Spinning Heart

Spinning Heart
Artwork from Super Mario 64
First appearance	Super Mario 64 (1996)
Latest appearance	Super Mario 3D All-Stars (2020)
Effect	Replenishes lost health when the player runs through it

“You can also recover power by touching the Spinning Heart. The faster you run through the heart, the more power you'll recover.”

—Sign on the Bob-omb Battlefield, Super Mario 64

A Spinning Heart (also referred to simply as a heart) is a supportive object seen in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS. Spinning Hearts are translucent red hearts that slowly revolve on the ground. When Mario runs through one, the Spinning Heart quickly replenishes his Power Meter. The heart spins proportionally to the speed Mario runs through it, gradually slowing back to normal. While the heart is spinning faster than usual, Mario heals one sector each full turn the heart makes. In Super Mario 64 DS, Yoshi, Luigi, and Wario can also use a Spinning Heart to recover health. In Super Mario 64, the Spinning Heart is just a translucent sprite rendered in the 3D scene with collision data. In Super Mario 64 DS, it is an opaque 3D model.

A total of 15 Spinning Hearts appears in both games, with one in Tick Tock Clock and the one in Goomboss Battle being exclusive to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, respectively. Spinning Hearts are often found in areas with greater risk of damage or before boss battles. The following Spinning Hearts appear in the following locations:

Image	Course	Location
	Bob-omb Battlefield	Near the top of the mountain, next to a sign
	Cool, Cool Mountain	Underneath the Star for Wall Kicks Will Work
	Hazy Maze Cave	Super Mario 64: On a ledge beside the bottomless pit in the boulder area Super Mario 64 DS: Within the gap in the wall next to the boulder path
	Lethal Lava Land	On a floating platform among multiple within the volcano, just after the hidden smasher
	Shifting Sand Land	Inside the pyramid, between the Spindel and the vertically oscillating stairs
	Tick Tock Clock	Under the group of rotating bars Super Mario 64 only: Beside the pole with the orbiting Amp, before the elevating platforms
	Rainbow Ride	On one of the four large spinning platforms At the Red Coin maze, below the area that requires wall-kicking
	Bowser in the Fire Sea	At the bottom level on a platform with three Goombas At the top level, before the rising and sinking poles
	Bowser in the Sky	Halfway up, along the path of the moving arrow platform Just before the pipe, in the windy area
	Goomboss Battle (DS only)	Next to the entrance to Goomboss At the base of the long vertical cage where Mario must wall-kick to reach a Star Sphere

Gallery

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  Super Mario 64 model

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  The Spinning Heart of the Bob-omb Battlefield in Super Mario 64

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  Super Mario-kun

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	クルクルハート[?] Kurukuru Hāto	Spinning Heart
French	Cœur-toupie[?]	Spinning-heart
Italian	Cuore Rotante	Spinning Heart
	Cuore	Heart
Spanish	Corazón[?]	Heart

Trivia

• In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, when an item hits the player's Heart barrier, a sound similar to that of the Spinning Heart can be heard.