In the "3rd Mix PLUS!" variant of this game, there is unused data for the song "TOTAL RECALL" by ULTIMATE HEIGHTS. This includes unused graphics, step charts and lyrics for the song.
The South Korean version of the game (released two years after the original Japanese edition) contains eleven unused maps not found in any other release, featuring fully 3D environments which do not line up with any locations present in the finished product. All assets related to these maps are dated after the game's Japanese release, with intervals ranging from five days to just over three months. Additionally, the maps' texture names are written in Romanized Japanese rather than Korean, indicating that they were not created by Nintendo of Korea.
Two of these maps, kri_04 and kri_05, additionally feature various cat NPCs, all drawn in substantially different art styles compared to not only each other, but also the final game. Each one is named after a developer from the Super Paper Mario staff: yamada_neko02 (Koichiro Yamada), koba_neko (Sayuri Kobayashi), tuka_neko (Naoko Tsukamoto), and kawa_neko (Chie Kawabe).
Of these four, kawa_neko is the most unique, and was apparently designed as a player character. Firstly, the cat's name is only given to its mesh, with its sprite instead being named bc_all.1. Additionally, kawa_neko features an animated tail and a mesh that is centered on the ground rather than the middle of the room. Furthermore, new_neko_18, a redesigned version of kawa_neko with white fur instead of black, can be found in kri_08, kri_09, and kri_10; new_neko_18's mesh is explicitly labeled "PLAYER" in the data for these maps.
Taken together, all of these elements imply that these early rooms were created as a proof-of-concept for an original project by Intelligent Systems that ended up cancelled for unknown reasons.
Wuhu Island was originally created for Wii Sports before its debut appearance in Wii Fit. An early version of the island can be seen in a leaked development image for Wii Sports, and in footage of the unused Airplane sport in the E3 2006 demo for the game. The leaked image also indicates that the Airplane sport would have also given you the option to fly around the island with a Rocket Belt, an idea that would later be reused in Pilotwings Resort.
In an interview with the developers at Blue Tongue, they mentioned several buildings they wanted to include in this game, but had to drop due to design decisions or memory constraints on home consoles:
•Hotels, which would provide extra accommodation for guests. •Dino-Vet Station, which would have been vital for keeping dinosaurs healthy. •Hunting Platforms, which would let visitors hunt down carnivores in the park from afar.
The Dino-Vet Station can be found in earlier promotional material for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis and also within its game files. Likewise with the Hunting Platform, which also still has Audio, Ini and even Rig Files within the game.
When the game's logo is shown in the intro of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the word "BATTLE" has a shining effect, which is another video file overlaid over the 3D logo. There are two versions of this video, one with Japanese kanji and another with Latin script, however due to an oversight, the shining effect will only show Japanese kanji overlaid upon the English text. This would be fixed in the 2012 rerelease, but only for the English language, so other languages with an English logo still experience the error.
There are fully functional unused Diggin' Chuck, Bullet Bill, Fishbone, and Spiny enemies in the code of Hummer Team's Super Mario World, as well as sprites for crushers, Lakitu, and Clappin' Chuck without associated coding.
On the base platform of Irken Armada Invasion, there is a monitor that displays a static image of the Irken insignia. There are files suggesting that this was originally going to be an animation rather than an image, as animation textures exist for a set of clips of the Almighty Tallest taken directly from Invader Zim episodes, and there is an unused how-to-play graphic showing one of said clips on the monitor. It is not known if these clips were planned to be used or if they were placeholders for another animated graphic, and whether they were scrapped for licensing issues with TV footage, distraction issues on a stage made for competitive play, or something else entirely.
Hannah Montana: Wireless Quest has an unused graphic, likely a placeholder, that is a red square with the word "Doge" written below. While the game's exact release date is unknown, it was available at least one year after the Hannah Montana TV show began in 2006, but the "Doge" internet meme first appeared 2 years after the show was cancelled in 2011. The shared name is a coincidence rather than a reference to the meme, and it is not known what "Doge" means in this context, though it is likely some kind of debug function, as there are other unused square graphics with phrases like "Control Game" and "Control Main" next to them.
In the GameCube and Xbox versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it was intended for there to be portraits littered throughout Hogwarts of various real world people, specifically developers, their families, and some people the developers forgot about years after the fact (but believed they were involved in some kind of contest). The portraits of family members in particular were included as a coping mechanism, as they were suffering during development.
"We were doing very long hours, and it wasn’t just us suffering – our families were, too. They were supporting us – often suffering in silence. Marriages were strained, children were missing a parent. It seemed only right to put their pictures into Hogwarts; our odd way of showing our love and gratitude. And possibly to remind us what they looked like."
The development team considered these portraits some of the very few elements of the game they were truly proud of. Eurocom requested the portraits be removed without explaining why, something the developers were "too tired to fight".
Both Mach Rider's identity and gender are ambiguous. They are portrayed with a muscular build, and the NES and Famicom versions' manuals never use any gendered pronouns to refer to them. The arcade port Vs. Mach Rider's stage clear screens slowly introduce piece-by-piece an image of a skimpily-dressed woman (bearing similarities to Jane Fonda's appearance in the 1968 film Barbarella) holding a dagger, but it is never specified if this character is Mach Rider, or one of the other wasteland survivors. However, Mach Rider's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee years later lists them as a male character with he/him pronouns. Even later on, Captain Rainbow, a game centered around obscure and neglected Nintendo heroes, has an unused model for Mach Rider that, while not having visible breasts due to wearing armor, portrays them with a feminine skinny waist.
The game's files cointains data of multiple unused alternate endings for various characters such as Maya and Jago. These endings weren't properly implemented due to time constraints.
The prototype for Virtual Bart shows an ending screen at the end of the credits instead of just the player's score. It is a crudely written "THE END" in cursive with the nonsensical text "You are a true Bart Simpson" alongside the score. The "You are a true Bart Simpson" text is in the final game's code.
According to leaked development files from The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Sideshow Bob and Poochie were originally planned to appear in the game. There is an unused low-polygon model for Poochie that is pre-posed, meaning that it was likely supposed to appear as merchandise of the character (most likely alongside Itchy and Scratchy's balloons in Level 2), rather than appearing in an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon cutscene. No models for Sideshow Bob are known to exist.
When replaying through an already-completed save file, one can change the Peppino's Final Judgement ranking screen. This was not always the case, as originally attempting to change the judgement would show a screen of an ominous Peppino, drawn with details than his sprites but less detailed than his battle introduction portraits, with the caption "THE JUDGEMENT WAS FINAL. PLEASE TRY A NEW SAVE FILE." This screen would eventually be implemented in the Halloween update, albeit without its text, when one attempts to exit a newly introduced bonus level through the ghost transformation.
Before the Pizza Priest and Stupid Rat were created, some transformations had unique objects associated with them, two that would've taken a similar role to the priest are in the game's files: • A tombstone, which would turn Peppino back from a ghost • A pile of corn, which would distract Mort and free Peppino from him, referencing how corn was used as a health pick-up in Mort the Chicken and some blocks that could only be broken by transformations, like the rat, also remain in the files • A barrel block • A hot metal block, which would be destroyed by both knight and rocket transformations • A ball block • A Gustavo and Brick block
Found within the game's data is an unused room depicting a modern-day bedroom, suggesting that there was supposed to be a cutscene showing the player before getting transported to the past.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, there is an unused "PRESS START BUTTON" graphic. This would eventually be used in an exclusive revision of the game included in the Sega Top Ten compilation cartridge for Brazil and Asia. This version of the game is otherwise identical to the original release.
3 items from Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl were removed before the items update: a fart cloud, the Krusty Krab blimp, and a wrench set. The fart cloud and blimp's use are not fully known, but the wrench set would've created a platform like Toph's down special. They were rejected "because they weren't that fun".
In the files of the game, there is content implying two other potential appearances for the Krusty Krab Blimp: a texture for the Kids' Choice Awards blimp, and voice lines from the announcer referencing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' blimp, which is used in April's up special, as an item.
Jellyfish Fields, Harmonic Convergence, and Duck, Duck, Pie! all have unused early level geometry. These are all loaded in when the final stages are played and are simply hidden from view. Harmonic Convergence is very close to its final form; Jellyfish Fields lacks textures, but it can be seen that it has the sign on the base platform instead of the background; Duck, Duck, Pie! was originally a completely different style of pie that has its filling visible, which was likely changed to prevent depth perception issues.
In the files of the Donkey Kong Adventure expansion, there are unused files for Rambi the Rhino as a party member, including a model; menu icons; and skills. He would have taken up two spaces on the board and been able to charge through any destructible terrain that enemies are using as cover and destroy it instantly. In the final DLC, Rambi would not appear physically in any form, but would have a gun made in his image. Rambi's model looks closer to his appearance in Rare's Donkey Kong games than his appearance in the Paon and Retro Studios Donkey Kong games, a design change that would also be carried over to Super Nintendo World's iteration of the character after Donkey Kong Adventure's release.
In the "3rd Mix PLUS!" variant of this game, there is unused data for the song "TOTAL RECALL" by ULTIMATE HEIGHTS. This includes unused graphics, step charts and lyrics for the song.
The South Korean version of the game (released two years after the original Japanese edition) contains eleven unused maps not found in any other release, featuring fully 3D environments which do not line up with any locations present in the finished product. All assets related to these maps are dated after the game's Japanese release, with intervals ranging from five days to just over three months. Additionally, the maps' texture names are written in Romanized Japanese rather than Korean, indicating that they were not created by Nintendo of Korea.
Wuhu Island was originally created for Wii Sports before its debut appearance in Wii Fit. An early version of the island can be seen in a leaked development image for Wii Sports, and in footage of the unused Airplane sport in the E3 2006 demo for the game. The leaked image also indicates that the Airplane sport would have also given you the option to fly around the island with a Rocket Belt, an idea that would later be reused in Pilotwings Resort.
In an interview with the developers at Blue Tongue, they mentioned several buildings they wanted to include in this game, but had to drop due to design decisions or memory constraints on home consoles:
When the game's logo is shown in the intro of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the word "BATTLE" has a shining effect, which is another video file overlaid over the 3D logo. There are two versions of this video, one with Japanese kanji and another with Latin script, however due to an oversight, the shining effect will only show Japanese kanji overlaid upon the English text. This would be fixed in the 2012 rerelease, but only for the English language, so other languages with an English logo still experience the error.
On the base platform of Irken Armada Invasion, there is a monitor that displays a static image of the Irken insignia. There are files suggesting that this was originally going to be an animation rather than an image, as animation textures exist for a set of clips of the Almighty Tallest taken directly from Invader Zim episodes, and there is an unused how-to-play graphic showing one of said clips on the monitor. It is not known if these clips were planned to be used or if they were placeholders for another animated graphic, and whether they were scrapped for licensing issues with TV footage, distraction issues on a stage made for competitive play, or something else entirely.
Hannah Montana: Wireless Quest has an unused graphic, likely a placeholder, that is a red square with the word "Doge" written below. While the game's exact release date is unknown, it was available at least one year after the Hannah Montana TV show began in 2006, but the "Doge" internet meme first appeared 2 years after the show was cancelled in 2011. The shared name is a coincidence rather than a reference to the meme, and it is not known what "Doge" means in this context, though it is likely some kind of debug function, as there are other unused square graphics with phrases like "Control Game" and "Control Main" next to them.
In the GameCube and Xbox versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it was intended for there to be portraits littered throughout Hogwarts of various real world people, specifically developers, their families, and some people the developers forgot about years after the fact (but believed they were involved in some kind of contest). The portraits of family members in particular were included as a coping mechanism, as they were suffering during development.
Both Mach Rider's identity and gender are ambiguous. They are portrayed with a muscular build, and the NES and Famicom versions' manuals never use any gendered pronouns to refer to them. The arcade port Vs. Mach Rider's stage clear screens slowly introduce piece-by-piece an image of a skimpily-dressed woman (bearing similarities to Jane Fonda's appearance in the 1968 film Barbarella) holding a dagger, but it is never specified if this character is Mach Rider, or one of the other wasteland survivors. However, Mach Rider's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee years later lists them as a male character with he/him pronouns. Even later on, Captain Rainbow, a game centered around obscure and neglected Nintendo heroes, has an unused model for Mach Rider that, while not having visible breasts due to wearing armor, portrays them with a feminine skinny waist.
The prototype for Virtual Bart shows an ending screen at the end of the credits instead of just the player's score. It is a crudely written "THE END" in cursive with the nonsensical text "You are a true Bart Simpson" alongside the score. The "You are a true Bart Simpson" text is in the final game's code.
According to leaked development files from The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Sideshow Bob and Poochie were originally planned to appear in the game. There is an unused low-polygon model for Poochie that is pre-posed, meaning that it was likely supposed to appear as merchandise of the character (most likely alongside Itchy and Scratchy's balloons in Level 2), rather than appearing in an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon cutscene. No models for Sideshow Bob are known to exist.
When replaying through an already-completed save file, one can change the Peppino's Final Judgement ranking screen. This was not always the case, as originally attempting to change the judgement would show a screen of an ominous Peppino, drawn with details than his sprites but less detailed than his battle introduction portraits, with the caption "THE JUDGEMENT WAS FINAL. PLEASE TRY A NEW SAVE FILE." This screen would eventually be implemented in the Halloween update, albeit without its text, when one attempts to exit a newly introduced bonus level through the ghost transformation.
Before the Pizza Priest and Stupid Rat were created, some transformations had unique objects associated with them, two that would've taken a similar role to the priest are in the game's files:
Found within the game's data is an unused room depicting a modern-day bedroom, suggesting that there was supposed to be a cutscene showing the player before getting transported to the past.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, there is an unused "PRESS START BUTTON" graphic. This would eventually be used in an exclusive revision of the game included in the Sega Top Ten compilation cartridge for Brazil and Asia. This version of the game is otherwise identical to the original release.
3 items from Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl were removed before the items update: a fart cloud, the Krusty Krab blimp, and a wrench set. The fart cloud and blimp's use are not fully known, but the wrench set would've created a platform like Toph's down special. They were rejected "because they weren't that fun".
Jellyfish Fields, Harmonic Convergence, and Duck, Duck, Pie! all have unused early level geometry. These are all loaded in when the final stages are played and are simply hidden from view. Harmonic Convergence is very close to its final form; Jellyfish Fields lacks textures, but it can be seen that it has the sign on the base platform instead of the background; Duck, Duck, Pie! was originally a completely different style of pie that has its filling visible, which was likely changed to prevent depth perception issues.
In the files of the Donkey Kong Adventure expansion, there are unused files for Rambi the Rhino as a party member, including a model; menu icons; and skills. He would have taken up two spaces on the board and been able to charge through any destructible terrain that enemies are using as cover and destroy it instantly. In the final DLC, Rambi would not appear physically in any form, but would have a gun made in his image. Rambi's model looks closer to his appearance in Rare's Donkey Kong games than his appearance in the Paon and Retro Studios Donkey Kong games, a design change that would also be carried over to Super Nintendo World's iteration of the character after Donkey Kong Adventure's release.