List of Super Smash Bros. Brawl pre-release and unused content

These are beta elements from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Early Ideas
According to Masahiro Sakurai, Animal Crossing ' s Villager was originally planned to be a playable character, but was removed from the roster because "he wasn't suited for battle." The Villager would later go on to be confirmed as a playable character in the next game, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Early Iteration
In the E3 2006 trailer for Brawl, Kirby uses his side special (Hammer Cartwheel) move from Super Smash Bros. Melee, while in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he uses his Hammer Spin. His move may have been tweaked after the trailer was released.

Early in development, a damage system would have been implemented that would cause characters to shown signs of visible damage and strain during prolonged battles. Among those found included Meta Knight's mask that would develop large cracks, or Captain Falcon's helmet whose visor would crack to reveal a part of his face.

There are a few other things in the E3 06 trailer that are different from the final version, such as Mario grabbing the Smash Ball rather then attacking it. This may have been an early idea that Nintendo scrapped, thinking of it as "too easy". Also, Samus' Final Smash was executed faster, and when Samus turns into Zero Suit Samus in the trailer she makes her paralyzer turn into some sort of plasma sword, which looks a lot like the Plasma whip or Plasma wire. This might have been another early idea, in this case being how Zero Suit Samus attacks.

Another video called "Sonic Joins The Brawl" depicts Mario and Sonic fighting in Battlefield, but in the trailer Sonic does a move which was charged up and held like Spin Dash, although in the final version said move doesn't do a short hop, but rather rolls along the ground like Spin Charge. This may of been an early version of how Spin Dash worked. In this same video Sonic was seen fighting in Delfino Plaza beside the Lighthouse, which is not available in the final version.

Early builds
Some of the game world icons were initially the same as in the previous two games, but they were revised as time went on (Mario's Mushroom icon was refined and given spots, the Poké Ball icon has the top half colored in to properly represent how it is usually red, etc.).

Also, the description for the My Music options originally said, "Adjust how often a song will appear on this stage." It has since been revised in a general tone to say, "Adjust how often songs appear on stages."

Wario Bike, Drill Rush, Trophy Base, Summit, Halberd, Rainbow Cruise, and "The Flowers That Bloom in the Echoes" were originally called Wario Chopper, Triple Dash, Trophy Stand, The Summit, Battle Ship Halberd, Rainbow Ride, and, "Flowers Bloom on the notes" respectively. It's unknown why they changed these names, however, they likely changed Rainbow Ride because it was a Melee stage, in which it was misnamed Rainbow Cruise (although it remains Rainbow Ride in the PAL regions, mostly because it was called Rainbow Ride on the PAL version of Melee).

Also, there were scenes taking place before the events of the Subspace Emissary where the Subspace Army takes over the Halberd and King Dedede unintentionally stalls Meta Knight from preventing it from happening. Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that he decided to cut this out and an update was made to confirm this together with how various events and characters in the Subspace Emissary comes together.

Unused Data
Unused files for Dixie Kong, Toon Zelda (or possibly Tetra), Toon Sheik, and "Pra_Mai" (speculated to be Plusle & Minun of Pokémon fame) were found as scrapped newcomers. There were also files for Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy, possibly meaning that they were planned to be brought back at one time, or that their data was imported for some reason.

Kirby series enemies, Blade Knight, Bonkers and Mech Cannon were also found in the game's coding, possibly remains of a previous Kirby game. A scrapped Assist Trophy for Ridley was also found, as well as for Ridley as an Assist Trophy, as well as Gardevoir. Ridley was most likely scrapped in favor of a boss version of him, and Gardevoir as a Poké Ball Pokémon. Also, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong had early trophies before they had the ones that appear in Brawl. On another note, 38 extra Assist Trophies were meant to appear in the game.

Files for Dry Bones (ef_karon.pac), Bronto Burt (ef_brontoburt.pac) and Buzzy Beetle (ef_met.pac) were found alongside many unused sound files, which also more narrator dialogues, such as presentations for Wario-Man, Giga Bowser and Mewtwo.

Miscellaneous
Many songs were removed from the final game:
 * Because I Love You - EarthBound/Mother 2
 * Eight Melodies - Mother
 * MGS2 Main Theme - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Beware the Forest’s Mushrooms - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
 * Hippie Battle Theme - Mother (Note that an arrangement of this song appears in the Smashville stage, sung by K.K. Slider [Also note that an arrangement of the original theme appears in the Animal Crossing games, under the name "Rockin' K.K.")
 * You Can Do Anything - Sonic CD (JP)
 * The Loner, Falco Lombardi - Star Fox Command
 * Ballad of the Windfish - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
 * Yoshi’s Cookie Type A - Yoshi’s Cookie
 * Boss Battle Theme - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * The Chosen Ones - Fire Emblem
 * Smiles and Tears - EarthBound/Mother 2
 * Radio Exercises - Animal Crossing
 * NES Sports Medley
 * Stunt Race FX - Stunt Race FX

Additionally, the music "Castle/Boss Fortress (Super Mario World/SMB3)" (which was originally called "Castle Music/Fortress Boss") was originally going to be played on Delfino Plaza, but was later moved to Luigi's Mansion.

Green Hill Zone was first called Emerald Zone.

The Triforce Slash was shown to have a different animation. Also, Link was meant to have longer hair. Fox McCloud had a different animation, which was him holding a gun, instead of his drinking-tea-like movement in the final release. Solid Snake was meant to be more muscular and was to have a gray suit rather than blue. The original Snake was less modernized and his down smash was going to be a more realistic bomb.