The 'Shroom:Issue 194/Pipe Plaza
Director's Notes
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom! The bird is the word here in Pipe Plaza! You may not have been expecting to see me here, but, well, after hearing about that big discovery in the News Flush in Fake News this month, I rushed over to Pipe Plaza to check things out and… well, I may have visited the wrong Pipe Plaza.
It all worked out, though. I happened to notice that Zange left some great new sections on the desk in their office, so I took the opportunity to put them together! The team in green is plenty big this month, with some massive tables of proposals and changes to awards in Community Report and Anniversary Announcements. Since you're here in the green team, why not slip into the green bin and check them out? And if you don't quite get that joke, the answer is waiting in Anniversary Announcements, so you have double the reason to check it out!
Your favorite robot combat section, What's in a Campaign, is also celebrating its second anniversary this month. Shoey is covering a robot with a gigantic legacy, a robot that's been the de facto face of Robot Wars, even. Read on to find out about one of Behemoth's most notable runs!
I'll leave you there, and clear out before Zange makes it back in. Maybe I still have time to make it to the other Pipe Plaza… I'll go see if I do, and you, readers? You go and enjoy!
Section of the Month
Thank you all for your votes last month! You pushed current Poll Committee Chairperson Fun With Despair (talk)'s edition of Poll Committe Discussion, featuring the ever-popular annual April Fool's poll, to the top, but not by itself! Waluigi Time (talk) also did well with his detailed look at the many proposals and promotions of March and April. Keep on voting, and showing your support for our writers!
| PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Section | Votes | % | Writer |
| 1st | Poll Committee Discussion | 4 | 30.77% | Fun With Despair (talk) |
| 1st | Community Report | 4 | 30.77% | Waluigi Time (talk) |
| 2nd | Mario Calendar | 3 | 23.08% | GPM1000 (talk) |
Community Report
Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)
Hello there, 'Shroom readers! It's time for another Community Report. We've had a very busy month, which makes me wonder if this section is some sort of proposal magnet. I'll keep this intro brief so we can get into it, but first I'd like to give a shoutout to longtime bureaucrat Glowsquid, who has stepped down from his staff position after a nearly 13-year long run. Thank you for your many years of work!
All information is accurate as of May 16, 2023. Proposals marked with an asterisk are updates on ones first covered in last month's issue.
| DEMOTIONS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFFECTED USER | PREVIOUS RANK | CURRENT RANK | DATE | |
| Glowsquid (talk) | Administrator / Bureaucrat | Autopatrolled | April 17, 2023 | |
| RECENT PROPOSALS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PROPOSAL | SUMMARY | OUTCOME | DEADLINE |
| Add level maps for levels with no maps | A proposal to add map images on level articles that currently don't have them. The proposal was canceled by the staff for being unnecessary, as there is generally no need to create proposals just to improve pages or add missing content. | CANCELED BY THE ADMINISTRATORS (read more) |
April 11, 2023 |
| Trim and merge Smash spirits and stickers | A proposal to trim the lists of stickers and spirits from the Super Smash Bros. series to only contain information directly related to the Mario franchise, following a successful proposal to do the same with trophies. Unlike that proposal, which passed with full support, this one received pushback. The opposition cited their gameplay function compared to trophies, noting that Mario characters can equip any spirit to boost their abilities, and even some stickers from other games include Mario characters as some of the fighters that can only use them. The proposal failed, although what to do with stickers that don't have a Mario connection at all may still be up for debate. | DO NOTHING 4-0-0-1-8 (read more) |
April 20, 2023 |
| Create an article for Punch-Out!! (NES) | A proposal to create an article for the NES version of Punch-Out!! and classify it as a guest appearance. The proposer argued that Mario's appearance as Little Mac's referee in the game should be enough to qualify it as a guest appearance. The rest of the voters opposed, pointing out that Mario's actual gameplay role was negligible, leaving it as a cameo appearance. | FAILED 1-6 (read more) |
April 20, 2023 |
| Merge every Super Smash Bros. stage into game-specific lists | A proposal to merge Super Smash Bros. stages not based on the Mario franchise into lists based on their debut game, following a successful proposal to do the same to fighters. The proposal initially gained some opposition for being too vague, but was clarified and passed after one extension. A list has been created for the original Super Smash Bros., but the others have not been made. | PASSED 9-3 (read more) |
April 26, 2023 |
| Classify Just Dance series as a guest appearance | A proposal to create an article for the Just Dance series based on the appearance of Mario songs in Just Dance 3 and Just Dance 2018. The proposal received some opposition over its methods, with some voters preferring to make individual articles for both games as opposed to a series article, but the proposal passed regardless. | PASSED 5-3 (read more) |
April 27, 2023 |
| Remove articles about Sonic characters | A proposal to remove articles of Sonic the Hedgehog characters and replace them with a list article or external links. The proposal was withdrawn after receiving some opposition pointing out that the Mario & Sonic series has full coverage under the wiki's coverage policy. | CANCELED BY PROPOSER (read more) |
April 30, 2023 |
| Discourage drive-by templating part 2 | A proposal to require that merge, split, and rename templates be accompanied by an active talk page discussion or proposal, so that the reasons for the suggestion are easy to find. This followed a similar proposal that required various maintenance templates (such as requests to rewrite or add more images) to have reasons accompanying them. The proposal passed with no opposition by the time it ended, and all uses of these templates that did not meet the criteria have been removed. | PASSED 21-0 (read more) |
May 4, 2023 |
| Create interwiki link templates to current and former NIWA wikis and other wikis | A proposal to create templates to link to certain other wikis. The proposal failed on the basis that linking to other wikis can already be done with prefixes in normal links, and that the new templates would not be easy enough to remember to make them useful. | FAILED 1-4 (read more) |
May 12, 2023 |
| Turn the Stafy article into a disambiguation | A proposal to turn Starfy's article, which is currently a redirect to the Assist Trophy page, into a disambiguation page. The proposer argues that there are many other appearances of Starfy relevant to the Mario franchise, and that these should be listed on a disambiguation for easier navigation. An option was also provided to recreate Starfy's article, but creating a disambiguation page received the majority of votes. The change has not yet been made. | PASSED 8-4-1 (read more) |
May 15, 2023 |
| RECENT TALK PAGE PROPOSALS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PROPOSAL | SUMMARY | OUTCOME | DEADLINE |
| Create a page for Ground (block)* | A proposal to create a page for the Ground element from the Super Mario Maker games, following precedent of other course parts that have their own pages. It passed with no opposition, and the supporters unanimously agreed to allow comparisons to similar elements in past games (i.e. the ground tiles from Super Mario Bros.). The page has since been created and can be found at Ground (block). | CREATE WITH COMPARISONS 0-4-0 (read more) |
April 11, 2023 |
| Figure out how to reorganize mines* | A proposal to reorganize the mine article. Option 5 gained the most support, and split off three additional articles for different types of mines - mine (fruit) (Mario Party 6), Mikey Mine (Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel), and spike ball (seed) (Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker). | OPTION 5 0-0-0-0-0-0-6-2-0-0-0 (read more) |
April 14, 2023 |
| Merge Super Mario Bros. 3 Ice Block with Super Mario World Grab Block* | A proposal to merge the throwable Ice Blocks from Super Mario Bros. 3 with the Grab Block on the basis of identical function. The majority of voters instead decided to split the throwable blocks into their own White Block page, based on a lack of proof that both types of blocks were meant to be the same. As of writing, the change has not yet been made. | SPLIT WHITE BLOCK 3-1-0-6-1 (read more) |
April 14, 2023 |
| Merge Prince Froggy with Frog Pirate* | A proposal to merge the Yoshi's Island boss and enemy type due to no distinction between them in Japanese sources. Much debating followed, with the opposition pointing out Prince Froggy's unique gameplay role and the distinction in English materials. The opposition gained the majority and it was decided to leave the pages as-is. | FAILED 1-6-16 (read more) |
April 14, 2023 |
| Merge Fire Orb with Fireball, or split the Super Mario RPG version of Jump* | A proposal to merge Fire Orb with Fireball. The proposer argues that the Fire Orb move is just the Super Mario RPG equivalent of Mario's standard fireball attack and should be merged. All voters agreed to the merge, but the change has not yet been enacted. | PASSED 12-0-0 (read more) |
April 14, 2023 |
| Remove bosses from Super Mario Bros. 2 in Category:Characters from other Nintendo games | A proposal to remove the Super Mario Bros. 2 bosses from the category of characters originating outside the Mario franchise. The proposer did so on the basis that enemies from the game are excluded from the category, with the rest of the supporters instead focusing on how many elements from Doki Doki Panic have become so closely tied with the franchise. The opposition pointed out that they still originated from outside of the franchise regardless, and should be included. Following some rewrites to the category page for clarity, many of the supporters switched, and the proposer canceled the proposal halfway through. | CANCELED BY PROPOSER (read more) |
April 22, 2023 |
| Delete Pokémon | While it may sound like the editors of the Mario Wiki collectively decided to delete the entire Pokémon franchise, this proposal only concerns the Pokémon article. The article served as a catch-all list for Pokémon in the Super Smash Bros. series, including those summoned from Poké Balls, appearances in stages, as trophies and stickers, and fighters. The proposer argues that the page wasn't necessary as that information could be better covered elsewhere or was no longer eligible for coverage. The proposal passed unanimously and the changes have been made, with the exception of the Pokémon article being redirected to the series category instead of full deletion. | PASSED 21-0 (read more) |
April 28, 2023 |
| Split Yoshi's Island between the Mario franchise and the Yoshi franchise | A proposal to split the versions of Yoshi's Island seen primarily in the Mario and Yoshi franchises, mainly based on different Japanese names and some shared design elements. Arguments brought by the opposition included the split being unnecessarily confusing for readers when viewed in light of the differences, ambiguity such as the Partners in Time incarnation using elements of both, and modern Japanese material doing little to distinguish them. | FAILED 13-18 (read more) |
May 1, 2023 |
| Rename Big Steely to Iron ball | A proposal to rename Big Steely, which has fallen out of use since Super Mario World, to the more recent iron ball name. By the end of the proposal, there was no opposition, and the change has since been made. | PASSED 10-0 (read more) |
May 2, 2023 |
| Merge Mona's Elephant, Mona's Pig, Mona's Monkey, 4.1 and 4.2, and Mona's Bear to Yum Yums | A proposal to merge some minor WarioWare series characters into their group article. The proposer argues that their nature as a group is emphasized more than as individuals, with none of them playing major roles in the series individually. The proposal passed with little opposition, and the results can be seen on the Mona's Pets article. | PASSED 15-1 (read more) |
May 5, 2023 |
| Reinstate Demon as an article on the Shadow Queen and Shadow Sirens' species | A proposal to restore the deleted Demon article to use solely as a page for the species of the Shadow Queen and Shadow Sirens. The opposition pointed out that the term was only used to refer to the Shadow Queen, and never in a way that implied it was a species. | FAILED 1-1-8 (read more) |
May 5, 2023 |
| Remove the list of Super Smash Bros. series objects | A proposal to delete a list of minor objects from the Super Smash Bros. series and move the information elsewhere. The proposer argues that it is no longer needed, and that objects such as stage elements are better covered with their respective stages. The proposal passed with little opposition, but the change has not yet been made. | PASSED 11-1 (read more) |
May 10, 2023 |
| Merge Ice Piranha Plant to Frost Piranha | A proposal to merge the Ice Piranha Plant from New Super Mario Bros. U with the Frost Piranha first seen in Paper Mario. The change had been discussed for several years prior based on the shared Japanese name and similar concept, but remained inconclusive. The newest development was Nintendo's Mario Portal website using the Frost Piranha name to refer to both enemies. The proposal received some opposition, pointing out the different English names in its earlier appearances and differing color scheme, but the supporters won and the merged page can be found at Frost Piranha. | PASSED 13-4 (read more) |
May 12, 2023 |
| Split Mr. Game & Watch back to his own article | A proposal to restore Mr. Game & Watch's article after it was merged in a proposal targeting Smash fighters. The proposer points out Game & Watch's appearance in Game & Watch Gallery 4 where he physically appears alongside Mario, and numerous cameos in the extended Mario franchise. It passed with minor opposition, and can once again be viewed at Mr. Game & Watch, with some modifications to comply with other Smash proposals. | PASSED 14-1 (read more) |
May 12, 2023 |
| Create a new version of Template:More media for articles that have no media | A proposal to create a new template for requesting media on a page. The proposer notes that there is only a template for requesting additional media on a page, but not one for specifically requesting media when a page has none at all, unlike images. A recent proposal requiring reasons for maintenance templates makes it difficult to request media on these pages. The voters unanimously agreed to create Template:Media missing, which is now in use. | PASSED 7-0 (read more) |
May 12, 2023 |
| Split Balloon Burst into the versions from Mario Party and Mario Party 2 | A proposal to split the two versions of Balloon Burst, based on their different gameplay and Japanese names. The supporters also pointed out other minigames that are split with less differences, such as names and visuals. The proposal passed and the new pages can be found at Balloon Burst (4-Player) and Balloon Burst (2 vs. 2). | PASSED 7-0 (read more) |
May 12, 2023 |
| Establish policy for the naming of crossover subjects | A proposal to set a formal precedent for names of subjects from other series to address gaps in the naming policy. The proposal would allow the use of names from other series if they are unnamed in crossovers, and would prioritize the most recent name from a Mario crossover even if its name is changed in the original series. The voters unanimously agreed to establish both policies. | PASSED 6-0 (read more) |
May 14, 2023 |
| ONGOING PROPOSALS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PROPOSAL | SUMMARY | LINK | DEADLINE |
| Create articles for Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix songs | A proposal to create pages for the songs from Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. The proposer argues that they are the game's equivalent of levels and deserve articles. Besides deciding to create them or not, the proposal is also trying to determine how to organize coverage of songs that are arrangements of other themes from the Mario series and what names to use. Currently, the option to create pages separate from information on other games and using their names from Mario Mix is in the lead. | Read more | May 18, 2023 |
| Split major classic remakes | A proposal to split remakes of older games. The proposal includes options to split all remakes and to split them on a case-by-case basis. The opposition is currently in the lead as a result of the proposal not making it clear what would actually be split if it were to pass. | Read more | May 19, 2023 |
| Make changes to MarioWiki's editbox wallpaper | A proposal to update the graphics used in the editing field to replace the GameCube era renders. The proposal includes options to update the current graphics, or to create multiple themes that could be changed with Special:Preferences, however it does not specify what graphics would be used under either option. Currently, the option to update the graphics without creating additional themes is winning. | Read more | May 21, 2023 |
| ONGOING TALK PAGE PROPOSALS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PROPOSAL | SUMMARY | LINK | DEADLINE |
| Move Template:Wikia to Template:Fandom | A proposal to rename the Wikia template to Fandom, to be consistent with the site's rebrand in 2021. Some users have opposed on the basis that Wikia is still the more well-known name. | Read more | May 19, 2023 |
| Delete Rhythm Heaven Megamix and move content to List of references in Nintendo video games | A proposal to reclassify Rhythm Heaven Megamix as a cameo appearance and delete its page. The proposer argues that the only relevant content are levels reskinned to be WarioWare themed. The opposition currently has the majority, arguing that the WarioWare content is substantial enough to be a guest appearance, and pointing out other games that have received guest appearance status. | Read more | May 21, 2023 |
| Decide what to do with Black Chest Demon | A proposal to solve the problem of Black Chest Demon's conjectural name. The options are to use the official "four heroes" name, merge them with the black chest article, or pick a different conjectural name. Currently, the options to rename to four heroes and merge with black chest are tied. | Read more | May 27, 2023 |
| Move the Mario (franchise) article to Super Mario (franchise) | A proposal to change all instances of Mario franchise across the wiki to Super Mario franchise. The proposer has provided several sources showing Super Mario to be the brand name used by Nintendo. A second option to rename it and also merge the Super Mario platformer series article has also been provided. The option to rename without merging is currently winning. | Read more | May 28, 2023 |
| Delete Category:Spin-off series | A proposal to delete the category for spin-off series. The proposer argues that most of the series on the wiki would be considered spin-offs, and points out the inconsistent usage of the category, which only contains four articles. The supporters currently have an uncontested lead. | Read more | May 28, 2023 |
| ONGOING UNFEATURE NOMINATIONS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ARTICLE | SUMMARY | LINK | DEADLINE |
| WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! | PnnyCrygr (talk) nominated the article to be unfeatured, citing concerns about the quality of the writing and presentation (or lack thereof). Since being nominated, Camwoodstock (talk) has worked on the article to address the problems mentioned so far. | Read more | June 30, 2023 |
If you didn't believe me when I said we were busy, well... there you go. See you next month for more wiki happenings!
NIWA News
Written by: PanchamBro (talk)
Hey, it's me PanchamBro. I sincerely apologize for the lack of activity for the past couple of months, but I'm back now in a more mentally stable approach. It's time for this month's NIWA News, a section regarding news with each of the 32 members of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance. We'll be going through staff changes and related wiki news over February and into May, but this may be short as I will not be able to cover any news on time. Again, sorry.
| NEW MEMBER ALERT |
|---|
 Kovopedia has classed NIWA!
|
|
Back to school too soon? Well you don't have to write, you got magic to delight! Kovopedia has joined the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance on March 2, 2023! Dedicated to coverage of the Magical Vacation series, the wiki originally had its start on Fandom in 2010, and went independent in 2022. If you're interested to learn more about the Baklava solar system, hop on their Discord server and give them your support! |
  Staff changes
|
|
 Zelda Wiki needs your help!
|
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has recently released and Zelda Wiki needs your help! With a lot of information to cover about the game itself, your contributions help provide readers the information they need for all things related to Zelda. Do be sure to read their Getting Started guidelines regarding the ins and outs of the wiki, and join their Discord and give them a good hand! |
| Affiliate and partner news |
|
That's it for any related NIWA news that I could gather for this month's 'Shroom. I don't think I may continue further as my wiki interests dwindle, but we'll see next month. Later!
Poll Committee Discussion
hello. I'm the guy who was forced to write May's Poll Committee Discussion. today I bring you: polls. in June? who knows.....
Archives
Now that it has been released, how do you feel about the Super Mario Bros. Movie? - (Fun With Despair (talk), April 10th, 2023)
| Now that it has been released, how do you feel about the Super Mario Bros. Movie?
|
|---|
| I greatly enjoyed the Super Mario Bros. Movie and thought it was a good portrayal of the world and characters. 56.04% (3,426 votes) |
| I enjoyed the Super Mario Bros. Movie, but I had a few problems with the story, characters or another aspect of the film. 21.51% (1,315 votes) |
| I have not seen the Super Mario Bros. Movie, but I think it looks good and I am excited to see it. 12.04% (736 votes) |
| I thought the Super Mario Bros. Movie was decent, but nothing special. 4.12% (252 votes) |
| I have not seen the Super Mario Bros. Movie, but I plan on seeing it despite having low expectations. 2.80% (171 votes) |
| I have not seen the Super Mario Bros. Movie and I have no interest in seeing it. 2.65% (162 votes) |
| I did not enjoy the Super Mario Bros. Movie, because I thought the story, characters, or another aspect of the film was poorly done. 0.85% (52 votes) |
| Total votes: 6,114 |
Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this? - (BBQ Turtle (talk) and Waluigi Time (talk), April 24th, 2023)
| Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this?
|
|---|
| I am alright with Mario's speech being portrayed inconsistently. 30.27% (953 votes) |
| I would prefer for Mario to receive full voice acting instead. 20.39% (642 votes) |
| I would prefer Mario only talk in gibberish. 14.93% (470 votes) |
| I would prefer Mario to always have text box speech. 11.72% (369 votes) |
| I have no opinion on this subject. 10.86% (342 votes) |
| I would prefer Mario to remain silent, and have other characters talk for him. 8.67% (273 votes) |
| I would prefer Mario to remain silent but not have other characters speak for him. 3.14% (99 votes) |
| Total votes: 3,148 |
Analysis
Now that it has been released, how do you feel about the Super Mario Bros. Movie?
Ah, the movie. It would have been a waste to not have a poll about this one ASAP, so thank God the polls got cycled out the weekend right after it released in most countries. As a bit of waxing poetic before getting into the actual results, something extremely important to note about this poll is that its voting total has absolutely eclipsed all other single-choice polls in the history of the current Crowdsignal account, with a whopping 6,114 total. This is literally 2x the amount of votes that the majority of our single-choice polls have gotten! It's absolutely no surprise though, considering that the movie is highly accessible, is the most high-profile Mario content in years, and has likely pulled in a lot of interaction via friends/family members/miscellaneous confused moviegoers Googling who Foreman Spike is.
Now, perhaps this is unsurprising considering, well, the site's demographic, but 56.04% of voters - the highest scoring option here - agreed that the movie was greatly enjoyable and did a good job portraying the world and characters. As someone who leans closer to option 2 after having just recently watched it, I can only really assume that a lot of people think it's just a fun movie - which lines up with forum commentary, at least, and that's valid. Not much to say here other than that it's perhaps surprising just how much this option dominated the vote with the total amount that this poll had, but again, I'd assume the majority of people going to the main page of the Mario Wiki have an at least somewhat positive opinion on the film.
In second, we have the option 2 I was referring to - 21.51% of voters enjoyed it, but had a few problems with the story, characters, or other aspects. When looking at the Poll Discussion thread again, most option 2 commenters have primarily mentioned a dissatisfaction with how "compressed" the movie feels at times, with regards to how it develops its characters - and honestly, that was my own problem with it. I'd be curious to know what other aspects of it people took issue with; I've definitely seen complaints about the use of licensed music being off-putting or certain voice acting performances, even in the aforementioned thread, for starters. Haven't seen many people complain about the plot, which is also included in this option, but I suppose it's relatively inoffensive? I dunno. Email me if you think it really sucked major ass.
You see, despite the "yeah it was ok" option being nestled right under one of the "I haven't seen the movie yet guys!!!" options total-wise, I believe it's worth examining the latter three as a group because that's just how I'm rolling. 12.04% of voters were excited to see it later, 2.80% wanted to give it a chance despite low expectations, and 2.65% flat-out weren't interested in going to it. I feel it's interesting to note that this is a somewhat... fluctuating option? The poll went up five days after the movie released in America and a lot of other countries I'm not going to list here (list in the sidebar) and lasted for two weeks after that, so it makes me wonder how many of the voters for the first two went and saw the film after voting and then couldn't exactly change it afterwards. I guess as a bit of unnecessary Calculator Facts™, all of these combined means that 17.49% of people who voted in the poll hadn't seen the film at the time of voting. So there's that, I guess.
Callback time!!! Remember the "yeah it was ok" option? Well, 4.12% of people voted for it and thought the movie was just decent but nothing special. Where is the line drawn between this option and "it was good but it had some issues," I wonder? A few people who picked the latter mentioned that they were closer to thinking the film was just decent than greatly enjoying it, yet they still mentioned liking it enough. It's also surprising, how much of a gap there is between the 4.12% here and the next closest option polling at 12.04% of voters. Crazy how Mario Wiki still has Mario fans on it??????
That's also evidenced by the dead-last option, considering only 0.85% of voters - that's literally only 52 guys out of 6,114 by the way - said that they did not enjoy the movie. I just don't think most people who disliked it would immediately go on the main page to vote in a poll and say they thought it sucked, I guess? My first thought was running the poll in some sort of neutral site like, you know, let's say Zelda Wiki or something and seeing what the votes would be like there, but... well, it's not like it's a terrible movie, demographics or no demographics, at least in my opinion. Ultimately, the only conclusion I have is that 89.59% of voters had some form of relatively positive sentiment about it, whether that was really enjoying it, thinking it was good but flawed, or being excited to see it. Mario Sweep, baby!
Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this?
This poll is from the deep archives of yesteryear, originally pitched by BBQ Turtle (talk) and revived by Waluigi Time (talk) for the current cycle. It originally didn't make the cut due to low activity, but it's a newly interesting question to pose in the wake of the movie daring to have a fully-voiced Mario for an hour and 32 minutes: how much of this can the general public handle, whether it's Charles Martinet, Lou Albano, Chris Pratt, or even that guy they got to voice him in Hotel Mario? The answer may shock you:
30.27% of voters said they were really just fine having him portrayed inconsistently between games. That's it. That's the top scoring option. In all seriousness, I think this makes enough sense when you consider, let's say, the contrast between Super Mario 64 and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - two games where he's, respectively, fully voice-acted and only speaks in gibberish. I'd say both of these have been received quite well overall, so it really feels to me like the implementation of Mario's voice matters just as much as how he talks - hence the inconsistency between games can be perfectly fine.
Incidentally, our next highest-voted options actually fall into those games' two bins: 20.39% of voters wanted Mario to have full voice acting, while 14.93% preferred just gibberish. One thing to note about the former is that at least one voter was unsure whether "full voice acting" encompassed complex sentences vs. just little quips like "let's-a go" - and I am admittedly curious as well to know what the voters were intending when they picked this. As I mentioned before, I do consider Super Mario 64 to technically be full voice acting, but I still would lean "full sentences" when I actually read the option? It's a bit of an odd discrepancy, but I suppose people do just want to hear Mario talk, regardless. Going back to the Mario & Luigi series for the latter "bin" of sorts, voters on the forums were on board with "this strange Italian man [...] just charades-ing his way through an adventure". I have to say this is my personal preference, considering how animated that series' scenes are with just pantomiming and gibberish Italian accents. I'd imagine other voters outside our slice of commenters are endeared to the concept for quite similar reasons.
11.72% of voters, meanwhile, preferred only text box speech for Mario. Honestly, I actually have a little bit of trouble pulling an example of this out of memory? He might talk like this in the Mario & Sonic Olympics games or some Mario Party game or something. I know one of you guys will DM me soon after this article releases and be like "but Turb, he talked with full text boxes in New Super Paper Mario & Luigi Deluxe: 3D Hot Rally" but oh well! Regardless, someone on, you guessed it, the forums did say they'd be cool with textboxes, namely as a way to slowly build more dialogue and character with him. And honestly, that makes sense - I'd genuinely assume this would be the most realistic method to get Mario more dialogue if that's what you're interested in, since his full-sentence voice clips are usually very choppy and integrated into the gameplay vs. anything to do with the story. As a side note since it's a simple "no opinion" option... well, 10.86% of voters just didn't have an opinion on how he's portrayed. I suppose there's actually not that much overlap between being fine with whatever Nintendo wants to do and just flat out not having an opinion, considering both choices got a good chunk of votes.
The two options bottoming out here are similar yet half opposed to each other - 7.52% of voters want Mario to be silent and for other characters to speak on his behalf, while a smaller sliver of 3.14% want him to be silent and not spoken for. To my understanding, the former is more in line with Mario having some sort of Lassie-esque quality where he, for example, stands next to a well making this face and Toadsworth responds in horror like "Oh gracious, Master Mario, the princess has fallen down a well???"? I might be misunderstanding it, though, because there's also characters like Starlow who kind of serve a similar function, but she overlaps with him having gibberish speech in the same games, so... I dunno, really. Again, email me if you know the difference for sure. I can only assume wanting him to be completely silent and not spoken for would be reverting to basically just pre-Martinet era platformers, so there's not much to say there. Classic JRPG hero Mario, I guess.
Lastly, there's not too many ways you can group the results for this poll and analyze them, I think - all of them feel pretty different in some way, even the two silent treatment options. In conclusion: the world is in turmoil and people are in pain. Even still, we can take comfort in knowing that Nintendo will use their archival clips of Charles Martinet until the end of time immemorial.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed this issue of Poll Committee Discussion. Honestly I legitimately have no idea who will be writing the one in June, but it was nice to see you guys again. Thanks for having me, Pipe Plaza. Please remember to vote in the polls because mine is on the main page for like two more days as of this issue's release and it has Peppino in the image. thank you
Anniversary Announcements
Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)
Good May people, this is Anniversary Announcements! Summer is coming up, the heat is turning up for certain, and the committee has been busy, so let's get to it!
Tour de tournaments
In this section of AA, I shall update you on all things tournaments, including new ones and progress in ongoing ones.
While the tournament scene is still fairly calm, we do have one tournament thread up now! Let's cover it.
Besides that, a relic hunt, based on gameplay from the Living Game series of games, is being planned by Waluigi Time (talk · Boards), and a new Anniverary Scavenger is being planned by Lakituthequick (talk · Boards).
Awards changes
In this part of AA, I will describe all updates and changes to the meat and bones of the event, the awards. This includes additions, removals, and changes of both awards and nominees within.
As mentioned last month, we aim to reduce the amount of awards this year to ease the workload of everyone involved. As such, for every award we went past, we considered if it's worth keeping based on relevance and recent results. An award could be immediately removed, put on hold, or greenlit for updating.
These three categories have been dubbed the red, blue, and green bins colloquially, as the former two are marked in those colours in our documents.
Despite that, there are also a couple of new awards to fill some of the spots that came free.
New awards
These awards are brand new, or sometimes return from two or more years ago.
Updated awards
Awards that existed last year and have been updated based on recent releases or with high-ranking write-in votes from last year.