Random: Modders recreate Super Mario Sunshine Stage from Space World 2001

Think back to August 2001 (if you’re old enough!), you might remember that Nintendo held its last Space World event, during which it showed off a brief snippet of Super Mario Sunshine and introduced the world to the joy of cel-shaded Zelda (or “Celda “, if you want to). The company was gearing up for the release of the GameCube, which would be released in Japan in just one month and in November of that year in North America.

The demo provided for Super Mario Sunshine is different in that it shows a level not found in the final product; an alternative version of Delfino Plaza, which, frankly, is better left on the cutting room floor. It also featured some unused NPC characters that we would like to see in the final game; some of these guys look fantastic!

However, if you’re desperate to try out a lost relic from the past, then you have good news because a team of talented modders have managed to completely recreate the level by reworking the environment heightmap. The grayscale image depicts the lower levels of the terrain with lighter hues indicating higher levels, allowing the team to create a model that’s reasonably close to a 1:1 comparison with the Space World demo.

After some work adding textures and key assets to the piece, as well as the now iconic NPC “Springboard” Stu, the level is a pretty impressive recreation of what was shown to viewers over twenty years ago. Moreover, it was reported that the map would be playable in the Super Mario Sunshine ROM hack.Super Mario Eclipse’allowing users to effectively time travel between the modern plaza design from the official game and the recreated version of Space World’s plaza.

Here’s a look at rest in action:

What do you think of this explosion from the past? Share your thoughts in the comments below!