Super Mario Star Road

Super Mario Star Road is a ROM Hack made by Skelux. It was released around Christmas 2011, and contains 130 Stars. This ROM hack is considered to be one of the most famous. It contains levels with similar design to the original Super Mario 64, which is overall very solid and fun.

This hack tries to be a sequel, or another version, of the original Super Mario 64, in terms of level design, difficulty, and plot. Not only are all of the levels redone using custom graphics (some of which directly come from other Nintendo 64 games), but custom music and custom enemies have been added as well. The level entrances range from simple pipes or paintings to more unconventional entrances, such as a vase or an easel. In addition, the boss fights have been changed; Bowser himself is only fought once in the game, at the end of the final Bowser level. In the first two Bowser levels, Mario must defeat a miniboss in order to obtain the key to the next area.

Plot
The plot of the game is told by Yoshi, who informs Mario that Bowser has found the secret to get to the Star Road, the kingdom of the Star Spirits. Using the power of the Power Stars, he is able to transport his troops all over the Mushroom Kingdom to wreak havoc. In order to reach the Star Road, Mario must collect enough Power Stars to break the seal. Once Mario reaches the Star Road, he finds Bowser in his sky base. Mario then defeats Bowser, and is transported to the first overworld, where he is rewarded with another star and a thank you from Peach.

Upon collecting 121 stars (including the one available after beating the final Bowser and the one at the peak of  Hidden Palace Finale ), one Star Replica will appear in each of the secret levels in the game, making a total of 130 obtainable stars.

Secret Levels
Note: Each one of these levels has one Star Replica. The Star Replicas only appear after 121 stars have been collected.

Trivia

 * The standard Game Over screen has been replaced with an actual level (called 0 Life Area), which is under the Creepy Cap Cave stage.
 * In some of the later versions of Star Road, if the player holds the L button when selecting a file, they will toggle "Hard Mode." In this mode, Mario will die in one hit from anything. Swimming underwater is not affected by this.
 * Below the Blueberry Bully's arena in Retro Remix Castle, there are three entrances to a mysterious pit. Using a hidden shell on the spiral island on the right side of the spawn, Mario can ride the shell down one of the entrances. Once down the entrance, Mario will see a pit that keeps getting smaller. Using some tricky maneuvers, Mario can ride down the pit, which will result in death. However, if Mario goes down the pit with 0 lives left, the counter will go down to M1 lives (-1), resulting in negative lives. This happens because Mario's lives are stored as a signed byte, and this particular cause of death does not cause the game to check for Game Over.
 * In Bob-omb Battle Factory, there is a locked door with a sign next to it that tells the player that the door it leads to is found in Gloomy Garden. This is referring to the pipe leading to the Vanish Cap stage, which is in Gloomy Garden.
 * Dragon Coins, which can be found in almost all levels, were intended to be collected to spawn a star: in the game's code, they have a red coin behavior, but it is broken in-game and only gives Mario two coins.


 * There are two other hacks based on this game. These are Super Mario Star Road Multiplayer by the same creator and Super Luigi Star Road by Quasmok.
 * There is a DS remake currently being developed, Super Mario Star World. It is slated to be finished in 2019 and will include large amounts of new content on top of the original Star Road.

Easter Eggs and References

 * In Sky Land Resort, the new Whomp King recognizes Mario because he knows he has defeated the old Whomp King in Super Mario 64.
 * In Piranha Plant Pond, Hoot says "I moved to this pond after I got sick of all the groaning those thwomps and whomps were making", which is a reference to one of the spots you could find him in Super Mario 64, Whomp's Fortress.
 * In Flowpipe Sewers, by climbing onto and following the pipe near the entrance to Colorful Coral Caverns, Mario can find a hole in the wall leading to a secret room, which is fully black except for a beam of light that illuminates a Toad. This Toad's dialog is "I AM ERROR.", which is a reference to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
 * In Colossal Candy Clutter, the penguin Mario races is Tuxie, the baby penguin Mario saved in Super Mario 64.