Super Mario Star Road - raocow plays a 3D game (Didn't get to 64 episodes!)

[BobisOnlyBob]

Hasn't there been like YouTube videos about these sorts of things?

Pannenkoek2012 and his uncommentated channel, the analysis and science of all things Mario 64. His most famous video is Watch for Rolling Rocks, but the reference here is The Mystery Goomba and Ideas for Killing It.

[Ivy]

I'm genuinely curious why this particular goomba stayed at the death barrier instead of vanishing

wait I can probably answer my own question based on my knowledge imparted by pannenkoek: the goomba did not SPAWN off the edge of the map, it simply walked off. if the goomba were to be loaded above the death barrier, then it would only exist there for a frame and vanish as expected.

[Reecer7]

The mystery goomba only disappears because Mario exits its render area, which is way far away from the death barrier. That goomba's home must legitimately be at the death barrier, the poor guy.

[Grounder]

Wow, the death right next to the first star was pure BS.

[MonkeyShrapnel]

As soon as I saw the gap between the clouds and the crystal, I was really hoping that raocow would fall through it.

Thanks for not disappointing me!

[FPzero]

I think when we mention you should use the camera at a side angle, what we're really saying you should do is check the horizontal distance between your jumps by putting the camera at the side angle and then return it to behind Mario for the actual jump itself. Checking the jump first will easily tell you how far you should expect to have to jump and you can prepare for it accordingly.

[Sebby19]

Yay! He used Lakitu Cam for side platforming!

[Alice]

As soon as I saw the gap between the clouds and the crystal, I was really hoping that raocow would fall through it.

Thanks for not disappointing me!

It was kinda a given that he'd manage that, lol. I would've been more surprised if he managed not to since he seemed completely unaware there was actually a gap until he found it.

[Sebby19]

Just a guess, but I wonder if those weird flying Thwomps are a mix between a Thwomp and the Owl?

[CM30]

I'm sorry, but that cloud 'castle' type section was obnoxious.

Awkward platforming with moving platforms? Check. Floors that you can actually fall right through? Check. A camera that's absolutely horrible at showing you where to go? Check again.

Yeah, the risk of death was a lot lower here than it could have been, but it felt like an area that was just not designed for this game engine. Which is kind of a problem with Star Road in general to be honest. It took an engine well suited for open world exploration and minimal, fairly easy platforming and then made a very platforming heavy game with it.

It's also a shame it didn't have midway points in levels like Super Mario 64: Last Impact did; those would have made a world of difference in levels like this one.

[FPzero]

My biggest problem with Star Road is that the geometry that's used to make the game look nice visually is usually a detriment to the actual gameplay. The worst offender is the walls bordering water that are always too steep to properly jump out of. In SM64, all walls bordering water are either completely vertical so Mario can grab the ledge or at a very gradual slope like a shore, making it easy to just walk out of. Here in Star Road, getting out of water is often a huge struggle, especially if you're unfamiliar with the physics behind jumping out of water. We saw this in the very first video.

This problem isn't exclusive to Star Road though. I can think of at least a few other SM64 hacks that don't account for playability when they make complicated geometric terrain, such as the variety of custom shaped trees in the Star Revenge series that the camera is always getting caught in the branches of.

There's a reason vanilla SM64 mostly uses wide-angle camera shots, lots of open spaces and primarily vertical walls in its level design and that reason boils straight down to ease of playability.

[stormie]

Every time raocow makes an appeal to Mario himself for control issues, it makes me think of that old commercial for milk starring Mario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwFUNHtCJQ

[Sebby19]

And he forgets the Lakitu Cam. He even switched from Lakitu to Mario! AHHH

[BobisOnlyBob]

Just a guess, but I wonder if those weird flying Thwomps are a mix between a Thwomp and the Owl?

I'm told by the wiki that...

The weird moving/floating Thwomps that you must use to reach the wing cap are actually the sprite of the butterfly but solid.

and now you know

[nathanisbored]

So I believe when Mario is standing on a steep incline, whether slippery or not, he does a different kind of jump than normal. These "steep jumps" instantly kill all your momentum, can't be used as a double jump, he can't grab ledges out of them, and because it kills your momentum, you can hardly dive out of them and the trajectory of your jump is practically just straight up. So basically, don't try to do any of your typical fancy moves while on a slope that is >45 degrees (including long jumps). Strangely however, even though steep jumps can't be used as a double jump, they can be used as a triple jump (assuming your first two jumps where on non-steep ground), which was mentioned in the snow place. Also the note block/crazy box works similarly to a triple jump, however it isn't affected by steep inclines and will still bounce you the same height and distance regardless.

[warpio]

I found it way easier to get the red coin on that swingy platform by just long-jumping to it. trying to do a double jump while on the moving swing platform looked way way harder... another classic case of raocow doing things the hardest way possible lol

[CM30]

Well, that went surprisingly well. Kind of expected raocow to take a few hours falling off platforms and going wrong at every opportunity, especially based on how precarious this level looks.

Still, nice to know he only died a few times today, especially in what could have been such a painful mission.

P.S. I think I realised why most platforming levels in Super Mario 64 kept the red coins in one place. Because it avoids having to do what raocow is doing in these videos with save state checkpoints and time wasted.

[underFlo]

for a second i thought i was in the magl3 thread (because one of the levels in today's episode also had steep slopes) and i was confused as to how double and triple junps were possible in smw

[Nimono]

This level to me is Firebutt Laugh: The Level :D

curious to find out what that volcano passage is and how you get into it! and no, I don't want a quote from the wiki, i wanna see when raocow plays :(

[Dragon Fogel]

It doesn't look like the coin star will be a big problem here, raocow got tons of coins without even actively trying.

Assuming he manages to keep getting more coins before falling in the lava again, anyways.

[CM30]

Forgot how generous Mario 64 was with lava damage. Takes three hits to kill Mario here.

Much more tolerable than Last Impact, where Mario dies after touching lava only twice. Or recent 3D Mario games, where it's a one hit kill.

[Crow]

this feels way more thought-out and cohesive than most of the levels in the game. like the last two worlds were both "random floating stuff" and worlds 5 and 9 were also basically just "random floating stuff" and it's not like world 8 which was basically just a big tree and nothing else or world 6 which was just "long linear swimming area"

it feels more like an actual sm64 level than normal and i dig that

also i think sm64 is literally the only mario game where lava doesn't instakill you

[The Doctor]

Yeah, Lava World is best world. It isn't just a bunch of miscellaneous objects or blocks floating in space; it's a living and breathing world that's so much fun to explore. The volcano at the top of the course, the ruins of an ancient castle, towers in the lava, etc. It's just wonderful. Fortunately Course 15 does this pretty well too, so the game ends on a high note.

[Sebby19]

I'm declaring this the best level in the game!


How quickly you guys forget the Galaxy games. Touching lava in Galaxy is the exact same as in 64, only it does 1 HP of damage. Of course, Mario only has 3 HP in those games.

[Grounder]

Yeah, the name for the second star is accurate, but not exactly helpful for actually finding the darn thing.

At least the lava chute was cool!