Levels

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Super Mario Bros..

Level Objects and Items#

Sky Levels and a Ridable Cloud#

Ever since the beginning of the game's development, Miyamoto imagined Mario flying in the sky. This would take advantage of Super Mario Bros.' original control scheme. (seen here). The game originally had sky segments (in addition to the earth and sea segments which ended up being used). These sky levels consisted of Mario originally riding a rocket, and later, a cloud. Mario would shoot at enemies (and coins¹) amongst the clouds/sky with a rifle and a "beam gun". Though six months before completion, Miyamoto "divided the actions" between ground and sky. The sky-based bonus rounds accessible via vines in the final game are apparently a remnant of this idea.² The developers gave up on these concepts partly due to memory constraints.³ This entire concept would later be introduced in Super Mario Land, via its Sky Pop/Marine Pop vehicles and its sky/underwater levels. Ridable clouds specifically would also later be implemented as Lakitu's Cloud in Super Mario Bros. 3 as an item on the map that you ride that would let you skip a level, but more notably ridable clouds would return in Super Mario World, where you could ride in Lakitu's Cloud in a level for a short period of time after defeating Lakitu. Here is a concept document that was drawn up, showcasing some of these ideas. The cloud Mario is riding eventually also got a concept sprite (which can be seen here). Mario is also able to throw fireballs in the cloud, as seen in the second drawing.

Some close-up shots of this document.

Level Designs#

Unused Draft Level, Donkey Kong Girders and Donkey Kong Jr. Vines#

Various elements from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. were planned at one point with some objects/enemies making it into the final release.⁴ A draft of these elements were drawn up. Besides some different looking graphics (most notably the ground tiles appearing behind Mario to create a certain isometric effect, and faces on the tree platform tiles) a red girder from Donkey Kong and a vine from Donkey Kong Jr. appear in this planning sheet. Vines were later added to the game which look and function differently, though there exists an unused block type in the final game that does have a similar function, albeit intended for tree branches instead of vines.

This level seems to have been drawn-up when the game was still using its screen-by-screen level format.

World 1-1#

Draft Design	Final

As seen in the first draft, the first difference would be that the first Goomba is on top of the blocks above. It is also possible to see that the second hole in the level was originally closer to the block with the mushroom in it, also appearing to be slightly bigger. The two Goombas near the star also appear to have been closer to the multicoin block. There were also some more Goombas in the level. In the second draft, which is possibly later, the first Goomba was moved down along with some Goombas being removed. Some of the Goombas had moved again with the most obvious difference being the Goombas near the four sets of stairs. The team had developed the levels out of order, with 1-1 being the final level they worked on. Goombas had been added late in development as it was thought Koopa Troopas would have been too difficult for a beginner. It is possible that the first Goomba was originally a Koopa Troopa.

World 1-2#

Draft Design	Final

At the start of the level, it is good to note that the general level is pushed to the right more than the final, this is possible to see as the wall at the start originally was a few blocks thicker causing the level to be slightly shifted to the right. The first two Goombas were originally situated on top of the row of question mark blocks. After the first two Koopa Troopas, there is a small wall made of two bricks behind the pair. The lone coin next to the hidden power-up block was originally one block higher up. The two Goombas after the third Koopa Troopa were placed further. The row of coins seen after the first pit underneath the hidden 1-UP block was lower than in the final design.

Draft Design	Final

The Warp Zone pipes in the original level layout for 1-2 have the pipes arranged at different heights and moved over to the right slightly. This was presumably changed due to the pipe on the far right being too tall for Mario to jump over if he were to get stuck between the pipe and wall (possible case the jump heights were once higher, by one block at least). "WARP ZONE" was misspelled as "WARP ZŌŌN" but was later corrected at an unknown time.

World 4-2#

Draft Design	Final

The beginning of World 4-2 was much easier in the early layout. The hole from which Mario falls from is much smaller. The gaps seen at the beginning were much smaller and farther to the left in the draft. The "tunnel" section was much longer. There were four coins in the original draft instead of the three coins seen in the final.

Draft Design	Final

Multiple Koopa Troopas were removed from the final level, with the early design showing one before the moving platform and two after the platform. This gap was originally smaller by one block. The four hidden blocks leading to the Warp Zone vine were originally a row of three Question Mark Blocks. The brick block containing the vine was originally placed on the right side instead of on the left and had been planned to appear inside of a hidden block rather than a brick block. The Koopa Troopa seen stuck in between the pipes of the final game was not present in the early draft.

Draft Design	Final

The draft design lacks any of the Buzzy Beetles or Piranha Plants in the final. The second-to-last pipe was originally one block taller and there is no multi-coin block seen beside it.

World 5-1#

Early Screenshot	Final

Originally, 5-1 was planned to be an athletic level with tall trees, whereas in the final game it's a ground level. Additionally, the timer in this level appears to start at 400 seconds rather than 300 as seen in the final game. This early level design is not seen anywhere else in the final game.

Also note the rope cutting through a cloud, an issue that the level designers had to carefully work around, as background patterns were automatically generated and could not be altered. Since 5-1 was an athletic level at this point, this also means that the standard of athletic levels being -3 wasn't yet finalized.

World 6-1#

Draft Design	Final

The only difference from the draft design is a single additional block that was added underneath the staircase at the start of the level.

Bonus Rooms#

Draft Design
Final

The bonus rooms appear to have gone through many changes while being drafted as can be seen by the many scribbled and whited out parts. The bonus rooms were designed on July 15th and later revised at unknown date.

• In the room on the left, the hook-like shape holding the coins was closer to the ground than in the final layout. The multi-coin block next to the pipe was lower as well.
• The middle room is the same as the final layout, though some extra coins appear to have been whited out, probably due to the game not being able to display more than three layout objects vertically.
• The room on the right has the top row of coins being a block higher and the bottom row has two fewer coins. The brick blocks were originally one block closer to the right, but the many red arrows instructed the level programmers to have the bricks adjusted to the left by one block.

Castle Exits#

Some early "castle exit" areas.

References#