@DrFinkelstein

Nah, I've seen it plenty of times and I have five stars.

I bet you guys just missed an exit somewhere. My guess is it's in the Rock-Candy Mines.

@DrFinkelstein

No, seeing the guide just doesn't make your stars shiny. You're likely missing an exit. There are 94 in total.

@Guillaume

Yeah, I had to look that one up since I wasn't expecting it in that level. Rock-Candy Mines 5 is what you're thinking of, right?

@ludist210

That's annoying that you miss out on really 100%ing it by seeing the green block... I'd often kill myself just cause I knew I missed something Though it's not like shiny stars are all that important either haha.

It's official. I'll never 100% this game. I'm far too frivolous when I see a Star Coin.

Looking forward to actually playing some of this later today, lol...

Well, besides challenge mode which I've been playing here and there. In the main quest I'm still in the 2nd world!

I'm not sure that I have the will to get all of the star coins this time around. I usually use them to get "more" out of the NSMB games, but in this case there is the challenge mode, which is well... a funner, more challenging way to get more.

@Zero

How many do you have to go?

Coins or challenges? Um... I'm not sure either way. I'm working my way through the game again for coins and I think I'm on world 5 or 6 or so, but I passed over a few that I couldn't find and there are still a decent amount of stages that I haven't found as well.

As for challenges, not sure how many there are, so not sure how many I have left.

The star coins aren't too hard to find, IMO. However, there is one level in world 6 where I cannot find the 2nd star coin. I must've gone through that stage 5 times, too.

For my second run through I'm trying not to get caught up on any single coin. So I'm doing a run or two through each stage I am still missing coins on, then moving on. I'll definitely need to do a third run.

As far as finding the other stages, I might just end up looking them up or something. I have no idea where some are.

So last night I finished up the first 8 Worlds and am now on to World 9. I'm pretty sure that I managed to find all the secret exits too. The way everyone carries on about them, I thought they would be harder to find but most of the time I could pick what level they were in.

Overall I like this game a lot. This game is probably equal to SMW for me if I take away the challenges.

I hate the challenges...

I got to Superstar Road and just gave up. There was no need to take out the checkpoints for those levels. Taking out checkpoints is the cheapest way to increase difficulty in a platformer unless the specific level is shorter. A great example of this is most of 3D Land's levels which were short and sweet and most of the time had no checkpoint.

Most of the World 9 level's would be hard enough with checkpoints, taking them out is just cheap and frustrating.

So far, I'm enjoying it. In retrospect, I wish I had just downloaded it, but what are you gonna do. I've toyed with the idea of taking it back or selling it and then rebuying as a download, but I already have it now, so I'll think harder about any first party games in the future.

It's fun so far. I'm missing an exit in the first world, I think, and have gotten all the Star Coins in world 2. I think my favorite parts of the game so far are the Challenge and Boost Rush modes. I haven't put enough time into them, but the other night I just found myself playing Challenge Mode for a while on the Gamepad. It's really easy to get sucked in and kill time on the Gamepad.

While I think it's really a shame what they've done to the music (remember when Mario music used to be the BEST??), and the graphics, while polished, leave something to be desired, it's a fun Mario game. I think it's without question the best of the NSMB games, certainly making it the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World. Would I put this game in the same stratosphere as SMW? No way, but it feels like they're at least trying a bit more with this one. It's better than NSMBW in every way IMO, so I may sell that soon. The only thing better about NSMBW is that it is probably a better game for newcomers - and even that, I thought, was kind of a difficult game for newcomers compared to Super Mario World.

I'm finding it kind of difficult at times. Mario definitely isn't as invulnerable as he is in Super Mario World and SMB3, mostly due to his heavier weight. I simply can't be as surgical with him like I can in those two games. I wish they upped Mario's offense a bit, but what are you gonna do.

Anyway...it's Mario. It's really well done Mario, and I'm glad they're not afraid to make some zany levels. My fear in them doing that is that I think they run the risk of making the game feel too 'fan made', but they've done a good job of keeping that Nintendo magic/polish in there.

Boost mode and the boost challenges are great fun.

Really, the only blemish on this game is the reused music.

So I finally have all of the star coins in every stage that I have unlocked. Still need to find the secret stages in 1, 2, 3, and 8. Not entirely sure where to look even, probably ghost houses? Hmm.

I had to cheat and look up how to get the 3rd star coin in the Rock Candy end fortress... only to realize that the reason I didn't realize what to do is that for some reason I thought I had already taken the long way around to get there and that it brought me to exactly the same place. Oops.

Still haven't played any of the star road stages. Figure I will save that for the end.

Man, I just spent about an hour or more and 40ish lives on SR-2 getting all 3 coins. Gah!

Zero said:

Man, I just spent about an hour or more and 40ish lives on SR-2 getting all 3 coins. Gah!

That's one of my favorites! It reminded me a lot of "Hit That Switch!" from Yoshi's Island (Stage 2-Bonus).

@Zero
My first time through I cheated and used a P-Acorn.

I only recently challenged myself to do it properly. It's a tough one!

Zero said:

Man, I just spent about an hour or more and 40ish lives on SR-2 getting all 3 coins. Gah!

I just tried it for the first time tonight. WHOA.

I keep dying at the same part. After passing the 2nd star coin (I'll worry about how to get it later), you bounce off a Koopa Paratroopa to hit the P switch, then land on these platforms that move quickly left and right. I must be getting the timing wrong here. Man, those vertical walls shifting up and down too....