Livid Surreal Dream is the fourteenth course of SM64 Last Impact, entered through a rainbow portal surrounded by mushrooms in the third overworld. The acronym perfectly describes what you will find inside, a colorful world of psychedelic madness. The course is pretty easy for the most part, and relies more on exploration and logic rather than fighting enemies (actually, there is no boss battle in this course).
As you enter the level to your left you will notice two very conveniently placed arrow signposts showing you the way. Be aware of the Hand Spider just waiting to charge at Mario! Unlike other enemies, this guy won't fall off the edge. The premise is very simple, step on the green cube and try to keep up with the pathway that extends from then on. Don’t linger too much, because as the path is revealed before you, it disappears from behind. If you are not a great at jumping, try to stay on the foremost square so you can ride it upwards. If the path seems to be going back down, it will rise again (usually slightly diagonally) and you can jump directly onto it when it reappears. When the first path ends, look for another green cube to continue your journey to the star.
Star 2: The Bottomless Pit[]
Make your way across the sandy pit and onto the island in front. Keeping left, triple jump your way across a series of cloudy platform until you reach the stairs that take you to the bottomless pit. And when they say it is bottomless they mean it! Actually, not so much bottomless, more of an endless loop of the same pit (it’s like a bad sequel to the movie Groundhog Day :) I suggest not collecting those coins just yet because you may need them later. As you may have noticed on your first way down, there are a series of switches tucked into the walls of the pit. You must touch all 5 to get the star, which is easier said than done. The good news, as long as you don’t hit the wall you will safely glide all the way down. If you are lucky enough to land on a switch, take a look around first because another one may be in reach. To get a view of what switches are still left, you can look up after you land. The star will appear in the center.
Star 3: Play the Ancient Melody[]
This level is music to your ears. The cut scene pretty much sums up the whole level, and it’s pretty straight forward. Make your way to the creepy hand island, keep left and go through the pink archway. There you will find the sheet music on the wall. Make your way back and go around the sand pit to find the musical note trees. If you’ve ever read sheet music before, you may notice that there is a direct relation between the height of the trees and the placement of the notes on the scales, 3 notes – 3 trees. Hit the musical notes in the correct sequence, and a star will appear. (The solution, in case music is not your strong suit: hit the note on the middle tree 3 times, the short tree on the left once, back to the middle tree once, then climb up the rock to the right to long jump to the note of the tall tree on the right side.)
Star 4: The Time-Travel Temple[]
Head to the island with the freaky hands, and keep left to find the time portal archway. This will be the beginning of a “complicated” maze, where you will only really have one choice at all times. Dive into the pipe, and continue on to the next, because as mentioned, there is nowhere else you could really go and nothing else you could really do. (If you feel like you will be going around in circles you are half right, you are time travelling after all.) You will reach your final destination when you arrive in the room with the baby Thwomp. Cross the bridge and long jump to the pipe on the left. You will be transported through time and the Thwomp is now all grown up. Climb on top of him with a strategic wall kick, and he will take you all the way up to the star.
Star 5: Coins in a Nightmare[]
While definitely not the most “nightmarish” 8 red coin level, it does require some skill or at the very least a little patience. The locations are:
1 coin on the cloudy platform to the left, after crossing the sand pit
3 coins on the tall platforms above the sand pit
2 coins in the creepy hand pit
2 coins on the rock pillars around the creepy hand pit (be careful, they are very close to the edge)
To reach the 3 tall platforms in the sand pit, you will need to ride on top of the bubbles that are constantly spawning. You can watch the shadows on the ground to see approximately where they appear next, and jump on top as they do. But be warned, not all bubbles will take you where you need to go.
Star 6: Shower the Flower
It’s time to make it rain, weatherman! A new seedling has just appeared across from the sandy pit. So make your way up the platforms to the left (going towards the bottomless pit) but keep left to reach a small cloud above the flower. Ground pound it to make it rain. Go back down and let the madness begin. Instead of finding a beautiful flower you are met by a strange (and very bored) man-flower being who wants to play a game of Simon says. So copy his moves and after he gets tired of playing, he will award you the star. There is no time limit or penalty for making a mistake, and if he’s not moving on to the next gesture, it means you didn’t do the last one correctly.
Enemies[]
Hand spider (will kill themselves if they run into a tree while attacking, giving you a blue coin)
