Prerelease:Mario Kart Wii

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Mario Kart Wii.

To do: Add references for the Development Timeline section. Also add sources and references for all prerelease images. This image seems to contain slightly different positions for the TIME and LAP graphics? Same here? Document how in some of the videos in the /thp directory the inside drifting bikes slightly slip when starting a drift (this is also similar to how Mario's Mach Bike seems to drift in the Fall Press Conference 2007 video.) Add how the GCN DK Mountain rankings banner has the "Donkey Cannon" text instead of "DK Cannon" like in the final version. In GCN Waluigi Stadium's ranking course banner, Mario on the Standard Kart M can be seen in one of the course's TVs. Compare all Japanese menu text to the final release.

Sub-Pages

Course Banners Earlier versions of the courses found in the banners of the Rankings menu!

In-game Videos Early footage found in several of the in-game videos!

Development Timeline

• 2005
  • Konno-san decides to name the new Mario Kart game "Mario Kart X"
• 2006
  • Near the end of 2006 - Ashida-san gets a call from Konno-san, telling him that he was thinking about making a steering wheel for the Wii.
• 2007
  • Early 2007 - Konno-san plays a pre-production build of Mario Kart Wii with the Prototype Wheel, and thinks that it has potential.
  • July 11 - Mario Kart Wii was officially announced by Reggie Fils-Aime at Nintendo's E3 press conference, alongside the Wii Wheel peripheral (and how it will be sold packaged with the game), with the first quarter of 2008 set as the estimated release date. This trailer was shown in the conference, while three additional screenshots were posted in Nintendo's official E3 website.
  • August 30 - course.0 was created.
  • October 10 - Nintendo had their Fall Press Conference in which they revealed motorbikes.
  • November 5 - dummy.rsca was created.
• 2008
  • February 15 - The final American boxart is revealed.
  • February 19-29 - Ghost metadata confirms that the games staff ghosts were created during this period. This means that the physics engine and track design were final as well.
  • February 20 - GDC 2008 takes place, with 178 new screenshots of the game released, as well as a brand new trailer. The European release date is revealed to be April 11th.
  • March 13 - Mario Kart Channel metadata confirms that the final build of the Japanese, European and American versions of Mario Kart Wii was likely created.
  • April 3 - Mario Kart Wii Iwata Asks was released.
  • April 10 - Mario Kart Wii released in Japan.
  • April 11 - Mario Kart Wii released in Europe.
  • April 27 - Mario Kart Wii released in the Americas.
  • July 17 - Mario Kart Channel metadata confirms that the final build of the Korean version of Mario Kart Wii was likely created.
• 2009
  • April 30 - Mario Kart Wii released in South Korea.

Concept Art

To do: Translate the rest of the text, and compare the text in the game screenshots to that of the final game

Early Concept Art for Luigi Circuit shows that there was originally a Blooper Blimp as well as a Cheep Cheep Blimp.

Dry Dry Ruins's Concept Art shows that the track almost completely changed during development. The oasis is much larger in this version, and the ruins themselves have a sort of "Boobytrapped" vibe. Mii Heads were planned to appear on a bunch of objects (The sphynx, mummy statues, wall paintings and some thwomp like object). But in the final game, the only place a Mii could appear was on the sphynx's head.

Concept art for several bikes. There are early designs for the スーパーカメック (Sūpā Kameku, translated to Super Kamek) which would end up being the Magikruiser in the final game, and the Quacker. The two scrapped bikes were based off of a MechaKoopa, called the メカクッパ DX (mekakuppa DX, translated to Mechakoopa DX), and a bike based off of Lakitu's cloud.

E3 2007

Trailer

Nintendo's E3 2007 Website Screenshots

Mario Kart Wii was first announced in E3 2007, showing gameplay footage. At this point in development, the game already resembled its final form, though it was more similar to Mario Kart DS, as seen in some gameplay and graphical elements.

Courses

The courses shown in this trailer were Mario Circuit, Wario's Gold Mine, Mushroom Gorge, Moo Moo Meadows, Luigi Circuit, DS Yoshi Falls and GCN Peach Beach.

General

• The boost pads originally had a rainbow pattern, whereas in the final version it is Pink/Red/Yellow. Curiously, this is still present in the final version, in Coconut Mall.
• When an item box resurfaced after being picked up, it originally appeared immediatly, while in the final version it quickly increased in size.

Mario Circuit

While very similar to the final version, model and texture differences can be found:

• Many of the MARIO billboards found in the course originally displayed the text MarioKart.¹

• The grey stoned walls found to the right of the starting line were originally extended up to the right side of the final curve in this build. In the final version, these walls were shortened, and brown walls were put in the remaining places instead.

• The bridge located in the lake area was missing.

• Shadows (such as those for the trees) were seemingly brighter. Additionally, the shadowing seen on top of the castle and the houses' roofs was a bit different.

• Some of the the yellow mountains were positioned a bit differently.

• The grass texture seen in the edges of the roads was mapped differently: the semicircular shapes were closer to the edge in the early version.

• The rainbow was positioned a bit lower in the early version.

• Another tree (the one seen close to the entrance of Peach's Castle) was not present in the early version.

Differences can also be found in the objects:

• The first set of item boxes only contained 4 of them, while in the final this number was increased to 5. As a result, their positions were also slightly changed in the final version to accomodate this new instance.

• Most of the flowers were positioned differently (those seen at the edge of the road).^{1 (static) 2 (animated)}
  • The tree seen at the left side of the finish line was originally located a bit more to the left, and one extra tree originally appeared at its left as well. Curiously, the multiplayer version of the course have both 3D trees in the placement seen this build.
  • An extra 2D tree was originally present in the background in the lake area as well.
  • The tree seen at the corner of the section with the Chain Chomp couldn't be seen in this footage. However, it is actually present in the northern area with the houses, as seen in the trailer from the Fall Press Conference 2007.

• The cheering Shy Guys and Hammer Bros. were missing.

• The Goombas originally had darker shading. It is likely that their model material lacked the entries for the environmental textures, since removing them in the final game will make them look just like in this version. Another fact to support this theory is how an early Goomba model found in the game's data does not have these material entries.

• The racers were slightly closer to each other at the start of the race.

1: This difference is still present in both loser_demo and draw_demo.
2: This difference is still present in draw_demo.

Wario's Gold Mine

• The clouds were originally edited versions of the ones from Waluigi Stadium from Double Dash!!.
• The arrows seen in the half pipe jump had a different shape in this version.

Moo Moo Meadows

• The cows were faster. One of these is shown running, when in the final version the can only walk (this animation is still present (but unused) in the game).

Mushroom Gorge

• There are less details on the wall of the cave.

Luigi Circuit

• The skybox is the same as the one seen in many of the Double Dash!!'s courses, such as GCN Mario Circuit, albeit with the texture flipped horizontally.

Characters

• Luigi's animation when he lands an attack is different.
• Yoshi's animation when steering his kart is simpler looking, similar to Mario Kart DS.

Vehicles

• The Offroader was missing both the spare tire on the back, and the flag was missing as well.
• Wario's Flame Flyer originally had its engine blower flaps colored purple instead of yellow.

HUD

• All of the HUD icons used to have a shadow drop. In the final version, only the position tracker still has it.
• The timer was absent.
• The lap counter is on the bottom right, and it was also slightly bigger.
  • The LAP graphic was also not present in this version.
  • The numbers and slash graphics had the yellow shading a bit less saturated, and the sides of said graphics were black instead of yellow.
• The item box window is always on-screen, despite having an item or not (much like in Mario Kart DS). The background for this icon was also completely opaque, unlike in the final version where it is semi-transparent. The frame texture also resembled the bubble design seen in some of the game's buttons (such as the back button).
  • Almost all of the item icon textures were ported from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! / Mario Kart DS in this build. The only exceptions are the Mushroom / Triple Mushrooms, which had an slightly different design, as well as what seems to be the Bullet Bill, whose graphic looked more primitive.
  • The Blooper, Mega Mushroom, Thunder Cloud nor the POW Block were present.
  • The item's icon did not blink when getting / using it in this build.
• The position tracker graphics were fully opaque, and did not have the slight transparent gradient that can be seen in the upper and lower part of the texture. Its shadow was completely opaque in this version as well, while in the final it's much more transparent.
  • These graphics originally contained the place number only, and lacked the st, nd, rd, or th at the end (or dot in the case of the German translation version).
• The Flower Cup icon was originally ported from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
• The upper text, aside of being slightly smaller, only showed the cup name in this build. In the same way, the text displaying the course's name was also smaller in size.

Visual Effects

• Whenever you did a trick, your character did not do an animation, and their vehicle simply spun around. In addition, there were no effects around the vehicle when doing the trick.
• The flames from the exhaust pipes used to have a more detailed appearance.

Official Nintendo's E3 website screenshots

Nintendo's official E3 website showed 3 exclusive screenshots. These actually show some differences in comparison to the video trailer:

• The timer is now present, with some design changes:
  • It originally used single and double commas to represent the minutes and seconds, instead of a colon and a dot.
  • It was positioned slightly more upwards than in the final version.
• The lap counter was moved up. However, in comparison with the final version, it was positioned a bit lower.

Fall Press Conference 2007

Prerelease	Final (loser_demo version)	Final (Single Player version)

This is the footage from the Fall Press Conference of 2007, only changes that were not known in the E3 video will be mentioned.

• The engine sounds are from Mario Kart DS.
• There was a wall bonk sound effect when going off of half pipes (probably a glitch).
• The camera worked differently when on a half pipe.
• Half pipes looked different, and the color would transition from red to blue.
• The fences on DK Summit were blue instead of red.
• Tricking had no sound effects.
• Wheelies had no visual effect.
• The Jump Pad is not present in Mario Circuit.
• The Chain Chomp from Mario Circuit has been moved more closely to the road.

The most interesting thing is DK Summit, as this seems to be a totally different version, unlike Mario Circuit which is pretty much identical to the final one.

February 2008 Trailer

• The trick sound effect is now present, but it sounds different to the final one.
• Some of Yoshi's animations are missing.

Trailer (Date Unknown)

• At 0:38 the bullet has a different smoke effect, looks more like the one from Mario Kart DS.

Trailer 2 (Date Unknown)

To do: The date of this trailer seems to be at least late March 2008 ([source]) This trailer switches between the early LAP and TIME graphics and the final ones At 0:17 The multiplayer camera is much closer to the characters Slightly different Fake Item Box color gradient? At 2:35, the game seems to lag a little bit, is it possible to recreate this in the final version under the same conditions?

• At 2:41 the sound that a friend has an open room is lower pitched.
• At 2:49 we can see early icons and banners for the Mario Kart Channel. Including an unused question mark icon (which is still present in the final game's data), and an early icon for the Ghost Race mode. The Home Menu icon that is used to indicate a tournament has started is the same graphic as the one that can be seen in the letter that is sent to the console when all the cups are beaten.

Images

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: These need to be ordered by date

These are all screenshots of pre-release versions of the game, presumably distributed by Nintendo to various news sites.

Early Wii Wheel Icon

The player in 10th place seems to have an early icon for the Wii Wheel next to his name, which can still be found inside the final game's data.

Early License Screen

To do: /Scene/UI/Title.szs contains a file called national_flag.brlyt inside the folders ./button/brlyt, which could potentially be related to these country flags. In the same file, in the subdirectory ./button/ctrl, there are three files named LicenseSelect.brctr, LicenseSelectT.brctr and LicenseSelectB.brctr that reference the national_flag.brlyt file. Could it be restored in-game? Write the rest of the differences.

Prerelease	Final

• Licenses used to display your country flag on them. The file Title.szs in /Scene/UI (which stores graphical data for the Title and Main Menu screens) in the final releases of the game still contains all the country flags images that appear in the game (except for the Korean version, which only has the Japanese flag leftover), which is a leftover from this build.
• In the final game, the Mushroom Cup icon was updated to use Mario Kart Wii's icon as opposed to Mario Kart: Double Dash's, although the final game still uses Double Dash's star icon on the license screen.
• The lighting on the Mii's head was noticeably darker.

Early DK Summit Rings Competition

This screenshot shows an early version of the DK Summit Rings competition. The final version has you starting at the top of the mountain, while this version had you starting at the bottom. The ring positions are also different.

The timer is also seen counting down instead of up like it does in the final game, which is a behaviour seen in the unused Mission Mode.

The "SCORE" HUD Element is also missing, and the ring symbols on the minimap look different.

Early SNES Mario Circuit 3 Coins Competition

The coins are in different positions in this version compared to the final. The timer also seems to be counting down instead of up, like in the previous case. This would suggest that both these images are from the early Mission Mode, rather than the online competitions/tournaments, which would also suggest that the aforementioned mode was cut very late in development.

The "SCORE" HUD Element is also missing.

Early Wario's Gold Mine

Prerelease	Final

Double Dash!!	Final

This screenshot has several unused things. The HUD is completely different, featuring early item icons. The flame coming out of Wario's exhaust is purple, when it is orange in the final game.

The "Super Wario" sign is also different, as the one in the early versions seems to be an edited version of a sign that appears in Wario Colosseum from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.

The final "Wario's Gold Mine" billboard texture in the multiplayer version of the course (in TR_kanbanALL.tex0) has the same dimensions as the "Super Wario" sign, implying the early texture appeared there before eventually being replaced by the final one.

Darker Mii Icon Shading

The Mii's icon on the minimap shows that it had way darker shading, much like on the license screen.

Multiplayer HUD Differences

Tthe position tracker in 4 player splitscreen didnt change colors to match the player (however, the screenshot also show that the Timer and Lap Count, as well as the item roulette did change color)

It also shows that the black bars that divided the screen into 4 used to be layered on top of the minimap, where in the final game the minimap was layered on top of the black bars.

Luigi's icon next to his name is a lot bigger in this screenshot, and the lines pointing out other human players aren't color coded. In fact, this texture is actually present (but unused) in the final game's files.

Team Mode Differences

The lines that appear under the player's name in Team Mode originally remained white for everyone (rather than becoming red/blue to indicate that players team)

The red halos that appear around Mario's triple red shells appear more pink than in the final game.

Early Friend Icon

The friend online icon looked a bit different. In addition, the Miis' heads are more zoomed in.

Early Leaderboard HUD

To do: Add this image from the English Iwata Asks interview (the shadow drop in the Mii icon can also be seen in the lower part of the icon, unlike in the final version.)

In the final game, Miis on this screen do not have shadows, the B button also uses an old version of the icon.

Early Time Trial Card

• The vehicle slot features the Mach Bike icon that can be seen on the Mario Kart Channel's channel preview, which suggests that all the icons seen there originally were meant to appear in the Time Trial Card.
• The Mii's head is more zoomed in.
• The name box and the flag box were switched.

Early Online HUD

Prerelease	Final

In the prerelease version, the globe isn't as zoomed in, the row of Mii heads in bubbles isn't as high, and the text saying what mode it is is absent.

Early Luigi Circuit

This is interesting because it seems to be an old version of Luigi Circuit, presumably from the E3 2007 build.

• The ramp is completely different.
• The boost panels are different.
• The "Sunshine Parts" billboard on the left was changed to a "Luigi Circuit" one.
• The "Mario Kart" logos next to the hat on the stands were changed to "Nintendo" logos.
• The "Mario Kart" sign on the mushroom on the right was changed to "Luigi Kart".
• The white fences beneath the trees on the right were changed to be digital and have arrows on them.
• Billboards were added on top of the buildings in the centre of the track.
• DK's Standard Kart has an early design.
• Luigi's Classic Dragster has blue wheels in the prerelease. (final version for comparison)

Early Offroader

Prerelease	Final

Waluigi's Offroader was originally supposed to be more blue rather than purple. He and Wario are also missing the flag that appears in the final.

Early Yoshi's Wild Wing

Prerelease	Final

Yoshi's Wild Wing originally had a blue stripe in the lower side of the body. This was changed to green in the final version of the game.

Early Wario Design

Wario originally had long sleeves, just like in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. In the final game, he has short sleeves instead. Curiously, his low-poly model still has long sleeves.

Early DK Summit Billboards

Prerelease	Final

Everything is exactly the same as the final apart from the billboards, which are completely different.

Early Coconut Mall

Coconut Mall has a few tiny changes:

• The umbrella table up on the ledge (between the red and yellow flowers) is not there in the final.
• There seem to be weird white squares right next to it, these seem to be placeholders for the 2D Miis in the final, since they're placed where the Miis in the final are.

Luigi Circuit's 3rd Version

The picture that you receive at the end of the game depicts all the characters standing on a podium on Luigi Circuit, but the track itself has some discrepancies from both the final version and the version seen in the pre-release screenshots and the early banner. For some reason here, the signs have became "Mario Kart" signs instead of Nintendo ones, and the Luigi hat is missing. This particular version of the track can also be seen from another angle in this promo poster.

Final Game	Credits Image