rally Championship, and has revealed to Time Extension contributor Ollie Barder that his legendary career as "the guy who sings" happened almost by accident.
In a new interview with Forbes, Mitsuyoshi talks about how he joined Sega and how he secured his position in video game history thanks to his unique contribution to 1994's Daytona USA.
"I think the turning point was probably when I implemented my own singing in Daytona USA," he says. "To be honest, up until then, I had never thought of my voice, my singing, or even the title 'vocalist' as something that could stand on its own as a job, or something I should try to make into one. At that time, we were tasked with creating a driving game that would surpass a rival title in every possible way, and it was simply that we saw only one option: to add vocals."
Mitsuyoshi's voice is what you hear on Daytona USA's iconic tracks, with examples like 'Let's Go Away', 'King of Speed' and 'Sky High' becoming part of Sega folklore. At any other company, someone might have stepped in and suggested that Mitsuyoshi's placeholder vocal parts be re-recorded by a professional singer before the game was deployed in arcades all over the world, but thankfully, that didn't happen.
"When I made that choice, it never even crossed my mind to bring in another singer," he explains. "So once the prototype of Let’s Go Away was implemented, my voice was recorded as data on the game board, and eventually it crossed oceans and reached the ears of players all over the world. I had no idea that would happen. But from that point on, people around me gradually began to see me as 'the guy who sings.'"
Mitsuyoshi's status was cemented further when Yu Suzuki launched his second 3D fighting game:
"Around the same time, Virtua Fighter 2 was released, and the company was running all kinds of promotional campaigns. One of those ideas was to create a vocal album inspired by the game. Yu Suzuki, who was the producer of the game back then, said to me, 'Why don’t you sing a few songs?', and that became my very first job as a vocalist."
Daytona USA is just one of Mitsuyoshi's memorable outings as a singer; he's also responsible for the famous "Game Over, Yeah" jingle found in 1995's Sega Rally Championship – a vocal clip which keeps surprising him to this day:
"Honestly, I never imagined that this jingle would end up leaving such a lasting impression on players all over the world. At last year’s GDC, I happened to have lunch with a game industry professional who’s also a big Sega fan. He told me, “When I hear the ‘Game Over Yeah’ jingle after I fail to finish a course, the song somehow lessens the frustration for not being able to finish. It was more like an encouraging ‘Yeah!’, as if it’s saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, cheer up!’ It actually made me want to keep playing.
Now, after hearing such a thoughtful and heartwarming interpretation of that, I almost feel bad admitting this, but the truth is: I actually didn’t have a clear reason for adding that ‘Yeah’. As far as I remember, it was simply because it sounded good and fit the atmosphere of the jingle’s melody line.
That said, ever since Virtua Racing, I’ve had a personal rule: for the ‘Game Over’ jingle or sound, I must sing the words ’Game Over' as lyrics. So in Daytona USA, you’ll hear me repeating “Game Over” in exactly that way."