Mario

Mario vs. Donkey Kong [GBA – Beta / Unused]

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a Game Boy Advance spiritual sequel to the first Donkey Kong game for Game Boy, developed by NTS in 2004. The game concept revolves around a combination of platform and puzzle elements, challenging Mario to find keys, reach a locked door, and rescue mini-Marios. [Info from Wikipedia]

Upaluppa and Kiiro found many unused stuff and beta levels still hidden in the final game’s code, as a a prototype version of the MvsDK e-card levels, Mini Marios trapped inside crystal balls as keys, some unused coins / stars and a working level editor. It’s possible that the Level Editor evolved from the unreleased Donkey Kong Plus.

Also, an unused Bomb-Ombs behavior. As wrote by upaluppa:

they start running around scared, just like Shy-Guys do, when Mario is equipped with the hammer! You’ll never see them running normally, because none of the levels with Bob-Ombs includes hammers…

Thanks to Hiccup for the contributions!

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New Super Mario Bros. [Wii – Beta]

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a side-scrolling platform developed by Nintendo EAD and released in November 2009. The game was announced at E3 2009, and from the early videos and screens, Kirby64 was able to notice various beta differences:

  • The propeller power-up was different from the final game.
  • At the Nintendo Press Conference they said at the end of every stage a result screen will pop-up and show you how many enemies you stomp and how many coins you collected, but this only appear in the coin battle and free-for-all.
  • The checkpoint flag was changed to bowser’s head at the final game and the background color of the flag was black. In the beta it had a skull.
  • A music note / melody can be seen in the HUD.  That note is not in there in the final game.
  • The blue arrow in the screen with the lava had changed its color in the final game (it’s red and the board is yellow).
  • The world 5-3 background looks different from the final game.
  • Some stages were removed or hevily changed in the final game.

In the screen with Mario in the pinguin-suit we can see an area that was originally going to be world 3-1, but it was later removed. The ice structure has a different design in the final version, with a more blue color and snow on top of the ice.

Some more info on the beta differences can be found at Mario Wiki:

In the E3 2009 demo, after players go through the boss door, they all fall from the top of the screen and into the boss room, as the initial Larry and Morton videos showed. This was just like in the original New Super Mario Bros., where the player also enters the Bowser Jr. battles the same way. In the final version, the players are already on the ground when the boss room loads up.

Kab-ombs, Mr. Blizzards, Stretches and Bowser Statues were meant to appear but they were cut out as soon as the game was released.

Also, LucaPM noticed a unused file in the NSMB Wii code, called “test_lift.arc”. As we can read at Rusted Logic, it is a graphic file, a stretched grey block.

Thanks to Kirby64 and LucaPM for the contributions!

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Merry Xmas: Super Mario World Beta Remake released!

Did you enjoy all those differences that can be noticed in the Super Mario World beta screenshots? What if Nintendo had stuck with some of their original material while creating the Super Mario World we know and love today? Well, this SMW hack will let you play the game how it may have been in its beta version!

Yoshi Master (AKA Randy from the U64 Staff) has finally released his beta remake of Super Mario World. This hack is based and inspired by all of the pre-release screenshots, unused materials, ancient interviews, and some minor assumptions revolving around SMW, and it’s creation.

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You can check more screens from the real beta in the Super Mario World Beta page.

Most of the GFX were made by Randy, as well as the levels themselves. The bosses also each have something “beta” about them. Search the Super Mario World Beta Remake Hack  (Lunar IPS File) on Google

How to patch the game to activate the Super Mario World Beta Remake? It’s easy:

1) Get SNESTooL
2) Select ‘Use IPS’ (Press Enter)
3) Select the Super Mario World Beta IPS file
4) Select the Super Mario World (USA) ROM (you’ll have to find this one by yourself)
5) Play it in your favourite SNES emu

Have fun! This is the best christmas gift for every Super Mario World Beta lover and it’s free. Play it, share it with friends.

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Mario & Luigi RPG 3 [DS – Beta & Unused Stuff]

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, released in Japan as Mario & Luigi RPG 3, is a RPG released for the Nintendo DS in 2009. Unreachable normally, thanks to Waluigiuseppe and whoever made the moonjump code, we see some of the normally bowser-only enemies have some leftover attack patterns for the bros. as well. Quite strange and shows that some of these might’ve been programmed without the memo that the bros wouldn’t fight them:

  • (Naplock) The blocks are breakable with jump counter
  • Dark Fawfulbot) A weird 2-3 minute beam attack, dark fawfulbot head uses a beam attack that needs to be jumped.
  • (Choomba) Telegraphs with M and L smoke clouds and only charges, freezes after first turn it seems.

Also, some more differences can be seen in a video (@ 2:13) posted by GigaBowserNS on YouTube:

  • Yoshi Story noises present in the rom (and working when there are no yoshis in M&L3)
  • M&L2 music (glitchy) in the final still
  • Bowser dialogue change during the start of the game
  • No icons for mushroom village inside bowser and the globin icon from the area right of it are missing
  • Some map cosmetic changes in mushroom kingdom

Neo told us about an unused “Life Shroom”: a Beta Texture of a shroom with a heart can be find hidden in the game’s code!

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Tetris & Dr. Mario [SNES – Unused Stuff]

Tetris & Dr. Mario is a compilation for the Super Nintendo, containing the two individual games. Nensondubois has found that there is an unused and fully complete options menu in this compilation, that was removed for one reason or another from the final version.

The options menu can still be acessed thanks to a code created by Nensondubois. To access the Tetris options menu, you will need this PAR code 7E1E1B03, which will modify the menu selected. The options menu contains a set of options that are standard to most games. You will find a fully working control setup and input test (for testing the buttons on your controller). The sound test is somewhat incomplete (maybe Nintendo was lazy and didn’t bother finishing it).

For Dr. Mario it is the same situation. Here is the PAR code for Dr. Mario: 7E1E7203. Mixed Match is quite different but the game contains the same fully working set of options: to access it you will need to go to Tetris then activate this code 7E1E0E02 and you will be taken to the Mixed Match options menu. There are also some unused sounds in the Sound tests. There is also a Tetris debug menu that is very difficult to get working, but you could see it with “7E1E0E09”. This code will allow you to replace the selected game with the Tetris debug menu.

On a related note, there is also a way to access the entire game of Tetris & Dr. Mario in the BS version of Dr. Mario with these codes: 7E1E7203 –

Thanks a lot to Nensondubois for the contribution!

We love Tetris… feeling nostalgic? Try Tetris Online at Readers Digest!

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