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

This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game New Super Mario Bros. U.

Early Ideas
Miis were originally going to be playable in all modes, but Story Mode does not support Miis.

Boost Mode was originally known as Assist Mode or Assist Play, as seen in a perspective image below. In early builds, it worked similarly to the final version, except that Blue, Purple, Red, and Green Boost Blocks kept their symbols at all times, and they did not release coins. Instead, a separate Boost Block did that, a smaller one with a coin symbol. These types of Boost Blocks would appear only if the Wii U GamePad player tapped on the screen twice. Boost Mode also seemed to lack the Boost Star and special Boost Mode properties.

Boost Rush Mode has not changed a lot from the earlier builds, except the Coin Meter was below the Coin counter instead of the timer.

Artwork for the Deep Cheep enemy exists for this game, even though the enemy itself does not appear. They were later included in New Super Luigi U.

Early Builds
As shown by the screenshots below, the HUD of the game was originally more like New Super Mario Bros. Wii's, with the white font for everything besides the Coin counter, which had orange instead. Later on, the HUD font was changed to a more opaque and metallic font.

In New Super Mario Bros. U first builds, Warp Pipes had a brighter and more plastic-like look, similar to its predecessors. In the final version, they are darker having a more metallic look.

In early builds of New Super Mario Bros. U, the Acorn Plains map looked substantially different. The map was significantly less detailed, the Acorn Trees did not show the Super Acorns, the mushrooms that leaded to Mushroom Heights were just red, the map had two red Toad Houses, with the green Toad House in a different spot; there were two Enemy Courses instead of one, and the spot where the Balloon Baby Yoshi was is gone, implying that Baby Yoshis could not be taken into any course or that the option was not programmed yet. A bridge also extended from the level which Yoshi Hill will later become, implying that Yoshi Hill (or the course that was there in the first place) would have had a secret exit that skipped Mushroom Heights and Rise of the Piranha Plants.

Trailer
The version of Painted Swampland shown in the E3 2012 trailer had pipes that were primarily green, while the final version has pipes of varying colors. Another course presented in the trailer was shown an Acorn Plains course with Bubble Baby Yoshi, tilting mushrooms, and Hammer Bros. This course could had been an early version of the Rise of the Piranha Plants course, but otherwise, the course is absent in the final game.

Demo
Acorn Plains Way, Mushroom Heights, and Spinning Star Sky were named Course 1, Course 2, and Course 3 respectively in early E3 builds, presumably to avoid spoiling the world/names.

Acorn Plains Way has gone through various changes since the original showing during June 2012's Nintendo Direct, mostly in the main grassy area. Most noticeably is that the pipe leading to the sky sub-level has been moved further back in the final build and the hidden area near the Midway Point was much more narrow and shorter in the E3 build. When you receive a Super Acorn, the sound effect was the normal Super Mushroom sound effect, but the final version's sound effect was varied.

In Spinning Star Sky, Note Blocks had a different sound, different than New Super Mario Bros. 2's in the E3 demo. The E3 demo version's sound effect was a very fast ascending B Major scale. Also the spinning stars were not making a mallet-like sound when spinning.

Baby Yoshis in E3 builds did not vocalize the chorus at all. Later builds had Balloon Baby Yoshis vocalize the chorus, without opening its mouth, though the other Baby Yoshis remained silent. Glowing Baby Yoshi in the E3 2012 trailer had the ability to glow brighter when the player shakes the Wii Remote, though a sound effect did not accompany it. Balloon and Bubble Baby Yoshis do not come out of eggs in Question Blocks, unlike in the E3 demo, and are found only in the main map.

In Course 2 and 3, when you touch the Green Ring, it makes the same ticking sound as the Red Rings, because the final Green Ring ticking sound was different, but it ticks as the same time as the final version's ticking.

When you clear the course, the part that said "Course Clear" in the demo was all capital letters as "COURSE CLEAR!" but in the final version it appears as "Course Clear!"

Peach's Castle seen in Acorn Plains Way had its colors more faded out in early E3 builds.

Unused data
The first image in the ChallengeImage folder, which contains all of the challenge previews in Challenge Mode, is a sample image of an early version of Acorn Plains. The ground tiles resemble the grassland tiles from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the background is less detailed with lower resolution. The shadowed structure in the background is an early version of Peach's Castle sitting atop a large cliff. Unlike the final version, the castle can be seen from the beginning of the stage.

Unused Graphics in Jyotyu Tilesets
All of the jyotyu tilesets feature giant brick and question block graphics. Some of the graphics are unused, and don't show up but have collision when tested. However, the 1-coin giving ? block works, almost all of the invisible tiles work, the collision tiles are used, and the lines are used. The pipes are used for collision with the pipe sprites.

Other unused tiles include non-switch-activated Blue Coins, a pole tile, and an overhead rope tile. This is carried over from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which also had those tiles, similarly scrapped in favor of object versions. The game also references a jyotyu_setsugen tileset, which isn't used at all, and also wasn't used in NSMBW.

Furthermore, drawn on the alpha channel are various labels which describe or represent the tiles they're drawn on. These were most likely used in Nintendo's level creator. Notable is the fact that many of the overlays come from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, such as the pipes, or even New Super Mario Bros., such as the placeholder flower graphics. Some graphics were seemingly deleted, while others had spots reserved for them, which were ultimately unused and just marked with numbers. Note that the layout of the tiles (such as the order of powerups) is similar to NSMBW's.

Translated text: FIRST ROW: empty empty hit beanstalk stop empty half empty hit climbing pole hit rope hit "ma" (the equivalent of a single letter in English; it might stand for "multiplayer")

SECOND ROW: muncher hit

SEVENTH ROW: muncher hit 2 Of tiles with text on them, the second "empty hit", the "climbing pole hit", the "rope hit" and the "muncher hit 2" tiles are unused.

Early Meringue Clouds Tileset Edges
7-Airship (Boarding the Airship) contains broken Meringue Clouds ground edges, which are displayed when the mechanical Bowser hand punches through the ground; they are not used anywhere else in the game. Due to the structure of the game, though, there are corresponding tiles for this purpose in the underground and lava tilesets, which go unused. The lava tiles are uninteresting placeholders (see ), but the underground ones are from an early version of the Meringue Clouds tileset.

The broken edges in the early tileset are much wider, and the cracks on the edges are much taller and deeper. The grass also looks completely different.

Yoshi drums for jungle overworld theme can also be found in the game's files, but goes unused since Yoshis do not appear in any forest levels in the game.