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Unused content in Pikmin

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This article or section is a short summary on unused content in Pikmin.
The Cutting Room Floor features more in-depth content.

The leaf texture used in Pikmin 2's Challenge Mode menu. (Used on Pikipedia in the {{stub}} template.)

This article is a stub. You can help Pikipedia by expanding it.

Pikmin has a fair amount of unused content left inside the disc. Most of it is in the form of debugging tools, although unused models, textures and other resources exist as well.

Debug menu[edit]

There is a leftover menu with several debugging features present in the game. Each option has a value, and pressing GCN A.png will activate the option, with the specified value. The options, in order, display the following:

Unused voyage log content[edit]

Main article: Olimar's voyage log.

There are some unused voyage log entries, some unused untranslated second pages, some Japanese entries that don't relate to regular logs, and a function to display the text "1 day" in some messages that can never do that.

Unused monolog content[edit]

Main article: Olimar's monologs.

There is an unused monolog, an unused function to write a singular or plural word, and a set of files in Japanese.

Unused areas[edit]

The following unused areas have been found inside the game's files:

Unused bomb-rock textures[edit]

Some unused textures have been found on the game's disc, portraying Red and Blue Pikmin with bomb-rocks. This hints to the fact that, initially, all Pikmin types were designed to carry bomb-rocks.

Unused enemies and objects[edit]

Iwagen[edit]

The unused "iwagen".
Screenshot of Iwagen.

Iwagen is the internal name for an unused object in the game. The name is a Romanization of "rock generator" and, as its name indicates, it spits out boulders, much like an Armored Cannon Beetle. It lacks a health counter, meaning it was possibly planned to serve as an obstacle. Its removal from the game could've come from its odd appearance, and how it does not match the surrounding elements in the Pikmin franchise. It can be found in some unused stages, like testmap. Curiously, It resembles the Withering Blowhog.

Usuba[edit]

Usuba in a "T-pose" when swapped for spacebg.mod in the intro cutscene of Pikmin. This is the only feasible way to view the model currently, as MOD extraction tools are not nearly complete at this time. Note that the eyes of this enemy are translucent blue films with a texture applied. That is the only texture on the entire model. Everything else is vertex coloring.
Screenshot of Usuba in its T-pose.

Usuba is the internal name for another unused enemy.[1] The name is a Romanization of ウスバ?, which is shorthand for ウスバカゲロウ?. This, in turn, translates to "antlion". As its name and appearance indicate, it would have flown, though not much else is known about it. It has only one animation, which is it straightening out from its T-pose and flying upwards. The surprisingly developed parameters for this enemy suggests that it was last developed around the same time as Iwagen. Interestingly, these same parameters suggest it would have been tied for the highest HP of any enemy (at 5000 HP) and supposedly would have spawned Smoky Proggs. However, it is possible that the enemy in Smoky Progg's position changed during development, so the latter fact cannot be confirmed. Attempting to spawn Usuba by normal methods crashes the game, as major parts of its code and assets are missing. A few of its functions still exist, though. This video shows a modification that hotwires the leftover functions to the Smoky Progg's egg, allowing a remnant of its AI to be seen: Usuba simply flies directly upwards.

For unknown reasons, Usuba does not show up in the animation test.

Kingback[edit]

Kingback is the internal name for an unused boss. This enemy is simply the "back" of the Emperor Bulblax without the lower body. It does nothing if touched/attacked by Olimar or the Pikmin, and simply pushes back any objects if touched.

Although Kingback cannot be damaged, it still has coding for being "killed", where it simply disappears.[2]

Yamash[edit]

There exist 3 "yamash" enemies, yamash3, yamash4, and yamash5. yamash1 and yamash2 do not exist. These enemies all crash the game when spawned, and have no associated model or code. Something of note is that all of their associated IDs come directly after the ID for the cut enemy Usuba, which may suggest a connection.

nakata1[edit]

There is also a nakata1 enemy, which like the "yamash" enemies, also crashes the game when spawned and has no associated model or code. This enemy's entry is the last one present in the internal list of all enemy IDs. Tetsuya Nakata is one of the developers credited under game programming in the credits of Pikmin. The enemy's internal name using the last name of a developer suggests a connection, but it's still unknown what the purpose of this enemy was.

Infinite bomb spawner[edit]

An infinite spawner for bomb-rocks is present in the files of the game. It uses the Breadbug nest as a model and gives an infinite amount of bomb-rocks to Yellow Pikmin, and appears to have been used for basic testing.

Unused fish decoration[edit]

There is an unused fish generator in the files of the game, which spawns "fish" that move around. The fish have no model, so a white X is manually drawn by the engine instead. This decoration appears to be unfinished and may have been cut early.

Large door, small door, and key objects[edit]

There are incomplete door and key objects in the game files. They use the unused door and key models and only function correctly in the unused debugger.

  • The key floats in place when spawned and when "touched" by Captain Olimar it disappears and increments an unseen counter.
  • The large door blocks Captain Olimar from getting in a radius of it, but if Olimar has collected a key, it linearly vertically squishes into the ground, at which point it is no longer tangible.
  • The small door also blocks Captain Olimar, but when touched after collecting a key, Olimar is sent into a state where he cannot move and the door remains unchanged.

Deleted objects[edit]

There are a couple of unused objects that no longer exist in the game's code, but their internal names and ID's are still preserved. These objects will usually crash the game when spawned as they no longer exist. Below is a list of the following deleted objects:

  • gem1
  • gem5
  • gem10
  • gem20
  • gem50
  • never use this
  • ivy
  • cylinder test
  • dual test
  • rocket
  • workobject

The following information can be inferred from the titles:

  • never use this was likely an outdated version of an object that was renamed later in development to dissuade developers from accidentally using it.
  • rocket likely belonged to an early version of the S.S. Dolphin.
  • The gem objects seem to correspond to earlier versions of pellets, based on naming. Interestingly, this naming pattern suggests that a 50-Pikmin pellet used to exist earlier in development, but was eventually cut.

Unused Pikmin animations[edit]

The leaf texture used in Pikmin 2's Challenge Mode menu. (Used on Pikipedia in the {{stub}} template.)

This section is a stub. You can help Pikipedia by expanding it.

There are a few animations for the Pikmin that aren't used.

Early S.S. Dolphin[edit]

An early prototype of the S.S. Dolphin's model can be found in the game files, inside a few archives. This version of the S.S. Dolphin can be seen in the end credits cutscene.

Some differences can be spotted:

  • The top of the Ionium Jets are not hexagonal; they are round.
  • The retracted form of the egg-beater-like machine on the S.S. Dolphin is not cubical; it is instead a sphere.
  • The Interstellar Radio is blue and yellow with a white top, has two antennas, and has a tilted round grille instead of a red rectangular screen.
  • The Bowsprit has a larger, and rounder bulb.
  • The Guard Satellite has a more cylindrical design with a different top design.
  • Rivets are placed and spaced differently on the early model.
  • There appears to be no reflection on the early model, although this might be because of a lighting engine issue, since the credits video shows it with reflective surfaces.

Others[edit]

  • There are 2 test blo files found inside dataDir\screen\eng_blo, "test.blo" and "test2.blo"
  • account.blo contains strings about an early end-of-day screen. They are "The sun has gone down, today's job is finished.", which appears twice, "starting pikmins", "pikmins now", "dead pikmins", "enemies defeated" and "collected items", which all appear twice, grouped. This text was used in the E3 2001 demo of the game.[3]account2.blo seems to contain the real text for the results screen.
  • When a Pikmin is held, its throw height is decided to be at a certain level. Holding the Pikmin for a while increases this value, and the increase stops more or less when the Pikmin's noise ends. However, in the game files, the starting value and the ending value are exactly the same, so this feature has absolutely no impact in the final game. Pikmin 2 has the same parameters, but the code to change the value is gone.
  • An unused parameter in aiconst.bin, when set to 1, allows the player to pluck Pikmin by simply whistling at them, like the Pluckaphone in Pikmin 2. The Pikmin come out on their own, with a unique sound and animation.[4] This feature was actually used in the 2000 prototype trailer.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ YouTube video of "Usuba", with animations, published on August 26th, 2018, retrieved on August 26th, 2018
  2. ^ YouTube video of Kingback's "death" function being called remotely, published on May 15th, 2020, retrieved on March 3rd, 2023
  3. ^ YouTube video of the E3 2001 demonstration, published on September 1st, 2020, retrieved on November 8th, 2021
  4. ^ YouTube video of the whistle plucking feature, published on August 25th, 2018, retrieved on August 26th, 2018