Top 10 Hardest Super Mario 64 Stars
You've probably collected a bunch of stars in Super Mario 64 without breaking a sweat. Hop here, wall jump there, maybe chase a penguin or two. But then the game decides to go full chaos mode and hands you a star that feels like it was designed by someone who enjoys watching players suffer.
Suddenly you're triple-jumping across bottomless pits, flying with a wing cap that handles like a shopping cart, or praying the camera doesn't betray you at the worst possible moment.
Some stars demand ridiculous precision. Others have you hunting red coins in places where the floor is more suggestion than guarantee. And a few just straight-up mess with you, hiding objectives in places no rational plumber would ever look.
This list is all about those stars. The ones that make your palms sweat. The ones that have you blaming the controls, the camera, and every poor life choice that led you here. These are the stars that separate the casuals from the masochists.
So which ones do you think are the hardest? Scroll through, vote for the ones that had you yelling at your screen, and see how your pain compares with everyone else's.
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Red Coin Star (Wing Mario Over the Rainbow)
The big challenge here is that if you fall, you don't die and lose a life. Instead, you land in the pool of water outside the castle.
While at least you don't die, that also means you have to make your way all the way back to the third floor to try again. It's especially frustrating if you managed to get all eight red coins only to accidentally fall and have to do it all over again.
During my first 120-star playthrough, I spent an attempt talking to the Bob-Omb Buddy. On my next attempt, I took the higher cannon to get to the top cloud and worked downwards from there. If you do it right, you'll get the last coin at the cannon island on the bottom of the stage. Then you can just blast back to the first island.
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Stomp on the Thwomp (Tick Tock Clock)
Making it to the top of the clock is a chore. If you fall down, you could either die or land all the way at the bottom, having to make your way all the way back up.
The fact is, you have to make your way all the way up Tick-Tock Clock, and this level REQUIRES some form of clock motion to be able to reach the Thwomp.
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Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Rainbow Ride)
This is similar to the Cruiser Crossing the Rainbow star, but here you use a cannon to get to it. If your aim is off, you die. Also, finding the Pink Bob-Omb to activate the cannon is very difficult.
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Cruiser Crossing the Rainbow (Rainbow Ride)
Getting to the ship can be very tricky, and it's easy to fall to your death.
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Red Coin Star (Bowser in the Sky)
This star is not hard. I feel like people only put this here because of the coin under the stairs. Now I understand my mother's strategy to always explore everything she sees.
Two of the red coins are very well hidden, so you could easily miss them if you don't watch carefully.
Hard enough level without the completely off-path reds forcing you to repeat platforming.
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Blast to the Lonely Mushroom (Tall, Tall Mountain)
The normal way to get the star is to use the cannon after talking to the pink Bob-omb and making your way to the cannon, which is located in the worst spot ever. You could accidentally fall off while getting there. Once you make it, you need to aim at the star located on the lone mushroom. If you miss, which is likely, you die.
A much easier way to do this is to jump on the flying Shy Guy near the rotating log by the monkey. Once you do, you'll spin in the air, and you can carefully fly to the mushroom instead. However, this can still be tricky.
People think this star is easy since they can use a Fly Guy or jump from the mountain, but the intended way is to talk to a Pink Bob-Omb tucked out of view, teleport to a tiny mushroom, then hug the wall before taking one shot at the star. Miss it, and you blast into oblivion.
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Wall Kicks Will Work (Cool, Cool Mountain)
The star is located in a very well-hidden area. You could blast out of the cannon and aim for the tree, though it's easy to miss. Alternatively, though I wouldn't recommend it, you could do a long jump from the tiny island where the cannon is, but this is very tricky to pull off.
The much easier route is to jump on one of the snowmen with a hat and glide to the area instead.
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Can the Eel Come Out to Play? (Jolly Roger Bay)
You have to lure the eel out of hiding and grab the star as it emerges. You need to be quick and try not to touch the eel, as it will damage you. This is especially challenging since you'll have lost a lot of air waiting for the eel to come out.
Jolly Roger Bay, anyway, this star is so annoying to get because the eel will always screw everything up!
Hang out under the eel and time it right.
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Big Boo's Balcony (Big Boo's Haunt)
After beating Boo, the star ends up at the top of the mansion, which you have to make your way up to without falling off the mansion.
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100 Coin Star (Rainbow Ride)
So many things can go wrong here. You can easily screw yourself over by falling off, and the coins are in very risky places. Plus, the blue coins are very hard to collect.
Rainbow Ride is generous with the coins, but it is miserable if you mess up the blue coins. You're then stuck trying to get every obscure coin in the sky.
Why isn't this in the top 10? You have to perform 5-10 perfect wall kicks in an area, and coins are scattered all over.
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100 Coin Star (Dire, Dire Docks)
There are 106 total coins. Also, those docks are literally the worst docks in existence.
Aren't there exactly 100 or 101 coins in the whole level? You have to get every single coin, and it has to be after the sub is gone, so you can easily be sucked into the giant hole with 5 coins placed right underneath. Also, if you fall off the platform in the air after pounding the blue coin block, you won't be able to get the 100-coin star.
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100 Coin Star (Tick Tock Clock)
This is difficult because it's stressful. Couple that with the fact that it's super easy to fall and die, which makes this hell.
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Red Coin Star (Tower of the Wing Cap)
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Blast Away the Wall (Whomp's Fortress)
If you're playing for the first time, there's no way you're supposed to know that you have to blast a piece of the wall to reveal a star.
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100 Coin Star (Hazy Maze Cave)
There are so few coins, so you have to navigate the whole level, which is pretty difficult to do with how the level is set up.
The coins are super obnoxious, especially the ones in the Hazy Maze.
I hate how coins are scattered all over the place.
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Big House in the Sky (Rainbow Ride)
You have to be completely perfect with your jumps when you get near the house. I failed so many times when I was first trying to get this star! I barely see anyone else complain about this one.
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Mystery of the Monkey Cage (Tall, Tall Mountain)
At first, I thought you had to talk to the monkey next to the log, grab the cap back, and get the star. I did this for 30 minutes with no results. Then I went to the top and found a monkey there. After that, I got the star but had trouble finding it. No one talks about this star. Weird.
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Free Flying for 8 Red Coins (Shifting Sand Land)
Speedrunners HATE this star. The star involves a super slide into a TPD over the dunes, getting the Wing Cap on the pyramid, grabbing some coins, landing in the Oasis JUST right, doing a super slide onto the block maze, and grabbing the star.
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Rematch with Koopa the Quick (Tiny-Huge Island)
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Bully the Bullies (Lethal Lava Land)
When the bullies gang up on your character all at once, it's overwhelming. You're on a small platform and can easily fall into the lava. When you fall into lava and get burned, it's hard to control where the character jumps to next, and you could easily end up going further out towards the lava and away from land or platforms, causing you to lose a life or fail the level. Definitely harder for beginners.
Fighting all three at once is so hard and annoying.
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Red-Hot Log Rolling (Lethal Lava Land)
You don't want to go too fast, or you'll run into the lava. You don't want to go too slow, or you'll fall into the lava. Plus, you have to dodge fire blasting out of the lava as you do this.
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Stop Time for Red Coins (Tick Tock Clock)
This is only hard if time is not stopped. Other than that, good luck.
If you miss the clock stop, this is your own personal hell.
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Red Coin Star (The Secret Under the Moat)
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100 Coin Star (Lethal Lava Land)
You have to use the shell for most of the coins, and it's so easy to bump into something and die in the lava because Lakitu bro is a bad cameraman.
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Elevate for 8 Red Coins (Hazy Maze Cave)
Total pain. Unless you're a high-level speedrunner, it takes forever too.
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Red Coin Star (Bowser in the Fire Sea)
I remember having bad memories with this star back in 2017. I tried so many times just to get this stupid star.
Thankfully, if you're playing on the DS version, Luigi will make this chore a whole lot easier.
Super easy to miss coins or die going for this star.