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Proto:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
This page details one or more prototype versions of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
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Paper Mario 2 was an early name for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, before Nintendo opted to get a bit more clever and descriptive with the title. A demo with this title, containing three different areas and the first side-scrolling Bowser level at the end of the first area, was released as one of the games on the USA "Interactive Multi-Game Demo Disc Version 18" for the 2004 Christmas holiday. The demo was built on 21 June 2004 (judging by the date in the internal name), which places it over a month earlier than the original Japanese release and several months earlier than the English and PAL releases.
Being extremely close to the game's Japanese release, it's very close to the final version of the game. Even so, at this point there are still quite a few differences - especially in the localization.
Contents
Sub-Pages
 | Text & Dialogue Early names, grammar fixes, and pronoun shenanigans. |
Unused Music
Petalburg Event
Internal Track Name: BGM_EVT_NOK1
File Name: evt_nok1_32k.stm
This has leftovers in the final versions of the game. It's meant for an event in Petalburg.
S.S. Flavion (WIP Version)
File Name: evt_sil1_32k.stm
It's a work-in-progress version of the song that plays in Chapter 5, when the S.S. Flavion sets sail. It seems to have been mistakenly left on the disc, as Chapter 5 is not playable in this demo.
Graphical Differences
| Demo | Final |
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The game icon has a bevelled yellow background unlike the plain gradient background of the final, and a left-facing, more pixelated Mario, closely resembling his sprite from the first game.
| Demo | Final |
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The text on the game banner is higher up and is in a different font in the final. The final banner also has some character images on it.
| Demo | Final |
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The Champ's belt has a (fake) gold star on it in the final, which is missing in the early graphic. The early graphic is shaped more like a traditional wrestler's championship belt.
| Demo | Final |
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The handle of the Strange Sack was changed from a red shade to a browner one. It is also slightly bigger in the early graphic.
| Demo | Final |
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The "W" Emblem was recolored from purple to yellow. It's also likely that the Purple "W" Emblem would have been used for Waluigi's clothes, rather than combining the L and yellow W Emblems.
| Demo | Final |
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The Hooktail Castle background has an extra blob of cloud and two extra cloudy lines in the final.
| Demo | Final |
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| Demo | Final |
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The "STAR POINTS!" graphic isn't capitalized in the final. There are no "You got" or "Star Point!" graphics in the demo. The layout was adjusted accordingly. Strangely the number still uses the early style.
Unused Graphics
These two graphics, removed from the final game, depict earlier names for Twilight Town (top) and Creepy Steeple (bottom), which are also reflected in their internal designations.
Art Attack Debugging Feature
Using Art Attack in the prototype shows a hitbox around every enemy. You can't use Art Attack (or any other Crystal Star Power for that matter) without hacking the demo.
Area Differences
Star Crystal Fields
- No save block next to the pipe which leads to the sewers.
- The pipe which normally leads to the sewers instead takes you right back to Star Crystal Field (pipe animation still happens).
- The badge you would normally get when Koops joins you isn't present in the demo. The block is, however.
- Goombella no longer reminds you about her tattle function when entering the area just before Petalburg.
- It isn't possible to get the horsetail item.
- Courage Shell is called "Courage Cola". This is a mistranslation: Someone mistook コウラ (koura, "shell") for コーラ (kōra, "cola"), and translated it as such.
- Can't check sign in shop.
- Shopkeeper doesn't tell you the number of points you have.
- General White is absent in the demo.
- In Mayor Kroop's house, both the coffee table and the dresser don't have shadows.
Hooktail Castle
- Dull Bones are called Koopa Skeletons in the demo.
- No save blocks.
- It isn't possible to leave Hooktail Castle.
Boggly Woods
- When you use the Puni Orb to raise the pipe, the sound is different.
- X-Nauts are called Boomer Gangers.
- No save blocks.
