Mario Strikers Datamine Shows Off Unused Character Models, Including A Full Team Of “Human Mario Brothers”

Ahead of the release of Mario Strikers: Battle League on the Nintendo Switch this June – dataminer, “Mario historian” and Twitter user ‘Dogon McBanana’ has been sifting through the back end of the original GameCube entry, Super Mario Strikers.

While “digging through the game’s files” they’ve stumbled across an entire team of “generic Mario style humans” and various other unused assets in the final build of the game that they felt was worth sharing with Nintendo fans on social media.

Donkey Kong also has “Kong-like characters” and Luigi has a “dupe of himself”, too. While these models weren’t in the final game, it seems as if Next Level Games might have been considering original character designs to support the Mario cast.

Some other interesting models that weren’t utilised were characters from Paper Mario and Super Mario Sunshine. First up we’ve got “Dull Bones” recreated in 3D and labelled “Medic” in the game’s files, and some security Pianta (found in the E3 prototype of Mario Strikers).

Additional findings include unused banners, signage and a Goomba guard – which apparently has some ties to a cut stage.

In somewhat related news, the upcoming release Nintendo Switch Sports was recently datamined – with findings leading to theories that Nintendo might add some new sports in the future.

What do you think of the above character models? Are you looking forward to the return of the Mario Strikers series later this year? Leave a comment down below.