The 'Shroom:Issue 175/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

Hello readers and welcome to Pipe Plaza! College continues to suck up any and all of the free time I never had. At least I have a pair of those fancy blue light blocking glasses now! Pretty useful since I'm on my computer 90% of the time anyways. They've actually helped quite a bit. (or at least they do when I remember to wear them...)

Don't forget you can come write for Pipe Plaza if you like the things you see here! Go to the sign up page to get started!

Happy spooooky season~

Section of the Month

NIWA News
Written by:

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

Promotions
 * Minikori was promoted to the rank of Administrator on Ukikipedia!

Demotions
 * Flame was demoted on Inkipedia due to inactivity.
 * Paviinka was demoted on Nookipedia due to inactivity.

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:



Welcome to Poll Committee Discussion, the first one started by I, Ray Trace, the very Poll Committee Chairman himself! Very sorry for the delay, but you know what gods say, a bad game is bad forever, but a delayed game that you put off for months and months and months eventually actually gets done for once.

Do I need an introduction since this has technically been the same section, just with a far more handsome writer? Okay, I guess it doesn't hurt. Well, I analyze some main page polls here, the various stuff we put up on the main page. I blubber out my thoughts here.

The News
You probably already know me and my team at this point. There's me, of course, handsome chairman, who does all the fun poll management and that stuff. There's that goose by my side,, who is my back-up bird if, like, one day I suddenly vanish or something. There's, a Waluigi-look alike admin on MarioWiki who was promoted at the same time I was to Patroller but of course, not as handsome as me. There's, who likes to take form of a monochrome dragon thing named after a web service I regularly use to chat with people. There's, a lovely princess admin who is neither a BBQ nor a turtle. There's, 'Shroom Director and former Poll Chairman, who isn't as handsome as me, who has been quite helpful with me and I frequently collab with him regarding 'Shroom matters. There's, who is a Goomba with a green hat whose helpful ability to Tattle at polls has been immensely helpful. And then there's, who is likely a hired assassin waiting to kill me at the best possible opportunity!

We are the EIGHT MATES!

Archives
====It has been 7 years since the Year of Luigi ended, with no similar events being held. Do you want to see more celebrations of Mario characters like this one? (, September 19, 2021)====

Since Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline made appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs. Would you like to see her making more playable appearances? (, August 22, 2021)
====Nintendo sometimes releases Mario games which reuse the engines of previous titles (e.g., Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Luigi U). How do you feel about this? (, August 8, 2021)====

How do you feel about online multiplayer in Mario Party titles? (, July 18, 2021)
====Kinopio's Cafe, a Mario-themed restaurant, is now open in Super Nintendo World in Osaka, Japan. Are you interested in dining at the restaurant? ( and, July 4th, 2021)====

Analyses
Starting off is this poll by Waluigi Time, talking about the Year of Luigi. Funny how we start things off with a Luigi enemy talking about this, maybe he wants a Year of Waluigi? Anyway, the overwhelming consensus on this poll is that most people would like to see a year dedicated to a particular character because of all the fun new ideas focusing on a particular character can bring, taking up a whopping 62% of votes, more than half of this poll's total 2,556 votes. Second is pretty much a similar option, but excluding Luigi again, but I guess more people wouldn't mind another year dedicated to our favorite green-clad plumber, with 19% of votes. Funnily enough, a repeat of the Year of Luigi beat out the last two options, one of them thinking focusing a year is too limited while the last one is about a year focusing on multiple characters, not a single one.
 * It has been 7 years since the Year of Luigi ended, with no similar events being held. Do you want to see more celebrations of Mario characters like this one?

Next off is a Mii-centric poll by BBQ Turtle. Part of our evil plans for world domination including having more games where we can...I mean...a lot of people like Miis! This time, the results have two competitors. The one that got the most votes, the one with people who love being a Mii, leads with a 47% victory, though its second place, which addresses people who don't quite like having this bulbous balloon heads being the sole playable character of the mode, got 35% of the vote, behind around 200 votes behind, but still not a huge gap. The rest of the results are pretty scant and are dwarfed in comparison, though the percent of people saying they have no opinion of the subject is greater than people who say they prefer them being stuck to cameos or playable only in side modes.
 * Mario games sometimes feature Miis as playable characters. Do you like seeing Miis playable?

By the way, it was this poll that was the first that let me experiment with putting images into the poll template! It turned out fabulously, did it not?

This poll was conducted by my would-be killer who took the shape of a kid, and it deals with that super beautiful Pauline, the original damsel-in-distress that Mario saved, and has made a significant reappearance in Super Mario Odyssey! Dominating the poll is praising her, leading by a significant 58%, not quite as a lead as the Year of Luigi poll but still a big one to boot! Second and third place are very close to each other, however; the second place option has people not really caring about her getting 17% of votes while third place has people who want to see her stick to the spin-off titles rather than see her in another game. Turnout for this poll is also less than the first two polls, with around 400 less votes.
 * Since Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline made appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs. Would you like to see her making more playable appearances?

Created by a fluffy poisonous bird, this poll asks readers about the engines that fuel our quest for world domination. I mean, game engines. Reusing them, you know, the first tenet of recycling to conserve energy! People generally don't mind having recycled engines, but they do want to see more new stuff added to this. How do I know? Well, these poll results with the 60% lead said that's what a lot of people would like, an overwhelming lead. The option in second place is chosen by fans of recycling, I love me some environmentally conscious people, and new releases constantly can't be a bad thing, right? Funny thing how I see complete originality is the last place option...hmmm...I don't know what to make of that. Voter turnout continues to decline here, with less total votes than the last poll!
 * Nintendo sometimes releases Mario games which reuse the engines of previous titles (e.g., Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Luigi U). How do you feel about this?

Now, this poll wasn't created by the 12th Poll Committee, but it wasn't discussed about in the months leading up to the Poll Chairperson election. But I, Ray Trace, being this amazing man, will cover the tracks that haven't been covered! This is talking about being social with your friends you cannot see, and online multiplayer has been a long-requested feature in the Mario Party series! You can tell how much requested it was by looking at these results, over half of the results are for wanting online multiplayer to be standard in these titles! Second place can't even think about rivaling it, but it's mainly about general ambivalence to the thing, sitting at a paltry 17% of total votes. Backing the rear is people who...don't want options for some reason? Yeah, I can't comprehend this. Number three is about people who don't play Mario Party and uh....
 * How do you feel about online multiplayer in Mario Party titles?

And topping it off is this delicious poll about a restaurant in an amusement park! Most people want to see it, I know I do! Maybe it'll come to places more accessible later on, but for now, it's available only in Japan. Some people want to see it only for the atmosphere and decor without ordering any food from there, while others would be interested in dining in such a restaurant without having to pay a huge amusement park fee (not to mention traveling to an area with a Super Nintendo World to begin with) to access its delectable treats. Funny enough, not wanting to dine at a Mario restaurant isn't last here, but third-to-last, and the biggest of the polls who have only single digit percentages.
 * Kinopio's Cafe, a Mario-themed restaurant, is now open in Super Nintendo World in Osaka, Japan. Are you interested in dining at the restaurant?

Conclusion
So, what do you think about my analysis? First time's luck, eh? Well, down the road, other members will participate and give their own spin on analyzing these polls, so tune in the following months to see our members' unique takes on taking a look at these polls!

That NIWA List
Written by:

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

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

Since this is the first edition of That NIWA List, we're going to start here, at the Super Mario Wiki, and go wild from there.



You know what item the Mario franchise has been known for? Mushrooms? Fire Flowers? No, the Mario series has been best known for its Bag of Popcorn. The Bag of Popcorn, as it is best known for, is what Luigi buys for five coins, albeit he'll have to pay ten more to have even popcorn to taste from very, very stale popcorn.

If you're not familiar with this Mario premise of buying popcorn, it's because you probably haven't seen this story before. The Bag of Popcorn is part of Flown the Koopa from the Nintendo Adventure Books series. The Nintendo Adventure Books are choose-your-own adventure books that require a reader to flip through a specific page to activate a certain action, an addictive sensation popularized by 's  books. These books had several endings attached, meaning you could go through the entire book just to find which endings you could get. But Nintendo knew that just having multiple endings wasn't enough. At the ending of each book there's a score system that determines how much you received just by reading through the book. That in turn makes these technically a game to play. Not a video game, but a literature game.

No matter how much you feel about playing a literature game, you just can't wonder if ‘’’Bag of Popcorn’’’ is without a doubt one of Super Mario Wiki's weirdest topics. Not only does the page feature no navigation templates, it also compresses a lot of information down to just one paragraph. This doesn't mean it's a stub article, but by how bizarre an article could exist under this format, with how Super Mario Wiki has evolved in terms of article formatting and content creation, this is an entry worth adding in that NIWA List.

Mario Calendar
Written by:

Hey guys, it’s GPM1000! This month is a very special month, as not only is it the scariest month of the year, it’s also the 15th year anniversary of the ‘Shroom! This is a huge deal, and I’m incredibly happy that people have been interested in the paper for this long. Anyways, an integral part of the paper is Mario Calendar (not really), so get ready!

Region Abbreviations

Console Abbreviations


 * October 1
 * 1995 (NA): Mario Clash (VB)
 * 2018 (NA: Mario Kart Arcade GP VR (Arcade)
 * 2020 (ALL): Super Mario Bros. 35 (Switch eShop)


 * October 3
 * 2014 (NA/EU): Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3DS)


 * October 4
 * 1995 (NA): Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
 * 2002 (EU): Super Mario Sunshine (GC)
 * 2004 (NA): Mario Pinball Land (GBA)
 * 2014 (AU): Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3DS)


 * October 5
 * 1984 (JP):
 * Punch Ball Mario Bros. (NEC PCs)
 * Punch Ball Mario Bros. (Sharp)
 * 1995 (EU): Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
 * 1999 (NA): Mario Golf (GBC)
 * 2001 (EU/AU): Paper Mario (N64)
 * 2017 (JP): Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS)
 * 2018 (ALL): Super Mario Party (Switch)


 * October 6
 * 2017 (NA/EU): Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS)


 * October 7
 * 2009 (JP): Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (DSiWare)
 * 2016
 * (NA/EU): Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
 * (EU): Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS)
 * 2017 (AU): Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS)


 * October 8
 * 2007 (NA): Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (Wii)
 * 2016
 * (AU): Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
 * (AU): Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS)


 * October 9
 * 1981 (NA): Egg (Game & Watch (G&W)
 * 1988 (NA): Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
 * 2009 (EU): Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
 * 2014 (JP): Club Nintendo Picross Plus (3DS eShop)


 * October 10
 * 1990 (NA): Nintendo World Championships 1990 (NES)
 * 2005 (NA): Mario Kart Arcade GP (Arcade)


 * October 11
 * 2002
 * (EU): Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (GBA)
 * (AU): Super Mario Sunshine (GC)
 * 2004 (NA): Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC)
 * 2005 (NA): SSX on Tour (GC)


 * October 12
 * 2007 (EU): DK: Jungle Climber (DS)
 * 2018 (NA): Luigi's Mansion (3DS)


 * October 13
 * 2000 (EU): Mario Party 2 (N64)
 * 2009 (NA):
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (DS)
 * 2016 (JP): Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)


 * October 14
 * 1991 (NA): Mario the Juggler (G&W)
 * 2004 (JP): WarioWare: Twisted! (GBA)


 * October 15
 * 1986 (EU): Donkey Kong (NES)
 * 1987 (EU): Wrecking Crew (NES)
 * 2004 (EU): Donkey Konga (GC)
 * 2009 (AU):
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Nintendo DS)


 * October 16
 * 2009 (EU):
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Nintendo DS)
 * 2015 (NA): Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)
 * 2020 (ALL): Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Switch)


 * October 17
 * 2003
 * (JP): WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! (GC)
 * (EU): Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA)


 * October 18
 * 1985 (NA):
 * Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES)
 * Pinball (NES)
 * Golf (NES)
 * Wrecking Crew (NES)
 * Super Mario Bros. (NES)


 * October 19
 * 1996 (JP): Picross 2 (GB)
 * 2018 (EU): Luigi's Mansion (3DS)


 * October 20
 * 2005 (JP): Super Princess Peach (DS)
 * 2016 (JP): Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS)
 * 2018 (AU): Luigi's Mansion (3DS)


 * October 21
 * 1992 (JP): Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)
 * 1998 (JP): Wario Land II (GBC)
 * 2002 (NA): Mario Party 4 (GC)
 * 2003 (NA):
 * Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA)
 * Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (e-Reader)
 * 2005 (EU/AU): SSX on Tour (GC)
 * 2010 (JP): Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (Wii)
 * 2016 (EU): Rhythm Heaven Megamix (3DS)


 * October 22
 * 2009 (AU): Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
 * 2016 (AU): Rhythm Heaven Megamix (3DS)


 * October 23
 * 1988 (JP): Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)


 * October 24
 * 2003 (AU): Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA)
 * 2005 (NA): Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GC)


 * October 25
 * 2002 (EU): Game & Watch Gallery 4 (GBA)
 * 2004 (NA): Classic NES Series: Dr. Mario (GBA)
 * 2019 (ALL): Arcade Archives: Golf (Switch eShop)


 * October 26
 * 1982 (JP/NA): Donkey Kong Jr. (Game & Watch) (G&W)
 * 1996 (JP): Tetris Attack (GB)
 * 1999 (EU/AU): Mario Golf (Game Boy Color) (GBC)
 * 2006 (AU): Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (DS)


 * October 27
 * 1995 (JP): Tetris Attack (SNES)
 * 2017 (JP/NA/EU/AU): Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)


 * October 28
 * 2002 (NA): Game & Watch Gallery 4 (GBA)
 * 2004
 * (JP): Mario Power Tennis (GC)
 * (EU): Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GC)
 * (AU): Donkey Konga (GC)


 * October 29
 * UPCOMING 2021 (ALL): Mario Party Superstars (Switch)


 * October 30
 * 1987 (JP): Famicom Grand Prix: F-1 Race (Famicom)


 * October 31
 * 1996 (NA): Mario Teaches Typing 2 (MS-DOS)
 * 2019 (ALL): Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)

Wow, not a bad month at all. The North American release of Super Mario Bros., the release of Super Mario Bros. 3, and the release of Super Mario Odyssey! That is a crazy trinity of games, with every one of them being amazing in its own way. And of course, we can’t forget about Mario Party Superstars coming out this month! In just a couple of weeks, we’ll all be trying the next Mario Party game, and it definitely looks more my speed than some of the past Mario Party games. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a fantastic rest of your month!

What's in a Campaign?
By:

Hello, 'Shroom readers, and welcome back to another edition of What's in a Campaign?, The 'Shroom's premier section on the BBC hit show Robot Wars. Last month, we talked about my personal favorite robot, Behemoth, and its Series 7 run and, well, this month, to be blunt, we're going to turn the quality down. I've decided that, for the next 3 months, I'm going to cover Series 3's one-hit wonder robots: three robots that each made their debut in Series 3, won their heats in Series 3, and then never returned for another war. An interesting thing about these three robots is how one is a really poor robot, one is an average robot, and then, finally, one of them is actually a pretty good robot! But to start us off, we're going to be talking about the worst of the three, that being the axe bot, Trident.



Built by the team of Peter Benn, Stephen Benn, and Neil Ward, Trident has a really... let's say... unique design. Powered by fairly standard motors with a separate electric motor powering the axe, Trident is a pretty fast robot, with a max speed of 20 mph while also featuring a stainless steel chassis. It's really long and I don't really understand why the body is so long. I guess it's because the axe is long and they need it to sit flush with the robot? It also has a really interesting wheel set-up, with triangular wheels where only two of the wheels are on the ground at one time. Again, I don't know why they went with this wheel style. The only thing I can think of is that, if one of the wheels gets damaged, they can just flip the wheels around. Trident also has a lot of ground clearance, meaning that any decent wedge or flipper will get under it immediately. Trident also doesn't sport a self-righting mechanism, with its axe not being powerful enough to right it. On top of that, iits wheels don't allow it to run both ways up. All in all, this is a really weird robot. It's really long and unwieldy, and its axe isn't very powerful. But we do have to remember this was Series 3, and, for the most part, people still didn't really know what they're doing. That's why you see a lot of robots with weird designs like this.

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Also, because nobody has a compilation of Trident fights, this month will feature a video for each episode Trident is in.

There isn't any real info on how Trident qualified for Series 3, but, more than likely, it qualified the same way most robots did in Series 3, by impressing the judges in the pseudo-gauntlet that was used for qualification. In any case, Trident was placed in the last televised Heat P (often considered the worst heat in Series 3). Series 3 introduces Robot Wars' biggest format change. In Series 1 and 2, the first two rounds were a gauntlet and then a trial, with one robot being eliminated during each of those. But for Series 3, those are gone and instead it's a full robot combat show. For better or worse, Series 3 decided to do each round as a 1v1 fight, and, in Trident's first fight, it came up against the robotic art project known as Twn Trwn. Honestly, this (11:41 first video) isn't really a fight, with Twn Trwn being more art than combat robot. Trident charges in and lands one axe blow that goes straight through Twn Trwn's fiberglass shell, causing Twn Trwn to break down, sending Trident through to the second round.



In the second round (34:12), Trident faced off against the returning spinning flails of Victor 2. After that impressive one-hit kill on Twn Trwn, we, unfortunately, get our first example of why Trident isn't a very good robot. Trident starts the fight off landing multiple blows on the top of Victor 2, and none of them pierce through Victor 2's armor. This fight really shows how weak that axe is, because, despite landing several blows to the top of Victor 2 throughout the fight, Trident never manages to pierce through it. Trident does manage to use the axe, though, to snag the flails of Victor 2, causing them to stop spinning multiple times. Honestly, this isn't a very interesting fight. It's two ineffective robots fighting, and it ends with Victor 2, who has spent the whole fight mostly spinning out of control, spinning into the pits, taking itself out and sending Trident into the heat final against series veteran Dreadnaut. Up against the lifting forks of Dreadnaut, who had been in Robot Wars since Series 1 and were looking for their first heat win, Trident faced an uphill battle. The action (38:45) started rather fast, with Trident landing an axe blow immediately as Dreadnaut attempted to get some space to bring its forks into play. But Dreadnaut moved rather tentatively, and Trident continued on the attack, landing more axe blows and even managing to put some dents into the armor of Dreadnaut!!!



As this happened, Dreadnaut was barely moving and then Dreadnaut did what Dreadnaut was known to do, breaking down completely after limply driving itself into the wall. That sent Trident into the Series 3 Semi-Finals, but not before the House Robots decided to attack it, because, damn it, we have to get something entertaining out of this episode!

Curiously, despite winning the last heat of the series, Trident was placed in the Semi Final A, becoming the only robot to win a last half-heat to be placed there. This, unfortunately, put it up against the best robot in the series, future series champion Chaos 2. There was never a chance for Trident to win this fight (27:40 in the second video).

Chaos 2 charges in and gets a flip on the backside of Trident that sends it flying away, then hits another flip to the front, flipping it over, immobilizing it, and sending it home. This would be the last time we'd see Trident on an episode of Robot Wars. It was supposed to return in Series 4, where it was going to be the 16th seed, which would have placed it in Heat I. Honestly, that was a pretty weak heat, so Trident probably could have made at least the second round. But for reasons unknown, they dropped out. Trident is often considered the worst robot to ever make a Series Semi Final, and I can see why. A weird design, combined with weak weaponry, and lacking the ability to self-right, to be honest, if it wasn't placed in the worst heat of Series 3, it wouldn't have won any other heats and probably wouldn't have made it out of the second round in very many of them.