The 'Shroom:Issue 179/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

Expecting- wait a minute, I already used this bit in the Staff Notes. Shoot.

Anyway, it's me, Waluigi Time, and no, I haven't pulled a surprise takeover of Pipe Plaza when you weren't looking. Unfortunately, Zange is currently under the weather, so I'm filling in for this issue. Best wishes to them for a speedy recovery.

Good news, everything is here! All of our regular sections were submitted this month, so whatever your favorite Pipe Plaza sections are, we've got it here for you! Wiki business, past game releases, robots ripping each other to shreds, it's all here!

This is the part where Zange usually tells people to write for Pipe Plaza, and of course, who am I not to continue that tradition? If you're interested at all in writing a section for Pipe Plaza (which you should be), take a look at the sign up page!

Section of the Month We have another two-way tie for first place for the third issue in a row! This time around it's 's Forum Update and 's Mario Calendar, closely followed by 's NIWA News in second place.

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
 * JumbledLimes has been promoted to the role of Administrator on Zelda Wiki!

Demotions
 * Drago has stepped down from his Bureaucrat role on Nookipedia, but still retains his Administrator role.
 * Wynn Liaw was demoted on the Super Mario Wiki due to inactivity.

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:



Hello everyone, it’s yours truly, TasteTheFiresOfHelp/The Shadow Prince to give some analysis of the two new polls that have come out in January. Both have a mild association with time, so it is time for me to get to them.

The News
Things are on the right track now on the Poll Committee, as we have many polls that have met any requirements to be on the front page, but no spoilers as to what any of those are. Not much else to say aside from that.

Analysis
This next poll is by BBQ Turtle (heh, it’s starting to feel like December again) covering whether Mario enemies should return after a long absence, and it is a quite good one, as well as with some of the more close to unanimous results out of the polls the Committee has shown so far. An extremely popular first place at 64% and almost 1,400 votes is wanting older enemies gone for a while to return at any rate, even more than just occasionally. Since I voted for it, each of us that did love the feeling of a nostalgia rush and think that this one of the times where it does not have to be limited. Showing older enemies more would be great, although maybe not by throwing currently appearing enemies under the bus. The second place option at 29% reflects this more clearly, as people who voted this want enemies to return occasionally, but with new or frequently appearing ones. So they still think suddenly returning enemies should not entirely steal the spotlight. Although it might be a bit less interesting only seeing a returning face close to as little as every blue moon. Any place below first or second is a harshly colossal drop in popularity, as in a very distant third place at 2% is being fine with disappeared enemies being brought back after a long time only if they keep their old properties as much as possible. This does make sense why those people would prefer that option as they merely do not want enemies to be made unfaithful to, or more gimmicky than, how they originally were. The fourth place option at another 2% is people with no opinion on whether disappeared Mario enemies returning to the series is good or bad, which isn’t quite as many people as in some of the other polls, so this is, of course, something that most people have a clear opinion about. The fifth place at, if you guessed this you are correct, 2% (although lower as it rounds down), is only being okay with new enemies being brought back if they have major updates. These people likely want a ton of originality and new things even from something like a returning enemy. Sixth and last place at 1% is preferring games sticking to new or already occurring enemies. The only thirteen people who voted for this must really be intent on moving towards the future instead of focusing on the past, even though there are plenty of really good things in the past, too.

This is one of the polls with more unanimous results both on which options people agree with and disagree with, with the 64% popularity of wanting plenty of old enemies to return being the second most popular choice out of any poll by the Twelfth Committee so far, only behind 66% of people wanting the next Paper Mario game to have the traditional turn-based battle system from the first two games in my Paper Mario poll from October. Wanting only new or already common enemies only is the least popular choice out of any of our polls so far, at only 0.6% and 13 votes. This shows most people like seeing enemies not be rejected forever the instant they become less common.

Next up, we have a poll by Waluigi Time, another member with more polls implemented than average in the committee so far. This poll covers whether Nintendo incorporating content based on real-world holidays is a good idea or a bad idea. At a not quite as much, but still near as popular first place is wanting Nintendo to incorporate real-world holiday content into their games more at 49%. These people must either have a festive spirit, like a lot of variety, or both. In second place at 26% is enjoying seeing real-world holidays recognized in Mario games, but not wanting any new gimmicks related to it appearing. Many of these people likely want consistency in terms of what each game has to offer instead of that constantly changing. In third place and the middle spot at 11%, we have enjoying seeing real world holidays recognized in Mario games, but wanting a greater amount of holidays to be recognized. This is a quite interesting option, as one could definitely argue that holidays like Veterans Day for example, or Martin Luther King Day, would be great to get more emphasis on Mario games’ schedule. In next to last, but still not quite next to least in terms of votes is 10% of people not having an opinion, a decent amount above average by recent poll standards. Many of these people likely see there as more interesting things to judge as good or bad about being included in games than the festivities. Last place is only 4% of people disliking seeing real-world holidays recognized in Mario games, although that’s still not quite as unpopular as the last place for the Mario enemies poll, with 69 votes instead of 13 votes. These people would find it nice for Nintendo to have games that are the same no matter when you play them, instead of gimmicky with dates, games.

Which one is my opinion here? Well, I think it would be great to not overshadow underrated holidays, since many of them have as much positive meaning to them as the most popular ones. At the same time, going overboard with holiday-based content can make Mario games feel overly gimmicky; sometimes I want to play a Mario game that is the same no matter what date I play it. So it is not exactly only one choice that really applies to me here.

Unanimity
Since unanimity was a theme of my section for the Mario enemies poll, I am going to order first place choices from polls this committee so far starting from most popular down, and last place choices starting from least popular down, to show the options the most people agree are their opinion and the options the most people agree aren't their opinion.

Conclusion
These were a quite nice two polls to analyze, both based on general ideas instead of recent events, as those are always a lot of fun (especially when it’s not fun covering Nintendo doing something severely wrong on recent events). Although, Nintendo’s new Direct had some bombshells, but again, no spoilers on how much progress we’ve made there covering them. Regardless if they drop any more news, I enjoyed greatly covering these two polls, and will enjoy seeing other people’s thoughts on future polls as well.

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.

I'm sure it's common knowledge Nintendo were given the license to publish a video game adaption of GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. And with the developing power of, the game is often cited as a major turning point for first-person shooters. But there was another relatively bigger franchise that Nintendo could have also developed under their sleeves. There was a point when Nintendo wanted to make a Harry Potter game.

If you are not familiar with the  franchise, it goes over seven years of wizarding school in the perspective of, a young orphan boy who one day realizes that they are a wizard. The entire Harry Potter franchise has been owned by, with her giving film rights over by and gaming rights to. But there was a certain point that Nintendo wanted in on making Harry Potter games. With Nintendo's Software Technology division in North America, they set out to buy the rights to the Harry Potter game in the late 1990s. What is fascinating is that Nintendo wanted to change the designs for each of the main characters to be more Japanese. But J.K. Rowling had other plans, wanting any adaptation of ‘’Harry Potter’’ to be as close as possible to the books. Ultimately, Electronic Arts won the bid, leaving Nintendo without any licensed video game properties, as if a committed the act itself.

Now I'd like to actually glance at the way the article is presented. The article cites one source, a YouTube video by DidYouKnowGaming that covers the failed pitch for a Harry Potter game by Nintendo. Now of course, I was fairly interested to see when this information surfaced, and it appears the earlier known source was in 2015. In retrospect, it’s an article being cited by a YouTube video that is cited by this wiki article. It's really funny to know that an entire wiki article can rely on one source for documenting a failed pitch for a video game license of a soon-to-be popular franchise. This article truly is a worthy entry in that NIWA List.

Mario Calendar
Written by:

Hey guys, welcome back to Mario Calendar! I hope you had a fantastic January, and that you’re having a wonderful February! How about that Direct? I’m definitely super excited about the Mario Kart 8 DLC - that’s gonna be awesome! Anyways, you know the deal. Let’s jump into it!

Region Abbreviations

Console Abbreviations


 * February 1
 * 1982 (NA): Turtle Bridge (G&W)
 * 1997 (JP): Game & Watch Gallery (GB)


 * February 2
 * 1984 (JP): Pinball (NES)
 * 2001 (EU/AU): Mario Tennis (GBA)


 * February 3
 * 1989 (JP): Wrecking Crew (Famicom)
 * 1998 (NA): Mario%27s FUNdamentals (Windows)
 * 2011 (AU): Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (DS)
 * 2017 (NA/EU): Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (3DS)


 * February 4
 * 2005 (EU):
 * Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GC)
 * DK: King of Swing (GBA)
 * 2011 (EU): Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (DS)
 * 2017 (AU): Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (3DS)


 * February 5
 * 1999 (EU): Wario Land II (GBC)
 * 2001 (NA): Paper Mario (N64)
 * 2007 (NA): Diddy Kong Racing DS (DS)


 * February 7
 * 2003 (JP): Nintendo Puzzle Collection (GC)
 * 2008 (AU):
 * Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (Wii)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
 * 2011 (NA): Mario Sports Mix (Wii)


 * February 8
 * 1999 (NA): Mario Party (N64)
 * 2005 (NA): NBA Street V3 (GC)
 * 2008 (EU): Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)


 * February 9
 * 2012 (AU): Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * February 10
 * 1997 (NA): Mario Kart 64 (N64)
 * 1999 (NA): Wario Land II (GBC)
 * 2006 (EU): Mario Party 7 (GC)
 * 2012 (EU): Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * February 11
 * 2004 (AU): Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GC)
 * 2002 (NA): Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (NA)
 * 2009 (JP): Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)


 * February 12
 * 1990 (NA): Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
 * 2021 (ALL): Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch)


 * February 13
 * 2014 (JP): Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)


 * February 14
 * 2004 (JP):
 * Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros. (GBA)
 * Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong (GBA)
 * 2005 (NA): WarioWare: Touched! (DS)
 * 2012 (NA): Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * February 16
 * 2007 (EU): Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (DS)


 * February 18
 * 2003 (NA): Mario Party-e (e-Reader)
 * 2005 (EU/AU): NBA Street V3 (GC)
 * 2016 (JP): Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * February 19
 * 1994 (JP): Wario's Woods (NES)


 * February 21
 * 1981 (JP/NA): Helmet (G&W)
 * 1985 (JP): Family BASIC V3 (NES)
 * 1986 (JP):
 * Golf (Famicom)
 * Super Mario Bros. (Famicom)
 * 1987 (NA): Golf: Japan Course (Famicom)
 * 2014 (NA/EU): Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)


 * February 22
 * 2014 (AU): Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)


 * February 23
 * 1990 (EU): Tetris (NES)
 * 1995 (NA): Mario’s Game Gallery (MS-DOS)
 * 2000 (JP): Mario Artist: Talent Studio (64DD)
 * 2006 (AU): Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)


 * February 24
 * 2005 (AU):
 * Super Mario 64 DS (DS)
 * WarioWare: Touched! (DS)


 * February 25
 * 2005 (EU/AU): Mario Power Tennis (GC)
 * 2009 (JP): Mario Calculator (DSiWare)


 * February 26
 * 1993 (EU): Yoshi's Cookie (GB)
 * 2011 (JP):
 * AR Games (3DS)
 * StreetPass Mii Plaza (3DS)


 * February 27
 * 2006 (NA): Super Princess Peach (DS)

And that’s it! Honestly, not a super great month. Not too much really came out, and that’s not much of a surprise - nothing really goes on in February! Not a great time to release games, as there are many better times throughout the year! Either way, I hope you enjoyed this month of Mario Calendar. See you next month!

What's in a Campaign?
By:

Hello 'Shroom readers, and welcome to another edition of What's in a Campaign?, Pipe Plaza's premier source for robot combat. Last month, we did something different and looked at Extreme 1's Tag Team Terror. Well, this month, we're going to be returning to the main wars and looking at Series 7's Mighty Mouse, a robot that I personally love (and sometimes this needs to be about me, you know?).



Built by Team Outlaw, a team consisting of Trevor Wright and his son Matthew Wright (with Trevor's daughter Emily joining for Series 7), Mighty Mouse was built from the damaged chassis of Velocirippa (a robot we will not be covering... ever) following its Extreme 1 fight with Disc-O Inferno (a fight which saw Velocirippa ripped apart). First appearing in Series 6 (where it qualified along with the rebuilt and upgraded Velocirippa), Mighty Mouse is based on a unique idea. Rather than having a big, hard-hitting weapon, Mighty Mouse instead opted for more of a quick strike approach. Weighing only 83kg, Mighty Mouse was the lightest robot in Series 7. For weapons, Mighty Mouse has two ramming spikes at the front, which, interestingly enough, are made out of Hardox, a type of metal that is ubiquitous with today's robot combat but was completely unheard of at the time of Series 7 (although, funnily enough, builder Trevor Wright admitted he had no idea he was using Hardox steel at the time). At the back sit two spinning discs which aren't there for damage as much as they are because Series 7 has a rule called the "active weapon rule," which means that every robot has to have a moving weapon on it. Powered by two 800W electric motors, Mighty Mouse has a very high top speed of 23mph. For self-righting (which is a must for Series 7), Mighty Mouse sports a very good rollover bar at the top of it. Like I said, Mighty Mouse has a very interesting approach for Series 7. The basic idea is that the reason it only weighs 83kg is because that makes it easier to drive. Mighty Mouse is very nimble as it moves around the arena, and the idea is Mighty Mouse is going to use its nimbleness to avoid other robots' weapons while slamming into them at high speeds with its ramming blades. That strategy is not an idea you really see being executed by other robots at the time, and it's pretty cool how they manage to make a pretty outdated-styled robot work.

Interestingly enough, if everything had gone right, Mighty Mouse would have never entered into Series 7 at all. You see, Robot Wars at the time had a rule that stated that no team could enter two robots in the same series, and, like in Series 6, both Mighty Mouse and Velocirippa qualified for Series 7. Unlike Series 6, Team Outlaw (at the time calling themselves Team Mouse) decided to enter Velocirippa into the Series and leave Mighty Mouse at home (oh, just in case you were wondering, Velocirippa would go out in the first round of its heat because... of course). One of the robots who originally qualified, though, had to pull out, and the producers, needing a robot, decided to ask Team Mouse if they could bring Mighty Mouse to participate in Heat J, which, as you can tell, they accepted!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Surprisingly enough, there is actually a full video of all of Mighty Mouse's Series 7 fights! So, time stamps will be posted with fights!

In the first round melee, Mighty Mouse was matched up against the lobster-shaped flipper (seeded number 14) Thermidor 2, newcomer Mobot (who sport an ineffective looking undercutter blade), and series veteran the front flipper and rear axe bot named 8645T 2 (also known as Beast 2, which is what we'll be calling it). The fight (1:22) starts out well enough for Mighty Mouse as it slams into the seeded Thermidor 2. Mighty Mouse also lands a few slams on Mobot, but, otherwise, Mighty Mouse really is a non-factor in the fight.



Thermidor 2 flips over Beast 2, who, despite supposedly having a powerful self-righter, proves unable to self-right, then proceeds to flip Mobot out of the arena. Thermidor 2 even manages to flip Mighty Mouse over onto the arena wall, preventing Mighty Mouse's self-righting bar from working. Because Beast 2 was already immobilized, though, they're counted out, and, much like in Mighty Mouse's opening melee in Series 6, Mighty Mouse moves on to the next round without really doing anything.



In the second round, Mighty Mouse faces off against the heat favorite Kronic the Wedgehog. The fight (6:15) starts with Mighty Mouse slamming into Kronic, causing Kronic to lose the majority of its foam spikes before the fight breaks down into a game of Wedgehog and Mouse. Mighty Mouse makes great use of its superior mobility and drives circles around Kronic, attempting to avoid its flipper while Kronic attempts to flip the mouse. Kronic manages to get a few flips on Mighty Mouse, including one where it sends Mighty Mouse into the wall, but, luckily for the Mouse, it lands back on its feet. For the most part, though, Kronic simply can't catch the Mouse, and the Mighty Mouse manages to land a few slams into Kronic. My favorite part of the fight is the part where Mighty Mouse gets a little too close to House Robot Growler, who comes shooting out of the CPZm slamming into the Mouse, who scurries away and hits the side of the pit release tire, just completely tearing it off in the process. Mighty Mouse continues to dodge Kronic's attacks, at one point baiting Kronic into slamming itself into the arena wall.



Then, Kronic just kind of breaks down in one of the CPZ's. You don't really see what happens. Although both Mighty Mouse and Growler get slams in, both of those appear to be after Kronic breaks down. Either way, Kronic does break down and, remarkably, Mighty Mouse moves on to the heat final in a huge upset.



So, I actually saw this heat as a child, and, let me tell, you I was super excited that Mighty Mouse made the heat final and I wanted nothing more than for them to move on to the semis. In the heat final, Mighty Mouse has a rematch with Thermidor 2. In this fight (11:01), Mighty Mouse attempts to do the same thing to Thermidor that it did to Kronic, immediately slamming into it before running away. Unfortunately for Mighty Mouse, Thermidor 2 is quite a bit more mobile then Kronic was and Thermidor is able to keep pace with Mighty Mouse, flipping them quite a few times and keeping Mighty Mouse from building up the distance it wants.

Mighty Mouse manages to get itself stuck on Sir Killalot, who drives it into the angle grinder, where Thermidor manages to get in another flip as Mighty Mouse scurries away. Thermidor 2 then manages to get under Mighty Mouse and drives it to the wall, looking to throw it over the arena but, luckily (?) for Mighty Mouse, Thermidor doesn't quite have enough C02 left to throw Mighty Mouse over and the little Mouse lives to keep fighting (?).



The rest of the fight sees Thermidor 2 flip Mighty Mouse over some more until eventually Mighty Mouse loses its ability to turn and is stuck driving back and forth along the arena wall (which is technically still controlled movement, unlike if you were stuck spinning in circles). The fight goes to the judges, who unsurprisingly vote for Thermidor 2, sending Mighty Mouse out of the tournament.

Mighty Mouse is a neat little robot. It's not a great fighting robot, but it has a lot of character. The fact that it's so fast and so well-driven makes every fight with it in it entertaining. It's pretty funny how Team Outlaw didn't even intend to enter Mighty Mouse in series 7, yet they had more success with Mighty Mouse than any robot Team Outlaw had entered at the time. Truth be told, Mighty Mouse honestly got lucky to make the heat final, and, in any other, heat the 2nd round would probably be as far as Mighty Mouse would get. While Mighty Mouse would never be seen on TV again, Team Outlaw would continue to fight on the live circuit, where they even built a featherweight version of Mighty Mouse called Mini Mighty Mouse, who would go on to win the 2007 UK Featherweight championship. Mighty Mouse would find itself retired in the year 2008, replaced by a new version of Mighty Mouse called Megamouse.

When Robot Wars returned to TV, Megamouse would enter Series 9, where it would find itself defeated in the first round after being destroyed by Carbide. But when it comes to the reboot and Team Outlaw, Megamouse is not the story worth talking about; instead, the story is Ironside 3, but that's a story for another section.

Forum Update
Written by:

It's February, and it's time for another look at the news from the forum. We've had announcements, we've had ancient jokes revisited, and we've had forum game roleplays celebrate birthdays and quote the Half-Life series. See it all for yourself by reading onwards.

News
The Mario Boards has taken the phrase "new year, new me" and put its own spin on it, saying "new year, new sub-board" with the creation, on February 14th, of the 'Shroom Creations sub-board. The result of discussions among The 'Shroom staff and made with the help of the forum moderation team, this board serves as a central location for anyone who wants to link to or discuss their contributions to The 'Shroom on the forum. We hope that having these threads in a central place, tucked under the Fan Creations board, which tends to get the attention of folks browsing on the forums, will make it easier for you to find these threads and engage with the writers who create them.

There's a mixture of interactive threads, where you can vote on characters featured in a section or otherwise help to shape the section, threads which link to all of the sections written by a particular user, and threads in which users provide some additional information about their contributions. You can read Ninja Squid's summary of the board's purpose for more information.

Go on and check these threads out. If you see a writer you appreciate, let them know with a post, or participate if they have a voting or nomination system.

Courtesy of Uniju, this month has also brought us a new Sippin' Time thread, with this thread focusing on the theme of "sippin' on the beach".

We also rang in the first (from a Doylist perspective, but certainly not a Watsonian one!) birthday of Shmaluigi. Whether in Awards presentations, mafia games, or Shmaluigi, Private Investigator in Palette Swap, there's a good chance you've seen the good detective around. In celebration of his birthday, Waluigi Time drew Shmaluigi, the Erudite Goose, Ema Skye, Bobby Fulbright and Godot in the Waluigi Time Comic style (a derivative of Brawl in the Family's Waluigi comics' style). A few users and a couple of familiar roleplays turned up to join in the celebration, as well.

Re-Threading Old Ground
Even ancient in-jokes in this community regularly find new expression. Not too long ago, some users rediscovered the old Wiki joke that "Pirate Goomba is a pirate Goomba," posting it on the forums and finding joy in a running joke epitomizing the character of the late 2000s period from which it came. Forum in-jokes from the distant (relative to the time in which this Wiki has existed) past, though, go overlooked more often than do Wiki in-jokes. Among those overlooked forum in-jokes is one from 2011. Yes, it's eleven years old now, but the quest for Loic still goes on in... someone's heart, maybe, or something along those lines. In January of 2011, a user known as Scorpion999 posted a thread asking all Canadians on the forum if they knew someone by the name of "Loic" who had supposedly moved to Canada from Florida. Jokes were made, the thread grew, and, somehow, it continued to get posts now and again over the years. If you're looking for a simple, strange, community in-joke to learn about and a thread to read to kill some time and see the progression of users over the last decade, you might want to take a look at this thread.

Statistics

 * Total Threads: 40,841 (Difference: +77)
 * Total Posts: 2,231,171 (Difference: +3,627)
 * Total Members: 3,362 (Difference: +22)

Thread of the Month
Lightning Direct - 13.2.2022 - In a completely novel concept that no company anywhere else has ever used before, beloved completely original character Lightning the Hedgehog presents, directly to fans, a slate of announcements concerning Lightning-related projects coming in 2022. OST releases, announcements of mafia games, cameos by Capcom representatives and Mater the Fox (well... maybe...), and more await for fans who tune in (yes, even for those of you who missed the live event).

Quotes

 * "Of course it has to be a programming language (I really am becoming the CS guy). However I've never heard of or worked with this language before. It does look similar to other programming languages but honestly I'm disappointed the result wasn't the musical note." - Meta Knight, reviewing "F#"
 * "The right man in the wrong place... Can make all the difference... In the world... So wake up, Mr. Freeman... Wake up and... Smell the ashes... Hee... Hee... Hee..." - snack, getting an idea out of his head in a thread featuring beloved (by me) Ace Attorney character Viola Cadaverini
 * "i'm the person in charge of the forum and i mostly just shitpost" - Superchao
 * "So, my fellow MarioBoardians, i come to you with a pressing question... what is a Pirate Goomba?" - Long John Spaghetti
 * "still can't believe i'm playing banjo-kazooie on a modern nintendo console tbh" - Smasher, summing up a feeling many share

Mafia

 * There have been no ongoing or completed mafia games in the past month. No other forum games have taken place in the past month, either.
 * At the time of this article's writing, the status of Mafiatroid is unknown, with it appearing the game does not have the necessary minimum sign-ups.
 * Sign-ups have opened for a game called Green Hill Mafia.
 * Announced in the Sub-Director Notes of this issue, 'Shroom Mafia 4 is on its way. The game will be hosted by Ninja Squid, Waluigi Time, and Goombuigi. Sign-ups are expected to open with the release of issue 180 on March 19th, with the game expected to start in late March or early April.
 * Lightning Mafia+ 2: Nexus of Chaos is planned for 2022! There is no firm timeframe for the game yet, so please be patient and await further updates from the game's host, Reverse Input.

Interactive 'Shroom Threads

 * Voting will once again be open this month for Strategy Wing's Mach Speed Mayhem, written by Superchao, so go vote!
 * Nominations are once again open for Waluigi Time's Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown. A system where Waluigi Time offers a few nominees which you can vote for with reactions remains in place, but you can continue to offer up your own nominations, as always!
 * You can also vote in Northern Verve's merit ranking to determine the order he'll cover Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's fighters, determining which fighters get covered in his 'Shroom section!
 * Flygon64 is looking for suggestions on what villains that Vid should interview next in The Big Cheeses of the Mushroom Kingdom.

[Good news&#93;, that's everything on the forum this month, summarized. Forum Update will be back next month with coverage of everything happening on the forums in late February and the first half of March. Look forward to it, and if you think there's something Forum Update should cover that it doesn't, or that something has been missed, send me a message to let me know.

All information above was correct as of 14:32 EST on 15 February 2022.