Mario Kart 8/Beta Elements

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.

Beta Tracks

The Void (gu_menu) - An empty course with no refreshing HUD
Test - An early version of Mario Circuit

Early builds

• Twisted Mansion was originally called Boo House.
• Donkey Kong's Standard Bike used to be 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.
• Thwomp Ruins in the E3 trailer lacked flowers and the anti-gravity section was a normal road.
• The Goomba Tower's found in Mario Circuit were both taller and harder to avoid.
• The HUD 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.

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 both Rainbow Road courses that appear in this game).