Choosing the Right Star

With only two stars left in Shifting Sand Land, I knew exactly which one I wanted selected on the menu screen: In the Talons of the Big Bird. The logic behind that choice was simple. The bird only bothers you once the star is loose. If it’s already holding the star, it tends to keep to its usual route and leaves you alone. That meant I could focus on everything else in the level without worrying about being harassed mid-jump.

Naturally, I forgot to do that as, because the star I actually selected to tackle was the red coin star. So I was already off to a fantastic start.

Two Coins Missing

The real problem was that I didn’t know where two of the red coins were. On previous visits I had already located six of them, which meant the final pair had to be somewhere I had overlooked. As soon as I entered the course, though, I spotted them. Both coins were hovering near the platforms above the quicksand.

Close enough to see clearly, but not close enough that I could simply grab the edge of a platform and hang down to collect them. The moment I saw their position, it was obvious this was going to require a slightly more creative solution.

The Wing Cap Gamble

I ran through the possible options and quickly came to the conclusion that there really was only one way to do this. The Wing Cap. I would have to fly low enough to clip the coins, but still high enough to avoid landing in the quicksand beneath them. The margin for error wasn’t exactly generous.

While moving around the level, I also discovered something I hadn’t noticed before. Standing under the tree triggers a warp that takes you over near the cannon area. Useful information, but it also strips away the Wing Cap, which makes it less helpful for what I needed right now. So I warped back and prepared for the flight.

The first coin went surprisingly smoothly. I lined up my approach, dipped just low enough to grab it, and then pulled away before gravity could do anything unpleasant. The second coin was a little more nerve-wracking. I clipped it successfully, but my landing was low enough that if Mario had touched down in the wrong place, he would have been swallowed by the quicksand immediately.

Thankfully that didn’t happen. One more short flight later, the red coin star appeared.

The Bird Gets Involved

Of course, the big bird still managed to make itself part of the situation. On one of its passes it snatched my hat, which meant I had to wait for it to circle back so I could give it a well-timed boot and reclaim it. Hat recovered, star collected, and one more problem solved.

The 100-Coin Question

That left the 100-coin star. I wasn’t completely sure how many coins I would need before entering the pyramid, so I started with the Pokey enemies. Each segment drops a blue coin, which meant twenty coins almost immediately. A good start.

During this process I also discovered something else: there’s a green shell in this level. That would have been incredibly useful information before I started performing aerial gymnastics over quicksand, but at least I know about it now.

Once I felt confident that my coin total was high enough, I entered the pyramid and gathered the remaining coins needed to push the total to one hundred. With the star secured, Shifting Sand Land was finally complete.

Since the course itself was finished, there wasn’t much reason to grab another star inside the pyramid. I exited the level and turned my attention to Bob-Omb Battlefield.

The Missing Cannon Bob-Omb

The next task seemed straightforward: find the Bob-Omb who opens the cannons. In a normal run they’re hard to miss, but the randomizer has a habit of moving things around in ways that make the obvious suddenly harder to locate.

I found the Bob-Omb who tells me I need to find the cannon operator, and I even spoke to him twice just in case he might suddenly decide to help me. No luck.

While searching the level, I did manage to find the star tied to the floating island in the sky. In fact, it was sitting almost directly behind where the normal spawn point for the level would be. That made one more star for the total.

A Detour to the Island

I decided to try one more time to locate the cannon Bob-Omb. I’m not entirely sure I’ll actually need the cannons in this seed, but having them available always feels safer than not having them.

My suspicion was that the Bob-Omb might be on the floating island itself. I wasn’t particularly confident about jumping there, so I grabbed another Wing Cap and flew across instead.

No Bob-Omb waiting for me, but there was another star sitting there. At that point it would have been rude not to collect it.

Closing the Gap

That leaves the run sitting at eighty-nine stars collected, with thirty-one still out there somewhere in the castle. The randomizer has already shuffled enough things around that every familiar level still manages to hold a few surprises.

And somewhere in Bob-Omb Battlefield, there’s still a cannon-opening Bob-Omb that has decided to go missing.

Continue the Journey

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