This is the most "painful" cut asset. In the final game, if Mario misses a ledge, he falls. In the beta, there is a full animation where Mario’s fingers scrape the edge, he kicks his legs, and pulls himself up. This "climb" mechanic was standard in later 3D platformers ( Crash Bandicoot , Tomb Raider ). It was cut because the collision detection for ledges was too buggy near the 1996 deadline.

: The leak contained multiple polygon models for Luigi, including low-poly versions for distant rendering.