Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is an open-ended platformer, very similar to Super Mario 64, except on a tropical island and with a talking water pump. This game also marks the first appearance of Bowser's extremely annoying son, Bowser Jr.

The Test Map
Super Mario Sunshine contains a test level, named test11, which can be accessed with the Action Replay code. The textures it uses are the same as the test room from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It contains various objects and terrain, including the unused soccer objects and the Hinokuri enemy. The files also contain an early sky model, though it is not used in the scene.

Removed Test Maps
According to stageArc.bin, there were a grand total of 20 test maps in the game, divided into two categories. Scale Maps were named scale0 through scale9, and Test Maps were named test11 through test19. Of them, only test11 remains, though not in the Japanese version. It was added back in later by the localization team, as evidenced by the copies of every piece of translated dialogue in the game present in the files.

Unused Sky


This early sky model is found within the files for the test level, though it is not actually used by it. This sky can actually be seen in the earliest screenshots of the game.

Unused Audio Stream


This audio stream within the Super Mario Sunshine ISO is never loaded by the game at any point. While the theme itself is used within a demo-play video after the title screen as well as various other promotional videos for the game, this much more pure version, lacking any sound effects, remains unused. The list of audio files refers to it as MSD_STR_SPACEWORLD, indicating that this is likely where the stream was intended to be used.

Noki Bay Yoshi Drums


The music for Noki Bay has a drum track for when riding on Yoshi, even though Yoshi appears nowhere in this stage.

Unused Voice Clip


This voice clip of Mario saying "Ciao!" is included in the sound bank for the beginning sequence when the game is turned on, w1stLoad_0. It is never used, nor is a copy of it present with the rest of the Mario voice clips.

HinoKuri2
This large enemy was seen in the game's premiere reveal trailer at Space World 2001. Its name means "Fire Chestnut" (due to its appearance). The actor for it still works, but the model does not render properly due to it being made for a much older version of the engine. It stomps around, shaking the ground and spawns Strollin' Stus and eggs containing Goobles from the cone-like nozzle on its rear. The outer layer of its head can be popped by squirting water at the third eye (!) on the top of its head, after which it will stop spawning enemies. It walks towards the origin of the map (X=0, Y=0) and if it touches a wall, it falls through the ground. It also has animations for diving into water. Unlike other actors, the object cannot be resized via the scale parameters in the map data.

The "2" in its file name indicates that there were at least two versions of the enemy, which is supported by the fact that there are enemy parameter files for both hinokuri and hinokuri2 in Delfino Airstrip's map. Even more interesting is that the hinokuri parameter file has entries with "boss" in the name: BossFirstAppear, BossAppear, BossFirstAppearTimeMax, BossHideTimeMax, and BossGravity. These indicate that either hinokuri is a boss version of this enemy or an alternate version involved in a boss fight.

A related model is a skull-like mask with horns that fits over its bulbous head. It has animations for rattling and splitting in half.

Kug


A paper-thin living drawing of a Goomba found in the files for Pinna Park. It has only one texture, so all of its animations are achieved through the movement of the model. It was used as a test character, as indicated by the actor list. In fact, it has three entries in the list, which refer to it as "typical enemy", "test enemy", and Goomba. As it turns out, there is one present in the level, as demonstrated by this video. It can be found in Episode 8 floating around under the floor, beneath the spinning clam ride. It is just under half the height of Mario, and shocks him when jumped on. Due to its location, it is difficult to interact with.

Soccer Ball and Goal
Mario gets to kick around a soccer ball in the test level. This was most likely a test for the durian, the rolling fruit. A cardboard box fashioned into a soccer goal is also present.

Egg Generator


This paper-thin drawing of an egg is referred to as a "Yoshi Egg Generator" by the object list. There are two models for it, gene_egg_model1 being the green one, and bad_gene_egg_model1 is the purple one. They both use the same animation, gene_egg_appear1, which is shown above. The directory for it, egggen, can be found in the files for Episode 5 of Pianta Village, as well as several episodes in Pinna Park.

Early Stu Generator


Included in with the Stu generator drawing is an early version of the pile-of-goop generator. It consists of five nearly-flat rings using this texture. It was likely included by accident due to the name similarity. None of its proper animations are included, and the final version's animations aren't compatible with it due to using a different number of joints.

Decorational Manta Rays


Found with the files for every part of Pinna Park is a model of a trio of shadowy manta rays, called gatemanta, which swim around in little circles. They are roughly 2 meters in size each, making them a little bit larger than Mario. They seem to be based on the model used by Phantamanta, so they are rather high-poly and textureless. The fact that they are located in with the common stage objects folder and only have one animation indicate they were intended to be purely decorational. It is unknown if they are actually black or if it is simply a rendering error.

Marble Ball


This hemisphere made of marble is located with the map files for the Corona Mountain boss fight and is simply named ball.bmd, along with a copy of it in .bdl format. Despite the ball being merely 2 cm in diameter, the texture for it is 512x512 pixels, causing the ball model to have the largest file size in the map directory. Together with the model is a pair of textures also named "ball" and feature incredibly faint ripples.

Hidden Piantissimo Face


In the game, Il Piantissimo never removes his mask. Needless to say, he does have a face, which can be seen when you remove his mask via hacking or other methods. Piantissimo's face seems to resemble Running Man's face from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but with darker skin.

Eely-Mouth's Belly
The giant eel boss in Noki City has his esophagus and stomach modeled with a significant amount of polygons. Even though one of its attacks involves swallowing Mario, the camera never follows him inside, so the insides are never seen.

Stu Generator Animations


The drawing that spawns Strollin' Stus was originally going to be alive and animated to some degree. It has five texture animations, which make use of alternate textures. The first image is the texture that is used, for reference. The second is used for when the generator is being hurt. The third is for after the generator has taken damage, thus entering an angry state. The last image is for when the generator dies. In the final game, the drawing simply disappears when it is sprayed.

Bloopad's Land Legs
The spongey squid-like enemy Bloopad only appears in Ricco Harbor, floating in the water. However, it has animations that correspond to hopping around on land, as well as being stomped. In fact, they are considered run1, while jumping out of water is run2. As they never appear on land and cannot be pushed around, this animation is never used. Furthermore, Bloopad's files are included in with the scene for the King Boo boss battle room, but the enemy itself is never spawned. This would have been the one location to witness it on land.

Another thing to note is that Bloopad is also included in the files for the Coin Fish episode of Noki City. This would require yet another behavior for Bloopad; one that doesn't constantly jump around and inflate when sprayed.

Removed Cloud Layer


In the common sky model, there is a large disc stretching across the entire sky, which is completely invisible in-game. This pre-release screenshot reveals that it is in fact once used for a light cloud layer. The UV map for the disc is still intact, as is the texture for it. As a bonus, the screenshot also shows the unused goop texture in use.

The Hidden Book
There is a hidden book that can never be retrieved in the Red Coins in a Bottle episode of Noki Bay. This appears to be a leftover from an earlier version, in which the objective in that area was to recover the book, instead of collecting the red coins. The models are actually parts of the level geometry and not separate objects.

File Select Pier


In the scene used for the File Select menu, there is a poorly-textured pier hidden just off-screen. Oddly enough, it has solidity, and thus can be walked on.

Corona Mountain Crater


Despite Corona Mountain being the highest point on the island, most of the level models have the inside of the crater modeled out. It reveals that the crater has a rather interesting structure, which makes sense given the structure of the Corona Mountain level.

Delfino Airstrip Room


The map for Delfino Airstrip has a copy of the waiting room floating above the map. This in itself isn't unusual, as this is how the game handles separate interior areas in Delfino Plaza, but this particular room goes unused because the waiting room is simply part of the main map. What makes it more interesting is that this room has more details in it than the used version, as well as having different lighting. The added objects include papers and pencils, a passport stamp, and some various crafts.



By using cheats to jump high enough, it is possible to see the contents of the room, though the room remains invisible. In the coin collection version of the map, the room contains a pair of doors, two coins, and a pair of Swoopin' Stus that flitter back and forth in a tight path, passing through each other. The doors are linked with the doors in the regular part of the map, so if one is destroyed by the Turbo Nozzle, the corresponding door is also destroyed. In the introduction version of the map, the room is empty aside from the doors.

Pollution Maps
The game uses bitmaps to keep track of pollution (or goop, if you prefer), with a corresponding model to hold the bitmap. However, many rooms (mostly secret stages) have an unused pollution map, copied from one of the other stages. The rooms use one of three maps, listed below. In addition, the developers left notes and doodles in the bitmaps, which overwrite the texture of the model.

Test Map


This is the pollution map used for the test level. It is one of the most common pollution map duplicates used. It shows a couple of cutesy enemies causing the mess, which bear a resemblance to Hinokuri.

The overwritten texture depicts a much simpler shape of what appears to be Kug.

Early Bianco Hills
The second common pollution map brings us this creepy image.

The texture of the goop itself is just as creepy.

Viewing the model without the texture reveals it is actually from an early design of Bianco Hills. This level layout, the goop texture, and map can all be seen in some early screenshots.



This is the bitmap for the map. It reads "alpha, mostly black" along with the dimensions of the image.

Early Ricco Harbor
There are several interesting things to note about these pollution maps, which can be found in Episode 3's files. Not only are there two pollution maps, but they use two different early versions of the level. The earlier version lacks a fountain, has different buildings, and has a rounded ledge with no wooden platform. The second version is much like the final version, but with a smaller ledge on the right side. There is also a tiny square platform in both, which moves around between versions before being removed altogether. The bitmap used for the goop is rather simple, and even seems to have a portion of the map that wouldn't fit on the mesh. Furthermore, the goop texture used by it is the same one seen in the early Bianco Hills, but with an additional specular (or bump?) map accompanying it.



Delfino Plaza
The various scenarios in Delfino Plaza with pollution maps have placeholders that resemble the texture on the early Ricco Harbor pollution map.

Bianco Hills
These maps are used as the placeholder maps for five pollution maps used in Bianco Hills. The first one is reused by the last one.

Noki City


The pollution map for the entirely underwater portion of Noki Bay. Scribbled in the upper left-hand corner is Japanese that reads, appropriately, "stupid", as the pollution is washed away by water.

Sirena Beach
This is the texture used for Sirena Beach's pollution map. Look familiar? That's right, it's Kug! The actual maps used in the levels are in the shape of a manta and a Boo, respectively.

Delfino Casino
The pollution map found with the Casino is actually for an early version of some level. It's unclear which level it is meant to be, but the central structure resembles the platform that Hotel Delfino is on in Sirena Beach. The relatively empty map and off-center position of the geometry indicates that the goop only covered a small portion of the level.

Corona Mountain Boss


This is another common pollution map, appearing in a number of secret room maps, as well as the final boss battle map. The model for the goop area is a pair of flat planes, and the mask is very primitive compared to the rest, meaning this is likely a copy from one of the test maps. Strangely, the goop texture that comes with it has "holes" in the alpha channel.



In addition to the pollution map, a set of odd mirror maps is found grouped with it. There are four models in it, including two pairs of what are likely windows and a puddle with a rough surface. Their positions don't match up with any other model, including the early Bianco Hills map. The fact that the two sets of windows are facing towards each other suggests they belong to a map with multiple buildings, such as Delfino Plaza.

Corona Mountain Banner


Since Corona Mountain doesn't have an Episode select screen, this banner for it goes unused.

Unused Menu Text


A label reading "Dolpic", the Japanese name of Isle Delfino. Given that the entire game takes place on Isle Delfino, it wouldn't make much sense to give the label to any one location, so it wasn't even translated.



A label for the menu choice "cancel". It was not translated either.

Menu Sunglasses


These various graphics of sunglasses are grouped in with the other Options menu graphics. The first two, monte_sunglass_flame and monte_sunglass_glass, are meant to belong to a Pianta, while the third image is clearly meant to belong to the options menu, being named option_sunglass. None of the code for the options menu references them, and the sunglasses graphics are different from the textures used for the in-game sunglasses found on various Piantas.

Early Graphics


There are blue doors in the Plaza and the Harbor but none of them have this kind of shading.



Another blue door, but this time with goop painted across it.



Early label graphic for the HUD. The final game uses "water" instead, even in the E3 2002 trailer.



Probably from an early start up screen.

Hidden Screenshots
A few screenshots are hidden within the game, used as textures for various models. They are from various stages in development and are likely used as placeholder for shader effects.



This image is one of the textures for Eely-Mouth's eyes. While the HUD isn't shown, the skinny FLUDD design reveals that this was taken very early in development. This screenshot also shows what would be the earliest known designs of Ricco Harbor and Blooper. The sky in the background is the same as the early sky found in the test map.



This screenshot was used as a texture for the water in Bowser's bath tub. The HUD is in its final design stage, but Noki City has much bluer lighting and no fog effects. It is likely this screenshot was chosen for the sake of humor.

Early Title Screen Graphics
These files are all found in title.szs, which seems to be dedicated to an early title screen. The final game's title screen is contained in option.szs.



pushstart.bti & j_pushstart.bti - Most likely used before the the start up screen was finalized. There are two versions of it, with j_pushstart.bti being 75% the size of the other.



j_face.bti - A badly cropped Mario silhouette.



j_titlebl.bti - A partially messed up shadow of a title screen.

Unused Episode Names
In the file that contains all of the Episode names, common/2d/scenarioname, numerous instances of "Red Coin Riddle" or "Red Coin Riddle 1/2" can be found. These most likely belong to the various timed Red Coin challenges in Secret platforming stages. Despite never being used, the titles were properly translated. There are also a few instances of "???".

Placeholder Text
Some of the files in game_6.szs/scrn contain what seems to be placeholder text for testing purposes. message_board_1.blo contains a snippet of lyrics from 1928 song I Wanna Be Loved By You.

I wanna be loved by you. Just you nobody else but you. I wanna be kissed by you alone. I couldn't aspire

The files pause_1.blo and scenario_demo_1.blo use lyrics from Ben E. King's 1961 single Stand by Me.

pause_1.blo:

Stand by me

scenario_demo_1.blo:

When the night has come

The file standard_1.blo contains an interesting snippet of text that may or may not be lyrics.

Good morning Hello ! Good morning Hello ! Good morning Hello !

Undefined Message Error


It seems that Sunshine has an error handler built in for undefined message pointers.

Stage Select Menu
This can be accessed with the Action Replay code in the PAL version and resetting the console. There is an archive named title.szs which appears to be dedicated to a debug version of the title screen, with a placeholder logo and message files that call up lists of level names. There are two different versions of the Stage Select Menu; one of them has a black background and the other has the background of the title screen and an unused "PUSH START" button behind the Menu.

First Menu
On this menu, there is one test map. Trying to start a "No Data" map makes the game return to the normal title screen. Videos of this menu can be seen here and here. If you delete the Super Mario Sunshine data from the MemoryCard while you're in the debug menu, you can click on the "slot" 00 in the test11 folder. After starting 00 you will spawn on the Main Menu/Save Select Screen and you can explore it.

Second Menu
Trying to start a map which doesn't exist freezes the game or returns to the title screen. In this version, there are two test maps, as well as levels that were cut from the final game, as seen below. To see this menu in action, watch this video.

Stage Select List
The file mariosun_stage.bmg contains a list of the levels in the game, plus two more. It is a message file, which means it would be used in a text box of some sort. The level names were translated for the North American version of the game, indicating that it was probably used by the localization team as well. Special maps are listed in bold.


 * Delfino AirStrip
 * Delfino Plaza
 * Bianco Hills
 * Ricco Harbor
 * Gelato Beach
 * Pinna Park
 * Sirena Beach
 * Pianta Village
 * Noki Bay
 * Corona Mountain
 * Scale Map
 * Test Map 1

Extended List of Names
The file title.blo brings up a list of unlocalized level names that seem to belong to some kind of level select menu. It is a graphics script file, meaning it only draws graphics to the screen. The locations in bold were cut from the final game, which suggests this list is from and earlier version of the game.


 * Airport (Delfino Airstrip)
 * Dolpic Town (Delfino Plaza)
 * Ricco harbor
 * Bianco hills
 * Mamma beach (Gelato Beach)
 * Sirena beach
 * Hotel delfino
 * Pina parco (Pinna Park)
 * Hotel Lacrima (translates to "tear")
 * Mare village (Noki Bay)
 * Monte village (Pianta Village)
 * Erto rock (translates to "steep" or "elevate")
 * Warship island
 * Fire shrine
 * ex map ("ex" is typically used to denote the Secret platforming stages)
 * Corona mountain
 * Scale map (The... map screen?)
 * Test map
 * Test map 2

Mystery of the Delfino Express
The Japanese version of the game contains an extra ARC that was removed from later releases, named message.szs. Its only contents are two message files, named station.bmg and system.bmg. One contains a list of stations and harbors for the levels, while the other contains dialogue for buying tickets and getting them stamped. As a number of the locations listed are landlocked, it must be concluded that these files belong to a scrapped train system for the island. Given the locations listed, this would have been the primary means of accessing levels in the game. Strangely, Pinna Park is among the listed locations, as are several other presumably island locations. This implies that either there was a bridge to Pinna Park, the train is a subway, or that Pinna Park was not always on the tail island.

station.bmg
The actual list is in Japanese, so the translated names are listed below. Notice that this list is very similar to the list of levels given in the unused title screen menu, except that Lighthouse Island is new. In the final game, the only lighthouse on the island is in Delfino Plaza.


 * Dolphic Town Station
 * Rico Harbor Station
 * Bianco Hills Entrance
 * Mamma Beach Station
 * Sirena Beach Station
 * In front of Hotel Delfino
 * Pinna Parco Station
 * In front of Hotel Lacrima
 * Mare Village Harbor
 * Monte Village Station
 * Erto Rock Station
 * Battleship Island (TEMPORARY) Harbor
 * In front of Flame Temple (TEMPORARY)
 * Lighthouse Island (TEMPORARY) Harbor
 * Corona Mountain Entrance

system.bmg
These snippets belong to what would be dialogue trees.

Obscured Map Text


On the top-left and bottom-right of the in-game map of Isle Delfino is some brief tourism marketing copy, tying in with the idea that Mario received this tourist map upon arrival. While the first section of text is perfectly legible, the second (guide_tx_2.bti) is partially obscured by a simple boat animation. With obscured portions marked in bold, it reads as follows:

Picturesque bays, rolling hills, quaint

villages and more await you... Contact

Delfino Tours to plan your vacation today!

Nintendo logo
The Nintendo logo is blue in the Japanese version.

Title screen
The Japanese title screen has "Super Mario Sunshine" written in both English and Japanese. The American title screen has a bigger logo than the Japanese or European versions. To accommodate this, the "PRESS START" text was also somewhat awkwardly moved to fit on-screen. The European title screen keeps the title screen layout the same as the Japanese version, but the logo re-positioned the tree to be on the left side rather than on the right.

Options menu
The Japanese version didn't have the ability to turn off the subtitles. This is most likely due to the Japanese version using English voice acting during cutscenes. The layout of the American screen was slightly altered for the extra setting to fit.

Level select
They changed these level names for the English-speaking audience. Note that Mare is the name for Noki, and Monte is the name for Pianta. Additionally, stories are called episodes and "My score" was reduced to "Score" in the international releases.

Isle Delfino
In the American version, the island is always referred to as "Isle Delfino" while the name is less consistent in the Japanese version, where it is referred to as Dolphic Island by the introductory video.

As seen in the Japanese video above, the name "Dolphic Island" (a translation of ドルピックとう, the in-game Japanese name) is shown during the intro. The speaker (which uses the same English voice acting) still refers to it as "Isle Delfino", even when "Dolphic Island" is shown in the top-left corner.

On a related note, Hotel Delfino was always named Delfino, even in the Japanese version. A poster inside the hotel that reads "Dolpic" was left unlocalized in the other releases.

The Prosecutor
In the American version of the court cutscene, the prosecutor and the judge use "Isle Delfino" consistently. However, in the Japanese video, while the judge remains using "Isle Delfino", the prosecutor uses an alternate take where he instead creates a third variant of the island's name: "Delfino Isle". During this take, the prosecutor's voice actor also misreads all instances of "shine" as "shrine", resulting in terms like "Shrine Sprites" and "Shrine Gate", among other mispronunciations.

Mario's Conversation
pqsYUhyXyHI During the arrival cutscene, Mario and Toadsworth are seen speaking in the background while Peach is in focus. As Peach spots Shadow Mario, the Japanese version has low-volume dialogue between them. In a bit of self-referential humor, Mario says "Looks like Mario's gonna have to find a job," to which Toadsworth asks "Are you starting a new career?" right before his line about the princess's well-being. This banter is not subtitled, and it was mysteriously removed from International versions in spite of it being in clear English.

An additional line removed from the international version, Mario saying something like "It looks like a giant pool of paint" can be heard earlier in the same cutscene, in the shot right before the Toads' lines.



Map Screen
The small text on the map screen is always in grammatically correct English, even in the Japanese version, but it was still changed between versions. Also, the lettering is thicker.

Jump off of Yoshi
The way Mario jumps off of Yoshi differs between the Japanese and the international versions. In the Japanese version, he jumps off directly above Yoshi and in the international versions, he jumps off rather behind him. This change was most probably done in order to fix a glitch that allows you to clip through ceilings when jumping off of Yoshi. However, this change also introduced the "infinite flutter" glitch that allows you to flutter consecutively by jumping off and using a ground-pound immediately.

Level Preview Video
For some reason, the video that plays in the graffiti portal to Bianco Hills was re-rendered for the North American release, with the camera making a much wider circle around the windmill than in the Japanese version. Note that they didn't bother to fix the noticeable jump in the positions of the clouds and windmill when the video loops.

Signboard Text


In the international versions, signboards show some unreadable Noki symbols. But in the Japanese version, the signs have what looks like placeholder English text.

Endings
The Japanese versions of the post-credits endings have the text as part of the video. The text was made into separate graphics for the US release.

100-Coin Shine Freeze
If the player collects 99 coins on the main plaza, and then one more coin on the secret level "Red Coin Field", the game will freeze on the Japanese and US versions; this happens because there is no spawn point for the 100-coin Shine Sprite in this level. Despite the absence of Yellow Coins in this level, Pokey releases some coins when they're sprayed into a wall. A spawn point for the Shine Sprite was added in the PAL version.