Prerelease:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
 | To do:
|
Contents
Manual
Trouble Center
| To do: Try and get a rough date/placement for this build and check the manuals of the other regions |
The picture of the Trouble Center used on page 30 of the US manual shows an older design of the room that has part of the floorboards broken. Goombella is also shown to have soles in this build.
May 2004
E3 2004
Demo
The Goombas had soles in this build.
Photos
 | This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. |
Concept Art
| To do: There's a LOT of concept art in the Switch version's gallery. See which ones date back to the GameCube version and get it all documented. |
Like Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, the Nintendo Switch remake features a concept art gallery that incrementally updates as the player progresses through the game. This gallery features early art that dates back to the original GameCube version (evidenced by checking the dates in the sketches and cross-comparing some of the material with unused assets in the GameCube game's data), providing some insight on the way that the game's cast evolved.
Petalburg Characters
Early artwork for Hooktail and several of Petalburg's Koopas. Of note is that none of these early Hooktail designs feature the pop-up appearance that she would take on in the final game, leaving it ambiguous regarding how the development team initially envisioned her fitting into the papercraft world. The full-color Hooktail artwork also features a floral pattern on her body that is absent in the final game. Koopie Koo additionally ties her hair up in pigtails instead of a large ponytail, wears dull purple pants instead of ones that match her pink shirt sleeves, and wears a pendant that she does not have in the final game. Kroop dons a pair of spectacles, and a set of sketches for Koops (dated to October 4, 2002) shows three different early designs for him. The left one is most similar to his final appearance, though he apparently has a stripe on his hoodie. The center design depicts him in a baggy shirt and baggy shorts instead of a hoodie and gym shorts, and he wears his shell like a backpack, implying that he was meant to be much younger at one point in development; the design on the right seems to corroborate this, depicting him wearing a snorkel and a swim ring. Koopley's design is the only one with no significant differences from the final game (barring the lack of soles on his shoes).
Puni and Shadow Sirens
Early artwork for the Puni and Shadow Sirens. The former's early sketches detail a variety of alternate bipedal designs with plantlike tails instead of antenna, while the full color Puni seen on the leftmost part of the image features a solid green body instead of a gray one. The Shadow Sirens' alternate designs are also worth noting for a number of reasons. Most prominently, the full color art of the trio depicts them with elemental tassels at the end of their hats, which align with an early Vivian sprite found in the game's data (though her skin has been changed from black to purple). Another sketch dated to December 26, 2002 shows a very early design for the Shadow Sirens, depicting them as bedsheet ghosts rather than witches. The bottom-right set of Vivian sketches (dated to January 6, 2003) also shows various alternate hairstyles and hats, with two of them confirming that the pink circles on the sides of her face are blush spots, not eyes.
Twilight Town Characters
Early artwork for both Madame Flurrie and Doopliss, revealing a number of early designs for both. While Flurrie's cloudlike design was apparently present from the outset, the early iteration showcased lacks the hair and jewelry seen in her final design, instead sporting an umbrella as her distinguishing accessory. Other proposed designs include a Bub-ulb (whose flower would've functioned as a fan), a cowboy bird, and a flower which vaguely resembles a Piranha Plant bud.
As for Doopliss, most of his early designs (dated to April 8, 2003) are variations on the Duplighosts from the original Paper Mario (as would be the case with his final iteration), but with multiple different implementations of his star and carnival motifs. Most of these early designs are considerably less malevolent than how he appears in the final game, implying that the staff were experimenting with different characterizations for him. Of note are two designs on the bottom-right which diverge considerably from those of standard Duplighosts, implying that the developers considered making him a unique species at one point.
The concept art also features a color illustration of a Twilighter in pig form, showing two different design suggestions. The one on the right is what the final game would feature.
Sailors
Early artwork for Flavio, Admiral Bobbery, Pa-Patch, a Bob-omb sailor, and two Toads. Apparently, Flavio was going to be a Toad at one point before being redesigned into an original species, though his final, Marge Simpson-style color scheme wouldn't be implemented until after this change. Of note is that the art for Admiral Bobbery depicts the soldier design seen in an early sprite found in the game's data, though his mustache in the artwork is blonde instead of silver and his shoes have a camouflage pattern instead of being solid green. The artwork also confirms that the orange and silver thing on his back is supposed to be grid fins. Various other (mostly army-themed) Bob-omb designs from October 7, 2002, likely additional proposed designs for Admiral Bobbery, are featured as well; of note is the top-left Bob-omb sketch, which appears to have influenced General White's design, and the feminine design in the center.
References
- ↑ Andrew Goldfarb - Twitter, Feb. 7th, 2021
