Mahito Yokota (横田真人) is a Japanese composer of video game music. Yokota is … Read Full Bio ↴Mahito Yokota (横田真人) is a Japanese composer of video game music. Yokota is best known for being in charge of the composition for Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and his collaboration with Koji Kondo for the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack. He also helped compose the OST for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

During development, Mahito Yokota, who was in charge of the composition of music, originally wanted Galaxy to have a Latin style of music and even had 28 tracks completed for the game. The reason for this was in previous Mario games, Latin percussion instruments were used, such as steelpans, Bongo drums, and congas. For Galaxy's theme, Yokota used Latin instruments and a synthesizer to create sci-fi sounds. The song was approved by Yoshiaki Koizumi, the game's designer, but when he presented it to Koji Kondo, Kondo told him that his song was no good. Three months later, Yokota presented three different styles of music to Shigeru Miyamoto. One piece had an orchestral sound, one was a mix of orchestral music and pop music, and the last was pop music. Miyamoto chose the orchestral piece, which was written by Koji Kondo. From then on, Galaxy's soundtrack would be composed for a symphony.