Proto:Metroid Prime

In 2002, Nintendo released Version 7 of their in-store kiosk disk, which included a Metroid Prime demo.

Title Screen
Most notably, the title screen is much darker, "METROID" seems to be carved on stone, the space background is a little different, "©2002 NINTENDO" is in italic, "[ PRESS START ]" is thinner and has less spacing between the words and the square brackets, the Screw Attack symbol is in gold outlined in black while the red circle is brighter and the outline around it is black, and they all have different lighting and shading.

Save Function
The prototype does not have a save system.

Pause Menu
The pause menu consists only of a simple map viewer and there is no Samus Screen (also known as Status Screen or Inventory).

Opening Credits
In the prototype, the message in the opening reads "Orbit inclination 21.60" 226 kilometers above the planet tallon IV." and has a blue colored font, while in the final version it reads "Unidentified distress beacon has been tracked to a derelict space vessel in orbit above Tallon IV" and has a white colored font which is slightly different in comparison to the one used in the prototype.

Ice Beam
Samus starts the intro area equipped with an Ice Beam, which she does not have there in the final.

Music
The intro area has a different music.

Early Title Screen
In the videos directory is an unused movie of what appears to be a very old main menu screen loop: TveLKybcB48

Inaccessible Equipment
While inaccessible in normal gameplay, most of the final's equipment is present, coded, functional, and can be activated using Action Replay codes:

As mentioned above, this area of memory holds several more flags and values that toggle or otherwise change the available equipment, such as the current amount of Energy Tanks.

Inventory Screen
While the inventory screen is not accessible, there are unused strings for it, containing descriptions of some items. Inventory Screen Arm Cannon Beam Upgrades Morph Ball Upgrades Suits Visors Secondary Items Powerups Default visor ( UP on D-Pad ) Used to unlock elevators and doors and download enemy info ( LEFT on D-Pad ) See invisible enemies and invisible paintings of missile icons on walls ( RIGHT on D-Pad ) Paints hot/cold objects with patriotic colors ( DOWN on D-Pad ) Default beam ( UP on C-Stick ) Shoots shards of ice ( RIGHT on C-Stick ) Shoots purple stuff ( DOWN on C-Stick ) Shoots plasma ( LEFT on C-Stick ) [insert description here] Additional jump while still in air Press and hold L while looking at a grapple target Hit Y in first-person mode to activate Hit Y to fire while missile launcher is active Default suit Protects from lava damage Cancels out water physics ??? Really big missile with a really cool particle effect Seeks out nearest enemy to damage Deals out mediocre damage for the low cost of 3 missiles per second Freezes all enemies within blast radius Who knows Hit Z while in first person mode Charge A while in morphball and let go when you're glowing yellow Hold R while in morphball Hit B while in morphball Hold still and hit Y while in morphball Gives you 10 energy units Gives you 20 energy units Would probably give you 1 power bomb, if it existed Tanks of extra energy