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 we 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. They are replaced by new engine noises. Character voices are recycled from previous games in the E3 build. 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. The Galaxy Air advertisement in Toad Harbor at the starting line was replaced by a Flower Cup logo. 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 you played as a character with facial hair in the E3 demo, their mustaches would not blow in the wind unlike the final game. You 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 you collect 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 (Mario Kart),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.