List of Mario Kart 8 pre-release and unused content

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.

Early builds
Twisted Mansion was originally called Boo House. 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 results and menu music was from Mario Kart Wii, much like the E3 2011 demo for Mario Kart 7. 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". Thwomp Ruins in the E3 trailer lacked flowers and the finish line where it was in the final version and the anti gravity section before it was a normal section. The Goomba Towers found in Mario Circuit (Wii U) were both taller and harder to avoid unlike the final build of the game. The artwork of the items in the roulette were recycled from Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart Wii unlike the new upgraded ones in the final build.

Triple Bananas originally were in a line of three and obtainable in 1st place like in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 instead of circling around the kart and obtainable in either place 2nd to 4th. The same applies to Triple Mushrooms in that they also didn't circle the 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. Players were also able to grab a second item while dragging one behind the kart in the demo, which cannot be done in the final game. 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.

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, and the Thunderbolt (item). The HUD also looked different in the demo, having solid numbers instead of the digital ones in the final game; the same also applies to Lakitu's lap counter. The countdown timer is also different in the demo, having a normal design instead of the current design used in Super Mario 3D World in the final game. The kart customization was also absent from the demo; players would instead choose a character and race with a kart or bike premade for that character. Also, the players make two laps per race instead of three: this was probably done in the demo because the CPU still wasn't finished.

The vast majority of the courses shown before release were left mostly unchanged between their initial unveiling and the final version, and most of the differences are only subtle details that generally do not affect the gameplay, one example of these changes can be seen with the design of the Toad Toy Store, in the E3 build the windows were much larger and had a checkerboard design in their layout, in the final build they are much smaller and aligned in rows, and the wall surrounding them is painted green rather than pink or cyan like the rest of the building.

Lots of the music was changed between the trailers and final release. This is likely because the music had not yet been orchestrated at the point in time when the trailers were released. All of the music in the E3 build had slightly different instrumentation, and the trailers released at the time, in December 2013 and February 2014, are all different from the final game in a similar manner, though the changes are more subtle when comparing the final game to the more recent trailers. The earlier music used for Mario Circuit can be heard in the E3 trailer.

In Thwomp Ruins, there was no finish line like in Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart: Super Circuit (and the retro courses from those in Mario Kart DS) and the anti-gravity section was a Normal section.

Originally, the minimaps on the Gamepad were very similiar to Mario Kart 7 ones; dark checkered gray background with a white colored course. In the final release, the minimaps have a checkered white background with a light blue colored course (rainbow colored for both Rainbow Road courses that appear in this game).