Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 5: How The Yoshi Was Crafted

Welcome, everyone, to the fifth issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone! 

Today, we are going to look at the changes between the first trailer of Yoshi's Crafted World, shown at E3 2017, and the final version.

Baby Bowser and Kamek caught wind of the Supper Mario Broth and made their way to the blog. "Eeeheehee! We'll be reading that!"

How the Yoshi was Crafted

During the E3 2017 presentation, a trailer for what was then known as "Yoshi (Working Title)" was shown. Eventually, this game became Yoshi's Crafted World. We will take a look at all scenes from the trailer and compare them to the finished game, pointing out the differences. The old screenshots will be on top and the newer on the bottom.

The trailer starts with what is presumably an early version of Rail-Yard Run, the first level. Notably, there is no actual train here, so it is possible that the level was not envisioned as a train-themed course from the beginning; instead, as we will see in other scenes of this level, it is focused on houses, likely being a generic "town" level. Note the many identical background crafts here, however, the toilet paper roll "stumps" in the finished version have been made more detailed.

I have provided three screenshots of the trailer and an animated GIF of the finished version in what appears to be the same general location. Note that the geometry of the path is completely different; the only way we can assume it is the beginning of the level is the similarity of the background and the simplicity of the path. While the finished game contains many houses, the exact house from the trailer is absent. 

The reticle for aiming at background objects has been redesigned, being made more triangular and having a special yellow outline when locking onto an object.

In the next scene, we see a dark level. This one has been redesigned significantly. While we can see by the volcanoes in the background and the shredded paper that this was an early version of Poochy's Magma Run, there is much less lava in the scene. This seems to be the flip side of the level, which also features windows not present in the finished version. A common theme with the trailer is that the flip side scenes' backgrounds look much more like actual rooms from the real world than they end up doing in the release version.

Here we  can see a better view of the volcanoes with the tissues sticking out of them, which went relatively unchanged. Also note the red rectangles overlapping the ground in the foreground.

The upper two images here are from the trailer while the lower one is from the finished game. This is an interesting case of a feature from a level being transplanted into another level before release. In the trailer, there are Shy Guys operating bellows in the volcano level. A Shy Guy blows into a straw to make a plastic bag expand above ground. 

In the finished version, no such feature exists in Poochy's Magma Run. Instead, it is the next level in the same world, Windward Way, that contains Shy Guys blowing into straws. Here, they make giant styrofoam balls float in mid-air instead. The fact that the entire level is wind-based suggests to me that perhaps Poochy's Magma Run was split into a volcano part and a wind-themed part before release.

The next scene is in the Dino Smash level. In the trailer, the very far background is a blue tarp, while in the release version, it is a blue fence. The tarp, interestingly, is used in a different level, Weighing Acorns, in the final version. The rest of the scene is very similar overall, with the cloth being hung out to dry being similar and the foreground stone blocks being identical.

After this, a scene from the Exploring the Animal Kingdom level is shown. In the E3 version, the cans are decorated like birds and the magnet is a small bird. The bird-shaped magnet was likely deemed to look ambiguous and not enough like the typical cartoon depiction of a magnet, so it was changed in the release version to a koala head attached to a regular horseshoe magnet, and the cans redecorated to match. The magnet's shape mimics the shape of a koala hanging on to a tree while retaining the visuals of a magnet. The background in the finished version is much more water-focused and has a bluer tint compared to the green of the original.

This level from the trailer has no equivalent in the finished version. Even the small decorations, such as pinecones inside twist-off caps, are not to be seen in the released game. This was likely a concept for a late-game level, equivalent to the Be Afraid of the Dark level in the finished version; however, here the mechanic of turning on the light would have been more central to the experience. 

Another scene from the jungle level, with the papercraft giraffe on wheels that went completely unchanged between versions. Note how in the trailer, the background cliff has a giraffe fur pattern on it; this is absent from the finished game. However, instead the background has been made much more detailed with the addition of trees and bushes.

Another scene from the presumed first level. While that specific piece of geometry no longer exists, I provided a screenshot with the most similar path to the trailer scene.

The next segment shows the flip side of the first level. Note again the relatively realistic background in the trailer, resembling a kindergarten classroom. In the finished version, the flipside backgrounds very rarely show any type of large indoor room, with the exception of the late-game level Ride the River, which even in the release version takes place inside a gigantic bathroom with interlocked bathtubs.

These two screenshots are from the trailer; they show what is most likely the early version of the Behind the Shoji level. The level has changed considerably since that version; in the trailer, it is shown to have houses inside it. 

These screenshots are of the same level from the finished version. There are no houses here; in addition, the level is an autoscroller with the shoji always moving with the camera, as opposed to the free-roaming level it is shown as in the trailer.

The next scene is of an underwater-themed level that seems to be an early version of Many Fish in the Sea. (The upper two images are from the trailer, the third from the release version.) The wobbling fish is nearly identical, as are some of the background decorations, however, there seems to be a grid of platforms connected by metal coils in the E3 version that is entirely absent from not just this level, but the entire game, in the finished version.

Near the end of the trailer, a battle against the Gator Train is shown. This was changed drastically since; in the E3 version, Yoshi can move freely around an area with branching paths, while in the finished game, he rides on another train while the Gator Train attacks from the background. While the original concept may have been more challenging, as a train seems hard to avoid on foot, the finished game conveyed the sense of speed of a train ride more effectively due to the background zooming by quickly.

Finally, the trailer ends with what is presumably the end of the first stage. The gate in the far right background of the screen in the trailer seems very similar to the gate in the finished version. However, the very large unfolding house and the smiling sun in the background are absent (though smaller unfolding houses still exist in the game). 

In the end, it appears that the finished game did not have too much content cut, except for the unreleased dark level. If a sequel to the game is released on the Switch, it is possible that the dark level may return there.

This concludes today's Yoshi comparison. Until tomorrow!

Thank you very much for reading.