Star Pointer

The Star Pointer is a feature first seen in Super Mario Galaxy. It is a blue star-shaped Cursor that appears on-screen whenever the player points the Wii Remote at the screen (in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, it is controlled via touch-screen controls or the JoyCon's motion controls). This star-shaped cursor is very useful as it enables Mario and Luigi to do many things, including grabbing Star Bits, stunning (and even killing some) enemies by aiming and shooting Star Bits, activating Pull Stars, and controlling Sling Pods. The Star Pointer itself can be used to grab clusters of Star Bits simply by hovering the cursor over them rather than having to grab them manually as a Coin. When it is used to activate Pull Stars, the Star Pointer will temporarily change to a hand icon, and will change back when the plumbers are out of range of the Pull Stars. It is taken advantage of in many of the Bubble Blowing galaxies, including the Bubble Breeze Galaxy and the Bubble Blast Galaxy, where it acts as a wind blower to move the bubble along a set path when the plumbers are inside the Bubble.
In the games' multiplayer mode, Co-Star Mode, a second orange Star Pointer appears controlled by Player 2. This cursor allows Player 2 to use the same abilities Player 1 possesses with his/her Star Pointer, along with some new abilities. One of the most notable abilities is that Player 2 can actually hold his cursor over enemies to stun them, allowing Mario to finish them off without much hassle, while Player 2 cannot use these abilities on bosses, it can still be used on medium-sized enemies such as Chomps (for example in the Boulder Bowl Galaxy, this can effectively be used to smash the Chomps against each other so Mario/Luigi can lure the Goomba to the Gold Gearmo without it being flattened). Both players pressing the button at the same time allows Mario or Luigi to do the Co-Star Super Jump special move, as explained by the in-game instructions on how to use Co-Star Mode on the game selection screen of Super Mario Galaxy. Unlike the first player's Star Pointer, the second Star Pointer will begin to spin when it is positioned over an object, item, or character in the environment that it can affect in some way. Otherwise, it will do nothing.
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Star Pointer returns however this time it is slightly larger in size which increases it's Star Bit hitbox by a bit. It retains all of it's abilities from before along with some new ones. For example, the Star Pointer is replaced with a small red circle when riding Yoshi. This essentially allows Yoshi to swallow any enemies within a range or pull on grapple objects such as Flower Grapples. When Yoshi swallows enemies such as Bullet Bills, Crabbers, or Spinys, he is able to take aim with the Red Cursor before firing at the desired target. When Yoshi swallows most enemies, they turn into Star Bits. Yoshi is also able to use the abilities to swallow Fruits, and Power-Ups such as Blimp Fruits, Bulb Berries, or Dash Peppers (the cursor is disabled when Yoshi is under the effects of a Blimp Fruit). While riding Yoshi, Mario/Luigi cannot longer shoot Star Bits but the plumbers can still use the Red Cursor to pick them up as normal. Additionally, in the game's Co-Star Mode, the second player's orange Star Pointer is effectively used to control the Co-Star Luma, which performs actions along with the Star Pointer where the Star Pointer itself would perform the actions in the previous game's Co-Star Mode. One such example is when freezing an enemy, instead of the player simply stopping the enemy's movement with the Star Pointer, the Co-Star Luma now flies to the location of the Star Pointer and visibly holds onto the enemy to stop its movement allowing Mario/Luigi to rush in for the finishing blow. While Co-Star Luma can no longer give the plumbers the ability to do the Co-Star Super Jump, he has a new ability to make up for it, in this game, he can even carry Coins with the help of the Star Pointer and give them to Mario or Luigi.
==Gallery==
Galaxy StarCursor.jpg|The Star Pointer in Super Mario Galaxy
Star Cursor SMG1.png|The Star Pointer in action as seen in Super Mario Galaxy.
Star Cursor SMG2.jpg|The Star Pointer hovering over Mario in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Star Cursor P2 1.png|Both Star Pointers as seen in Super Mario Galaxy.
Star Cursor P2 2.jpg|Both Star Pointers as seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Yoshi Red Cursor.jpg|Yoshi's Red Cursor as seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Glove Cursor.png|The Glove Star Pointer as seen in Super Mario Galaxy.
Glove Cursor Holding.png|The Glove Star Pointer's holding animation as seen in Super Mario Galaxy.
Rosalina Star Cursor.jpg|Rosalina utilizing the Star Pointer as seen in Super Smash Bros. 4.
Bubble Blower Cursor.png|The Star Pointer as a Bubble Blower as seen in Super Mario Galaxy.
Beta Star Cursor.png|The Original Star Pointer as seen in the beta version of Super Mario Galaxy
Beta Star Cursor II.png|The Star Pointer in the beta version of Super Mario Galaxy 2, it looks identical to how it looked in Super Mario Galaxy.
Beta Yoshi Cursor.png|The smaller version of Yoshi's Cursor in the beta version of Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Star Cursor SMG1.PNG|The Star Pointer in Super Mario Galaxy.
==Trivia==
*In Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U, Rosalina uses the Star Pointer to perform her Gravitational Pull move.
*In the beta stages of Super Mario Galaxy as shown in E3 2006, the Star Pointer was shown to be much more powerful pretty much possessing the abilities of Player 2's Star Pointer in the final build such as the ability to stun enemies and more. Additionally, the A and B buttons had to be held to collect Star Bits with the Star Pointer, additionally, the Star Pointer was also orange with a blue tail.
**Similarly, in the beta stages of Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Star Pointer looked identical to how it did in Super Mario Galaxy, additionally, Yoshi's Red Circle Cursor was slightly smaller as well.
Category:Game mechanics
Category:Super Mario Galaxy
Category:Super Mario Galaxy 2
Category:Super Mario 3D All-Stars