Super Mario 64
The blueprint for 3D platforming. Star-by-star guides, movement tech, course routing, secret stars, and the 70-star and 120-star runs.
August 2026
8 posts
Super Mario 64 Dire Dire Docks Guide: All 7 Stars in Order
Dire, Dire Docks has a before and an after. Beating Bowser in the Fire Sea takes the submarine out of the course and puts poles across the ceiling in its place, and one of the seven stars cannot be taken until that has happened. Here is every star, the order that stops the course fighting you, the chest sequence, and where all 106 coins sit.
Super Mario 64 Shifting Sand Land Guide: All 7 Stars
Only 74 of Shifting Sand Land's 136 coins are outside the pyramid, and once you step through the pyramid door the game will not let you back into the desert. That single rule reorders the whole course. Here is every star, every kind of sand, the coin table, and the star select that stops Klepto stealing your hat.
Super Mario 64 Health Guide: Damage Values and How to Heal
Every enemy hit in Super Mario 64 costs one, two or three wedges, every coin colour heals a fixed amount, and floating at the surface of water repairs damage that water never caused. The health system is small enough to learn completely — here is the whole thing, with the exact numbers.
Super Mario 64 Tall, Tall Mountain Guide: All 6 Stars and the Hidden Slide
The Power Star at the bottom of Tall, Tall Mountain's secret slide does not require the slide — on N64 a backward somersault from the ledge above drops you straight into the alcove. You still cannot ignore the thing, because 62 of the course's 137 coins are inside it. Here is every star, the whole climb, and the coin table.
Super Mario 64 Big Boo's Haunt Guide: All 6 Stars and the Star-Select Trap
Big Boo's Haunt loads as two different buildings depending on which star you select, which is why the basement merry-go-round is empty for half the players who go looking for it. Here is every star, the bookshelf order, and the coin table that makes the 100-coin run work.
Super Mario 64 Hazy Maze Cave Guide: All 7 Stars
Hazy Maze Cave is the only course in Super Mario 64 with another course hidden inside it, and the only one where getting lost is the actual difficulty. Here is every star, both maze exits, and where all 139 coins are.
Super Mario 64 Rainbow Ride Guide: All 6 Stars and the Carpet Rules
Rainbow Ride is fifteen chunks of geometry floating in an empty sky, joined by carpets that leave without you. Here is how the magic carpets actually behave, where the eight red coins hide, how to line up the cannon shot, and the warp almost nobody uses.
Super Mario 64 Tiny-Huge Island Guide: All 7 Stars and the Two-Painting Trick
Tiny-Huge Island is one island built at two scales, and the middle of its three paintings is a fake. Here is which painting to enter for each of the seven stars, where the three Shrinker Pipes take you, the two-step Wiggler puzzle, and why the lake holds the most dangerous water in the game.
July 2026
10 posts
Super Mario 64 Wet-Dry World Guide: All 7 Stars and the Water Level Trick
Wet-Dry World hands you the difficulty dial before you even land. The height you enter the painting at sets the water level, and five Crystal Taps let you move it after. Here is how to set it per star, where the eight red coins hide, and the mistake that strands you downtown.
Super Mario 64 Tick Tock Clock Guide: All 7 Stars and the Time Trick
Tick Tock Clock is the course that punishes you for not reading the painting. The minute hand you jump through decides whether the whole level is frozen solid or spinning like a blender. Here is how to set the speed you want and clear all seven stars.
Super Mario 64 100 Coin Stars: Every Course Ranked by Margin
Fifteen of Super Mario 64's 120 Power Stars come from collecting 100 coins in a course. Most courses hand you 40 or 50 spare coins to work with. Jolly Roger Bay hands you four. Here is every course's real coin total, how much slack you actually get, and how to route the ones that punish you.
Super Mario 64 Version Differences: N64 vs DS vs 3D All-Stars
If you played Super Mario 64 in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Mario never said "So long-a Bowser!" — he said "Buh-bye!" That is not a Mandela effect, it is Nintendo shipping the 1997 Japanese revision instead of the cartridge you grew up with. Here is what actually changes between every version of Super Mario 64.
Super Mario 64 Speedrun Guide: Beginner Routes and Tech
Super Mario 64 is the most-run game on the internet for a reason: the routes are readable and the first hour of practice pays off fast. Here is how to pick a category, which stars to grab and in what order, and the small handful of tricks that actually move your time.
Super Mario 64 Boss Guide: Every Boss and How to Break It
Super Mario 64 has eleven real boss encounters and most of them are the same puzzle wearing a different hat: get behind it, hit it three times, do not fall off. Here is every fight, the exact mission it lives in, and the tell that makes it trivial.
Super Mario 64 Cap Guide: Wing, Metal, and Vanish Caps
The Wing, Metal, and Vanish caps look like optional toys. They are not. Three hidden switches gate a stack of the 70 stars you need to win, and this is where each switch lives, how to reach it, and which stars it unlocks.
Super Mario 64 Beginner Guide: Your First 30 Power Stars
Super Mario 64 does not gate you on difficulty, it gates you on Power Stars. Here is exactly which doors need what, which stars are fastest to grab, and the route that gets a first-timer from one star to thirty without wandering the castle in circles.
Super Mario 64 Movement Guide: Long Jump, Wall Kick, BLJ
Super Mario 64 has a moveset deep enough that people are still routing it three decades later. Here is every input that matters on the N64 original, the timing windows nobody explains, and why the backwards long jump does not exist in half the versions you can buy.
Super Mario 64 Secret Stars: All 15 Castle Stars Located
The 15 courses only account for 105 of Super Mario 64's 120 Power Stars. The other 15 are hidden inside Peach's castle itself — in cap switch courses, a fish tank behind a wall, a rabbit in the basement, and three Toads who hand them over for free. Here is every one.