Prerelease:Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.
 | To do:
|
Contents
General
A common theme across most pre-release shots is barely recognizable levels with many unknown areas and, in earlier builds, noticeable graphical differences.
Most screenshot of the game during development were seemingly distributed on picture slides, due to their high quality and because of different magazines republishing them.
Title Screen
| SCES 1993 | Spaceworld 1993 | Final Game |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
- The SCES 1993 version features a completely different title screen, with a brick background, shaded logo text, Wario's head on the 'O' and his silhouette on the ground. The "Super Mario Land 3" subtitle is also missing. The game's box art uses this text design.
- The Spaceworld 1993 version is much closer to the final game, however:
- The game is referred to as Super Mario Land 3: Kairiki Wario (kairiki meaning "super strong"); this title and logo is also present on the flyer. Considering the earlier US version used the final Wario Land title, this strongly implies the game was going to have a Japanese-specific version, like Super Mario Land 2 did.
- The wooden box is using a slightly different design.
- Copyright text is aligned to the right. In the final game, it's centered.
- Both the SCES 1993 and Spaceworld 1993 versions have Wario's trademark mustache as part of the title screen.
Status Bar
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
All known pre-release shots of the game use the older status bar, including the ones on the initial run of game's US manual.
- No course number is shown. To make space for it, the PAUSE text was moved to the right.
- An "X" graphic is used as a separator between icons and numbers, which was replaced by an "-" in the final game. Evidently, this was a very late change and the Treasure Room still uses the original graphic:
Pre-SCES 1993
While this version appears alongside coverage of SCES 1993, it isn't what was shown at the event.
The screenshots from this version of the game appear to show a very early version of Course 1, given the linearity of the level design and its usage of Wandering Gooms.
- At this point in development, the level was originally a forest stage using a completely different version of its tileset, with bubbly trees, simplistic tree trunks, grass on the ground and a more traditional ground pattern similar to Super Mario Land 2's iteration. Not a single block of this tileset made it into the final game.
- The sprite mapping for the Goom has the lower part misaligned, which makes it look different even though it's otherwise identical to final.
- More of the stage, showing larger tree trunks.
- Ladders are present with different graphics. The ladder placement is similar to how they are set up in Course 1.
- Powerups were already implemented in this version, as the Bull Hat can be seen with different graphics. The earlier version of the hat lacks the emblem, uses different perspective for the horns and is shorter horizontally by one pixel -- which actually makes it fit Wario's head unlike the final game.
- Wario has just bumped into the Goom, bouncing it much higher than usual. At this point in development, stunned actors have a different 1-frame "animation" using graphics that in the final game are always shown vertically flipped. These alternate stun animations are still in the final game and every actor defines them, but go unused since stunned actors were changed to reuse the animation for being held.
| Pre-SCES 1993 | Final | Final (Title screen) |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Wario's standing sprite has some differences, some of which, curiously, made it into the sprite used for the title screen:
- The hat design is completely different.
- The ear on the left is pointier.
- The leg on the left doesn't face the same direction as the other leg, and there's a visible gap between legs.
This early sprite also contains some additional differences:
- The shoe on the right is longer by 1px.
- Possibly some shading changes in the hat and shoes.
- Wario's nose is smaller.
- Wario’s left shoe is flat, unlike the title screen version where it points slightly upward.
SCES 1993
These shots come from the version actually playable at the show.
An unknown forest level, similar to the first section of Course 37. Given that the timer is close to 400, this section was near the beginning of the level.
The tileset for this room is already very similar to the one used in the final game, however:
- The mountain background tiles are rougher and look slightly broken.
- Barely noticeable, but the background trees are slightly more detailed and use extra tiles. Said extra tiles were later deleted to make space for new graphics.
- The leaf blocks had their background color changed to white to account for the different background layout in the final game.
- Instead of animated munchers, this level had spike pits. Very similar graphics exist, unused, in the final game.
The same area as the previous screenshot, but with the status bar. Another Pirate Goom can be seen on the left.
- Very different graphics are used for the ground and the water, even featuring basic drop shadows!
The wavy pattern ended up being removed from the water, while the ground was redesigned to look similar to the black ground from the cave levels. - There's no far mountain background (as in Course 7 or 10)
- The background platforms are cut-off near the water surface.
- The water surface itself is using different graphics.
This also shows an anglerfish enemy, which was cut late into development and seemingly replaced by the Pinwheel. As seen in other screenshots, its lightbulb was animated, and was likely the part which dealt damage.
This appears to show the area to the left of the screenshot above, with part of the 2x2 block structure visible. Again, given that the timer is close to 400, this section had to be near the beginning of the level.
A section of a forest level with a few Wanderin' Gooms and ladders. In the final game, these ladders are only used in the drained Course 31.
Another section of a forest level with unknown structures in the background. Once again, the graphics for the standing Wanderin' Goom are misaligned, like in the Pre-SCES shots.
| SCES 1993 | Final | Final (Title screen) |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Wario's sprite design has now been updated and now looks similar to the one from the final game. However, the legs/shoes still look like the ones from the Pre-SCES version, Wario's nose is still smaller and the shading on the chin is simpler.
Spaceworld 1993
The game was showcased at the Spaceworld event, which took place on August 25 1993. This version of the game still looks fairly similar to the SCES version, but it appears to show more areas, yet again with many graphical differences.
Possibly an earlier version of Course 2, using an earlier version of that level's tileset.
An earlier skull design can be seen, as well as the old version of breakable blocks, even earlier than the ones from the alternate block tileset.
An unknown stone cave area. The tileset this room used was completely scrapped in the final game, or possibly reworked into the water cave tileset (Course 09).
Miscellaneous
An earlier version of the Course 1 tileset, using the same old stone graphics. The background is light gray instead of white, while the clouds are smaller and aren't kept at the top of the screen.
Of particular interest is the spiky enemy, which in the final game ended up being used only in a single room.
Japanese Flyer
Shots from a Japanese flyer, which appear to be close to the Spaceworld version.
An area using the old version of the Course 1 tileset. The player just smashed breakable blocks, showing that the block debris effect is implemented. The aforemented spiky enemy is present in this shot too.
Interestingly, this appears to show a dark room made of stone blocks, akin to the World 2 Fortress from Super Mario Bros 3. The only graphics of this tileset that survived in the final game are the eyes in the middle of the larger stone blocks, likely because they are animated tiles which are stored separately from the main tileset that got cut.
| SCES 1993 | Pre-release |
|---|---|
|
|
|
This is the same exact area previously shown during SCES 1993. Since then, however, an early version of the background used by water levels has been added.
| SCES 1993 | Spaceworld 1993 | Final |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Compared to the SCES 1993 version, the shoes have been finalized. However, Wario's face still uses the older design, and this design stayed until very late in development -- and as a result, the copies of the player sprites in the Save Selection and Treasure Room use this older design.
Much like what happened with the Goom in the Pre-SCES shot, the sprite for the shoe on the left is misaligned, which appears to be a bug. In addition, actors here are also held closer to the player.
Post-Spaceworld 1993
A series of shots, likely part of picture slides. They appear to date some time after the Spaceworld 1993 demo and a few of them appeared on Famitsu's 248th issue, dating them no later than September 17 1993. Around November, other magazines would reprint them alongside additional screenshots, presumably part of the same set.
Early Course 10
These screenshots appear to show an earlier version of Course 10. While the basic level structure is there, it still has noticeable differences in graphics and level layout.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
- The solid ground is still using the wavy pattern...
- ...but by this point it's been removed from the water. In its place, underwater grass was added as a background detail, which also ended up being removed.
- The grassy background is using an extra set of graphics for the part closer to the water surface. These extra graphics were deleted, and the background was moved down to compensate.
- Platforms still look cut off near the water surface. It isn't as noticeable here since the far background is light gray rather than white (as in the final version).
- A clearer shot of the cut fish enemy can be seen as well, showing a different animation frame.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
Later on in the level, which, while is still using the early mountain backdrop seen during SCES, it doesn't look glitched anymore.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
The top of the mountain is more simplistic in the pre-release version.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
The area after the mountain. Not too different other than platform rearrangements.
More interestingly, this also shows an earlier design for the Jet Hat, with the hat itself using completely different graphics and Wario being in the swimming pose.
Other
| Pre-release | Course 03 |
|---|---|
|
|
Probably an earlier version of what would become Course 3.
- The quicksand here is using special tiles at the top of the sandfall, which were later deleted.
- The room uses Pirate Gooms instead of the Hermit Crab enemies. The former are never seen alongside quicksand with this tileset in the final game.
- The room contains a large amount of solid sand blocks, but no stone blocks. In the final game, when solid sand blocks are placed, there's always at least a row of stone blocks at the bottom of the screen.
- The beach tileset seemingly wasn't updated since the Spaceworld version, so the same background differences apply.
| Pre-release | Course 04 |
|---|---|
|
|
An older version of Course 04. The ceiling never gets this low for long streches of the level.
The background is also darker, which, while it makes sense (given it's a cave level, after all) it would have been very hard to see on a Game Boy screen.
| Spaceworld 1993 | Pre-release |
|---|---|
|
|
|
Appears to be the same area previously shown in a Spaceworld 1993 screenshot, but the item block was moved to the left and the spark enemy was removed, assuming something wasn't thrown at it previously.
An unknown cave level. The finalized breakable block design can be seen on the left.
US/EU Box Back
Once again, the back of the US/EU Box manages to use screenshots from a prerelease version. Curiously, the back of the Japanese box uses screenshots from the final game.
An unknown underwater cavern area with water currents.
- Graphics and tile arrangement for the rocks in the background were altered.
- In the final game, water is missing any kind of background detail (bar bottomless pits indicators and water currents).
A shot of an unknown room. The third room of Course 11 is the area in the final game that looks most similar to this, but the platform arrangements are different here.
Nintendo Power (January 1994)
These shots from the January 1994 issue of Nintendo Power preview a later version of the game. The graphics used here are very close to the ones from the final game, and some of the level designs are finally recognizable.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
The map screen is shown for the first time, and is already identical to final.
| Pre-release | Final |
|---|---|
|
|
The breakable blocks were moved to the right.
An unknown section of a level with water currents. The fish enemy still exists.
An unknown section of a level, similar to what would be used in Course 21.
US Manual
The manual used for the initial US print of the game uses screenshots from a very late prerelease version.
The only difference with the final game is in the status bar, as it's still using the older "X" graphic as separator.
| To do: Add screenshots. |
