List of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga pre-release and unused content

This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Unused cameos
Wario, Fox McCloud, Captain Olimar, Samus Aran, Toon Link, and an Excitebike Racer were intended to appear in the Starbeans Cafe after Mario and Luigi create a drink. . The Excitebike Racer is the only character to not be portrayed in the game's art style, instead remaining as an 8-bit sprite. Despite originally being intended to only appear once, Professor E. Gadd replaces all of these cameo appearances in the final game.

The items that Mario and Luigi receive after making each drink were also supposed to relate more closely to each character, being replaced by more generic items in the final game:
 * Game Boy Horror instead of Game Boy Horror SP
 * Wario’s Gold instead of Greed Wallet
 * Gold Ring instead of Bonus Ring
 * UV Lamp instead of Cobalt Necktie
 * Energy Tank instead of Power Grip
 * Triforce instead of Great Force

Quotes
Below is a list of the dialogue for each character's intended appearance.

E. Gadd
E. Gadd : Hmm... My sniffer’s detecting the aroma of a new kind of juice... Cashier : Oh! Professor Gadd! How’ve you been, sir? Are you here to try our new drink? You can ask those two there for Woohoo Blend! E. Gadd : Oh! Just wonderful! A new blend! How about a try, youngsters? Hmm… This flavor fills the old bones with brimming strength! Yep, a drink like this’ll surely boost my spirits during ghost research. Listen, youngsters, let me thank you. I insist you take this. Hmm... I wonder what I should invent next...

Wario
Wario: Ah ha ha ha! Move it! Wow! Now that I’m here, this game’s finally gettin’ good! Cashier: Oh! Wario! What’s a bad dude like you doing here? Oh! I got it! You came to pay your tab from the other day! Wario: What are you talkin' about?!? You tryin’ to give me a bad rep with stupid rumors? I oughta... Cashier: Aww, come on! Just pay up! I'll even take beans if you got 'em. Come on! You're a rich guy, right? Wario: Uh... OK. Maybe next time. But... Don't you have free drinks for celebrity guest stars in this game? Wa ha ha ha ha ha ha! BLECH! AWFUL! Do you guys really like drinking nasty stuff like this? ...Losers. Ah! Whatever! Hope this covers your costs! Blech! Drinkin' that stuff made me wanna go shave my tongue! Uh-oh! Gotta go!

Fox McCloud
Fox: Fox here! Cashier: Hey! Aren't you Fox McCloud, the Star Fox leader? Are you here to taste our new juice? No way! Fox: Uh...yeah. So why don't you serve me up a cup at your special guest star rate? What’s that? A call? Slippy Toad: Fox! Help me! Fox! Where are you? Cashier: Wow! You sure are one busy guy... Er, I mean, one busy fox! Fox: Thanks for the discount! Will this cover the rest? Mission complete!

Captain Olimar (Pikmin)
Olimar’s text would appear on the screen the same way the item text does (such as “You got a Mushroom!”), meaning he would not have a speech bubble. Olimar: ...I detect a strange, yet pleasing aroma drifting through the atmosphere of this cafe. It would seem to require further investigation... Cashier: Wow! This is a rare treat! If it isn't Captain Olimar! Olimar: What is this? Before my eyes stands a strange life form. It resembles me slightly, so I shall dub it...Marlio! ...Further investigation indicates that the drink that this Marlio holds is the source of the aroma. I shall now partake of its flavor. Why! Its flavor is most satisfying! Finding that such a drink could be partook of in such a place is a tremendous discovery, indeed! This Marlio creature exhibits what seems to be a longing expression... Perhaps it will react if I present it with something... I have just noticed a strange, unsightly green creature standing next to the Marlio... It could be a dangerous life form. I feel I should attack it before it attacks me.

Samus Aran
Cashier: Whoa! A power outage? Yikes! Samus Aran! I see you're rocking and rolling as usual! ...Looks like your energy tanks are empty! Sorry, but can't you give your Hoolumbian to Samus? Oh! Feeling better?

Excitebike Racer
Cashier: Hey? Is that the sound of a motorcycle I hear? Hey, buddy! What are you doin'?! This isn’t a drive-through! What? Are you thirsty or something? Fine, but no need to get so...EXCITED! Are your engines on full throttle?

Link
Cashier : Whoa! Link! The Hero of...what is it, now? Anyway, long-time, no see, buddy! What are you doing here? Did you get lost in a dungeon again? What? You're having trouble finding the fairy fountain? Oh... It’s game over, and your bottles are all empty? Are your hearts filled now, kiddo?

Sprites
The game's data includes sprites of a cloaked Beanish character, an early sprite of Lady Lima, and an unused color palette for Boddle's assistant. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, Boddle's assistant uses this alternate color palette instead.

Sprites of five colored letters and a star symbol exist that spell out "MARIO✩", alongside a series of colorful polka-dotted triangles. No equivalent exists for Luigi. Early coin sprites show a different design, as well as unused red and blue variants. The starting area of Woohoo Hooniversity looked drastically diferent. Unused sprites for the 'Happy' statues in Woohoo Hooniversity reveal that they were supposed to catch on fire. Mario and Luigi's icons at the top of the screen were slightly smaller and less detailed.

Items
Originally, the Bean Fruits were each intended to be a different color, rather than being all colored purple as in the final game. Descriptions exist for items called "Neon Beans" that match the unused Bean Fruit colors. The text "You got a Game & Watch" is also present, but no other data for a Game & Watch item exists. An item named "Spiritual Bros." may have been a badge. A badge named Soulful Bros. exists in the final game, so Nintendo may have attempted to rename this item. There are also unused sprites for Badges in blue and yellow-orange colors, red and green Blocks without "M"s or "L"s, a closed book similar to open ones in Beanbean Castle, and an unremarkable key. The latter was intended to be displayed for key items in a similar manner to badges having badge icons beside their names. The Oho Gear is unobtainable through legitimate means in international versions of the game. The gear, which raises Defense by 28, was changed in the Japanese release so that it is dropped by Boomerang Bros.. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions fixes this issue in all regions.

Enemies
The name "Sharkbone" is found in the game's code but unused in the final game, as in battle, Sharkbones' names will always display as "????", alongside Sand Cheeps. Both enemies are found together in Gwarhar Lagoon. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions officially uses the names "Sharkbone" and "Sand Cheep" for the enemies in their Easy Mode hints.

Blue Goombas called Mossy Goombas, red Goombas called Pop Goombas, Paragoombas, Sergeant Starshade, and a Hoohooligan named Nice Guy all have battle statistics and sprites. The green Oho Jee from the Surfing minigame also has shocked and hurt animations, although it is unclear if it was intended to be battled. There are also overworld sprites of smaller Fighter Flies bearing more resemblance to those in the version of Mario Bros. included with the game. Finally, there are battle sprites of a golden Bullet Bill in a taller Bill Blaster with the skull icon from Super Mario Bros..

Some enemies that only one brother can fight still have a battle script for both Mario and Luigi, such as Oucher Glasses.

Music
Eight unused music tracks exist in the game's files:
 * A song similar to that of Little Fungitown.
 * A simpler version of "Let's Go!", the main battle theme, using significantly different instrumentation.
 * Two rearrangements of the title theme from Tomato Adventure, another RPG developed by AlphaDream in 2002 that uses a similar battle system to the one in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
 * An ominous theme that sounds similar to the Woohoo Hooniversity theme.
 * Themes for Teehee Valley and Beanbean Castle Town without their lead instruments, possibly being early versions of these themes.
 * A version of the File Select theme with different instrumentation, possibly being an early version of the theme. This version uses the Game Boy's legacy channels in addition to samples for the lead. The harmonization, which uses the pulse channels in the final game, is interpreted as samples of choir voices, which would be how it is interpreted in the 3DS version.

Battle backgrounds
Several unused battle backgrounds exist in the game's data, such as backgrounds for the starry room and electric-themed room from Woohoo Hooniversity. All battle backgrounds in the game are 512 by 256 pixels. During most battles, however, the player only sees a 240 by 160 pixel portion of each one, as very few battles (such as Trunkle and Cackletta’s Soul) make use of any kind of scrolling. This suggests that all battlefields were originally intended to feature scrolling, as would apply to later games in the Mario & Luigi series. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, the background scrolls whenever Mario or Luigi use a Bros. Attack.