Super Mario 64: Every Level Ranked From Worst To Best

A precursor to Luigi’s Mansion, the game’s fifth world sees Mario boldly exploring a haunted manor, as well as a creepy subterranean fairground beneath it. This world is built majorly around Mario’s battles with the next world, as many of the stars are gained from besting phantoms in combat. It never grows samey, though, because your quest to bust ghosts takes you all around the level, including a climactic scrap on the balcony.

Aesthetically, it’s probably the best-designed level. You’re deposited in front of an imposing mansion, filled with trick floorboards and malevolent, toothed pianos. The world itself is set in a merry go round, which Mario is sucked into by some spooky force.

The flow of the level is well thought out - the mansion feels like a reallocation to be explored, and in lieu of bottomless pits, the player can tumble to the underground cavern, forced then to work their way back up.

There are also some stars that escalate the difficulty, as the madcap run to the roof with the vanishing cap, requiring to pinpoint long jumps and wall kicks.