The 'Shroom:Issue 193/Staff Notes

Staff Notes Written by: and



Hello, all of you readers of The 'Shroom! You know, The 'Shroom has come a long way from the days when it exclusively covered Super Mario, but, as much as we've diversified over the years, we still have plenty of Mario content in the paper, and we're still the paper of the Super Mario Wiki. Why am I bringing this up? Well, it's because there's been a major milestone for the world's favorite red-garbed, platforming plumber. Yes, for the first time, the Super Mario franchise has a commercially successful theatrical movie! From what I've seen in the news, the Illumination and Nintendo production is doing remarkably well so far, and appears to be raking in cash.

I've seen the film myself, and, while I'm not going to spoil anything here, I will say that it's a fun flick. It was nothing I would consider unexpected or bold, and I thought it whipped through its story with such speed that it felt a bit rushed, but I still enjoyed it. There's certainly plenty of easter eggs for Mario fans to find and to hear (the movie's score is outstanding, and was easily my favorite part).

I don't say all of this just as an excuse to share my thoughts on the movie, though! You see, we typically have a special issue in June, to celebrate the start of our Awards season (more on that from Waluigi Time) and to mark the arrival of summer (in the northern hemisphere, at least). While our primary focus this year is preparing our milestone issue 200, releasing in November, we still intend to do a little something special for the summer by giving the June issue a special theme.

For that reason, issue 195, releasing in June, will be themed around movies and cinema in honor of The Super Mario Bros. Movie's success in theaters! The mushroom-munching plumber went to the big screen, so that's where The 'Shroom is going, too! Break out your buttered and overpriced popcorn, get comfortable and lean back in your seat, buy your ticket, and start thinking about cinema-themed contributions to issue 195! Whether you want to theme your existing sections around the movies that month, you'd like to write a film review for us (perhaps a review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, hm?), you want to write a Fake News section related to some happenings at the theater or the box office, or you have another idea in mind, we would be pleased to have you be a part of the issue! Gather your ideas, and when you're ready to submit, you can follow the instructions here and send an application to our Statistics Manager, Meta Knight!

With both issue 195 and issue 200 on the horizon, it's a great time to join The 'Shroom. There's plenty to look forward to in the paper over the rest of the year, but The 'Shroom isn't the only community tradition that's gearing up for the summer and beyond. Awards season is on the horizon, too! I've kept you here long enough, though, so let me turn it over to Waluigi Time so he can tell you more!

&mdash;Hooded Pitohui, Director



Did someone say AWARDS SEASON?

That's right, it's already that time of year again! The Awards Committee has formed and, as of the release of this issue, we've already kicked things off with our first meeting! Even if you're not a member of the Awards Committee, meetings are held publicly in the Awards Discord server, so anyone can attend and give their thoughts. Meeting logs are also made available in a thread on the forums afterwards if you want to catch up. Or maybe you just want to read the gist of what we covered without having to read through two hours of discussion. If that's the case, has you covered - Anniversary Announcements returns in Pipe Plaza and will continue to keep all you readers of The 'Shroom updated on the happenings of Awards season! (But even if you did attend the meetings or read the logs, check out Anniversary Announcements anyway! It's always a good read!)

There's plenty more to say about Awards, and I'll let Anniversary Announcements handle that, but I want to make sure you know about this bit in particular, because it's really important! This year, we've decided to decrease the voting periods down to two weeks for the Mario and Fail Awards, and one week for the Community Awards. By doing this, there's plenty of extra time to work on my favorite thing (besides 'Shroom sections), Awards presentations! Maybe you've wanted to do an Awards presentation in the past but you weren't comfortable with the timeframe between the results going out and the ceremony happening. Hopefully that shouldn't be a problem now, so please do consider signing up for some when they open in June! Awards presentations don't have to be a big spectacle either. Smaller-scale presentations are welcome and actively encouraged!

I hope to see lots of you signing up for presentations and making really neat things! But that's still a couple of months away... For now, enjoy this latest issue of The 'Shroom!

&mdash;Waluigi Time, Sub-Director