The 'Shroom:Issue 227/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Hello everyone and Happy February! I hope that you all had a wonderful Valentine's or, if you didn't have a valentine, that you took advantage of all the discounted chocolate! I got to do karaoke at one of my favorite local bars that day and might have slightly murdered my voice singing Olivia Rodrigo. It's fiiiiine...

What's in a Campaign? is taking a bit of a break, but the rest of our Pipe Plaza lineup is here! Additionally, Sparks (talk) has blessed us with a guest section in the form of Pinkie Pie's Odyssey! Dont forget that if you like what you see here and ever get the inkling in your brain that you want to write something cool for us too, that it's never too late to do so! Just head to the sign up page to get started.

That's all from me this time, happy reading and enjoy the rest of the month ^^

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Hooded Pitohui (talk) with Awards Analysis! Tying for second, we have Sparks (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion and GPM1000 (talk) with Mario Calendar! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Awards Analysis 5 31.25% Hooded Pitohui (talk)
2nd Poll Committee Discussion 3 18.75% Sparks (talk)
2nd Mario Calendar 3 18.75% GPM1000 (talk)
News and information
NIWA News
Trig Jegman (talk)
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
read more
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
To-Do Tracker
Camwoodstock (talk)
No clue what to do? Join the fun and see what's been done!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
MightyMario (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Awards Analysis
Waluigi Time (talk)
Awards may have come and gone, but let's talk about the results!
read more
The 'Shroom Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
All the latest writers and all the milestones of the current ones.
read more
A Section of Muppetational Origins
Zange (talk)
Primadonna pig, yeah, all she ever wanted was the frog
read more
Pinkie Pie's Odyssey
Sparks (talk)
Where ponies take Greek classics!
read more

NIWA News

Written by: Trig Jegman (talk)

February already? Time flies when you're having fun. Or freezing. It has been a slower period in the changes department, with people going back to work and school. And freezing. There are some exciting games just around the corner, though, so there is much to look forward to. Like not freezing.

Staff changes

  • Frosty has become an administrator on ARMS Institute.
  • Spriteit has stepped down from the Leadership Board on Bulbapedia. Tiddlywinks has stepped down from the Leadership Board and being an administrator.
  • Trig Jegman has stepped down from all positions across Inkipedia, Inkipedia ES, and Inkipedia FR. Inkrid, StarAdamStar, and AmbientDinosaur have been demoted for inactivity.
  • Magicwindsock is now a bureaucrat for Kovopedia.
  • Malake256 and Fubaka have been demoted for inactivity on Lylat Wiki. ToastUltimatum becomes Ambassador.
  • Trig Jegman has stepped down from Administrator on MiiWiki.
  • PikminKartSuperCircuit is re-promoted to Administrator on Pikmin Fanon.
  • EvieMaybe and Camwoodstock have been promoted to Administrator on MarioWiki.
  • BB101 is promoted to Patroller on WiKirby. FalcoLau and Vellidragon are demoted for inactivity.
  • Mattallen has been promoted to Amministratore on Pokemon Central Wiki (DE). Complimenti!

Major developments

  • Several sites have restarted the use of Moderation or limited account creation tools.
  • Pikmin Fanon has completed its migration of Wikia content into itself, as well as add two large new spin-off ideas.
  • MediaWiki version 1.45 has released. Among other changes, Special:SpecialPages gets a facelift in this version, as well as support for a handful more languages.
  • A Nintendo Partner Showcase aired on February 5, 2026.
  • A new trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was released.
  • A trailer for Virtual Boy re-releases was released.
  • Pikipedia celebrates its 20th anniversary!

Game releases

  • Metroid Prime 4
  • Octopath Traveler 0
  • Mario Tennis Fever

The following games are slated for release soon:

  • Pokémon Pokopia
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park
  • Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
  • The Virtual Boy catalogue comes to Nintendo Switch Online, including:
    • 3D Tetris
    • Virtual Boy Wario Land
    • Red Alarm
    • Mario Clash
    • Mario's Tennis
    • Jack Bros
    • V-Tetris
    • Zero Racers (the first fully-new F-Zero game in 22 years!)

Additionally, the Animal Crossing New Horizons 3.0 update released on January 15 for Nintendo Switch. The Mega Dimension DLC for Pokemon Z-A released December 10. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters was re-released for Nintendo Switch Online in November. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Wario World were re-released in January. Yoshi (GB) is slated for release in February.

Major releases also include Dispatch (for Nintendo Switch), Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, and Mewgenics. StrategyWiki would love to have guides for these games!

Special thanks to releases for documentation.

Featured wiki projects

  • Kovopedia has requested more contributors, from translation efforts to page layout overhauls to simple edits. If you feel like expanding your wings, why not try here?
  • A new English Dragon Quest wiki has been formed and is in need of editors to help bring it to the modern age, especially with the release of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.
  • A new French Pikmin wiki has been formed and is in need of editors for creating new pages, as well as translating existing pages.
  • MiiWiki is preparing for the release of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and would love your help! Join their Discord server to find out more about how you can contribute.

This concludes this installment of NIWA News. For questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, contact NIWA's Vice Coordinator Trig Jegman.

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy February everyone! I hope everyone is having a great start to their month, and that you all are enjoying Mario Tennis Fever! I haven't gotten a chance to try it out myself, but it looks pretty great! But, I'm getting ahead of myself -- let's take a blast to the past, shall we?

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


As I always like to say, there's really not much to talk about in February. I could shout out a couple of semi-relevant games, but I'm actually interested in something very different. There are some NICHE games this month that are absolutely hilarious to look into, including ones that came out this very month! This month, General Mills made a website called ItsGalaxyTime.com to promote the release of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and they released quick little games called "Discover Your Out-of-This-World Snack" and "Make the Mario Galaxy Movie Matches." They're really just a personality quiz and a memory game, but I think it's hilarious that those are on the wiki at all. This place is thorough!! It also seems like the website is already down?? Short-lived :(

And, of course, we can't forget about Satellawalker 2! This is a game for the Satellaview, which essentially means it was streamed via satellite, and it is VERY difficult to play nowadays. There was stuff like live voice acting, which is actually pretty cool!! I honestly have no idea what the connections to Mario are here, but it's clearly something. And, I don't even WANT to know what the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Mario's Greatest Movie Moments game is.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this very strange walk down memory lane. If people remember these at all. I hope you all have a great rest of your month, and I'll see you in March!

To-Do Tracker

Written by: Camwoodstock, of the Seven Stars (talk)

It's the season of love! ...We say, writing this on February 18th, Valentine's Day already feeling like it was 500,000 years ago (rough approximation). Whoops. Even still, hey, another month, another set of To-Do items to Track, so, might as well, yeah?

Note: All dates here were taken fairly late at night in EST; around 1-3 AM EST.

January & February To-Do Items
To-Do Item Jan 14, 2026 Jan 21, 2026 Jan 28, 2026 Feb 4, 2026 Feb 11, 2026 Feb 18, 2026
Spotlight focuses 4 4 4 4 4 4
Ongoing TPPs 17 12 11 11 9 8
Unimplemented Proposals 30+ 30+ 40+ 40+ 40+ 40+
Unresolved Discussions 281 282 290 299 302 311
Construction Projects 141 141 139 140 143 61
Rewrites Needed 166 167 173 176 184 198
Sourcing Issues 18,404 18,344 18,231 18,180 18,080 18,386
Stub Articles 887 910 931 937 952 975
Wanted Articles 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+
Requested Deletions 9 9 8 4 7 10
Suggested Moves 63 62 62 61 58 58
Suggested Merges 64 68 78 80 77 79
Suggested Splits 69 68 67 67 69 69
Wanted Categories N/A N/A ≈3 3 3 N/A
Missing Romanizations N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 6
Note Trims N/A N/A N/A 2 3 3
Unknown Meanings N/A N/A 2 5 41 21
Image Quality 3,933 3,909 3,949 3,882 3,843 3,848
Images Needed 724 723 726 729 731 741
Media Needed 507 512 510 512 518 527
Media Quality 1 1 2 2 13 13
Unused Files 200+ 200+ 300+ 75+ 300+ 100+
Files To Be Used 14 14 14 26 19 20

For some observations for how the numbers have progressed, and some potential targets:

  • The very sharp falloff in Construction templates is due to a recent culling of any pages that've been marked as "under construction", yet left alone by their original users. Most of those moved to either the Rewrites needed, or Stub articles category.
  • That spike in sourcing issues isn't just because of the recent release of Mario Tennis Fever, but the proprietor has recently made the decision to avoid links to archive.today whenever possible. There's a discusson on the Mario Boards about this, if you're curious why. As a result, Articles with deprecated external links has seen a noticeable spike.
  • Moves, merges, and splits had a pretty wild month. Moves actually went down, merges went up, and splits stayed the same. It's balanced in how erratic it is. Wild!
  • Somehow, Wanted Categories returned... for only about 4 items maximum, before it was ultimately fully dealt with. Nicely done!
  • Similarly, the dip, spike, and subsequent dip for Unused Files comes from a concerted effort to help find places for unused images... Right before the release of Mario Tennis Fever and Paper Mario: The Origami King's release on Nintendo Music, the latter of which was (im)perfectly timed such that it coincided right with our data-collection schedule. Whoops. (There was almost a similar spike thanks to a recent addition to List of blocks in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, but it narrowly missed the cache cycle for February 18th's data collection period.
  • The huge (relatively speaking) surge in Media quality mostly stems from either locating files that require an added fadeout, or need a re-rip of some sort due to some form of mixing or accuracy problem. Hopefully, more people can pitch in, so that we can bring this category back to its single-digits it's been stuck at for awhile now!

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: MightyMario (talk)

Hi, it's MightyMario with Poll Committee Discussion! Let's see what the polls in January had to offer!

Polls

How would you rate 2025's Mario games? (Paper Plumm (talk), January 3, 2026)

How would you rate 2025's Mario games?

I felt it was an incredibly good performance overall. 42.17% (740 votes)
I felt most were decent, although there were a few I didn't enjoy. 28.26% (496 votes)
I have no opinion. 15.78% (277 votes)
I felt most were rough, although there were a few good ones. 9.29% (163 votes)
I felt it was an incredibly poor performance overall. 4.50% (79 votes)
Total votes: 1,755

Which Flower Power-Up is your favorite? (Sparks (talk), January 18, 2026)

Which Flower Power-Up is your favorite?

Fire Flower 28.77% (649 votes)
Ice Flower 18.22% (411 votes)
Cloud Flower 13.12% (296 votes)
Bubble Flower 11.97% (270 votes)
Gold Flower 9.00% (203 votes)
Boomerang Flower 7.58% (171 votes)
I have no opinion. 4.92% (111 votes)
Superball Flower 3.81% (86 votes)
Power Flower (Super Mario 64 DS) 2.62% (59 votes)
Total votes: 2,256

Analysis

How would you rate 2025's Mario games?

Donkey Kong winding up a Charge Punch in Donkey Kong Bananza
DK! Donkey Kong! DK! Donkey Kong is here!

2025 gave us the successor to the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2 (very creative naming, Nintendo) and a group of new Mario games to go along with it, including the critically acclaimed "Donkey Kong Bananza" and the massive "Mario Kart World" as a launch title. A majority of voters thought it was a solid year for Mario titles, some just thought it was decent, while a small amount of people thought they were poor showings overall. Personally, I don't have a Nintendo Switch 2 yet, but "Donkey Kong Bananza" is definitely at the top of my wishlist!

Which Flower Power-Up is your favorite?

Artwork of Fire Mario from SMBW with shadow
Always classic, always iconic, always number one.

It's no surprise that the main flower power-up, the Fire Flower, took the top spot in this poll. While the other flowers got their fair share of the votes with the opposite of the Fire Flower, the Ice Flower, coming in second, and the recently added Bubble Flower placing fourth. Even the Superball Flower that appeared in only two titles ("Super Mario Land" and "Super Mario Maker 2")has its supporters (though placing a meager eighth), but it seems like the Fire Flower is here to stay even forty years after its debut.

That was Poll Committee Discussion and we'll see you next time for more poll analysis!

Awards Analysis

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Waluigi Time filling in again for Awards Analysis. We're getting very close to Awards season starting up again, which means it'll be time for a whole new batch of results to analyze soon! But for now, we still have to finish out this term, so please enjoy this look at M12. Favorite Non-Bowser Boss Battle and F2. Worst Obstacle!

Archives

M12. Favorite Non-Bowser Boss Battle

M12. Favorite Non-Bowser Boss Battle

Shadow Queen (PM:TTYD) 11.24% (229 votes)
King Boo (LM:DM/LM2) 7.85% (160 votes)
Super Dimentio (SPM) 7.71% (157 votes)
Bouldergeist (SMG) 7.66% (156 votes)
Mechawiggler (SMO) 5.99% (122 votes)
Megaleg (SMG) 5.69% (116 votes)
King K. Rool (DKC) 5.50% (112 votes)
Rawk Hawk (PM:TTYD) 5.35% (109 votes)
Kaptain K. Rool (DKC2) 4.12% (84 votes)
King Olly (PM:TOK) 3.78% (77 votes)
Total votes: 2,037

F2. Worst Obstacle

F2. Worst Obstacle

Wind 15.52% (310 votes)
Pursuing doppelgänger (Cosmic Clones, Rift Mario) 13.07% (261 votes)
Poison Mushroom/Rotten Mushroom 11.32% (226 votes)
Quicksand 8.41% (168 votes)
Bottomless pit 8.16% (163 votes)
Freezing water 7.11% (142 votes)
Black hole 6.16% (123 votes)
Lava/Poison 5.81% (116 votes)
Fire Bar 5.41% (108 votes)
Toxic cloud 3.66% (73 votes)
Total votes: 1,997

Analysis

M12. Favorite Non-Bowser Boss Battle

Before I get into results, let's talk about this award! You may notice the title's a little different, not because of any change in scope - Bowser's been split off since 2023 - but because people keep trying to write Bowser in every year even though the definition on the poll says he's not eligible. Aside from a few stragglers, it worked pretty well! The moral of the story is if people aren't reading the sign you put up, just add a bigger one next to it.

Luigi vs King Boo in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
He snuck up while our backs were turned.

As it turns out, I also analyzed this award last year, and I said "it'll be interesting to see how these results hold next year" in reference to Shadow Queen breaking through with a commanding victory. While the remake of The Thousand-Year Door isn't a fresh release anymore, it clearly has staying power for the time being as Shadow Queen retains a comfortable lead with 12.56% of the vote. The runner-up, however, is a bit surprising, in my opinion! It's King Boo's battle from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, making the top three on this award for the first time with 7.85% of the vote and beating out the previous silver medalist, Super Dimentio. Now King Boo's been a popular nominee before, making the top five last year, and we can probably credit an influx of new players or people rediscovering the game thanks to the release of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD in the last Awards cycle. It's not like this result came out of nowhere, but I didn't see much fanfare for the remake, so I'm surprised to see it make such an impact on this year's results, especially when it's competing with games that are typically pretty popular with the voters like the Paper Mario series and Super Mario Galaxy.

Despite getting knocked down, Super Dimentio's still doing pretty well in a respectable third, only trailing King Boo by three votes! Things aren't going so well for Megaleg, though. After winning this award in 2023 and taking third in 2024, I wondered in last year's analysis if the Thousand-Year Door remake hype dying down would bring it back up in the rankings this year, or if the original win was just a one-off. Judging by these results, I don't think that hype has died down much, but Megaleg ended up doing even worse, getting booted down to sixth place. Fellow Super Mario Galaxy boss Bouldergeist and Mechawiggler from Super Mario Odyssey both surpassed the massive robot this year, but let's not count it out just yet! The Switch remake of Galaxy, as well as an upcoming appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, just might put some votes back on this guy.

As usual, the middle of the pack shifts around a fair amount, so I won't go into too much detail about that. What does seem relevant though is that, while Paper Mario still seems to be riding the hype train, the remake of Super Mario RPG doesn't have quite as much staying power. After placing sixth last year as the sole representative on this award, Culex has dropped out of the top ten entirely, and is now in eleventh place. But at least he's doing better than the only newcomer this year, Zokket from Mario & Luigi: Brothership, who just barely scraped together enough votes to avoid being the worst performing nominee on this one.

As Awards season 2026 draws near, I suggest keeping a close eye on the Galaxy nominees in particular to see what Nintendo's recent push does for them. I'm sure we'll be seeing something from a certain ape's recent adventure as well! And as always with results influenced by a recent release, I have to say I'll be curious to see if King Boo's newfound success holds steady with Luigi's Mansion 2 HD approaching two years old.

F2. Worst Obstacle

Screenshot of Ty-foos in Super Mario 3D World.
Do you hear that? It's the winds of change.

This one's pretty interesting to look at because the results have shifted quite a bit from last year, and aside from the increased number of voters, there's not really much of a reason for it that I can tell! As you can imagine, the platformers do the heavy lifting on this award, and at the time of voting, there hadn't been any new releases since Super Mario Bros. Wonder to account for a shift. But hey, it shifted anyway! Or I guess you could say more accurately the wind shifted, eh?

Yes, wind took first place for the first time since 2022 when this award was introduced with 15.52% of the vote, a pretty decent lead. Now maybe you're thinking "Waluigi Time, that's just an old winner reclaiming its spot, that's not weird", but here's the thing - if you look back at the results for 2022, it's very clear that wind's victory was really just a result of Poison and Rotten Mushrooms being separate options and splitting the vote. When they got merged in 2023, wind fell into a relatively distant second place. In 2024 it was much closer, with less than a 1% gap behind the tied winner of the mushrooms and pursuing doppelgangers, so we can at least say wind's been on an upward trajectory. But you kind of have to ask why? The only platformer to release since the award's inception up to this point was Wonder, which doesn't actually feature wind as a mechanic. I guess wind showed up in Brothership, but that could only account for the most recent results and it's not like that game did big numbers anywhere else on the Awards, so I doubt that has much to do with it. I'd almost wonder if Super Mario Maker 2 was a continuing factor at all, if not for Rotten Mushrooms being an even more prominent nuisance in that game.

It is kind of bizarre to see that after managing a first place tie in 2024, which is actually extremely rare (prior to this, the last time it happened was in 2015 on Favorite Wario Game!), the one that pulled ahead ended up being neither of them! Well, technically the doppelgangers did, but neither of them got the gold. Compared to last year's tie, doppelgangers have a relatively significant lead with 13.07% of the votes compared to Poison Mushroom/Rotten Mushroom's 11.32%, which actually makes sense considering Wonder had Rift Mario but nothing Poison Mushroom-adjacent. I predict the doppelgangers will keep pulling ahead of them thanks to the Galaxy 2 remake, at least for a while.

Bottomless pit was the sole addition to the award this year on the basis of write-ins, and that seems to have been the right choice since it made it into the top five! That pushed down the tied nominees of black holes and lava/poison to seventh and eighth, respectively, with freezing water pulling ahead of both of them. I wouldn't be surprised if bottomless pits were directly pulling votes from those two, because if we're being honest, they may as well be the same thing in gameplay, it's just that the presentation's a little different. Maybe that's an argument for the Awards Committee to do some recombobulating on this one, we'll see.

Conclusion

That's all for me today. Be sure to join us one last time next month when Cloudwalker brings us our final set of analyses from the 2025 Mario Awards!

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

New sections, guest sections, milestones? You want it? It's yours my friend, as long as you read enough words. Yeah, these are the intros you get when I've written this for over two years. Anyway, here's your annual 'Shroom Report for Issue 226! Also, I lied last time, this will actually for real be the last time I thank our former Statistics Manager Meta Knight for maintaining the spreadsheets, and also the first time I thank our new Statistics Manager MightyMario for maintaining the spreadsheets! Hooray for on-the-job training.

For new readers or anyone needing a refresher, please open the box below.

​

Categories that are not applicable this month are crossed out.

  • First-Time Writers lists everyone who wrote their first section for The 'Shroom in the previous issue.
  • New Sections lists recurring sections that started their run in the previous issue. This includes returning sections that previously went inactive.
  • Guest Sections lists one-off submissions from the previous issue.
  • Milestones covers certain section numbers reached in the previous issue. Writers are mentioned for every 10 sections written in a team and every 50 sections written overall, teams are mentioned for every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom itself is mentioned for every 500 sections. Additionally, established writers are mentioned the first time they contribute to a particular team.
  • Most Sections Written lists the current all-time record holders.
New Sections
Section Writer
Yoshi18 Overviews Yoshi18 (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
News Flush Waluigi Time (talk)
To Overthrow a King ClawgripFan9001 & Ash
BE A BIG SHOT! Sparks (talk)
Rising From Obscurity Waluigi Time (talk)
Milestones
Writer Milestone
Ash 10 Palette Swap sections
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 180 Strategy Wing sections
Legend 8 30 Fake News sections
Shoey (talk) 70 Strategy Wing sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 180 Fake News sections
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News Waluigi Time (talk) 181
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 169
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 216
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 223
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 180
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
The current set of team directors (Waluigi Time, Roserade, FunkyK38, Zange, Hypnotoad, and Hooded Pitohui) has been in place since June 2022, approaching nearly four years. This is the longest retention period for all six in the history of The 'Shroom.

A Section of Muppetational Origins

Written by: Zange (talk)

(once again I would like to thank the Muppet Wiki for being a valuable resource of information and images!)

Hello and welcome back to a new edition of ‘’A Section of Muppetational Origins’’! This is Zange, and I am here to tell you all about the origins and history of another wonderful Muppet. Before we get into it though, who all watched the new Muppet Show special with guest star Sabrina Carpenter?! Guys. This is possibly one of THE best things to have graced our television screens this decade, and I would love nothing more than a full series revival, so please go watch it if you haven’t!! It’s absolutely worth your time. Anyways, last time, we covered the daredevil artiste supreme, Gonzo the Great. This time, with the hype of the new Muppet Show special and all, I thought it fitting to cover the original diva herself, Miss Piggy!

Even in humble beginnings, she’s going after famous men.

Miss Piggy finds her origins in a handful of talk show and special appearances dating back to 1974. During an episode of The Tonight Show in May 1974, “Piggy Lee” and another pig, then known as Hamilton Pig, appeared together in a sketch lip-syncing to That Old Black Magic. Worth noting that this particular lip sync sketch has been in the Muppet repertoire since the Sam and Friends days! During this sketch, Piggy Lee was puppeteered by Frank Oz, however, due to the nature of the sketch she would not be given a voice until her next appearance.

In October 1974, The Muppets would make many appearances throughout the television special Herb Alpert and the TJB. During one of these segments, a pig talent agent named Hoggie Marsh (secretly just a renamed Hamilton Pig) would introduce Herb Alpert to his latest talent, a shy singer named Miss Piggy. In this appearance, Piggy would be performed by Jerry Nelson, and some of the traits she showcased here would carry over to her more developed character on The Muppet Show, such as a need for attention and her eye for men.

In the second Muppet Show pilot, The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, a beady-eyed version of the Miss Piggy puppet was performed by Fran Brill.

She may be in the background for now, but trust me, that’s not lasting long.

During the first season of The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy was more of a background character instead of the star we know her as today. Because of this, Frank Oz and Richard Hunt shared performance duties of her character in the first season. This even goes so far as in one particular sketch where Kermit is directing a chorus (with Miss Piggy of course having the solo), Oz does the puppeteering and her speaking voice while Hunt does her singing voice. However, Miss Piggy would soon find her moment to shine. During filming for one first season episode, Piggy was supposed to slap Kermit in one scene. Oz was performing her at this moment, and decided to take this direction a step further by having Piggy karate chop Kermit instead. With this moment, Oz and the Muppet Show writers saw depth to Miss Piggy’s character for the first time, instead of just a one-note gag.

Starting with the second season of The Muppet Show, Frank Oz was the sole performer of Miss Piggy. She also became more of the leading lady and diva we know her as today. For example, in one second season episode they have to cancel that week’s show in order to audition new acts. One recurring auditioner is a little girl who sings with her pet frog. This little girl keeps getting pulled off stage (in the classic shepard’s hook-yoink bit) and during the last of these, it’s revealed that Miss Piggy has been behind it the whole time, with her telling this young hopeful that she’s the only girl singer on the show. Despite these changes, she would continue to be hopelessly in love with Kermit the Frog, even going as far as getting fired over a rumor she gave to a magazine that the two were secretly married in a fifth-season episode.

These developments in Miss Piggy’s character allowed her to become one of the most popular characters on The Muppet Show, as well as a celebrity in her own right. Miss Piggy began appearing on various magazine covers as early as 1978, including an appearance on the cover of People in 1979. Going along with the aerobics craze of the 80’s, she starred in a workout album of her own that released in 1982, titled Miss Piggy's Aerobique Exercise Workout Album. As many celebrities have, she even launched her own perfume in 1998, simply titled “Moi”. Miss Piggy became so much of a force of her own that during development of Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson wrote in his notes that characters with similar appeals as Kermit, Fozzie Bear, or Gonzo could possibly be created for the new show, but “we will not create anybody with Miss Piggy's kind of appeal- nobody should try.” Frank Oz has even stated that Miss Piggy is one of the only Muppets to be a fully realized, three-dimensional character.

Queen. Diva. Icon.

Miss Piggy was so popular that she even ended up with two of her own television specials. The first, titled The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show, was released in 1982 and featured Miss Piggy hosting her own variety show, with guest stars and all. Poor Kermit is, once again, just trying to keep things running. The second special, titled Miss Piggy’s Hollywood was released in 1989, originally as part of an episode of The Jim Henson Hour. This special features Miss Piggy and Gonzo (in the role of her associate producer) trying to take viewers on a star-studded trip through Hollywood, only to fail miserably through a combination of either missed or one-sided encounters.

Frank Oz would continue performing Miss Piggy until stepping away from puppeteering his Muppet characters in 2000, at which point it was decided that Eric Jacobson would take over Miss Piggy. Oz did come back one last time to perform Miss Piggy in 2002, during an appearance on NBC’s Today.

Going back to the topic of Miss Piggy and Kermit’s relationship for a moment, this is one of the most infamous examples of “will they-won’t they” in modern times. The exact relationship between these two has been up in the air ever since The Muppet Show, and there’s been a fair amount of developments since then. Initially, it started off as Piggy’s one-sided affection for Kermit. In the first three Muppet feature films, Kermit appeared to begin returning Piggy’s feelings, culminating in a wedding between the two in Muppets Take Manhattan. However, when asked about it in many of the interviews that happened after the film’s release, Kermit claims that this wedding wasn’t real because he and Piggy were just acting for the movie. In 2011’s The Muppets, in the process of trying to reunite his friends, Kermit would admit to Miss Piggy that he needed her and that he missed her.

Fast forward to 2015, around the release of the television series The Muppets, and it’s announced that Miss Piggy and Kermit have broken up for good, with Kermit seeming to have moved on already to another pig named Denise. Many of the plot points within the show revolve around this fact, and the first season even ends with Kermit realizing he still loves Miss Piggy. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled and would not receive a second season, so we never did see how that would have ended up. In the present day, it would seem the relationship these two have is similar to what we saw in The Muppet Show, so for now, all is right in the world of Muppets.

That brings us to the Miss Piggy of the present day. Eric Jacobson has performed her as recently as the 2026 Muppet Show special, though he has stated that Frank Oz is welcome to return if he ever chooses to do so. Now whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but it’s interesting to think about what The Muppets would look like if Miss Piggy hadn’t had her moments of depth in the original Muppet Show. Hopefully we get a Muppet Show revival so that we may see the ways our diva continues to shine and steal the spotlight. (and keep threatening the guest stars with her lawyers… if you know you know) Until next time, keep believing and keep pretending!

Pinkie Pie's Odyssey

Written by: Sparks (talk)

My Little Pony: Classics Reimagined - The Odyssey
Shroom227 MLP Odyssey cover A.webp
Author Megan Brown
Release date 2025
Genre adventure, kids, comedy
Pages 88
Available From

Hello everybody! It's me Sparks, back in Pipe Plaza not to write something Poll Committee-related, but to provide another pony section! This one's not about the history of a particular character - instead, it's about a comic. What kind of comic? Have you ever heard of Homer's Odyssey? I have, but I've never read it. Long story short, it's a very old epic Greek poem about a hero named Odysseus going back to Ithaca, his home. During his 10-year journey, he encounters all sorts of wild stuff such as mythical creatures and gods. Honestly, most of my knowledge comes from the Bookworm Adventures games. Does anyone remember those masterpieces?

My Little Pony has had retellings of classic stories with ponies, and Odyssey just so happens to be one of them! I bring you My Little Pony: Classics Reimagined - The Odyssey, where Pinkie Pie must get back home to Sugar Cube Island for the world's most perfect-est cupcake before many hangry ponies eat it! Of course, Pinkie goes on the crazy adventure and meets many... interesting characters and learns valuable lessons during her odyssey.

By the time you're reading this section, I no longer have the comic. It was a gift for one of my nieces, and I really hope she enjoys it! I got this done before her Birthday!

A few disclosures: This is not a Critic Corner section, but more of a general summary of the book. I'm going to discuss the events and plot in great detail and provide hilarious commentary at the same time! The second disclosure is what I said earlier - I'm not too familiar with the original Odyssey, but I'll do my best anyway to entertain you all!

All images in this section are preview images, not screenshotted directly from the comic. I'm pretty sure that'd be illegal!

Amazon profile (it's also on the back of the book!)

Homer's got nothing on this epic poem as The Odyssey meets My Little Pony!

As our Odysseus, Pinkie Pie, tries to find her way back home to the most perfect-est cupcake on Ithaca, she must first overcome talking pigs, mysterious hungry hippies, bugbears, and even a quick, totally painless trip to Tartarus! Join Pinkie Pie, and the motley crew she meets on her travels, as she learns the myths of various Greek gods to help guide her back home! By Fortuna, I hope she makes it!

Brought to you by writer Megan Brown and artists Janna Ayoub, Robin Easter, Brianna Garcia, Natalie Haines, and JustaSuta.

Plot

Introduction

Sugar Cube Corner had an island back then?

The story takes place a looooonnngggg time ago on Sugar Cube Island, narrated by Spike. Pinkamena Diane Pie (AKA Pinkie Pie) departed to the Great Trojan Baking Competition, although she left behind the world's most perfect-est cupcake! It's been 10 years since she left, and the residents of Sugar Cube Island all quarrel with each other over who gets to eat the cupcake. Of the island's residents are cameos including, but not limited to: the three bakers (Gustave le Grand, Donut Joe and Mulia Mild), The Great and Powerful Trixie, and even Cozy Glow. As they squabble, Mrs. Cake anxiously wishes for the return of Pinkie.

Pinkie meets "Homer"!

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie's on her way back to Sugar Cube Island! A bird lands on her boat, causing the energetic party pony to name him "Homer" and become friends with him, even if he's annoyed. This isn't a smooth sail back home however - as Pinkie has no idea how to get back! Homer then alerts Pinkie of a distant island, and the two make landfall there. While playing in the island's sand, Pinkie meets Tree Hugger, a very relaxed pony who's all about good vibes and relaxation. She offers Pinkie a lotus macaron, which will make her "forget all her troubles". Before Pinkie gets a bite in, Tree Hugger tells the story of Atlanta.

Atlanta, Fastest racer in the land (and needs friends too)

Tree Hugger tells Pinkie the legend of Atlanta.

Atlanta (portrayed by Rainbow Dash) was an incredibly fast pony in Arcadia. Her father (portrayed by Bow Hothoof) didn't like how she wasn't taking the time to appreciate her surroundings and the slower moments in life. Atlanta claims that she doesn't need friends and questions why she should be friends with those slower than her. Her father then gets an idea - he decides to host races where ponies compete with Atlanta. Whoever beats Atlanta will become her friend! With that kind of logic, surely this will work.

OK, it doesn't go as planned. Atlanta's so much faster than everypony else, it's not even fair. Nopony stood a chance against her! After so many races, Hippomenes (portrayed by Spitfire) challenges Atlanta to one. She has a secret weapon that'll earn her an advantage and win - a very shiny, golden apple given to her by Aphrodite (portrayed by Applejack, her name isn't told here but she does appear later on). During the race, Hippomenes throws the apple at Atlanta and ends up winning! Finally, Atlanta has a friend, one that shares her interests... neat!

Back out to sea

WAIT A SECOND! During the story, Tree Hugger was one of the racers who competed against Atlanta. Pinkie Pie brings this to her attention, but Tree Hugger does not remember anything. Pinkie then realizes that the lotus macarons of the island are making everypony forget their troubles, and pretty much everything else. She throws her macaron to the ground and makes a break for her boat to escape the island. As Pinkie leaves in her boat, she looks back at a now-burning island (oh yeah forgot to mention that the island had party supplies, including fireworks) with confused residents. Uh... yeah! Moving on...

Not long after, Pinkie's suddenly caught in a great storm and winds up on an isle. She meets the isle's owner, a sorceress known as Circe (portrayed by Zecora) and her many pigs. Circe gives Pinkie a tour around the isle while the pink pony tells her about the Great Trojan Baking Competition and the world's most perfect-est cupcake. During a feast, Zecora tells Pinkie the tale of Arachne.

Arachne, greatest weaver in all the land

Arachne (portrayed by Rarity) was known to be the greatest weaver in all the land. One day, she's visited by an old pony (portrayed by Twilight Sparkle) who claims that Athena - the goddess of wisdom and crafts - is unrivaled and that nopony is better than her. The old pony reveals herself to actually be Athena and challenges Arachne to a battle of weaving! After a fierce competition, the ponies present their fabrics: Arachne's is quite beautiful and shows her in front of a bright light, while Athena's shows her about to crush a spider. Athena then admits Arachne's better than her, but she transforms her into a spider afterwards, believing that even the smallest creatures can create masterpieces, and encourages her to consider humility because of her bragging earlier. Yikes... now Arachne kinda lives up to her name!

Moral of this story - In the words of Circe: "A little brag might do no harm, but too much can turn into smarm." Pinkie then vows not to only look for glory.

Escaping from Circe

Circe then encourages Pinkie to stay on her isle for a little while (heh, Zecora-style rhyme) due to not having company in so long. Pinkie has to get back home though, and Circe isn't willing to let her go so easily. She tells her that her pigs were once ponies who wanted to leave, and threatens to transform Pinkie into a pig as well. Pinkie encourages the pigs to leave the island before she vamooses herself, but she tells Circe that she'd want to be her friend before exiting.

For some reason, there's an action movie-style explosion on the isle (which Pinkie walks away from with sunglasses on), and many pigs escape the isle in their own boats, along with Pinkie. As they leave, Circe realizes her errors and her spells wear off, restoring the pigs back to the ponies they were originally. Of the pigs was Marini, the best friend of Circe. Circe asks for forgiveness, and Marini agrees it's best to start over. Nice! Now it's time for Pinkie to continue her journey, but what's this? It seems a Bugbear that was on Circe's isle boarded Pinkie's boat without her realizing it. I guess this means it's time for a detour!

Tartarus

SEVERAL HOURS LATER...

Pinkie and the bugbear are now at Tartarus (basically the Underworld of My Little Pony). Now she must say to her new friend before he's set free. While Pinkie remembers the great times she's had with him, she's interrupted by Hades (portrayed by Discord), lord of the Underworld. He's upset at Pinkie for interrupting his reading of Homer's Odyssey, and orders her to leave Tartarus immediately. Hades also grants Pinkie with a map to get back to Sugar Cube Island, but the map shows two possible routes to get back home. Pinkie stops to consider which route is better:

  • If Pinkie goes left, then she'll have to deal with sea serpents. The worst part is she'll never make it back home! Instead she'll become old and depressed.
  • The right path however, leads to calm waters directly to Sugar Cube Island. This seems to be the correct way!

Just before Pinkie (and Homer, he's still with her!) can set off, the Goddess of Spring, Persephone (portrayed by Fluttershy) arrives and thanks Pinkie for returning the bugbear to Tartarus. She also wants to give advice to Pinkie on which way to go, but the choice already seems obvious, right? The sunny/happy path looks to be the correct way home, but Persephone tells another story first!

Helios and Phaëthon, celestial sisters

Helios, the Goddess of the Sun (portrayed by Princess Celestia), pulled the sun across the sky, bringing forth morning, evening, and nighttime every day. Her sister, Phaëthon (portrayed by Princess Luna), desires to help Helios, but she declares the work too dangerous and forbids Phaëthon to pull the sun, much to her annoyance. This is especially infuriating because everypony thanks Helios for what she does. Oh dear... On Phaëthon's birthday, the unappreciated sister is granted one wish as a gift. Take a guess as to what she wished for!

If you guessed "Phaëthon wants to pull the sun and have everypony like her just as much as her sister" (or something along those lines) then congratulations! Helios warns her sister about the difficulty of moving the sun, but Phaëthon's got this. At least, she thinks she does. Turns out it's much harder than she thought! After embarrassing herself, Helios comforts Phaëthon by telling her that she moves the sun not just because of practice, but support as well. Everypony has strengths and weaknesses, and moving the sun was not for Phaëthon. Thankfully, the moon is left unattended. This means Phaëthon can move it across the sky! Finally, Phaëthon has a task that makes her feel appreciated. Again, nice!

Which way to go?

Persephone tells Pinkie the moral of the story she just told her - paths that look easy may actually prove to be difficult. Not only that, but storms always pass. Therefore, Persephone tells Pinkie to go left where the storms are. However, Pinkie confuses "right" meaning "not left" rather than "correct", so she goes right, despite Homer's protests. Pinkie soon finds herself between a rock and hard place... literally. To make things worse, she's then attacked by a many-headed snake-like monster (not Medusa by the way). To top it all off, there's also a whirlpool! Things look pretty dire, but not all hope is lost! Pinkie just remembered she brought her party cannon with her in this trip, so she lights it up and uses it as an engine to dash outta that scary situation. Such a convenient plot device indeed!

And look - The powerful makeshift engine got Pinkie (and Homer) back to Sugar Cube Island! Now back home, Pinkie gets off her boat and expresses how much she missed several island things, including a statue of a pony named "Odysseus", whom Pinkie doesn't recognize. Pinkie's joy is short-lived however, as she discovers that the island is about to hold another baking competition to determine who gets the world's most perfect-est cupcake. Mrs. Cake couldn't hold off those hangry ponies anymore it seems... As Pinkie comes down in the dumps, a family member comes over to see how she's doing - Maud Pie! She too has a story for Pinkie to hear.

Psyche and Eros, anything for love

Once upon a time, the beautiful Psyche (portrayed by Sugar Bell) married a seemingly terrifying creature named Eros (portrayed by Big Mac). Despite looking fearsome, Eros is kind and respectful at heart. He had one rule for Psyche however, and that was to not directly look at him. Curiosity gets the better of Psyche, so one day while Eros is sleeping, she uses a candle to see what he actually looks like, and he's not scary at all. Eros wakes up to see Psyche break their promise and leaves her behind. Determined to make things right, Psyche visits the goddess of love, Aphrodite (once again, portrayed by Applejack). Aphrodite offers a deal to Psyche - if she works very hard and completes tasks set by Aphrodite, then she'll tell Eros Psyche "really means business".

Psyche's tasks are all exhausting: she sorts seeds, shears sheep, collects water from the River Styx, and even gives Persephone's pet rabbit (portrayed by Angel) a good grooming. With her tasks all done, Psyche returns to Aphrodite. What Psyche didn't know is that Eros returned to reunite with her, and the two lived happily ever after. Awwwww!

The final baking competition!

Invigorated from Maud's story, Pinkie Pie makes it her mission to decimate the competition! She remembered the story of Arachne, so she doesn't want to just walk in and take the world's most perfect-est cupcake just because she's Pinkie, she wants to earn it fair and square. To keep her identity hidden, she gets a disguise from "Disguises 'R' Us" and enters the competition as "Fiery". She kinda looks like Guy Fieri to me...

The bakers are tasked to create a fully edible display to showcase the world's most perfect-est cupcake. Pinkie's competition is composed of several characters from the intro sequence, including Queen Chrysalis and Zephyr Breeze, which is very surprising to me! As the heat picks up, Pinkie gets a flashback from her previous competition where she forgot to put in support dowels in her dessert, causing it to fall over. This is a lesson from the lotus macaron from earlier, because Pinkie remembered her past mistake and aims to make sure it doesn't happen again. She thanks her past self and seemingly breaks time, but because this is a comic book, everything is fine. Just your usual Pinkie antics!

When the competition finally wraps, Mrs. Cake chooses the winner - Chef Fiery! Pinkie then takes off her disguise to show everyone her real identity, followed by a victory celebration with everypony congratulating her. She's awarded the world's most perfect-est cupcake, but before she could eat it, Homer swoops in and snatches the cupcake. Before the comic concludes, Pinkie shrugs it off and declares "Oh well! It's about the journey, after all!" Bravo to Pinkie for staying positive!

Credits

  • Script by - Megan Brown
  • Letters by - Johanna Nattalie
  • Pinkie's Journey artwork (pages 5-13, 22-30, 37-50, 58-68, 76-84)
    • Art by - Jenna Ayoub
    • Colors by - Heather Breckel
  • Plate artwork (pages 14-21)
    • Art by - Brianna Garcia
    • Colors by - Nathalie Fourdraine
  • Loom art (pages 31-36) - Natalie Haines
  • Friezes (pages 51-57) - JustaSuta
  • Amphora art (pages 69-75) - Robin Easter
  • Cover art A artwork - Jenna Ayoub
  • Cover art B artwork - Amy Mebberson
  • Cover art RI artwork - Sara Richard

Gallery

  • Cover art B

    Cover art B

  • Cover art RI

    Cover art RI

  • That must be a super-duper-yummy-delicious cupcake!

    That must be a super-duper-yummy-delicious cupcake!

  • Good thing Anakin isn't here!

    Good thing Anakin isn't here!

  • It looks like a peaceful society, but...

    It looks like a peaceful society, but...

That was so much fun! Reading about what happens in this story is great, but looking at the amazing artwork it has to offer as you read is so much better! My time with this comic may have been brief, but I had a blast reading it and making this section. I sure hope my niece is enjoying her birthday present! Thanks for reading and always remember to shine in the face of adversity like Pinkie!

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The 'Shroom: Issue 227
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Poll Chairperson Election • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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