List of Mario Kart 8 pre-release and unused content

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This is a list of beta elements for the game Mario Kart 8.

Early ideas

The players were originally going to have a drill attached to their karts to tunnel through parts of the track to reach new areas and possibly for shortcuts, but Nintendo scrapped this idea in favor of the Anti-Gravity mechanic they have in the final build of the game.

Early builds

Twisted Mansion was originaly called Boo House, Toadette was originally going to be a starter character. The E3 build of Mario Kart 8 featured slightly different Mario Circuit music. Kart noises in the E3 build are recycled from Mario Kart Wii while in the final version they are replaced by new engine noises. The course intro music in the E3 build was from Mario Kart 7, while the 1st victory music was from Mario Kart Wii. Character voices are recycled from previous games in the E3 build and newer builds provide newer voices. Players are unable to slipstream in the E3 demo. Characters did not hold items in their hands in the E3 demo. Donkey Kong's Standard Bike color was brown, but in the final version it was yellow. The Galaxy Air advertisement in Toad Harbor at the starting line was replaced by a Flower Cup logo. In early builds, the buttons "a" and "b" were replaced by "A" and "B".

Triple Bananas originally were in a line of 3 like in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 instead of circling around the Kart. The same applies to Triple Mushrooms, they wouldn't circle around your kart. If the players played as a character with facial hair in the E3 demo, their mustaches would not blow in the wind unlike the final game. The players could hold a second item in you inventory if you were dragging one in the E3 demo, this was removed in the final game however. The noise that the item cycle makes is different in the E3 demo whenever it's going through the items as seen here at 1:00. The noise when the player collects a coin is also different in the demo.

E3 Demo

In the E3 demo, some (if not, most) of the items were missing or either unobtainable due to it being only a demo and added to the final game, some notable examples of the missing/unobtainable items were the Bullet Bill, the Spiny Shell, the Super Star, the Thunderbolt (item), the Super Horn, the Boomerang Flower, and the Potted Piranha Plant. The HUD also looked different in the demo, it had solid numbers instead of the digital ones in the final game, the same also applies to Lakitu's lap counter when you go over the finish line. The Kart Customization was also absent from the demo, so the characters had pre-made Karts and Bikes made for them.

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  The original logo, which bears similarities to the final version.

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  Beta Thwomp Ruins, note the finish line and flowers are absent in this version.

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  The character select screen of E3 2013.

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  The second beta character select screen.