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Calhoun8bit Watch it, rookie!

This article may contain spoilers. Read at your own discretion!


For the song by AKB48, see Sugar Rush (song).
Wreck-it-ralph-sugar-rush-cabinet

Sugar Rush is the fictitious arcade game that Ralph enters while flying an out-of-control shuttle from Hero's Duty. It is a kart racing game set on tracks made of candies, cookies, and other sweets. It is where Ralph also encounters Vanellope Von Schweetz and other numerous characters.

The ruler for most of the movie is King Candy, who is really Turbo in disguise. He ruled Sugar Rush after altering the code in which he tried to erase Vanellope's code, made himself king, and Vanellope a glitch. However, to stay in power, King Candy made a law stating glitches can't race, because if Vanellope ever did race and cross the finish line, the game would reset. Until Ralph's first visit to the game, he had managed to prevent Vanellope from racing for 15 years.

In the end, Vanellope does get to race and during the race, King Candy tries to stop her by ramming his car into hers. While defending herself against King Candy (who was hitting her with a rod from his kart), she starts to glitch nervously which reveals King Candy is really Turbo, who then tries to kill her by tipping the car over and trying to ram it into a wall. She manages to escape and Turbo accidentally drives into a Cy-Bug's open mouth, turning him into a Cy-Bug hybrid. As a Cy-Bug, Turbo was the most powerful virus in the arcade, until he was killed by a beacon made by Ralph out of Diet Cola Mountain. After Turbo's death, Sugar Rush is reprogrammed to its original state once Vanellope crosses the finish line. She promptly regains her rightful position as princess, but decides to convert the government into a "constitutional democracy" and becomes "President" instead.


Official Bio

"This interactive racer was a breakout hit in American arcades when it was released in 1997. Ten sweet-styled racers drive their confectionery karts around a taffy track that weaves through the ever-changing environments of the island."

Description

Sugar Rush is a Japanese-based kart racing game which features colorful 3D graphics. It is much like many Mario Kart games, as Power-ups can also be obtained. As it is a racing game, racers must race on tracks that pass through landscapes made of sweets, candies and chocolate. The speedway itself is filled with exciting twists and turns like Gumball Gorge and Cakeway. It has many attractions like Diet Cola Mountain, King Candy's Castle, and the Sugar Rush Speedway. During the cy-bug attack, the speedway gets devoured only to be returned to normal when the true ruler is revealed, Vanellope von Schweetz.

Sugar Rush greatly resembles many Japanese-exclusive arcade games.

Characters

Racerz

All Sugar Rush Racers apart from King Candy (Including Recolors)

Playable

The game features many colorful, sugary racers to choose from (referred to as "children of the candy corn" by Ralph as a reference to the 80's horror movie, Children Of The Corn). Each has a specific candy theme and a go-kart made entirely of candy, cookies, or other sweets. Inside the reality of the game itself, the racers seem to have established a sort of pecking order determined by who the best racers are.

The characters, with the exception of Vanellope and the Recolor Racers, have high standards and openly display signs of xenophobia (intense/irrational dislike or fear of foreigners) as they show hostility towards outsiders from other games, like Wreck-It Ralph. As a result of their high standards, they also show a strong disliking towards things that have incomplete or otherwise flawed programming, like Vanellope. This could have been caused by Turbo altering the programming.

Sugar Rush Recolors

Recolored / Alternate Racers

In addition to the primary racers that are featured frequently, there are lesser known racers in the Sugar Rush world that are simply recolors of some of the main racers. They aren't playable in the browser-based version of the game. These racers' names can be seen on the jumbotron in the background of some Sugar Rush scenes.

Citrusella is seen on the character select screen and is even doing her very own pose.

Minty Sakura's kart

Minty Sakura

Minty Sakura

Zaki-Sakura

Top: Minty Zaki, as featured in Wreck-it Ralph Bottom: Minty Sakura, as featured in Sugar Rush

There is also Minty Sakura, who is only seen in the Japanese version of the film. Many people believed she is a re-design of Minty Zaki or Candlehead. However, it has been proven that Minty Sakura is not a re-design at all, but a character added to the Japanese dub to replace Minty Zaki and to give the film a more international feel. She has an overall Asian theme to her design, wearing Japanese pocky candy in her hair like stylized chopsticks and a kimono-like dress with leggings. Minty Sakura does drive the same car as Minty Zaki, though she is technically a completely different character. This also highlights how Candlehead was originally Minty Zaki because of Minty Sakura's similar outfit design.

Of course, when Minty Sakura was added to the list of Sugar Rush entrants, the animators had to go back and edit Minty Zaki out of the international release and place Minty Sakura into the Japanese version (however, Minty Zaki is still visible in a few scenes).

Non-Playable

Within the realm of Sugar Rush, there are characters who have lesser roles than the racers. These characters are usually seen attending the races as spectators or are otherwise employees/minions of King Candy.

Places of Interest

  • King Candy's Castle: Home of King Candy, his diminutive sidekick Sour Bill and his two doughnut cops Wynnchel and Duncan. It also contains a hidden chamber that leads to the game's code. It is discovered here that Vanellope was made a glitch on purpose. The Castle later becomes Vanellope's home when she regains the throne.
  • Candy Cane Forest: A forest full of red-and-white striped peppermint trees. It is a favorite hangout spot for Vanellope, as well as, where she first met Ralph. It inhabits Laffy Taffy vines and a Nesquik-Sand pit, where Felix and Calhoun almost die.
  • Diet Cola Mountain: A soda bottle-shaped volcano with a pit of boiling hot cola instead of lava. There are Mentos stalactites that sometimes fall from the roof of the volcano, causing fizzy eruptions. Diet Cola Mountain was home to Vanellope, who lived in a secret unprogrammed hideaway inside the mountain before she moved into King Candy's former castle. The Mountain is where Ralph taught Vanellope how to drive. There is an incomplete racetrack within the mountain, suggesting that the mountain was intended to be a bonus level, but the game creators never got around to finishing it; this is confirmed by Vanellope. Outside of the mountain is where Ralph destroys Vanellope's kart.
  • Sugar Rush Speedway: A scenic race track that traverses all the environments which make up Sugar Rush. It includes power-ups and traps, as most race games contain.
  • Kart Factory: The place where all the racers' karts are made. Ralph and Vanellope break into the factory to create a kart for Vanellope. The factory serves as a mini-game within the game, where the player has to make their own kart in 1 minute. The mini-game consists of 3 parts:
Mixing: The player sorts ingredients, dumping the right items into the bowl, while separating the bad ingredients (such as dirty underwear and fire hydrants) into a trash can.
Baking: The player uses an air pump to heat a large oven to the correct temperature.
Decorating: The player uses a gun to hit targets on decoration dispensers, adding the items to design a personal kart.
  • Fungeon: A prison which King Candy says is a play on words—a "fun dungeon." It is located inside King Candy's castle. Vanellope was imprisoned here at one point.
  • Junkyard: Where destroyed, worn-out, and scrapped karts are stored. Vanellope makes the Lickety-Split out of the old parts here.

Trivia

  • The original name for Sugar Rush during production was "Candy Hollow".
  • The game was new to the arcade (plugged in) in 1997.
  • Sugar Rush was also the name of a (cancelled) massively multiplayer online fighting game from Klei Entertainment.
  • The Sugar Rush Speedway machine is a twin cabinet, allowing 2 players to sit down and race, in the same vein as Outrun or Cruisin' USA. Half of it was gone by the time of Ralph Breaks the Internet.
  • In the movie, only one race track is ever shown, though this doesn't exclude the possibility that other tracks may exist.
  • The lighting team's job of rendering the candy to look realistic and delicious was one of the most difficult jobs in the entire movie. They had to make candy models of everything, including Ralph's plane crash into the icing,  before they could animate it. 
  • The arcade machine has the names of the eleven main racers written on the top of the screen. However, they are referred to by their beta names: Rumple (Gloyd), Peterbelly (Rancis), Emmareld (Minty), and Merfus (Swizzle) to name a few.
  • Visual Development Artist Lorelay Bove was one of the main people responsible for the candy world of Sugar Rush; much of the inspiration for its design came from her trip to Barcelona and seeing the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
  • The world of Sugar Rush is based on Japanese candy because animators wanted to create a different type of candy land than people would normally expect.
  • The game's title is also the title for the Japanese language version of the film, a song by AKB48 that appears in the film's closing credits and when Ralph appears in the game for the first time, as well as the name of a browser-based game on the Disney website.
  • Sugar Rush is the location featured most prominently throughout the film and the franchise.
  • Additionally, “Sugar Rush" serves as the Japanese title of Wreck-It Ralph for the film's release in Japan, because much of the film's plot takes place in Sugar Rush.
  • The gameplay of Sugar Rush, as well as a few of the tracks, appears to be inspired by the Mario KartF-Zero and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing series of racing games.
  • There are also some references of the Mario Kart series in Sugar Rush:
    • The marshmallow referee and cameramen are similar to Lakitu (in both function and behavior) as he appears in the Mario Kart series.
    • The power-ups found in Sugar Rush's race tracks are similar to the items from Mario Kart (the Sweet Seekers being equivalent to the Red Koopa shells)
    • The track in the final section of the Random Roster Race (the cave interior) being similar to Rainbow Road
    • Sugar Rush being released in 1997 is also a reference to Mario Kart 64.
    • The artwork on the Sugar Rush arcade machine is similar to the artwork seen on the 2005 Mario Kart Arcade GP cabinet.
    • The character selection screen also resembles the character selection screen from Mario Kart 64, except featuring 9 racers instead of 8.
  • The game "Sugar Rush" does not exist in the real world. The development team drew inspiration from many existing game concepts and combined them for a brand new experience. This allowed for greater control of the story as Disney wasn't limited by a pre-existing game universe. However, Disney did develop a browser-based version of the game that uses the Unity engine, but did not include Vanellope or the Recolor Racers. There was also at least one Sugar Rush arcade cabinet produced, but the game is not playable and is just a prop. The cabinet for the prop was based off Raw Thrills' Fast and the Furious arcade game. Raw Thrills later made a Twitter post, saying that they had nothing to do with the prop.
  • The Sugar Rush race world is very similar to the Mushroom Kingdom from the Mario series.
  • It has been proven that Sugar Rush was developed by Tobikomi. Towards the end of the movie, when Ralph talks about Vanellope liking him, the 2nd machine will eventually say "Tobikomi Presents", and if one looks closely on the marquee of the cabinet, the logo is also present there.
  • The movie's site claims there are only 11 racers. This is false - there are 15 racers, counting the recolors.
  • On ABC's General Hospital, a handheld racing game called Sugar Rush is mentioned. However, whether it is the same game has yet to be determined. 
  • [1]
  • Taffyta, Candlehead, Gloyd, Crumbelina, Adorabeezle, Nougetsia, Jubileena, and Citrusella are the only racers with numbers on their karts. Taffyta is #1, Adorabeezle and Nougetsia are #2, Jubileena and Citrusella are #5. Candlehead is #7, Crumbelina is #8, and Gloyd is #13. A concept art design of Vanellope's Lickity Split shows the kart with the #11 suggesting that Vanellope may sport the number #11.
  • When the Sugar Rush racers are throwing in their gold coins to enter the Random Roster Race, the announcer can be heard reading the name "Adorabeezle Winterpop" third, after Taffyta Muttonfudge, and "Crumbelina Di Caramello" fifth, after Gloyd Orangeboar. But the next time the roster board is shown, Crumbelina's name is printed on line 3, while Adorabeezle's name is on line 5. The board's order may be considered the correct one, as not only does the same order appear on it again as the race commences, but Crumbelina can be seen lined up right behind Taffyta just before they begin to toss their coins to the pot.
  • When Ralph looks down on the entrance of Sugar Rush after being lifted by King Candy, you can see the path is empty between the three characters and the Cy-Bugs. But when Ralph frees himself from King Candy's grip and Vanellope starts glitching towards Ralph, you can see Calhoun's discarded weapon lying on the ground. Something so distinctly black would stand out on the rainbow bridge from a distance.
  • The Sugar Rush racers' bodies have different proportions than more human-like characters such as Calhoun. The racers' heads are bigger than their bodies and their feet are comparatively tiny, as is typical of the "chibi" aesthetic to which they belong.
  • Sugar Rush was based on sweets, and the racers follow their game's theme - they have sweets-themed appearances and outfits, and their karts are made from sweets or similar foods relating to their theme. For instance, Snowanna's hair resembles a scoop of snow cone, and she has a hair pick that resembles a wooden ice cream spoon.
  • Just like the Strawberry Shortcake characters, the characters names are involved with candy in some kind of way.
    • Also, most of the racers are female.
  • While the racers pay their fees, the palette swaps' names are not called. But the other racers pay fees. King Candy is 1st, Taffyta is 2nd, Adorabeezle is 3rd, Gloyd is 4th, Crumbelina is 5th, Minty is 6th, Snowanna is 7th, Rancis is 8th, Jubileena is 9th, Swizzle is 10th, Candlehead is 11th, and Vanellope is 12th. When you look at the board, it shows that they are 16 racers. But 12 racers are called.
  • The go-kart selection icons in the kart factory show pictures of go-karts that did not make it into the final film.
  • One of the paintings in the Fungeon shows a clown in a racecar with a facial expression similar to Turbo's.
  • Both Fix-it Felix Jr. and Sugar Rush appear to be made by TobiKomi, a fictional game company whose name means "to jump" or "to dive" in Japanese.
  • The sign leading to the portal between Sugar Rush and Game Central Station during the Cy-Bug attack scene reads "Parting is such sweet sorrow...", a reference to Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.
  • Sugar Rush is similar to Sweet Mountain from the 2010 game Sonic Colors.
  • If Sugar Rush was a real racing game from 1997, it likely would have had fewer and less-detailed textures, and blockier/lower-poly models than seen in the movie.
  • There is a track inspired after Sugar Rush in Disney Infinity 3.0 called Sugar Rush Raceway.
  • In Disney Infinity, players can make their Toy Box look like Sugar Rush using two power discs, King Candy's Dessert Toppings and The Sugar Rush Sky.
  • The theme of the game resembles that of the popular puzzle game Candy Crush.
  • During Ralph and Vanellope's argument in the sequel, she says she's "one of 16 racers" when she's actually one of 15, which would seem to imply Felix and Calhoun adopted her along with the others and she never knew about it.
  • Vanellope is the only character from Sugar Rush to see in person King Candy's real identity as Turbo; however, she does not seem to know anything about Turbo's origin much less recognize him, whereas the majority of the inhabitants of the video game world do, which can be seen in the cases of Wreck-It Ralph and Fix-It Felix, Jr. Thus, it is unknown if Vanellope alongside any of the other inhabitants of the game saw Turbo before he snatched her throne and locked up all their memories, though another possible theory suggests that Turbo supposedly disappeared years before the Sugar Rush game console was first plugged in at the arcade, explaining the girl's ignorance of the rogue racer.
    • Speaking of the above, the real-world RoadBlasters game was released in 1987, hence the incident of Turbo invading the in-universe Road Blasters probably happened in 1987 or 1988. Sugar Rush Speedway is known to have been released 15 years before the events of the film (that is, in 1997), so naturally its characters are unlikely to know about Turbo or his game-jumping.
  • The Sugar Rush Racers have an upcoming new book series including The Sweet Outdoors and Victory is Sweet, both written by Shari Simpson. The books are expected to come out in June 6, 2023.
  • It's possible that the characters are meant to be of Japanese ethnicity, as Sugar Rush is itself a Japanese game with a prominent chibi aesthetic, even though the characters speak in American accents. This is probably due to the fact that the individual Sugar Rush cabinet shown in the film (and by extension, Litwak's Arcade) is located in the USA.

Gameplay

Similar to Mario Kart games, specifically Mario Kart 64 and the Mario Kart Arcade GP series, Sugar Rush allows you to choose your racer and race on different racetracks. The objective is to win the race with Power-ups, tricky shortcuts and twisty turns.

Names in Other Languages

Language Name Meaning
Arabic شوجر راش
Shoo-ghr Rah-sh
From English name
Chinese 甜蜜衝刺 / 甜蜜冲刺
Tiánmì chōngcì
Sweet Sprint
Finnish Sokerihuuman Sugar Boom
Icelandic Sykur Sjokk Sugar Shock
Japanese シュガー・ラッシュ
Shugā rasshu
Sugar Rush
Polish Mistrz Cukiernicy Sugarbowl Master
Brazilian Portuguese Corrida Doce Sweet Race
Romanian Bombonia From "bon-bon" (has the same meaning)
Russian Сладкий форсаж Sweet Afterburner
Ukrainian ЦукроШал SugarFury

Gallery

Clips

1997_Litwak's_Arcade_Commercial_featuring_Sugar_Rush_Speedway

1997 Litwak's Arcade Commercial featuring Sugar Rush Speedway

External links

Sugar Rush- a playable, browser-based version of the game.

Video game adaptations

Sugar_Rush_in_Disney_Infinity_3.0

Sugar Rush in Disney Infinity 3.0

Sugar Rush in Disney Infinity 3.0


Sugar Rush

Racers: Adorabeezle Winterpop | Candlehead | Citrusella Flugpucker | Crumbelina DiCaramello | Gloyd Orangeboar | Jubileena Bing-Bing | Minty Zaki | Nougetsia Brumblestain | Rancis Fluggerbutter | Snowanna Rainbeau | Sticky Wipplesnit | Swizzle "The Swizz" Malarkey | Taffyta Muttonfudge | Torvald Batterbutter | Vanellope von Schweetz

Minor characters: Oreos | Sour Bill

Locations: King Candy's Castle | Candy Cane Forest | Diet Cola Mountain | Random Roster Race | Kart Factory | Fungeon | Junkyard

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