by 
Super Mario 64 is perhaps the most mysterious release in the history of Nintendo's prized franchise. Since its release back in 1996, the 3D platformer has been subject to a variety of rumours regarding its secrets, narrative themes, and, of course, the missing Super Mario Brother, Luigi.
But now, as reported by VGC, a fan believes one of the classic game's mysteries can be put to rest, as Mochi64 is confident that they have accurately deciphered the famously illegible text mounted on the Star statue in Princess Peach's Castle. This text has formed the basis of endless speculation, with the most consistent suggestion being that it offered some sort of code to unlock a playable Luigi.
The most commonly offered theory was that the blurry text read "L is Real 2401" - a rumour that gained further ground after it was (not) repeated in an April Fools' issue of Nintendo Power back in 1998 (the joke being that the magazine promised an explanation on a page that didn't actually exist. Regardless, many video game fans believed that decoding the numerical value would somehow restore Mario's taller brethren. And, while they were doing that, the rest of us were playing Metal Gear Solid.
But anyway, to Mochi64 and their theory. The programmer built a tool (seemingly AI-coded) to compute a possible decryption of each of the plaque's eye-searing blurs. The tool uses pixel height, width, shape and accounting for capitalisation and font style to best ascertain each character and ultimately, each word. Once key letters were identified, basic English language probability helped fill in the gaps.
And so, following what Mochi64 describes as "millions of computations", they are confident the two-line, five-word phrase reads "Eternal Star" "We Hope So".
It's a pretty snug suggestion, given that the plaque is mounted on a giant stone star, used within the Super Mario franchise as a symbol of power, mystery, and an overall force for good. While the phrase itself is a little cumbersome, it's also likely that it was written by a non-native English speaker, and so it both makes sense and doesn't quite make sense. Y'know? Like all my articles.
Back in 2023, community members suggested the plaque read "Eternal Star" "We Hope For", so, assuming Mochi64 had not previously seen this suggestion, the riddle may have been solved.
Nintendo has remained silent on the subject, either because they don't have the information, don't have an answer, or don't care enough to find out. One party that isn't silent on the subject is the community on X, who have immediately launched into next-level arguments over this supposed "answer".
Mochi64 remains confident of their findings. Nevertheless, they have released the tool they used as open source, which will allow folks to have their own stab at the mystery phrase before confidently inform us it says... I don't know... "Goro Transformation is Real".
One thing's for sure, it makes a helluva lot more sense than "L is Real 2041". But then, for true believers, I guess we have to wait another 15 years to be completely sure.