Prerelease:Mario Kart: Super Circuit
This page details prerelease information and/or media for Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
 | This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
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Contents
Timeline
July 18, 2000: The earliest images/footage of the game dates back to this date.
August 24, 2000: The game is revealed and playable at Spaceworld. Screenshots and footage from July are released.
September 3, 2000: The game is playable at ECTS London.
May 17, 2001: The game is playable at E3.
July 21, 2001: The game released in Japan.
August 26, 2001: The game released in North America.
September 13, 2001: The game released in Australia.
September 14, 2001: The game released in Europe.
Start of Development
According to A Developer Interview released on Nintendo's Online Magazine, development started early on in the GBA's life. It is stated that "The GB Advance hardware was still under development, and when we thought about the performance of the GB Advance hardware, the first thing we heard was that Mario Kart might be suitable for it."
It's nice to note that Intelligent Systems at the time were heavily involved in the GBA's development at the time, and even created Dev Kits for it and also made the "Wide-Boy 64 for AGB" which was a GBA adapter for the N64, used for early development for the GBA.
It is explained in the article that "When we were experimenting, it was just a port of the Super Famicom version, so it wasn't in the form it is now." This implies that the game was initially built off of Super Mario Kart for GBA testing purposes, or the game was heavily referenced in some way, which explains why some unused leftovers from "Super Mario Kart" made it into the final game.
July 2000
The circuit and haunted house screenshots are dated July 18th, 2000.
Player Select
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
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A completely different player selection screen, with no random option. This selection screen is very reminiscent of the one found in Mario Kart 64. Later footage shows that the menu music from Mario Kart 64 plays here (in GBA soundfont form), instead of the unique theme/composition present in the final.
Early Mario Circuit
| Pre-release[1] | Final |
|---|---|
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An early version of a Circuit track with a different, much simpler track layout. More differences include:
- The character sprites are very different. Most notably, they had very large heads.
- The trees are different, and there are more of them than in the final.
- "LAP" and "TIME" are in a more cartoony-looking font than the final.
- The track layout is different from any other track from the final, according to the minimap.
- There are no coins.
- The grass off the track has a smoother transition to the sand.
- Mugshots and current place in the race are missing.
- 4 players are present instead of 8 in a Grand Prix.
Early Ghost course[1]
An early version of a Ghost House-themed course with a different, simpler track layout.
Unknown Date
A short clip of another very early build was shown in the German TV show "Sat.1 Frühstücksfernsehen". Although it ran on TV on July 2001, the build shown is actually similar to the one above with a few differences. You can see the clip at 1:29.
- Mugshots are added, showing all 8 drivers as opposed to 4 drivers in the final. They do not appear to represent the current position, however.
- There are 3 timers, two of which possibly note the times from previous laps. For some reason, the second and third times are the same.
- The umbrellas from Shy Guy Beach are not visible from a distance and simply pop up when near.
- Bowser's Castle 1 uses different and more greyish graphics.
- The game looks a lot smoother.
- The camera is closer.
Another short clip from the same uploader from an unknown German TV show. The clip starts at 0:24.
- We can briefly see the front of Mario's racing sprites, which shows Mario's very different design.
August/September 2000
The video footage is from a Nintendo Game Boy Advance / GameCube Demo (9/22/2000) Internal VHS and the screenshots are from a French website, alongside screenshots from other builds and the final game [2], and a Spanish website [3]. They appear to depict the same build (?).
This IGN Pocket Article mentions that there was only one track that was avalible to be played, as "(there were others, including a beach level, but the game was still buggy and had some problems when played)." This can infer that the circuit track was the only track to be shown off at either SpaceWorld or ECTS of that year.
General Differences
Graphics
- Big heads aren't present anymore, and mugshots have been added, although smaller than in the final game. They appear to depict all characters currently racing rather than the 4 first players position (for example, in a GP, all 8 characters are seen racing while in multiplayer only 4 mugshots are shown, representing the 4 players racing).
- Menu icons are squares instead of circles.
- The mushrooms are more 2D in the CC selection screen.
- Lakitu appears in a more 3D manner but does not animate.
- The position sprites had different colors and faded out.
- The colorful blocks used the graphics from Super Mario Kart.
- The transition from sand to the road was more natural, similar to Luigi Circuit in the final game.
- The minimap was larger.
- Item boxes and UI elements are smaller.
- The dots on the minimap that show the racers' locations are bigger.
- A build of the game was shown at SpaceWorld 2000 in August, which looks very similar if not identical to this build shown.
Audio
Most sound effects and the title screen/menu music have been borrowed from Mario Kart 64, including the "Select your player!" voice clip from the player select screen. Mario Circuit has entirely different music that is mildly similar to Cheese Land's theme. The mushroom sound effect is also different. It's worth mentioning that the instrument samples used for this "GBA Soundfont" are originally sourced from the Roland Sound Canvas 8850, which even the final game uses 98% of its instrument samples from.
Gameplay
- The game selection screen doesn't have a Quick Run option.
- The CC selection screen has 4 options: the standard 50-150cc modes, plus an extra one represented by one large mushroom and two small ones. The label on the fourth option is not legible.
- The map selection screen has 4 cups. Kinoko (mushroom), Star, and Special cups all seem to be present, but the second one is greyed out and presumably can't be selected. Since this positioning is counterintuitive, it's likely this cup was unfinished rather than locked.
- The track names are different; the Mushroom Cup is made up of Big Tree Circuit, Heyho Beach, Koopa Castle, and a mysterious fourth option. Big Tree Circuit would be renamed Mario Circuit and moved to the Flower Cup.
- Course Records and Best Lap time appear in Grand Prix. "Best Lap" is misspelled as "Best Rap".
- The course intro is different.
- Lap Time is a separate element, instead of appearing over the total race time when relevant.
- Stars, Boos and Triple Mushrooms aren't implemented yet.
Title Screen
| Pre-release | Later Pre-release | Final (JP) |
|---|---|---|
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- Almost all of the title screen is different, having a different logo, a different render of Mario on a background showing an island with a castle, and a pyramid. The copyright year is "1996-2000" instead of "1992,2001", and Intelligent Systems is credited.
- A slightly later build (taken from the internal VHS in august) appears to use a different Mario render/artwork and the background is modified some, which honestly looks a lot better
- Only single player (GP and Time Trial) was able to be chosen from the title screen. It appears multiplayer was not implemented yet.
- An animation of Mario driving towards the screen plays instead of the brief pan in the sky in the final.
- As noted before, a GBA soundfont version of the title screen music from Mario Kart 64 plays here.
Player Select
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
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|
A slightly later version than in the July build, the bubbly text isn't present anymore, and the player number is shown on the cursor, like in the menu shown in the video footage. The background colors for the mugshots are also different.
Bowser Castle 1
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
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The graphics are different, and Thwomps seem to be absent. As in prior video footage, the mugshots don't represent the position. Bowser appears to be in first place, while the mugshots show him in 8th. Only 4 players appear to be present in Grand Prix mode, which also matches earlier footage.
Shy Guy Beach
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
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The colors are different, and Lakitu is more on the middle of the screen. The Shy Guys are bigger on the boat as well.
Award Cermony
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
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The award ceremony is on a circuit in the final, instead of being on a picture.
Mario Circuit/Big Tree Circuit
Probably a later build, than images above. Instead of 8 character icons, there is only 4 (This was taken at Spaceworld 2000)
January 2001
A later build of the game.
- The graphics are very close to their final versions.
- The HUD has not yet changed.
- The character portraits have been added and are very similar in style to the final portraits, but noticeably different. They were completely redrawn for the final game.
- The character portraits are more spaced out here then they were in the SpaceWorld/ECTS 2000 Demo
Boo Lake
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- The road is lighter and more saturated.
- The sky is a bit brighter, while the trees are a bit darker.
- The rows of wood planks are offset by 1 tile, leading to the planks being cut in half along the edges. As a result, the Boo and its light spot are closer to the edge.
- The layout is slightly different as shown on the minimap. One of the curves is longer in the pre-release than the final.
- The Number palette is in a darker color than the final.
These other two images are from the same build, but there doesn't appear to be any real differences to point out
- The minimaps are not outlined yet
February 2001
After some research, the E3 VHS footage seen above isn't actually the build that was playable at E3 2001. this build is likely from February, based off of the various HUD differences between this build and the next month's build.
It's likely that the footage shown at E3 was initially assumed to be close to the finalized product, but the game got slightly delayed, as this Pocket IGN page lists the game's release date as March 21st in Japan, and July for the US, which would end up being Japan's release date of July 11th 2001.
It's nice to mention that this build has the first instances of footage we see of the SNES tracks, and it's clear that it's in an early state, it's probably the main reason the game was pushed back from being a launch title for the GBA, aside from some other slight differences that would be addressed before release.
See 11:05 in the E3 video. See also the first 9 Seconds of the first Mario Kart Advance video listed.
- The title screen is much closer to the final, although still noticeably different, as the game's logo is still identical to the ones seen in the earlier builds.
- The coin counter is tucked right into the corner.
- The Boo graphic is different.
- The A and P letters from the LAP graphic are the same size as the L, unlike the final where they are shorter.
- The timer displays 2 digits for the minutes.
- The music in Mario Circuit has a slightly different melody. Though Ribbon Road's theme appears to have the same basic theme, it is arranged as a somewhat dramatic march instead of the pop-flavored final version and is in C instead of A. (Strangely, the earlier versions of Mario Circuit and Ribbon Road appear to be what their themes in Mario Kart 8 were based on.) Other courses showcased only have minor instrumental differences from the final.
- Mario Circuit had a skinnier map and different grass.
- The music at the beginning of Riverside Park is slightly different.
- The minimap circles are smaller.
- Originally, there was an extra zero in the lap counter.
- Lots of tracks had some coins in different locations or missing.
- This build appears to have started implementing SNES tracks into the game.
- The SNES Bowser Castles had bricks outside the track like in the original versions. They were replaced by lava in the final game.
- There was darker grass in Riverside Park.
- The music in Ribbon Road is completely different
- In Riverside Park there were no blocks in the bridge shortcut and the boost panel after the jump was closer to the start of the road.
- Triple Mushrooms seemed to appear in the item roulette in Grand Prix/Quick Run, while it normally only does appear in Time Trial and Versus.
March 2001
After looking into some old images from IGN's pocketmedia website files, these two images apparently date back to March 1st, 2001 based on the image names.
- The Coin symbol is at the location of the screenshots dated March 1st, 2001, now matching the final game.
- The steering and movement of the characters in general are very different from the final game.
- The minimaps are bigger than in the final version.
- There is no music playing, suggesting this was either an error or was in the process of recomposing the soundtrack (this is still possible, but unlikely, it is more likely to be an error)
- The LAP letters are capitalized here just like in February.
- When a character gets hit, they appear to do a spin similar to characters at the beginning of the credits.
- In the "Time" Section, the extra 0 was removed, like in the final game.
- Battle Course 3 has some extra walls, which can be also seen on the minimap. Although hard to see, they are still present on the course preview picture in the final game.
- The brick road is darker on Bowser Castle tracks.
- Mario Circuit's layout is unchanged, it will be slightly altered for the final release
This video appears to depict the same build.
- The title screen contains options for "Advance Game" and "Data Game", possibly renamed as Multi-Pak and Single-Pak multiplayer in the final game, although it uses the cursor for Single Player, Multiplayer, and Ghost Exchange instead of the one for the Single and Multi-Pak ones.
- Bowser Castle 1 contains arrows on the road which are not present in the final game, similarly to the SNES Bowser Castles.
Player Select
This screenshot is from this gamekult preview article for the game, last modified on July 20th, 2001. This is likely the March build of the game because by E3 the game was almost entirely the same as the final build. This image has also been found in a Japanese magazine titled "Weekly Famitsu" This also includes other screenshots that are confirmed to be from the march build.
- The character icons might have a slight drop shadow under the border, but it is difficult to tell due to JPEG compression.
- "PLAYER SELECT" is changed to "Choose A Character" in the final.
- The character names are in Japanese, and stats are not implemented yet.
Single Pak
- There is a lack of background track color
- Minimap is slightly different than in the final game.
May 2001
A practically final build of the game, was playable during E3 2001. See 9:00 in the video titled "E3 2001 - Nintendo - GameCube & GBA". However, the trailer shown in the first video seems to be from the February build. A very similar, if not identical build is present on Nintendo's Japanese website [4] and on various Japanese websites [5] and magazines. [6]
Title Screen
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- The title screen is much closer to the final, although the game was still called "Advance", the name was translated for the US release compared to the April build footage
- The coin counter is now final.
- The word "Multiplayer" was originally split into two words. This is also seen in the leaked debugging tapes, which means this was changed very late in the game's localization; possibly after the Japanese launch of the game.
- The E3 demo only had two cups available, the following code will restore that cup selection:
0202B4BC:01 0202B4C0:01 0202B4C4:01 0202B4C8:01 0202B4CC:01 0202B4D0:01 0202B4D4:01 0202B4D8:01 0202B4DC:01
Unknown Battle Course
A battle course that looks much different from any of the four from the final game. This is most likely to be an early version of Battle Course 1, due to both having the same background (reused from Mario Circuit). In the final game, Battle Course 1 is based on Battle Course 4 from Super Mario Kart.
Bowser Castle
The bricks on Bowser Castle tracks have much more shading than in the final game.
Lakitu
Lakitu's cloud closes its mouth here, while normally it only does when fishing a player.
Boo Lake
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
 |
 |
The track layout was edited towards the end of the course to make this section shorter.
June 2001
According to an IGN article dated June 26th, 2001, one of the battle courses is a remake of an SNES one. All the SNES courses are in the data of the game, albeit unused.[7]
