Mario Super Sluggers

Mario Super Sluggers is the sequel to Mario Superstar Baseball with new playable characters, stadiums, error items, and even a brand new Challenge Mode! Sadly, no European release.

Notably, this game marked the last non-cameo appearance of King K. Rool until the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018, 10 years later.

Prerelease Info Notes Unused CharactersSeems like Nintendo of America wasn't too happy with these characters. Unused StadiumsUnused stadiums that Mario and friends still never got to play on. Unused GraphicsUnused graphics, icons, and textures. Unused ModelsWeird stretching stick-figure with Pikachu's face? Regional DifferencesDifferences between the Japanese version and American version. OdditiesMany leftovers from Mario Superstar Baseball, as well as some other oddities.

Unused Challenge Mode Missions#

Watch on YouTubeFifteen unused missions exist within the data for Challenge Mode, being early or unfinished versions of a few of the missions present in the final game. All of the unused missions have no dialogue for Lakitu explaining the rules with the text being dashed out, or the text しようしません in the Japanese version, which translates to "do not use". Also, some of the missions clear before starting followed by a game crash.

Unused Code#

Alternate Batting & Pitching Hands#

All playable characters have pre-set values in their data for being left-handed and / or right-handed for batting and pitching (0 for being right-handed and 1 for being left-handed). But switching these values around (e.g. switching Mario's right-handed batting and fielding arm values to be left-handed) loads the playable characters with their batting stance and / or fielding hand flipped and fully functional. This scrapped functionality was leftover from Mario Superstar Baseball, where character hands for batting and pitching could be swapped in that game.

Invalid Color Wheel Color#

On the character select screen, all playable characters have a color wheel setting in their data which displays their respective color on the color wheel for characters with alternate colors. But by setting this value to an invalid number that doesn't correspond to any of the available colors, displays an unused white color with a black line crossing it out.

Hidden Character Classes#

All playable characters have a character class stat that's used to determine CPU behavior during an exhibition game, like in Mario Superstar Baseball. But unlike the previous entry which shows the class for each character, the game does not show the classes when selecting a character on the character select screen. Some of the characters share the same classes as they did in Mario Superstar Baseball, like Mario being a balanced character or Yoshi being a speed character. But interestingly, most returning characters from the previous game were given different classes in this game (e.g. Luigi being changed from a balanced character to a speed character).

Unused Bones#

Boo & King Boo's Leg Bones#

Boo	King Boo

Boo and King Boo have unseen leg bones in their models, which is odd given how Boos aren't normally depicted with legs in various Super Mario games. These may have been left in for the developers to see how high both characters levitate off the ground as their animations play in-game.

Blooper's Leg and Arm Bones#

Blooper's model contains a set of unseen arm bones and leg bones. While the arm bones look like early bones for the two tentacles Blooper uses as arms given it's position, the leg bones may have been used as a base to create the bones for the rest of the tentacles.

Lakitu's Leg Bones#

Lakitu has unused leg bones hidden behind his cloud, clearly leftover from his appearances in other Super Mario games where he appears outside of his cloud with fully modeled legs. Lakitu never appears without his cloud at any moment in the game, therefore, his legs are not modeled.

Piranha Plant's Leg Bones#

The Piranha Plants seen in the Yoshi Park stadium and Piranha Panic minigame have unused leg bones hidden inside of the pipes they appear in. Given how Piranha Plants normally don't have legs, it's possible that this was leftover from the modeling tool the developers used to create the characters.

Unused Sound Effects#

These can be found in sound_NA\MY2.brsar (sound\MY2.brsar in the Japanese version).

Special Move (Mario Superstar Baseball)#

The special move sound effect leftover from Mario Superstar Baseball, labeled as ef1. This sound is found inside of MY2.brsar/bb/sp.

Unused Team Logo Sound#

Found inside of MY2.brsar/bb/team is an unused sound named logo. Judging by its filename, as well as the location being in a folder named being team, this would've been used for the team logo animations seen when starting a game in Exhibition.

Max Charge Sound#

Found inside of MY2.brsar/bb/charge is an unused sound named max. This may have been used for the Star Gauge once it reaches a max of 5 stars, as given by the filename, and folder name.

Lakitu#

Time Call#

English and Japanese voice lines for Lakitu calling time, named time, found inside of MY2.brsar/bb/um. Mario Superstar Baseball had Lakitu call out time, but it goes unused here.

Dead Ball Call#

English and Japanese voice lines for Lakitu calling a dead ball, named balldead. Just like the "Time!" sound clip, it is found inside of /MY2.brsar/bb/um. It is possible to get a dead ball in-game, but Lakitu does not utter out the call when performed.

Field Call Outtakes#

The files for Lakitu's Challenge Mode voice clips has two unused sounds found inside of MY2.brsar/jyu/v20. The Japanese version has one of Lakitu muttering, named 1, while the other is presumably a "Foul!" outtake, named 2. The English version of these two audio clips are replaced with a "Strike!" outtake.

Interestingly enough, the voice clip of Lakitu muttering was reused for King Lakitu in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Challenge Mode Dialogue#

A sound clip possibly meant for Lakitu's dialogue in Challenge Mode in English, and Japanese, labeled as v21. This audio clip is found inside of MY2.brsar/jyu.

Development Related Text#

The texture for the vines that appear in DK Jungle and Wario City in Challenge Mode contains an additional string that reads:

F:/MY2/data/submap/wario/gimmick/tuta/tex/tpl/submap_donkey24.tpl

This references a path where the texture was initially located in, along with how the game's resources were organized before being packed into the game's main file.

Unused Music#

These can be found in sound_NA\stream (sound\stream in the Japanese version).

bgm_captain.brstm#

An unused song labled bgm_captain.brstm, which would've presumably played during an event involving the team captain.

bgm_chance.brstm#

An unused song labeled bgm_chance.brstm. This song shares the same theme as the RBI chance theme from Mario Superstar Baseball.

jin_ma_chance.brstm#

An unused song labeled jin_ma_chance.brstm. It is a short tune played on a baseball organ.

Internal Project Name#

The game is referred to internally as MY2, as seen in the game's sound file MY2.brsar, the games executable file, and a development related string. MY2 could be an acronym for Mario Yakyu 2 (Yakyu being Japanese for baseball). The cutscene .thp files in the movie folder also have all their filenames start with MB2, which most likely stands for Mario Baseball 2.