Mario Superstar Baseball

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Mario Superstar Baseball.

In-game Prerelease ContentScreenshots in the game that depict early versions seen during pre-release!

2004#

On November 24th 2004, Mario Superstar Baseball was first teased by Nintendo along with three other then-upcoming Nintendo GameCube titles including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Donkey Konga 3, and Kirby for Nintendo Gamecube.¹ Three screenshots were provided of gameplay showing various characters batting, pitching, baserunning, and fielding on Mario Stadium. Though no further information was provided with the screenshots, the game was slated for a release in the following year.²

General#

• Much of Mario Stadium appears identically to it's final game appearance, but with a few texture differences. The grass and dirt appear more brighter, with the dirt having more chalk in the infield. The blue walls seen around the stadium appear darker.
• Toads, Shy Guys, Koopa Troopas, Paratroopas, and Boos appear in the audience. The final game includes Goombas, Piantas, and Nokis as well. The audience in these screenshots have different appearances compared to the final version:
  • The Toads have smaller faces, bodies, and bigger heads.
  • Shy Guys have a stubby-like appearance with smaller masks.
  • Both the Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas have longer limbs, smaller shells, and different eyes.
  • Boos have smaller eyes, teeth, and different eyebrows.

Characters#

Most characters in these screenshots (except for Mario, Luigi, and Bowser) use a slightly different art style compared to their in-game counterparts first introduced in a few early GameCube titles like Mario Party 4, and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.

• Mario is shown doing a different pitching animation where he's on the ground.
• Luigi is facing the ball in his baserunning stance, something characters never do in the final game while baserunning.
• Bowser has a different batting animation along with a Bullet Bill themed baseball bat, which was changed to a spiked club in the final. Bowser is less slouched while fielding and uses a smaller glove model, which can be seen rotated and clipped into his body in the screenshot showing the ball flying, likely an animation error.
• Peach appears taller and sports a different outfit with dark pink shorts and white gloves, similar to her appearance in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.
• Yoshi uses a slightly different design with larger eyelids, different eyes, and brighter shoes.
• Wario's appearance uses a more vibrant color scheme, and has a slightly different shaped head.
• Waluigi's appearance uses more darker colors, with dark purple overalls and brown shoes.
• Donkey Kong has a more realistic appearance with darker fur, a darker colored tie, and a more slimmer appearance, similar to his design in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
• Like the audience, Red Koopa Troopa has longer limbs, a smaller shell, and different eyes.

HUD#

• The team logos for Mario and Bowser are early versions for the Mario Sunshines team (depicting a Shine Sprite behind a wave), and the Bowser Flames team (depicting a darker silhouette of Bowser's face behind a flame).
• Mario and Bowser's icons are different, and lacks any black outlines. Wario's icon has black outlines and is taken directly from one of his renders from Wario World, which was likely a placeholder before the final icon was made.
• The star meter shows a metallic meter with a star, with each segment of the meter representing how many star skills the player has available.
• The font seen throughout the HUD uses the Super Mario font, which was changed in the final.
• "P" and "1" appear next to the star meter and character icons, likely representing the pitcher and batting order respectively.

2005#

Watch on YouTubeWatch on YouTubeIn the following year, Mario Superstar Baseball was formally revealed at E3 2005 from May 18th to May 20th, 2005.³⁴⁵ The name of the game was revealed, temporarily being Mario Baseball, along with footage, press-kit screenshots, and a playable demo in the show floor. It was confirmed that Namco would be the main developers of the game, having previously developed and published the Japanese-exclusive baseball title Family Stadium 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube.⁶ Many gameplay aspects were confirmed including Challenge Mode, Toy Field mode, Minigame mode, and multiplayer with up to 4 players.⁷

E3 Showfloor Demo Footage#

Gameplay Differences#

Three different builds appear to have been shown. One being the same as the 2004 teaser screenshots, another one shortly after with a vastly different HUD layout during gameplay, and the last one matching the final game and showfloor demo with some minor differences.

2004 Reveal Build#

General

• The batting and fielding screenshots from the initial reveal are taken at the same angle, but with slight differences in character placement.
• Mario Stadium's textures are brighter than it's appearance from the initial reveal, notably in the sand, grass, and sky.

Characters

• Bowser's glove uses a white-handed glove texture, which was changed in the final game to a yellow one to match his hand.
• Wario's glove model in the screenshot of him jumping to catch the ball is more high-polygonal and detailed. This glove model is the same one from Family Stadium 2003.
• Diddy Kong appears in these set of pre-release screenshots, sporting a slightly realistic look similar to Donkey Kong's design in the screenshots. Oddly, his hands have a dark-brown color to them.

Pre-E3 2005 Build#

General

• The palm trees in Mario Stadium's background are missing, though this could likely be a result of a free-cam being positioned to show the culled out trees in the batting camera.
• The sign outside of Swanky's Sideshow in Donkey Kong Jungle originally read "DONKEY JUNGLE", which was changed to simply read "DK JUNGLE" in the final game.

Characters

• Yoshi's bat uses a different design of a brown bat with a Yoshi Egg on it, the same design can be found unused in the final game.
• Birdo is doing her fielding idle animation instead of her upset animation following a successful RBI.
• Paragoomba and Petey Piranha have their bat models showing while fielding in the Donkey Kong Jungle screenshot, likely an animation error. Interestingly, Petey Piranha's bat can be found unused in the final game's data.

HUD

• The Star Meter UI is about the same from it's appearance in the 2004 Reveal screenshots, with the only difference being the text matching the score and inning text.
• The text for the 2nd inning reads "2ed", likely a error in translation during localization.
• The "NICE!" text when throwing a fully charged pitch is styled differently and uses a different color scheme.

E3 2005 Build#

General

• Two modes are playable in this build, being Exibition and Minigames.
• Mario Stadium, Peach Garden, and Donkey Kong Jungle are the only selectable stadiums in this demo. In minigame mode, Bob-Omb Derby and Barrel Batter are the only minigames playable.

Characters

• Character have pink-ish lighting on the captain & character select screens.
• In the trailer, Mario's pitching strikeout animation is different and involves him jumping in glee and spinning around, while in the demo Mario jumps and pumps his fist in the air. His arms are also spread out instead of on his hips on the captain select screen.
• Luigi's arms are down in his waiting idle animation on the captain select screen.
• Donkey Kong lacks his boxing glove while batting in the trailer, but in the demos he has his boxing glove for batting. This was likely a last minute design change.
• Dry Bones is more slouched over in his batting idle animation.

HUD

Menus

• On the main menu the title on the right reads "mario baseball".
• The confirm and back buttons on the top left corner seen in various menus swapped places.
• The bottom text that slides from right to left is squished together between each letter.
• The minigame select screen has a completely different design, going for a circle background for each selectable minigame than the card design in the final game. Barrel Batter's icon is placed right next to Bob-Omb Derby's icon, where in the final game it was moved four spots away from it. The sixth and seventh options meant for Star Dash and Mario Grand Prix are not present. The background and header color was originally red in the demo, but changed to orange in the final.
• The minigame character select screen places the left and right batting and pitching icons underneath the character's name, where the final version places it above the character. The player number text isn't boxed as well.
• For characters with alternate colors, the "Change Color" text originally flashed through different colors. This effect was removed from the final version.
• The minigame instructions screen used different icons for the Mushroom, Flower, Star and Crown, with similar artwork depicted in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the Mushroom, Star, and Crown, and Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Flower.

Gameplay

• The pointing hand indicator to show which character is being controlled for fielding originally flashed red colors.
• The text during the events of a Superstar Matchup read "The rival's confrontation!" in the trailer. In the final game it reads "Superstar Matchup!" in the International versions or "A challenge between rivals!" in the Japanese version
• When a team scores a point, the score HUD is centered on the screen where the final version moves it to the lower half of the screen.
• As both teams are changing sides, the font for the scorecard is written in Impact unlike the unique font in the final.
• In the trailer, the score UI doesn't appear as Donkey Kong lands on home plate during his homerun celebration.

Audio

• On the captain & character select screens, the voice clips that play when selecting the characters aren't echoed. Birdo's says "Catherine!" when selected, being her Japanese name and was changed accordingly in the final International versions.
• When selecting a character in minigame mode, the select sound effect plays. This doesn't happen in the final version.
• Donkey Kong's boxing glove makes bat cracking sounds instead of the punching sound effects heard in the final.
• Lakitu uses his Japanese voice lines.

References#