The 'Shroom:Issue 223/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Hello everyone and welcome to a new Pipe Plaza! I'm currently writing this on my phone very late at night so I'll keep this short and sweet!

We have a special one-off all about Dry Bowser this month courtesy of Boo1268! Additionally, this month's issue also has the final Anniversary Announcements for the year! But don't worry, because you can always send in a wonderful Pipe Plaza section of your own to be featured among the rest of our wonderful sections here! Just head to the sign up page to learn more!

Thank you for coming to wonderful Pipe Plaza, and have a nice rest of the month ^^

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Waluigi Time (talk) with The Lost Winners of the Mario Awards! Second place is... also Waluigi Time (talk) with Awards Analysis! Tying for third is Shoey (talk) with What's in a Campaign? and Paper Plumm (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st The Lost Winners of the Mario Awards 9 47.37% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd Awards Analysis 6 31.58% Waluigi Time (talk)
3rd What's in a Campaign? 2 10.53% Shoey (talk)
3rd Poll Committee Discussion 2 10.53% Paper Plumm (talk)
News and information
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
Waluigi Time (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Waluigi Time (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
Awards Analysis
TheBlueCatMenace
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)
One! One section about Muppets! Ah ah ah!
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Shoey (talk)
mechanical clucking intensifies
read more
Dry Bowser Data
Boo1268
Come find out all about that skeletal Koopa King!
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Mario Calendar! You know, the place where I talk about EVERY Mario game that has ever been released. This month, we've got a good one -- October! This is Nintendo's premiere release month for video games in the past few years, and it shows. So what say we get right 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

See what I'm saying? Let me just quickly go through ALL of the major Mario games that have come out in recent memory in October - Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Party, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, Mario Party Superstars, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and the recent remakes of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. Ever since the original Switch's release year, we have gotten a major Mario game simultaneously released across all regions around the world.

I also just want to quickly apologize for missing last month! These past two months have been the busiest months of my life, and I barely even got this month's submission out in time. But the grind must go on!!

Anyways, I hope you all have an amazing October, and a very happy Halloween! I'll see you next month.

To-Do Tracker

Written by: Cam / Tori / Cecil / Claire / Macy (talk)

BOO!! For Halloween, we've dressed up as something truly scary... Unfinished business! Or... well... numbers that represent in-progress Wiki maintenance... or, we mean, we didn't dress up as it, but we're showcasing it, and...

...Hmm. Maybe this joke doesn't work well. Ah, well. Point is, we've got yet another month of goings-on to document. It's been a surprisingly slow month, so pardon us if there isn't much to say, but when has that ever stopped us?

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

September & October To-Do Items
To-Do Item Sep 17, 2025 Sep 24, 2025 Oct 1, 2025 Oct 8, 2025 Oct 15, 2025
Spotlight focuses 6 5 5 5 4
Ongoing TPPs 7 9 12 7 1
Unimplemented Proposals 30+ 30+ 30+ 30+ 30+
Unresolved Discussions 286 291 295 298 304
Construction Projects 134 131 131 124 123
Rewrites Needed 151 155 156 157 158
Sourcing Issues 19,541 19,540 19,540 19,480 19,463
Stub Articles 756 768 771 776 789
Wanted Articles 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+
Requested Deletions 4 1 3 3 5
Suggested Moves 61 59 62 62 62
Suggested Merges 60 62 62 65 66
Suggested Splits 63 64 63 63 64
Deprecated Templates 36 36 33 33 33
Unknown Meanings N/A 2 2 4 2
Image Quality 3,898 3,893 3,976 3,970 3,977
Images Needed 729 728 705 689 692
Media Needed 418 427 428 429 432
Media Quality 2 2 2 2 2
Unused Files 400+ 300+ 300+ 100+ 100+
Files To Be Used 15 19 22 17 16

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

  • For one... Wow, this month cooled off on Talk Page Proposals towards the end. As a result, Moves/Merges/Splits all saw a subtle growth, as proposals weren't exactly taking care of them. (We know... One of these without a conventional moves/merges/split bullet point. Parish the thought!)
  • Construction projects have gone down as more pages finsh up, while stub articles go up as more are uncovered. Rewrites has a very slow and steady increase, but not much else.
  • Sourcing issues continues its steady decline, with just over 17,000 pages having unsourced foreign names at time of writing. Incidentally, the pages lacking timestamps sits at around 15, and pages with unsourced sections is even smaller than that. Could these two be picked clean by the end of the year, now that we've pointed this out? Only time will tell.
  • Deprecated templates has hit a bit of a stall, only going from 36 to 33 across the entire month. We would definitely say focus in on this one, it's already a good portion of the way done as it is, and the current template being deprecated involves New Super Mario Bros. U, which isn't exactly the hardest game to get a hold of!
  • Images needed has officially gone under 700 entries! There's no real deep science to it, it's just been a solid month for the category as a whole, though plenty of the culprits were thanks to clearing out specifically articles that needed more images.
  • Media needed continues its grim ascent. It may very well reach 450 by the end of the year at this rate... Can it be halted?
  • It's a quiet month for Media Quality, sitting pat at 2 entries remaining. Unsurprising, seeing as one requires technical know-how to resolve, and the other requires a Blu-ray copy of The Super Mario Bros. Movie to resolve. With the sequel slowly but steadily approaching, now might be a good time to fix that latter one?
  • You might've noticed Unused Files slingshotting back-and-forth this month. On the one hand, it's just been a volatile category, with many of those unused files either being pruned in the wake of replacements, or having homes found on respective articles. But not clearly visible from our graph is that, on September 25th, it was at 200+... before shooting up to 400+ on the afternoon of October 1st, before sinking back down to 300+. Without naming names, the culprit were a ton of images that were to be used for a list page regarding Donkey Kong Bananza... Yet, were not sorted as "To be used" by the uploader in the interim.
  • Rather than point specific fingers at one person, as that's not wholly productive, we'd instead like to put out a reminder, for everyone, that the {{future-use}} template, and by proxy, the Files to be used category, exist. For both the sake of the To-Do bar, and your fellow editors, if you ever upload otherwise-unused files that you wholly intend to use on a page you haven't written yet, remember to mark them as "Files To Be Used" with the {{future-use}} template! Not only is it more accurate of a measure on the to-bar in terms of what's actually an unused file and what's actively planned for use, but the Files To Be Used quantity is handled automatically, and far more precise--thusly, it makes for less legwork to update the value in extreme cases such as this. (Of course, it's no cure-all; after a certain point, it may prove tedious to remove the {{future-use}} template from many images, so we'd suggest only doing this if you have about a dozen or fewer images--otherwise, it is probably more advisable to just wait to upload the images until you need them in the first place.)

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

PCBanner15.png y8msNi2.png

Polls! Due to circumstances I'm covering four of them! So let's not waste any time and just get right into it.

Archives

How do you feel about the recently released Mario Kart World? (MightyMario (talk), August 17th, 2025)

How do you feel about the recently released Mario Kart World?

I have not played Mario Kart World. 36.59% (1,025 votes)
The game is amazing, and I love it. 22.74% (637 votes)
The game is great, and I like it a lot. 19.99% (560 votes)
The game is OK, but it could have been better. 15.85% (444 votes)
I have no opinion. 2.86% (80 votes)
The game was bad, and I did not enjoy it. 1.96% (55 votes)
Total votes: 2,801

The Mario Party franchise contains several categories of minigames across its many games. Which category is your favorite? (Sparks (talk), August 31st, 2025)

The Mario Party franchise contains several categories of minigames across its many games. Which category is your favorite?

4 Player/Free-for-All 52.68% (924 votes)
I have no opinion. 10.21% (179 votes)
1-vs.-3/1-vs.-Rivals 8.89% (156 votes)
Boss Battle 7.30% (128 votes)
2-vs.-2 5.53% (97 votes)
Rhythm 3.42% (60 votes)
Battle 2.79% (49 votes)
Duel 2.11% (37 votes)
Bowser 1.88% (33 votes)
Co-op/Kaboom-Squad 1.65% (29 votes)
Donkey Kong 1.48% (26 votes)
I like a category not listed above. 1.25% (22 votes)
Team 0.80% (14 votes)
Total votes: 1,754

The Super Mario series has featured many mushrooms that transform or otherwise aid Mario and his allies. Which is your favorite? (Sparks (talk), September 13th, 2025)

The Super Mario series has featured many mushrooms that transform or otherwise aid Mario and his allies. Which is your favorite?

Mega Mushroom 19.82% (478 votes)
Propeller Mushroom 15.55% (375 votes)
Super Mushroom 13.60% (328 votes)
Drill Mushroom 10.24% (247 votes)
1-Up Mushroom 7.17% (173 votes)
Bee Mushroom 6.97% (168 votes)
Boo Mushroom 6.80% (164 votes)
I have no opinion. 5.14% (124 votes)
Mini Mushroom 4.06% (98 votes)
I like a Mushroom not listed above. 3.40% (82 votes)
Life Mushroom 2.78% (67 votes)
Rock Mushroom 2.74% (66 votes)
Spring Mushroom 1.74% (42 votes)
Total votes: 2,412

What currently revealed aspects of the Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary do you like so far? (MightyMario (talk), September 28th, 2025)

What currently revealed aspects of the Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary do you like so far?

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie 23.36% (1,616 votes)
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 16.41% (1,135 votes)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park 12.61% (872 votes)
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book 11.33% (784 votes)
Physical version of Rosalina's Storybook 10.65% (737 votes)
Mario Tennis Fever 8.46% (585 votes)
Toy version of a Talking Flower 7.65% (529 votes)
New amiibo figures centered around Super Mario Galaxy 6.45% (446 votes)
I have no opinion. 3.08% (213 votes)
Total votes: 6,917

Analysis

How do you feel about the recently released Mario Kart World?

Concept artwork featuring Cow for Mario Kart World

It's been a few months now since Mario Kart World came out, so MightyMario's got a good old-fashioned general thoughts poll. Unsurprisingly, the majority of voters (36.59%) still haven't played it (including me!). Might have something to do with being locked behind a brand new console that's notably expensive! I wonder what would've happened if there were separate options for people who want to play the game at some point and those who aren't interested. Oh well.

I've noticed a fair amount of negative buzz about the game online for reasons that I haven't personally been paying much attention to, but of the voters who have played the game, most of them have a positive opinion about it! 22.74% said they love the game, and another 19.99% still like it quite a bit. Another 15.85% think the game is okay but needs improvements, which makes sense - some of the decisions I've seen for the game are a little baffling! Only 1.96% of voters didn't enjoy their time with the game, even less than the 2.86% who have no opinion! I'm actually kind of curious about those no opinion voters. Did they play it and just never form an opinion on the game? Did they not play and just miss that option somehow? Maybe both? Who knows!

The Mario Party franchise contains several categories of minigames across its many games. Which category is your favorite?

Bowser's Big Blast in Mario Party Superstars.

Now for a Mario Party-focused poll from Sparks! Normally this might be where my limited experience with Mario Party comes back to bite me, if not for the fact that this poll had a very decisive result! 52.68% of voters chose 4-Player minigames as their favorite type. If I can put on my Awards hat for a moment, this tracks with the results of the Favorite Mario Party Minigame, where four of the top five minigames were 4-Player. 4-Player minigames are the most plentiful in the series by a longshot, so there's a lot of options to choose from to make this category someone's favorite.

The second place option with 10.21% of the votes (yeah, pretty big gap there) is the dreaded no opinion option! Usually when it ranks this high, I usually say something like "this doesn't bode well for the other options" but I don't think that's the case here. This one's likely a mix of voters who play Mario Party but don't feel strongly about any particular category of minigame, and voters who just haven't played the games at all or don't like the series. I'm not going to fully cover the rest of the options because, honestly, I don't have much to say. But not too surprisingly, some of the other categories doing the best, 1-vs.-3 (8.89%) and 2-vs.-2 (5.53%), are the broader and dare I say less gimmicky concepts that have been around forever. Boss Battle squeaking in between them at 7.3% is kind of interesting since they're relatively new to the series, but watch as I make some of you crumble to dust by reminding you that a lot of the voters are probably younger than the Wii itself at this point! Rhythm minigames having 3.42% of the vote is also a little bit surprising since they're only in Super Mario Party and Jamboree, but maybe it's a newness thing.

The Super Mario series has featured many mushrooms that transform or otherwise aid Mario and his allies. Which is your favorite?

Artwork of a Mega Mushroom in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

Another poll from Sparks, this time about mushrooms! (Sadly, not The 'Shroom). There's a lot of mushroom items in the platformers, so many that we had to leave some off the poll, but one stands tall above the rest - literally! With 19.82% of the vote, the Mega Mushroom is the clear favorite of the voters. And who could blame them? What other Mario power-up makes you feel as powerful as the Mega Mushroom, even if it's just for a limited time? It certainly made an impression on me when I first played New Super Mario Bros.. The Propeller Mushroom, one of my personal favorite power-ups, follows it up with 15.55% of the vote, and this is another one that really stands out among other mushrooms, in my opinion. Flight power-ups are always pretty fun, and the Propeller Mushroom gives you a lot of mobility options. So, what's our next super interesting mushroom? ...Huh.

It's the classic Super Mushroom taking third place with 13.6% of votes, which seems kind of odd at first glance! After all, the Super Mushroom doesn't really let you do anything unique. Sure, Super Mario can break blocks and tank a hit, but almost every power-up does that. I suppose there's something to be said for its iconic status, though. It's the first power-up ever encountered in the series, and it's become a symbol of the entire franchise itself. It's old reliable! Maybe it doesn't do anything flashy, but there's people out there who will tell you that "Ground BGM" is still their favorite piece of Mario music 40 years later.

I'll spare you from me going into detail about the rest of the results, because it's mushrooms all the way down. I would like to put on my Awards hat again, though! Specifically, I wanted to see how well the results here line up with the Favorite Power-Up award. Turns out, they really don't. It's not a perfect comparison, of course - only the Mega, Propeller, and Drill Mushrooms are currently on the award, and they're competing with plenty of other power-ups that aren't mushrooms. There, however, it's the Propeller Mushroom performing the best of the three, followed by Mega and then Drill (which is at least consistent with that one coming in at fourth with 10.24% of the vote).

What currently revealed aspects of the Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary do you like so far?

International poster for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie featuring the targeted release date.

And now we finish where we began, with another poll from MightyMario about the latest batch of Mario announcements for the 40th anniversary! Don't let the nearly 7,000 votes fool you - this one allowed voters to select as many options as they wanted. Big surprise, the winner here is the sequel to the movie that made a bajillion dollars, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie with 1,616 votes! I'm surprised they didn't announce any new cast members or anything, considering how much of the buzz for the first movie revolved around the initial cast reveal (although maybe not all for the right reasons). But hey, it's something people were already looking forward to, there's actual info on it now, and it's taking heavy influence from one of the most beloved Mario games. Speaking of beloved Mario games, Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 is next with 1,135 votes. As popular as the Galaxy games are, I'm a little surprised to see a fairly standard port take second here. Maybe the movie's giving it a hype boost, but then again, I did mention earlier that a lot of voters are probably younger than the Wii, so this might very well be plenty of people's first opportunity to play these!

The Switch 2 Edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder (sorry, I'm not writing that whole mess of a title) is third with 872 votes, and maybe you've noticed a trend here, the top options are all tied to legacy content, or at least as legacy as you can consider a 2-year old platformer to be in this case. It looks like it has some pretty cool stuff in it though. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, to its credit, isn't too far behind with 784 votes, then we get into merch with a physical Rosalina's Storybook (737 votes) pulling ahead of Mario Tennis Fever (585 votes), which could be doing better here. People seem pretty excited about Baby Waluigi but maybe that's not translating into hype for the game itself as much. The Talking Flower toy (529 votes) and new Super Mario Galaxy amiibo (446 votes) round out the bottom, before we get the ever-present no opinion option, selected by 213 of the voters. It's very possible that some of them also selected other options anyway and decided to be jokesters.

Conclusion

So, those were our polls! That was a lot so I'll just sign off here.

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

“I had to save the Blobby scribble to my phone so I expect it to begin emitting smoke soon.”
—GBA (talk · Boards)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! It's me, definitely Lakituthequick, don't pay any attention to that writing credit up there. I'm sitting in a cloud right now, really! Anyway, welcome to the last Anniversary Announcements of this year's Awards season!

Tournaments

In this section of AA, I shall update you on all things tournaments, including new ones and progress in ongoing ones.

The Mega Brawl Mines
The boss encounter for the first area has been initiated, but the game is currently on pause due to other commitments for the host and players.
The game is expected to be moved to the Strategy board to complete its run.
The Scribble Circuit 2025
The sixth bonus round, dubbed round Ω, has been completed, marking the official end of the tournament. Polls for the overall favorite scribble and challenge scribble for each player have been held, and the results of those have been posted.

Well, there you go, not much left to talk about! That concludes Anniversary Announcements for now, but don't worry because there's always fun stuff going on in this community even when we're not wearing our party hats.

Awards Analysis

Written by: TheBlueCatMenace

Howdy folks! It's me, TheBlueCatMenace, here, bringing you a brand new issue of Awards Analysis. I've never written one of these before, but I can still guarantee that it will be filled with all the analytical goodness you came for. So, let's jump straight in!

Archives

F7. Worst Title

F7. Worst Title

Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV 30.42% (673 votes)
Yoshi's Universal Gravitation 11.03% (244 votes)
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 10.62% (235 votes)
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 7.23% (160 votes)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 24.29% (95 votes)
Yoshi's New Island 4.11% (91 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey 3.98% (88 votes)
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games 3.48% (77 votes)
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition 3.44% (76 votes)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars 3.30% (73 votes)
Total votes: 2,212

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

Birdo 9.23% (245 votes)
King Boo 8.78% (233 votes)
Pauline 8.63% (229 votes)
Captain Toad 8.33% (221 votes)
Funky Kong 7.61% (202 votes)
Professor E. Gadd 7.42% (197 votes)
Kamek 6.37% (169 votes)
Cappy 5.84% (155 votes)
Toadsworth 5.46% (145 votes)
Talking Flower 4.94% (131 votes)
Total votes: 2,654

M20. Favorite Game (Wii U/3DS and newer)

M20. Favorite Game (Wii U/3DS and newer)

Super Mario Odyssey 29.42% (686 votes)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 10.51% (245 votes)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder 9.56% (223 votes)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) 8.40% (196 votes)
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury 6.09% (142 votes)
Mario Kart World 5.92% (131 votes)
Super Mario Maker 2 4.85% (113 votes)
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 3.56% (83 votes)
Luigi's Mansion 3 2.79% (65 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 2.74% (64 votes)
Total votes: 2,332

Analysis

F7. Worst Title

American box art for Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV
I'm surprised you can get that all on the box.

Ah yes, the award for all the clear, concise, snappy titles that have ever appeared in the Mario franchise. Oh, whoops, I meant the opposite of that. This is a brand new award that, to be honest, probably won't last long. I have a feeling that the results are gonna be pretty repetitive.

Anyway, let's have a look at the actual results! Starting at ten, we have Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars. That's a dumb sounding name that doesn't really describe the game well. Number nine is Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. This is another title that doesn't really sound good or describe its game. I preferred NES Remix. Number eight and seven are Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, respectively. These games both have really long, clunky titles. Surely they could've shortened these down, right?

Number six, Yoshi's New Island. It's called this as this game is set on a new island. Real creative name there, Nintendo. The name honestly makes it sound as if Yoshi owns this new island as well, or moved there or something, but that's not true. Also, you can't really use new in the title of a game like this, as it won't be new anymore once a sequel comes out. Fortunately, there totally is not any other Mario series that uses new in its name so we can excuse this as a simple mistake.

At number five, we find NEW Super Mario Bros. 2. The name immediately contradicts itself by saying it's new, but then also that it's a sequel. So I suppose it's new, then, but what about New Super Mario Bros.? Is it now Old Super Mario Bros.? It gets worse with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Okay, this game came out on the switch, so U doesn't make sense anymore, not that it was a great title to begin with, but there's also the deluxe, admitting it's not even the new version of this game. Complete train wreck, and it's only number four.

Snagging bronze on this award is Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. Well? Which game is it? This title seems to be having trouble picking which number it wants to be. This probably confused parents all over the country trying to find the Mario game their kid asked for. Grabbing the silver is Yoshi's Universal Gravitation, which for the longest time I genuinely thought was a joke title people gave to the game, but no, it's real. There are game cartridges with Yoshi's Universal Gravitation on them.

Finally, being crowned the worst Mario game title, with a whopping 30% of votes, we have Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. It got over four hundred votes more than second place! That's an enormous gap. Nintendo took an already fairly long title and tacked on Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. That just clutters up the whole title, and the box was already bright red with a big Switch 2 logo anyway. Then Nintendo adds Jamboree TV, which is a DLC that just adds a few extra modes and minigames. The only time TV is involved is if you're playing on one! It's safe to say that this will probably remain the champion of this award, unless Nintendo makes New Super Mario Strikers: Battle League Football - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park + Jamboree TV + Bowser's Fury Gold Featuring Dante From the Devil May Cry Series & Knuckles with New Funky Mode Royal Warriors Game of the Year Edition any time soon.

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

Artwork of Birdo in Mario Party 9 (later used in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mario Kart Tour and Mario Party Superstars)
Where did she come from?

After seeing Waluigi Time did Favorite Major Character last month, I thought it would be nice to see if anything major (pun not intended) happened in the award below it, Favorite Supporting Character. This award doesn't usually have much variation in results, but for some reason, there was a huge shake up this year. Last year's champions were all launched out of the top three, and replaced by characters who had never been in the top three before.

Somehow, Pauline, King Boo and Birdo made it into the top three, leaving last year's champs in fourth, fifth and sixth. To be fair, the votes were quite close, with Pauline getting past Captain Toad with only eight votes more. I'm very confused at what happened here. I can understand Pauline, as she was about to play a large role in a new game, but King Boo and Birdo?! What am I missing? Last year, Birdo was only in tenth place with eighty-eight votes. Did she rig the vote? I'm looking forward to next year's results, where the Talking Flower will probably win.

M20. Favorite Game (Wii U/3DS and newer)

Super Mario Odyssey - final box art
Wow, what a shocker.

Oh, did Mario Odyssey win again? No way…Yeah, so these results look pretty familiar. In fact, Mario Odyssey pulled off a Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV where it got over four hundred votes more than second place. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has reclaimed its second place spot from Paper Mario TTYD, which has moved down to fourth. Mario Wonder still holds on to third. From there down, everything proceeds as expected, major Mario games fill out the spaces, including one that didn't do as well as I expected.

Mario Kart World sits very sadly at number six, not a bad score, but considering it's a brand new sequel in the absolutely huge Mario Kart series and the main launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, that's not a great performance. However, this result does make sense. Mario Kart World is not only quite a controversial game, but it's also likely not many voters actually owned the game during the voting period.

From there I don't have much to say, apart from the fact that Luigi's Mansion 3 squeaked into ninth with ONE vote more than tenth. What was tenth? Uh, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. I don't know how it got into the top ten, but there it is. My personal theory is that all the Mario & Luigi: Dream Team superfans organised to vote for it as much as possible. I'll also point out that it beat Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the newest entry in the series, which may spark a civil war in the Mario & Luigi fanbase.

Conclusion

Well, that's all from me. There's been a lot of unpredictable results in this batch, and as an agent of chaos this pleases me greatly. Anyway, prepare yourselves for next month when Boo1268 presents a higher-quality, better thought out awards analysis than I did. Buh-bye!

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Welcome to The 'Shroom Report 2!, the only edition of this section that will ever talk about Issue 222 unless someone else in the distant future decides to write these about old issues and does this one again. I think that probably won't happen though. Special thanks to Meta Knight for keeping the spreadsheets up to date, as well as Hooded Pitohui who wrestled tirelessly with Microsoft Excel to bring you this month's bit of trivia!

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

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Sections 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
Investigative Research Koopa (talk)
Hex Puzzle Aomaf (talk)
An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 4 Sparks (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
News Flush Aomaf (talk)
News Flush Boo1268
News Flush Shoey (talk)
Obituaries Waluigi Time (talk)
Travel Guide ClawgripFan9001
Die WAH With A Vengeance ClawgripFan9001
Mavero the Hammer Bro's Revenge Boo1268, TheBlueCatMenace, Legend 8, and DryBonesBandit
The Lost Winners of the Mario Awards Waluigi Time (talk)
Milestones
Writer Milestone
Aomaf (talk) 1st Fun Stuff section
Boo1268 30 Fake News sections
ClawgripFan9001 20 Palette Swap sections
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 80 Fake News sections
400 overall sections
Shoey (talk) 100 Fake News sections
Sparks (talk) 10 Fun Stuff sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 170 Fake News sections
50 Pipe Plaza sections
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News Waluigi Time (talk) 171
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 164
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 212
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 215
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 165
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
Of the 312 users that have written for The 'Shroom to date, 192 of them have only written 1-10 sections! An additional 50 fall into the 11-20 range, leaving only 70 writers who have continued past that point - additionally, 22 of them have broken the 100 mark.

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. It’s been a hot minute (thank you life for life-ing too hard), but last time we talked about everyone’s favorite thespian and fashion expert, Uncle Deadly. This month, with it being spooky season and all, I thought it fitting to go over Sesame Street’s spookiest resident. Today, we’re talking about everyone’s favorite counter, Count von Count!

They say “character counts”, and in this case it’s quite literal…

Count von Count was created by Sesame Street writer Norman Stiles, who was writing a vampire that wasn’t really a vampire, but just had a love for numbers and counting. Stiles was telling performer Jerry Nelson about this character, who thought it was a fun idea for a character. Nelson went right to Jim Henson and told him about the character that Stiles was writing. Henson wanted to hear the character, and Nelson gave him a voice on the spot, to which Henson let him keep the voice and perform as the Count. The Count’s voice is very much a tribute to Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1931 film Dracula, with the accent and replacement of ‘w’s in speech with ‘v’s, and this bled into other aspects of the character in later years.

Count von Count debuted on Sesame Street in episode 406, the season 4 premiere. He appears in a sketch with Bert and Ernie, trying to take down a block pyramid the two have built so that he can count the blocks. It’s worth noting that the Count is more sinister than we know him today in these early appearances, as in this sketch he is shown using hypnosis to stun both Ernie and Bert when each of them tries to stop his counting. In another early sketch, the Count uses hypnosis on poor Grover, forcing the furry Muppet to bring him countless plates of hot dogs. Was Grover working as a waiter in this particular instance? Yes, but one could argue that this counts as cruel and unusual punishment to waiters and servers everywhere. (Before you ask, I work as a server so I’m allowed to say that it’s cruel and unusual!!)

In all his appearances, the Count will try to count one or more things - sometimes to the hindrance of other characters. When he is finished counting, he will announce his total and a thunder crash can be heard, along with flashing lightning that will appear on screen. These effects are caused by a personal cloud that floats above the Count.

Sometime around 1975, the Count’s character was shifted away from sinister to something more child-friendly. No longer did he use hypnosis for nefarious purposes, and his more sinister laugh became something more Lugosi-inspired to fit with other aspects of the character. However, he did still insist on counting things and potentially annoying other characters in the process. This shift made Count’s character more in line with what we recognize of him today.

A very interesting thing to note is that the Count is one of the few mainstay Muppets whose appearance has gone relatively unchanged since his creation. Naturally, his puppet has been rebuilt a number of times over the years just due to general wear-and-tear, but there have been no major visual differences that many other Muppets, such as Cookie Monster or Miss Piggy, have seen in their rebuilds.

Jerry Nelson voiced Count von Count up until his death in 2012. However, Nelson had to stop puppeteering his characters (including the Count) by the late 2000’s due to his declining health. Matt Vogel took over puppeteering for many of Nelson’s characters by 2008. After Nelson’s death, it was decided that Vogel would take over voicing the Count as well. As of writing, Vogel remains the Count’s primary performer.

We need more easter egg tributes to the puppeteers in this show, damn it.

Sesame Street did take an episode to honor Jerry Nelson and his most well-known character in the show. Airing in 2013, episode 4411 depicts Count von Count receiving the Noble Prize for Counting. A play on the Nobel Prize, the award depicts Nelson’s likeness and is given out to the ‘World’s Best Counter’. Truly, there could not have been a better tribute to Nelson’s time performing the Count given within the scope of this series.

To this day, they say Count von Count is still counting anything and everything he can get his hands on. To be honest, when I first decided to cover the Count for this month’s edition, I didn’t realize how consistent his character and appearance has been over the years. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though it does make finding things to discuss in this section rather difficult… Can’t say that about the Muppet I’m planning to talk about in December, though! But until then, keep believing and keep pretending!

What's in a Campaign?

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello and welcome back to What's in a Campaign?, a section where I look through various competitors from the hit BBC Show Robot Wars. The last two months, we've looked at serious competitors Wild Thing 2 and Panic Attack. Well, this month I decided it's time to go back to the fun side of Robot Wars, so we're going to look at the Series 7 run of Robochicken.

This fowl is on the prowl!
Built by friends Jason Snow, Alec Dick, and Farren White, Robochicken first fought in Series 4 and went through a number of different designs. Previous versions of Robochicken featured a front-facing axe in the shape of a chicken's head with its beak as the axe tip and a flipper at the back.
Robochicken "contributing" in the Tag Team Terror
As you can guess, the axe was, how you say, not very useful, so for series 7 it was replaced by a spinning disc nicknamed the Rooster Rotavator.

Curiously, despite being a flipper, Robochicken wasn't able to self-right because it was blocked by its chicken head. Even though the chicken head no longer functioned as a weapon, the team still kept the head on because, you know, the brand! Robochicken is one of the funnier robots in the series because it's literally a fighting chicken.

Despite appearances, Robochicken is a serious enough competitor that, while doing poorly in the previous heats (having crashed out in the second round of Series 4 and the first round of both 5 and 6), Robochicken does have a tournament championship! It won the Robot Wars Extreme 2: Tag Team Terror with its partner Bulldog Breed. Now, of course, it only won that in the most legal sense possible considering Bulldog Breed did literally all the work during that tournament. But still, Robochicken does have a combat championship (unlike certain robots - AKA Hypno Disc). And Series 7 was a strangely traditional year for Robot Wars, with plenty of new faces making the semi-final, so maybe this is Robochicken's year to take flight!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. If you'd like to watch any of these fights, a video has been provided with timestamps provided in the section.

In order to qualify for Series 7, Robochicken fought in a melee against Direct Action, PulverizeR and Reptirron the Second. According to the Robot Wars Wiki, it's not known who won this fight, but Robochicken (and Reptirron the Second) were given spots in Series 7, so Robochicken must have been impressive (or maybe the producers just thought it was funny like I did!). Placed in Heat M, Robochicken's first round match up saw it face off with newcomers Tough as Nails, B.O.D., and former What's in a Campaign covered robot Disc-O-Inferno! The fight (20:19) starts with Robochicken bumping into B.O.D. (who might have the worst looking blade I've ever seen) while Disc-O-Inferno gets its disc up to speed and Tough as Nails hits the pit release button. Robochicken is just sort of driving around the arena when Tough as Nails, in a beautiful display of control, gets behind Disc-O-Inferno with its plier-like jaw and just grabs them, pushing them into the side of B.O.D. in the process. Tough as Nails would then immediately pit Disc-O-Inferno in a move that child me would have hated but has adult me going "that's right Tough as Nails, you're here to win, not make friends!". Shortly after this (like, the very next shot) Robochicken flips over B.O.D., who just breaks down – which, great, glad you took up a precious spot while good robots like PulverizerR got sent away! Now normally I'd end the coverage of a fight here, but the fight isn't actually over yet!

I'm so happy I don't have to type B.O.D. anymore.

Tough as Nails, perhaps seeing that Robochicken is the stronger of the two remaining robots, attempts to grab ahold of Robochicken, presumably to put them in the pit! Their first attempt fails and Robochicken manages to flick them away, but Tough as Nails keeps on the pursuit. Robochicken attempts a flip on the side of Tough as Nails but misses. Robochicken attempts to flee, bumping into B.O.D. in the process, but this causes them to turn right into the jaws of Tough as Nails! It's a race against the clock as Refbot starts to count out B.O.D., but if Tough as Nails pushed Robochicken into the pit before B.O.D. is counted out, then Robochicken is the one who is sent home! Tough as Nails has great traction and pushes Robochicken ever so close to the pit, but Robochicken is able to resist just long enough to where the Refbot manages to count out B.O.D. So while Tough as Nails does pit Robochicken, Robochicken still goes through!

In the second round, Robochicken faces off against fellow yellow flipper Mega Morg, another robot we once covered in this section! The fight (24:46) starts with the two yellow machines just sort of driving around. Robochicken goes in for the first attack but misses, then Mega Morg, looking to get in on the fun, also misses its flip.

Mega Morg might still be drunk…

In the process of missing, Mega Morg somehow manages to drive into the wall, briefly getting its flipper panel stuck on the wall! Important thing to note: apparently, according to the teams in the pre-match interview, they went out drinking the night before and, according to Mega Morg team captain Dorian Caudy, all five of them were all sharing one hangover! So that might have something to do with whatever this fight is! Despite Mega Morg being pinned to the wall and Robochicken having a perfect opportunity to capitalize (and maybe even get their first Outta), the hungover chicken does not capitalize, instead allowing Mega Morg to escape! The two robots continue bumping into each other and being generally inefficient, with Robochicken missing another flip on Mega Morg and Mega Morg doing what Mega Morg does in most fights (little). The two robots drive into each other flipper-to-flipper but sort of just bounce off of each other! This transitions into the robots doing a cute little straightaway where it looks like they're together.

x3iiC71.png
Rollover designs are stupid!

Mega Morg reverses and Robochicken spins around to meet them. Finally Robochicken's flipper manages to get under Mega Morg! With one flip, Robochicken sends Mega Morg straight onto its back. "But wait, Shoey," you say to the screen. "Mega Morg's rollover design should save it!". Nope, much like the mighty turtle, Mega Morg's rollover design is useless if it lands straight on its back! Which has been a problem for like four series now! You'd think they'd have fixed it by now! But they haven't and so Robochicken scores another knockout victory as it heads to its first-ever heat final! In the heat final, Robochicken faced off again with Tough as Nails, who made it to the heat final by out-controlling the ultimate control bot Panic Attack! Robochicken starts the heat final (28:33) by getting a quick flip on the invertible Tough as Nails, sending Tough as Nails running. Robochicken stays on the attack, continuing to pursue Tough as Nails. Tough as Nails turns around to face them, hoping to catch them in their jaws, but this time Robochicken launches its flipper, flipping the jaws of Tough as Nails to the other side! The two robots spin around each other until Robochicken again gets the better of Tough as Nails, getting under the side of its jaws and again flipping it. While not doing any damage, the move is scoring vital aggression points! Finally Tough as Nails launches a counterattack, and they actually get to the back of Robochicken! Yet before they can close the jaws on the chicken, they're blocked by Shunt, who launches its axe into the jaw of Tough as Nails, allowing Robochicken to escape! Robochicken then misses a flip, allowing Tough as Nails to finally close the jaws on the chicken before slamming it into the angle grinder. But unlike the last fight, the pit isn't open yet and Tough as Nails is in no position to drive Robochicken all around the arena, so they have to let them go with hopes of repositioning.

Game of inches…

This would prove to be an almost fatal mistake! Robochicken manages to get its flipper under the wheel of Tough as Nails, pushing it into the wall and very nearly throwing Tough as Nails out of the arena! But Robochicken just doesn't have the juice for it. After the fight, Alec Dick would mention his belief that Robochicken was suffering from a gas leak affecting its ability to flip. Realizing it's taking an ass-kicking, Tough as Nails decides to hit the pit release button as Robochicken follows behind. Robochicken then misses a flip before getting under Tough as Nails and trying another flip, only to barely get any lift because of the gas leak.

Tough as Nails drives the length of the arena, trying to get some distance, but Robochicken keeps up the pressure by getting behind Tough as Nails and pushing them into the angle grinder. If Robochicken had any gas here, they probably would have thrown Tough as Nails out of the arena, but, unfortunately, they can only limply lift it. Trying to escape, Tough as Nails drives into an unoccupied CPZ, where Robochicken again gets behind it and again tries to flip it but again can't do much more than slightly lift it. From here though, Robochicken makes, in my opinion, a huge tactical error.

With their flipper out of gas, Robochicken tries to damage Tough as Nails with its spinning blade. There are two big problems with that. The first? Tough as Nails is made of Hardox; that's like the most advanced armor in the world at the time. To put it in perspective, that's the armor people use now, but being used in 2004. No way Robochicken was doing any damage to Tough as Nails, lol. Second? The flipper gave it some distance between the robot and the jaws of Tough as Nails. Sure, they couldn't really flip, but they could still play a little defense with the gas they did have left. They were ahead on points; they really should have tried playing defense and running out the clock. Instead, they attempt to damage Tough as Nails with the blade, only to immediately be grabbed by Tough as Nails! With that, Tough as Nails slams them into the angle grinder and you can see the gashes forming in Robochicken's armor. Tough as Nails has to let Robochicken go, but again Robochicken goes head-on with its blade and again ends up in the jaw of Tough as Nails.

I think the worm has officially turned Robochicken!

Tough as Nails slams them right into Shunt's CPZ, where the axe of Shunt goes right through Robochicken. In addition, it appears the jaws of Tough as Nails have themselves put a hole in the armor of Robochicken. Robochicken goes for an attack with its disc one last time, but again finds itself gripped by Tough as Nails. The fight ends with Tough as Nails locked into Robochicken as it goes to the judges. It's a very close fight and Robochicken dominated most of it. Unfortunately for Robochicken, damage is what counts most in the classic series and Robochicken took far more damage than Tough as Nails did. So, in a very close decision, the judges sent Tough as Nails to the semi-finals and Robochicken home.

Well, sort of. Robochicken actually found itself in the Series 7 Annihilator, which is widely regarded as the worst Annihilator. Usually Annihilators are cool because they've got a lot of weapon variety and it's a cool single-knockout gauntlet. But for some reason, the Series 7 Annihilator featured five flippers (Robochicken, Flippa, Ripper, EWE2, and Raging Knightmare) along with Extreme 2 Annihilator champion Kan-Opener!

If you squint hard enough, you can just make out what happened.

Faced with so many flippers, Robochicken entered without its head, hoping that would allow it to self-right. Not that it mattered much! It was flipped over immediately by Ripper, something which happens so fast the camera doesn't even catch it. Just like that, they're eliminated two seconds into the fight, putting an official end to Robochicken's Series 7 run!

At the end of the day, was Robochicken a series title competitor? Not really. The fact that it doesn't have a real self-righter basically means it would have never survived the flipper-heavy Series 7 semi-finals. Still, while it wasn't a true title contender, it was a serious competitor in its Heat. Despite being, well, a robot chicken, Robochicken was still a fairly good robot by Series 7. Its flipper was no joke and, if not for a gas leak, it probably throws Tough as Nails out of the arena and makes the semi-finals… where it's then probably thrown on its back by Bulldog Breed and dies. Still, Robochicken could have been a semi-finalist. It's almost like if Diotoir would have made the semi-final in Series 5. Yeah, sure, they probably weren't going to do much, but it still would have been cool!

Robochicken was one of those robots that really benefited from the changing of the guard in Series 7. It went from a robot that was going out in the first round to a legit semi-final contender. It's just a shame that, like so many robots, it never got a chance to ride that momentum. Like, who knows! Maybe in Series 8 Robochicken could have figured out how to make its head into a self-righter, which would have totally changed the game for Robochicken. Hypotheticals aside, with a legitimate combat championship (even if it did about as much as I did during that tournament) and a heat final under its belt, Robochicken did better than most competitors, especially when you consider the fact that it's a robot modeled after a chicken!

That's all for this month! Join me next month when I look at another robot!

Dry Bowser Data

Written by: Cackleator

Hello there mortal and non-mortal readers, I am Cackleator. I am a spirit that enjoys many simple things in the afterlife, from crosswords to taxes, calculus, economics, and graphs. I was tasked by Master Boo1268 to bring lots of “fright” to The ‘Shroom, however, since I am not one up for much in terms for scaring I decided to invade The ‘Shroom’s most recent issue and overtake leadership of its current manager Zange with a frightfully fun topic that makes me “scream” with delight. However, that would be an inadequate description seeing as how I would not have the need to “scream” to express my joy but I digress, for today we will be covering the appearances of the skeleton version of the Koopa King: Dry Bowser.

Artwork of Dry Bowser.
Skeleton versions seem to be ALL the rage these days, don't they?

The skeletal version of the Koopa King first appeared in New Super Mario Bros. on May 16, 2006, where he was the reanimated corpse of Bowser coming back to life after his skin was melted off by lava in the World 1 Castle. It is considered by many fans to be a VERY gruesome display of a Bowser death. However, this would not be the end of the Koopa King in this game for he would reappear as the Boss of the World 8 Castle where he would fight you head-on, acting essentially as a more challenging palette swap version of the same boss fight with a few added abilities. He appears one last time in a cutscene before the final boss fight where Junior brings his father back to life, thus ending his appearance in this game. Despite this, his cool design and unique lore regarding his creation made him a mainstay in the Mario franchise.

He would then appear in Mario Kart Wii on April 10, 2008 as a playable character, thus exposing all to his presence. He would then appear as both a boss and rival character in Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games on the Wii and DS, respectively. Both released on October 13, 2009, only one year after his last appearance, having a somewhat small role in the story. He then made his grand boss fight return in Super Mario 3D Land on November 3, 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, acting as the boss of the postgame in the Special Worlds, mainly Special 1-Castle, Special 5-Castle, and Special 8-Bowser as the secret final boss. As always, he acted as a tougher/stronger palette swap of the regular Fake Bowser boss fights. Dry Bowser would be subjugated back to boss and rival character status in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games on both the 3DS and Wii on November 15, 2011 and February 9, 2012, once again a minor character in the game’s plot. His second playable character appearance was in Mario Tennis Open on May 20, 2012 on the Nintendo 3DS. His first playable appearance in four years, how "EXCITING".

Dry Bowser with his Dry Bones
“Me and the boys rollin’ up to steal yo girl” is something a friend told me when he saw this image. I believe he has dyslexia.

But it was not as “exciting” as his return to boss fight fame on July 28, 2012 in New Super Mario Bros 2 (or as everyone calls it, coin collector simulator) for the 3DS as the final boss of the Star World, acting the same as always: a slightly faster / stronger version of the final Bowser boss fight. How “tacky”, as some of the kids call it these days. He would would then make an appearance in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games on November 9, 2013 for the Wii U as a rival, alongside other small appearances in Mario Party: Island Tour (November 22, 2013) and Mario Party 10 (March 12, 2015) as a boss (3DS and Wii U respectively). He made playable appearances in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX and Mario Kart 8 DLC (released on July 25, 2013 for Arcade and April 23, 2015 on the Wii U, respectively) before returning ONCE MORE as a boss in Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, and as a secret boss in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (in what fans considered the most underwhelming of these games). This would then be followed with lots of minor appearances in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash where he was a playable character, and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where he would make his first debut as a playable character in these games.

Dry Bowser, in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Dry Bowser makes a comeback in his only RPG boss fight appearance. Why couldn't they just use this model for the end of Bowser Jr’s Journey? How baffling.

However, this would soon be the time that Dry Bowser’s appearances would “dry” up. That was humor by the way… anywho, he would only receive a mention in Mario Sports Superstars, be a playable character in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and be a Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (on April 28, 2017 and December 7, 2018, both for the Switch). He also had a cameo in the ending of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (on December 27, 2018 for the 3DS) after beating Junior’s main story, weirdly enough as a 3D model rather than the pixel art style as seen to the left. This unfortunately would be the Boney King’s last appearance on the 3DS before being relegated to playable character status in subsequent future appearances. Mainly in Mario Tennis Aces for the Switch on July 1, 2019, and Dr. Mario World and Mario Kart Tour for iOS and Android (released on December 26, 2019 & September 25, 2019), the latter granting Dry Bowser with a golden alternate costume.

Dry Bowser (Gold) from Mario Kart Tour
Not even Dry Bowser can resist capitalism seeing as how he's “going for the gold” here, but good for him for getting a new look.

But alas, it seems as if nowadays almost all have forgotten this version of the Koopa King, with Dry Bowser’s only substantial appearance in the past few years being the Minecraft Mario Mash-up Pack where the Warden takes the appearance of him. Although it’s seemingly a very fitting appearance for such a strong foe, always acting as the tougher version of Bowser in the past.

So what did we learn here? Well, Dry Bowser seems to follow the trend of certain Mario characters being featured so much after their single burst in popularity that Nintendo overuses them for everything, until eventually using them as a side character and eventually throwing them away only to be used when needed to fill up a roster. In spite of this, these side characters do have fans, so it’s not all bad. As for character lore, Dry Bowser is seemingly an enigma in the Mario canon, being Bowser’s skeleton but also a separate entity. Perhaps there’s a ghost haunting one of Bowser’s old bodies. Perhaps they’re Bowser’s undead brother or maybe even an undead member of the Koopa Clan? There is no knowing for sure. There are plenty of game theories about this guy. As for gameplay, Dry Bowser seemingly has always acted as a harder boss. The boss at the end of a long challenge, something to truly test your skills. While the notion of having a hard boss fight at the end of a Mario game has been abandoned in recent years, we can only hope that Dry Bowser will return to his glory as a Special World boss fight.

Thank you all for inquiring into this research on one of my undead brethren. If you enjoyed this retrospective, then I am pleased you did. If you did not, then that's unfortunate for you. Also for your pleasure, here are the dates of games + consoles NOT listed -

  • Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros Edition - April 29, 2015 for the 3DS
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam - December 3, 2015 for the 3DS
  • Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash - November 20, 2015 for the Wii U
  • Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games - February 18, 2016 & June 23, 2016 for the Wii U & 3DS

Have a good evening and “Happy” Halloween.

Is there a section you'd like to give a shout-out? Get a section in front of Poochy by filling out this form!
The 'Shroom: Issue 223
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • The 'Shroom Spooky Scavenger • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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