List of Super Mario Bros. 3 pre-release and unused content

This article pertains to the beta elements of Super Mario Bros. 3 and its remake, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.

Super Mario Bros. 3 beta elements
There were going to be two new enemies called Gold Cheep Cheep (a golden version of a Cheep-Cheep), and Green Para-Beetles (green colored Para-Beetles). The Gold Cheep Cheeps would come in groups and swim faster than regular Cheep-Cheeps and the Green Para-Beetle is a green Para-Beetle that flies faster than normal ones, Gold Cheep-Cheeps appeared in New Super Mario Bros. Wii as smaller versions traveling around in schools. The game's graphics reveal an item-sized Toad icon among some of the game's suits; this is interpreted by several as a sort of "Toad Suit", although it makes no changes to gameplay when granted to Mario. This has been recently proven to actually be a Hammer Suit with palette errors, and appears clearly in a "?" block in 7-8, giving Mario the Hammer Suit. Designers also considered a power-up to turn Mario into a Centaur (half-man, half-horse), although this was rejected (Tilden 1990, 21).

A set of blocks that had a "?" block surrounded with smaller "?" blocks inside a "?" block was also a scrapped beta element. This might have been something used in a bonus game/area.

An early build of the game was previewed in a promotional VHS tape coming with the September 1988 edition of the magazine Famigaga. The preview shows several levels unused in the final game, a different sprite for the Wooden Block and a slightly different status bar.

Koopa Troopas and Hammer Bros. were going to host two mini-games. The minigames were a Dice Block game and a Question Block game. These minigames and their hosts seem to have been replaced by Toad. However, it could also be possible that they were all around at the same time, but all got scrapped except for one due to memory size.

Finally, fifteen extra levels exist within Super Mario Bros. 3. Some of these are strange and unique, while others bear much resemblance to levels in the final version and were very likely redone as those. Also, the back of the box of some early copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 depicts Mario traversing a hilly grassland stage with tons of Para-Beetles and two Note Blocks about. This particular stage is not any of the lost ones present on the cartridge, nor is it in the final game. It could even be a press mock-up from Nintendo. These boxes also feature a beta map of Grass Land.

Logo
The logo used in the beta is slightly different compared to the current logo.

Unused E-Reader Items
A Grey Switch was found in the game's graphics. It was taken out for unknown reasons. There are also pressed versions of the switches that are unused.

There are also switch effects not used in the game itself nor are they sold through E-Reader cards. These effects include a card that lets blocks with 1-Up Mushrooms spawn three mushrooms instead of one, a card that assists players when the player falls into a bottomless pit, with the width of the blocks decreasing one at a time, and a card that gives Boom-Boom and the Koopalings double health.

Gameplay
The gameplay, for the most part, is unchanged; however, the way A-coins were indicated in the status bar changed between the beta and the final release versions.

Other
Found among the game's graphics are some uncompressed Super Mario World graphics. Most GBA games have compressed graphics, so it is unexpected that these graphics would be uncompressed. The likely reason is that Super Mario World's graphics are 3-bit, making them lighter on space requirements. The graphics found were the following:


 * One of the animation frames for Bowser's Clown Car.
 * Three frames of Koopa Troopa's walking animation.
 * Two frames of Goomba's walking animation.
 * The Nintendo Presents logo from the beginning of the game. This is actually used in the beginning of the game, however it's using a compressed one.
 * The font used for the status bar, laid out as 0123456789:VER./

It's probably worth noting that none of these graphics are anywhere near each other in Super Mario World. They are right next to each other in Super Mario Advance 4; it's not known whether these are a true beta element, or random data that was mistakenly compiled into the game.

Using Lunar Magic, a popular hacking tool for Super Mario World, and YYCHR, a graphics hacking tool for various game roms, can prove the fact that these graphics aren't anywhere near each other, with the exception of the Koopa and Goomba graphics. Extracting all of Super Mario World's graphics from the ROM splits the graphics into different files with a .bin extension, labeled from GFX00 to GFX33 (The numbers are labeled in hex, e. g. GFX 0E). When opened with YYCHR, the "Nintendo Presents" gfx are located in GFX00, the Koopa Troopa's and Goomba's walking animations are located in GFX01, Bowser's Koopa Clown Car sprite tiles are located in GFX21, and the font for the status bar, is located in GFX28.

In the trailer at E3 2003, the background had horizontal parallax scrolling but this was removed in most levels except for underground and airships. The layers still scroll vertically though.

Also, the Para Bob-omb (based off of its SMW appearance with the SMA4 bob-ombs), and the Porcu-Puffer are in the game, and both are fully functional.
 * Early graphics
 * Dolphins (SMA2) Unused
 * Fishbone (SMA2) Unused
 * Yoshi's Fireballs (SMA2, Giant New Appearance, from when Yoshi spits out a Red Shell, and also a Giant version, probably to be caused by spitting out a Red Gargantua Koopa Troopa Shell)
 * Flutter (SMA3) (Unused) This Enemy is fully scripted and acts like the Super Mario Advance 2 Wigglers.
 * Fuzzy (SMA2) (Unused)
 * Unused Boo graphics from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (note that those aren't the actual Boo graphics from Yoshi's Island, but unused ones that were unused in both Yoshi's Island and Super Mario Advance 4).

Also found in the game was an Arrow Lift. The Arrow Lift was slightly different to the ones found in Yoshi's Island. Updated sprites of the Gold Cheep Cheep and Green Parabeetle were found too. Both enemies were supposed to appear in Super Mario Bros. 3 but never appeared.

Trivia

 * Oddly, almost every beta graphic (excluding the ones from Super Mario World) have been updated for Super Mario All-Stars.