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Beating the bear in "the dirty tricks of Major burrows" Granted by darklord
In order to beat the bear, you must let it come from the ground and you ground pound immediately. Then you spin and hit it. Repeat this until it gets really mad. Once it comes out of the ground and you ground pound, it goes back into the ground and then it starts to wave its hands and get you. As it does that, you have to ground pound and spin to finish the level. Good luck!

Bonus Levels (Demo version)
Instead of just pressing A + B at the main menu of the demo, press and hold 1 + 2 when pressing A + B to access two additional stages.

Buoy Base Galaxy: Pokemon reference
In Buoy Base Galaxy, above the tower where you collected the Blue Star Pieces, is a little planetoid that is a sphere with two red panels on top and a lighter bottom with a screw in the middle. It looks exactly like a Pokeball.

Coconuts become watermelons
Collect 9999 star bits in the hub, and all the coconuts in the game become watermelons.

Death Count
The Grand Finale Galaxy, which is the secret galaxy that can be unlocked after 120 Stars are gathered with both Mario and Luigi, holds another secret. Once the final Star is acquired with both characters in this galaxy, you will be able to see your death count on your save file. This will allow you to see how many times you died while playing the game with both Mario and Luigi.

Enemy Sacrifice
This may be an obvious hint, but it's one worth stating nonetheless. When you fight most enemies, you can control what comes from their dead bodies when defeated (a sort of "sacrifice"). By jumping on an enemy, which is usually the more difficult way to kill most foes, a Coin will appear. Spin-killing or using other methods will usually result in a few Star Bits.

Extra Lives
Because you start each game with only four lives (after shutting the game off and turning it back on), you might be in need of some extra lives upon rebooting the game. You can usually get five right off the bat from Toad (he'll run around with a letter above his head, symbolizing a letter from either Luigi, or more likely Peach). There are four more strewn around the Observatory that you can acquire, however:

1. On the moving green platform below the core.
2. Under the stairs leading to the kitchen.
3. Right at the top of the observatory.
4. Underneath the entrance to the gateway to the stars.

Flying mario Granted by NathanJ
To use flying mario in the comet observatory, you must beat the level Gateway's Purple Coins.

Freeze enemies Granted by Elijah
You must have 2 wii remotes to do this. As player1 plays player2 uses the cursor to freeze the enemy note: player2 must hold the a button on the enemy or it will unfreeze. Note2: this does not work on any boss. Note3: if you can't see the enemy on the screen any more after moving away it will unfreeze.

Grand Finale Galaxy and Star 121
To unlock the final star and galaxy, collect all 120 stars with Luigi and beat Bowser. Doing so unlocks the Grand Finale Galaxy, which is the Star Festival seen in the beginning of the game. Collecting the 100 purple coins in this galaxy gets you the final star.

Hidden Character
Get all 120 stars. Return to Rosalina on the Comet Observatory and request to fight Bowser again. Finish the credits and you will get a message saying that Luigi is now playable.

Infinite 1-Ups
If you grab any 1-Up Mushroom at the Comet Observatory, you can then head into any dome, back out, and arrive back at the Comet Observatory without having played any stage. This will make the 1-Up Mushroom you acquired reappear.

Luigi
Here's how to get Luigi. First, get all 120 Stars in the game. Then, return to Rosalina (on the Comet Observatory) and request to fight Bowser one last time. Defeat him and let the credits roll. Thereafter, a message will appear telling you Luigi is a playable character.

Second Player
If you have a second Wii controller, you can have a friend play along with you. While there won't be a second player on-screen, you will have a second cursor to use. This means that Coins, Star Bits, and the like can be collected by the second player. There's also some functionality in controlling Mario's jumps.

Star 121
Collecting all 100 purple coins in the Grand Finale Galaxy.

Starting Boost When Racing Cosmic Mario
When the countdown timer starts as you are racing Cosmic Mario, hold forward, then as it hits 2, hold down on Z to crouch, and when the race starts hit A right away and you will turn yellow for a few seconds and get a really good boost that will put you way ahead of Cosmic Mario.

Super Groung Pound Granted by Armaan
At the top of a normal jump, spin and groung pound at the same time. If succesfull, Mario will spin in the ground pound and flip.

Super jump Granted by Caine
When you are playing hold down the Z button, then press A and then you will have a super jump.

Super Stomp
If you want to do a specialized stomp with Mario or Luigi, try the following. When you jump, before you press the Z button to do the Ground Pound, spin by shaking the Wii controller. As you are spinning, you can then press the Z button. The result? A stronger stomp that will actually track the enemy and follow it, kind of like a heat-seeking missile!

Unlock Flying Mario Granted by Mariowearsred
To unlock Flying Mario, you must, sadly, have access to all the domes. Once you have done this, go to the Gate dome. To get there, go up, past the engine room, use the teleporter and you can go through the gate. You'll find yourself in the place where you caught the Luma rabbits at the beginning of the game. Go to the castle and speak with a red Luma. He'll tell you to collect 100 coins. Then you can use the flying star to do so, and collect the ones on the ground. Once you have done this, return to the observatory and look around on top of the bedroom, or near the terrace for a red star. Use it, and you can fly around for a while. (They respawn once you've used them).