The 'Shroom:Issue 118/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
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Well this is it, the first Strategy Wing of 2017! Not much in terms of news this month, but man I'm going to be busy. No matter, I'll find a way to get through it. I'd also like to welcome current Strategy Wing writer ! He will be writing Pokédex Power from this point on. I think it'll be a staple section and I'm glad that someone else wants to pick it up. Have any ideas for this sub-team? feel free to sign up. I hope to help my subteam grow with plenty more sections, and writers. There's nothing else really to say though, so please enjoy this month's issue. Be sure to vote in the poll at the bottom for your favorite sections as well!

Section of the Month
Wow you all really liked my satirical take on the Pokédex. Thank you for your votes! Thanks to Yoshi876,, and for their sections as well.

Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner
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Hello 'Shroom racers! And welcome to Mario Kart Wheel Tips Corner, here I plan to give you just some extra tips to help you with your racing, or just some changes in a track that might catch you off guard if you aren't prepared for them. Lights are out, let's start racing.

Kool Karts
You can't race if you don't have a Kart to do it in, so in this section I'll give you some facts about a Kart, Bike, ATV or even tires and gliders that you can use hopefully for racing success.

This month's Kool Part are the Mushroom tires, from Mario Kart 7. The Mushroom tires boost your Kart's Speed and Handling stats, meaning overall you'll go faster, and can go round corners better when you're drifting. However, they will decrease your Acceleration, Weight, Off-Road and Drift stats, meaning that it'll be more difficult to get to your higher speeds, you can knocked around more, you're slower on off-road surfaces, and you don't take corners well when drifting.

To use these tires to their best, you'll probably want to pair them with a Kart that has high Acceleration and Drift stats, like the Bumble V, so that way the negative stats don't have a high overall effect on your Kart.

What's Changed?
Retro tracks are now a huge portion of the Mario Kart games, typically amounting to half the courses in the game. But usually these courses change some things up, so in this section I'll help you find out "What's Changed" in the retro tracks.

We're pretending its Summer over here in Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner, so this time I'm taking a look at Desert Hills, a course that first appeared in Mario Kart DS, before appearing again in Mario Kart Wii. There aren't a lot of changes, there's the usual graphics overhaul, which sees the Pokeys go from 2D to 3D, Pokey also now make racers spin out, rather than get bowled over. The only change is the map being flipped on the screen.

Ace Shortcut
In this small section I give you a way to shave a few seconds off your time, whether you know about it or not. Be warned, most of these shortcuts will require a Mushroom.

This issue I bring you a shortcut from Bowser's Castle, more specifically the DS version.

In the room where the floor spins, if you follow it all the way around, instead of getting off at the first exit, you can skip that small portion of the track. Well, so long as you avoid the fire.

Galactic Expedition
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Metroid 1 Walkthrough
Current Inventory: 6 Energy Tanks, 255 Missiles, Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Long Beam, Ice Beam or Wave Beam, High-Jump Boots, Screw Attack, Varia Suit

Bosses Defeated: Ridley, Kraid

Goals: Kill Mother Brain and beat the game.



Greetings and welcome to this exciting issue of Galactic Expedition. Last time, we went ahead and defeated Kraid. We also have every Missile Tank, have found all Energy Tanks, and more. Our goals this issue is quite simple. We're going to finish Metroid 1 and bring this walkthrough to an end.

We ended things just after getting back into Brinstar from defeating Kraid. You should be in the elevator room. Head left through the door. You'll be back in a tall blue chamber. Climb your way up and break the blocks. When you reach the top, go through the door on the right. Continue right until you're back in the tall central blue chamber that should be very familiar by now.

If you have the Wave Beam you will need to go back for the Ice Beam. In case you've forgotten where the Ice Beam is, feel free to check out where I covered it in Issue 114 to get a refresher. Our goal though is to get to Tourian. To get there, climb all the way to the top of this tall blue chamber. When you get to the top, go through the door on the left. You'll be in a long corridor. Be careful not to fall into acid, and go through the red door. You'll be in a room with two statues, one in the shape of Kraid and one in the shape of Ridley. Shoot both of them and a bridge will appear you can Morph Ball under. If you try to shoot one of the statues without that boss defeated, nothing will happen. If you're all prepped, go through the door and enter Tourian.

The main thing that defines Tourian are Metroids. There's only one way to kill a Metroid, freeze it with the Ice Beam and fire 5 Missiles at it. Fortunately, if a Metroid drops a health or missile pickup, it replenishes a lot of that respective area. In this first room, there's 5 Metroids to defeat. If a Metroid catches you, quickly go into Morph Ball and bomb repeatedly. This should get it off of you. When it's off of you shoot it with the Ice Beam to stop it from getting on you again. Metroids do respawn so be careful if for example, you climb to the bottom with all Metroids defeated along the way and then you go back up. Anyway, the orange door takes 10 missiles. Open it and go through.

You'll be in a long corridor. There will be some donut-shaped fireball projectiles fired at you. Do your best to avoid them. Using the Screw Attack can be helpful. In this room there is 6 Metroids. Be careful to not let them catch you, and don't fall in the lava. Go through the red door. You'll be in another vertical chamber with some more Metroids and fireballs. One thing I should point out is that if you freeze a Metroid and shoot missiles at it, but the Metroid gets thawed before you hit it with 5 missiles, the counter will reset and it will essentially be at full health. Dodge the projectiles and make your way to the bottom of the room. Go in the door on the left. Keep heading left in this long corridor. Be careful of the Metroids, sometimes two of them will come after you at once. Freeze both of them before shooting missiles. That way you don't have to worry about one attacking you. At the end of the corridor is a blue door. Behind this door is the final hallway. Mother Brain is on the end and you will have to go to fight her. If you feel understocked, you can walk back and fight respawning Metroids to try and replenish your health and missiles. I recommend at least having 6 Energy Tanks filled and at least 200 Missiles in your inventory. When you're ready, go through the door.

Boss Guide: Mother Brain

Mother Brain is in a glass container at the end of this hallway. In order to get there, you will have to destroy several Zeebetites. They have a cylindrical shape and must be completely destroyed in order to get past them. The thing about these to be aware of is that if they aren't completely destroyed, they will recharge. In addition, there are plenty of fireballs that will be out to get you. One possible strategy is to freeze all the fireballs, but not destroy them. This way there can't be any more fireballs to respawn. Alternatively, you can just rush at the tube creatures. In addition to the fireballs, there's also regular turrets that fire at you. Do your best to quickly destroy the tube creatures and get to Mother Brain. Another thing to mention is that once a Zeebetite is destroyed, it doesn't respawn. If you get low on health or missiles, you can actually leave the room and go kill more Metroids to recharge. If you do this, when you come back you won't have to start over.

You'll know you're closer to Mother Brain because there will be lava on the ground. You'll have to keep on your toes and stay on the platform so that you don't fall off. When you see Mother Brain and destroy the last Zeebetite, you're really close to winning. I highly recomend staying on the right side. Do not go through the last tube because there is no platform to save you, and you cannot share the platform Mother Brain is on. If there is a fireball after you, drop down to the right instead. This way you have room to get away. Freeze the fireballs so they don't hurt you, then stand precisely in the tube, and unload your missiles. They will be able to reach Mother Brain. After enough hits, Mother Brain will be defeated.

If you die, you will be sent back up to the start of Tourian with only 30 Energy. Many people find it frustrating to recharge. Fortunately, you will not have to defeat the Zeebetites again, so you can just go back to Mother Brain. It is possible to use the Metroids to quickly get your health back up. It's effective, but also difficult. If a Metroid latches onto you with low health, you can die pretty quickly. If it's too hard to grind health from Metroids for you, go ahead and go back up to Brinstar, and use the pipe that spawn countless Geegas to replenish your inventory. However, bear in mind this takes a lot longer than it does to use the Metroids. When you get back to full health, go back down to Mother Brain and try again.

The Escape

Mother Brain will flash white and be defeated. She will activate a self-destruct sequence. You will have a timer on 999. It's not seconds, one second in real time is slower than the game timer here, but you'll need to focus. Don't panic, or you could possibly fall down. Use your precision platforming skills to climb this tall chamber. There are several narrow platforms, so be careful. You have plenty of time to make it up the chamber. Just keep climbing the platforms all the way to the top, and congratulations! You have just beaten Metroid 1. Depending on how fast you beat it you can have Samus remove a certain amount of clothing. This concludes this long walkthrough series, thanks for sticking by with me and I hope you enjoyed it. Tune in next month where we'll take a look at Metroid 2.



Party Trick!
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Welcome to this month's Party Trick! Pi is still gone, so it will just be me from now on. If he comes back to submit something I will welcome him back, but that's how it is. Anyway, it's been a while since we've covered a board here, so lets take a look at something from the original Mario Party. Our board this month takes to the skies on Mario's Rainbow Castle.



Players start in the bottom right corner where it says "Start". This board is fairly straightforward. The Star is at a fixed location in the center where the Toad is. You'll be on a mostly linear path to get to the tower, riding a Fwoosh at the end of the walkway. If you encounter Toad, you can buy a star for 20 coins just like any other board. However, when a player buys a star, the tower flips around so that Bowser faces the front instead. If a player runs into Bowser, they will "purchase" a Ztar for 40 coins which will have no effect. Do whatever you can to make sure that you get Toad instead of Bowser. In addition, there are several Happening Spaces along the way. This will force the tower to switch whoever is facing the tower. One thing that might help is that if someone is about to get Toad, you can try and switch it at the last minute to get them to run into Bowser instead. It's like a more intense version of the tea cups in Toad's Midway Madness we covered back in Issue 114.

Of course this board also has features standard to every board in the first Mario Party. In the top left is a Boo that will either steal coins or a Star from other opponents (although stealing Stars costs the standard 50 coins). Additionally, when you pass the Koopa Troopa back at the start coins are given. There really isn't much that's complex about this board, and it's pretty simple.

As a bonus, let's take a look at a minigame from the original Mario Party as well. On our list is Running of the Bulb. This game is classified as a 4-Player minigame, but it's unique. This is one of the only minigames where it's best for all four players to work together to win. The way it works is that one player carries a bulb, and the other three players need to defend the player with the bulb. There's also Boos that can possess other players. If someone is hypnotized, they can be brought back by having another ally hit them. You should work together with your teammates to help get the player with the bulb to the end. If the bulb makes it to the end, everyone wins. Stay by the person with the bulb if you're guarding so it becomes easier to protect them. If you have the bulb, run away from the ghosts and do your best to dodge them. Be sure to dodge the Thwomps that are there as well.

That's all for this month's Party Trick! Something new I want to do is I'll start taking requests! Keep in mind I don't have any of the handheld games except Mario Party DS. Have a minigame or board you'd like me to do? Send me a message on my talk page or message me on the forums and you could be mentioned in next month's edition!

Pokédex Power
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Hello everyone, I've ousted Meta Knight from this positon decided to write this section from now on, and just like last month, it's based on Pokémon! In this section, I'll be taking you through Pokédex one Pokémon at a time, and seeing what it says about them, and how it's changed with the year. Sadly, Bulbapedia is missing Pokédex entries on Pokémon that aren't found naturally in the Alola region, so we've got to stick with those.

Last month, Meta Knight took a look at Vulpix, and its Alolan form. Now as it's still Winter, I wanted to take a look at an Ice-type Pokémon, but not another Generation I Pokémon. So, I decided to go for one of my favourite Generation III Pokémon, Snorunt!

Generation III

These entries provide a lot of insight on how Snorunt live, with Ruby describing how they live by the seasons, and disappear during the middle months of the year, but with Sapphire's description of how they survive by eating snow and ice, what do they eat in those months? Caves are certainly cold, but I can't imagine them sustaining enough snow and ice to sustain a Snorunt population, unless they go into hibernation for those months. Emerald mentions how their appearance in snowy regions means that snow is coming, but why? If Snorunt eat snow and ice, why would they be in an area without snow? Do they create the snow that comes? Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen all mention how folklore sees these Pokémon as bringers of good luck, but why would a Snorunt even go into a house, seeing as there will be no snow and ice there, unless they break into the freezers? And does this work for people who capture them, will their generations prosper, just because they released their Snorunt into their house? FireRed and LeafGreen also mention how they can withstand extremely cold temperatures, which is not surprising given how they're Ice-type Pokémon.

Generation IV

The only point Generation IV fully repeats is with HeartGold and SoulSilver, in which they mention Snorunt's diet, otherwise we get contradictions and developments. HeartGold and SoulSilver add more to Emerald's entry about the snow bringing. So it seems that Snorunt do cause the snow when they're spotted late at night, which also answers the question of how they survive in the caves, they create their food. Speaking of caves, however, Platinum says that they live under giant leaves, but doesn't specify how large the communities are. Are they the groups of five that were mentioned in earlier entries, or are they even larger? And why the move to giant leaves, are these for Snorunt that were caught in Hoenn and released in Sinnoh? The other development this generation brought, was the clarification on Snorunt in houses, whilst Generation III had just visiting, opening up a whole slew of questions, this one defines it as Snorunt living in the house. Therefore it can be assumed, that this is trainer-exclusive, seeing as wild Snorunt now live underneath leaves.

Generation V

Generation V adds nothing new to the Pokédex entries, just reaffirming the entries from Platinum, which means that Ruby's entry for where they live is likely outdated.

Generation VI

Again, nothing new is added to Snorunt from the Generation VI Pokédex, what it does offer up though is contradictions galore, as the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire entries repeat what Generation III said. X even sticks with the living under leaves thing, whereas Omega Ruby brings back the caves, which brings the question of "where do they really live" back up. Perhaps my suggestion from the Generation IV entries is correct, and in regions where they're not native they live under leaves, but in the regions were they are native, they live in caves.

Generation VII

At last, some new information! Whilst, we still have the old houses are better with a Snorunt, and the temperatures they survive best in, some new interesting information has come out. The most interesting is from Sun, why have Snorunt's numbers been increasing in the Alola region recently? The islands are fairly tropical, and Moon states that it can only survive in cold areas, so surely the conditions aren't right for a population boom? Either way, I'd happily watch a Snorunt happily bounce about!

Conclusion

Snorunt's entries generally consist of new information, apart from a two generation slog in which we got rehashed entries. What I like the most, is the clarification from Generation III to Generation IV, about how they bring the snow about, and whether they need to visit or live in a house. Sadly, Omega Ruby brings into question the whole where Snorunt live thing, so hopefully in Generation VIII we'll get some concrete answers. Overall, despite some contradictions, Snorunt has a pretty believable Pokédex, even if the entries do start repeating at points.