List of Super Mario 64 pre-release and unused content

This article pertains to the beta elements of Super Mario 64.

Beta elements

This game was originally to be called Super Mario FX, using the FX Chip and was also being planned for the Super Nintendo. In the Beta version, it would've had a numbered health bar instead of the pointed one. Many stages and bars would be different. The Thwomps 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). Early screenshots also show a tan Cheep-Cheep, not found in the final game. Other screenshots show a Pokey with interestingly different graphics, a skinnier Penguin, and Princess Peach's Castle was different and also used darker shades of color and Lethal Lava Land is different. Mario was voiced differently (possessing a screechy, childlike voice rather than his current Italian accent), and Bowser sounded more tiger-like. There was also going to be a Blargg, which is still in the game's data, that would appear in the Lethal Lava Land stage. Also, in the beta, Big Boo held a key instead of a Star inside of him. The purpose of the keys ware to unlock a variety of the various doors in Big Boo's Haunt - there was even a "key counter". Thirty-two levels were planned for the game, but only fifteen of them made it into the final product. In the game, there are small and large bullys, using two models; small and large bully models, a related species called "Chill Bully" appeared in Course 10: Snowman's Land, it too had a small and large model but only the large model was used, its possible that there were going to be small and large like in Lethal Lava Land but was scrapped. Water mines (with graphics identical to spick bombs) were going to in a water level, this can be seen trough a hack. Yoshi egg graphics are stored in the games code, this too can be seen through a simple hack. A debug function stored in the game is the "level select", in this, some of the courses have different names and some symbols can only be seen in the Japanese game. eg. Whomps Fortress is simply called "Mountain".

During a recent interview between Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto regarding New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Iwata stated that there used to be a multiplayer function that was scraapped, likely due to hardware limiations. They also stated that one could see Mario and Luigi meet in the corridor. It is unknown however, if this was a plotpoint of some kind, or just the result of the brothers aprroaching each other. This, apparantly, inspired the multiplayer function of said game.

Iwata: Ever since Mario Bros., you've had your heart set on making a multiplayer Mario game. You've tried each time, but it's never quite come together… Even with Mario 64, it started with Mario and Luigi running around together, didn't it?

Miyamoto: That's right. The screen was split and they went into the castle separately. When they meet in the corridor, I was incredibly happy! (laughs) Then there was also the mode where the camera is fixed and we see Mario running away, steadily getting smaller and smaller.
Iwata: Yes, that's right.

Miyamoto: That was a remnant of an experiment we did where Mario and Luigi would run away from each other but you could still see them both. But we were unable to pull it off…

• SM64beta.jpg

  Beta screenshot of Super Mario 64.
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  The beta Blargg found in the code, put into the new version of Super Mario 64.
• 64 Beta 001.jpg

  A screenshot of the Beta Penguin.
• 64 Beta 002.jpg

  A picture of original Pokey graphics.
• SM64BetaBooKey.jpg

  Beta screenshot of Super Mario 64, showing the mysterious unused Boo key.
• 

  The small chill bully graphics were not used in the final game.
• 

  A screenshot of the Beta Princess Peach's Castle. The text says "Welcome to Mario Wonderland. People on adventures, please [go] to the castle you see before you."
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  Beta version of Lethal Lava Land. (Note also, a Power Star with a similar design to those that appeared in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This beta Power Star design is most likely a placeholder.)
• 

  The original, spookier Thwomp.
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  Beta Lethal Lava Land.
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  A Beta Pushy Walls, with a beta Whomp Fortress.
• Super-mario-beta-key.JPG

  An image of the unused key.
• 

  Mario collecting a key, with the "key counter" on the screen. (The "key counter" is stored in the game code, holding up to 6 characters, however, the key symbol is only in the Japanese version, in the PAL, it is replaced with the "Ü" symbol.
• 

  The Ü replacing the key symbols.
• 

  The beta Yoshi Egg in Wet-Dry World.

External Links

A video showing some of the beta elements]

As of May 22, 2009 youtube user frauber uploaded an video with a unused beta trampoline, full description in link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_et1mjUieA&feature=related