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Delete the shortcuts column?Edit
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Uh so, this page has a table where an entire column is dedicated to telling the player how to best play the game. That feels like a wiki overeach that we shouldn't be doing. Explaining the rules of the game and going over the single route to success is one thing, trying to hover over the player's shoulder to tell them movement tips probabaly isn't. Notable problem entires:
Cap Kingdom: "Long-jumping off the top of the tower towards the bridge and breaking the fall by ground-pounding or throwing Cappy just before landing can save Mario several seconds."
That's not a shortcut, that's just explaining a very useful quirk of Mario's falling physics that happens to be greatly applicable here. I'm also fairly certain the absolute fastest route is using waggle Paragoomba flight to turbo over the abyss and to the goal.
Sand Kingdom: "Mario riding a Jaxi across the desert and not braking makes the race much faster. Mario can also travel through the series of spark pylons from the start to the Inverted Pyramid, then to the Round Tower, and finally to Tostarena Town."
Moon Kingdom: "Mario making multiple Long Jumps and Triple Jumps at the beginning of the race can save time. Using the Rocket Flowers found on the surface shortens Mario's time even more. "
Mushroom Kingdom: "Mario using the Rocket Flowers scattered around the area and not crashing into walls makes the race shorter."
These just tell the player to play better. The Sand Kingdom at least has a point in that the puzzle of it's race is determining a way to cross the vast desert faster than on foot, the other two are far more questionable. Which tracks, the Moon Kingdom is outright linear and the Mushroom Kingdom's race is from an edge of a circle to the center. Can't really improve their runs in any way except optimization.
Snow Kingdom: "Removing the stakes in the water and riding the resulting whirlwinds can immediately take Mario to the bridge in front of the goal, saving a lot of time."
Wait, that's a shortcut? I think that is the base route, mostly because there aren't any other ways up to the bridge. Even the green Koopa ultimately uses wind to get up there. Well no, there is one other way up to the bridge. The red Koopa's route has them capture a Ty-foo and float to the bridge. That's still slower than using the wind, as evidenced by the gold Koopa just taking a more efficient route to the post that makes the wind. The trick of Snow Kingdom is simply that the blizzard makes the position of the post the player has to pull hard to find, not any advanced routing. Well, also that it makes finding the real shortcut, the post that is closer to the Odyssey, much harder.
I think the shortcut column is too subjective and ultimately flawed. Some players will look at a route and call it a shortcut, and others will say that it's an entirely reasonable path for even a standard player that doesn't shave that much time off the final result. Heck, even my Paragoomba example is kind of flawed, because another editor might say a shortcut that requires motion controlsisn't universal enough to put in the limited space of a table. I think the shortcut columnis best off deleted. There are better solutions to accurately cover Koopa Freerunning than having a column for what listing what some editors believe are efficient ways to reach the goal. I think we should instead have a column for the major actions each of the five Koopas takes, thereby having five columns of objective data that paint a better picture of the overall challenge of each route. (Fine, objective data filtered through the subjective lens of what editors think are major actions, but it's still batter than an entirely subjective column.) Salmancer (talk) 02:01, June 21, 2025 (EDT)
And with a better mental image, the reader can determine for themselves things that are shortcuts for them. For instance, if the route of the Cap Kingdom being a zigzag surrounded by pits and the presence of Paragoombas is properly conveyed, I think people would understand that a route using a Paragoomba to fly over the pits is a shortcut without the wiki having to make a subjective call on if Paragoomaba (waggle) flight is or isn't a shortcut. Salmancer (talk) 02:27, June 21, 2025 (EDT)