The 'Shroom:Issue 155/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
Written by:

Hello, readers of The 'Shroom! The day before the release of this issue was Valentine's Day around my part of the world, so there were plenty of gift-exchanges happening, but, today my focus is on delivering the gift of The 'Shroom to all of you. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't have any news for you all this month. But that's easy for you to change. All you need to do is head on over to the sign-up page, take a look around, and follow the process to send in an application and start writing for The 'Shroom. You should sign up for any team, really, but, if you sign up to write for Strategy Wing, I'll be able to announce your debut right here in these very Director's Notes next month!

I may not have much to say now, but there's some good news lined up for next month. Until then, you should go take a look at Strategy Wing's usual line-up of sections. Koops has two chapters worth of content for you, and Yoshi876 and Superchao have plenty to teach you. Go read their sections and give them your votes!

Section of the Month The people like Pokémon, if and his analysis of Forretress' Pokédex entries winning last month's section of the month voting in any indication. I doubt Mario Kart and F-Zero will ever reach the heights of "highest-grossing media franchise of all time," but they certainly appear to have their fans. After all, folks put and  into a joint second with their respective coverage of Mount Wario and Don Genie. The two heavyweight racing men helped these writers speed their way to victory this month, but all of our writers here deserve thanks for their sections, so keep on voting.

Koops, Your Emblem is on Fire
Written by:

Angry Employees.

Hey there, my dear readers! Koops here, and I am happy to present to you yet another video! Last time, we got Wil and Florina, and Wil's journey as the world's supreme leader was only just beginning. Today, we'll be breezing through chapters 4 and 5 and meeting troubled, conflicted employees. Enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

We recruited 3 people today! Shall I introduce us to the lively bunch we've acquired?

Here comes the Dorcas! '''A man from a small village in Bern. Fights for his wife.''' A nice dude if you ask me, but is he as nice when pitted against the jaws of this game?



Bases and Growths:

HP: 30 (80%) STR: 7 (60%) SKL: 7 (40%) SPD: 6 (20%) LCK: 3 (45%) DEF: 3 (25%) RES: 0 (15%) CON: 14 (+2 Upon promotion) Move: 5 (+1 Upon promotion)

Ok, so, let's get to breaking down this dude! Dorcas is a fighter, an axe user this time! Axes tend to be a good weapon type. Although their accuracy leaves a lot to be desired, most enemies have little to no avoid and fighters are a class with a decent skill stat. Even if Dorcas has only 7 strength at first, Iron Axes don an impressive 8 might on them, which is the same kind of attack power you find on a steel sword. Iron axes are a type of weapon that can carry you through most of the game, and Hand Axes also exist, giving axe users access to 1-2 range. And in Dorcas's case, he doesn't get weighed down by Hand Axes, as heavy as they are. Sadly, that does not save him from his main issue here. Dorcas has a respectable speed base at 6, but his speed growth is horrendous at 20%. That 19 speed Dorcas I was talking about was a stroke of amazing luck. Dorcas is meant to just dish out as much damage as possible in one single hit, which is complemented by his high strength growth. Problem is, you're not gonna one-shot most enemies, as high as your strength gets. You need to double to one-round, and good luck doubling with Dorcas! That, and his physical bulk is nothing to gawk at. With 3 base defense and a 25% growth, he's barely more durable than Lyn, only significant advantage he has is his excellent HP, which does mitigate that shitty defense a bit, but later on, you'll find his HP bar just depletes way too fast, as gigantic as it gets. And the fact that he's slow means that he may be prone to getting doubled, so he loses even more health by round. Simply put, Dorcas isn't the ideal fighter. But thankfully, around midgame, many enemies weigh themselves down significantly with Steel weapons, which could help Dorcas a bit. Again, this game is easy enough for you to use anyone, especially if you take your time to train units. After all, if you do get Dorcas a lot of levels, he is bound to get some speed eventually. Just don't waste any speed-boosting items on him if it's not going anywhere. If you really want to boost a stat of his, boost strength. Focus on making his best aspect better instead of pointlessly boosting the stat he's never good in.

After we meet this stoic specimen, we get to hang out with the average high-school prep girl.

Welcome Serra, y'all! She's '''a cleric in service to House Ostia. Headstrong and bold.''' Quite an interesting unit for the time being.



Bases and Growths:

HP: 17 (50%) MAG: 2 (50%) SKL: 5 (30%) SPD: 8 (40%) LCK: 6 (60%) DEF: 2 (15%) RES: 5 (55%) CON: 4 (+1 Upon promotion) Move: 5 (+1 Upon promotion)

Serra is our first healer, and that means great stuff for us fighters in the army! She can... well, heal! And for this reason alone she is worth bringing to the battle. Using vulneraries uses up a turn, and even then it only heals 10 HP. And true, Serra won't heal too much at first, but as long as you have a heal staff, you will heal at least 10 HP, 12 in Serra's case. Although her bases are not super good, they don't currently matter. She has a very good magic growth, at 50%, but she has only a base of 2, so it's not that great. She has a decent speed base and a decent growth in it, but it doesn't matter now, other than giving some extra avoid, which... well, you're not even supposed to get her attacked at all in the first place. 2 Defense is laughable. That and she can't counter attack, so there is no point in putting her in the enemies range. But she has decent resistance, which could come to play at some point. Her stats will matter later, once she reaches the impending promotion, and by then her growths will have kicked in a bit. Overall, even if she might not shine as a combat unit depending on how her stats turn out, Serra is still essential to your party, especially early on, especially so in Lyn mode... which we're doing now.

And with Serra, we get her... trusty escort! Erk! '''A young mage from Etruria. Charming, but uptight.''' Just how charming can Erk be in combat?



Bases and Growths: HP: 17 (65%) MAG: 5 (40%) SKL: 6 (40%) SPD: 7 (50%) LCK: 3 (30%) DEF: 2 (20%) RES: 4 (40%) Con: 5 (+1 Upon promotion) Move: 5 (+1 Upon promotion)

Erk is our first mage! Mages are quite an interesting class, and I'll tell you why. They make for devastating glass canons who can dish out massive damage on most enemies that are hard to scratch for normal units! Conversely, however, they also have a hard time taking said damage back, what with defensive frailty being a natural characteristic for the class. When a unit attacks with magic, they ignore the enemy's defense. Instead of taking the enemy's defense into account, magic targets the target's resistance. This is actually what the resistance stat is for. Most enemies tend to have very bad resistance, so if someone like Erk doubles such an enemy, then you're bound to see those green bars deplete. Not only that, but you have the choice to attack from long range or close range, always making sure you hit your enemy from a safe distance. And with a decent base of 5 Magic, basic Fire Tomes tend to do enough damage to carry him in the earlygame, although his shaky growth in magic (40%) is something that may hold him back later on, something I know from experience. He also has the same base speed as Kent, but a higher growth in it, so Erk is one of those people who will double consistently later on, one of the reasons that make him good, especially since enemies in this game are generally slow to begin with. Although his base defense and growth in that stat are as bad as Lyn's (2 base, 20% growth), it's not as big of an issue for him since, like I said, he will almost always attack from a safe distance. His luck is a bit low, which reduces his dodge rate, but even then, if he does get attacked from range, javelins and hand axes are inaccurate enough for him to easily dodge. Simply put, Erk is a simple unit, but a pretty effective one too. Only potential problem he has in the earlygame is the fact that Thunder tomes weigh him down by one point of speed. But that's about it. Erk is great. And he also comes with a really nice boon upon promotion, which I'll be talking about as soon as we touch on the subject of promotion.

And with that, we are done for the month. This episode was really fun to make, and we got some pretty good amounts of speed out of those level-ups (Although I still wish Kent had about 9 of those by now at least)!

What will the useless villain Lundgren not throw at us to try to stop our advance next? What menaces will Lyn be pit up against?

Tune in next month to find out! Until then, see ya!

Racing Like the Staff
Written by:

Hello readers and welcome to Racing Like the Staff, a section where I do 150cc on different Mario Kart games, but the twist is, I take on the Grand Prix by using the combination that a staff and expert staff member used in that Cup. If you're still a little confused, by this I mean if the track is in the Mushroom Cup, then that's the Cup that I race in. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of the Mario Kart games before Mario Kart 7, so it's only that, 8 and Deluxe that will be getting this treatment.

Today we're featuring a surprise return to Mario Kart 7 due to me being away from my switch at this current moment in time. And this time around we'll be looking at the sole GBA track to return for Mario Kart 7: Bowser Castle 1. This isn't really my favourite track out of them all, and I would've preferred more unique GBA tracks to return, but at least it's a GBA track.

The combination for normal staff for Bowser Castle 1 is Bowser with the Pipe Frame, Normal tyres and the Ghastly Glider, and the stats are as follows:


 * Speed – Just under four bars
 * Acceleration – Just over two bars
 * Weight – Four bars
 * Handling – Just over two bars
 * Off-road – Just under four bars

Luigi Raceway
It was a pretty difficult start, and with the low acceleration on this Kart combination, I was only up into fifth by the time we hit the first set of Item Boxes. Thankfully, I got Triple Mushrooms from this, and was quickly up into first. But just as we exited the tunnel, Mario was able to slipstream past me, and started amassing a bit of a lead. However, a Spiny Shell from Honey Queen stopped him in his tracks, and I was able to get past. However, a Spiny Shell soon befell me, and Rosalina was able to overtake. I was about to get her before the tunnel, but a Green Shell hit me, and allowed Mario past. I was worried I would fail to get past them, but a better drifting line had me take Mario, and general speed took me past Rosalina. However, in those closing moments, had Honey Queen used her Spiny Shell, I imagine I could have finished down in third, perhaps even fourth depending on how close Wario was.

Bowser Castle 1
Although I kept my lead at the start, just before the large jumping section, I was subjected to two slipstreams, which allowed Yoshi and Wario to pass me just before the Boost Pads over the lava, and Mario also got in on the action, although I was soon ahead of him and Wario. The Red Shell I had been carrying also allowed me past Yoshi. I hoped this would be enough to secure victory, but Mario was soon on the attack during the Boost Pad lava section, although he ruined his chances by running into my Triple Bananas. From that point on, I was never secure in my lead, any obstacle would demote me to second, but I sealed victory with a Mushroom on the final sand parts.

Mushroom Gorge
Once again I kept my lead, which surprised me given this combination's poor acceleration, and this seemed to be going my way, as it turned out on the second lap, I was a Blue Shell ahead of the rest of the pack, even if only just as Rosalina angled for an overtake. Things went pear-shaped during the final mushroom section though, as Honey Queen used a Lightning strike and I fell off the mushroom. Thankfully for myself, this seemed to affect a lot of the other racers, so I was only down in fourth position, and with Honey Queen and Koopa Troopa being some of the designated 'slow' racers, they were easy pickings. Yoshi was much more of a struggle, and I was only able to pass him by using a Mushroom to cut the grass verge right at the end of the track, and even that was a close one, and he could easily have slipstreamed past me if the track went on for longer.

Luigi's Mansion
It was Karts everywhere at the start of the race, as many seemed to nail perfect starts. At one point I fended Yoshi off, then Koopa Troopa briefly took the lead, then a Tanooki Tail I got managed to fend off many competitors, apart from Yoshi. Then Koopa Troopa and Rosalina came out of nowhere to demote me down to fourth, while some messy driving and accidentally going to the Glide Pad in the graveyard – and subsequently missing it – led to Mario putting me to fifth. Thankfully, I was quickly back into second place, and a Mushroom got me right behind Yoshi, while I passed him upon entering the mansion, I managed to fend off the competition until the lead, but still a difficult one.

With Bowser, I was expecting speed, speed and more speed, but this was not the case. Bowser Castle 1 felt like a comfortable victory, but I still wanted to use that Mushroom to make sure that deal was sealed, but no other race felt like it was solely mine, this could have gone either way. Had it not been for a Mushroom, then Yoshi would easily have won Mushroom Gorge. If you want to use Bowser, then look for different combinations.

The Expert Staff combination for Bowser Castle 1 is Bowser with the Koopa Clown, Roller tyres and Super Glider. The stats are as follows:


 * Speed – Just over three bars
 * Acceleration – Just over two bars
 * Weight – Just over three bars
 * Handling – Five bars
 * Grip – Two bars

Luigi Raceway
With the same acceleration stat and lower speed, I wasn't anticipating better, and I was just into fifth by the time we hit the first set of Item Boxes. This gifted me a Star, and I used it to get up into second, and was soon able to slipstream past Rosalina. And then, my lead was basically set, I didn't encounter opposition until the final moments of the race, a Lightning strike from Toad just before the tunnel, and then getting hit by one of Rosalina's fireballs. The fireball allowed her past, but I was able to pass her for a victory.

Bowser Castle 1
This might be my worst start in this section's history. Rosalina was very good off the line, and overtook me, and as I tried to pass her, I took a dip into the lava and ended all the way back in last. A Star allowed me to get back into fifth, while a Red Shell from Princess Peach took out Toad, allowing me into fourth. I was able to pass Lakitu on speed alone, putting me into third before the end of the first lap. Princess Peach and Lakitu fought around me, but I fended them off, and while I dispatched a squashed Rosalina, Toad was able to go ahead. A Spiny Shell took out Mario, and I got ahead of him and Toad. And I kept this lead, although I feared losing it right at the end when a Spiny Shell came calling, but Rosalina and Toad were thankfully behind me.

Mushroom Gorge
Something I didn't expect to write with this combination, but this was a cakewalk, plain and simple. I fended Mario off at the start and then drove off into the distance.

Luigi's Mansion
This was a race that took all sorts of unexpected twists. To start with, everyone was one my cast at the beginning, and while I was busy fending off Rosalina and Mario, Princess Peach and Lakitu overtook on my side. One by one, I picked them off, and was back into the lead by the spinning Item Boxes in the mud section. However, Koopa Troopa disrupted my fun with a Spiny Shell, allowing Toad past. Toad proved to be difficult to catch, especially with Rosalina on my tail until she took herself out with her own Bob-omb, but this time it was Koopa Troopa to my rescue with another Spiny Shell to take out the smaller turtle. A Mushroom from the first Item Box seemed to seal the deal on my race, as I'd use it to get to the Glide Pad in the graveyard, but then Lightning struck me, and I missed the ramp. Being on the grass isn't particularly fast, and Toad soon passed me, but I was soon able to take him back, and win.

This was surprisingly better than the first combination, and although some victories seemed a bit shaky, they might have been more stable had it not been for last-minute interventions. I'm not sure I'd recommend this combination to others, but if someone wanted to use it, I think they'd be able to get victories with it.

I hope you enjoyed this section, and I'll see you next month where I'll take a look at a combination hopefully from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If you've got a combination you'd like me to review next, feel free to private message me on the forums.

Mach Speed Mayhem
Written by:



Hello, 'Shroom readers! Superchao here, fresh off not being director! What a nice break this is. By surprisingly popular demand, we're going back to the days of the SNES to bring you this month's coverage on #03: Dr. Stewart, last of the original four racers! Fun fact, that doesn't mean we've covered every SNES debut in F-Zero, but we'll get into that in a future section. For now, let's go see how the doctor has changed over the years!



Main Series

Alongside Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, and Pico, Dr. Robert Stewart made his first appearance with his beloved Golden Fox in F-Zero for the SNES. Due to the limitations of the system and the way the game chose to work, you never saw Dr. Stewart in-game - you only saw the Golden Fox. He wasn't even named in the game itself! Luckily, the manual was happy to fill us in on all four drivers, giving us the rundown with short bios. His biography talks about how he followed the lifestyles of the elite as a medical doctor, but ever since the death of his dad, Professor Kevin Stewart, he's driven his father's car in the F-Zero Grand Prix. The comic included in the manual shows that SNES-era Stewart is... actually more arrogant than you'd expect. He tells Falcon to go home and let actually good racers like Stewart run in the F-Zero, as well as declaring an intent to win for beautiful women - in short, he acts the way you'd expect a member of the rich elite to act like. Quite the change from Stewart as we'd see him later!

In F-Zero X, Dr. Stewart made his return as one of the initially available player cars. This time, he'd gotten ten years older - while listed as 31 years old in the SNES game, he was now listed as 41 for the X manual. Of course, Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh both went from estimated 30s/40s to definite ages in those brackets and Pico jacked up his age by ninety years, so it was pretty clear they weren't entirely sure what they were doing age-wise for X. He also got a bit of a design change, both restyling his hair and adding a big "STEWART" to the chest of his uniform. His biography just restates the information from the SNES game, so we'd have to move forward to gain some more information, and gain it we did! Like his fellow SNES racers, Dr. Stewart is not only available as one of the four starting cars in F-Zero GX, but he's also available as a default driver in F-Zero AX. You can pick up and play the Golden Fox if you want to for the arcade version, without any memory card shenanigans necessary. The GX/AX era sees another redesign for Stewart, having him change his hairdo to resemble fox ears more than anything else, as well as reducing the "STEWART" on his uniform to a simple S on the left side of his chest. On top of that, GX, as the game with the biographies and detailed information, provided a surprisingly in-depth look at Stewart!

First of all, far from the arrogant elite he was in the SNES game, he's described as having technical prowess and a friendly demeanor. The change might come from over ten years of experience, giving credence to the idea that Stewart's age change is the canonical one and estimates of Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh's ages in the SNES era may have been overshooting it. Alternatively, it could come from a harrowing experience, as Dr. Stewart played a key role in the Huge Accident's aftermath. First on the scene thanks to being in the race, he called upon his skills as an elite surgeon and put them all to use in order to save as many people as he could. While he wasn't able to preserve everyone's bodies, as seen with Mighty Gazelle's emergency change, he was able to save everyone's lives. Some of his interview questions bear out his new, more humble nature - he rejects the prize money due to racing for honor, and he wears a red scarf as a symbol of friendship for someone. His respect for his father comes through as well, Dr. Stewart talking about a desire to follow in the man's footsteps and planning to visit Kevin's grave to tell him of his victory.

However... not all of Stewart's arrogance has been totally lost. He comes off as surprisingly boastful in several of his interview questions, such as telling Mr. Zero to put his autograph in an expensive frame and calling his driving perfect, with no wasted effort. He's got quite a bit of pride in his skills and his machine, shilling them both when Mr. Zero asks about them - notably, though, he acknowledges it's not guaranteed success, and that's why he'd take the thrill of F-Zero over the elite life of a doctor. Knowing how F-Zero GX operates, it wouldn't surprise me if this was intentionally based off his SNES personality! As for story mode, Dr. Stewart gets to make a couple appearances there. He makes a minor cameo at the end of Chapter 3, clutching his head in defeat as he sees his money claimed by the BET race thanks to Captain Falcon's victory. Chapter 7, unsurprisingly, has Dr. Stewart join the field to try and win the big 30-car race. He's one of the stronger cars in the race; not on the level of the main enemies such as Black Shadow, Blood Falcon, The Skull, or Samurai Goroh, but you'll often see him crack the top six, ready to swoop in should the regular leaders be out of place. Chapter 7's got all sorts of tricks and traps to trip you up!







The Golden Fox is a Stewart family special, created by Dr. Stewart's deceased father and driven by the son. With a primary focus on acceleration, top speed and cornering strategy were both sacrificed, as well as body strength - in short, its pilot needs to be top of the class in skill. Luckily for the professor, Dr. Stewart's up to the task! In gameplay terms, the SNES version of the car is a relatively good beginner's car - high acceleration allows for quick recovery from disaster, and there's plenty of cases in the SNES game where you'll want a quick recovery. Once you've gotten the hang of things, though, and don't need constant acceleration, the Golden Fox falls off compared to the Wild Goose and Fire Stingray - in fact, there are a few tracks that are impossible to get Master Mode first place on with the Golden Fox, because the SNES mechanics and its low top speed just don't allow for victory. F-Zero X gives it defined stat letters, with a D body, A boost, and D grip - probably not unintentional that it spells out DAD. Unfortunately, those stats don't take it very far; despite being a default car, the Golden Fox being relatively weak in all areas other than boost means that it's outclassed by most other cars in the game.

When we move to F-Zero GX and its often-inaccurate letter grades... well, that doesn't help Stewart all that much here, either. Both top speed and body are low in this game, and his acceleration is middle of the road. On the plus side, his boost is still rock-solid and his handling has improved, allowing for a niche as a car that's good for new players who haven't been able to get the hang of cars like the Fire Stingray or Wild Goose. Still, it'll struggle when you corner, meaning that it's really best suited for the tracks with plenty of big wide curves and long flat stretches, largely seen in the Ruby Cup - or if you just want to get the sensation of being a drift racer, skidding through corners at a wild angle. All in all, I'd recommend it as a car to drive while you get used to the game, but to leave behind when you've unlocked more cars in GX and gotten better at it - unless you want a self-imposed challenge of some kind. Not all of us possess the skills of Dr. Stewart himself!

GP Legend series

Of course, Dr. Stewart successfully makes the jump to the F-Zero: GP Legend anime - they wouldn't just leave out one of the original four racers F-Zero started with! They would, however, make him not very important. Dr. Stewart is one of what I'd call the tertiary trio of the Mobile Task Force; he, Mr. EAD, and Dr. Clash mostly exist in the background, only occasionally getting spotlight moments. Still, he is one of the very first F-Zero characters we see, arranging for Rick Wheeler's revival in the future alongside Jody Summer, and we learn he's the second-in-command behind Jody. Beyond that, most of his role in the anime is as the voice of exposition and calm when Jody isn't available to be it - he only gets to win a race onscreen one time, and he only makes minor appearances in most of his moments. He does, however, reveal that he's still active as a skilled doctor - he's the doctor who maintains Jody's cyborg parts, keeping her whole and healthy despite her modified biology.



The Mighty Gazelle/Blood Falcon arc of episodes is Dr. Stewart's biggest spotlight moment, focusing on Black Shadow exploiting his medical skills. As covered in Gazelle's article, Dark Million forcibly recruits Stewart to come to their base in order to resurrect Roy Hughes as the mechanical Mighty Gazelle. With the technology loaned to him and his own skill and research, this is easily within Stewart's power, and he's able to revive Roy in his new body... not realizing that this was all a scheme. While Stewart is busy trying to handle Mighty Gazelle's actions back on Earth, Black Shadow uses the medical research that Dr. Stewart used to create Blood Falcon. When Blood Falcon makes his debut, Stewart decides to step up his game, and not only concocts a serum to degenerate the clone's cells, but even loads a gun with it and attempts to shoot Blood Falcon to take out the clone. Unfortunately, Blood Falcon's too much for Dr. Stewart to handle, and he's forced to simply watch the race as Rick and Captain Falcon successfully save the day.

Other than that, Dr. Stewart remains in his support role, helping to search for the secrets of Andy Summer and providing information to Rick as needed. Despite his relatively minor role in the anime, the two anime-based games continue an important tradition - as one of the original four racers, Dr. Stewart and the Golden Fox are available from the start in both F-Zero GP Legend and F-Zero Climax for the GBA, continuing the tradition reflected in the main series games. The games don't give Stewart any special recognition beyond that; he only appears for a couple of missions in the GP Legend story mode as a minor opponent to help Rick and Jack practice. Stewart's F-Zero Climax biography tells us joining the Mobile Task Force wasn't his idea, however - he initially signed up as a doctor for the Federation, and it was his superior that assigned him to the Task Force. He's not looking back, though, as he's thrown himself into the role of Jody's advisor without any regrets!



Other Information

Dr. Stewart has made quite a few appearances in Super Smash Brothers in some way! Melee and Brawl both give him trophies, and Smash 4 gives him a trophy, as well as one for the Golden Fox in the 3DS version - the trophies confirm that it was his father's death that jumpstarted his racing career in the first place. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he appears as one of the various F-Zero spirits floating around the game, represented by his fellow doctor, Dr. Mario. The yellow Dr. Mario heals over time and draws in food for more healing, the doctor using his skills to keep himself in the best quality that he can. Like Pico, the other SNES driver spirit gets a slightly expanded role, showing up as a Master Spirit with a dojo of his own. Training with Dr. Stewart gives you the Runner Style of fighting, a very fast blitz that sacrifices jump height for speed. Additionally, in SSB4 and SSBU, one of Captain Falcon's alternate costumes is a very yellow and gold outfit that's pretty reminiscent of Stewart's colors. Falcon keeps mixing up his laundry, I suppose.

Interestingly, in the SNES version, Dr. Stewart was the subject of changes between the Japanese and English games. While the Japanese manual already called him Dr. Stewart in Latin characters, the English manual chose to spell his name as Dr. Stuart, along with that of his father - and that wasn't even the biggest change they made. Dr. Stewart's art in the original Japanese manual depicts him holding a martini, and it was redrawn for the English manual to lose the martini due to NOA standards, as well as to give him a better pallor. A doctor can't look too pale, I suppose!

To finish our discussion of Dr. Stewart, I want to look back at that red scarf for a minute. I've already discussed this in Gomar & Shioh's section, but Dr. Stewart's scarf is a match for their scarves, and he uses the exact same phrase to describe it - "symbol of our friendship" - that the two aliens use. It wouldn't surprise me to learn in a new F-Zero game that Dr. Stewart has some kind of connection with Gomar & Shioh... but that'd require a new F-Zero game. Alas. Well, as we hope for that day to someday arrive, go vote for the March writeup, whether by forum thread or direct communication to me!

Pokédex Power
Written by:



Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section written by the person who although hasn't gotten around to playing Shield will definitely be getting the DLC at some point.

I am loving the Galar region variants for the three legendary birds, strange they got a mention two sections in a row here, and some of those new legendary Pokémon are looking pretty sweet as well. I'm not sure if I have a particular favourite when it comes to new area, perhaps I'm leaning more toward the snowy area this time, but who knows. However, this time, we're not looking at a Pokémon that will be particularly affected by the new DLC, as it's not a part of Generation VIII. This time we're looking at the Fighting-type, Hariyama.

Hariyama was one of my main Pokémon when I went through Pokémon Ruby and Emerald, I can't remember what drew me into using Makuhita, and I don't have many memories of using my Hariyama overall, but I do remember it being a major part of my team made up of it, Swampert, Ludicolo, Altaria, Swalot and Pelipper. Sadly, I haven't used Hariyama at all past Generation III, not even in its Generation VI appearance, although I do find it weird that it's wild Hariyama, despite being lower than the level that Makuhita actually evolves into them.

Generation III

If Hoenn had a train network, being a commuter would be hell. I wonder how many people would have to be calling into work to say they'd be late because a Hariyama was having a stand-off with their train. Or perhaps how many truckers have had to say their load was ruined, because their truck had been slapped aside by a Hariyama. And of course, it must be terribly annoying to be midway through a phone call, only to have the line cut off because Hariyama sliced through it. Perhaps it was a good thing I had a Hariyama on my team, otherwise it would have gone around ruining the lives of the people living in Hoenn… All of this calamity-driven stuff almost makes you forget Sapphire which focuses on how muscly Hariyama actually is, and how it can make its body as hard as a rock. Would hate to be throwing a punch against this Pokémon.

Generation IV

Despite Generation III getting us off to a really good start, Generation IV does fumble the ball on this occasion. It is essentially just a rehash of some of Generation III's entries, just a bit shorter. At least we know that Hariyama does enjoy challenging other living things to tests of strength, as opposed to just random vehicles.

Generation V

I would have preferred Generation V to have been stealing off of Generation III, as opposed to Generation IV.

Generation VI

Oops… it did it again, Generation VI just stole old entries for its Pokédex. Does Professor Sycamore actually do any Pokémon research?

Generation VII

After three generations of poor entries, Generation VII actually delivers some pretty good ones, apart from Moon which is just the truck thing again. I like the idea of older Hariyama taking the role of a guru-like figure for the upcoming generation of Makuhita, and I would love to know what this training entails, do Makuhita have to stand in the middle of the road attempting to ruin local produce trucks? And after a normal Hariyama has flung a truck, does it thank it? I'm sure the driver would really appreciate Hariyama's etiquette for this moment, but at least the Pokémon is genuinely kind, and despite having the power to fling these trucks, it might know not to. The Ultra Moon note is a pretty interesting entry, but it makes me realise how un-diverse the Pokémon games / anime are in this regard. I don't think there has ever been a Hariyama that developed a different size, unlike say Gourgeist, so I wish if an entry like this were to come along, they would introduce this mechanic in the game, or even have an Alola variant of Hariyama being small and nimble. Also, it does feel like a contraction to the Sapphire entry which said Hariyama wasn't fat, perhaps research has developed since then.

Conclusion Generation III and Generation VII are an excellent set of entries, but Generations IV, V and VI are disappointing. They took pretty much the least interesting part of Hariyama and ran with it for three generations. These set of entries though are pretty much what I want from Pokédex entries, it details a lot of different general facts about Hariyama, the make-up of its body shape, the training of younger generations, and it also puts the Pokémon into the human world, even if in this case it's very unnerving for the travelling humans it might meet.