Hi, I am a fan of SM64 and I've set many of the times on Curtis' site:
http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~cbright/sm64/startimescomp.html
so I know how to play fast.
I expressed the wish too see a tool assisted 120-stars run on the GameFaqs.
These are my comments of the 16 stars-run:
The new things I learned and IMO his most impressive tricks (in brackets the time of the video):
1. (2:15) The way he gets up to the platform with long-jump and back flip.I think everybody used the tree until now.
2. (3:10) The way he gets up to the top of the tower.
3. (4:25) The shoot out of the cannon for "Blast away the wall".He slightly gets up to the moving platform without waiting. I didn't know this was possible.
4. (4:50) His jump-tricks after wall kicking for the "Shoot into the wild blue".
5. (6:00) The long jump to the lower platform. I used to normally jump and then kick before I land.
6. (6:45) The 8 red coins in the stage of the 1st Bowser. Maybe the best part of the run. Especially the last 2 red coins.
7. (10:40) The triple jump up to the "A-maze-ing emergency exit". This doesn't seem to be faster than the other method though, but it is quite impressive.
8. (12:35) He uses the "Mario camera" for this star and gets to the sub from the side of the star.
9. (13:15) The last part of the 2nd Bowser
10. (15:00) Long jump and wall-kick to the platform. I don't know how exactly he did this.
11. (15:25) Long jump and triple jump on the edges? Insane!
I don't want to insult anyone, but I was
dissapointed reading all the comments for the 120 stars-run.
I think this is a task for a hardcore Mario-player and not for someone who doesn't know what
exactly happens when you collect the star on the vanish cap course, or that you can finish the entire game
without even using the metal cap, or that you get 5
extra coins by jumping on a whomp, or or or...
And there are so many tricks that are known for this game, that many experienced players on the SM64-board can pull off easily. But starting an absolute run for the game, without even knowing the star names, or how to get each star, doesn't seem to get the best result...
What do you think?