Hey folks. Thanks to a recent video I saw from Mario and Traffic Light Fan (shoutouts to Tibs for doing a spotlight on their recent discoveries in the game), it is now possible to beat Mario Galaxy 1 without collecting any Star Bits, Coins, or Power-Ups. I first became aware of this possibility thanks to WaluigiGoesWa showing some footage they had done when they popped into my stream of me just doing "No Starbits or Coins" and how they included the no power-ups rule as a bonus. WaluigiGoes Wa is the biggest reason I've been able to do any route at all, and I can break down the finer details of the route in another post.

For now though:

What rules and or names would make the most sense for a "collecting nothing but stars" run? I was thinking a name like "No Collectibles" is all-encompassing, while being succinct and accurate. But "no star bits" is more to the point of how interesting and challenging the run is, while lacking the extra stipulations. The main stipulations for the run are as follows:

• Your character cannot collect any star bits.

• Your character cannot collect any coins.

• Your character cannot collect any mushrooms.

All said and done, there are exactly 60 stars that can be collected across the many galaxies and comets, and as far as I'm aware a co-star is required (in order to skip Bee Mushroom, for example, in Honeyhive Galaxy 3).

I myself have done this run twice (with the "caveat" of having to collect 100 star bits for Good Egg Galaxy 2). It's incredibly fun, and even with myself having no experience in Super Mario Galaxy under normal conditions (such as any% speedruns), I was able to get two times of 8:XX and 6:XX hours. The tricks themselves are super interesting and rewarding, because you have to do some really weird things to avoid collecting power-ups, and also avoid "forced" star-bit collection/coin collection from certain Galaxies. There's also technically a caveat of you have to collect star bits during the tutorial with one of the Lumas after completing Good Egg Galaxy 1, but these star bits are immediately "fed" to the Luma so they do not stay in your "collectibles" score.

An important aspect of this run is that invariably throughout the run, you will accidentally collect a star-bit. What would be the appropriate action for speedrunners attempting this? Do they have to reset entirely? Do they just "exit" to observatory when they break any of the stipulations? A simple SD and respawn at checkpoint (after flinging the star bit away)? Fleshing out the finer details of what would make this a run people wanna try would help me to know what should be done while I start going for more attempts. It's also important to note that one of the hardest star bits you have to avoid is at the tail end of Fate of the Universe, and so forcing a reset for an accidental star bit grab comes with restarting a 4+ hour run, which is also dependent on a very specific global cycle of the fire bars. This means if you are in a bad cycle at the junk galaxy segment of the Fate of the Universe, you are at risk of accidentally touching the star bit and resetting (if the rules are this strict).

This whole discovery has sparked new life and excitement into me trying attempts where I don't even accidentally touch a star bit, but realistically this kind of run needs to have fairer and accessible "rules" so that others can try it out. The tech for the stars that I've found to be possible are super fun to learn and execute. I'll be including a twitch vod from my latest attempt if you're interested in the route, with the main difference being Good Egg Galaxy 2 needs to be skipped using the Crystal Gravity switch (which might be impossible as Mario, but is nearly effortless for Luigi). This also ties in to the final aspect of the run: it may be required to use Luigi instead of Mario. I'll be practicing Good Egg Galaxy 2 skip in the coming days to get a feel for the Mario glitch.

Pokemon Stadium 2 also has the Challenge Cup difficulties as a potential speedrun category. I've had times in the low 30-35 min mark for Master Ball. Completely RNG on the teams you're dealt but perfect RNG for fights can lead to sub 30 runs (but needs Aerodactyl, good 6th and 8th fight in Master Ball Cup).