Star List
- “Well now...you've found quite a few of those Power Stars, huh? We'll keep track of how many ya got.”
- —Lubba, Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Star List is an important organizational feature that was implemented into Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2. It allows the player to quickly and easily keep track of the total number of Power Stars that have currently been collected at any point in the game. Note that much of the same information that is found on the Star List can also be found in the small box that appears on the top of the screen when selecting a galaxy to fly to in either game, though enabling the player to view all of the information in one central location makes it considerably easier and more convenient. In Super Mario Galaxy, the player must speak to Polari in one of the domes onboard the Comet Observatory (or in the main area of the Comet Observatory) to access the map of the Comet Observatory, from which they can then press the "List" button to access the Star List. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, this has been made much easier, as a "Star List" button has now been added directly to the pause menu, and the player can therefore access it any time during gameplay.
Contrary to what one may believe, the Star List does in fact display other information in addition to the number of Power Stars currently collected. For instance, the Star List in Super Mario Galaxy displays the name of every galaxy in the game, a golden crown icon for the galaxies that have been fully completed, the type and color of each Power Star collected (see Prankster Comet for more information), and the highest number of coins that have currently been collected in each galaxy. The Star List in this game also displays the fastest race times for several missions in different galaxies. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Star List displays the name of each galaxy, a golden crown for completed galaxies (or a silver one if players decide not to collect the Cosmic Jewels), the type and color of each Power Star, and a Comet Medal icon for galaxies in which the player has already found the Comet Medal. On this Star List, the icons of items which have not yet been collected will be blacked out until the item is collected.
History
Super Mario Galaxy
The Star List was first seen in Super Mario Galaxy. In this game, the Star List consists of a total of four pages. The first three pages display the Power Star information for each galaxy. Galaxies with a total of six or seven Power Stars are shown at the top of the list on Page 1, which is colored with a striped purple background. Next, the six boss galaxies in the game along with the Gateway Galaxy are shown at the top of Page 2, which is colored with a striped green background. The remainder of Page 2 and the entirety of Page 3 show the galaxies in the game with only one or two Power Stars total, and is colored with a striped yellow background. Although each galaxy is thus organized into its own category by default, each galaxy is still listed by the order in which it was first unlocked within its specific category.
Page 4 of the Star List displays the best race times on record for Faster Than a Speeding Penguin, A Very Spooky Sprint, Racing the Spooky Speedster, Surfing 101, and The Galaxy's Greatest Wave: missions that all involve timed racing challenges from the Sea Slide Galaxy, the Ghostly Galaxy, the Boo's Boneyard Galaxy, the Loopdeeloop Galaxy, and the Loopdeeswoop Galaxy respectively. This page is colored with a striped light pink background.
The player can vertically scroll up or down through the Star List by pressing the two arrow buttons found directly on the right side of the Star List, by using the control stick on the Nunchuk, or by using 
and 
on the Wii Remote (the current page number will be displayed between the two arrow buttons on the Star List for reference). The player can also click on the small camera icon located in the bottom right corner of the Star List at any point while viewing it to take a photo of the current page on the screen. The player will then be given the option to send the photo to the Wii Message Board or not. The text in the message that is sent to the Wii Message Board will say "Mario's Star List." When players are done viewing the Star List, they can click the back button in the bottom left corner to return to the map of the Comet Observatory again.
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Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Star List is present once again in Super Mario Galaxy 2. The Star List in this game is slightly different in format from the Star List in Super Mario Galaxy. As opposed to being organized by galaxy, it is instead organized by the seven Worlds found in the game, and therefore features a total of seven pages in all (one World per page). Each of the seven Worlds are displayed in order on the Star List, from World 1 to World S. When viewing a page on the Star List, the name of the World that is currently on the page appears centered on the top of the screen, and the seven galaxies found in that World appear in descending order directly below it.
The four galaxies in the World with six total Power Stars are listed first, followed by the two galaxies in the World with four total Power Stars each, followed by the boss galaxy for the World. This pattern remains constant for all Worlds on the Star List except for World S, in which every galaxy has a total of four Power Stars, excluding the Grandmaster Galaxy, which only has two. In this case, the galaxies are still displayed by the total number of Power Stars, though they are also displayed in the order that they were unlocked as well. The way in which the Power Star information is presented on this Star List is in accordance with the way galaxies are ordered in the rectangular box on the Grand World Map.
The player can horizontally scroll left or right through the Star List by pressing the two arrow buttons found on either side of the Star List, by using the control stick on the Nunchuk, or by using 
and 
on the Wii Remote. Incidentally, the exact same information that is found on this Star List can additionally be found on the Totals Sign onboard Starship Mario as well, despite the fact that the player can still access the Star List from the pause menu while on Starship Mario. When players are done viewing the Star List in either location, they can click the back button in the bottom left corner to return to Starship Mario, or to the pause menu again.
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The Totals Sign onboard Starship Mario conveys the same information as the Star List.
Trivia
- There are similar lists in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine that show the number of Power Stars/Shine Sprites Mario has obtained from each course. The fashion of these lists may have inspired the Star Lists in the later two games.
