Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 23 (Patreon)

Welcome, everyone, to the 23rd issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone.  

Today, I will go through the debug mode that is present in the data of Mario Party 7 and elaborate on all the options and hidden content therein.

Mario Party 7 Debug

Many Mario Party series games still have debug modes used by the developers accessible inside the code, often by changing only a single line that results in a function loading the debug menu instead of a minigame intro. This was apparently a practice endorsed by Hudson Soft, the studio behind all the Mario Party games until Mario Party 8. Starting with Mario Party 9, the series was taken over by Nintendo subsidiary NDcube. 

While first-party Nintendo games also often include debug functions, they are usually much more limited in scope than the ones of Hudson Soft games. I will showcase the extensive Mario Party 7 debug menu today, and will feature debug modes of other Mario Party games in articles in the future.

The codes required to access this content in the game can be found on the tcrf.net page for Mario Party 7. I'd like to thank all the TCRF contributors who make the in-depth exploration of this game, and many other games, possible.

By changing a line in the code and selecting the Grand Canal board, the game will load the first page of the 14-page debug menu:

While most of the content that is unique to the debug mode and cannot be accessed through the game by playing it normally is on the last page, 14/14, I will go through all the options on all pages so this article becomes a comprehensive guide to the menu (as the TCRF page does not have a full list of what the options map to).

The 7 in the beginning of each option presumably stands for Mario Party 7; as this menu was already used in previous Mario Party titles, it is logical to assume it would be treated like room numbers in a multi-floor building, with each game starting its respective entries with 100, 200, 300 etc.

I will write down what each option does in English after its respective number, plus some occasional commentary. The options on page 1/14 all start minigames by bringing up the explanation screen of the minigame in question.

701: Catchy Tunes
702: Bubble Brawl
703: Track & Yield
704: Fun Run
705: Cointagious
706: Snow Ride
707: Real Smoothie
708: Picture This (note that the name in the menu is Para2 Stop; the 2 is used in Japanese to abbreviate the reduplication of whatever comes before, so in this case the full name is Parapara Stop.)
709: Ghost in the Hall
710: Big Dripper

Note that the names of the entries, despite appearing to be the romanized Japanese names for the minigames, are not actually the same as the minigame names in the finished game. Instead, they are internal names for the minigames, made by the developers. This will become more apparent with the Bowser and DK minigames which are just called "Koopa" and "Donkey".

711: Target Tag
712: Pokey Pummel
713: Take Me Ohm
714: Kart Wheeled
715: Balloon Busters
716: Clock Watchers
717: Kart Attack
718: unused
719: Oil Crisis
720: Number Crunchers

Note that the mic minigames are all called "Mic De X" (meaning "X by mic" in Japanese), which is also what the naming convention is for the minigames in the Japanese finished version, however, the word that comes after the "mic de" is different in the game than it is in the menu.

721: La Bomba
722: Spray Anything
723: Balloonatic
724: Spinner Cell
725: Think Tank
726: Flashfright
727: Coin-op Bop
728: Easy Pickings
729: Wheel of Woe
730: Boxing Day

731: Be My Chum!
732: StratosFEAR!
733: Pogo-a-Go-Go
734: Buzzstormer
735: Tile and Error
736: Battery Ram
737: Cardinal Rule
738: Ice Moves
739: Bumper Crop
740: Hop-o-Matic 4000

Note how the internal name for "Ice Moves" is simply "Air Hockey". 

741: Wingin' It (note that the name is actually Patapatapatapata due to the abbreviation convention; "Patapata" being the Japanese name for the Paratroopa. Since the minigame consists of two Paratroopa robots being controlled, this is a very whimsical way of expressing it.)
742: Sphere Factor
743: Herbicidal Maniac
744: Pyramid Scheme
745: World Piece
746: Warp Pipe Dreams
747: Weight For It
748: Helipopper
749: Monty's Revenge
750: Deck Hands

751: Mad Props
752: Gimme a Sign (note that the original name for it is a rare complete English sentence: "Dangerous Bridge".)
753: Bridge Work (interestingly, another game centering around a dangerous bridge directly after the last; however, this one has a Japanese name.)
754: Spin Doctor
755: Hip Hop Drop
756: Air Farce (The internal name, "Hangrider", could either be a pun on "hang glider" and "rider" or a misspelling of "hang glider" due to the L and R sound being interchangeable in Japanese.)
757: The Final Countdown (Here, the Japanese name, "Countdown", is very similar to the English final name, but not the Japanese one (which translates to " Don't Fall Down! Valley Bottom Battle" and does not mention countdowns at all.))
758: Royal Rumpus
759: Light Speed
760: Apes of Wrath

761: Fish & Cheeps
762: Camp Ukiki
763: Funstacle Course!
764: Funderwall!
765: Magmagical Journey!
766: Tunnel of Lava!
767: Treasure Dome!
768: Slot-O-Whirl!
769: Peel Out
770: Bananas Faster

As you can see, the Bowser and Donkey Kong minigames do not have unique internal names, instead being called "Koopa" and "Donkey". In Japan, the shortening of Donkey Kong's name to "Donkey" is more common than to "DK"; this can also be seen in the file select screens of the Japanese versions of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. games.

771: Stump Change
772: Jump, Man
773: Vine Country
774: A Bridge Too Short
775: Spider Stomp
776: Stick and Spin
777: Synch-row-nicity
778: Grin and Bar It
779: Hammer Spammer
780: Gimme a Brake

Here, the regular minigames end. One of the entries is already something slightly different; instead of a regular minigame that can be selected in Free Play mode, it is the board game-exclusive Mic Space minigame, where Toadsworth gambles with the player using cards that have fruit depicted on them. The debug mode is the only way to access this minigame freely without needing to play the board game and randomly land on that space.

781: Bumper to Bumper
782: Spin Off
783: Rope a Dope
784: Duct & Cover
785: Mic Space minigame, as explained above
786: Bowser's Lovely Lift (called "Last Minigame" internally, appropriately due to being the last minigame of the story.)
787: unused
788: Mathemortician
789: Bob-ombic Plague
790: Unhappy Trails

This page exists only to have the last minigame on it, 791: Shock Absorbers. It is unclear why it is here and not in the two unused spaces before this, however, this may be due to some minigames getting scrapped and it being unnecessary trouble to move the other minigames around.

Of interest is that the minigame "Ghost in the Hall" is not available from the debug menu; despite being in the game. It is possible that it was one of the deleted entries, although why it was deleted from this menu but still kept in the game is unknown.

On Page 11/14, the numbering ends, as do the minigames. Now, each entry takes you to a different non-minigame part of the game.

PT Board 1: Grand Canal
PT Board 2: Pagoda Peak
PT Board 3: Pyramid Park
PT Board 4: Neon Heights
PT Board 5: Windmillville
PT Board 6: Bowser's Enchanted Inferno!
Board Tutorial: the tutorial board ship

Each board is loaded with the following parameters: the first player is the last character the player chose before entering the debug menu (and Mario otherwise). The other three players are chosen randomly. The board length is 20 turns and the CPU characters are set to Normal difficulty.

This page takes you to the different minigame modes, which is coincidentally what "MGM" very likely stands for. The modes also all load with the same parameters as the previous page.

In order from top to bottom, they are Free Play Sub, Volcano Peril, Waterfall Battle, Decathlon Castle, Pearl Hunt, King of the River, and 8-Player Ice Battle.

The last one displays in a glitched manner when accessed from this mode:

Note that some of the characters are overlapping others in the top left and top right corners.

The first 7 entries open one of the menus for the different modes, while the bottom three have to do with minigames.

In order, the first 7 are: main menu (after selecting a save file), Party Cruise menu, Solo Cruise menu, Deluxe Cruise menu, Minigame Cruise menu, Duty-Free Shop Menu, and Control Room menu.

The "MG Inst" entry just opens up the explanation screen for Catchy Tunes, the first minigame. I image it stands for "Minigame Instance", and was used to test opening up minigames before they were finalized.

"MG Result-P" opens up a default version of the Party Cruise minigame result screen:

Pressing A takes the player back to the debug menu. "MG Result-S" does the same for the Solo Cruise result screen. Interestingly, the "S" implies it was called "Solo Cruise" internally as well, but the actual entry for Solo Cruise calls it "Duel" instead.

Finally, the last page contains all the unique content:

"Actman Check" deposits the last selected player character into a test room with two (for an unknown reason, not one or three, even though no three-player minigames exist in the game) other randomly selected characters:

The player can move the player character around, jump, punch and perform a Ground Pound. The other two characters react to being punched, Ground Pounded and pushed around, but are otherwise completely inert. Here is what the room looks like from afar:

It contains two sets of stairs, two ramps and a sand pit. Note how there is a spotlight centered on the player character. It has a unique property of not only making objects brighter, but causing them to have shading. Here is an example - this is what Mario looks like outside of the spotlight:

Note that the only shading on his body comes from the textures of his clothes. His legs are a field of flat blue despite logically needing to be subject to shading due to being cylindrical. Now, if the player character approaches Mario, he gains shading:

Now, the model has gained shading. Note how the legs appear to be more three-dimensional, or how individual fingers are visible compared to the unshaded model's solid grey shape. Unfortunately, nothing in-game has this lighting effect; it can only be seen in this mode.

Pressing X will cause the player character to slowly ride upward for a few seconds while a "Finish" message appears, upon which the screen goes black and the debug menu appears again. The other characters do not react to this, except, for an unknown reason, Luigi. If Luigi has been randomly selected as one of the other characters, he will deform violently upon X being pressed:

Note that this can only be seen if Luigi is near the ledge on one of the steps, as his model descends during this. If he is standing on flat ground, the model is entirely underground and not visible.

The next mode is "Message Check". This is a list of all text in the game, which can be scrolled through with A, L and R:

Due to the many thousands of messages here, it is impractical to attempt to list them. A few unused messages can also be found, although they seem to just be garbage data loaded into the menu, such as random single characters. 

If you decide to explore this menu yourself, take note that the game will crash if the end of the message list is reached.

The third mode, "Motion Check2", is a way to view a few of the playable characters' animations. It is unknown why it doesn't contain all of the animations, especially since other games like Mario Party 8 actually do, in a debug room very similar to this one:

By pressing Z, the animations cycle through: standing, walking, running, jumping, winning a minigame, losing a minigame, short cheer (such as winning something while on the board in an event), short losing animation (the same for losing something on the board), and the animation for winning the game (becoming a Superstar), before looping back to standing.

The animations that do not naturally cycle simply stop at the last frame, so the characters' jumping animation ends with them suspended in mid-air:

However, the A button restarts the animations, which in the case of the jumping animation results in it being completed, and the character landing. This does not happen with the other animations.

Unfortunately, due to all the animations featured here being very common, there is not much we can discover using this particular mode. The animation test in Mario Party 8, which I will make an article about at some later point, is much more suited for that, due to featuring unused and rare animations.

The "Boot" option starts up the game normally. I imagine that at some point in development, starting up the game would have opened up the debug menu directly, leading to an option to boot up the game the way the player would experience it being necessary. 

The "Staff Roll" option starts the credits, while the "Ending" option shows the cutscene at the end of the story, where Bowser and Koopa Kid land on a small isolated island after being defeated.

The "File Select" option loads the file select screen, which completes every single menu in the game being available from the debug mode. 

Finally, another piece of unused content is the very last option: "E3 Select". This loads up a menu that was used at the Nintendo booth at E3 2005, where visitors could play a small selection of minigames.

Unfortunately, some of the content used here was either entirely removed from the game or was moved around in the code, so that the message box that should have contained Toadsworth's greeting is empty.

The character selection screen has Birdo and Dry Bones as silhouettes, but not selectable:

These are the available 4 player minigames:

And the 8 player minigames:

The "Quit" option would have likely taken the player to the E3-exclusive title screen; unfortunately, it does not work here, bringing up an empty prompt that automatically closes itself. It is possible to access the title screen with a completely different code from that used for the debug menu, though:

It consists of Mario riding on a miniature version of the MSS Sea Star past all other characters standing on small islands in the background. 

I hope this look into the debug mode of Mario Party 7 could be informative.

This concludes today's issue. Thank you very much for reading.