Nintendo

Zero7 has brought to our attention some differences in the early version of Pikmin 2: “In one of the photos the white pikmins don’t have red eyes (looks like a palette swapped yellow in that little window on the bottom). In another screen there’s .. a yellow potion? Wasn’t it red and.. blue/purple? Yeah, top was purple, bottom became red. Olimar’s Health looks off. Same with purple, model is fine, picture on the bottom is missing their features. In another image there are almost 20 potions.. no way you can get that many so quickly in ANY area of the final version, also that area doesn’t exist in the final (99% sure).

In a scene the red pikmin was inactive, but still colored, probably not a beta problem and I’m just remembering wrong, but I could’ve sworn they become a little lighter when they’re inactive. In the beta both players are using Olimar as their health, one red and one blue, but Louie gets his own icon in the final. We can even see the “Debug mode” in some of the screens.. and still using yellow potions, which dont exist in the final; maybe it was planned to choose between 3 different potions. The thing that goes down into caves with you looks different, like a lot less detailed than the final. In general all the pictures pre MAY 4 2004 are missing the second health meter for Louie and they all had different numberings for the pikmin count in the HUD (Beta: 0043 – final: [space][space]43).”

Also, in the videos below there are yellow and blue bolborbs, which are different in the final version (they are orange with black faces and green eyes). As we can read in Pikmin Wikia:

Two Bulborb subspecies are known to have been cut from the final versions of the Pikmin games. Both colors match those of the three main Pikmin types. Along with the Red Bulborb, each basic Pikmin type would have a fitting Bulborb had these not been removed. Naming used in the game’s data makes it clear that these became the Dwarf Orange and Hairy Bulborbs in the game.

As we could see in Pikmin [GC – Beta / Prototype / Unused Stuff / Debug] page, the pikmins were supposed to be black in the first time, however, Shigeru Miyamoto didn’t liked it, due not having any facial features, such as nose and eyes. However, in the game data folder, mostly, or all the files, redirected to Purple Pikmin, are named as “Piki-Black” (configuration/models/textures), meaning that in the first states of the game, the black pikmin would appear in the sequel.

Screenshot of BMDViewer:

Thanks to Zero7, kieranmay, Foulowe 59 and gabrielwoj for the contributions & to Jay for the english corrections!

Videos: