List of Super Mario Galaxy pre-release and unused content
This is a list of pre-release and unused content for Super Mario Galaxy.
Early concepts[edit]
The official Prima Games guide for Super Mario Galaxy was released in two editions: the Premiere Edition and the Collector's Edition. Among the features included in the Collector's Edition were six pages of concept art and development info from the game's developers.
Rosalina was intended to be related to Princess Peach. They have very similar appearances, reflecting this. Her original design would have portrayed Rosalina with a beehive hairdo and a ballroom gown similar to that of Peach's, while her finalized design portrayed her with a similar hairstyle as Peach's, although with some differences such as her sporting a large bang covering her right eye, and her outfit was redesigned to look more like a nightgown. Bonefin Galaxy was intended to be much darker, as was Deep Dark Galaxy. These were changed in the interest of playability. Guppy was originally a dolphin, and a friendly character. Some art of the Sea Slide and Beach Bowl Galaxies suggests that they were conceived as a single galaxy, with Beach Bowl's main planet in the center of Sea Slide's ring.
A piece of concept art labeled only "fortress" is captioned as a piece that is very memorable to the Super Mario Galaxy development team, since it was one of the earliest drawings of Galaxy. In spite of this, the planet shown in the art is nowhere in the final game, though aspects of it exist across several planets. This unused fortress, dubbed "Starman Fort" internally, does still have some assets remaining in the code, and can actually be pieced back together for the most part. Several cannons and the waterfall are missing, and the underside of the fortress where Mario fights BossCrab is not programmed.[1]
At one point, Yoshi was going to accompany Mario in his adventures in space, while Starship Mario was going to be the game's hub level instead of the Comet Observatory.[2] Both did not appear until the sequel, although a planet shaped like Yoshi's head made a brief appearance in the Space Junk Galaxy.
Concept artwork[edit]
Melty Molten Galaxy
Melty Molten Galaxy
Melty Molten Galaxy
Melty Molten Galaxy
Melty Molten Galaxy
Concept art of a Sentry Garage
An unused Castle-like planet
Toad Brigade in their Starshroom
An unused fortress
Backside of an unused fortress
The Coach
Rosalina's early design
Rosalina's final design
Beach Bowl Galaxy and Sea Slide Galaxy
Beach Bowl Galaxy and Sea Slide Galaxy
Deep Dark Galaxy
Many expressions of an Octoguy
Many concept arts of Mario
Concept arts of Boo Mario
Concept arts of Bee Mario
Other concept arts of Bee Mario
The Bedroom
An Airship
A Penguin
Other concept arts of Tarantox
The Toad Brigade and a Starshroom
Deep Dark Galaxy and Bonefin Galaxy
Deep Dark Galaxy and Bonefin Galaxy
Deep Dark Galaxy and Bonefin Galaxy
Deep Dark Galaxy
Early builds[edit]
Press kits[edit]
Many things had different names in pre-release info. For example, the character Rosalina went by her Japanese name, "Rosetta", which comes from a type of orbit.
Also, several things underwent graphical changes:
- As seen in one of the IGN.com screenshots,[3][dead link] Bowser was originally going to be fought on an arena on a magma planet instead of a glassy planet in the released game.
- The Pokeyplant was originally green.
The green Pokeyplant
In this screenshot, the player has collected only 19 Power Stars and 3 Grand Stars, but has access to the Trial Galaxies.
E3 2006 (May 10-12)[edit]
E3 2006 was the first event in which Nintendo publicly showed Super Mario Galaxy in anything akin to its final form, although it was quite different from the final game. In this prototype build, attendees were treated to a single-galaxy demo of the game, in which they were given ten minutes to find and collect a star. This build had many differences from the final game, although all the basic principles of the game existed in some form.
- Some game mechanics eventually changed:
- Mario had the ability to spin to attract coins to him, which he lost in the final version. He can still do this as Flying Mario and underwater.
- In this version of the game Mario could spin multiple times in a row. In the final version, a small delay is enforced between spins.
- In this prototype, players had to hold
and point at Star Bits to grab them. This was later changed because the developers settled on using the button to fire Star Bits (which was impossible at this point). - Mario could kick Star Bits around.
- Mario's Star Pointer was more powerful. It had many of the powers given to the second player's cursor in the final game, such as holding enemies.
- The Life Meter was more like the ones in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, having a total of eight wedges, and changing color more like the Super Mario 64 version. This was changed to three wedges in the final version.
- Like in Super Mario Sunshine, the early life meter would fluctuate in size, getting faster the lower Mario's health was.
- At this point, notes had an on-screen counter, showing players how many notes they had collected, as well as how many there were total.
- Here, if a player wanted to use a Pull Star (or what would eventually be called a Pull Star), they would need to point at it constantly, as moving the star cursor too far away would deactivate it. In the final game, the Pull Star will remain active until players release the
button. - If a character wanted to talk to Mario, an exclamation point in a thought bubble would appear above its head. When Mario got close to that character, its dialogue would appear onscreen without interrupting gameplay.
- When the player pulled on a sling pod a blue arrow will show the direction Mario is going to go; if the player took the cursor off-screen, the arrow would turn red and a beeping sound would play.
- The player would use the button to use sling pods. In the final version of the game, the player would use .
- When the player grabbed a coin, the coin sound effect can be heard on the Wii Remote's speaker.
- When the player attacked a Goomba, it did not spin after being launched.
- Some graphics were not complete, or were different:
- The Star Bit counter said 0/100 in this version. No attendee to E3 collected all 100 of the galaxy's "star shards" (as they were then known), so their purpose is unknown.
- The Star Pointer was yellow in color, and it had a longer "tail." It flashed red if players were not pointing the Wii remote at the screen.
- Slurples were colored purple.
- Speech bubbles had a cloudlike design.
- The message "You Got a Star!" was white, and written in all caps. This is changed to green in the final version. The "Too Bad!" text was the same but it later changed to red letters in the final version.
- The HUD effects for using a Sling Pod were different. These can be seen in the Tarantox videos.
- The Mario head used as a lives counter was captioned "MARIO."
- The HUD design used the number font from Super Mario Sunshine.
- 1-Ups used a simpler, green "1up!" effect when collected.
- Certain sound effects were substituted out for others, usually because not all sound composition was complete:
- When Mario grabbed a star, the music was an arrangement of "World Clear" from Super Mario Bros.
- Mario's voice clips from Super Mario Sunshine were used as a placeholder.
- A different sound effect was used for grabbing Star Bits.
- A slightly simpler sound effect was used for 1-Up collection.
- When flying after being shot from a Launch Star, a synthesized drum beat was playing over the music.
- A few things also existed under different names:
- Star Bits were called "star shards".
- Launch/Sling Stars were simply "stars".
- Pull Stars were called "blue stars".
- Sling Pods were called "wobble launchers".
Early picture of Mario catching a Star Bunny. The background suggests the Puzzle Cube was once in a different galaxy.
Early Notes
Early Melty Molten Galaxy
Star World[edit]
The Star World, as titled in the introductory "Welcome to the Star World!" message, was the demonstration galaxy created to show off Super Mario Galaxy for E3 2006. It was composed of many planets taken from other galaxies in the game. It was notably different from any galaxy in the final game in that it was composed of a "branching" path; choosing different routes on different planets could lead to different stars entirely. It is likely this was done for the demo specifically. It was also notable for its heavy use of asteroids instead of unique planets. The final game ended up using these asteroids only twice, as moons in two galaxies. The level compiled many different planets into the galaxy, most of which became planets in Good Egg Galaxy, Space Junk Galaxy, and Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor.
This galaxy was inhabited by rabbits and the conjecturally named Cosmic Toads, who were distinguished from normal Toads by the star shaped spots on their caps. They gave players hints and explained the controls. Sometimes, the rabbits could change into Cosmic Toads. Their role was likely replaced by Lumas. They explained various aspects of the game to Mario.
At least three routes through the galaxy were discovered by attendees to the show. The stars were guarded by King Kaliente, Tarantox, and Megaleg.
The music that plays in this galaxy is known as "Egg Planet." It is the theme of Good Egg Galaxy in the final game, though it sounds noticeably different.
In this version, when Mario falls into a black hole, he has an oval-like line.
Since this galaxy was compiled into a build that allowed Mario's Star Pointer to hold enemies, some of its puzzles made use of that.[4]
Bosses[edit]
Megaleg was notably different from the final game's Megaleg. This version of Megaleg was not commanded by Bowser Jr, and not powered by a Star. The weak point started out blue, and became red once the outer protective layer was broken (in the final game, it starts out white, then turns pink). Also, the rotating light source is inside the glass dome on top of Megaleg, as opposed to on top of it. Megaleg had a small depression on the top of its head, which it does not have in the final game. Megaleg had three coins near each of the two metal patches on its head, and two coins on each leg, making the battle somewhat easier for players. After it was hit for the first time, it guarded its weak point with four unbreakable walls, rather than eight breakable ones. When Megaleg is defeated, its head smokes, which does not happen in the final game. This Megaleg guarded a normal Power Star like the other bosses, as opposed to a Grand Star. It also had spikes on its legs, which are gone in the final game.
Tarantox was also different, though not nearly as much so as Megaleg. Attacking any of the fluid-filled green sacs on it was enough to flip it over, while in the final game, only the large one on its bottom is sufficient. Once the red sacs on its belly have been destroyed one time each, the final version's Tarantox will regrow all of the green sacs. Not so for the Star World's Tarantox. The red sacs on the Star World's Tarantox also pulsate more, and with a higher-pitched sound effect.
King Kaliente's battle was somewhat identical to his battle in the released game. The major difference observed is that the flaming projectiles he shot could be batted away with the star cursor. His phases also changed from E3 2006 to the final version. Traditionally, the player would deflect King Kaliente's coconuts once in phase one, twice in phase two, and three times in phase three. However, in the demo, there were only two phases in which the player had to deflect the coconuts three times. This was likely changed to lower the difficulty. The Lava Bubbles were colored orange instead of the later blue.
All three bosses did not release Star Bits when attacked, since there were only 100 Star Bits in the whole galaxy. However, no attendee to the show ever collected all of them, so their purpose remains unknown (they could not be fired at enemies as they can in the final game).
Demo planets[edit]
Home Planet[edit]
"HomePlanet" as it is called internally by the game's files is one of the only planets not present in the final game in some form. Its model data is still present, but is never used. After Mario is released from the bubble, he lands on this planet.
The planet has multiple different sections. Most of it is covered in grass, with dirt marking a pathway to the Sling Star. Small eggs with stars plastered on them around the outskirts of the planet indicate this planet was originally part of Good Egg Galaxy. There is also a small beach section on the left side of the planet. Heading down the pathway leads the player to a small gate, where using the cursor to ring the bells allows Mario to collect 20 music notes. Continuing down the pathway leads to a small incline, and then there are two small jumps Mario had to make to get to the Sling Star. This launches the player to the top of the planet, which has a Launch Star and leads to a pair of asteroid planets.
Glassy Twin Planets A & B[edit]
Following HomePlanet are two identical asteroid planets. The first one has star bits surrounding the entire planet while the second has star bits on one side of the planet. The player also lands on a star bit, where a Cosmic Toad explains how to collect the star bits. Multiple Goombas can be found on both planets. These planets also have some plants on them.
Using a Sling Star, the player could launch over to the second asteroid. The second asteroid also has a Sling Star, which launches the player to the next planet.
It is likely these asteroids were named GlassyTwinsPlanetA & B. However, according to the files, these asteroids were later updated to include darker colors and different textures.
Disk Flower Planet[edit]
The first planet from Good Egg Galaxy, named DiskGardenPlanet in the final version, is shown in a drastically different form here. Firstly, the planet's filename is instead "DiskFlowerPlanet". The house is more akin to a real life one, and a pine tree appears in this version as opposed to a more traditional Super Mario-style tree in the final version. There is also different placements for the patches of grass and dirt, with there being 4 patches instead of 2.
The bridges leading to the other side of the planet are also slightly altered. The left side has a slightly different design, and arrows pointing to the player which direction they have to go. The right side also does this. The right bridge also has a different color for the floor, and the sides of the bridge are now red instead of black. The planet also looks slightly more decayed on the darker side compared to the final version, especially around the tower. The trees also have a different shape and texture and look more decayed as well.
When Mario landed on this planet in the demo, he was greeted by two Star Bunnies, which could transform into Cosmic Toads. Following one of them led to one of two different paths. If the player took the left bridge, they are led up the tower, which is mostly identical to the final version. This led to a Pull Star, which led to a Sling Star, which led to a Launch Star, which took Mario to the Tropical Planets. In the final version, the roof of the house is what took the player to the Tropical Planets, with the tower taking Mario to the Boulder Planet. From here, the mission plays out very similarly to King Kaliente's Battle Fleet. If the player took the right bridge, they were led to the twisty walkway. This twisty walkway looks noticeably different to the final game. Firstly, there were no stairs to get up. Instead, the player had to use two Pull Stars. The walkway itself is different to the final. The final version has a quite simple design. This version, however, has several large circular platforms, all connected to each other. While easy to navigate, this version had less rails, making it easier for Mario to fall off. The walkway led the player to the Pull Star section from Space Junk Galaxy.
G Capture Tutorial Zone[edit]
This section is used in most missions in Space Junk Galaxy, and is almost identical to the final version. Like the final version, going down took the player to the Glass Maze Planet, and leads to Tarantox. However, heading up led the player to a small relay planet, which took the player across several planets leading to Megaleg.
Tropical Planets[edit]
These two Tropical Planets are taken from King Kaliente's Battle Fleet, which is the third mission in Good Egg Galaxy. The position of the planets were different from the final. Mario also landed on a different spot on the planet. More coconuts and crates are present on the first planet compared to the final. Another change is that the palm tree on the first planet was slightly bigger, and sprouted larger leaves. Also, no thorny flowers or crystals were present here. Instead of having to break a thorny flower to activate a Sling Star which takes the player to the next planet, the Sling Star is already activated. The second planet remains mostly the same, however there is a Sling Star on the bottom of this planet for an unknown reason. Defeating the Pokeynut still takes the player to the Asteroid Planet, but they use a Sling Star before using the Launch Star. There is also a different flight and camera sequence.
Asteroid Planet[edit]
This planet remains identical to the final version design-wise. However, almost no videos released of the demo show the player attempting to explore the planet. There are no Chomps and there is no pipe on the bottom side. Instead there are Slurples and a few plants on this version of the planet. Another change is that rocks surround this and the Chomp Saucer Planet.
Chomp Saucer Planet[edit]
This planet only received minor changes. In the E3 version, the player does not land in the center of the planet. The planet's rocks, lasers and Goombas are placed in different spots as well. The bottom stone slab of the staircase is missing, and there are three steps on a tiny staircase instead of two in the final. The Amps are also missing. The crystal usually present on the very top of the planet is not there as well. Along with the Asteroid Planet before it, multiple space rocks surround the planet, unlike the final version.
Rocto Airships[edit]
When landing on the airships in this version, the music stays the same, instead of playing "Tension". The Airships also have a slightly different design. There is also an inaccessible door on the right side, where a wooden platform and three crates are placed. The Toad is also not trapped in a crystal unlike the final. The barrels where the Roctos stand on, as well as the bridge, also have a different design. The black hole is closer to the airships in this version compared to the final. On the second airship, the stairs are wider, the extension which contains a life mushroom is not there, there is one set of stairs instead of multiple, the airship is taller, there are only two Octoombas while there are four in the final, and there is a Sling Star instead of a Launch Star leading to King Kaliente's Planet. The Sling Star also has a really fast animation when taking Mario to King Kaliente's Planet.
King Kaliente's Planet[edit]
Apart from the fight itself, this planet remains mostly the same aside from the Luma and Star Bit crystals not being present. The top side of the planet also seems to look slightly darker than the final version.
Relay Planet C[edit]
This is a small wooden planet that leads to the Boulder Planet that is only found in the demo. There was also a sign that said "This way to the P-Nut Star".
Boulder Planet[edit]
"PeanutPlanet" as it is known in the files was an early version of the Boulder Planet in Good Egg Galaxy, but without the Star Chips and mud, along with a different color for the planet itself. The player had to simply navigate around a few boulders to reach the end of the planet, with a coin trail leading to the Launch Star. The Boulders would break upon running into them, and spinning into them would destroy them as well. The boulders also do not have a weak spot in this version.
Hole Planet[edit]
This planet is the starting planet from Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor. However, it is grassy, as opposed to metallic. It has a design similar to the second planet in Gateway Galaxy, except bigger. A minor glitch in the released game causes the grassy version of this planet to appear if players stand on top of Megaleg and look at the metallic version. This is caused by an incorrectly set-up culling method. When the planet was redesigned, its low-poly model was not.
Megaleg's Planet[edit]
Apart from the fight itself, this planet is exactly the same as the final version.
Glass Maze Planet[edit]
This planet is taken from Tarantox's Tangled Web in Space Junk Galaxy. Most of this planet remains the same, however there seemed to be less enemies and there is a Star Bunny that would lead the player through the maze and to the star, instead of the player finding their way all on their own. A sign from Super Mario Sunshine was on the planet's outer shell and read "Crystal Maze".[5]
Grave Stone A, B & C[edit]
These 3 Grave Stone Planets are found in the final game as well. In the demo, they appear to be more decayed, and lack the Spoings that appear in the final.