Mario Kart [DS – Beta / Kiosk Version Comparison]

Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Mario Kart [DS – Beta / Kiosk Version Comparison]

U64 Staff & Contributors
16-12-2008
21 Comments

mariokartds.jpg

Mario Kart DS - Beta

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.

Mario Kart DS - Kiosk

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

——————————————–

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

Images

Videos


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21 thoughts on “Mario Kart [DS – Beta / Kiosk Version Comparison]”

  1. DRMARIOX

    Things you left out:
    GCN Mario Circut played SNES Mario Circut Music
    GCN Mario Circut has no hazards (ex. No Trees or Chain Chomps)
    Dokan Course is Sand Ocean from F-Zero X
    Chain Chomps have no mouth animation
    Tick Rock Clock has Figure 8 Music, but slightly remixed
    Waluigi Pinball has Yoshi Falls Music
    DK Pass has it’s own beta beachy theme
    Airship Fortress plays Luigi’s Mansion music

    If you put this in the articles, give me and Falcon88 credit!

    Reply ↓
  2. cheat-master30

    As someone who’s personally read about and watched videos of the beta stuff from Mario Kart DS, I still don’t know some of the stuff posted here, such as the bit about the different Airship Fortress music, or that the Dokan Course was a remake of a level from another game (out of curiosity, what does Dokan mean anyone?) So in all, this was a nice read, and stuff like the comments sure added more to it. I do wonder sometimes though… why do the final games often have some worse aspects than the betas? Some of these beta levels would have been actually a decent bit better than some of the less impressive levels were got instead (Mario Circuit GCN for example would be a lot better than GBA Luigi Circuit).

    Reply ↓
    1. monokoma

      “why do the final games often have some worse aspects than the betas” it’s a difficult question, sometimes it’s just us that see those “beta” things more appealing than the ones in the final game, when maybe in reality those things were not that great if we had a chance to play them. An example could be a level that looked good, but it had too many slow-downs and so it was better to just remove it. Another reasons could be that they had not enough time to add everything in the game, and they had to cut the stuff that was not “finished” yet. Also, taste is a subjective matter, and it could even be that developers liked more the stuff that they decided to use in the final game. Probably there are some more explanations too ;)

      Reply ↓
  3. UltimatePisman

    Here are the things that are not true:
    # Dokan Course is Sand Ocean from F-Zero X
    # Tick Rock Clock has Figure 8 Music, but slightly remixed
    # Waluigi Pinball has Yoshi Falls Music
    # DK Pass has it’s own beta beachy theme
    # Airship Fortress plays Luigi’s Mansion music

    As a Mario Kart DS Beta Hacker since 2006, I just know that.
    And something for all of you, DSHack.org Core has Mario Kart CW Final, all Beta tracks in the final version, with textures.
    http://www.dshack.org
    And feel free to try some other hacks too.

    Reply ↓
  4. Stephen

    Also I Just Recently Play Mario Kart Double Dash So I Will Share Some Information I Discovered About The Game Cube Mario Stage.

    1. Goomba’s & Plant Enemys Were In The Stage On The Game Cube Mario Kart.

    2. The Chain Chomp Was On The Opposite Side.

    3. There Were Tree’s With a Nose & Black Eyes.

    Thats All I Know About The Game Cube Mario Kart Level But Feel
    Free To Ask Questions About Games. I Will Gladly Answer.

    Reply ↓
  9. Goomther

    The mariowiki’s beta Mario Kart DS page got updated.

    http://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Kart_DS/Beta_elements

    Plus, when it said “GCN Mario Circut played SNES Mario Circut Music” it was because I think he replaced SNES Mario Circuit with GCN Mario Circuit, but the game still thinks it’s SNES Mario Circuit, so it plays that music. GCN Mario Circuit doesn’t have any music.

    Reply ↓
  12. ernesto

    @DRMARIOX Things you left out:
    GCN Mario Circut played SNES Mario Circut Music
    GCN Mario Circut has no hazards (ex. No Trees or Chain Chomps)
    Dokan Course is Sand Ocean from F-Zero X
    Chain Chomps have no mouth animation
    Tick Tock Clock’s last clock hand was colored blue and has Figure 8 Music, but slightly remixed
    Waluigi Pinball has Yoshi Falls Music
    DK Pass has it’s own beta grassy theme
    Airship Fortress plays Luigi’s Mansion music

    Reply ↓

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