I did it: 120 Stars in Super Mario 64. The last two were 100 coins and the 5 pyramid secrets in Shifting Sand Land.

I made the 100 coins much harder than it needed to be. I earned virtually every coin outside the pyramid (the only exception is that I didn't kill two of the flying shy guys that aren't near safe ground). I ended up with something like 66 coins outside the pyramid. Anyway, inside, I missed all the blue coins (I totally forgot where they were) and nevertheless managed to get 114 coins. This is probably one of the most coin rich levels.


I died several times outside. One part that got me a couple of times was a stretch of coins on a side of the pyramid. There's a shyguy there, and he hit me with fire a few times, which made me go out of control and into the sand. In retrospect, I could have probably just skipped those coins, but of course I didn't know that then.



The 5 secrets was easier than I thought it would be.

I already had gotten two of the secrets (the ones on the sand trough) on earlier attempts. I thought I had to get the remaining ones after entering the pyramid from the top. On the ride down (to "Bongo Bongo") I saw other coins that I reckoned must have been the secrets, but I didn't see how I could grab them fast enough to return to the elevator to get the others.

Well, tonight, when I was in the elevator, and saw a coin right outside of it, I thought, "To hell with it!" and jumped toward the coin. I wasn't able to get back on the elevator... but I realized I wasn't anywhere special... I was just where you'd be to get the star at the top of the inside of the pyramid! I actually missed the other coins on my way down, but I simply climbed back up again (earning 100 coins on the way) and then jumped down a little more carefully and got them all.




I don't know... It might be a bit of a letdown...