Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights
Wreck-It Ralph Week: The Hidden
Levels of Mickey's Speedway USA
Developed by: Rare
System:
Nintendo 64
One of the
reasons I love Wreck-It Ralph
so much is the attention to
detail when it comes to
presenting a digital game world.
Despite not having the same
timeless appeal as that of film
and music, video games have
intricate elements that make
them fascinating. Their creation
can often be as intriguing as
the birth of a film. And much
like in film, many elements are
created that are left on the
digital cutting room floor for
one reason or the other.
Wreck-It Ralph sets out to
pay tribute to this in a clever
way, Today's Gamer Tuesday
celebrating Wreck-It Ralph
takes a look at a locale
found within Sugar Rush, and use
a Disney video game example of
the concept behind it.

In Wreck-It
Ralph, right after Ralph and
Vanellope create their cart and
are chased by King Candy they
arrive at Diet Cola Mountain.
After they have an argument over
their current fate, Ralph
notices that the falling Mentos
create an explosion thanks to
the boiling soda below. That's
when Vanellope explains to Ralph
that Diet Cola Mountain...

Is some sort of unfinished bonus
level
The writers
behind Wreck-It Ralph are
clever and observant of video
game culture. Sometimes game
developers create many new ideas
for their game, and at times
many of those ideas never leave
their heads as they feel it is
too complicated to pull off in a
short amount of time. Other
times those ideas do begin to
take form, but for one reason or
the other they are abandoned in
mid-development. What's really
cool is that sometimes game
developers leave those hidden
levels, characters and ideas
hidden within the game's coding
not expecting anyone to find
them as they focus on the actual
finished product. Gamers,
however, are more clever than
that. Thanks to the invention of
game hacking developers and
smart coders and designs they
have been able to look behind
the doors of the game's code to
find elements that almost made
it. Most of the time, though,
these are very unfinished and
have no function.

To give you guys
an idea of what exactly I am
talking about, let me use a
Disney video game (and one that
happens to be a racing game just
like Sugar Rush):
Mickey's Speedway USA. I've
already talked about the game
here on Gamer Tuesday, but
here is a brief synopsis of it:
the weasels have kidnapped Pluto
in order to steal his diamond
collar. Mickey Mouse enlists the
help of his friends to race
across the USA and find Pluto.
The game was created in the same
vein as Nintendo's Mario Kart
series, and even though it
doesn't quite reach the same
potential as that series it does
provide a fun time with Mickey
and friends.
The game was
developed by English developer
Rare, a company that gained some
infamy with their lengthy
development cycles. This mean
that one of their games would
take many, many years to
complete. But it all yielded
excellent to amazing results as
some of their games became the
best ever made, like Goldeneye
007, Banjo-Kazooie among others.
Mickey's Speedway USA didn't
experience such a long
development cycle but it did
have many ideas that would end
up being locked behind the code.
And luckily for us, someone
hacked the code and we now get
to see what was behind it!

The first idea
that was created, but never
used, was a floating Mickey
Mouse head. Yeah, you read that
right, a floating Mickey Mouse
head. It looks as if Rare tried
to emulate the character opening
cards that would open their
short films, and make that the
game's opening sequence. Yet, it
seems that Rare caught notice of
the fact that a 3D Mickey Mouse
head that just bobs its head
back and forth is too creepy and
abandoned it.
The second idea
left behind is a castle level.
Most likely paying tribute to
Disney's love of castles, this
area would have either been a
fantasy-based racing level, or
the setting for an award
ceremony once gamers completely
the whole game. And speaking of
awards, the other idea recently
found is a trophy scene that
showcased gold, silver, and
bronze Mickey Mouse trophies.

Much like Diet
Cola Mountain was in Sugar Rush,
there are many hidden racing
levels in Mickey's Speedway USA.
Many believe that these are beta
race tracks, tracks that were
created to test out the racing
mechanics and iron out any
issues left in the coding. My
belief, though, is that these
were meant to be bonus level to
be unlocked through gameplay.
The first of these bonus levels
is a track based off of Rare's
on Jet Force Gemini, a sci-fi
game that came out on the same
year as Mickey's Speedway USA.
The second hidden level in
Mickey's Speedway USA is
Greenwood Village, which hails
from another one of Rare's
classics, Diddy Kong Racing.

Another hidden
tidbit in Mickey's Speedway USA
is a multiplayer mode that would
have emulated the formula in
Nintendo's Mario Kart series,
including a balloon race in
which you must pop the
opponent's balloons in order to
be crowned the winner of the
race. The final hidden element
in the game is a really cool nod
to Disney's classic blue screen
castle opener that is seen on
many of their movies. If this
were to be combined with the
floating Mickey Mouse head,
Mickey's Speedway USA would have
paid tribute to Disney's movies
in a cool way.
It just goes to
show you how Wreck-It Ralph set
out to pay tribute to video game
development by integrating it
into a vital part of the story,
and it did it in a successful
way. The secrets behind Mickey's
Speedway USA is just one of the
hundreds of secrets behind your
favorite games. Hopefully it
doesn't take a game jumping hero
to figure them out.