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New Super Mario Bros. 2

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Title Screen

New Super Mario Bros. 2

Developer: Nintendo EAD Group No. 4
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Released in JP: July 28, 2012
Released in US: August 19, 2012
Released in EU: August 17, 2012
Released in AU: August 18, 2012
Released in KR: December 26, 2012
Released in TW: June 21, 2013


AreasIcon.png This game has unused areas.
EnemyIcon.png This game has unused enemies.
ObjectIcon.png This game has unused objects.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
ModelsIcon.png This game has unused models.
TextIcon.png This game has unused text.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.
Carts.png This game has revisional differences.


New Super Mario Bros. 2, the inaccurately-named third installment in the New Super Mario Bros. series, is the most original and most creative game on the 3DS, made with completely brand new, never-before-seen assets. Besides saving the princess, a secondary goal of the game is to collect 1,000,000 coins, for which you get pretty much diddly squat.

According to an interview with the game's directors, the development staff for this one consisted mainly of people who had never worked on a 2D Mario platformer before. This is evident in some odd (but not necessarily bad) level design choices.

Hmmm...
To do:

Sub-Pages

NotesIcon.png
English Translation Differences
All of the English text differences between the European and North American versions.
NSMB2-signboard exclamation mark.png
Unused Features
All of the unused settings and features that didn't make an appearance in the final.

Unused Models

Gold Spiny

NSMB2-Gold Spiny.pngNSMB2-Gold Spiny Egg.png

There are model archives for gold versions of the Spiny (togezo_G.bcres and paipo_G.bcres), despite the fact that when the Gold Ring is activated, Spinies turn into coins.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Early Gold Koopa

Hmmm...
To do:
Add render of normal model with its early gold texture

The normal (non-gold) Koopa Troopa model archive, nokonokoA.bcres, contains an early Gold Koopa model which comes with an early texture. There are also two more early textures contained within the archive, that would have gone with the normal Koopa model. The final gold Koopa Model (which is the same as the normal Koopa model) and texture is contained in a separate archive, nokonokoG.bcres, like the other gold enemy models.

Early Final
NSMB2-Gold Koopa-early.png NSMB2-Gold Koopa-final.png


Early, for normal model Early, used in unused model Final
NSMB2-Gold Koopa-Early texture 1 for normal model.png

NSMB2-Gold Koopa-Early texture 2 for normal model.png

NSMB2-Gold Koopa-Early texture used in unused model.png NSMB2-Gold Koopa-Final texture 1.png

NSMB2-Gold Koopa-Final texture 2.png

(Source: Original TCRF research)

3D Donut Block

NSMB2-3D Donut Block front view.pngNSMB2-3D Donut Block angled view.png

A 3D Donut Block. The final Donut Block uses 2D graphics, and has wide variations.

(Source: Original TCRF research)


Unused Graphics

Placeholder Coins

NSMB2 temp Coin Gold.png NSMB2 temp Coin Blue.png

These coin graphics can be found in every variation of "jyotyu" tileset (i.e. the tileset for general tiles like blocks and pipes). They act as a placeholder for the coin animation that is visible when coins jump out of blocks (ActorCoinDemoJump). The "倍" character means "double" and refers to the doubled rotation speed of the coin animation written to that tile slot.

Temporary Moon Coin Icon

NSMB2-TempMoonCoinIcon.png

ft_MoonCoinGet_00.bclim in MapSceneTop.arc is this image of what is probably a Star Coin, with the word "moon" on top of it.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Placeholder Mii

NSMB2-PlaceholderMii.png

Various layout archives contain images of this placeholder Mii. There is also a small variation.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Fourth Built-In Course Pack

NSMB2-4thBuiltInCoursePackIcon.png

There is an icon for a fourth built-in course pack, alongside the used icons. It depicts the Super Leaf.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

WX_dummy

NSMB2-W1 dummy.png

In the directory RomFS\Model\CourseSelect there are several files called CS_WX.bcres (With X being replaced with numbers 1-9). Within files 1-5, there is an unused texture which (as the name suggests) is a dummy file for the corresponding world. It is just an 8x8 image of nothing but black, so there's not really much to see here. Strangely, in CS_W2.bcres, the dummy file is still called W1_dummy. This file is also present in other archives in the same directory, with the name still being W1_dummy.

NSMB Seesaw Lift

Seesaw lift -NSMB2-.png

The Seesaw Lift model, obj_lift_seesaw.bcres, contains a copy of the Seesaw Lift texture from New Super Mario Bros.. It doesn't fit the current model.

Unused Font Characters

Hmmm...
To do:
Compare them pixel for pixel and add comparison image

NSMB2-Unused Font Icons.png MarioFont32.bcfnt, the main font file for the game, contains some unused characters. These all are leftovers from Super Mario 3D Land except for the castle icon which looks to be unique.

World Map Diamonds

Like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the World Maps have 3D diamonds that mark the path spots, but they aren't visible in-game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

New Super Mario Bros. Leftovers

Early World Map Path

NSMB2-CourseOBJ.png

Like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, this texture from New Super Mario Bros. is used to mark the course spots on the world map models, but it's invisible in game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Demo Ratings

NSMB2-tr RatingGE 00.pngNSMB2-tr RatingJP 00.pngNSMB2-tr RatingPO 00.pngNSMB2-tr RatingUS 00.png

The European demo version contains graphics for USK, CERO, PEGI, Portuguese PEGI and ESRB ratings, but only the standard PEGI rating graphic is used.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Blue Block Shards

Careful, you'll lose an eye.
This page or section needs more images.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Blue Blocks have shard graphics which appear if they are destroyed, but destroying them isn't possible without hacking.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Early Object Numbers

As evident by some of the unused levels, early on the game used a completely different actor assignment table. For instance, the Goal Flagpole object number is 6 in the early table but 97 in the final one.

Unused Actors

ActorBlockRouletteSwitch

ActorBlockRouletteSwitch (ID 0xB8) is a block that cycles through two colors, red and blue. When hit, it activates flags based on the current color and stops changing color. For graphics, it uses two unused tiles from the main tileset. It seems pretty unfinished due to the lack of extra sounds (like the item roulette block and the switches have) and the fact that the tiles aren't displayed with the proper transparency for some reason.

(Source: RicBent)

FlagSwitchRandom

Previous games in the New Super Mario Bros. series featured a random flag controller (flags being the things activated by switches). New Super Mario Bros. 2 follows suit, having a FlagSwitchRandom actor (ID 0x19). Only difference being, the actor is not assigned to an object number, and thus unused. However, once restored, it is shown that it has 5 known settings. It has 4 triggering IDs, which the sprite then randomly chooses 1 and activates it. The other event is a target ID, which activates the actor.

DokanBonePakkunUp

The "Pipe Bone Piranha Plant - Up" actor is fully functional, but unused.

SearchKiller

This has an actor associated with it (ID 0xC4) and it makes enemies track the player characters. The actor is incomplete, as the animation for it turning around towards the player looks weird. Judging by the name, it was likely intended for the Bullet Bills (Killer is the Japanese name for the Bullet Bills).


(Source: MrRean)

Unused Replay Recorder/Player

The input manager class used to manage the game's gamepad input contains unused functionality to record and play back gameplay of a given level. Internally the input manager has 3 states - 0: Regular, 1: Record, 2: Playback. Without modifications to the games's code it will always be in the regular state.

In ScCourse::onCreate a global replay file path is checked if it is empty. If not, the input manager is put into the playback state and the given file path is used to load the replay data. That path however is never written to which means no replay data is ever loaded.

In ScCourse::onDelete the same path is checked if it is empty again. If not InputMgr::saveReplay is called. The given path to that function is just an empty string though so no data will be saved, even if the global replay path is set. The input manager's state is also never set to "Record" which is also required to save a proper replay.

There is also an unused code path to save replays to two locations on the 3ds' SD card if one is inserted:

sd://replay/[YY][MM][DD]_[hh][mm]_[ss]_[ii].rpr

  • YY: Year (last 2 digits)
  • MM: Month as 2 digits
  • DD: Day as 2 digits
  • hh: Hour as 2 digits
  • mm: Minute as 2 digits
  • ss: Second as 2 digits
  • ii: Index as 2 digits, counting up from 0 if there already exists a file with the name

sd://replay/prd/[W]-[L].rpr

  • W: Current World
  • L: Current Level

A sample recording from "Gold Rush Pack-1" (10-1.sarc) can be found here: File:NSMB2 10-1.rpr.zip.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii also contains a replay system which was used for the gameplay for the title screen, the green ! block super plays and for the movies accessible from Peach's castle.

Early Tilesets

Similarly to the early object number table, old levels seem to have been designed with old versions of the J_Kihon/Yougan/Chika tilesets, which means those were reshuffled at some point of the development.

Unused Behaviors

  • Trampolines become squished down if Mega Mario walks on them, and become unsquished once he walks off.
  • The posts of Chain Chomps get knocked off-screen like pipes if Mega Mario walks into them. They get pushed all the way into the ground if Mega Mario stands on them.

Unused Levels

Placeholder Stage

Very TEST-esque thing from SMW

This little stage occupies 45 level slots, and was presumably a placeholder for the slots that were later filled out with actual levels. It uses the early J_Kihon tileset and the early object table.

Ice Level

07-05.sarc contains an ice stage, parts of which seem to have been transferred to World 4-Tower. Uses the early J_Chika and the early object table.

Area 1 Zone 1

A nice beginning

A rather unremarkable entrance area with a nice coin slide.

Area 1 Zone 2

A nice end

Another rather unremarkable area, with some Goombas and a flagpole.

Area 2 Zone 1

Early Final
Inherently broken
Broken into multiple parts

Area 2 of this level was split into chunks, retiled with the Ice Tower tileset and incorporated into 4-Tower. The early level has Koopa Troopas instead of Buzzy Beetles, is generally shorter, and doesn't have any bonus areas.

Underwater Stage

08-04.sarc is an underwater stage which doesn't seem to resemble any other stage in the game. It seems that a small section may have been incorporated into World Mushroom-2, but otherwise is almost completely different. As usual, it has the old object set and the early blocks tileset.

Area 1

Repurposing the placeholder level as the flagpole area? Lazy, lazy, lazy.

The entire area is nothing more but a small beach entrance room with a pipe and the placeholder level used as the flagpole room.

Area 2

That looks like a pretty meh level

This level's only real distinction is that it's the only early full stage that's not an early copy of something else. It's hard to guess what the level would be about, as there's no plausible comparisons.

Early 1-Castle

Present in 01-12.sarc. It uses both the early object numbers table and the early J_Yougan tileset. It should also be noted that the -12 slot is generally used for Ghost Houses.

Area 1

Early Final
Underdeveloped Shiny sparkly

Notable differences in Area 1 include lack of the secret area with the Raccoon Leaf runway and above the final Giant Thwomp. Located outside of the zone in the early layout are also some impossible-to-see tiles and a pipe entrance, which have been removed in the final version.

Area 2

Laziness

Area 2, not present in the final version of the level, appears to be directly lifted from New Super Mario Bros.' Castle 1 Area 2, bringing an interesting possibility of this level being built using that level as a base.

Area 3

Early Final
Underdeveloped v2 Custom boss tiles and shiz

An unpolished version of the final one. There's no BossShutter objects present, suggesting the bosses worked somewhat differently. The little room where you're supposed to see the next Koopaling run off with Princess Peach is also absent. It should be mentioned that the final Area 3 features some decorative tiles off-zone.

Early Flower-B

Present in 05-09.sarc, complete with the old J_Hikon and the early sprite set as usual.

Area 1 Zone 1

Early Final
Sverige är fantastiskt Vi tycker inte om Sverige längre

This level seemingly used a different mechanic in its first form, seeing how there are no mushroom stems in the early version. There are no bonus areas, as well. The Sweden-flag-like platforms were removed in favor of more presentable mushroom blocks.

Area 2 of the early version consists solely of a copy of the placeholder level.

Early Final Castle #1

Present in 06-10.sarc. The only portions present are the section that leads to the final battle with Bowser, and the room where said fight takes place.

Area 1

Early Final
Underdeveloped v3 Featuring your favorite SMB3 tiles

Area 1 is an early version of Area 3 in the final level. Clearly just temporary work, which was later refined.

Area 2

Early Final
What is this ungodly mess
Phew. After someone sane took over the level design

Area 2 is what's supposed to be the final battle room. It's not clear what the early area was trying to achieve, but what is clear is that the final boss battle was meant to be quite different from how it ended up.

Early Final Castle #2

Present in 09-10.sarc is a second early iteration of the final castle, although this time all of the areas from the final one are present.

Area 1 Zone 1

Early Final
Tiny Massive upgrade on the length

The early version of this area is much smaller and shorter compared to its finished version. An entire vertical section has been added, as well as a split path in the middle. Layer 2 backdrop was also included for decoration.

Area 1 Zone 2

Early Final
Non-secretive Very secretive

This area had a secret Raccoon Leaf alcove added and a line-following flamethrower. Other than that and some minor adjustments to coins, blocks, and decoration, it stayed pretty much the same.

Area 2 Zone 1

Early Final
NSMB2-L9-10-Area2Zone1.png Gotta have extra coinage

This area was made much longer and more difficult. The early version seemingly does not have the stone-turning Koopalings gimmick in it.

Area 3 Zone 1

Early Final
Slightly more developed, v4 Oh hey it's this image again

Once again, an unpolished temporary version of this room. This time, however, there's a little room intended for a cutscene. The hiding pits are longer compared to the other early version of this level, and objects have been moved around.

Area 4 Zone 1

Early Final
This madness again
This phew again

A second version of the weird boss fight room, this time without the blue metal blocks or the spikes. The layout of the lowest "level" was altered to be the longest instead of the shortest.

Early 9-5

Present in 07-04.sarc, with the early J_Kihon tileset and object table.

Area 1

Early Final
In much need of refinement After a bit of refinement

The biggest change here is the mass of coins that was added. Other than that, the level seems to be pretty much the same with a few cosmetic changes here and there.

Area 2

Early Final
Not much going on CUOINS

The early version seems to have nothing of interest except the Moon Coin. The final placed a ton of coins around.

"Hidden" Stage Elements

This game features more unused stage-related content than the previous iterations combined! The out-of-bound objects in World 2-3, World 5-2 and World Flower-3 aren't present in versions that were built after a certain point, namely; Korea, Japan Gold Edition, USA Gold Edition, Europe Special Edition and Taiwan/Hong Kong.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused 1-Castle Tiles

Placing doors everywhere before it was cool

World 1-Castle has 4 sets of tiles above its boss zone.

Unused 2-3 Tiles

Cool brocks, blo

World 2-3 has a block arrangement below the zone which ended up being unused.

Flag Counting

Yay, debugging help

Flower-Ghost House has invisible tiles to the left of the first zone. These numbers directly correspond to flags being activated as the player approaches that section of the level.

Unused Coin

OH MY GOD A SINGLE COIN MAKE A TCRF ARTICLE IMMEDIATELY World 3-3 has a whole single unused coin underneath the zone.

Unused Coin Formations

The impossiblest of coins

World Flower-3 has a few unused coin formations and mushroom stems underneath the first zone.

Unused Tiles

NSMB2-L7-12-Area2Offlevel.png

Mushroom-Ghost House has some unused staircases located under both of the zones.

Unused Tiles/Early Variation

Present in 07-08.sarc are unused tiles off the map and an early version of itself.

Area 1

NSMB2-L7-8-Area1Offlevel.png

Some sort of block structure is located underneath Zone 1.

Area 3

Early Final
I'm a waste of space Area 3 is wasting my RAM

Pointlessly, Area 3 is an early version of Area 1, without Layer 2 tiles and with minor adjustments. It does not use the early sprite sets/tilesets, however.

Strange Structure

What

World Mushroom-Castle has a really weird pseudo-level-structure in its boss area. It's pretty much unlike anything else in the game and serves completely no purpose.

Pointless Red Blocks

Why
I guess someone REALLY didn't like the empty space there

World 6-2 has empty red switch blocks above both zones. They serve no purpose and cannot be seen.

Past the Flagpole

NSMB2-L5-2-Area1offlevel.png

World 5-2 has some flag areas and coins beyond the flagpole, to the right of the zone. They cannot be seen or reached.

Pointless Rainbow Platforms

I guess the designer liked rainbow decorations too much

Coin Challenge Pack A Level 1 has rainbow platforms on the left of Zone 2. They cannot be normally seen or reached.

Unused Text

"Mario Select"

Label String (English files)
T_Message_00_PID00 Which Mario do you
want to play with?
T_UserName_00_PID00 0E 00 01 00 09 00 02 00 00 0A 00 00
T_UserName_01_PID00 0E 00 01 00 09 00 02 00 00 0A 00 00
T_UserName_02_PID00 0E 00 01 00 09 00 02 00 00 0A 00 00

\Message\[language]\MarioSelect\MarioSelect_00\MarioSelect_00.msbt contains strings for an early "Mario Select" screen. MarioSelect.bclyt appears to be the associated layout file.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Thank You For Playing!

Label String (English files)
T_ThankText_00 Thank You For Playing!

E3ThankYouForPlayingTop_00 in \Message\[language]\E3ThankYouForPlayingTop\E3ThankYouForPlayingTop_00.msbt contains this string. A similar string ("Thank you for playing!") can be seen in the pre-release demo(s) and in the post-release EU kiosk demo. This file is only fully present in the EU versions' Dutch text, and it is partially or fully removed in other version/language combinations.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Removed File

The Message Binary Project files (called BigRed.msbp) references a removed file "E3CourseInTop_00". This file likely contained the "Course #" text that could be seen at the beginning of levels in the pre-release demo(s).

Demo Leftover

The Korean version contains the text files from the Europe demo version, partially translated. They aren't used, and the related layout files are not present.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

New Super Mario Bros. 2 Gold Edition

A special version of New Super Mario Bros. 2 was preinstalled for a limited time on select 3DS XL and 2DS systems, named Special Edition in Europe and Gold Edition in the rest of the world. It was not made available for sale separately on the Nintendo eShop or as a physical cartridge. As a result of including all of the released DLC, the "Shop" option in Coin Rush has been removed. It is possible to re-enable the "Shop" selection by using a save from the game's original release. While the "Shop" selection is visible by doing this, it has no functionality.

In the Taiwanese version, there are graphics for both Special Edition and Gold Edition, but only the Gold Edition graphics were used.

Internal Project Name

The project's internal name is "BigRed", according to the exheader title, bcsar filename and other data. This may also be reflected in the game's two-letter code "BE" (BigRed).

(Source: Original TCRF research)