Power Star

Power Stars are mystical artifacts with great power. Unlike the regular Stars, which only give limited invincibility, Power Stars grant the user with great strength. In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS games, Power Stars are spread throughout the worlds, and Mario (or in the Nintendo DS remake, Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, and Wario) is sent to go find them all. There are 6 power stars (7 in the DS remake) to collect in each world, and after finding 70 of them (80 in the DS remake), the final boss, Bowser, can be defeated. There are 120 Power Stars in all in Super Mario 64; This was upped to 150 in the DS remake. After a long quest, Mario manages to find all the Power Stars and restore them to Peach's Castle, freeing Peach and the Toads.

Stars have since been a recurring theme in Mario, but in particular Power Stars are used often in the Mario Party series of games. In Super Mario Sunshine, Power Stars were replaced by Shine Sprites. However, Power Stars make a return in the Wii game Super Mario Galaxy where there are a total of 121 stars to collect for each Mario and Luigi (for a total of 242). There are four types of Power Stars. First, there are regular Power Stars, the bread and butter of the 3-D Mario Games. The second kind is the Green Power Star. They are like normal Power Stars, but there are only three known Green Power Stars, which unlock the Green Launch Star in the Comet Observatory that leads to the Trial Galaxies. The third type is the Red Power Star. There is only one; it appears in the Super Mario Galaxy mission "Gateway's Purple Coins". Last are the 6 Grand Stars, the first being the first star in Gateway Galaxy with no boss to fight. And the others are gotten from beating Bowser, Bowser Jr., or another boss. These power up the Comet Observatory and unlock new Domes to explore. There are also Silver Stars, which aren't as powerful as Power Stars. Five Silver Stars are equal to one Power Star.

In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, when the star for any given level has been collected, playing the level again will turn the Star into a transparent version of itself. This Star can be collected, but it will not add to the player's total Star count.

In each game, there are stars that can only be accessed by completing secret missions.