Mario & Luigi

This is a sub-page of Proto:Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga/Early Sprites.

Some otherwise-finalized sprites of the Bros. include an extra bright shade of blue for their overalls, which was overwritten and replaced to make room for additional Hammer palettes. The Bros.' overalls were universally simplified to only use two blue colors as a result.

Overworld#

Mario's towel sprites at the start of the game look slightly different, with Mario himself being 1 pixel taller and the towel being vertically longer. The shading on Mario's feet in his jumping sprites was adjusted.

Proto	Final

Mario's sprite for getting hit in the back into a battle in the southeast direction, aside from the extra shine on his overalls that was removed, still depicts him with a blue eye.

Tickling sprites for Mario in every direction, like the ones Luigi has in the final when he uses the Thunder Tickle on Pump Mario. All of these sprites were deleted before the final game except the southeast-facing ones, which were adjusted to remove the tickling motions but still ended up unused anyway.

Proto	Final

These sprites can be found in the Minecart minigame, after accepting to try the challenge again. They seem to be based on an earlier design of the brothers, with blue eyes, smaller shoes, and a darker color palette.

As the fire and electricity in the Fire and Thunder Palaces aren't encased in orbs in the demo, Mario and Luigi stick their hands directly into the elements instead of resting them on the orb's surface.

Additionally, the unique animation used after receiving the elemental power in this build isn't the full animation. It only uses half of the animation frames. These full animations still exist leftover in the final version, albeit with the typical removal of the extra shine on the Bros.' overalls.

Proto	Final

All of the unused surfboard balancing animations still exist in the prototype, and were edited to remove the extra shine on the overalls of Mario as usual alongside a couple other minor adjustments. However, the east-facing variant is notable for being the only one to still have Mario depicted with a blue eye. Only his left eye still has it, though, meaning it was likely an oversight that was corrected after this build.

Proto	Final

Mario's laughing animation for Joke's End was completely redone, possibly because the one in this build looks more like he's having a heart attack.

Luigi disguised as Princess Peach has him with blue eyes, matching Peach's design in this build. All of the animations changed a fair bit. The walking one has a different motion and the hair looks quite different, the laughing one was redrawn, shaking his head is smoother in the prototype, his surprised face originally didn't show his mouth, and the hiding pose has him slumped much more forward than in the final.

The sprites for Luigi when his disguise is removed, however, are much closer to the final. The main difference is the removal of a slight shadow on his eyes, while the tripped sprite had his overalls brightened up for the final.

Proto	Final

This sprite is very different from the final version. Luigi, in addition to having blue eyes (leftovers from a previous, older version), doesn't have his mouth open and is also in a different position with his legs stretched out instead of crouched, in addition to having a slightly bigger head and brighter pants with much lighter buttons.

Proto	Final

Luigi's eyes are still blue and his hat has a different shade, in addition to not having his mouth open and his legs not crouched, having a similar sprite to the previous one.

Proto	Final

Luigi's eyes are still blue and his shoe is in a slightly different position than the final version, in addition to the handle appearing much more.

Proto	Final

Luigi's eyes are still blue and a little bigger than his final version, the soles of his shoes are black in addition to being much smaller, the strap of his backpack is more to the right, showing the buttons on his pants better and his pants are very brighter.

Hammers#

Proto	Final

The hammers used in- and out-of-battle in this build are more detailed than the final's. A couple unique sprites were removed and added between this build and the final, as well. The most likely reason as to why they were changed is to make them more compatible for the different hammer palettes used with the Super and Ultra Hammers, which didn't exist yet here.

Battle#

General#

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Mario's idle, attack select, victory (except the hammer ones), and level up sprites in battle had his mouth open instead of closed. His idle had an extra glow on his nose. While the glow on his nose is consistent with most other front-facing sprites of Mario, it was removed as it would constantly be switching sides considering the animation flips. These sprites of him with his mouth open can be seen in a couple prerelease screenshots.

Proto	Final

Speaking of level ups, the tiny white star that appears after you select your bonus stat increase, for some reason, lost most of its shading in the final.

Proto	Final

Shading was adjusted on the buttons on the overalls.

Proto	Final

Luigi's animation in battle for taking general damage has a completely different appearance, showing him tumbling backward. The final completely overhauls it into being more aligned with Mario's.

Taking spiked damage in the prototype, no matter the source, will show the Bros. using the above sprites. This includes jumping on spiked enemies, which results in the Bros. grabbing their foot in the final. Interestingly, the final's animations for this instance actually exist in the prototype already, but aren't used. The final also adds a few more other sprites and animations for getting hit with something spikey, such as Pestnuts.

Proto (Unused)	Proto	Final

Proto (Unused)	Proto	Final

Two different sets of jumping sprites exist in this build, with the unused ones depicting the Bros. with blue eyes. Both sets in the demo, however, contain an extra jumping sprite compared to the final. Many changes were made across the sets of sprites in general.

Bros. Moves#

Splash Bros.#

Proto	Final

The wave Mario does at the start of Splash Bros. still has him with blue eyes in this build.

Proto	Final

The right overall button originally wasn't part of the sprite.

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

More overall button shading adjustments.

The warped smear frames used when the attack is about the finish over an enemy's head had the shading on their overall buttons adjusted, even though the difference would be barely noticeable in-game.

Bounce Bros.#

Used	Unused

Proto	Final

Luigi's sprite during Bounce Bros. when he lands on Mario's hands is a completely different, deleted sprite. The sprite used in the final is present in the sprite bank, but isn't used yet. Even then, it differs from the final... in that Luigi's feet are missing. And his button on his overalls had its shading adjusted.

Curiously, Mario has a similar landing sprite to Luigi's one above. He doesn't seem to use it in this build, and it was deleted before the final game. An animation was found for it that shows Mario squishing slightly, then returning to normal.

An unused sprite of Mario grabbing onto Luigi, presumably meant to be used when Mario jumps up to him just before the attack ends, but he doesn't. Deleted before the final game.

This one, however, is used in the attack in this build. It's a sprite that's stretched and warped when Luigi lands on his hands at the start of the attack. Mario squishes really far down compared to the final at this point in the attack, which uses this sprite when small and his normal standing one from the final otherwise. In the final, the squish effect was toned down immensely, and this sprite was deleted.

Proto	Final

Mario's pose just before jumping up to Luigi at the end of the attack. You'd never guess this, but check it out - the shading on his left overalls button was changed. Crazy, right?

Advanced Splash Bros.#

Although Advanced Bros. Moves don't exist in the prototype, there are some graphics in the Splash Bros. graphics banks that indicate they were beginning to be worked on at this point. It's unknown if the move has any programming in this build.

Unused "spin" graphics for both Bros., which don't exist in the final game at all. Animation data was found for at least the Luigi spin graphic, although data likely exists for the Mario one as well.

Proto	Final

It's noteworthy that it seems Luigi would've been a part of the direct attack of the move; in the final, he boosts Mario up, who then drills into the enemy. Luigi's boost graphics don't exist in the demo. The sprite used when attacking the enemy after the player fails to press the B button to boost him up does exist, however:

Proto	Final

Some minor adjustments were made to the right button on his overalls.

Luigi also has one unused frame (or frames) in his Splash Bros. graphics bank, which don't exist in the final and were overwritten by the boost graphics. His eyes are separate, which means they were meant to be overlayed onto his sprite and moved around.

A couple extra graphics to go along with the unused frame(s) above. As it's unknown currently how to load the above sprite in-game, it's not known how these extra bits would've been used.

Game Overs#

When a brother falls in battle, instead of spinning backwards and falling down, they instead die in classic Mario style and fall onto the HUD, staying there until the other brother uses a 1-Up Mushroom to revive them. Upon revival, they spawn back in via a Mario Bros.-esque platform:

Due to this difference, the mechanic where a brother has to support the other fallen brother during enemy attacks does not exist in this build.

Misc.#

Mario: Animation ID: 2028
Luigi: Animation ID: 202B
Unused animations of Mario and Luigi ducking in battle. No such mechanic exists in this build nor the final game. Note the presence of blue eyes, which suggests an old leftover from a previous build.

Unused damage sprites for the bros., with them making some rather...interesting faces. It's unknown what context these sprites would be used in. They can be found in the same graphics bank as the other damage sprites shown above.

Sprites for the Bros. tripping and falling over. Possibly related to their tripping in the final game when attempting to run from battle, but running from battle is 100% guaranteed and free in this build, so they couldn't be used for that here. Found among their other damage sprites above.

Mario: Animation ID: 202E, Palette ID: 200A
Luigi: Animation ID: 202F, Palette ID: 200B
Two odd animation IDs, which draw color guides for Mario and Luigi. The top text says "default" and the bottom says "for TV monitor", likely from a point in time where playing on the Game Boy Player would use darker color palettes. The battle sprites for Luigi depicted on the right are slightly earlier versions of them, with darker shading at the top of his eyes. Mario's front-facing sprites are also earlier as well, depicting a very faint shine on his eyes.