Mario Kart 8/Wreck-It Ralph?

[weegeechan]

After playing a lot of Mario Kart 8, i'm starting to think Sweet Sweet Canyon is a reference to the game Sugar Rush from the movie Wreck-It Ralph.

For anyone who doesn't know, Sugar Rush is a racing game set in a sugary world filled with sweets and candies. There are a lot of things in the course Sweet Sweet Canyon that are extremely similar to this.




As you can see from the 2 pictures, both are almost the same. Trees made of candy canes, land made of chocolate and so on. Sugar Rush and SSC also have parts of their tracks that are made of candy strips. Both have candy people in various candy/chocolate boxes near the finish line.



Something to back all of this up is that Wreck-It Ralph was a movie about video games. More than half the movie takes place in Sugar Rush which is a parody of kart racing games. The film also has multiple game franchise characters in it including Sonic and even Bowser. The films director said that Mario would make an appearance in the sequel and all the Wreck-It Ralph games released were exclusively released on Nintendo consoles/handhelds. Not to mention it was really big in Japan with Japan being the 2nd biggest market for the movie (29.6 million). The Sugar Rush song was even sung by the Japanese group, AKB48, which is one of the highest earning musical acts in Japan.

There is only one thing that makes me think this could potentially not be a reference. There have been 2 battle courses from previous Mario Kart titles that have been candy themed. Mario games have also had different sweet themed things in them. But Sweet Sweet Canyon is different than the other courses in that it does look like Sugar Rush, unlike the other two. But this could also fit in with the reference. While referencing Sugar Rush, they could still stick with the Mario style. What i'm thinking is, Sugar Rush references Mario Kart, and then Mario Kart referenced it back. What do you guys think?

[gamemaster1991]

I'm going to say that there is not much to prove this one way or another. It would be really cool to have this be true, but aside from seeing Ralph, Felix, or Vanellope on the track or getting a word of god, I don't think it's connected.

[Psychospacecow]

Gonna need something a bit more concrete then a common theme. If it were that simple, we could say that Kingdom Hearts is a reference to someone's fan fiction because it uses multiple disney characters and came out after the other.

[weegeechan]

Ya, it's true that it would be impossible to tell if it is a reference or not. Unless the games director says it is, it would only be open for speculation. But I do agree that it would be awesome if it ended up being a reference!

[Psychospacecow]

Keep looking if you think it is. Check the wikis, any official comment, etc. It seems unlikely but if you think its correct then start searching.

[Tuli0hWut]

Keep looking if you think it is. Check the wikis, any official comment, etc. It seems unlikely but if you think its correct then start searching.

I was thinking the same thing....it blows my mind to see that the level is quite similar to Sugar Rush...

[weegeechan]

Well, doing a little more research I found out the movie was actually renamed to "Sugar Rush" in Japan. So the whole movie was marketed as a kart game movie. That alone would make the reference a little less obscure



I also found something interesting that now has made me think this is even more of a reference. The Spanish name for Sweet Sweet Canyon is Sweet Tooth Gorge. In Sugar Rush, the first area of the race is called Gumball Gorge, which is the part that SSC specifically resembles.

But still, no official comment on if this is a reference or not.