The 'Shroom:Issue 179/Pipe Plaza

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Director’s Notes

Shroom2022 WT.png

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Expecting- wait a minute, I already used this bit in the Staff Notes. Shoot.

Anyway, it's me, Waluigi Time, and no, I haven't pulled a surprise takeover of Pipe Plaza when you weren't looking. Unfortunately, Zange is currently under the weather, so I'm filling in for this issue. Best wishes to them for a speedy recovery.

Good news, everything is here! All of our regular sections were submitted this month, so whatever your favorite Pipe Plaza sections are, we've got it here for you! Wiki business, past game releases, robots ripping each other to shreds, it's all here!

This is the part where Zange usually tells people to write for Pipe Plaza, and of course, who am I not to continue that tradition? If you're interested at all in writing a section for Pipe Plaza (which you should be), take a look at the sign up page!

Section of the Month

We have another two-way tie for first place for the third issue in a row! This time around it's Hooded Pitohui (talk)'s Forum Update and GPM1000 (talk)'s Mario Calendar, closely followed by Alex95 (talk)'s NIWA News in second place.

Pipe Plaza SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Forum Update 4 26.67% Hooded Pitohui
1st Mario Calendar 4 26.67% GPM1000
2nd NIWA News 3 20.00% Alex95

Mariowiki sections
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
The best analysis of the polls around!
Non-wiki sections
Take a look at some of the strangest articles in NIWA!
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
This robot is anything but cheesy!
Think you missed anything on the forum lately? Fear not, just read this!

NIWA News

Written by: Alex95 (talk)

Hello, everyone! Welcome to NIWA News, a section where I show the going ons with the wikis in our NIWA group within the last month!

Promotions

  • JumbledLimes has been promoted to the role of Administrator on Zelda Wiki!

Demotions

  • Drago has stepped down from his Bureaucrat role on Nookipedia, but still retains his Administrator role.
  • Wynn Liaw was demoted on the Super Mario Wiki due to inactivity.

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: TasteTheFiresOfHelp (talk)

12thPollBanner.png

Hello everyone, it’s yours truly, TasteTheFiresOfHelp/The Shadow Prince to give some analysis of the two new polls that have come out in January. Both have a mild association with time, so it is time for me to get to them.

The News

Things are on the right track now on the Poll Committee, as we have many polls that have met any requirements to be on the front page, but no spoilers as to what any of those are. Not much else to say aside from that.

Archives

Occasionally Mario games bring back enemies after a long absence. Would you like to see more infrequently appearing enemies return to the series? (BBQ Turtle (talk), January 9, 2022)

Occasionally Mario games bring back enemies after a long absence. Would you like to see more infrequently appearing enemies return to the series?

Yes, I would like to see older enemies reintroduced more often. 64.17% (1,390 votes)
I like seeing old enemies brought back occasionally alongside regularly appearing enemies and new ones. 28.67% (621 votes)
I am fine with old enemies being brought back, but only if they retain their original properties as much as possible. 2.40% (52 votes)
I have no opinion on this subject. 2.26% (49 votes)
I am alright with old enemies being brought back as long as they are heavily updated. 1.89% (41 votes)
I would prefer games stick to new or already common enemies. 0.60% (13 votes)
Total Votes: 2,166

Nintendo has occasionally incorporated content from real world holidays into Mario games. Do you like seeing this type of content? (Waluigi Time (talk), January 23, 2022)

Nintendo has occasionally incorporated content from real world holidays into Mario games. Do you like seeing this type of content?

I enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, and I would like to see this more often. 48.57% (899 votes)
I enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, but I think the current frequency of their inclusion is fine. 26.20% (485 votes)
I enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, but I wish Nintendo would include a greater variety of holidays. 11.02% (204 votes)
I have no opinion. 10.48% (194 votes)
I do not enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games. 3.73% (69 votes)
Total Votes: 1,851


Analysis

This next poll is by BBQ Turtle (heh, it’s starting to feel like December again) covering whether Mario enemies should return after a long absence, and it is a quite good one, as well as with some of the more close to unanimous results out of the polls the Committee has shown so far. An extremely popular first place at 64% and almost 1,400 votes is wanting older enemies gone for a while to return at any rate, even more than just occasionally. Since I voted for it, each of us that did love the feeling of a nostalgia rush and think that this one of the times where it does not have to be limited. Showing older enemies more would be great, although maybe not by throwing currently appearing enemies under the bus. The second place option at 29% reflects this more clearly, as people who voted this want enemies to return occasionally, but with new or frequently appearing ones. So they still think suddenly returning enemies should not entirely steal the spotlight. Although it might be a bit less interesting only seeing a returning face close to as little as every blue moon. Any place below first or second is a harshly colossal drop in popularity, as in a very distant third place at 2% is being fine with disappeared enemies being brought back after a long time only if they keep their old properties as much as possible. This does make sense why those people would prefer that option as they merely do not want enemies to be made unfaithful to, or more gimmicky than, how they originally were. The fourth place option at another 2% is people with no opinion on whether disappeared Mario enemies returning to the series is good or bad, which isn’t quite as many people as in some of the other polls, so this is, of course, something that most people have a clear opinion about. The fifth place at, if you guessed this you are correct, 2% (although lower as it rounds down), is only being okay with new enemies being brought back if they have major updates. These people likely want a ton of originality and new things even from something like a returning enemy. Sixth and last place at 1% is preferring games sticking to new or already occurring enemies. The only thirteen people who voted for this must really be intent on moving towards the future instead of focusing on the past, even though there are plenty of really good things in the past, too.

This is one of the polls with more unanimous results both on which options people agree with and disagree with, with the 64% popularity of wanting plenty of old enemies to return being the second most popular choice out of any poll by the Twelfth Committee so far, only behind 66% of people wanting the next Paper Mario game to have the traditional turn-based battle system from the first two games in my Paper Mario poll from October. Wanting only new or already common enemies only is the least popular choice out of any of our polls so far, at only 0.6% and 13 votes. This shows most people like seeing enemies not be rejected forever the instant they become less common.


Next up, we have a poll by Waluigi Time, another member with more polls implemented than average in the committee so far. This poll covers whether Nintendo incorporating content based on real-world holidays is a good idea or a bad idea. At a not quite as much, but still near as popular first place is wanting Nintendo to incorporate real-world holiday content into their games more at 49%. These people must either have a festive spirit, like a lot of variety, or both. In second place at 26% is enjoying seeing real-world holidays recognized in Mario games, but not wanting any new gimmicks related to it appearing. Many of these people likely want consistency in terms of what each game has to offer instead of that constantly changing. In third place and the middle spot at 11%, we have enjoying seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, but wanting a greater amount of holidays to be recognized. This is a quite interesting option, as one could definitely argue that holidays like Veterans Day for example, or Martin Luther King Day, would be great to get more emphasis on Mario games’ schedule. In next to last, but still not quite next to least in terms of votes is 10% of people not having an opinion, a decent amount above average by recent poll standards. Many of these people likely see there as more interesting things to judge as good or bad about being included in games than the festivities. Last place is only 4% of people disliking seeing real-world holidays recognized in Mario games, although that’s still not quite as unpopular as the last place for the Mario enemies poll, with 69 votes instead of 13 votes. These people would find it nice for Nintendo to have games that are the same no matter when you play them, instead of gimmicky with dates, games.

Which one is my opinion here? Well, I think it would be great to not overshadow underrated holidays, since many of them have as much positive meaning to them as the most popular ones. At the same time, going overboard with holiday-based content can make Mario games feel overly gimmicky; sometimes I want to play a Mario game that is the same no matter what date I play it. So it is not exactly only one choice that really applies to me here.

Unanimity

Since unanimity was a theme of my section for the Mario enemies poll, I am going to order first place choices from polls this committee so far starting from most popular down, and last place choices starting from least popular down, to show the options the most people agree are their opinion and the options the most people agree aren't their opinion.

# Poll Top Answer Percentage of Vote Creator
1 The Paper Mario series has had many different battle systems. What battle system should the next Paper Mario game have? The traditional turn-based RPG combat system from Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. 65.98% TasteTheFiresOfHelp (talk)
2 Occasionally Mario games bring back enemies after a long absence. Would you like to see more infrequently appearing enemies return to the series? Yes, I would like to see older enemies reintroduced more often. 64.17% BBQ Turtle (talk)
3 WarioWare characters have had little interaction with characters from the greater Mario franchise besides Wario. Would you like to see more interactions? Yes, I would like to see WarioWare and Mario characters interact in any way possible. 61.92% Waluigi Time (talk)
4 It has been 7 years since the Year of Luigi ended, with no similar events being held. Do you want to see more celebrations of Mario characters like this one? Yes, I think year-long celebrations of any character are a great way to shake up the franchise and give us more interesting games. 61.62% Waluigi Time (talk)
5 Mario games occasionally reuse musical motifs from older games in new titles or settings. Do you like hearing the motifs in new contexts like this? Yes, I like hearing familiar motifs being used in new settings. 60.51% BBQ Turtle (talk)
6 Nintendo sometimes releases Mario games which reuse the engines of previous titles (e.g., Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Luigi U). How do you feel about this? I don't mind when assets and engines are reused, but games that extensively reuse assets should have significant new mechanics and content added, too. 59.73% Hooded Pitohui (talk)
7 Since Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline made appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs. Would you like to see her making more playable appearances? Absolutely. Pauline is a great character. 58.15% Ninja Squid (talk)
8 Nintendo has occasionally incorporated content from real world holidays into Mario games. Do you like seeing this type of content? I enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, and I would like to see this more often. 48.57% Waluigi Time (talk)
9 Mario games sometimes feature Miis as playable characters. Do you like seeing Miis playable? Yes, I enjoy playing with Mii characters. 47.08% BBQ Turtle (talk)
10 What is your opinion on the price of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion? I think this is an unreasonable price, and I do not plan on purchasing the expansion. 42.17% TasteTheFiresOfHelp (talk)
11 Nintendo often uses sprites from Super Mario Bros. in merchandise and promotional material. Do you like these sprites being used? I like seeing old sprites being used, but would prefer to see them from games besides Super Mario Bros.. 40.05% BBQ Turtle (talk)
12 Mario games sometimes feature differences in abilities or statistics between characters. Does this have an effect on which characters you pick? Sometimes I pick characters based on their statistics, but other times I pick my favorites. 39.80% BBQ Turtle (talk)
13 What are your thoughts on the 2022 Mario movie casting? The casting is fine, but a few of video game actors (Charles Martinet, etc) should have been cast instead. 33.85% Ray Trace (talk)


# Poll Bottom Answer Percentage of Vote Creator
1 Occasionally Mario games bring back enemies after a long absence. Would you like to see more infrequently appearing enemies return to the series? I would prefer games stick to new or already common enemies. 0.60% BBQ Turtle (talk)
2 Mario games occasionally reuse musical motifs from older games in new titles or settings. Do you like hearing the motifs in new contexts like this? I do not like old motifs being reused and would prefer each game to have an entirely unique soundtrack. 0.90% BBQ Turtle (talk)
3 The Paper Mario series has had many different battle systems. What battle system should the next Paper Mario game have? I am not interested in and/or don’t like the Paper Mario series at all, so I do not want to see it continue. 1.36% TasteTheFiresOfHelp (talk)
4 Since Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline made appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs. Would you like to see her making more playable appearances? I do not like Pauline at all and would prefer her not to return. 2.21% Ninja Squid (talk)
5 Mario games sometimes feature Miis as playable characters. Do you like seeing Miis playable? I would prefer Miis to be restricted to only being playable in side modes. 2.88% BBQ Turtle (talk)
6 What are your thoughts on the 2022 Mario movie casting? I am disappointed in the cast selection, but my ideal cast wouldn't be the cast from the games. 3.00% Ray Trace (talk)
7 It has been 7 years since the Year of Luigi ended, with no similar events being held. Do you want to see more celebrations of Mario characters like this one? No, but I think it would be interesting to dedicate a year to focusing on many different characters besides Mario. 3.01% Waluigi Time (talk)
8 What is your opinion on the price of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion? I think this is a reasonable price, but I do not plan on purchasing the expansion. 3.03% TasteTheFiresOfHelp (talk)
9 Nintendo sometimes releases Mario games which reuse the engines of previous titles (e.g., Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Luigi U). How do you feel about this? I don't like reuse of old engines and assets, and would prefer to see entirely new games, built from the ground-up. 3.37% Hooded Pitohui (talk)
10 Nintendo has occasionally incorporated content from real world holidays into Mario games. Do you like seeing this type of content? I do not enjoy seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games. 3.73% Waluigi Time (talk)
11 Nintendo often uses sprites from Super Mario Bros. in merchandise and promotional material. Do you like these sprites being used? No, I would prefer Nintendo to stick to their modern artstyle and imagery. 4.20% BBQ Turtle (talk)
12 Mario games sometimes feature differences in abilities or statistics between characters. Does this have an effect on which characters you pick? I have no opinion on this subject. 5.21% BBQ Turtle (talk)
13 WarioWare characters have had little interaction with characters from the greater Mario franchise besides Wario. Would you like to see more interactions? No, I do not want to see WarioWare and Mario characters interacting at all. 5.72% Waluigi Time (talk)

Conclusion

These were a quite nice two polls to analyze, both based on general ideas instead of recent events, as those are always a lot of fun (especially when it’s not fun covering Nintendo doing something severely wrong on recent events). Although, Nintendo’s new Direct had some bombshells, but again, no spoilers on how much progress we’ve made there covering them. Regardless if they drop any more news, I enjoyed greatly covering these two polls, and will enjoy seeing other people’s thoughts on future polls as well.

That NIWA List

Written by: PanchamBro (talk)

In many of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance wikis, there are plenty of articles that are considered unusual to readers alike. Today, I'll showcase these articles from one of the many Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance wikis.

This section was inspired by Wikipedia's unusual article page, which documents the most unusual articles documented on the site. Unlike Wikipedia however, the selection of unusual articles here will be decided on a case-by-case basis, whether or not the documented material is weird enough to warrant being on this section.


Harry Potter - Nintendo Pitch.jpg

I'm sure it's common knowledge Nintendo were given the license to publish a video game adaption of GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. And with the developing power of Rare, the game is often cited as a major turning point for first-person shooters. But there was another relatively bigger franchise that Nintendo could have also developed under their sleeves. There was a point when Nintendo wanted to make a Harry Potter game.

If you are not familiar with the Harry Potter franchise, it goes over seven years of wizarding school in the perspective of Harry Potter, a young orphan boy who one day realizes that they are a wizard. The entire Harry Potter franchise has been owned by J.K. Rowling, with her giving film rights over by Warner Bros. and gaming rights to Electronic Arts. But there was a certain point that Nintendo wanted in on making Harry Potter games. With Nintendo's Software Technology division in North America, they set out to buy the rights to the Harry Potter game in the late 1990s. What is fascinating is that Nintendo wanted to change the designs for each of the main characters to be more Japanese. But J.K. Rowling had other plans, wanting any adaptation of ‘’Harry Potter’’ to be as close as possible to the books. Ultimately, Electronic Arts won the bid, leaving Nintendo without any licensed video game properties, as if a Dementor committed the act itself.

Now I'd like to actually glance at the way the article is presented. The article cites one source, a YouTube video by DidYouKnowGaming that covers the failed pitch for a Harry Potter game by Nintendo. Now of course, I was fairly interested to see when this information surfaced, and it appears the earlier known source was in 2015. In retrospect, it’s an article being cited by a YouTube video that is cited by this wiki article. It's really funny to know that an entire wiki article can rely on one source for documenting a failed pitch for a video game license of a soon-to-be popular franchise. This article truly is a worthy entry in that NIWA List.

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hey guys, welcome back to Mario Calendar! I hope you had a fantastic January, and that you’re having a wonderful February! How about that Direct? I’m definitely super excited about the Mario Kart 8 DLC - that’s gonna be awesome! Anyways, you know the deal. Let’s jump into it!

Region Abbreviations

Abb. Region
ALL All Regions (JP/NA/EU/AU)
JP Japan
NA North America
EU Europe
AU Oceania/Australia
SK South Korea
CHN China
UK United Kingdom

Console Abbreviations

Abb. Console
NES Nintendo Entertainment System
Famicom Family Computer Disk System
SNES Super Nintendo Entertainment System
N64 Nintendo 64
GC Nintendo GameCube
GB Game Boy
GBC Game Boy Color
GBA Game Boy Advance
DS Nintendo DS
3DS Nintendo 3DS
Switch Nintendo Switch
Wii VC Nintendo Wii Virtual Console
3DS VC Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Wii U VC Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console
VB Virtual Boy
G&W Game and Watch
64DD Nintendo 64 Disk Drive
MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System
CD-i Philips CD-i
IQ iQue Player
NVS Nvidia Shield
ACPC Amstrad CPC
ZX ZX Spectrum
Coleco Colecovision
TI-99 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

And that’s it! Honestly, not a super great month. Not too much really came out, and that’s not much of a surprise - nothing really goes on in February! Not a great time to release games, as there are many better times throughout the year! Either way, I hope you enjoyed this month of Mario Calendar. See you next month!

What's in a Campaign?

By: Mustard Machine (talk)

Hello 'Shroom readers, and welcome to another edition of What's in a Campaign?, Pipe Plaza's premier source for robot combat. Last month, we did something different and looked at Extreme 1's Tag Team Terror. Well, this month, we're going to be returning to the main wars and looking at Series 7's Mighty Mouse, a robot that I personally love (and sometimes this needs to be about me, you know?).

HERE HE COMES TO SAVE THE DAY!

Built by Team Outlaw, a team consisting of Trevor Wright and his son Matthew Wright (with Trevor's daughter Emily joining for Series 7), Mighty Mouse was built from the damaged chassis of Velocirippa (a robot we will not be covering... ever) following its Extreme 1 fight with Disc-O Inferno (a fight which saw Velocirippa ripped apart). First appearing in Series 6 (where it qualified along with the rebuilt and upgraded Velocirippa), Mighty Mouse is based on a unique idea. Rather than having a big, hard-hitting weapon, Mighty Mouse instead opted for more of a quick strike approach. Weighing only 83kg, Mighty Mouse was the lightest robot in Series 7. For weapons, Mighty Mouse has two ramming spikes at the front, which, interestingly enough, are made out of Hardox, a type of metal that is ubiquitous with today's robot combat but was completely unheard of at the time of Series 7 (although, funnily enough, builder Trevor Wright admitted he had no idea he was using Hardox steel at the time). At the back sit two spinning discs which aren't there for damage as much as they are because Series 7 has a rule called the "active weapon rule," which means that every robot has to have a moving weapon on it. Powered by two 800W electric motors, Mighty Mouse has a very high top speed of 23mph. For self-righting (which is a must for Series 7), Mighty Mouse sports a very good rollover bar at the top of it. Like I said, Mighty Mouse has a very interesting approach for Series 7. The basic idea is that the reason it only weighs 83kg is because that makes it easier to drive. Mighty Mouse is very nimble as it moves around the arena, and the idea is Mighty Mouse is going to use its nimbleness to avoid other robots' weapons while slamming into them at high speeds with its ramming blades. That strategy is not an idea you really see being executed by other robots at the time, and it's pretty cool how they manage to make a pretty outdated-styled robot work.

Interestingly enough, if everything had gone right, Mighty Mouse would have never entered into Series 7 at all. You see, Robot Wars at the time had a rule that stated that no team could enter two robots in the same series, and, like in Series 6, both Mighty Mouse and Velocirippa qualified for Series 7. Unlike Series 6, Team Outlaw (at the time calling themselves Team Mouse) decided to enter Velocirippa into the Series and leave Mighty Mouse at home (oh, just in case you were wondering, Velocirippa would go out in the first round of its heat because... of course). One of the robots who originally qualified, though, had to pull out, and the producers, needing a robot, decided to ask Team Mouse if they could bring Mighty Mouse to participate in Heat J, which, as you can tell, they accepted!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Surprisingly enough, there is actually a full video of all of Mighty Mouse's Series 7 fights! So, time stamps will be posted with fights!

In the first round melee, Mighty Mouse was matched up against the lobster-shaped flipper (seeded number 14) Thermidor 2, newcomer Mobot (who sport an ineffective looking undercutter blade), and series veteran the front flipper and rear axe bot named 8645T 2 (also known as Beast 2, which is what we'll be calling it). The fight (1:22) starts out well enough for Mighty Mouse as it slams into the seeded Thermidor 2. Mighty Mouse also lands a few slams on Mobot, but, otherwise, Mighty Mouse really is a non-factor in the fight.

What a mighty attack

Thermidor 2 flips over Beast 2, who, despite supposedly having a powerful self-righter, proves unable to self-right, then proceeds to flip Mobot out of the arena. Thermidor 2 even manages to flip Mighty Mouse over onto the arena wall, preventing Mighty Mouse's self-righting bar from working. Because Beast 2 was already immobilized, though, they're counted out, and, much like in Mighty Mouse's opening melee in Series 6, Mighty Mouse moves on to the next round without really doing anything.

What a mighty upset!

In the second round, Mighty Mouse faces off against the heat favorite Kronic the Wedgehog. The fight (6:15) starts with Mighty Mouse slamming into Kronic, causing Kronic to lose the majority of its foam spikes before the fight breaks down into a game of Wedgehog and Mouse. Mighty Mouse makes great use of its superior mobility and drives circles around Kronic, attempting to avoid its flipper while Kronic attempts to flip the mouse. Kronic manages to get a few flips on Mighty Mouse, including one where it sends Mighty Mouse into the wall, but, luckily for the Mouse, it lands back on its feet. For the most part, though, Kronic simply can't catch the Mouse, and the Mighty Mouse manages to land a few slams into Kronic. My favorite part of the fight is the part where Mighty Mouse gets a little too close to House Robot Growler, who comes shooting out of the CPZm slamming into the Mouse, who scurries away and hits the side of the pit release tire, just completely tearing it off in the process. Mighty Mouse continues to dodge Kronic's attacks, at one point baiting Kronic into slamming itself into the arena wall.

What a mighty flip!

Then, Kronic just kind of breaks down in one of the CPZ's. You don't really see what happens. Although both Mighty Mouse and Growler get slams in, both of those appear to be after Kronic breaks down. Either way, Kronic does break down and, remarkably, Mighty Mouse moves on to the heat final in a huge upset.

Not exactly a mighty showing…

So, I actually saw this heat as a child, and, let me tell, you I was super excited that Mighty Mouse made the heat final and I wanted nothing more than for them to move on to the semis. In the heat final, Mighty Mouse has a rematch with Thermidor 2. In this fight (11:01), Mighty Mouse attempts to do the same thing to Thermidor that it did to Kronic, immediately slamming into it before running away. Unfortunately for Mighty Mouse, Thermidor 2 is quite a bit more mobile then Kronic was and Thermidor is able to keep pace with Mighty Mouse, flipping them quite a few times and keeping Mighty Mouse from building up the distance it wants.

Mighty Mouse manages to get itself stuck on Sir Killalot, who drives it into the angle grinder, where Thermidor manages to get in another flip as Mighty Mouse scurries away. Thermidor 2 then manages to get under Mighty Mouse and drives it to the wall, looking to throw it over the arena but, luckily (?) for Mighty Mouse, Thermidor doesn't quite have enough C02 left to throw Mighty Mouse over and the little Mouse lives to keep fighting (?).

What a mighty successor!

The rest of the fight sees Thermidor 2 flip Mighty Mouse over some more until eventually Mighty Mouse loses its ability to turn and is stuck driving back and forth along the arena wall (which is technically still controlled movement, unlike if you were stuck spinning in circles). The fight goes to the judges, who unsurprisingly vote for Thermidor 2, sending Mighty Mouse out of the tournament.

Mighty Mouse is a neat little robot. It's not a great fighting robot, but it has a lot of character. The fact that it's so fast and so well-driven makes every fight with it in it entertaining. It's pretty funny how Team Outlaw didn't even intend to enter Mighty Mouse in series 7, yet they had more success with Mighty Mouse than any robot Team Outlaw had entered at the time. Truth be told, Mighty Mouse honestly got lucky to make the heat final, and, in any other, heat the 2nd round would probably be as far as Mighty Mouse would get. While Mighty Mouse would never be seen on TV again, Team Outlaw would continue to fight on the live circuit, where they even built a featherweight version of Mighty Mouse called Mini Mighty Mouse, who would go on to win the 2007 UK Featherweight championship. Mighty Mouse would find itself retired in the year 2008, replaced by a new version of Mighty Mouse called Megamouse.

When Robot Wars returned to TV, Megamouse would enter Series 9, where it would find itself defeated in the first round after being destroyed by Carbide. But when it comes to the reboot and Team Outlaw, Megamouse is not the story worth talking about; instead, the story is Ironside 3, but that's a story for another section.

Forum Update

Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)

It's February, and it's time for another look at the news from the forum. We've had announcements, we've had ancient jokes revisited, and we've had forum game roleplays celebrate birthdays and quote the Half-Life series. See it all for yourself by reading onwards.

News

The Mario Boards has taken the phrase "new year, new me" and put its own spin on it, saying "new year, new sub-board" with the creation, on February 14th, of the 'Shroom Creations sub-board. The result of discussions among The 'Shroom staff and made with the help of the forum moderation team, this board serves as a central location for anyone who wants to link to or discuss their contributions to The 'Shroom on the forum. We hope that having these threads in a central place, tucked under the Fan Creations board, which tends to get the attention of folks browsing on the forums, will make it easier for you to find these threads and engage with the writers who create them.

There's a mixture of interactive threads, where you can vote on characters featured in a section or otherwise help to shape the section, threads which link to all of the sections written by a particular user, and threads in which users provide some additional information about their contributions. You can read Ninja Squid's summary of the board's purpose for more information.

Go on and check these threads out. If you see a writer you appreciate, let them know with a post, or participate if they have a voting or nomination system.

Courtesy of Uniju, this month has also brought us a new Sippin' Time thread, with this thread focusing on the theme of "sippin' on the beach".

We also rang in the first (from a Doylist perspective, but certainly not a Watsonian one!) birthday of Shmaluigi. Whether in Awards presentations, mafia games, or Shmaluigi, Private Investigator in Palette Swap, there's a good chance you've seen the good detective around. In celebration of his birthday, Waluigi Time drew Shmaluigi, the Erudite Goose, Ema Skye, Bobby Fulbright and Godot in the Waluigi Time Comic style (a derivative of Brawl in the Family's Waluigi comics' style). A few users and a couple of familiar roleplays turned up to join in the celebration, as well.

Re-Threading Old Ground

Even ancient in-jokes in this community regularly find new expression. Not too long ago, some users rediscovered the old Wiki joke that "Pirate Goomba is a pirate Goomba," posting it on the forums and finding joy in a running joke epitomizing the character of the late 2000s period from which it came. Forum in-jokes from the distant (relative to the time in which this Wiki has existed) past, though, go overlooked more often than do Wiki in-jokes. Among those overlooked forum in-jokes is one from 2011. Yes, it's eleven years old now, but the quest for Loic still goes on in... someone's heart, maybe, or something along those lines. In January of 2011, a user known as Scorpion999 posted a thread asking all Canadians on the forum if they knew someone by the name of "Loic" who had supposedly moved to Canada from Florida. Jokes were made, the thread grew, and, somehow, it continued to get posts now and again over the years. If you're looking for a simple, strange, community in-joke to learn about and a thread to read to kill some time and see the progression of users over the last decade, you might want to take a look at this thread.

Statistics

  • Total Threads: 40,841 (Difference: +77)
  • Total Posts: 2,231,171 (Difference: +3,627)
  • Total Members: 3,362 (Difference: +22)

Thread of the Month

Lightning Direct - 13.2.2022 - In a completely novel concept that no company anywhere else has ever used before, beloved completely original character Lightning the Hedgehog presents, directly to fans, a slate of announcements concerning Lightning-related projects coming in 2022. OST releases, announcements of mafia games, cameos by Capcom representatives and Mater the Fox (well... maybe...), and more await for fans who tune in (yes, even for those of you who missed the live event).

Quotes

Mafia

  • There have been no ongoing or completed mafia games in the past month. No other forum games have taken place in the past month, either.
  • At the time of this article's writing, the status of Mafiatroid is unknown, with it appearing the game does not have the necessary minimum sign-ups.
  • Sign-ups have opened for a game called Green Hill Mafia.
  • Announced in the Sub-Director Notes of this issue, 'Shroom Mafia 4 is on its way. The game will be hosted by Ninja Squid, Waluigi Time, and Goombuigi. Sign-ups are expected to open with the release of issue 180 on March 19th, with the game expected to start in late March or early April.
  • Lightning Mafia+ 2: Nexus of Chaos is planned for 2022! There is no firm timeframe for the game yet, so please be patient and await further updates from the game's host, Reverse Input.

Interactive 'Shroom Threads


[Good news], that's everything on the forum this month, summarized. Forum Update will be back next month with coverage of everything happening on the forums in late February and the first half of March. Look forward to it, and if you think there's something Forum Update should cover that it doesn't, or that something has been missed, send me a message to let me know.

All information above was correct as of 14:32 EST on 15 February 2022.

The 'Shroom: Issue 179
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Features Fake NewsFun StuffPalette SwapPipe PlazaCritic CornerStrategy Wing