After some experimentation, I was able to win with 1,105 mana! bbbb.png
My strategy : At the start of the game, you change directions so slowly that it's not really worth aiming at any stars in particular. I found that the player has no max. velocity cap - this means that you can basically accelerate forward forever and keep gaining more and more speed. So when the round starts, just pick any diagonal direction and accelerate in a straight line. The bouncy walls turned out to be very helpful here, because they just change your momentum without slowing you down. Eventually after you begin to bounce around the screen *very fast*, you will be able to collect tons of stars quickly. After several hundred, you are able to regain some control and you have plenty of time to slow down and collect stars more precisely.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the movement controls are a little difficult. It almost feels like the acceleration has a delay to it, or it follows some sort of quadratic curve. After collecting hundreds of stars, the movement becomes much easier and actually pretty fun to wrestle with!
I was confused by the significance of the 'black sky' zone - It seemed like a punishment for trying to eat the sun while I was too small. However this zone turns out to be super helpful - you can freely build up speed and collect stars without worrying about accidental sun collisions for a while.
One thing I would recommend is making it easier to tell when you are large enough to eat the sun. Any sort of feedback involving color, movement, or even text could work here!
I liked the art's 'paper cutout' feel and the color choices. It would be nice if the sun and the stars were done in the same paper cutout style as the player avatar.
Overall I had fun with this game and trying to figure out how to win or 'break' it.