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 Released in KR: December 26, 2012 Released in TW: June 21, 2013 This game has unused areas. This game has unused items.

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 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.

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 Levels

Placeholder Stage

This little stage occupies 45 level slots, and was presumably a placeholder for the slots that were later filled out with actual levels. 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 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.

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

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

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 nothing to compare it to.

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

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, 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

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

This level seemingly used a different mechanic in it's 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

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.

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

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

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.

Early 9-5

Present in 07-04.sarc, with 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 with a few cosmetic changes here and there.

Area 2

Early	Final

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!

Unused 2-3 Tiles

World 2-3 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 the player approaches that section of the level.

Unused Coin

World 3-3 has a whole single unused coin underneath the zone.

Unused Coin Formations

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

Unused Tiles

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

Some sort of block structure is located underneath Zone 1.

Area 3

Early	Final

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

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

Pointless Red Blocks

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

Past the Flagpole

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