Mario Kart [DS - Beta / Kiosk Version Comparison]

Mario Kart DS have some interesting beta differences. This game was going to include a few more tracks, such as Mario Circuit from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (no obstacles etc.), which was probably replaced by GCN Luigi Circuit, a Koopa Beach-type track (nokonoko_course), and Mario Kart: Double Dash’s Block City battle area, which is unfinished. There was also an mysterious “Dokan Course” stage, as well as a simple, circular test area (test_circle) smaller than 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 (No textures) or ROM Hacking (with textures.)

Waluigi Pinball was also very different in betas, with fairly different music and no pinballs, and the objects looked very different, 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 had a DK Pass-like course with 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. It was replaced with the above course in the final.

Finally, demo version 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. The item roulette actually used placeholders from MKDD as their icons, so it could have just been carried from there.

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 Forum has shared the “Mario Kart CW Tri” hack, with most of 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:

• Exploring the game, there is some Japanese menus. Which seems to be an old main menu to the game. The menu also illustrates Karts from Mario Kart Double Dash, it’s still unknown if the mechanisms of the game should be like Mario Kart Double Dash:

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

*Click it for enlarge*

• Probably, a minigame could be unlocked when progressing the game, Mario Bros. sprites are still banked in the game:

*Click it for enlarge*

There is even the pause:

Susumu’s translation:

• Unknown:

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 crashes (which sent the player diagonally to the side.), turbo in the game (which didn’t have a blue effect near the tyres)

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

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

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