Shining Stars 4: Elephant Star Adventure is a minor ROM hack made by jesusyoshi54. It is the ninth installment of the "Star Adventure" hack series, featuring 3 main courses and 3 secret courses with 24 stars including a Bowser fight.
As the title implies, this game is an indirect sequel of Shining Stars 2: Mirror Madness from sm64pie's Shining Stars series, as it compiles few stages from the game with new, restyled designs. This makes the second game whose levels are reused or created by the original author; Star Revenge 11 Star Adventure being the first.
The plot involves that Mario has become a magical elephant and he's on his way to accomplish trials by learning 3 special abilities and collect the mysterious Shining Elephant Stars. While the game intends so by its unique gimmick, there's quite some stereotypical facts about elephants and their culture being not omnipresent in Italy. Sometimes stars, if read, will display a sentence about those facts in the star selection menu; or other times the game taunts against the fact that Shining Stars 2 is the inferior than most of the series.
Levels[]
Once all stars are collected, sentences will be displayed as the following order in the star selection menu.
| Name | Level origin | Stars | Star name sentences | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searing Elephant Sauna | Searing Desert Suna | 7 | An elephant never forgets | Except when they do | Shame on you for forgetting it | It was Mama's birthday | How could you | She was so sad |
| Blue Mammoth Crater | Frozen Blue Crater | There are no elephants in Italy | Not anymore at least | It's been a long time | They were giant dwarfs | But no italian has met them | Too bad, they like pasta a lot | |
| Igneous Italian Bay | Sunset Bayside | The trunk is a flexible nose | It can do more than just small | It can grab and jostle | And breath air as well | It does elephant deeds | Just what the elephant needs | |
Secret Levels[]
Those secret levels are trials where the player will learn a new ability found in each course. Pressing L will activate the spell menu and pressing any button D-Pad will select a spell.
However, there are instances Mario cannot do during these events. For example, moving or jumping won't cast a spell, but staying idly is.
| Name | Stars | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Trial of Spirit | 1 | This course is located in Searing Elephant Sauna. By pressing L and D-pad Right, Mario will cast a Gigantify spell. He will grow in strength and carry out heavy objects his size, but will lose the ability to walljump. |
| Trial of Env | This course is located in Blue Mammoth Crater. By pressing L and D-pad Down, Mario will cast a Ice Block spell. He can place the block wherever at will in order to trespass obstacles. | |
| Trial of Spells | This course is located in Igneous Italian Bay. By pressing L and D-pad Left, Mario will cast a Return spell. It can send him back to his previous point where he first casted the spell. | |
| Mushie's Kaizo Tower | This course will be unlocked once Mario acquires all spells and gathered all stars. Originally from SM64 Shining Stars as Chaotic Clock Tower, this leads to the Bowser fight. |
Music[]
| Used in | Track | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Main Menu | City Hall | Mega Man Legends |
| Star Select | Loveless Command | Kirby: Planet Robobot |
| Shining Overworld | Bubbly Clouds | Kirby's Epic Yarn |
| Searing Elephant Sauna | Gnorc Cove | Spyro the Dragon |
| Blue Mammoth Crater | Aquaria Towers | Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! |
| Wiggler Battle | Brahman | Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 |
| Igneous Italian Bay | Beat the Heat | A Hat in Time |
| Trial of Spirit | Ogre Theme | Tekken Tag Tournament |
| Trial of Env | Fighting Onward (Space Port) | Sonic Forces |
| Trial of Spells | Sand Castle | Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand |
| Mushie's Kaizo Tower | The Tower of Dolls | Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia |
| Bowser Battle | Gulp's Overlook | Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! |
| Star Jingle | Race Fanfare (1st Place) | Mario Kart 7 |