The 'Shroom:Issue 123/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
Written by:

Hey everyone and welcome to this Wa-tastic edition of Strategy Wing! Big thanks to Edo (talk) for the special backgrounds. Fittingly here in this team we've got good old 9-Volt. Thanks to everyone for making this special. I do have some news to report though, is resigning from Mario Calendar. Best of luck to him, I appreciate everything he's done. If you want to write for this team that's high focused on all the action in video games, send us an application through our sign up page! That's all for news over here, I hope you enjoy the issue, maybe you'll even be able to find a gold mine.

Section of the Month Thanks to everyone that voted! Looks like has toppled over 's winning streak, congratulations! Thanks to and Yoshi876 for their sections as well.

Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner
Written By:

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 tyres and gliders that you can use hopefully for racing success.

In this edition of Kool Karts, we're starting the Wario theme off right, by looking at one of his primary Karts from Mario Kart DS, the Brute.

As would be expected for a heavy character in Mario Kart DS, the Brute has high speed, and weight stats. In fact, it has a very high speed stat, but although the acceleration isn't brilliant, it's by no means the worst, so the speed does manage to offset that poor stat. However, both handling and drift aren't that great, which does make steering the Kart around the course fairly difficult. Couple that with a poor items stat, giving you a poor range of items, makes the Brute one for courses without too many corners where you can get a good lead.

Complicated Characters
We can't have a Wario-themed issue without looking at the man in question, so here's a game by game look at the man himself.

Wario debuted in the Mario Kart series in Mario Kart 64 where he was a heavy character. In that game, heavy characters have the best speed, alongside middleweights, and have a better acceleration stat that the middleweights; although it is worse than the lightweights. They handle and drift the same as the lightweights as well. However, they lose all of their speed whenever they go off-road, so make sure when you're Wario stay on the track.

In Mario Kart: Super Circuit Wario is again a heavy character, although not the heaviest. His weight is four stars, and his speed is two stars (this is a change from the norm, as usually the heavyweights have the highest speed). When it comes to cornering, they skid considerably less than the other drivers. However, Wario doesn't have very good grip, and because of this he is awarded more points by the game when it's deciding what rank to give you.

He was a heavy character in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and as a result the Wario Car has a speed stat of four, with an acceleration stat of two, and a weight of four.

As before, Wario is a heavy character in Mario Kart DS. However, as the game introduced more unique Karts with their own stats, Wario's individual stats had less of an effect.

Wario is classed as a large character in Mario Kart Wii, and gives a few individual stat bonuses. His weight, and off-road stats were given a three point bonus, and his mini-turbo a six point bonus. So drifting, and going slightly off-road is a benefit as you'll get a considerable speed boost.

In Mario Kart 7, Wario has a heavy character again. With some in-game statistics, Wario gave a high speed stat, but low Mini Turbo and Tyre Feeling stats, meaning that although he'd be able to speed off, on a twisty course where you have lots of chances to drift, he's easy pickings.

He was heavy again in Mario Kart 8 and he gave extra boosts in weight, on-road traction, and all of the sea stats, meaning that the portly plumber is best-suited to underwater tracks.

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.

Wario Stadium first appeared in Mario Kart DS, when it appeared in Mario Kart 8, it'd changed enough that you could probably see it as a completely different track.

Aside from the usual graphical updates, the course has also changed from night to day. The track itself... a lot has changed in the years. The mud track section of the course has been replaced with an anti-gravity part. A new underwater path has replaced the dirt track that followed this section, the Boost Pads have also been replaced with a glide pad, and it's been turned into a U-turn as opposed to what it was before. The starting banner can now be interacted with, and furthermore, Wario's ego has beaten him, and he's put a statue of himself in the course

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 Wario's Gold Mine.

Now this time, the shortcut doesn't require a Mushroom. As you near the end of the mine and follow the minecart, if you keep left instead of heading down you end up on a route with several Boost Pads, that boosts you past the competition. The shortcut can be used on both version of the track.

Isaac Synergies
Written By:

WHAHAHAHAHAAHA ‘Shroom Readers! I hope you have Deep Pockets today, because this month is all about MONEY to celebrate Wario! Quick quiz: What would Wario’s favorite item be? Yup you guessed it, it’s Money = Power, a very interesting item where your power increases the more money you have (and also decreases if you lose money). Believe it or not, this item is one of the most powerful items in the game. For each coin you have, you gain .04 attack. Now that may seem meaningless, but every coin definitely adds up. At only 25 coins, you gain +1 attack, the same amount of many of the most common damage upgrades. At a full 99 coins, your damage is cranked up to +3.96 damage, which is basically 4. There are very few items in the game that raises your damage that high without any negative side effects. Sure it takes 99 coins to get there, but it’s actually very easy to get money in this game. I can think of several ways to max out your cash, but here are my three favorite ways. Head of the Keeper and Eye of Greed are both special tear items that allow you to earn more money. Head of the Keeper turns all of your tears into coins and has a random chance to drop coins upon hitting enemies. That item itself has the opportunity to give you unlimited money. Eye of Greed takes one of your coins every 20 tear shots, and if that tear hits an enemy, it turns golden like if you touched it with Midas’ Touch. Furthermore, if you kill the enemy while golden, they will break apart into more coins. Combine these two items together with a high tear rate and you have a fully functional money generator farm. Blank Card and the card Two of Diamonds is probably the most simple synergy I have ever listed, but gosh darn it’s probably the most effect way to get to 99 coins. Blank Card is an uncommon active item that upon use, it copies the effect of the card that you are using without consuming the card. With Two of Diamonds, a card that doubles your coins, you can quickly max out to 99 in just a few charges. Like I said, it’s simple, but powerful and effective. Now for the obligatory Midas’ Touch synergy. You might know or recall from one of my previous sections that with invincibility you can abuse Midas’ Touch. I basically already covered that, but I have another Midas’ Touch synergy that’s a bit stranger, and that’s when it combines with a mostly completely useless active item called The Poop. Now this item is the starting active item of the character ??? (also called Blue Baby by the fandom). It’s generally known as one of the worst items in the game for very understandable reasons. It has a one room charge that when used, it creates a normal poop. That’s all it does. The Poop does have three good uses as far as I’m concerned. One: it can be used to block shots or enemy paths. It’s actually pretty hard to do efficiently even for experienced players. Two: when you have the Petrified Poop trinket, you can get some extra loot. And three: when paired with Midas’ Touch, there is a chance that the poop with turn into a golden poop, which breaks down into lots of coins. It’s such a satisfying experience, especially when you add the item Leo into the synergy and the golden poop breaks apart and spreads the coins immediately. Which just goes to show you, even the most worthless items have their uses. Also keep in mind that with all these synergies, if you add Humble Bundle (an item that doubles consumables) or the trinket Counterfeit Penny (which has the chance to double your coin pickups), you can rake in the money and power faster than Wario can say “So ein mist!” I will see you all next time, and remember, staaaaaaaaaaaay greedy!

Party Trick!
Written By:  and

Hello and welcome everyone to this month's edition to Party Trick! This month, I have brought a guest with me! He's not a Game Boy Advance, he's not a Toad, he's a ! I brought him aboard for this month for a twist! He will be taking a look at some minigames from the WarioWare games!

Wow, I can't believe someone decided to take me out of the broom closet and give me new 'Shroom writing batteries, this is so exciting! Cheers to Meta Knight for blowing the dust off my circuit boards, because we've got a great section to share with you today!

It appears I've been told to inform our readers of the exploits of the greatest businessman in Mario history, who gave up his life as a treasure-seeking adventurer to invest his earnings in video game development and propel himself to the number one position in the gaming industry. Of course, I am talking about none other than the legendary Wario. The renowned author of over 12 business books, including The Fart of the Deal, Wario's position as WarioWare, Inc.'s Founder and CEO has given him one of the highest net worths in the Mushroom Kingdom, at over 10 Golden Raccoon Mario Statues. Famous titles such as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! and WarioWare: Touched! have touched our hearts and our pockets. And how could they not, because with Wario's ingenious video game design, you're given over 100 microgames in one single game! It is widely agreed upon that WarioWare surpassed the Mario Party series in both the quality and quanity of its content, pioneered a completely new genre of video games and paved the way for mobile gaming as we know it. So in light of celebrating the achievements of this glorious man, I will be looking at two of his finest microgames, developed by his expert in-house team of microgame in-house experts, in-house.

Before WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! existed, the stimulation of picking one's nose without getting disgusting snot on your fingers or disgusting looks from the general public simply could not be replicated in the video game world. Wario set a single goal for his team: to provide gamers with that pleasure, and thus Gold Digger was developed. Gold Digger is a microgame which does away with the all of the unsavoury aspects of nose picking and redefines the action entirely with simplistic art reminiscent of modern-day indie developed titles, leaving you with one goal: 'Pick!'. And lo, pick to your heart's content you finally will. I'm sure gamers around the world rejoiced the day they could pick their noses on the Game Boy Advance in this immersive experience. The game also simulates the increased difficulty one faces when attempting to pick their nose with different fingers or even two fingers at once! Gold Digger could be considered one of the legacy microgames of the WarioWare series, as subsequent titles have also made reference to it. A nugget of inspiration for many, this title helped to successfully launch the WarioWare brand, and dug plenty of gold for WarioWare, Inc.

"But!" you cry out with your nasally voice and dislike for all things nose-picky, "These Microgames only last a few seconds, I barely even have time to take off my clothes before they're already finished!" Luckily, WarioWare, Inc. addressed these kinds of complaints by offering the microgames in packs, bundling them together by developer, and topping them off with an extended boss microgame that delivers a much longer experience and explores a variety of genres. One such game, Global Warning, is a shmup bullet-hell that does away with the waifus and focuses on the much broader picture: space. In the thrilling story mode, a lone spaceman is lost in deep space, and the entire Earth is put to task to recover him and Bring Him Home. I think they made a movie with that tagline, that's how iconic this game is. You maneuver through waves of planetoid fruit enemies with the touch screen, before recovering the lone astronaut marooned in an asteroid field. Using your newly equipped moon gun, you then face the final comet-slinging planet boss. You must dodge every bullet, as any hit spells catastrophe for the entire human race. This serves as a chilling reminder of how alone we are in the universe.

The developer of Global Warning, Ashley, was supposed to comment on this piece and how the title is supposed to remind us of how not taking care of the environment leads to intergalactic fruit invasions, but it appears I have been given a restraining order by her lawyer demon broom. I guess that brings an abrupt end to my Wario tribute in this section of Party Trick, so I'll hand it back over to Meta Knight to continue!

The Wario goodness doesn't stop there. To celebrate Wario, we're going to go back to the original Mario Party.



Wario's Battle Canyon is a board in Mario Party 1. The board is labeled at two star ranking in difficulty, and focuses on several islands across the map, and players are shot out of a cannon to each neighboring island. The two on the left are controlled by Bob-omb Budddies, the two islands on the right are controlled by Bob-ombs, and the island in the center island is conrolled by Bowser. The islands controlled by the Bob-omb Buddies have only Blue Spaces and Mini-Game Spaces. However, all the other islands have all sorts of spaces.

Let's talk about how the cannons function. Players start in the bottom left island. When a player passes either a Bob-omb or Bob-omb Buddy, they will enter the cannon. The screen will move to the destination island and a cursor will appear. It will randomly move over spaces, and when you press the A button, the cursor stops and that is where you will land. Plan your route carefully and time your button press to land close to the Star. Alternatively, if you don't have enough coins to buy a star, time your press to land further away on the same path. The default path for the islands goes like this: bottom left shoots to bottom right, bottom right shoots to upper left, upper left shoots to upper right, and upper right shoots back to lower left. However, there are two Happening Spaces on the right side of the board. Both of these will change the direction of the cannons. Do whatever you can to get to the star!

Another key event of this board is something in the top right island. There is a Fly Guy that can cause mischief. When someone passes the Fly Guy, they have the option to do a few things. They can either pay 10 coins to go to Bowser, they can pay 10 coins to bring another player to where they are, or do nothing. This is one way you can try to ruin someone's day. For example, if there's another player about to get the star, you can pay 10 coins to the Fly Guy and make them further away. This is also the only way to get to the Bowser island. If someone does encounter Bowser, they will be forced to pay 20 coins for his bogus item of the board. This map overall is kind of like an early version of Mystery Land from Mario Party 2, what with all the warping across different islands. However that just about does it for this board.

Thanks for reading everyone! Now it appears my batteries are running low again and I don't really want to go back into the closet so MK would you be a dear and pass me that spare set sitting over there?

That's all for this month's Party Trick! Special thanks to GBAToad for making this month special. 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!

Challenger Approaching!
Written by:

Greetings, beautiful 'Shroom readers! I'm your host, Roserade, and welcome to Challenger Approaching!, where I discuss different video game characters and how I believe they should play it they were in Super Smash Bros.!

And welcome to the Wario edition of The 'Shroom! This month marks a big mark for our favorite greedy plumber, and it's fun to look back upon his history, see how far he's come, and what characters he's met along the way. And one such character is the witch you better know the name of: Ashley!

Ashley is one of the most popular characters in the WarioWare series, with her adorable appearance, dark personality, and spell casting ability. So how would I want this character to translate into Super Smash Bros.?

Background

Ashley first appeared in WarioWare: Touched!, alongside her companion Red. She is the microgame host of "Total Drag", and as the stage opens, we first learn of her magical capabilities and her personality. Since then, she has appeared as a reoccurring character in the WarioWare series, as a microgame host in WarioWare: Smooth Moves and WarioWare: D.I.Y., as well as a playable character in Game & Wario. As her popularity has soared, Ashley has additionally appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series as an Assist Trophy, and in Super Mario Maker as a costume for Mario.

In her appearances, we have seen multiple different instances of her magical prowess. She has brewed potions, cast spells from her hands, and utilized magic spell books. In addition, her partner Red can transform into any item for Ashley to utilize, such as a broomstick or a magic wand. However, it seems as though Red may be the only truly reliable action at her command; Ashley's character card in Game & Wario mentions that her spells only succeed "40% of the time."

Main Ideas and Characteristics As you would obviously expect, Ashley's moveset would consist almost entirely of magical spells and attacks. However, I want Ashley to celebrate more than just her magical abilities. I want Ashley to be the embodiment of the WarioWare series. I want her to be someone tricky to master, but once you do master her playstyle, the opponent will be completely overwhelmed and won't be sure what to expect. A good Ashley player would parallel the quick unpredictability of WarioWare.

Despite her questionable spell casting abilities, I am negating the idea of her attacks being left up to luck, as that wouldn't be fair. Rather, Ashley plays a mind game, where even the simplest mistake on the opponent's part can mean their downfall.

Standard Attacks Overall, Ashley's special moves are where her unpredictability shines. However, her standard attacks still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Her jab attack consists of her jabbing forward multiple times with Red's small pitchfork. While the jab only connects three times, Ashley impales the opponent with the pitchfork on the third attack, immobilizing them and allowing her to follow up with another standard, aerial, or quick Smash attack. Her other standard ground attacks include sweeping forward and upwards with Red as a broomstick, striking with a magic wand, and slamming opponents with a giant spell-book as her dash attack.

Ashley has more combo capabilities in the air than on the ground. Her standard aerial is a quick broom somersault, which is fast enough to allow you to combo into any other aerial move besides standard. With a meteor-smashing forward aerial, a long-reaching downward broom strike, and a fireball back aerial, Ashley is very dangerous while in the air, and can combo and finish with ease.

Then we come to Ashley's Smash attacks. Her Smash attacks overall are not as powerful comparatively to other characters, but she makes up for this with her control of the battlefield. First, her Down Smash has her plant a seed into the ground, akin to Snake's Down Smash. The seed immediately sprouts into a mess of vines, sending anybody in the vicinity upwards. The vines then stay for a short while, allowing Ashley to combo opponents into them. Likewise, her Up Smash shoots a snowflake upwards, which also lingers on the battlefield for a short while. Touching it may cause the opponent to freeze, but it will break with the first contact. And finally, her Forward Smash has a similar motion to her dash attack, but rather than just smacking the spell book into them, Ashley buries the opponent into the ground, as if they were hit by a pitfall.

Special Moves Ashley's Special Moves are some of the trickiest to master of any Smash Bros. character, but once they are rehearsed, they can have some of the most devastating results of any character.

Her Neutral B has her fire a magic blast from her hand. This blast moves incredibly fast, can be angled, and can ricochet off walls. When it makes contact with an opponent, it will do a minuscule amount of damage, but it will momentarily stun them, allowing for another attack as a very quick follow-up. However, the shots have to recharge over time, so they must be used cleverly.

Ashley's Side B is a bit more random. Red appears and converts into a random item, which Ashley then throws using her magic. This can range from a large number of items, from a magic wand or a bookcase, to an actual item from the game, such as a Green Shell. Only one item can be active at a time, though, so it must be cleared from the stage before the move can be used again.

Her Up B is a bit of a cop-out; Ashley hops on her broom and flies freely for a short while. In the duration of the flight, her Neutral B attack can be used to shoot a slower magic shot directly below her.

Now we get to her Down B, which is easily her most complicated attack. Red appears and transforms into a cauldron, dropping to the ground similarly to PAC-MAN's Fire Hydrant. From here, Ashley must use Down B again to spawn an ingredient in her hand. She can then either throw the item into the cauldron, or throw it at an opponent. There are three elements to the ingredients which appear in this order: Fire, ice, and electricity. Depending upon which ingredients Ashley throws into the cauldron, the attack will have a different effect. Once the electricity ingredient breaks, whatever is inside of the cauldron will react together. While I won't detail all of the effects in this paragraph, some effects include freezing everybody in the vicinity, shooting out homing fireballs, or causing a massive explosion to occur.

Finally, Ashley's Final Smash has her becoming enraged, her hair turning grey and her eyes shining red. In this form, Ashley can fly about the stage with Red as her broomstick. Whenever the player presses the B button, she will cause a massive explosion, sending any opponents nearby rocketing into the air. If the player is good at targeting other players, this attack will almost definitely K.O. at least one opponent.

Overall Analysis Ashley is a very complicated character with a tricky moveset to learn, but in the hands of a well-rehearsed player, she is almost certain to blow away the competition. With plenty of ways to disorient, block, and surprise her foes, Ashley embodies the rapid craziness of the WarioWare series in a very fun way.

And that's my conception for a new Challenger Approaching!. Thanks for reading!

Pokédex Power
Written by:

Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section written by a person who's seen more Pokémon than Team Rocket has stolen. Not that that's an impressive boast to be fair. But rest assured, I have seen various kinds of Pokémon.

This month is Wario themed. Wario's colours are yellow and purple, so my initial thoughts when picking for this month was an Electric, or a Poison type. However, I started thinking, and to be honest, Wario doesn't really have any links to electricity, but his farts are the stuff of legend, so therefore a Poison type had to be chosen.

This left me with a range of options, but I wanted to go with a certain vibe. Many people were saying that the Generation VII Pokédex was fairly dark, and if you read Bewear's entries (which we will do in a later section) you can certainly see why. So, that's why I went for Toxapex, as it is a Poison type, and its Pokédex is a bit dark. Now usually I'd use this opening bit to give my personal thoughts on the Pokémon in question, but I haven't watched the anime in years, and I haven't started playing Moon yet, so sadly I'm unable to do that. It looks like an interesting type combo, and although I don't really use Poison types, I quite like Water types, so maybe I'll end up using it, but to be honest I doubt I will.

Generation VII

The entry for Sun confirms that Toxapex is a predator, obviously meaning that Corsola is its prey, however there is a question from this statement. How does it eat the Corsola? I'll be honest, it's not that large a Pokémon, and it doesn't look like its mouth would open that wide, but maybe that's why it leaves all the Corsola bits around. It can't eat it whole, so large portions of it go wasted. Sun also explains that it crawls along the ocean floor, which makes sense given how its tentacles more resemble legs, so I imagine swimming could be a little difficult. For Moon the Pokédex focuses on its poison. Your immediate thought of poison and water is jellyfish, and although Toxapex isn't a jellyfish Pokémon, its poison causing pain for a while is similar to some real-life jellyfish, at least those whose poison doesn't kill quickly. However, it does feel like it ends too early, as it just simply states that there are aftereffects, but doesn't go into what they might be. And obviously, that's something I'd like to know.

Conclusion

I like the Pokédex entry for Toxapex in Sun. What I liked about some early Pokédex entries was the predator prey relationship it gave, as it made the Pokémon feel more real. However, given the size of Toxapex, I think it would have been better to have gone with one of the small fish Pokémon like Finneon or Wishiwashi rather than Corsola. The entry for Moon, like I said, ends too early. You can't just mention aftereffects, and then not go into what they might be. Hopefully, future Pokédex entries will expand on this.