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A brand new experience, and an incredible playthrough. Feels like a spiritual sequel to the N64 game with new mechanics, stars in the same difficulty ramp as the original, and just an all around treat for platforming/Mario fans alike.

What I want when I play a hack is to get a feeling that the hack could be an official sequel to the original game. Super Mario Star Road definitely does the job ! It's amazing from start to finish, try it ASAP you won't be disappointed. Nintendo should take notes. My only complaint is that it's only playable on a PC emulator (as far as I know). A Switch homebrew port would be beyond awesome.

I'm joining the last reviewer in lamenting about the cancellation of Star Road 2 in favor of an unwanted DS remake that seems to take forever to complete. It seems like such a tragic waste of time and talent.

This was one of the first full mods of Super Mario 64, and few if any have surpassed it. Despite the primitive tools used to create it and minimal custom code, it manages to be better than even most modern mods of this game.

The levels are even more creative than what Nintendo could've offered, the music choices are excellent and mesh perfectly with the Super Mario 64 soundfont, the gameplay is on par with the original and feels just as magical, with all its secrets and tempting areas just out of reach. The only level that disappointed me was the final level, which was hyped as the ultimate challenge, but ended up being disappointing. I'm not asking for anything kaizo, but it should've at least required me to put everything I had into it instead of finishing it in just a few tries. There are levels in other popular mods of this game with random levels harder than the final level of this game.

I am still depressed that the sequel to this game was canceled in favor of a DS remake of the original that NO ONE asked for. In some ways, this game is even better than Super Mario 64: Last Impact.

10/10 Stars - A game equal to its vanilla counterpart.

It was a fun but aggravating experience at first, until I had to climb to the top of the Windmill in the 2nd course & having those stupid camera positions waste my time leaving me blind to the positions of the temporary blocks & no repositioning of the camera could fix the problem. Combine this bullshit with the fact that you're on a time limit & it just makes me wish this was on a physical cart just so you could smash it to pieces with a hammer!

This was rage inducing! I expected better considering this is considered as a 'shining example' of what a Mario 64 hack should be.

• Design-10 These are typical N64-looking graphics. But, as they were intended to mimic the original, this is perfectly acceptable. Skelux, the hack's creator, made completely new levels seemingly from scratch. The castle is different, being a different shape with new floors and entrances and is approximately the same size as the original. Boss fights were redefined, a new story created, and even some new foes. The quality is phenomenal; if someone showed it to me claiming it was a rare sequel to Mario 64 I would have believed it. There are also 130 stars to collect over the original 120, but be prepared that some are very, very challenging.
• Gameplay-10 Mario Star Road shines and improves over the flaws of its predecessor. Mario has the same moveset and the same caps are available. However, Skelux also made some notable changes such as an improved camera and the implementation of a "hard mode" (which I have yet to play). Some parts of levels were a bit buggy and I fell through the floor to my death a couple of times. It wasn't often enough to deter me from playing, however. I still had some issues with knowing how far I needed to jump, but these might be my own fault (though the level "Gloomy Gardens" killed me an unusually high amount for being an early level) There's even a "Game Over" level that has no stars, but is an interesting change to a typical game over screen.
• Sound-8 Mario sounds exactly the same as do all the sound effects (as far as I'm aware), but all new songs were used for the game. Songs were taken from Mario Galaxy and other Mario Games and were used very effectively. However, I'm a little unsure as to why music from games like Donkey Kong were used in some levels when there are plenty of Mario Games to choose from. I miss the high score sound effect at the end of levels, although the new level completion jingle is superb. I feel like some of the original songs like the Vanish Cap song could have been kept though, as now all 3 caps play a different song (probably to accommodate the metal cap to Metal Mario's theme in Smash Bros
• Difficulty-10 This was a very hard game, much harder than the original, but I am not grading difficulty solely on how hard it was to complete. Instead, I am grading it on the learning curve and how appropriate the difficulty is. I had several game overs in this play through (I never got a single one in Mario 64) but managed to play it through without save states. The Mad Musical Mess level was a bit touch for me and probably should have been the final course, as it's floating through the air and a small misstep will send Mario flailing to his death. Needless to say, collecting the red coins and 100 coins was a real challenge in that one. There are also some insanely hard stars, but by the time those are unlocked, players will likely be skilled enough to complete them.
• Story-9 Again, this rating is on the appropriateness of the story for a Mario game; this isn't Metal Gear Solid. I've read some reviews from people saying it's the same old thing-Princess gets kidnapped and Mario saves her-but they must not have been paying attention. Actually, the princess was not kidnapped at all. Bowser learns how to get to the world of the Star Spirits (used in other Mario games) and harness the power of the power stars. He sends out new bosses and taunts Mario a few times via his N64 portrait, which I found to be a great touch. Toads also have some humorous things to say that fit in with the Mario universe. The events take place after Mario 64, and this is obvious and shows, with some characters making reappearances. As I said before, if I was told this was a sequel with no knowledge of it being a hack, I would have believed it.
• Overall-10(Not an average) If you liked Mario 64 and haven't played this game, make it next on your list. It is well worth the time spent for a truly fantastic experience.

I've got 98/120 stars as of yet, but I do believe I can state my opinion on the 1.0 version.

• 3D modeling is awesome and similar in style to that of the SM64 universe
• Most stages are very well designed and some even surpass the original SM64 standard
• Custom songs blend wonderfully to the stages.
• There are glitches ranging from "no biggie" to "must reset", but the amount is really small compared to what I had expected from the hack
• Star Road is quite difficult at some points, so I highly recommend using save states if you aren't skilled with the game's mechanics.