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 because they thought that the anti-gravity mechanic was more interesting.

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 and the cloth used a different texture while music had a different banjo. In early builds, the buttons "a" and "b" were replaced by upper case versions. Thwomp Ruins in the E3 trailer lacked flowers, the finish line where it was in the final version, the anti gravity section before it was a normal section and the section with four torches was replaced with a trick section (ramps). The Goomba Towers found in Mario Circuit were both taller and harder to avoid unlike the final build of the game. In the trailer from E3 2013 multiple piranha plants can be seen at the same time. 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 sound the item roulette makes is different in the E3 demo whenever it's going through the items as seen here at 1:00. The sound when the player collects a coin is also different in the demo and also the gravity sound when a player goes through the anti-gravity pad to switch to anti-gravity mode is different.

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. 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 and the countdown timer. 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.

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 all three Rainbow Road courses that appear in this game).

Unused tracks
Four unused racetracks have been found within the game:


 * Gu_Menu: This track loads when requesting a course with an ID value of "0". Its name seems to indicate that it's a placeholder track for the main menu or something similar. The track doesn't clean the screen in between render frames; meaning that anything that is on the screen persists until it is overwritten. As a track, it's just a square of solidity in midair. The player can fall off, and they are respawned instantly, without Lakitu. There are no checkpoints, item boxes, or route data, and there is no minimap. There is also no music, and its preview icon is only a white square. If the player does a VS Race with this track, the CPUs will do nothing, the player cannot see anything but the time, their position, the number of coins they have collected, and the number of laps and occasionally they will see random bits of the CPUs or their character. MKTV highlights of this track are possible, and they work fine, though everytime the highlight is viewed, the background will change, usually broken parts of characters and a gray mess. The only way to complete it to get a highlight, though, is to wait until 10 minutes have passed, in which the race will automatically end.
 * Test: This unused track is found above Gu_Menu. It's a copy of Mario Circuit from the Flower Cup, but without music. Additionally, the orange arrow signs are not animated. According to interviews, Mario Circuit was the first track designed for this game, so this is very likely intended for testing. It works the same in Battle Mode as well.
 * ReservedXX: Unused tracks that are found above Test and below the regular tracks, where "XX" is a number, starting at "01", going upwards. They crash the game when loaded.
 * UnderConstructionXX: Tracks that feature ID values above those of the regular tracks. It is similar to ReservedXX, where the "XX" is a number, starting at "01". They also crash when loaded.

Unused models/sprites
Pink and green colored Toads can be found in the game's files. These were meant to be seen with the others in Rainbow Road. Various unused objects can be also found, which include a tree and a fruit basket that is not referenced anywhere.

Four unused cup icons have also be found within the game, which show a Yoshi Egg, Shine Sprite, Boo, and Spiny Shell. These icons use the same borders as the in-game icons, but sit in a plain background without any decorations. An updated version of the Yoshi Egg icon is used for The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 Add-on Pack.