The 'Shroom:Issue 125/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

Hello readers! Welcome to Pipe Plaza, the 'Shroom team that's more summery than Summer itself. Don't believe me? Well, I've just had a massive rainstorm pass over, so what's more summery than that?

Sadly, we weren't able to capitalize on our third placement for Favourite Sub-Team last year, and instead fell down to joint last alongside Palette Swap. But no matter, we shall continue to rebuild Pipe Plaza, and eventually all of the other teams shall fear us. Fear us, I say!

Anyway, things to talk about. You may notice that we're missing a couple of sections this month. That's because has been incredibly busy, and thus unable to send them in. We look forward to welcoming him back next month. Also, despite it being one of my first ever sections, I have decided to stand down from Featured. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed the Awards ceremony, and I hope you continue to have a pleasant Summer.

Section of the Month

Featured
Written by:

Hello 'Shroom readers and welcome back to another edition of Featured, the only place this side of the Mario Wiki where you'll get news about the Mario Wiki Featured Articles.

Featured Articles No new articles have been featured in the past month.

Re-Featured Articles No new articles have become re-featured.

FA Nominations There are no ongoing Featured Article Nominations.

Failed FA Nominations No new articles have failed the featuring process.

Unfeatured Articles No new articles have been unfeatured in the past month.

Unfeaturing Nominations There are no ongoing Unfeature nominations.

Failed Unfeaturing Nominations Two new articles have failed the unfeaturing process in the past month.
 * Culex failed on 4 July.
 * Mario Party 9 failed on 31 July.

Thanks for reading see you next month, for more Featured Articles news.

Tip of the Month
Written by:

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Upcoming Game
Written by:

Greetings everyone! Alex95 here to tell you all about an upcoming game and my thoughts about it. Fire Emblem Warriors has been teased for a while before its official reveal, and has been receiving a steady increase of screenshots and new info since. So let's take a look at it, why don't we? The initial reveal for the game showed Chrom pulling his sword, Falchion, from the ground, and I think that's all we got at first. Fast forward a few months later and we got the official name, Fire Emblem Warriors, as well as a few additional tidbits. Marth will be joining alongside his descendant on the battlefield, and the game also showed the two new protagonists for this adventure. Twins Rowan and Lianna were living a peaceful life in their nation, when suddenly, the Fire Nation unknown forces attacked and took their mother. With nowhere else to turn, they called upon heroes from the past to aid them. Perfectly acceptable Fire Emblem logic at this point. As you may have guessed from the "Warriors" part in the title, Fire Emblem Warriors is based on Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series. Since Hyrule Warriors released for the Wii U, there's been a sudden increase of support for the series: Hyrule Warriors received several DLC packs and even a second game, and Square Enix followed with Dragon Quest Heroes I and II (which I still think they should've called Dragon Warriors), with those games also receiving expansions and a compilation. Now it seems Fire Emblem is jumping onto the Warriors trend with a game on both the New Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch.

If you've played any of the aforementioned Warriors titles before, you probably know what to expect here. A small army, though you only control one character at a time, goes against hoards of enemies to take bases and defeat commanders. The more you fight, the more you level up and the more rewards you can gain. The Fire Emblem part of this comes into play in a few different ways. First, you can switch between main characters on your team, a mechanic introduced in Hyrule Warriors Legends (as far as I know) and fits perfectly well with the Fire Emblem series mechanics, allowing you to cover areas quickly. A unique mechanic is the "Pair Up": introduced into the Fire Emblem series through Fire Emblem Awakening, the Pair Up in Fire Emblem Warriors allows two characters to team up during a special attack and wipe out many enemies around them. The graphics in the game also appears to be based on how the cutscenes from Awakening and Fates were done, drawn by Anima. Also coming in from Fire Emblem are support scenes. Not sure how those work at the moment, but it sounds like it'll be how it has been in recent titles. I, honestly, would love to see the conversations between Marth and Chrom or Robin and Corrin. Some of the cutscenes were shown off earlier, showing Marth & Chrom and F!Corrin & Ryoma. Still not sure how they are activated, but the conversations seem more like moral support between the two, consisting of one or two lines for each character. Speaking of characters, the Warriors series is known for having a lot! And Fire Emblem Warriors, at the moment, disappoints. Characters revealed so far are Marth from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon; Chrom, male Robin, Lissa, Frederick, Lucina, Cordelia, and female Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening; and female Corrin, Ryoma, and Xander from Fire Emblem Fates; along with the two original heroes. Certainly impressive, but it feels restrictive, though it makes sense from a development stand point. Shadow Dragon was the first game in the Fire Emblem series and Marth is a popular character among the Smash community, Awakening was the game that brought Fire Emblem from the brink of extinction, and Fates is the popular one. It seems the developers are afraid of alienating fans who aren't familiar with anything before Awakening or outside of Smash, with characters like Roy and Ike nowhere to be seen despite being popular characters among Fire Emblem fans in Smash. Hopefully, more is revealed about the game before release and shows characters from other games. Chrom and Tiki will also be getting amiibo of their own, with Tiki's possibly hinting at a playable role, and Roy's and Ike's (along with the others) Smash amiibo are compatible, so what could this mean?

Thoughts Hyrule Warriors was fun, but I quickly got board of the repetitive gameplay. I think I'll feel the same way about Fire Emblem Warriors, but, overall, it still looks like a great game. The only thing that'll sell me on this game is more characters from pre-Awakening, and it's not just me that feels that way. Also, I hope they don't restrict them to DLC… If you want to find out more, check out the pages on the Fire Emblem Wiki, or the pages on Serenes Forest. The game releases in Fall of 2017 in the Americas, so there's not long to wait if you want the game, though the dual-release on the N3DS and Switch is a little strange. Which one will you get? Faster processing and HD graphics, or dual screen functionality (or is the choice based on what system you have at the moment)? And let me know what game you want me to cover next!

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:

Greetings, 'Shroom readers! This is Lord Bowser here with Poll Committee Discussion for you all! There's a decent bit of news on our end, so I hope you enjoy!

Poll Committee News As you've likely heard by now, the Eighth Poll Committee is now fully in session, with myself as Chairperson and as Vice-Chairperson. We have a big project set to be shown next month for you all; an analysis of the Awards Ceremony polls! This will be its own special section in the next issue of The 'Shroom, so make sure to watch for and read it!

is also working on a banner for the Committee this year, as he did for last year's Committee. We're excited to see how it'll turn out! Make sure to check our page for it as soon as it's up!

Archives What is your favorite game in the Mario & Luigi series? (mario2018 and, July 2nd, 2017)

Besides the games, what is your favorite Mario-related media? (, July 9th, 2017)

Favorite genre in Mario games. (, July 16th, 2017)

What are your opinions on the New Nintendo 2DS? ( and, July 23rd, 2017)

What is your favorite kind of Mario merchandise? (, July 30th, 2017)

How did you find the MarioWiki? (, August 6th, 2017)

Analysis
 * What is your favorite game in the Mario & Luigi series? -- From the beginning, Bowser's Inside Story held a strong lead over the rest of the series, and continued to hold it throughout the entire run of the poll. For obvious reasons, it got my vote as well, though I also enjoyed Partners in Time. Coming in second was Superstar Saga; many of our voters still seem to enjoy the original the most, and I can't blame them with how quirky it is. About 14% of our voters have never even touched the series, however; you really ought to! They're quite charming and silly games, and I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.
 * Besides the games, what is your favorite Mario-related media? -- While a significant portion of our voters weren't particularly interested in Mario media, those who were seemed to take a liking to the franchise's first show, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Indeed, the cartoons seemed to be the favorites among the voters, gaining a majority of the total votes combined. I personally never got into them, but I can see their appeal; they're creative, quirky, and fun, definitely much more experimental than today. Too bad Bowser's design in all of them is a pity...
 * Favorite genre in Mario games. -- 3D platformers were the clear fan favorite here, quickly surpassing even the staple 2D platformers and the cult classic RPGs. RPGs still took home a nice sum of votes in second place. My vote went to the RPGs, as it's quite difficult to top gems such as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, but I still enjoy the 3D platformers quite a bit, and they definitely would've been my second choice. I'm still genuinely surprised at the fact that the edutainment games received any votes, let alone 25...
 * What are your opinions on the New Nintendo 2DS? -- Most of our voters seem to support the New Nintendo 2DS, while a little over a quarter of them seem to disapprove. I'm one of those who don't feel that it's very necessary; after all, it's a downgrade of an upgrade of a system that's over 6 years old now. There's a whole bunch of variations that all kind of seem redundant, even moreso when you consider the fact that the 3DS, while still a strong seller, is getting old. I'm glad that they made the New 3DS more affordable this way, but I feel like they could've simply cut the price of the original instead of manufacturing an entirely new device.
 * What is your favorite kind of Mario merchandise? -- This poll was a little bit more divisive, with figurines only maintaining a slight lead over toys and game accessories. My vote went to clothing, as I own some Mario-series clothes that I love to wear, and like hunting for more of them, though figurines are a close second; amiibo are definitely a hot commodity. I never really bought many Mario toys or playsets, minus a few plushies that were given to me as gifts, but I can definitely see why they were a favorite; they for sure look fun!
 * How did you find the MarioWiki? -- As expected, the vast majority of our voters found us through search engines. Whether it was looking specifically for a wiki about Mario, or stumbling upon us while looking up Mario facts, search engines are the reason why many of our voters is here right now, myself included. At a very distant second place was having the wiki linked or mentioned externally, which is good, as it means our advertising is working and people are getting interested in us because of it.

And that's it for this edition of Poll Committee Discussion. will be taking the reins next month, so stay tuned for them. Also, make sure to look at our Awards Analysis special section next month! Thanks for reading!

Retro Feature
Written by: Hello, readers! I'm your Spotlight manager and Pipe Plaza Director, Yoshi876. Welcome to Retro Feature, a section in which I delve deep into the archives to bring you the best blasts from the past. As many of you may have noticed, we've been celebrating our Anniversary this past month, and have had a massive awards ceremony, as per usual. And, as per usual, following this event we get lots of reflections, and commentaries, and the like. Well, that's what I bring to you this month, one of Tucayo's recaps of an anniversary of a year that's already passed.

The 'Shroom Report
Written by:

HI, everyone! I'm your natural Statistics Manager, Tucayo, here with your monthly dose of The 'Shroom Report! As a reminder, in the Milestones section, writers will get mentioned every 10 team sections and every 50 overall sections, teams will get mentioned every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom will get mentioned every 500 sections. All information is based off our Historical Sheets. This section will cover Issue 124.

Tables are based off the End-of-the-Year Awards tables, so credit goes out to.

With this last issue, I have passed my good friend for most Staff/Main sections. I have to say, it's only because SMB retired from the community a year ago, otherwise he would have kept on writing sections!

Anniversary Announcements
Written by:

Goood daaay! This is Lakituthequick reporting the latest Anniversary Announcements to you, from the comfort of my own home.

The Bessie Basses The Mario Awards 2017 are over! Last week, 60 presentations have been shown, revealing the best and worst of the Mario series and the best of our community! Congratulations go out to the presenters and winners! If you haven't already read them, go read them now! They are great!

It is also almost the end of the Awards season! Tournaments are slowly wrapping up, and tokens are being hand out.

Several months back, we mentioned that Steam changed the way it handles the purchase and gifting of items, mostly rendering our use of it unusable. We are currently still figuring out the best way to counter that. We are hoping that Humble Bundle will be a good source of items if they have a summer sale, but otherwise we may have to change how prizes work, and be more dependent on monetary donations and gift cards. Prizes already in our catalogus from last year are not affected by this.

Tournaments Since last month, the tournament scene hasn't sat still! Let's see what's new. The hard deadline for all tournaments is the end of August.

The Awards season is slowly coming to an end now, but no fear, I'll be here next month once more to tell you about the final happenings for this season! Until then, I want to wish you a happy month, and good luck if you are going back to school or work begin September!

See you next time! Bye!

All information above was correct as of 2017-08-17.