Beta Content in Video-games

[Poke Dragon]

Despite the game being fully developed, it's always interesting to see what was going to be in the game, but was scrapped afterward. The God Stone in Pokemon Black and White for example, would have made the story differently in some way.

 

[prog rocker]

Oh boy, where do I start and with which game? I'll pick Smash deleted/considered characters for now:

Spoiler: Smash 64

Bowser, Dedede, Marth and Mewtwo: They were all of them considered at one and might have gotten some work done (Bowser at least had some work done before being canned). Since almost all of them got into Melee two years later, I wonder why they skipped Dedede until Brawl.

Spoiler: Melee

Balloon Fighter, Urban Champion, Bubbles (Clu Clu Land) and Excitebiker: They were considered for the role of NES representation, with the Ice Climbers being chosen for that role.

Ayumi Tachibana (Famicom Detective Club): Discarded because her game is not well known outside of Japan. Makes me wonder what kind of moveset she would have had.

Lucas: He was originally going to replace Ness, but the cancellation of EarthBound 64 ended up killing his chance to appear here. I guess that's why there's a pic of beta Osohe Castle in the textures of Metal Mario.

Solid Snake and Sonic: Yup, both were considered for Melee, but since they were suggested too late, they weren't added.

Wario: He almost made the cut, but time restraints prevented Sakurai from adding him. I think I read somewhere that he was going to be a Mario clone, but was cut because he "deserved better".

Takamaru (The Mysterious Castle Murasame): Was considered, but discarded because his game is obscure.

Mach Rider: Apparently Sakurai likes this character, but I guess being the basis for one of Captain Falcon's palettes was the best they could for him.

Rare characters (not just Banjo-Kazooie): Said they would have been difficult to implement due to copyright issues, so I guess someone might have been considered (or at least suggested in a meeting).

Spoiler: Brawl

pra_mai: Unknown. Found in the game files. Popular candidates include Plusle and Minun, Miis or the random box.

Mewtwo: Was cut pretty late in development considering he has an unused fanfare, a graphics effect file, a Wiimote selection sound and a folder.

Roy: Was cut slightly earlier than Mewtwo since he only has an unused fanfare, but he still has his own folder.

Dr. Mario: Cut pretty early on, but apparently some work was done on him seeing how there are various "mariod" files in the ISO.

Toon Zelda and Toon Sheik: While it is easy to guess who Toon Zelda was, there's no indication if Toon Sheik was a new character or just an internal name for Tetra. Again, there's a folder in the ISO for both of them.

Dixie Kong: Was found in the ISO. Sakurai intended Dixie to be in a team with Diddy Kong, and you were supposed to tag them out for each other like Pokémon Trainer does with his Pokémon, but apparently they ran into problems implementing this idea, making Diddy a solo fighter.

Pac-Man: Was suggested by Miyamoto, but Sakurai dismissed it because the pizza shape could not be used in the game. I think he forgot the Pac-Man World design existed back then.

Villager: Was cut because Sakurai thought he was unfit for battle. I guess this explains Smashville.

Miis: Sakurai felt it wasn't right to include them at the time, and there were also concerns about people using them to cyber bully people.

Geno: He was considered for Brawl, but was not included due to right issues. Not surprising considering what happened with Cloud in Ultimate.

Blastoise: He was considered for Pokémon Trainer's team, but was replaced with Squirtle because he wanted a more balanced approach to the trainer's team.

Krystal (Star Fox): She was considered late in development, but since they couldn't turn her into a Fox clone they picked Wolf over her.

Unspecified Assist Trophies: They mentioned that some Assist Trophy characters almost made the cut, but couldn't for one reason or another. They also didn't specify who they were talking about.

Spoiler: Wii U/3DS

Ice Climbers: Were cut from the game because they were causing problems in the 3DS version and they didn't want the games to have different rosters.

Rhythm Heaven character: datamining revealed there was data for a Rhythm Heaven emblem among the fighter ones. I guess this means the "Chorus Kids" leak was kinda right, in a stopped clock kind of way.

Alph: He was considered as a clone, and was going to use Rock Pikmin for his attacks, but ended up as an alternate costume. The opposite happened to Lucina, Dr. Mario and Dark Pit so I don't know what exactly happened there.

Takamaru: Got cut again because people are not familiar with him, but at least he got turned into an Assist Trophy.

Chrom: Was considered to be the Fire Emblem rep for this game, but Sakurai felt it didn't offer anything different from Marth or Ike, so they chose Robin instead.

Heihachi (Tekken): He was considered, possibly as DLC, but they considered his moves to be too complicated to implement into the game.

Spoiler: Ultimate

Alucard (Castlevania): Was considered because people were familiar with him, but they felt people would be happier playing as one of the Belmonts.

Decidueye: Was considered for the role of Gen VII rep in the game, but was replaced by Incineroar. No reason given why.

ARMS and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 characters: Sakurai confirmed that they weren't added to the base game because he knew about them after they completed the final roster, but seeing how we're getting an ARMS character later, there's a possibility a Xenoblade character might come later.

Slime (Dragon Quest): Sakurai confirmed that he might have used the slime as a Dragon Quest rep if they forbid him from using the Hero. On the topic of the Hero, he was going to have eight different costumes, but time constraints made him cut four of them and use recolors for the rest.

 

[Phosphene]

In the Diamond and Pearl beta, there is a backsprite for Gastrodon that doesn't look like either of the two forms outside of color.

I hope that they might bring this form back as maybe a north or south variant.

 

[prog rocker]

In the Diamond and Pearl beta, there is a backsprite for Gastrodon that doesn't look like either of the two forms outside of color.

I hope that they might bring this form back as maybe a north or south variant.

Well, Shellos and Gastrodon were originally intended for Ruby and Sapphire, so maybe that's how Gastrodon used to look like. There's also a beta sprite for Shellos that has the west one's head and colors, but the east one's body.

 

[Tactician Karina]

FE Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was going to have a character named Sabre, he had the same portrait as Michalis and was also an enemy unit, I wonder if Sabre later became Michalis during development. There was also the name Gaia alongside a list of dragon tribe names, it's speculated that Gaia became the Earth Dragon tribe later (understandable).

Speaking of Shadow Dragon, it's DS remake may have been planned to introduce the My Unit feature since there was unused heading for it found, it was spelled the same way as it is in New Mystery and Awakening. There was also an Order feature similar to Gaiden, PoR, RD, and Awakening but that got scrapped for unknown reasons.

In FE Gaiden there was supposed to be two monster classes that went unused called Serpent and Naga. So this shows that they were going to have other monster enemies aside from witches and risen but just decided to scrap them for unknown reasons. I think it's possible that the Naga class was scrapped for having the same name as the Divine Dragon King, at least.

Heath, from FE Blazing Blade, had a prototype portrait with a different hair color:

Spoiler: Current Heath

Spoiler: Prototype Heath

FE Awakening had a unused Phila portrait, specifically a cut in one. This is speculated that she probably was going to have a critical hit before her (pitiful) death in chapter 9.

Other FE games also had unused items, skills, supports, dialogue, appearances, portraits, different classes for other characters, etc.

 

[Poke Dragon]

In A Link to the Past, there were originally soldiers who had cannons, which one soldier variant still having a working code and sprite as well.

 

[prog rocker]

FE Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was going to have a character named Sabre, he had the same portrait as Michalis and was also an enemy unit, I wonder if Sabre later became Michalis during development. There was also the name Gaia alongside a list of dragon tribe names, it's speculated that Gaia became the Earth Dragon tribe later (understandable).

Speaking of Shadow Dragon, it's DS remake may have been planned to introduce the My Unit feature since there was unused heading for it found, it was spelled the same way as it is in New Mystery and Awakening. There was also an Order feature similar to Gaiden, PoR, RD, and Awakening but that got scrapped for unknown reasons.

In FE Gaiden there was supposed to be two monster classes that went unused called Serpent and Naga. So this shows that they were going to have other monster enemies aside from witches and risen but just decided to scrap them for unknown reasons. I think it's possible that the Naga class was scrapped for having the same name as the Divine Dragon King, at least.

Heath, from FE Blazing Blade, had a prototype portrait with a different hair color:

Spoiler: Current Heath

Spoiler: Prototype Heath

FE Awakening had a unused Phila portrait, specifically a cut in one. This is speculated that she probably was going to have a critical hit before her (pitiful) death in chapter 9.

Other FE games also had unused items, skills, supports, dialogue, appearances, portraits, different classes for other characters, etc.

Don't forget how Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance spoiled the Black Knight's identity ahead of time. Let's just say that a certain character (Ike's father) shares the same stats as him.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Don't forget how Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance spoiled the Black Knight's identity ahead of time. Let's just say that a certain character (Ike's father) shares the same stats as him.

PoR didn't really spoil that Zelgius was the Black Knight, in-game, unless they looked at datamined info of Zelgius and BK having the same stats, growths, and affinity if that's what you're referring to. In RD Ranulf reveals the BK's identity to Ike (and the player), but by then it was already obvious. Not sure why you're bringing up Greil, unless you're referencing that he did train Zelgius and did find out that the BK was his former student before his death. (unless I probably misunderstood what you mean by your reply)

 

[prog rocker]

PoR didn't really spoil that Zelgius was the Black Knight, in-game, unless they looked at datamined info of Zelgius and BK having the same stats, growths, and affinity if that's what you're referring to. In RD Ranulf reveals the BK's identity to Ike (and the player), but by then it was already obvious. Not sure why you're bringing up Greil, unless you're referencing that he did train Zelgius and did find out that the BK was his former student before his death. (unless I probably misunderstood what you mean by your reply)

Yeah, I was talking about the datamined stuff, since it kinda counts as beta since they have stats for characters that don't even fight, so either they planned something for them or there's something on the programming of Fire Emblem I'm missing (which is pretty likely).

 

[Deleted member 85628]

Incineroar was the Gen 7 Pokemon because Sakurai wanted a wrestler type of character.

 

[prog rocker]

Incineroar was the Gen 7 Pokemon because Sakurai wanted a wrestler type of character.

If that's true, then Sakurai and I might have been thinking in the same way. Specially since Pokken didn't have tiger Zangief for some reason.

 

[prog rocker]

Something curious about the Spaceworld demo: Aside from all the beta Pokémon that were found there, they found a sprite that matches someone's official artwork:

Yup, that's Kurt. The thing is, Apricot Balls didn't exist back then, so I wonder if he was one of the Leaders that don't have sprites in the demo nor equivalent in the final game: Gama and Okera.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the lead Jedi Padawan Bastila Shan was reportedly originally intended to be a previously established character, Vima Sunrider, from the Tales of the Jedi comic series. However, due to legal issues surrounding the name "Sunrider", this idea was scrapped and Bastila became her own character, adopting the name that was originally going to be given to the Cathar Jedi in the player's party, who was then re-named Juhani.

The sequel, KOTOR II: The Sith Lords, itself is basically a game released in its beta-stage. That game had a very rushed development time of only around 10+ months, which made for a buggy product that plagues the game and a ton of content that didn't make the final release, including a whole planet, due to the publisher's time constraints. It's actually amazing enough as it is how much content Obsidian managed to squeeze into the final product out the door in such a short amount of time. It has only been thanks to fan-project modding that anyone has been able to play the game closer to how the developers intended it.

 

[prog rocker]

Three minor ones:

In Mario Kart 8's DLC files there's a file for Shy Guy Bazaar from Mario Kart 7. It is unknown what track replaced it, but people think it was either Ribbon Road or Cheese Land

Kamek got cut from two Mario Karts: Mario Kart 64, where you can even see him in the previews, and Mario Kart 8, where they only found his emblem. He might be Mario Kart's Kotora at this point.

In TMNT: Tournament Fighters (the SNES one), Aska was originally going to be Mitsu from the third TMNT movie. After that movie failed, they decided to replace her with a completely original character, which explains why she's the only game-original character in the game.

 

[Daenerys]

In the Diamond and Pearl beta, there is a backsprite for Gastrodon that doesn't look like either of the two forms outside of color.

I hope that they might bring this form back as maybe a north or south variant.

Weren't Shellos and Gastrodon meant to be in Ruby/Sapphire as well? I always wondered if that back sprite was actually based on Shellos'/Gastrodon's beta R/S design. Or it could've been a gender difference that was scrapped at the last minute. It's cool either way tho.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

A cancelled Kirby game for the Gamecube where you could get enemies to join you and put them in a stack and would've been the debut of Water Kirby. I really wanted to play that. At least Water was used for Return to Dreamland and the enemy helpers got used for Star Allies.

 

[prog rocker]

A cancelled Kirby game for the Gamecube where you could get enemies to join you and put them in a stack and would've been the debut of Water Kirby. I really wanted to play that. At least Water was used for Return to Dreamland and the enemy helpers got used for Star Allies.

I remember that! If I recall correctly, they later wanted to put it on the Wii, but it didn't happen. Shame, because I also wanted to play it.

 

[Poke Dragon]

There was an entire scrapped level in the data of Super Mario Galaxy, it was such a complex level design which makes me sort of disappointed that it never saw the light of day.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

Sounds like another green star galaxy. I would've been fine with it scrapped.

 

[Frozen Fennec]

There was an entire scrapped level in the data of Super Mario Galaxy, it was such a complex level design which makes me sort of disappointed that it never saw the light of day.

Are you referring to the giant mining level that had the boss on the underside? I recall seeing SwankyBox did a video very recently where he collabed with someone to remake the level in SMG albeit, waterfalls and such didn't work and the pipe leading to the underside of the planet for the boss fight just leads you to your death instead. It was the first level designed and inspired the entire game I think. Would have loved to have seen it still in the game honestly.

Still wish the Azure Flute from Pokemon DPPt was left in. From what all I see, I still don't understand how it would have been "too confusing" to use. If the Mystery Gift notes to try using it somewhere, people would have figured out where to try using it eventually. Maybe meeting Arceus would have been "too confusing?" Who knows, the flute never saw the light of day but Arceus was eventually made available which is nice at least.

There is also the Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness beta content (which I'm still looking into and getting our wiki updated on over time, currently researching a few Agnol quotes for if they ever go used or not.) According to TCRF and other sources, the e-Reader room can still be accessed in the International releases but it is in a very buggy state and battles can't seem to be accessed without extensive modification of game files to get them working (along with requiring the elusive e-Reader cards for the game). XD: Gale of Darkness is also interesting in that A LOT of Colosseum assets and maps are still in the game files but never get used or called for as warps. Seeing as a lot of the maps are just kind of there, curious as to why they weren't removed, they could have swapped out the unused maps towards new map locations and possibly throwing in some more Shadow Pokemon I think.