List of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 pre-release and unused content

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This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. For pre-release and unused content pertaining to the original Super Mario Bros. 3, see List of Super Mario Bros. 3 pre-release and unused content.

Early builds[edit]

The beta logo for Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
The original logo for the game.

In the trailer at E3 2003, the logo looked slightly different to the one seen in the final game. The footage showed that the background had horizontal parallax scrolling, but this was removed in most levels except for underground and airships. The layers still scroll vertically though. The way Advance Coins were indicated in the status bar changed between this build and the final release versions. Also, like previous versions of Super Mario Bros. 3, the trill sound when Small, Super, Fire or Hammer Mario runs at full speed is the same as that of Raccoon and Tanooki Mario. In the final version this was replaced with a lower trill sound while Raccoon and Tanooki Mario still have the original trill sound. Additionally, there were no voice samples in the trailer.

Unused data[edit]

SMA4GreySwitch.png
Unused enemies from Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
Unused enemy sprites.

Gray switches of varying sizes were found in the game's graphics as an e-Reader object. It was taken out for unknown reasons. There are also pressed versions of the switches that are unused. Many unused enemy graphics were also found in the game's code. The include:

Unused Stop Watch sprite in Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

The Para-bomb (based off of its SMW appearance with the SMA4 Bob-ombs), and the Porcu-Puffer are in the game. Both are fully functional.[2]

SMA4ArrowLift.png SMA4GoldCheep.png SMA4 Unused Green Para-Beetle.png
The arrow wheel, and two early enemies.

Also found in the game was an arrow wheel. The arrow wheel was slightly different to the ones found in Yoshi's Island. Updated sprites of the gold Cheep-Cheep and green Para-Beetle were found too. Both enemies were supposed to appear in Super Mario Bros. 3 but never appeared.

There are switch effects not used in the game itself, nor were they sold through e-Reader cards. These effects include a card that lets blocks with 1-Up Mushrooms spawn three of them instead of one, a card that assists players when they fall into bottomless pits, with the width of the block platform decreasing one at a time, and a card that gives players a randomized item window (which starts a level with a Super Mushroom, and only uses the original game's power-ups).

Super Mario World graphics[edit]

The unused Clown Car graphics.

Found among the game's graphics are some uncompressed Super Mario World graphics. Most Game Boy Advance games have compressed graphics, so it is unexpected that these graphics would be uncompressed. The likely reason is that Super Mario World's graphics are 3-bit, making them lighter on space requirements. The graphics found were the following:

  • One of the animation frames for the Koopa Clown Car.
  • Three frames of Koopa Troopa's walking animation.
  • Two frames of a Super Mario World Goomba's walking animation.
  • The Nintendo Presents logo from the beginning of the game. This is actually used in the final game—however, it is using a compressed one.
  • The font used for the status bar, laid out as 0123456789:VER./

None of these graphics within the game's code are found anywhere near each other in Super Mario World. They are right next to each other in Super Mario Advance 4; it is unknown whether these were intended to be used, or random data that was mistakenly compiled into the game. Using Lunar Magic, a popular hacking tool for Super Mario World, and YYCHR, a graphics hacking tool for various game ROMs, can prove the fact that these graphics are not anywhere near each other, with the exception of the Koopa and Goomba graphics. Extracting all of Super Mario World's graphics from the ROM splits the graphics into different files with a .bin extension, labeled from GFX00 to GFX33 (the numbers are labeled in hex, e.g. GFX 0E). When opened with YYCHR, the "Nintendo Presents" gfx are located in GFX00, the Koopa Troopa's and Goomba's walking animations are located in GFX01. The Koopa Clown Car sprite tiles are located in GFX21, and the font for the status bar is located in GFX28.

References[edit]