The 'Shroom:Issue 133/Fun Stuff





Staff Notes
Written by:

Heya, I'm back. Sorry for my sudden disappearance last month, I was honestly feeling quite under the weather when it came time to set this up. Many thanks to for being a good sub-director and a good friend for filling in for me!

Nothing much new this month. Just counting down the days till I'm finally on summer break. I have Minecraft now, even if it was 9 years late, but... hey a new game that isn't Splatoon 2! yayyyyyy

I don't have much else to say here, so I hope you enjoy this month's edition of Fun Stuff!

Section of the Month Congratulations to all of our writers for their works!

Trivia
By:

Well my friends I have some sad news. UK’s Robot Wars has been cancelled again. It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to some of our favorites such as Behmonth, Nuts 2, Coyote, and many more. Goodbye Robot wars until you return from the ashes like the mighty phoenix. Rest in peace Robot Wars 1998-2004 and 2016-2018.


 * 1) That as research for Donkey Kong Country, Rare developers went to a zoo to observe actual gorillas?
 * 2) That Donkey Kong 64 was originally only going to feature characters from Donkey Kong Country?
 * 3) That in the 80’s Peter Brown pitched to ABC a Lawman revival? ABC didn’t pick it up, thus dooming us to the beta timeline.
 * 4) That Mario owns a goddamn castle yet still lives in that small house of his?
 * 5) That in the Japanese version of Super Mario World, Yoshi can eat dolphins?
 * 6) That copies of Mario Party 8 were recalled in the United Kingdom for using the term "spastic"?
 * 7) That the creators of Skylanders originally approached Nintendo about using them?
 * 8) That the Chain Chomp was based off a run-in Shigeru Miyamoto had with an angry dog?

Anagrams
Written by:

Hi again everybody, and welcome to April's edition of anagrams! This month I've come up with a set of Super Mario 3D World anagrams for you to try to crack. And as I'm fairly sure next month isn't themed, feel free to send me any themes for anagrams you'd like to see or any funny anagrams you've found on my talk page or PM me on the forums. Now onto the anagrams!

How it works...

Basically, this puzzle consists of solving the anagrams. Each month has a specific theme, which will give you a clue about what sort of words or phrases the anagrams will be. I've also included the boxes that the anagrams will fit into, so you'll be able to tell how many words it will solve to be and how many letters will be in each word, which should give you a hand too. You'll also notice that within each set of boxes, one of the squares are yellow. As you solve each anagram, note down the letter which appears in the yellow squares, and if you can solve all of the anagrams, you'll also get a bonus anagram to solve from completing all of the others. I've included the letter configuration for this one at the bottom too, just to give you an extra helping hand. Best of luck!

1. SYMBOLS BOO BELT

2. CRISP EXPIRES SIN

3. HUG KINK TANK

4. REWORD BLOWS

5. SIP ELSE

6. AROMATIC

7. SHALL NO HAND

8. SPHERE ILL BULL

9. NAIL OARS

10. COAT IT PANDA

Bonus Anagram:

Picross
Written by: Absolutely The Pyro Guy

Hey guys, look at me! I'm absolutely The Pyro Guy! You know because I said I am! And I totally came back to write Picross! Look at my and my mushrooms and chef's hat! What am I, a comedian? No! Firstly, I didn't return for Fake News and the cooking section, so of course I'm not a comedian right now! Secondly, the world is SERIOUS. Why so serious? Just ask the Joker! Really! That guy seems pretty serious for a guy who literally has "joke" in his name! It's like his parents musta hated him! And lastly, my point about being a spooky ghost chef in the KG was spooky, and how Fun With Despair is a total meanie doo-doo hea--wait, what?

You mean it's not April Fools by the time this goes live? So... There's no point in doing an April Fools joke. Also, I am terrible at impersonating Pyro. That's true, I'll give you that. What? Say sorry to Fun With Despair? What, anybody's gonna take that insult seriously? It's literally kindergarten level! Okay, fine, sorry. But, agh, but I already wrote it out and made this funny puppet. Can we leave it in? ...David? Lord Bowser? Autumn? Mommy? Jerome? I know you like puppets, Jerome!

...Okay, so as it turns out, I'm not The Pyro Guy. I'm your actual writer,. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun nonetheless!

After all... It is my birthday!

...Well, it was, but April 7th was my Birthday, and thusly, April is my birth year! Thusly, I wanted to do something special this month, too! So why not have double the Picross? Yes, that's right, double the Picross puzzles this month! I'm, like, discount Picross warehouse over here! I wanted to do 2 puzzles related to Mario, of course, but I also wanted 1 puzzle related to the community, and of course, 1 puzzle related to me, given it is my birthday and all that. The result? Well, we have 4 puzzles for you to solve! In addition, I'll offer a shout-out in the next issue if somebody can figure out what that mystery 4th puzzle's origin is. So if you know, say on the forums!

Here's the rules, you know this by now, surely! If you want to know how to play, simply take any program you can edit images with (MS paint is... more than an option), or even print it out if you're so inclined, and you can shade in the symbols. As for the rules...
 * Each number on a given row or column (which are referred to as "hints" in Picross) Represents a line of filled-in squares (or tiles/cells, as I prefer calling them) on that particular row or column; for instance, a row starting with "3" would have a row of three filled-in squares with no white/blank squares inbetween them.
 * There can be multiple lines in a single column, however. (For example, a row of 7, then a row of 4. In this case, there'd be 7 in a row, then a gap, then a row of 4.)
 * A gap between two "rows" is defined as one white/blank square between two rows.
 * Each square is filled with either black or white. You can fill the white squares you know of with a different color, such as gray, to keep track easier.
 * It's way, was easier to start off with rows that have few gaps, and ESPECIALLY easier to start with rows with large numbers.
 * I recommend playing Pokemon Picross on the 3DS (it's free, yo!); the tutorial will explain things a lot better than I ever could.

(Belated) April Fools, and Happy Belated Birthday to myself! I'll be seeing you next month! ...if Lord Bowser and Pyro don't hold issue with my dumb prank and set me literally on fire.

...Oh, but before I go, an actual shoutout to the real for not only giving me the A-OK to do this dumb prank, but even making that image to go along with it.

Answers:

It's aMAZEing
Written by:

Good part-of-day! Welcome to this month's It's aMAZEing!

Today's maze features a Jump Battle Card from Paper Mario: Color Splash. Nothing too complex this time!

Do you have an idea for a maze you'd like to see? Leave a message on my talkpage or find me on the forums and send me a personal message, and your idea and name may be featured in a future episode!

How to play: Alternatively, print it out and use a pencil!
 * Copy the image into your favourite art program (like Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, etc.)
 * Click the line, pencil or brush tool and adjust the size as needed
 * Draw your line though the maze from start to finish
 * Zoom in and out as needed



To view the answer, click here!

Where in the Marioverse is Carmen Sandiego?
Written by:

"Something's wrong in the far reaches of space, gumshoe! Carmen's evil prankster Blooper Bandit has stolen Rosalina's magic wand! The mother of the Lumas needs that wand to defend herself from invaders and smashers, and without it, she's stuck in space! Find that wand, cadet, and bust that Blooper!"

Quiz
Written by:

Howdy 'Shroom readers, welcome to the Quiz!. As you may have figured out from the name, this is a section where I quiz your Mario knowledge.

Recently, the Nintendo Switch has been getting a variety of Wii U games, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze or Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It's also seen games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, however this isn't something new to the franchise, it's been happening for years. And so for this Quiz, I will be testing your knowledge on subjects surrounding all of these ports, enhanced ports, remakes and more.

Easy
 * 1) In Super Mario 64, each world had six stars (not including the coin star), but how many were in the Super Mario 64 DS levels?
 * 2) What game is Poochy and Yosi's Woolly World a port of?
 * 3) What Yoshi colours are featured in ''Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3?

Medium
 * 1) What series brought us the enhanced ports Mario Power Tennis and ''Donkey Kong Jungle Beat?
 * 2) How many unaltered ports have there been of the original Mario Bros. ?
 * 3) Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U featured several ports of classic games, but what were they called?

Hard
 * 1) What game is Mario's FUNdamentals a port of?
 * 2) What enhanced remake does the image to the right come from?
 * 3) Which Japanese DJs were Goombas and Piranha Plants turned into in All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.?

Answers: