Super Mario 64 plaque may read “Eternal Star”, analysis suggests

A programmer’s analysis suggests the long-blurry plaque in Super Mario 64’s castle courtyard may read “Eternal Star” and “We hope so”. The finding offers a possible answer to a mystery that has fuelled fan speculation for three decades, though it is not definitive.

Mochi64 used open-source computational analysis to compare the plaque’s pixels with millions of word and font combinations; image upscaling could not clarify it. The result is a closer match, not official confirmation. Earlier rumours claimed it said “L is Real 2401”, hinting Luigi was hidden in the game, amid reports that developers had considered a two-player mode before abandoning it to save memory.