Super Mario World (partially found early build of Super Nintendo platformer; 1989)

A photo of the build's title screen.

Status: Partially Found

Super Mario World is a 2D platforming game that was directed by Takashi Tezuka and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. It was released for the Super Famicom in Japan on November 21st, 1990, and the Super Nintendo in North America in 1991 to universal acclaim selling over 20 million copies worldwide.

Development

Development began in early 1987, making it one of the first games developed for the Super Famicom. The original team of 16 people, started off by porting the Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Mario Bros. 3 to the Super Famicom so they could experiment with the new hardware. Even though this version of SMB3 was just a port, it did feature improved/polished 16-bit sprites with better colours and added detail. The team then used this port as the foundation for all of Super Mario World.

The 1989 Build

The "1989 build" was shown off in a Japanese magazine in 1990 and showed off many differences from the final game. Some of these differences are that the build only had a total of 16 levels, a completely different overworld world map, and a completely different small Mario sprite. Furthermore, the build also had more similarities to Super Mario Bros. 3, such as some of the build's sprites for objects and enemies being more polished versions of Super Mario Bros. 3 sprites. But, the most notable difference in the build is that the "Raccoon Leaf" powerup from Super Mario Bros. 3 appeared in the build and was fully functional.

Availability

Although the "1989 build" hasn't been seen since 1990, some photos of the build have appeared in Japanese magazines, as well as some sprites from the build appearing as unused assets in the rom for the SNES Burn-In Test Cart. In July 2020, the infamous Nintendo Gigaleak revealed the source code for many early Nintendo games, and Super Mario World was one of them. While this leak didn't include the 1989 build itself, it did include many of its assets (such as early enemy and Yoshi sprites). However, the chances of the full "1989 build" ever seeing the light of day are very slim due to the fact that Nintendo has a tendency not to leak or release unfinished builds of their games.

Gallery

Videos

Beta64's video on the beta.

Lady Decade's video on the subject.

Screenshots

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  "Notice the scrolling background."

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  "Appearance of giant enemy characters!!"

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  "Screen cleared!! Let's see the details of this performance."

Sprites and Sprite Sheets

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  The unused sprites from the SNES Burn-In Test Cart.

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  Early sprites from the prototype.

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  The raw sprites of the previous image from the July 25th "Gigaleak."

See Also

• BS Super Mario Collection (partially lost Satellaview broadcast versions of compilation platformer; 1997-1998)
• Mario Artist (lost builds of unreleased Nintendo 64DD games; 1999-2000)
• Mario's Castle (lost build of cancelled game on Nintendo's "Project Atlantis" handheld console; existence unconfirmed; 1995-1998)
• Mario Demo (lost Virtual Boy tech demo; 1994)
• Mario's Face (lost Nintendo DS tech demo; 2004)
• Mario Kart XXL (found Game Boy Advance tech demo; 2004)
• Mario Motors (lost build of unreleased Nintendo DS racer; early 2000s)
• Mario Roulette (found Konami arcade game; 1991)
• Mario Takes America (lost build of cancelled Philips CD-i edutainment game; 1992-1994)
• New Super Mario Bros. (lost early builds of Nintendo DS 2D platformer; 2004-2006)
• New Super Mario Bros. Mii (lost Wii U tech demo; 2011)
• Super Mario 128 (lost build of cancelled GameCube/Wii game; 2000-2006)
• Super Mario 64 (partially found Spaceworld '95 demo of Nintendo 64 3D platformer; 1995)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (lost Japanese prototype of NES platformer; 1987-1988)
• Super Mario Bros. (lost Commodore 64 port of NES platformer; existence unconfirmed; 1986)
• Super Mario Disk Version aka "Super Mario 64DD" (found unreleased Nintendo 64DD port of 3D platformer; 1999)
• Super Mario Galaxy (lost beta builds of Wii platformer; 2006-2007)
• Super Mario Kart R (partially found pre-release version of "Mario Kart 64"; 1995)
• Super Mario RPG 2 (lost pre-release version of "Paper Mario" Nintendo 64 role-playing game; late 1990s)
• Super Mario Spikers (lost build of cancelled Wii volleyball-wrestling sports game; 2007)
• Super Mario's Wacky Worlds (found build of cancelled CD-i game; 1993)
• Super Mario World: Mario Attack (lost Japanese arcade game; 1996)
• Super Paper Mario (lost build of unreleased original GameCube version of Wii side-scrolling platformer; 2006)