Proto:Wacky Wheels/Wacky Kart

Wacky Kart is an early prototype of the Super Mario Kart clone Wacky Wheels ... or maybe Skunny Kart. Probably both. It has a complicated history. The game's developer started the game as a personal project while working at Copysoft and foolishly allowed them access to a copy of the source before taking the game to Apogee. Copysoft used the engine to create Skunny Kart and Apogee soon after launched Wacky Wheels.

This prototype is much closer to Apogee's game, but dates to the Copysoft development period.

Game Intro
Each version of the game has a unique company logo at the beginning, with Apogee's being the most advanced, including a Mode 7-style rotating floor, as was used in-game. The two Wacky title screens are obviously related, but Skunny is quite different. It does, however, feature many of the same options as the early game: the battle mode is still called "battle zone" and the last six options are identical to the early game.

Major Differences

 * Keyboard controls are entirely unimplemented, both in menus and in-game. A joystick must be used to play.
 * The game at this point is entirely silent, with no sound effects or music hidden in the game's files either.
 * The grand prix cups are not implemented, only single races/battles are available. All of the high score, setup, credits, etc. options on the title screen are non-functioning dummies.
 * Racers start out in a grid, like Mario Kart. (Wheels replaced this with everyone starting out lined up equally at the beginning, but Skunny still uses grids.)
 * Hedgehogs (≈ green turtle shells) act as obstacles instead of collectible items, but the HUD still displays a counter for them, so it would appear the system was planned but not yet implemented.

Characters and Descriptions
All of the karts have been beefed up to look a lot more interesting than their early incarnations. Some minor tweaks were also made to the drivers (dark outlines on some characters here and in the 1.0 proto were removed before final Wacky Wheels), but nothing near the degree of modifications done to their rides.

Skunny Kart obviously has an entirely different cast, but many similarities remain, both in the karts (tires are generally unchanged) and the racers (e.g., Skunny is clearly a recolored Ringo). Notably, even on the character select screen, he is the sixth character in his own game, simply because that was Ringo's position.

Additionally, the characters all had three-line descriptions in Wacky Kart, which were edited down to two for Wheels. Some of these edits obscured useful information like the fact that Morris the Moose is a good starter. Skunny has a completely different cast and character select screen, which isn't really worth comparing against these.

The developer has stated that early in development, Razer the Shark's name was "Bubbles", which Apogee co-owner (and shark owner) George Broussard felt was a "sissy name for a shark", so the character was renamed. This suggests the developers were already in contact with Apogee by this point, despite the Copysoft branding.

Tracks
Most of the tracks are pretty much identical in layout between this version and the final Wacky Wheels (though there are many entirely new tracks not featured at all in Wacky Kart). All of these tracks are included in the game's files, but only four can be selected in normal play: Bronze 1 (track 1), Silver 1 (track 6), Gold 1 (track 11) and Battle Zone (track 16). Only tracks with layout changes are shown here; for cosmetic changes, see the tilesets below.

Skunny Kart features mostly new or extensively reworked tracks; as such, it can be difficult to identify whether they come from Wacky Kart. Some clear examples are included below.

Track Tiles
Between Wacky Kart and Wheels, most of the track tilesets were altered, mainly to make the borders look less obviously ripped off from Mario Kart. Some of the palettes received minor tweaks, and a couple were entirely recolored to change their themes. Several tilesets in Skunny Kart are also obviously descended from the prototype's, but many were replaced entirely. Only the relevant Skunny sets are shown below.