The 'Shroom:Issue 155/Palette Swap

Director's Notes
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Presenting... the February issue of Palette Swap! Thank you for reading!

Holy cow have I been busy lately. Mostly because I'm going to be starting a new job soon! I've been working a contract position for the past couple years, but now I have a hired-for-real job! Just another reminder that I'm supposed to be an adult now, I guess. But I'm really excited to make the move and start a new part of my life!

Big news everybody- a ton of new content is coming your way! We have new writers both this month and next month. I won't spoil next month's section, but this month, is starting a new fiction based around the World of Light from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! The first chapter is up for you today, with some hand-drawn illustrations, too, so make sure you give the story a read and give some feedback!

Happy reading! ~FunkyK38 Section of the Month

wins yet another poll for his What's on the Box? section! Last time, he took a look at the boxart for New Super Mario Bros. U. Thank you so much to everyone who voted, and please keep it up for this month!

What's on the Box?
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Hello readers, and welcome back to What's on the Box.

This month I have decided to go a little bit strange with the boxart choice, as it's a game I imagine most of us have never played, and not just because it came out of the Game Boy Colour, a console that even I barely remember at this point. My siblings had it, and I'd sometimes mess around on Pokémon Gold by cutting all the grass and just having a Ditto so I could transform into the other Pokémon.

This month we're looking at the boxart of the Japan-exclusive game, Mario Family and judging by that boxart, I can see why it remained a Japanese exclusive. Although it has a whole host of colourful character, that we'll get onto in a bit, it appears to be quite old artwork, especially in the case of Wario, which appears to be from Super Mario Land: 6 Golden Coins. A lot of the other artwork appears to be from Super Mario World like in the cases of Monty Mole or Rip van Fish.

But all in all, all the characters featured on the boxart are – and deep breath here – Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Koopa Paratroopa, Paragoomba, Swoop, Boo, Lakitu's Cloud, a 3-Up Moon, a Starman, a Berry, a Coin, Rex, a Warp Pipe, a Yoshi Egg, Monty Moles, Spike Top, a Super Mushroom, Galoomba, Bullet Bill, Blooper and Rip van Fish. Surprisingly, Bowser is absent from this game.

I think what might be my main issue with this boxart though, rather than the reused artwork, is that you can't really tell what the game is about. Obviously, it's hardly going to be a mainline Mario given its exclusivity, but apparently it's a game where you can translate the designs onto a sewing machine and then presumably you get them printed onto your shirts or whatever item of clothing you desire. Although there's the Jaguar logo in the top corner, I'm going to guess that not many people are actually aware that this is a sewing company. What might've worked better is if it was an image of Mario sewing some of the images onto his classic overalls.

Mario Family isn't particularly a good boxart cover. Although it certainly shows how big the Mario family was, even back in 2001, it does contain one quite notable omission. I think I would've liked this boxart to explain what the game is about, instead of just hoping someone might pick it up by barfing Mario characters and enemies all over it, and hoping it'll stick.

World of Plight
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Notice: as I have never played any game besides Melee, Brawl, and a Dragon Quest demo that had a higher rating than T, and as I mostly play Mario and Kirby, I may misinterpret or completely leave out certain characters and/or their personalities. Also, this may contain made up/ false information, such as a made up first name for King Dedede.

In 1999, invitations went out to twelve of the major characters from ten of Nintendo’s biggest series.

In 2001, 2008, 2014, and 2018, the event continued, rising in attendees, as well as locations. This event would come to be known as

Super Smash Bros.

Throughout it all, we have defeated Master and Crazy Hand many times (although they aren’t all bad, as seen during the World of Light incident), Tabuu and the Subspace Emissary, Galeem and Dharkon, and then there was that whole, “Bowser-indulging-in-dark-magic-to-transform-himself-into-a-giant-powerful-grotesque-version-of-himself-to-destroy-us-all” thing. We’ve lived in six different homes, and Father Sakurai has introduced us to many, many things and people. But I never could never have imagined that we would have gone through our most recent trials. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Please, enjoy this story.

Link
This is actually my first time in Smash. When a letter showed up at Hyrule Castle saying I was invited to Super Smash Brothers, I had absolutely no idea what it was. After asking around (I.e. Pikango.), I found out it was a huge honor to be invited to Smash. So I show up, and this short mustached man comes up to me and says, “Hey-a Link! How are you? I haven’t seen you in-a four years! Nice outfit! The green seemed to be getting a bit old.” My general response was, “What the Hyrule is he talking about?” Apparently, other heroes named Link have been at all the other Smash events. I’ve been here for over a year, and this place is great and all, but I can’t get over how weird everything is. There’s a kid here who looks like I did when I was like, eleven. And there’s a guy who looks like him but his eyes are so huge, I thought he had two ice chuchu’s stuck to his face. I also met a princess named Zelda, and a guy named Ganon – although he was a human, not a giant, black, demon pig. Very odd. Although my Zelda came for a “Guest Star appearance”, whatever THAT is. Something else strange happened.

About a week after we beat those light and dark guys, I had a dream where Zelda was trying to warn me something bad was going to happen. I’m not entirely sure if I should take it seriously though, because I also had a dream that night where I was riding a giant Keese in my underwear and wearing a crown that said “King of Mushrooms.” I wonder if the other Link’s dealt with this…

Hey guys! Thanks for reading “World in Plight”, and I hope you really enjoy it so far! If you have ideas for an entry, if you have questions or want to chat, contact me on the Mario Boards.

Hiding in my bomb shelter for the apocalypse, Magolor04726, Wearer of tinfoil hats.

Mario's Boombox
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There's a number of artists out there putting their own unique spins on videogame music by covering the medium's classic and famous pieces. This section has covered but a few of them, including artists who focus on making jazz covers and artists who focus on adding lyrics to what were initially instrumental pieces. Today, however, I get the pleasure of introducing you to one of my favorite videogame music cover artists. The artist known as FamilyJules puts out incredible guitar and metal covers of pieces drawn from a huge variety of videogames. His source material ranges from Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon to Minecraft and Wii Sports to Deltarune and Crypt of the Necrodancer to Ducktales and Nier: Automata. With as wide a range of games that he draws from, I can almost guarantee you that he has at least a few covers that will interest any given reader, and today, I'm going to see if I can't convince you to give him a listen by sharing some of my personal favorite pieces from him.



Any discussion of FamilyJules must begin at one point, and that point is his cover of, that heavily featured lyrical song from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Fittingly, you may have recently become reacquainted with this song through its addition to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unsurprisingly, this well-known and emotionally charged song has been covered by innumerable artists on the Internet, and some very talented individuals have made their own versions of it which are well worth a listen. FamilyJules' take on the song, however, is easily my favorite of them all. FamilyJules brings his usual guitar stylings, giving the song all that much more power and impact, but he also melds it with the lovely voice of Adriana Figueroa. You may remember Adriana from a previous edition of this section. As it turns out, FamilyJules is highly active when it comes to collaborating with fellow videogame cover artists, including artists like Adriana and Carlos Eiene. FamilyJules collaborates with Adriana on a fairly regular basis, as you'll see more later in this section. With FamilyJules providing instrumentation tailored to and complementing Adriana's vocals, the two of them have a great degree of synergy. That synergy is on full display in this cover, and their combination goes a long way in making this feel like the definitive version of the song so closely tied to Garegg Mach.

The next piece of FamilyJule's work I want to highlight is not one song, but instead a collection of thirty-two songs. Now, I admit that I'm quite the fan of Octopath Traveler, a game which I could go on and on about with an interested conversational partner, but I can honestly say that it's not just personal affection for the game which makes me incredibly fond of The Eightfold Path. With its subtitle of Metal Arrangements from Octopath Traveler, it should be immediately clear what this album contains. With its vaguely medieval setting and music which closely matches that setting, Octopath Traveler might not immediately seem like a game with a soundtrack that would translate well to metal covers. FamilyJules, however, pulls it off impressively as he covers the main theme, the leitmotifs of the eight titular travelers, the themes of the game's major regions and settlements, the battle themes, and some off the boss themes, among other miscellaneous pieces from the game's soundtrack. Though they are all clearly metal pieces, there's fascinating variation in the pieces on the album, reflecting how FamilyJules had to change his approach to each piece to get such a wide variety of pieces to all work as metal covers. Compare the relatively slow-paced and dialed back covers of and  to the powerful renditions of  and. As the theme of one of the main characters, the last song in that list contrasts nicely with. FamilyJules' cover of Cyrus Albright's theme immediately launches into its own take on the piece, but his cover of Tressa Colzione's theme begins with a segment that sounds almost unaltered from the original piece before launching into a more distinctive metal version of the theme. One other highlight of the album is its final piece,. Here, once again, Adriana lends her vocals to the powerful metal instrumentation put together by FamilyJules, giving her own take on the ominous Latin chanting in the original piece.



Those may be my personal favorite offerings from FamilyJules, but they may not appeal as much to everyone as they do to me. That's no issue, though, considering the sheer variety of pieces FamilyJules has. Of course, it would be impractical for me to provide a list of all he has to offer in this section, and the best way for you to find the covers of his which most appeal to you requires that you go and look through his numerous videos for yourself. That said, there are a few more good selections of his music I can point you towards so you can get a taste of his music. FamilyJules himself has put together a selection of twenty-five songs which he feels represent the best of his music, and "The Best of FamilyJules" playlist certainly has the sheer variety of videogames he draws inspirations from on display. If you need an elevator pitch, though, a short taste of FamilyJules for yourself or your busy friends, you might also look at his attempt to cover 100 videogame themes in five minutes, helpfully split into a video where he covers and another where he covers. Understandably, he only provides extremely brief snippets of his covers for each theme, but these videos serve as a good way to get a feel for the music he produces in a very short time.

I could go on and on, picking out individual pieces and pointing out the FamilyJules music that most appeals to me, but, really, the best way to see if he interests you is to go and search through his videos yourself. With a backlog and style that has developed over nine years, FamilyJules has dipped into just about any videogame you might be interested, so spend a little time searching out your favorite games and themes among his videos. If you enjoy his work, you'll have plenty to look forward to, considering that he promises new covers every Tuesday at noon PST. If you end up feeling particularly inspired by his takes on classic videogame themes, you might also consider looking at his tutorials on how to play various videogame themes on the guitar. Some of his tutorials are only available to his Patreon supporters, but there's a good number of publicly-available tutorials, as well.