Cryptic Stars in Mario 64 EXPLAINED

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[@WilfredCthulu]

My theory on the design philosophy of plunder the sunken ship is they wanted first time players to meander their way curiously towards the ship, see the spooky eel, realise they need air and swim back up, then go back down and realise "Oh the eel is out now." It just doesn't translate well after returning to the game.

[@KazeN64]

hmm i dont remember whether the water just above unagi is far enough to get him to come out. but if that was the goal i think it'd make the most sense to make him come out after mario has gone high up again instead of giving him this radius

[@your_local_mario]

that's basically how i got this star in my first playthrough

[@Eckster]

Seems more likely to me that they didn't want to animate him exiting the ship, so they waited until he unloaded. Problem with that theory is they animated the other one, so 🤷‍♂️

[@your_local_mario]

@@Eckster maybe to conserve resources with an actual animation for it going out after all it's the n64

[@KazeN64]

@@your_local_mario its the same expense with or without animation to render him (besides, he has an animation when being there in idle)... he also has an exiting hole animation for the other eel so this is just kinda bizarre

[@ages_dot_mp4]

On the DS version they made Unagi actually come out of the ship when Mario is nearby

[@Iamverylazy]

That's interesting about the snowman. When I was a kid and I first tried that star I remember the ice physics caused me to slide off the little ledge in front of the snowman's head and then the snowball rolled passed me and off the side of the mountain. My immediate thought at the time was "Oh, clearly I have to stand directly to the snowman's head's left for the snowball to follow me properly." I'm actually kind of surprised to hear that apparently so many people have had trouble with that star. Still, very interesting to learn the specifics on how the star works. I always assumed you had to slide all the way to snowman's head otherwise the body would just roll off the cliff. And also the Manta Ray's rings are good to know too. I always knew they were a bit wonky. Also a side note, I'm sure people already know this, but you actually can see the Unagi leave the ship. If you hold Up C while swimming upward after triggering the eel you can watch it leave the ship. You're clearly not SUPPOSED to be able to see it leave the ship because it just sort of blips out into the water, but it's easy enough to see even without any cheats or hacks or anything like that.

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

I litterally never had a problem with it and I'm so confused

[@Pomodorosan]

rolled past me*

[@varietychan]

You could point out the Penguin Race from CCM, that doesn't use checkpoints as many players believe, it checks for how long are you falling, if it's over 2 seconds then you cheated

[@solidzack]

Snowman's Head was my nightmare as a child. I managed to figure out and obtain all remaining 119 stars, but even after years I still couldn't get tge Snowman's Head star to spawn. I was convinced that my game was broken and somehow my 8 year old brain couldn't figure out that maybe jumping off the slide for a shortcut was the issue. I never felt as stupid again as I felt when I realized my mistake

[@solidzack]

I commented this before finishing the video and hearing that Kaze couldn't figure it out either as a child is such a relief

[@wieser98]

did you ever finish the game? i recently revisited mario 64 ds and it felt so good when i finally got the 150th star, as i child i did the final bowser and then collected some more stars, but never all of them

[@solidzack]

@@wieser98 yes, since this is my childhood game, I 100%ed it numerous times on platforms, some of which don't even make sense (N64, Android, PC, PS3, Switch (decomp port), DSi (SM64DS version and decomp port) and 3DS (SM64DS version with analog stick mod and decomp port)) . This game has become the modern equivalent of "But can it run DOOM" and it's hilarious

[@isaacholzwarth]

I never had this problem as a kid... I think after failing a couple times (I am always trying to take shortcuts in games) I assumed it wanted me to slide all the way down, and then I just stood on the platform behind the head thinking that was the best place to go for him to "follow" me. I never knew that this was a common struggle...

[@SuperM789]

@@solidzack if you have to modify a game manualy to make it enjoyable to play, then the game is not good

[@Sky77E4]

You definitely helped clear up some confusion about Unagi, especially since I swear I remember watching Unagi swim out of the ship a few times. As for the snowman I always just assumed you had to take the "intended" path and then wait behind the head so you don't get hit. Glad to know you can totally break open it's route.

[@SwissArmyTin]

They reworked Unagi's behavior in 64DS where he uses the cave-exiting animations for him leaving the ship after simply swimming close to him.

[@Sky77E4]

@@SwissArmyTin Ah that's probably it since I did play both versions around the same time

[@Pomodorosan]

its route*

[@LifeOutward]

Five year old me feels seen, heard, and understood. Thank you, Kaze

[@Syper7]

The game looks kinda interesting seeing colliders and level colliders

[@The86Ripper]

The funny thing is how we never really questioned such stuff. If they didnt work we were kinda ''meh....lets go again'' Thats when we werent angry because it was the 5th time a star wasnt working 😂

[@your_local_mario]

"insert here we go again gta meme here"

[@whompronnie]

@@your_local_marioAll you had to do was follow the damn manta ray, CJ!

[@retrokoh1507]

Nah speak for yourself. The eel and snowman always pissed me off, even as a child

[@spyczech]

Nice pfp zero escape goes hard af

[@The86Ripper]

​@@spyczech🫡🫡🫡

[@martinbecker2164]

The pigeon thing is called Pigeon Superstition, if the pigeon happens to be doing something at the same time the food came out (like flapping it's wings) it will associate flapping it's wings with making the food come out and thus will attempt to make the food come out faster by flapping it's wings harder.

[@harm991]

So now we have come full circle - with the brain ChatGPT doing all kinds of stupid things because humans rewarded it wrongly.

[@canaconn2388]

​​@@harm991congratulations you have described tiktok

[@matchanavi]

It's like people saying you can press A or B or something while catching Pokemon to help its chances.

[@AntonyCannon]

How to give pigeons Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

[@lpnp9477]

​@@matchanaviit's HOLD B and it's SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN 😉

[@tamertamertamer4874]

I’ll just say everything I thought wrong. For the pillars I thought you had to take the coins for it to activate. For the snowman I just had no idea and I guess I just got lucky

[@djancak]

i too thought grabbing the coin was necessary

[@tbtb66]

As a kid I got most of these just by experimenting around that I never had trouble with them Like for Unagi after spending a little bit underwater I thought to return to the surface to lure him out Or the snowman to "race" the body and stand near the head to lead him into it like a sort of trap But what baffled my dumbass was Lethal Lava Land's jank level design lol

[@crocodileman94]

Yeah, Lethal Lava Land feels like an alpha stage that somehow made it into the final game.

[@RizzlinHD]

aw I love lethal lava land :

[@obvfw]

​@@crocodileman94Well, it was in the Spaceworld beta demo!

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

Mario 64 is a sandbox and LLL is just more sandboxy than others

[@clouds-rb9xt]

LLL is one of the best levels imo

[@Kaitri]

You started the video WITH THE ONE STAR i never got as a kid. It REALLY has haunted me forever. Its been over 20 years of noone believing me and me thinking im crazy. FINALLY an answer... thank you i mean it

[@djhenyo]

This is really crazy for me in the opposite way. First time down the slope I lost to the faster rolling snowball, but the second or third time I managed to stay in front, wait behind the snowman's head, and got the star. Never imagined anybody had a lot of trouble getting that one.

[@shloop.]

Same. I was bewildered after hearing so many people explain how they got it and feeling like I had done everything right. It wasn’t until I actually watched someone do it that I realized you had to basically hug the walls, which made no sense to me.

[@djhenyo]

@@shloop. Kaze showed that hugging the walls makes no difference. Just to be fair, you also don't need to stand directly behind snowman's head like I did.

[@shloop.]

@@djhenyo Yeah, I commented before watching all the way through. Idk what I did wrong as a kid but the snowball would always just roll off the cliff.

[@longlivethesecondplaceice2736]

We had a diffrend start that we never found becues we thought we aready got it. The Princess's Secret Slide start

[@kekcrocgod6731]

I never understood the unagi eel, thank you for solving one of my life’s greatest mysteries

[@kaiser9321]

I still think Blast Away the Wall takes the cake because of its name, expecting a huge secret but not getting that much in return

[@user-mo2gb8ez8d]

That's weird cuz I literally first tried the snowman star. Didn't know there're people struggling for this star

[@philippelachance]

Same I just slide all the way down to the other. I don't get up walking and I don't jump. Just slide all and the snowball follow you easily. I remember maybe missing 1 or 2 times but I was clear it had to follow you while sliding at least for me.

[@KazeN64]

@@philippelachance i showcase later into the video on the laziest way to get the star - i dont have the snowman follow me for even a second and it goes into the goal. the requirements for this star are just really arbitrary and its basically random for most people whether they get it or not

[@philippelachance]

​@@KazeN64 yeah I thought it was as simple as that that explain why I missed it 1 or 2 times without knowing why. It been a while since I have done that star so I didn't know it was a weird star.😅

[@YanntastischGER]

You are a life saver! That snow man star indeed was a puzzle for my entire life! I remember neither my mom, friend, or me being able to get that stupid snow man to piece itself together, now I know why.

[@SNS3000]

I replayed the game many times and I would always just stand in front of the snowman's head and take the hit to ensure it works. Oddly it never occurred to me I could just stand behind it like in this video (nor did I know exactly why it worked).

[@Yewtewba]

​@@SNS3000I always did the same. Not once did I think anyone would have trouble with it.

[@bjiirn]

I did never figure out how the snowman worked, but the rest i kind of did. My understanding at the time / as a kid was: 1. Unagi: Get close, then back to the surface of the water and back down. 2. Desert Towers: Just stand on them, flying over them doesn't work. (Didn't that play a sound when you touch the hitbox?) 3. Snowman: It's Random. 4. Water Rings: you need to be precise and the controls suck.

[@your_local_mario]

most of these stars sucked to get for 100% since most hitboxes don't make any noise or anything visually to make you go like "ok i hit it"

[@mariotheundying]

For the last 2 ones I would just stand besides the snowman and in the water rings, it isn't that the controls sucks, they're fine, but it was annoying and thought it randomly doesn't count

[@superdejan64]

I know everyone is only gonna talk about the snowman star, and while it is dumb, I am always so fucking annoyed at the pillars in ssl, they never work properly, but now I know where the hitbox is so I can do it how god intended. Thank you Kaze, you've really outdone yourself this time

[@A_Person_64]

Meanwhile, im just thinking to myself... YOU DON'T HAVE TO GROUND POUND THE PILLARS?

[@DessertArbiter]

There must've been a bunch of stars that Nintendo just never had time to bring in the playtesters for. Otherwise, I don't see how they could've possibly missed the problems with some of them.

[@futal1000]

When I was young I assumed there's a certain amount of time you had to stand on each pillar for the game to register it

[@futal1000]

@@DessertArbiter I think you are correct. I read the Nintendo devs were overworked and the game was a bit rushed. "Big Boo on the Balcony" I like to think they didn't test at all

[@cltmck]

I never had an issue with the snowman star. I always assumed there were just pretty many hitboxes you had to trigger that would require you to take essentially the same path the ball does. Interesting it's just one and a field of view thing.

[@Duffinimo]

I'm slightly confused by the snowman explanation: does the body re-angle itself towards you if you're in its cone of vision at the moment it reaches the final path point? If so then does that mean that you simply have to be stood at the head before the body reaches the path point?

[@KazeN64]

yeah itll realign itself over the course of a few frames (but only if you touched the sphere before)

[@Pomodorosan]

this feels like a swankybox video, "our beloved plumber"

[@nicolaskeroack7860]

I really loved the pigeon clip, making its little mystic dance lol

[@alec_almartson]

My solution for making the Eel get out of its nest was to get the closest I could..., and then leaving to the cave to collect some Blue Coins. LAfter that I would always see the eel swimming around when I came back to the Pirate Ship area. Nice Pearls of Wisdom Kaze, Thank You for making this video 💯👍🏻

[@howdyfriends7950]

0:53 i know the snowman one, i think i learned it from a pannenkoek video a few years ago, it's basically an invisible trigger that's on the sliding part, i think it's next to one of the lines of coins or something, i remember in the pk2012 vid he made a bunch of invisible triggers into a pink coin so we could see where they were located and the relative size of their hitboxes

[@tehaxor69]

I always side flipped over the snowman's head, that worked for me every time.

[@pixelator5312]

for some time I didn't even know it was possible to fail the snowman star... though that could be DS version differences that aren't in this video

[@firehearto0872]

I always thought you had to swim into the cave after getting near the eel.

[@MH_Binky]

As a kid, I assumed that the snowman had to be able to see you in front of it the whole way down, and had to be stood next to the head so it knew where to go, since it asks you to guide it down the slope. When I got older and started to understand that games were made by people and weren't just immutable existences, I assumed it was just a couple colliders that you had to pass through before the snowman did, and be stood in at the end, since that's how that kind of thing was usually done. Interesting that the narrative my kid self believed in was closer to the actual explanation. It explains why it usually only took a few attempts to get it back then.

[@MH_Binky]

Can the Eel Come Out to Play was an utter mystery, I will say,.

[@syllogism5843]

Thank you for covering the Snowman's head star - this makes so much sense!

[@TheSpinia]

Writing these before your explanations 0:48 The snowball needs to be further away from Mario to follow his position, Mario on the left was too close to the snowball, so it assumes he's not there and goes off course. 1:27 I always assumed the eel comes out of the ship after you get a certain star in jolly roger bay 3:43 Ground pounding the pillars seemed to work 6:23 (0:48) I mean I wasn't that far off 8:02 You touch the bottom of the rings?

[@ArcRay20]

the only one i didnt exactly know what was up was the snowman one, which i saw you explain on twitter not long ago. the eel seemed to always leaved if i went near and then into the cave behind it, but now i know that just happen to be far enough from its general range. the 4 pillars one is quite surprising as ive never encountered them not working, despite the tiny hitbox. as for the rings, i thought they were just dissipating quickly as they counted if i was real close up on the stingray, but now i know i was just missing the hitboxes while catching up.

[@konradp5915]

I remember racing the snowman body as fast as possible and standing right in front of the head, touching the platform to get that star. Now I know.

[@FurryMcMemes]

Now i know why that snowman is so hard but now it'll be easy to get knowing the triggers. Thanks Kaze.

[@crism8868]

I always pound on the four pillars. No one ever told me to. No idea how I came to that strat, but it works for me. It became such habit that I never ever questioned that the name of the star only directs us to "stand tall" on the pillars.

[@etansivad]

ahaha, I was literally thinking about you last week while getting stars in blue bay. I was showing my kids the path-traced port of Mario 64, and failing to climb the slippery jumps inside the ship. "Man, Kaze would be laughing at how bad my mario 64 jumps are." Never thought you'd be making to explain what the hell triggers the fish in that level. I never understood it and it drove me bonkers as a teenager. Thanks for posting this.

[@daikonbou]

I cant tell you how long it took me to get Snowman Lost his Head as a kid on SM64DS, that intro awakened an ancient memory of trying to figure it out with my friends at recess. Thanks Kaze glad to see I wasn't the only one to not get it lol

[@nibyafternight1983]

I remember the YT short you uploaded about the snowman. Finally I can watch the entire "I dont know how this shit works" stars in Mario 64!

[@Lyndis_]

That snowman head is the bane of my Mario 64 existence

[@username5155]

At least SM64 doesn’t have the issues SM64DS has where sometimes things don’t spawn in unless you’re playing as a specific character. Like, there’s no reason to bring Luigi to the mirror room since every level in the game has a Luigi cap and you have to play as Yoshi for one of the SML stars anyways, so how would you know that bringing just Luigi to just that one room would spawn a Power Flower that gives you a free star and unlocks Wario? Like, yeah, the Wario painting is reflected as a copy of Luigi’s painting, but at the same time that’s the exact opposite of how the SML painting itself acts. And why do some Power Flower boxes give bob-ombs for certain characters? If you wanted to prevent people from using power-ups when you don’t want them to, there’s gotta be a better way. Like, oh I don’t know, *not combining the caps into a single item* . And why can’t Yoshi kill ghosts? Like, I get you can’t _eat_ ghosts, but also, not only can Yoshi ground pound, but you can’t _punch_ ghosts either!

[@Megapig9001]

I did that manta ray Star for the first time a month ago and it was driving me crazy

[@CoxZed]

i like to imagine the snowmans head direction change was a point of contention for the dev team

[@MelodicTurtleMetal]

Snowman surprises me that people got so confused. Took me a moment as a kid, because i kept jumping off the first edge before the checkpoint. Once i discovered i had to pretty much go the path of the snowball i never got it wrong. You don't need to stay near it, or even in proximity - just side down the ramp and wait at the head 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@F1dg3t]

Kaze: Shows how to get Unagi out. Me: Has been damage boosting off him for 13 years.💀

[@VxVidoy]

Very nice. This definitely gave me some closure. I hope to see the ring's hitbox sometime.

[@dsuess]

Amazing breakdown! I love seeing the references to the lines in code and the hitbox visuals you drew out. Wow, almost 30 years later and you debunked superstitions we had as kids. Thank you

[@Rose_r3v]

leaving a comment about the snowman star before watching: i always thought you had to lead the snowball to the platform by running behind the platform before the snowball gets there.

[@coolgamerguy8653]

whenever i get the “plunder in the sunken ship” star i swim towards unagi till im basically in view, then i swim all the way up to surface then he’s out of his place.

[@user-zm4ro7yh4e]

The plunder the sunken ship always mystified me, I used to get really close and go to the cave and come back

[@ColorWheelHero]

The Eel's hitbox looks like that? Insane. It doesn't look like what I thought It'd be lol

[@rareosts5752]

The whole video was interesting but I was thinking "none of this really ever affected me, I remember a couple of times something weird here and there, but nothing big" then you got to the part about the rings from the stingray and I was screaming and freaking out. So much confusion and annoyance as a kid cleared up, thank you Kaze

[@lokiecopernic8230]

The pillar one in the desert is so difficult in french, it's only named "the four pillar of faith" good luck to understand ! When i was young i tried a lot of things inside the pyramid i thought it was linked with the drawing on some pillars inside the pyramid

[@RadTheMann]

I don't think I ever got that snowman star because i never understood what i i was supposed to do.

[@thechugg4372]

No way, I always thought the eel came out after getting hit once by it, I have this memory of him coming out of the ship!

[@Qflame3]

(paused at 1:00) IIRC there is some region halfway down that Mario has to pass through for the snowman to work, one of them was on the edge of the path at that point and never touched the region.

[@TheErer1243]

I don't remember having any trouble with the snowman

[@KazeN64]

some people will just do it first try and others will need dozens of attempts never understanding why it won't work.

[@skibalovesya]

I think I intrinsically knew to stand at or by the snowman's head after a while, but not consciously realizing it. I think there came a time where I was like "it feels like it's 'following' Mario, so why don't I stand where I want it to go?" And it tended to work slightly more often than not.

[@Bolpat]

In my opinion, the most cryptic star is Princess Peach's slide in under 21 seconds. The Manta Ray star is not even cryptic. It's totally what you have to do, it's only very precise. As soon as you hit one ring, it's absolutely clear you need to hit the rings. Even the red coin stars in Bowser stages 1 and 3 are more cryptic as one red coin in each level is really well hidden.

[@bigblargh]

Thank you for the vid Kaze, your snowman explanation provided me a deep catharsis.

[@squiddler7731]

My first thought for the snowman one based on the video was that in the one that missed, mario was too close to the body and he didn't reach the checkpoint in time for it to turn towards the head. Thinking about it more though, I remember hearing in another video that the star is just janky and being slightly too far left will cause it to fail, so it's probably that.

[@MattAkiyama1]

To this very day I always just hope that things work out when I do these missions. Thanks for clearing it up! Another oddity is in SM64DS where if you play the 8 red coin mission in Dire Dire Docks, the poles are completely missing. And this happens sometimes while other times it doesn't.

[@Lewis---]

You have to get the first star on the submarine AND beat the Bowser level. That triggers the submarine to disappear and the poles to appear.

[@FireSonicYT]

hmm i don't remember the 64ds version that well, although i believe in both versions, you need to beat Bowser in the Fire Sea for the poles to show up.

[@JustShova]

This video was awesome! I'd love to see more stars explained like this!

[@saligraphy]

This is bringing up so many old memories from when I was a kid

[@Snooplax]

My childhood has been solved

[@CaptainKuime]

Yeah that Snowman was one of the last star I got as a kid, I had 110+ already and it was bugging me that I had this only one left in the early levels, I just kept trying until it worked and thought it was because you really have to go all the way to the left before reaching the snowman base

[@Damiaen.]

Gutes Video diggi :)! Nebst den fantastischen Mods gerne mehr davon, sofern du zeit, lust und Ideen dazu hast ^^

[@nickolei.edward]

1: you have meet the head before the body reach it, obviously

[@markymark443]

This will definitely help me get the pillar star and manta ring more consistently in my 70 star runs, and will help with other stars when I do 120 star runs in the future. Thanks!

[@supermarioluigi9053]

I didn't know that Snowman's lost his head is that complicated!

[@Sugar3Glider]

The snowman trigger is so weird. It's like by his tree. It's the dick of the mountain, and you gotta rub on it

[@MrDarkNao]

Back in time I just tried again. I never stopped to think about it much. Really interesting.

[@alec_almartson]

The Snowman's Star.... well I got it after a Special Ritual, (that I came up with...) imitating what I saw in a Picture in a very cool Latin American Nintendo Magazine, called: 🔥 "Club Nintendo" 🎮🔥 (which was similar to "Nintendo Power", btw)

[@Alex-95-Gaming]

I was able to figure out much of these between ages 2-5, even if I didn't understand the technical reasons why. - For Unagi, I always just swam close than swam back to surface for air so I don't drown. When I came back down, he was out. - Stand Tall on the Four Pillars was pretty easy to understand. Always stood just below the coin, on shell or on foot, because I always figured the checkpoint was directly underneath it. - Snowman Lost His Head was a bit difficult to get down, but once I understood a pattern, it was fine. I would just always slide to the right of the rock in the ground (the side furthest from the wall) and then wait next to the Head. Never knew there was a specific set of checkpoints until you and Supper Mario Broth pointed it out, though! - The Manta Ray's Reward was always annoying, but I usually swim through the center of the rings anyway. Didn't know the check was rotating weirdly, though, so thanks for that knowledge!

[@BenderBendingRodriguezOFFICIAL]

Naw Kaze that snowman is just a crime against humanity. Gets me every time too.

[@gatonaranjah]

en fin cosas que pasan en los videojuegos

[@suiton20]

The snowman I always thought that I slid down too fast so I kept in pace with the snowball. Swimming through the rings I just swam faster

[@Dozaemone]

Funny, 'cause I read somewhere that you need to stand right in front of snowman head, then body will get to it. It was pretty accurate.

[@MarioDSLife]

I knew all of them from Pannenkoek, except for the Eel ones. I used to think it’s either random or that there’s a surefire way but I can’t figure it. Thanks for the lesson, now I know how to definitely get the eel out.

[@techstuff7414]

Not only did I never get the snowman star as a kid, but I've never gotten it in my entire life. I didn't know how so I just gave up and didn't bother. When I play the game I just do it for fun and don't try to get 120 stars or anything so I never really worried about it.

[@MrPointness]

What I got from this is that Kaze hates pigeons

[@General12th]

Hi Kaze! I love these videos!

[@Dante...]

As a kid I didn't understand how Unagi worked, but I was still able to get the star regardless. As a teenager playing the game on Wii Virtual Console I did figure out that your supposed to swim next to him then swim up near the surface and he would be out when you go back down. As for the snowman, I always just stood right next to the head while waiting for the body, so I never really had issues with that one. I'm actually surprised by how many people struggled with it, but after hearing the explanation, I can see why now. This situation reminds me of the barrel from Carnival Night Zone in Sonic 3.

[@jim0_o]

The last example seems related to the hitboxes of the star shapes that are supposed to look like they hold rotating platforms together, instead of turning around its center (like its visuals) it seems to be rotating around a position of its outer edge, which makes speedrunners hit seemingly something invisible when trying to jump to the windy platform before the bowser pipe. (TL;DR: SM64 seems to have many hitboxes with the wrong pivot point for rotation.)

[@nottechytutorials]

Its a miracle we were able to get these kinds of stars as kids.

[@wenchinatrenchcoat8459]

Thanks Kaze for lifting the vail on the snowman madness!

[@dorrivix4214]

all this time I thought the snowball had to hit mario to veer into the snowman head.

[@jupitervideos7702]

The snowman star is still one of the most infuriating stars in Super Mario 64, especially in my childhood. Thank you for touching up on it.

[@Accrovideogames]

Plunder in the Sunken Ship: I honestly never had any problem with this star as a 6 years old kid. I immediately understood that I had to approach the eel and then go far away from it in order to lure it out of the sunken ship. Stand Tall on the Four Pillars: This star was a nightmare for me as a kid, but not for the same reason shown in the video. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. However, it had nothing to do with correctly touching the invisible hitboxes. My problem with it is that I didn't realize I had to manually select the corresponding star on the star select screen. I didn't know English at the time and was just starting to learn how to read French, my first language. The text above the stars didn't mean anything to me. I simply picked a random star or mashed the A button. I had to figure out everything by trial and error. I understood that standing on the four pillars was the trigger to blow up the top of the pyramid when it happened for the first time, but I had no idea why it didn't always work. The fact that the boss was so difficult for my young self meant that I had to retry that star many times. I eventually gave up and found a way to reach the boss without the elevator, which made the whole thing more frustrating because I had to do it so many times. I figured out the star selection thing a year or two later, not because I learned how to read English (I actually did a little, but certainly not fluently yet) but because I became smarter. I learned English solely by playing video games. Snowman's Lost His Head: I also had difficulty figuring out how to get this star. At first I jumped off the cliff. Seeing that it didn't work, I started guiding it down myself. I tried both going fast and staying close to the body. I even tried guiding it by touching the three rocks and applying miniputt logic, but they were red herrings. Seriously, why did they place those rocks to confuse us? Nothing seemed to work until I talked to the head. But when I replayed the star and talked to the head, it didn't work. I eventually found a consistent method, which was to slide down the mountain and wait close to the rock besides the head. It was only many years later when Pannenkoek2012 explained it in one of his videos that I knew what was going on. The Manta Ray's Reward: This star has always been a pain in the ass. Even when you know about the bad programming, which I learned from Pannenkoek2012, it's still finicky. Knowing about it only tells you the reason why it's a pain. It doesn't make it any easier. I found out that staying close to the tail can help, but it's not perfectly consistent.

[@KazeN64]

you don't have to select the pillar star to have it to work. the star works on all acts.

[@Accrovideogames]

@@KazeN64 Really? It's really strange that I consistently made it work once I started selecting the correct star. Maybe I coincidentally changed my strategy around that time. I used to think it was the coins triggering the event. I figured it wasn't the coins after I tried collecting them all as Wing Mario. I remember just touching the area below the coins as part of my routine once. Perhaps that's what I've always been doing when actively going for this star, which is always the case when I manually select the star, thus coming to the wrong conclusion.

[@02DooD]

For Unagi I always thought I had to go up to him and then swam up for air so it always worked out for me. Stand tall on the 4 pillars I never had an issue with, I figured if anything I would have to stand in the center of the pillars and possibly collect the coin above. The snowman I think I messed up once and I thought I did a bad job of guiding it because I just ran ahead so I let it follow really close and once it was going towards the head I would jump out of the way. If there was any star that I'd say is cryptic it'd be "Blast away the wall" I don't know how I know that one, but I knew it as a kid despite never seeing anyone play the game or having any internet

[@brainfreeze91]

Theory about snowman before finishing video: snowman polls Mario's position at certain intervals, and if he is near the correct position, he will keep going on the Star path. But if he is out of position, even a little, he will go down the failure path.

[@brainfreeze91]

I guess I was kinda close! The true solution seems more complicated than it needs to be though

[@bobbomb8330]

That was more than closure. Thank you

[@lucidjamesofficial]

Best game of my childhood!!! Glad to see it still so popular. Great video🤟💯

[@kerbonaut2059]

The snowman star isn't even limited to SM64, I played SM64DS and had the same issue with the snowman star.

[@whamer100]

here i was thinking you needed to collect the four coins on the pillars lmao, i guess that method worked for me

[@joeykeilholz925]

The snowman was always annoying, but the rings 100% got me every single time as a kid. I hated having to stringently go through the center.

[@Yewtewba]

From speedruns I learned the first 5 rings are correctly oriented.

[@SKmaric]

Mercifully the DS version had the first unagi behave like the second

[@frizzlefrack253]

ty for the closure :D

[@PhirePhlame]

Left Mario was significantly closer to the rolling snowball. Iirc, it's Mario setting down influence on the rolling path, right? So it could be that the ball on the left had its influence defined without enough time to actually follow it.

[@ImmacHn]

Never had issues with any of these, but it's fun to know how they work.

[@dhfjgkkdrgsg]

the snowman star was my last star because i did not get that the snow ball is following me and i have to be behind the snowman head. second last star was in hazy maze cave in the room with the rolling rocks falling into the black hole. there is a star where you have to wall jump near the exit door