An example of a room that has multiple Troll Stars (in the boxes) and no way of knowing which is the real one besides many random guesses.
A troll star is a star that can be obtained and will kick you out of the level like a real star does, but won't raise your star counter. A troll star's appearance is many times identical in look to a real star, but they can also have subtle differences such as being tilted, spinning upside down, lack of spinning, or a subtle facial difference. They are usually indicators of where a nearby star is, with Mario likely having to get back to this position to explore further.
Many times, however, especially in several Star Revenge games, the stars are all contained in a small area with identical boxes, in which case the only way to find the real star is by trial and error. These variations often come in rooms with many boxes or identical-looking stars floating in the air at once (usually called Troll Star Rooms), which can lead to a long time spent searching desperately for a star that actually counts in the level.
Another clue to a troll star not being real can be seen by the star's position; sometimes stars are placed in or over quicksand in areas where there is an obvious path forward for the player: those stars are almost always fake. This kind of positioning is common in Japanese Kaizo hacks, with many of such stars placed within the average hard level, often also placed as merely an obstacle for the player to avoid while performing jumps.
Troll stars can be found in these hacks:
- Star Revenge 2: Night of Doom
- Star Revenge 2.5: Remnant of Doom
- Star Revenge 3: Mario on an Saoire
- Star Revenge 4: The Kedama Takeover 64
- Star Revenge 4: The Kedama Takeover Rewritten
- Star Revenge 5.5: Destroyed Memories
- Star Revenge 6.9: Luigi Lost in Time
- Star Revenge 7: Park of Time
- Star Revenge 7.5: Kedowser's Return
- Star Revenge 8: Scepter of Hope
- SM64: Last Impact
- Super Trump 64
- Mario Adventure
- Super Mario Treasure World
- Super Mario Treasure World: Dream Edition
- Shining Stars 2: Mirror Madness
- Shining Stars 3: Sanctuary of the Star Comet
- King Boo's Revenge 2
- Another Mario Adventure