Pre-release and unused content

Also see Donkey Kong Beta Elements.

Before a game gets released you might see enemies and places that aren't in the released game, because they are taken out for unknown reasons. The elements that were once in the game but were taken out are called Beta Elements.

Beta Elements
Here is a list of Beta Elements appearing in Mario games:

Super Mario Bros. 3
There were going to be two new enemies called Gold Cheep Cheep (a golden version of a Cheep-Cheep, and Green Parabeetles (green colored Parabeetles). The Gold Cheep Cheeps would come in groups and swim faster than regular Cheep-Cheeps and the Green Parabeetle is a green Parabeetle that flies faster than normal ones. The game coding reveals 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, likely due to it being scrapped early and never given any purpose.) Designers also considered a power-up to turn Mario into a Centaur (half-man, half-horse), although this was rejected (Tilden 1990, 21).

Koopa Troopas and and Hammer Bros. were going to host the mini-games. They were replaced by Toad. There were also different kinds of mini-games, similar to the ones in New Super Mario Bros..

Finally, fifteen extra levels exist within the coding of 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 copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 depicts Mario traversing a hilly grassland stage with tons of Parabeetles 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. The "special" boxes also feature a map of Grass Land with minor differences.

Super Mario World
Dinosaur Land was drastically different, possessing an appearance similar to the various kingdoms of Super Mario Bros. 3. Specifically, it was to feature things such as Toad Houses (which could possibly mean that Toads were once considered to populate Dinosaur Land) and more Super Mario Bros. 3-style Fortresses.

SNES test cartridges also exist, and, among other things (some of which are Mario-related), they include an early build of Super Mario World. These cartridges reveal that, at one point, Goombas were to be able to be stomped (even earlier test cartridges show that Goombas also once possessed their normal, mushroom-like appearance rather than the Goom-like Goombas seen in the final game and later builds), Koopa Troopas were to walk on all fours, and normal Piranha Plants and even Venus Fire Traps were to have been present. These elements were used in the Super Mario World cartoon. Interestingly, several of these cartridges' beta sprites were merely simple Super Mario Bros. 3 edits. Lastly, the Super Leaf and Raccoon Mario form were both present in early builds.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
This game was going to have more forms Yoshi could turn into: a Mushroom, a Tree, and a Plane (most likely replaced by the helicopter form). The game was also going to feature Tweeters and strange, green Bob-ombs. Interestingly, the Tweeter present in the game's coding looked identical to the Tweeters of Super Mario All-Stars, and a Super Mario All-Stars Shy Guy is also present within the game. It is possible that the programmers were merely using these sprites as references for enemy sprites that they were remaking, and either didn't use the Tweeter or it was never meant to be used and taken from Super Mario All-Stars by mistake. There is also a frowning, rock-like block present in the game's coding, and, perhaps even more oddly, a hulking, barrel-throwing, tie-clad Grinder that seems to deliberately resemble Donkey Kong. (It is possible that this gorilla-like Grinder would be a Kamek-strengthened Grinder boss and clever reference to Mario's first enemy.)

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Looking into the coding of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars reveals several unused enemies (most of which seem to be unused sub-species), including a notorious one known as the Drill Bit. In fact, Drill Bit appears in the game, but does not fight in any battle like a normal enemy. Harlequins were jester-like enemies that never made it into the final game.

Also, material from an early Nintendo Power shows that the Chancellor was once designed differently, being a more elderly-looking, gray-spotted Toad with a beard. It also showed that at least one (and probably more) Buzzer would be in Mushroom Way, and that Frogfucius' island at Tadpole Pond would be closer and therefore accessed differently. (Without having to jump the bridge of Tadpoles.) Also, a fishin' variety of Lakitu would be a helper in Booster's Tower, which possessed Magikoopa door guards. (It is notable that no fightable Magikoopas other than the red one thought to be Kamek would appear in the final game.) Mario would also encounter Bowser at an unknown time in Bowser's Keep, and would be pitted against two Shy Aways during this scene. Other material shows that Booster's Tower would also feature Boos, Dry Bones, and less organized pictures and Nimbus Castle would have a longer walkway and more plants.

Finally, two unused cutscenes regarding a distressed Princess Peach on the balcony of Booster's Tower were left in the game's coding, but did not make the final cut. Interestingly, both were very similar to (but longer than) scenes in the final game. Source

Mario's Tennis
The character list in this game's coding features the name "CASSARIN", which is notable for, unlike the other characters, not having any sprites. "Cassarin" happens to be Japanese for "Catherine", which is Birdo's Japanese name; it can therefore be assumed that Birdo was initially planned for playability in Mario's Tennis.

Super Mario 64
In the Beta version, it would've had a numbered health bar instead of the pointed one. Many stages and bars would be different. Thwomp would also have a scarier look and Mario would have a different jump (one that let him spin around after a triple jump in a way similar to the result of being hit by a Tweester in Shifting Sand Land). There would also be a tanish Cheep-Cheep. Mario was voiced differently (possessing a screechy, childlike voice rather than his current Italian accent) and Bowser sounded more tiger-like.SourceSource 2 and 3Source 4

Paper Mario
Early screenshots of this game showed that Poochy was going to play some sort of role in the game. Another screenshot showed that Nep-Enuts were going to be in this game also. Also the early version of Forever Forest showed that it would be much smaller, with all the forest's trees having sinister faces. Paper Mario was also, originally, supposed to be named Super Mario RPG 2, though due to complications involving Square Enix, the makers of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the name was changed to Paper Mario.

Yoshi's Story
It seems as if Flowers were going to appear in the game, which was once called by Yoshi's Island 64 Screenshot. Also, Big Guys were going to appear and Bone Dragons would be purple, flesh-covered dragons rather than bony, undead ones. Finally, Stage 4-2: The Jungle Puddle was known to be much scarier, with strange bubbles and a Bone Dragon. There was also going to be a playable Brown Yoshi. 

Mario Kart 64
Kamek or a Magikoopa was going to be in this game playable, but got replaced by Donkey Kong. Also note that the Character Select Screen was going to be very different. The working title was Mario Kart R.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
The models of the characters are from Super Smash Bros Melee, and Mario and Luigi are seen in this game's only known beta trailer driving separately and each having a simple, blue kart. It was originally called Mario Kart for Gamecube, and it is likely that this early build of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was completely scrapped and redone for the final game.

Super Smash Bros.
Two beta Kirby stages are only playable with a GameShark. The stages have strange elements, such as invisible barriers. Finally, a working Dream Land stage can be viewed in the "How to Play" tutorial, which itself can be seen by waiting on the title screen.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Through an Action Replay, a large, gray stage with the background appearing to be some kind of pub, is accessible. The music is the same as used on Fox and Falco's stage Corneria. There are also four stages, named AKANEIA, 10-2, IceTop, and Dummy, which freeze the game when opened. (It should be noted that "Akaneia" is the name of a Fire Emblem kingdom and could've therefore been a home stage for Marth and Roy; it is also worth noting that the word "dummy", when used in programming, often refers to a nonexistent item used for mere testing and that IceTop may have had some relationship to the Ice Climbers.) In addition to this, the entire Debug Menu, which was used in pre-release testing, can be used when the game is hacked, allowing for complete editing of anything in the game. Finally (and quite oddly), Giga Bowser, both male and female Fighting Wire Frames, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and even Sandbag are all playable (to a limited extent) via the Debug Menu. Finally, early screenshots showed the Motion-Sensor Bomb to be much different; these screenshots actually showed it to be a Proximity Mine from Perfect Dark rather than the Motion-Sensor Bomb from "TOP SECRET" (actually GoldenEye 007) that appeared in the final game. A screenshot of this Proximity Mine's trophy has also been released, and this screenshot shows that (in an almost cheap manner) the text in the Proximity Mine trophy was only tampered minorly (with only a few removals of references to Perfect Dark) for the final Motion-Sensor Bomb trophy. Why the Perfect Dark Proximity Mine was changed to a GoldenEye 007 Motion-Sensor Bomb remains unknown to this day and is rather ridiculous, especially considering that the games from which the items originated were even made by the same company, although the fact that Nintendo hides the Motion-Sensor Bomb's trophy's debuting game entry with the words "TOP SECRET" in the final game suggest that the item change may very well have had to do with copyright infringement.

Super Mario Sunshine
In Super Mario Sunshine, Delfino Plaza is the main plaza of the game. However, in movies before release, it showed that there was going to be a different plaza (or possible prototype for Delfino Plaza), with a giant Strollin' Stu-like creature walking all over the place, and many more different things. A Human girl was going to appear here, wearing a pink dress. It is unknown whether she was important or not or what she was doing. She may have also been a citizen. Also FLUDD was going to be skinnier and Gooper Blooper was going to be dark blue and fought on top of the bridges of Ricco Harbor instead of in the market and helicopter area. Source

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Wario, Fox McCloud, Captain Olimar, Samus, an Excitebike Racer, and Link were going to show up in the Starbeans Cafe after Mario and Luigi made coffee, instead of E. Gadd (who was going to make an appearance, but only one). The Bean Fruits were also going to be multi-colored, and a few unused items include Neon Beans, a Game and Watch, and something known as the "Spiritual Bros.", which may be a badge. One of this game's more interesting Beta Elements is that the name "Sharkbone" appears alongside names for enemies found in Gwarhar Lagoon in the game's coding, and "Sharkbone" is presumed to be an alternate name for the ???? enemies that are actually found in the final game (these enemies actually can come in a bony shark form, although they are also found in a living, Cheep-Cheep-like variety). Even more interestingly, a Nintendo Power guide actually referred to the ????s' undead shark forms as "Sharkbones" and their living Cheep-Cheep forms as "Puffer-Cheeps", which were actually completely different Cheep-Cheep varieties present in the final game; it is presumed that Nintendo based this naming off of beta material (and it may be worth noting that the German version of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga replaces "Sharkbone" with "Sand-Cheep").

Mario Power Tennis
In the intro of the game where Wario and Waluigi are drawing on the scorechart in the left the player can see Toad and Toadette's heads. It is unknown if they were going to be playable and they forgot to take their faces off the scorechart.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
There were many unused badges. See Badges for information on them.

The partners from Paper Mario were going to appear but were cut-off as well. Bow and Parakarry were the only ones left. There was also a strange robot-like creature and two pallette swaps of Screamy. Bobbery also had a prototype sprite, which depicts him wearing army gear. There was also going to be a probable mini-boss, called Dark Atomic Boo. Dark Atomic Boo would be a Dark Boo version of Atomic Boo, and some have theorized that it may be a more powerful Atomic Boo fought in the Dark Boo-inhabited Poshley Sanctum.

Also, in the original trailer, one can see a HP Plus badge that is located on a ledge beyond a moving platform which has a wall over it in midcourse (and assumedly could be reached with the help of Vivian). None of this made it into the final game (except the area where these things are, minus the things of course).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
A certain beta screenshot depicts Mario, Luigi, and their baby selves fighting two red show-clad Blooper foes in the Vim Factory. Almost nothing is known about this Blooper creature, which was unused, although the timing of the taking of the screenshot featuring them (which depicts Luigi, upon being thrust by a Trampoline, stomping one) conveniently shows fans both its normal and pained poses. Another early screenshot shows the gang using a Mix Flower on two Boo Guys in Hollijolli Village, while Boo Guys were not present in this area in the final game. Finally, it may be notable that Baby Mario's initial artwork erroneously depicted him as having red shoes rather than his normal blue ones (this mistake was eventually changed and the artwork was re-released), although his shoe coloration would appear to have always been consistent throughout all of the actual game's programming.

Super Mario 64 DS
The working title for this game was Super Mario 64x4. Also, several beta screenshots were released for the game. Originally, all four characters could fight Bowser at the same time, and fly. This feature was removed, as the four characters can only fight Bowser by their own (with Yoshi utilizing hats to be able to swing Bowser).

Mario Kart DS
This game's Retro Grand Prix was going to include a few more tracks, such as Mario Circuit from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (which was incomplete in that it featured no Goombas or Piranha Plants), Koopa Troopa Beach (under the name "Nokonoko Course") from Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! ' s Block City battle area. There was also an mysterious "Dokan Course" stage with little theme and Moo Moo Farm music, as well as a simple, circular test area smaller than even Baby Park; both of these (and the latter one for sure) could've been debugging stages not planned for inclusion in the final game. Waluigi Pinball was also slightly different (mostly in texture and music, the latter of which was strangely from Yoshi Falls) in betas, and demo copies of the game actually showed it with quite a few object differences (such as more bumpers and a less direct launch towards the beginning). The demo version also depicted DK Pass with (perhaps more thematic for its eponymous character) a grassland theme rather than a snow one and a lone Thwomp fear the finish line, as well as many other small differences mostly regarding walls and jumps. Finally, demo version guides released for stores by Nintendo depicted the Chain Chomp (which could not actually be retrieved in the demo version itself) as an item; it is presumed that this Chomp munition would work in a manner similar to that of the Chain Chomps in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, making it likely that Chain Chomps were removed from the game in favor of Bullet Bills.

Super Princess Peach
The Koopalings were originally going to be in the game, but were taken out for unknown reasons. All of the Koopalings' lost sprites have been discovered by now. Oddly enough, Morton's sprites were spread around the internet long before those of his siblings. Also, lost sprites of Glad and Calm Goombas have recently been discovered. In the game, only Mad and Sad variants appeared. The Glad Goomba (which was a bronze or yellow color), based on its sprite, could be able to bounce, and the Calm one (which was green and rather sickly-looking), has unknown abilities, although it is known that it would be able to sleep and therefore most likely be able to restore its HP (like most other Calm enemies). Finally, a very early screenshot shows the "Peach's face" screen, which ended up on the bottom screen, to be on the top screen and totally devoid of Heart Panels and also having a bright green, solid background and a different design for Peach. The fact that the Heart Panels, which were used to change Vibes in the final game, are lacking from this screenshot suggests that Super Princess Peach was once planned to not use Vibes and be a more average side-scroller.

New Super Mario Bros.
The working title for this game was Super Mario Bros. DS. Also, during early stages of production, Mega Goombas were going to be a generic species (the result of a Goomba colliding with a Super Mushroom and powering up) rather than an individual boss. (It is possible that other enemies were to be compatible with this situation, too, considering the giant enemies like Super Dry Bones and Super Piranha Plant that remain in the game in generic, already-large forms.) There was also said to be a Mario and Luigi co-op mode at a time. Interestingly, an illustration of beta map icons still exists as a screenshot on page twelve of the final game's manual. There were originally three item reserve spots rather than one. There also was an underwater stage which also featured Manta Ray in VS. Mode.

Yoshi's Island DS
As stated below, Yoshi's Island DS was originally going to be compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi. Also, one early screenshot showcasing a battle with Big Guy the Stilted seems to suggest that Big Guy was once going to be organic, as he had no patches on him in that picture (although one patch was visible near his right foot, which may merely mean his graphics were slightly incomplete). Finally, one screenshot of an unknown origin shows a Black Yoshi traversing a flowery area with Baby Peach. The particular event illustrated in the picture doesn't seem to be left in the final game.

Super Paper Mario
An early version of the game had a different looking version of the Whoa Zone from Chapter 4, and Mario is still wearing a helmet, when he wasn't supposed to be. Also, an early screenshot shows Mario under the effects of the Mega Star, but is colored very differently (giving his current colors rather than the initial ones seen in Super Mario Bros.). Oddly, he is shown in his proper colors in the official trailer that was released at the same time. Finally, in a screenshot featuring Big Blooper, there's an odd Pixl that is shaped like a ladder. It never actually appears in the final game. Also, in the same screenshot, Tippi is present, but she was kidnapped by Francis at this point in the game, and by the time she is rescued, Big Blooper cannot be fought again. Finally, the scene depicting Bowser and Peach's wedding at the beginning of the game was also slightly different in beta versions; the ceremony would appear to have once taken place in more of a room than an open area, there were no flowers decorating the columns, the rising of the Chaos Heart was surprisingly light, and Count Bleck raised his cloak up earlier than he did in the final version.

Wi-Fi
Many Mario games were originally going to have Nintendo Wi-Fi; however, it was taken out of some. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Yoshi's Island DS (known as Yoshi's Island 2 back then) were the two games that were going to have Wi-fi.