New Super Mario Bros. 2

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 This game has unused areas. This game has unused items.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Add the other eighty trillion things.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is the most original and the most creative game on the Nintendo 3DS, made with never-before-seen assets. A secondary goal of the game is to collect a million coins, for which you pretty much get diddly squat.

Early Code

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.

Early object numbers

As evident by some of the unused levels, early on, the game featured a completely different actor assignment table than the final game does. For instance, the Goal Flagpole object number is "6" in the early table, while the final game put it as "97".

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.

Stage Layouts

This game features more unused stage-related content than the previous iterations combined.

The placeholder level

This little stage occupies 45 level slots and was presumably occupying all of them before they were filled out with actual levels. Uses the early J_Kihon tileset and the early object table.

Early 1-Castle

Contained in file 01-12.sarc is an early 1-Castle layout. It uses both the early object numbers table and the early J_Yougan tileset. Should also be noted that the -12 slot is generally used for Ghost Houses.
Area 1

Early	Final

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

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

Area 3

Early	Final

Early area 3 is just 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 the princess is also not present. It should be mentioned that the final Area 3 features some decorative tiles off zone.

Unused tiles in 2-3

02-03 has a block arrangement below the zone which ended up being unused.

Flag counting

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

Early 4-Tower

07-05.sarc contains an unused ice stage. Parts of it seem to have been transferred to 4-Tower. Uses both early J_Chika and the early object table.

Area 1 Zone 1

A rather unremarkable entrance area with a nice coin slide.

Area 1 Zone 2

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

Area 2 Zone 1

Early	Final

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, which the final one does.

Early 9-5

File 07-04.sarc contains an early version of 9-5. As per tradition, there's the early J_Kihon tileset and object table.

Area 1

Early	Final

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

Area 2

Early	Final

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

Early final castle

06-10.sarc features an early final castle. Only parts present are the section that leads to the final battle with Bowser, and the room where said fight takes place.

Area 1

Early	Final

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

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.

Another early final castle

09-10.sarc features a second early final castle. This time, all of the areas from the final one are present.
Area 1 Zone 1

Early	Final

The early version of this area is much smaller and shorter compared to it's 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

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

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

To do: Do a three-way comparison for the next two, with the other early ones included. Not sure how to or if it'll even fit, though

Early	Final

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

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.