Honestly, Shining Stars is a pretty alright hack. I think at its time, it's pretty good, but for me, it doesn't hold up as much. The choice of music has its highs and lows, with some tracks being translated pretty well to the SM64 soundfont, then other tracks are painful to listen to. I like the atmosphere and level theming for most levels, but most levels have issues with either being huge and empty or small and crammed. I personally don't like having to traverse through huge terrain, I don't believe SM64's base movement makes that fun in comparison to other 3D Mario games. The difficulty is pretty chill, a nice difficulty to either take your time with and soak everything in or speed through each level if you're like that (me).
I don't like how simplistic the rating system is, so I'll give my own accurate rating for romhacks from here on out.
I give it a 3.8/5. Great for its time, doesn't really hold up in the present.
Mario on Indigo IslandMario on Indigo Island is an openworld romhack that features many levels and a total of 111 Stars.
Star Revenge 3.9: Dreamish Block BeatsYou explore a small temple with nine 2.5D levels all based around Beat Blocks.
Omega Mario 64Explore 15+ new worlds looking for Night Hearts.
Super Luigi 64: The Flower CupA visit to a small town, Luigi finds himself the main rogue in a murder!
EurekaFull 100 star hack with plenty of things to find. Some useful, some not. That is for you to decide.
