Now that Super Mario 64 is back into the hands of the masses thanks to Super Mario 3D All-Stars, players who are entirely new to the game — or even those of us who might be a little rusty after 24 years — are sure to want to know exactly how to get the most out of their adventure through Peach’s Castle. The good folks here at Nintendo Wire are here to help players young and old explore the castle, and discover its secrets with a whole slew of guides to help you wrangle every Power Star out of every nook and cranny of the game.
The main rewards for completing missions in the stages of Super Mario 64 are Power Stars. As with any collectible in a game, the question is exactly how many of them do I need to find in order to reach 100% completion? Exactly how many Power Stars are there to be found inside of Peach’s Castle?
How many Power Stars are in Super Mario 64?
With 15 different stages, each containing seven Power Stars each, and 15 Secret Stars to be found around the castle, that makes for a whopping 120 Power Stars in Super Mario 64.
However you might play through the game and notice that there are only six missions for each stage. So, where does the seventh star come in? Each stage will also reward Mario with an extra Power Star for finding 100 coins, bringing each stage’s total up to seven, for a grand total of 105 Power Stars.
As I mentioned before, the final 15 Power Stars are Secret Power Stars scattered around the castle, and some of them are pretty tricky to find. If you want help finding all 15, check out our handy Secret Star guide.
Reward for collecting all 120 Power Stars
As for what happens after you collect all 120 Power Stars? The short speech given by Bowser when you defeat him changes slightly — he’ll lament the fact that you found Power Stars that even he couldn’t. There’s also a secret waiting for you on top of the castle once Bowser is vanquished. Head down to the cannon located on the grounds of the castle, over by the pond. Hop on in and shoot to the roof of the castle, around back you’ll find everyone’s favorite dinosaur, Yoshi. Speak to Yoshi and he’ll remark that he hasn’t seen Mario since their last adventure. Speaking with Yoshi will fill Mario’s health bar and reward Mario with 99 lives. Speaking to Yoshi also activates a special Triple Jump, making Mario invincible to enemy attacks and fall damage during the third jump.
Armed with 99 more lives and an invincible Triple Jump, Mario is free to roam the castle, but with no more Power Stars to find, there is only one thing left to do. Heading to the penguin race on Cool, Cool Mountain will reveal that Big Penguin has gotten even bigger, and he’ll more easily knock you off the slide as you race. Beating this bigger Big Penguin doesn’t have any additional rewards, however, just the bragging rights of beating a huge penguin in a race.
More Super Mario 3D All-Stars guides
Looking for more help with any of the games in Super Mario 3D All-Stars? Check out our other guides!
Super Mario 64 Guides
Super Mario Sunshine Guides
Super Mario Galaxy Guides
Written by Jaxson Tapp
As a lover of gaming and the written word, Jaxson currently fills his time not only with playing games, but also writing about them. Ready for anything, Jaxson’s passion for puzzle games, JRPGs, tough platformers, and whimsical indies helps him bring a well-rounded opinion to Nintendo Wire’s reporting.
