Super Mario 65 The Rainbow Stars is a major hack made by Skelenio using levels made by other creators. There are 165 Stars in this hack, which the creator considers to be a direct sequel to SM64.
Most of the assets used in this hack were taken from the Sketchup 3D Warehouse and other SM64 ROM hacks. Therefore, this hack is effectively a collage of levels from other creators, albiet with different textures, level scaling and objects, leading to great inconsistencies in level design and difficulty. Skelenio has claimed that he had permission for the levels that he used, but no evidence has surfaced that supports this, nor have the original authors backed this claim.
A final "N3.0" version of the game was released on December 31st, 2023. This version, made by ShiN3 and approved by Skelenio, credits the original authors for the first time and includes fixes made by Mariocrash and suggested by Katze789.
A sequel called "Super Mario 65 2: The Alternative Worlds" was planned at some point and is presumed to have been abandoned.
Plot
Two years after his defeat in Super Mario 64, Bowser decides to travel to other kingdoms rather than stay in the Mushroom Kingdom. During his travels, he finds the "Rainbow Starship", an ancient place where you could see from the sky a rainbow Star. Mario is warned of what happens, Bowser and his henchmen open the Castle of the Stars, a place where they have control of the Stars of Rainbow but to open the worlds need the soul of a princess, then capture Peach. Remember that "Rainbow Starship", is just to see the Stars, and "Castle of the Stars" is to obtain and control the Stars, so Mario is interrupted at home with the message that Peach has been captured.
Bowser expected Mario to come to "The Castle of the Stars", so he sets a trap for Mario after opening the second door of the castle of the Stars. The trap is to seal Mario for 7 years since Bowser captured Peach (CandyLand) and everything they read in part one of the story, Bowser has been left with absolute power and now has been locked in the "Dark World", along with Peach, a place where all the power of the "Rainbow Stars" is scattered but the only way to get there opening the Rainbow StarShip. However, Mario will first need some energy to go to Rainbow Starship, beat Bowser to get Peach and return 7 years in the past.
Difficulty
This section does not reflect an encyclopedic tone. This section does not reflect an encyclopedic tone.The difficulty in this hack varies widely, ranging from moderate to very hard. The first overworld is not too difficult, but will have the occasional tricky Star. However the 2nd and 3rd overworlds prove to be very difficult, sometimes about as hard as an extreme hack. Many of the later courses have secrets, reds and panels, meaning you will need expert navigation of already tough levels.
The last main course in particular has a lot of quicksand and absurdly tough wall jumps. This is also parted with the fact that there is exactly 100 Coins to be found throughout the level.
Authorship
SM65: The Rainbow Stars has a reputation for all of its levels being stolen from other hacks. While this is essentially true, the details are more complicated.
Prior to SM65: The Rainbow Stars, Skelenio released a hack in December 2015 called SM65: Happy Birthday of Peach. While characterised as an original hack in its upload, it is almost entirely just the hack SM64: Revenge of the Others by FrittenFriseurLP. The extremely small number of replacement images that were used were taken from other hacks without credit or permission.
SM65: The Rainbow Stars was first released on SMW Central as a short preview on January 17th 2016 listing Skelenio as the sole author, and with the stated goal of becoming a fully fledged major hack. This preview used a level that was downloaded from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse, which was originally created by MarioCrash. As this model was freely shared, this was not immediately called out as theft, but it should be noted that the models on SketchUp 3D Warehouse are shared under a license which forbids making false claims of ownership, along with requiring that full attribution is provided unless the author specifies otherwise. [1] [2] [3]
"...I recommend that you don't take in-game sprites for the [HUD] and menu screens from other hacks unless you've acquired the hackers's permissions, since I don't recall having you asking me for the star select image sprite."
This comment would be ignored, and many more assets would be ripped from other hacks without permission and used without credit in SM65. Most of the levels in the game could be found on the SketchUp 3D Warehouse by searching for Super Mario 64, with no edits having been made to the geometry - although textures were often replaced. This would have been a necessity with models that did not meet SM64's texture limitations.
Skelenio's method of acquiring these custom levels from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse was hindered by him being unable to obtain enough level models. Consequently, in order to fill out the game, these models were reused, while he also included rips from other games. Skelenio has since claimed that he had permission to use levels taken from other hacks, however there doesn't appear to be any evidence that this is the case.
In December 2023 the ROM hacker ShiN3 gained permission from Skelenio to make a final version of SM65. In the .zip file for this version of the game (N3.0), credit was given to the original authors for the first time; this text document is transcribed below.
Credits
Super Mario 65 The Rainbow Stars N3.0.
This romhack was made by Skelenio by taking many people's assets without permission, putting them together, and adding objects.
Updates to this romhack made by LinCrash, and later ShiN3 with the help of katze789.
LEVEL MODEL AUTHORS:
Splashscreen Overworld: Skelenio
Overworld 1: TheGael95
Overworld 2: LinCrash
Overworld 3: LinCrash
Course 1: LinCrash
Course 2: LinCrash
Course 4: LinCrash
Course 5: LinCrash, church credit unknown
Course 6: LinCrash
Course 7: Tower by LinCrash, see rest below
Course 8: Nintendo (Lethal Lava Land from Super Mario 64)
Course 9: 22neptun
Course 10: 22neptun
Course 11: 22neptun
Course 12: 22neptun
Course 13 Area 1: Nintendo (Death Mountain Trail from Zelda Ocarina of Time)
Course 13 Area 2: Blazedy
Course 15: Nintendo (Bowser's Castle from Mario Kart DS)
Bowser 1: LinCrash
Bowser 2: LinCrash
Bowser 3: Blazedy
Wing Cap: MarioGame2222
Slide: LinCrash
THH: LinCrash
MMW: Unknown
SSC: Yoshi74 and MaxiLuci77
Candyland: LinCrash, with extra stuff thrown in
The End: TheGael95
Mario model: FireMario74
HUD: BroDute
Courses 3, 7 and 14 are, more than likely, made out of putting a bunch of random models by different people together,
which makes it near impossible to track their original authors.
Twoopliss/Legz_g, BroDute, Pilzinsel64 and Mizu, are namedropped in the hack alongside the level model creators,
but unfortunately, it's anything but easy to tell what they did.
MUSIC CREDITS:
01 Super Mario Galaxy Star Get - Unknown
02 Sector X - MrMartley64
03 NSMBDS Flowing Lava - Midoji/Sanji02
04 Click Clock Woods Winter - ShrooboidBrat
05 SMRPG Sunken Ship - windows10acerpc10
06 OoT Boss Battle - Probably by ShrooboidBrat
07 Koopa's Road Dark Remix - ShrooboidBrat
08 E Gadd's Time Machine - TheGael95
09 FreezeFlame Galaxy - LuigiXHero and Twoopliss
0C Starshine Beach Galaxy - ShrooboidBrat
0D Spikler Harbor Plus Version - Unknown
0E SMS Sky and Sea - ShrooboidBrat
0F Lava Rock Lair - VanessaWolfe2015
11 Piranha Creeper Creek - Unknown
13 Melty Molten Galaxy - Unknown
16 King Dodongo / Volvagia Battle - ShrooboidBrat
18 Hoohoo Mountain - ShrooboidBrat
1A TP Hyrule Castle 4th Floor - ShrooboidBrat
25 SM3DW Bowser Castle - Twoopliss
26 (old) Puzzle Plank Galaxy - MrGreenThunder
26 (new) SM3DW Sprawling Savannah - ShrooboidBrat
27 Mad Monster Mansion - Probably by ShrooboidBrat
28 Final Battle with Dark Bowser - Unknown
29 Tal Tal Heights - LuigiXHero
2B SM3DW Overworld - Probably by MrGreenThunder
2C Buoy Base Galaxy - Mosky2000
2D Fortress - Unknown
2E Grape Garden - ShrooboidBrat
2F Sonic Lost Worlds - Unknown
30 Norfair - cpuHacka101
31 (old) Rainbow Factory - 22neptun
31 (new) Raiden II Burnt Field - Rambi_Rampage
32 Desert Sand Empire - Unknown
33 Weapons Factory - ShrooboidBrat
34 Forest Maze - Unknown
35 Underworld Music - Unknown
36 Goomba Road - Unknown
37 Bowser Land - ShrooboidBrat
39 MK64 Rainbow Road - DobieMeltfire
3A Sonic 3 Final Boss - TheGael95
3B Bomberman 64 Credits - Unknown
3C Volcano - Unknown
3E End Music - Unknown
Levels
Main Courses
| Name | Replaced | Stars | Location -
Requierements |
Coins | Image | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob-Omb’s Grassfield | Bob-omb Battlefield | 7 | From the Overworld | 213 |   |
||
| Freeze Polar Land | Whomp's Fortress | 280 |   |
||||
| Piranha Swamp-Mushroom | Jolly Roger Bay | 219 |   |
||||
| Sand Valley Highway | Cool, Cool Mountain | 271 |   |
||||
| Creepy Boo's Church | Big Boo's Haunt | 277 |   |
||||
| Peach Beach | Hazy Maze Cave | 1st Key to enter the castle | 206 |   |
|||
| Lava Lava Towers | Lethal Lava Land | 132 |   |
||||
| Lethal Acid Sewer | Shifting Sand Land | 144 |   |
||||
| Koopa's Bloodied Waters | Dire, Dire Docks | 128 |   |
||||
| Crystal Snow Beach | Snowman's Land | 141 |   |
||||
| Grass Paradise | Wet-Dry World | 2nd Key to enter Candyland | 117 |   |
|||
| Shifting Gloomy Temple | Tall, Tall Mountain | 177 |   |
||||
| Whomps Volcanic Mountain | Tiny-Huge Island | 108 |   |
||||
| Thwomp Sky Harbor | Tick Tock Clock | 109 |   |
||||
| Bowser's Mirror Castle | Rainbow Ride | 100 |   |
Secret Stages
Overworld
| Name | Replaced | Stars | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mushroom Start | Castle Grounds | 0 |   |
| Overworld | Inside Castle | 4 |   |
| Blue Castle | Castle Courtyard | 1 |   |
Bowser Stages
| Name | Replaced | Stars | Required Stars | Coins | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowser's Retro Castle | Bowser in the Dark World | 4 | 30 | 60 |   |
| Bowser's Factory | Bowser in the Fire Sea | 69 | 74 |   | |
| Bowser's Rainbow Starship | Bowser in the Sky | 120 | 66 |   |
Bowser Fights
| Name | Boss | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Bowser's Retro Castle Boss | Big Boo |   |
| Bowser's Factory Boss | Big Bob-omb |   |
| Bowser's Rainbow Starship Boss | Big Bowser |   |
Music
| Name | Original Game / Source | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Sector X | Star Fox 64 | File Select |
| Puzzle Plank Galaxy | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Bob-Omb's Grassfield (v1.0 - Final Lincrash Edit) |
| Sprawling Savanna | Super Mario 3D World | Bob-Omb's Grassfield (N3.0) |
| Freezeflame Galaxy (Ice) | Super Mario Galaxy | Freeze Polar Land |
| Rainbow Factory | WoodenToaster | Piranha Swamp-Mushroom (v1.0 - Final Lincrash Edit) |
| Burnt Field | Raiden II | Piranha Swamp-Mushroom (N3.0) |
| Gobi's Valley | Banjo-Kazooie | Sand-Valley Highway |
| Beware the Forest's Mushrooms | Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars | Creppy Boo's Church |
| Starshine Beach Galaxy | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Peach Beach |
| Bowser Land | Mario Party 2 | Lava Lava Towers |
| Mad Monster Mansion | Banjo-Kazooie | Lethal Acid Sewer |
| Lower Norfair | Super Metroid | Koopa's Bloodied Waters |
| Tal Tal Heights | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | Crystal Snow Beach |
| Piranha Creeper Creek | Super Mario 3D World | Grass Paradise |
| Hoohoo Mountain | Mario & Luigi: SuperStar Saga | Shifting Gloomy Temple |
| Barrel Volcano | Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars | Whomps Volcanic Mountain |
| Fortress | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | Thwomp Sky Harbor |
| Hyrule Castle | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Bowser's Mirror Castle |
| Grape Garden (Remix) | Kirby Super Star | Stormy Sky Circuit |
| Slide | Super Mario 64 | Spooky Wooden Slide |
| Credits | Bomberman 64 | Candyland ★ |
| Rainbow Road | Mario Kart 64 | Database Geometry |
| March Ahead | Paper Mario 64 | The Honey Hive |
| Tricky Maze ...for Lost World | Sonic Adventure | Murky Murky Waters |
| Birthday Cake | Mario Party | Secret Rainbow Stars |
| Sky & Sea | Super Mario Sunshine | Using Leaf Cap |
| Super Bell Hill (Overworld) | Super Mario 3D World | Overworld |
| Underworld | Kid Icarus: Uprising | Blue Castle |
| Bowser's Lava Lake Keep (Castle) | Super Mario 3D World | Bowser's Retro Castle |
| Buoy Base Galaxy | Super Mario Galaxy | Bowser's Factory |
| Koopa's Road (Dark Remix) | Super Mario 64 | Bowser's Rainbow Starship |
| Dinosaur Boss Battle | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | Bowser's Retro Castle Boss
Stage Boss |
| Final Boss | Sonic 3 & Knuckles | Bowser's Rainbow Starship Boss |
| Power Star Get! | Super Mario Galaxy | Star Get |
