Endless stairs
| Endless stairs | |
|---|---|
 In Super Mario 64  In Super Mario 64 DS | |
| First appearance | Super Mario 64 (1996) |
| Latest appearance | Super Mario 3D All-Stars (2020) |
- “To open the door that leads to the "endless" stairs, you need 70 Stars. Bwa ha ha!”
- —Bowser, Super Mario 64
The endless stairs (also stylized with sneer quotes as "endless" stairs) are an obstacle within the Mushroom Castle in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS. They are behind the final Big Star Door, which leads to Bowser in the Sky, the final level of the game.
Unless the player has more than 70 Power Stars in Super Mario 64, or has more than 80 Power Stars and is playing as Mario in Super Mario 64 DS, trying to climb this flight of stairs will seemingly gain no ground; they must eventually relent and leave through the room's entrance. After meeting these conditions, the stairs can be climbed normally, granting Mario access to Bowser in the Sky.
The illusion of the "endless" stairs is created by warping the player character back down a few steps once they reach a certain point,[1] combined with distance fog to hide the top of the staircase. The trick can be spotted by getting the camera uphill from the character as they climb the stairs, as the bottom of the room is more visible, breaking the translational symmetry of the stairs. In the Nintendo DS remake, the player can also see their character's position being moved on the minimap, and the ceiling at the top of the stairs is actually slightly visible due to lighting changes.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | はてしない かいだん[?] Hateshinai Kaidan |
Endless Stairs | |
| French | L'escalier sans fin[?] | The endless stairs | |
| Italian | Scale infinite[?] | Endless stairs |
Media[edit]
The audio track that plays seems to be based on the Shepard tone audio illusion.
 Super Mario 64 - Looping Steps | File info |
Trivia[edit]
- There is a glitch with which the player can bypass ever needing to collect at least 70 Power Stars, but this works only for the original Nintendo 64 version, as this glitch was patched in the Shindō Pak Taiō Version, which carried over to Super Mario 3D All-Stars, as well as Super Mario 64 DS.
- However, a different glitch can be used to access Bowser in the Sky with any player character aside from Mario and/or with fewer than 80 Stars in the DS remake.
- The endless stairs are similar to the Penrose stairs, which are also endless stairs, except the latter stairs are formed in a loop to produce the endless illusion, while the former ones follow the more traditional fashion of stairs by going up.
References[edit]
- ^ Blaf Snarten Burg (January 12, 2019). Off Camera Secrets Super Mario 64 Boundary Break (REUPLOAD READ DESC). YouTube. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
