Mario Kart [DS - Beta / Kiosk Version Comparison]

This game’s Retro Grand Prix was going to include a few more tracks, such as Mario Circuit from Mario Kart: Double Dash (Dismantled for the new Mario Circuit.), Nokonoko Course, and Mario Kart: Double Dash’s Block City battle area. There was also an mysterious “Dokan Course” stage and Moo Moo Farm music, as well as a simple, circular test area smaller than even Baby Park; both of these (and the latter one for sure) could’ve been debugging stages not planned for inclusion in the final game. These areas can still be accessed using Action Replay DS.

Waluigi Pinball was also slightly different (mostly in texture and music, the latter of which was strangely from Yoshi Falls) in betas, albeit probably a programming error. Demo copies of the game actually showed it with quite a few object differences (such as more bumpers and a less direct launch towards the beginning). The demo version also depicted DK Pass with (perhaps more thematic for its eponymous character) a grassland theme rather than a snow one, with a lone Thwomp near the finish line, as well as many other small differences mostly regarding walls and jumps.

Finally, demo version guides released for stores by Nintendo depicted the Chain Chomp (which could not actually be retrieved in the demo version itself) as an item; it is presumed that this Chomp munition would work in a manner similar to that of the Chain Chomps in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, making it likely that Chain Chomps were removed from the game in favor of Bullet Bills (although the listing of the Chain Chomp in these beta guides may have been a simple mistake, though this is unlikely).

Also, DRMARIOX and Falcon88 made us to notice about some other differences:

• GCN Mario Circut has no hazards (ex. No Trees or Chain Chomps)
• Chain Chomps have no mouth animation

On DSHack.org Core has shared the “Mario Kart CW Final” hack, with all the Beta tracks playable with textures. Also at www.mariokartcw.org you can read all the Beta info that they found with hacking. Thanks to DSHack.org / Mario Kart CW Project we also know about the Beta Character and Cups:

• E.Gadd was planned for MKDS.
• The Retro GP used to be called SNES Cup, N64 Cup, GBA Cup and GCN Cup.

First, what means a Kiosk game?

A Kiosk game are the free distributed games in such in conferences, stores or promoted places.

Mario Kart DS Kiosk have been released on the download station, 4 cups to play (2 from DS and 2 from Retro). And the classic characters to play.

But, Gabrielwoj have found some miscellaneous stuff that probably have been cut from the game:

*Click it for enlarge*
Translated: (Thanks to Susumu for translating!)

*Click it for enlarge*

*Click it for enlarge*

There is even the pause:

Susumu’s translation:

Comparison:

Analyzing the game sprites of Kiosk and Final version, we can see little differences, such as in menus, in the physics, on the musics and others.

Item comparison:
Beta/Kiosk

Final

In the Kiosk version we can see some different styles in the icons. But we can notice too that they are sightly more shaded, or flipped.

Map Icons comparison:
Beta/Kiosk

Final

In the Kiosk version, there is some other effects, such as crash, turbo in the game, Purple shell (I probably messed up the palletes), and Spine shell (From Mario Kart Double Dash)

In the Final version, the counter goes to 3x to 1x, in the Kiosk version, it only shows 3x and 1x

In the Kiosk version, there is some items that wasn’t planned, but they have been shown after (The Fakebox and the Bulletbill):

And on the Final version, there is some items that doesn’t show in the Final version (and it’s not possible to use, it’s only the sprites, they are unused), Spiny Shell and Chain Chomp, both from Mario Kart Double Dash:

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Thanks to Borman for some of the videos and to UltimatePisman/YamiHoshi(.nl), DRMARIOX / Falcon88 and Gabrielwoj for the contributions!

Do you want to add more info, screens or videos to this post? Click on the “Edit” link below! It’s just like Wikipedia (maybe).

Edit

1. Mario Kart: Super Circuit [GBA - Beta]
2. Mario Kart [GC - Tech Demo / Concept]
3. Mario Kart Wii [Wii - Beta / Unused Stuff]
4. Racing Gears 2 [GBA/DS - Cancelled]
5. Super Mario Kart [SNES - Beta / Proto]