EnemiesScoot BloopOne of the 15 screenshots released by Nintendo during E3 2005 shows the quartet battling two Bloopers in Vim Factory. The would-be land-dwelling Blooper did not make it into the final version, but the name "Scoot Bloop" appears in the ROM with the other enemy names. Could this be the name of our mystery Blooper? It's interesting to note that "Scoot Bloop" has a name in all the other languages (Japanese, French, German, Italian) except for Spanish, where it was replaced with six dashes ("------"). In the Italian text, it was replaced with "Yoob," the name of the huge pink dinosaur in Yoshi's Island. Click the image to see the full screenshot.
ShrowserThe second unused enemy name in the ROM is "Shrowser." You may have seen the Nintendo Power Official Player's Guide refer to the very last boss as Shrowser, but because you can't attack him, the game never shows an "official" name for him. Since Nintendo Power knew the name, it's possible that at one point he had a label in the game. "Shrowser" was also translated into all the other languages. In Japanese, he is "Gedokuppa," which is a combination of "Gedonko" (the Japanese name for Shroobs) and "Koopa" (Bowser's Japanese name).
Pre-release screenshotsElectronic Entertainment Expo 2005Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time was known as Mario & Luigi 2 when Nintendo released the first 15 screenshots for the game during E3 2005. The expo ran from May 18 to May 20 -- a little more than six months before MLPIT's U.S. release on November 28. We'll compare most of the E3 screens to the final U.S. and Japanese versions. We'll start with a few changes that you'll see in most of the screenshots. First of all, the action icons were redesigned and given smaller letters. Next, the status bar for the active brothers (in this case, the babies) had bigger, italicized numbers and showed pink hearts instead of Mario and Luigi heads. Lastly, the early version has an L button icon with a yellow label that reads "Change." It looks like the original plan was to have the L button switch between sets of brothers instead of pressing Y or X for the babies and B or A for the adults. While on the field in the final version, the L button toggles the Bros. Actions.
Hollijolli VillageThis grassy area near Hollijolli Village changed significantly. The early version has no sign, raised chunks of land, a shorter back wall, and a curvier staircase. In the final version, Mario and Luigi have to hit all the "M" and "L" blocks to open up the staircase.
Toadwood ForestToadwood Forest's map screen redesign makes it look much, much thicker. Also notice the early Time Hole design and missing Save Album on the map. The early version is also missing an "M" block near the sign.
The hollow stumps were slightly redesigned.
Elasto-Piranha only shoots one fireball at a time in the final version. Also, I don't recall ever fighting more than two Elasto-Piranhas at once.
Bros. abilitiesAt this stage of development, there's no baby on the Red Shell. When Mario or Luigi uses the Red or Green Shell in the final version, the corresponding baby rides along on the shell to allow for timed hits.
For the hammer tutorial, the final version has smoother background art and uses circled letters for the buttons in the word balloon. The circled button letters take up a little more room, so this Japanese sentence was reworded slightly.
This shot shows an early version of the Trampoline bros. item and the aforementioned lost Blooper. In the final version, Luigi and Baby Luigi land facing the opposite direction. You can also see that Vim Factory's battle background is lined up a little better.
Yoshi's IslandYoob's footprints are not in the E3 screenshot.
This E3 screen has early designs for the rug and the egg leaning against the wall above Baby Mario. Although it doesn't have the Yoshi Cookies on the crumb pile yet, the early version has a couple of eggshell pieces on the floor that were removed. With a wider text box for Stuffwell's sentence, the final Japanese version fits it onto one line. (Translation: "Those are Yoshi Cookies...")
In the second area of Yoshi's Island, the heroes catch up with Kamek, who originally had a slightly different broom and hood. On the map screen, the row of bushes was replaced with three trees.
Yoob has nostrils and bigger pupils in the final version.
Pre-release videoElectronic Entertainment Expo 2005MLPIT's E3 trailer has 30 seconds of footage from what appears to be a later build than the one used for the batch of screenshots. The L button icon hasn't been scrapped yet, but was recolored and translated. The action icons and Toadwood Forest's map are closer to the final design.
Three seconds into the video we see the quartet in Toadwood Forest with a large star counter on the bottom screen. In this part, the babies go underground to hit six fireballs into the empty blocks above ground. The final version has no counter for this relatively short task. You can also see that an empty block was added between these tall stumps.
At the 14-second mark, the heroes are using a spiny purple shell bros. item! The footage reveals that it was similar to the Green and Red Shell attacks, except the shell was hammered instead of kicked. In the video, we see the purple shell in action against Bloopers (who were also removed) and Spiny Shroopas.
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