The 'Shroom:Issue 177/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

Hello and welcome to the latest and greatest Pipe Plaza! Its certainly been a wild week for me leading up to release, but I survived, I'm here now, and I'm FREE from college's hellish grip! (or at least I am for about two week oof) Earlier I saw my former high school's production of The Great Gatsby, and it was pretty darn good! I really missed some of those kids and it was nice being able to see them again!

We have a lot of great sections in store for you this month! If you're wanting to become a part of this wonderful selection, head on over to the the sign up page to get started!

Enjoy the month, and the holidays as well!!

Section of the Month

NIWA News
Written by:

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

Promotions
 * Chubby Bub was promoted to the rank of Patroller on Nookipedia!
 * Ray Trace was promoted to the rank of Administrator on the Super Mario Wiki!

Demotions
 * Scrooge200 has resigned from his Patroller rank on WiKirby.

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:



It’s yours truly, TasteTheFiresOfHelp/The Shadow Prince. I will be representing this committee this month, covering three more of the quite good polls we have, each of them taking some time to get implemented but working very well when they were.

The News
Each of us have been doing some hard work in the poll committee, with all but one of us already having at least one poll implemented. We have some other great new polls coming up too, but the order in which they will probably be implemented will change if Nintendo announces something new and major (which knowing them could be extremely good, or extremely bad.).

Analyses
Mario games sometimes feature differences in abilities or statistics between characters. Does this have an effect on which character you pick? BBQ Turtle is dominating credit in the polls covered in my section, with this first poll about how characters’ abilities and statistics affect players’ choices between them being by… BBQ Turtle. In first place at 40%, we have picking characters based on their abilities and statistics sometimes and picking one’s favorites other times. So these fans want to have a bit more than a bit of everything in terms of characters they like, and characters that will help them win the competition. Yours truly voted for this option as in Mario Kart I pick characters who I like a lot, but who are not useless racing too. For the choice next up in second, we have 24% of people who outright do not care about characters’ abilities or statistics at all when selecting a character. This is extremely understandable too as many people just want the character they want to use, instead of the character they might have felt people said they had to use in order to do well. Next, the bronze medalist choice at 17% is, it depends on the game and/or mode to determine whether abilities and statistics are taken into account. Maybe these people want to take abilities and stats into consideration more for something more intense like online, or they just have greater interest in making sure they almost always win for some games and modes they want to be seen as, and possibly want to maintain their reputation as, the best ever at, whereas with other games or modes they take it easier and don’t mind picking characters without the most incredible stats if it is more fun for them. Next up at 14% we have picking the character with the best abilities and/or the abilities these voters like the most. Now it doesn’t seem very fun for these people that none of the factors for them picking a character is that they actually like the character; they just want a machine that does excellently in every competition. Lastly we have 5% of people having no opinion on how abilities or statistics affect their choices of characters, marginally less than both Ray Trace’s 2022 Mario Movie poll and my Paper Mario battle system poll last month.

Mario games occasionally reuse musical motifs from older games in new titles or settings. Do you like hearing the motifs in new contexts like this? This second poll covering whether it is good that musical motifs are reused is… also by BBQ Turtle. A 60% majority, rounding down as this makes the percentages add up to 100%, think that it is always good when familiar motifs are used in new settings. Compared to the other options, people who voted for this seem to be happy with an unlimited number of reused songs, even if it means that they consist of the entire games and that Nintendo never comes up with a new or original melody for any games at all whatsoever. In a decently distant second place is the choice at 15% saying that old motifs being brought back is fine, as long as new ones are created too, which is an interesting and reasonable thing to think, with the aspect as to why I much more narrowly did not vote for this either is that even Nintendo reusing motifs some of the time instead of a little of the time can get themselves cocky that they can still have a good soundtrack while not including a ton of new songs with as many old songs. Not good to give Nintendo ideas that they don’t have to be entirely original, is it? Next up as the bronze medalist choice we have 11% of people thinking that motifs being brought back is nice as long as they are in a context similar to their origin. Maybe these people want things to make sense as to why a song is playing again and just don’t want excessive fan service. I still did not vote for this as sometimes I have enjoyed a different context for music, like the playing of Maple Treeway’s music slowed down for Tranquil Pipes Teahouse in Paper Mario: The Origami King. But at least if Nintendo had the attitude of this option we would not get constant Gusty Garden Galaxy remixes in places that aren’t Gusty Garden Galaxy, which would be great. Next up at the not least, but definitely less, popular end is the choice at 8% of people, one person out of that eight percent being myself, saying that old motifs are nice to hear occasionally, but the new games should use mostly new motifs. These people like an occasional song being played again, but just do not like it when it happens even sometimes as we feel it is less of a surprise, and we really want to push Nintendo to be extremely original instead of only crowd-pleasing. Next up at 5% is people who have no opinion on this subject, with it being on the lower end of 5 percent unlike the abilities and statistics poll being on its higher end, so which music should be played is something people have clear thoughts on more than some of the other recent polls. In last and definitely least in terms of the voting percentages, but still not quite the least option as I see it compared to being completely fine with Nintendo never making any original themes ever again, is a microscopic 1% of people not wanting Mario games to ever reuse motifs at all. This is not only a shockingly meager percentage but the lowest percentage of any poll by this Poll Committee so far, with the only other option for any of our polls dipping to one percent being not wanting the Paper Mario series to continue for the Paper Mario battle system poll, which even then still rounded down instead of up to one percent like this option does. Each of these only seventeen people probably picked this due to having a zero tolerance attitude towards Nintendo at all even thinking about toying with the idea of not being original and trying to make its fans happy with it rehashing themes that people liked in the past. While that’s more of an extreme option than what I voted for, as it would mean if Nintendo had the option’s attitude that no fun song from a previous game would ever bring joy again in a new generation of gamers in new games which is too extreme even for me, it is still an understandable one to select.

Nintendo often uses sprites from Super Mario Bros. in merchandise and promotional material. Do you like these sprites being used? This third poll, covering which Mario sprites should be used in things that are not video games, is by BBQ Turtle as well. She certainly started to understand that the early bird gets the worm considering she posted a lot of polls the same day in mid-August. In first place very narrowly we have at 40% the choice that using sprites in games aside from Super Mario Bros. would be much better for non-video game material. This option makes sense, as Nintendo not being innovative and overly reminding people of a single game is something that needs to not happen. The very close second place choice is 38% of people who like seeing sprites from Super Mario Bros. no matter what. This also is a choice that is very understandable, as sprites from games like the first Super Mario Bros. have a more simple, calming feeling in a harsh world. In a fairly distant third place is the choice selected by 12% of people that sprites from Super Mario Bros. are nice to be seen occasionally but should appear less frequently than they are now. This makes sense as again, overusing one game over and over can get repetitive and generic. Interestingly, my ideal option which I would have voted for would have been a combination of these first three; “I like seeing sprites from Super Mario Bros., but I like seeing them from other games too” since I don’t vastly prefer sprites from other games but like seeing Super Mario Bros. sprites alongside sprites from other games, including from other Mario games. A form of this opinion was almost going to be in the poll but was axed at the last minute by Ray Trace, although that’s not the only point of disagreement we have as to be fair things would have been a bit different if I had won the chairperson election. In fourth place is the option at 6% of people, of having no opinion. Maybe some of these people don’t care a ton about non-video game Nintendo merchandise or promotional material in general. I don’t care about those as much as their video games either, but why I voted for this option was a bit different, as none of the other options fit my view perfectly. In last but at least not as least in terms of votes as people not wanting motifs to be reused at all, is 4% of people wanting people to stick to their modern art style and imagery. Maybe most of these people see older sprites as lame, see Nintendo relying on throwback as unoriginal and wanting them to keep coming up with new things, or both.

Conclusion
We certainly have an interesting set of polls here, as BBQ Turtle has had a wide variety of interesting ideas for this twelfth committee, as have each of our other poll members. I am very optimistic about how 2022 will play out for 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.

The Legend of Zelda has been one of Nintendo's best-selling franchises for many console generations alongside Pokémon, Mario, and fairly recently, Animal Crossing. We can attribute Zelda's success to one thing that Nintendo has been doing. No, it's not the open world-defining title of Breath of the Wild, nor is it the story that makes these series of games special. It's 'Squirrels!

You heard me right, Squirrel are what make The Legend of Zelda one of the best titles from Nintendo. They were originally added in A Link to the Past in where Link can often find them around the Master Sword. They subsequently appeared in future titles, such as Twilight Princess, A Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild. In Twilight Princess, Link can find these Squirrels in the Ordona Province, and they will ask Link (as a wolf) to talk to other animals. In A Link Between Worlds, they once again frolick around the Pedestal of the Master Sword, but are easily scared off, while in Breath of the Wild, you can hunt Bushy-Tailed Squirrels down for Acorns. There's even a section from the Oracle of Ages manga from Akira Himekawa where a Squirrel stops the hero Link from passing and telling them to go back.

You know what is really weird about this article? It's the fact that it covers an animal that really doesn't have any gameplay at all besides its role in Breath of the Wild and I guess going for the Lumberjack's Riddles in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords. There are other animals that Zelda Wiki covers, but believe me when I say that Squirrels are a worthy entry in that NIWA List.

Mario Calendar
Written by:

Happy December, everyone! Hard to believe it’s been four years since I started writing this section. Anyways, I know there are holidays celebrated all around the world this month, but the thing that we can all celebrate is that it’s time for another Mario Calendar!

Region Abbreviations

Console Abbreviations


 * December 1st
 * 1990 (NA): Dr. Mario (GB)
 * 1992 (EU): Mario Teaches Typing (MS-DOS)
 * 1995 (JP): Virtual Boy Wario Land (VB)
 * 1999 (NA): Game & Watch Gallery 3 (GBC)
 * 2005:
 * (JP): Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (GBA)
 * (AU): Mario Tennis: Power Tour (GBA)
 * 2006 (EU): Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
 * 2011 (JP):
 * Fortune Street (Wii)
 * Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
 * 2016 (JP): Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (3DS)


 * December 2
 * 1998 (JP): Mario no Photopi (N64)
 * 2001 (NA): Super Smash Bros. Melee (GC)
 * 2004 (JP):
 * Super Mario 64 DS (DS)
 * WarioWare: Touched! (DS)
 * 2006 (JP): WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii)
 * 2010:
 * (JP): Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (DS)
 * (AU):
 * Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (Wii)
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
 * 2011 (EU): Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
 * 2016 (NA/EU): Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (3DS)


 * December 3
 * 2001 (NA): Super Smash Bros. Melee (GC)
 * 2009 (JP): New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
 * 2010 (EU):
 * Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (Wii)
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
 * 2011 (AU): Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
 * 2015 (JP): Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
 * 2016 (AU): Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (3DS)


 * December 4
 * 1991 (JP): Yoshi (NES)
 * 2011 (NA): Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
 * 2015 (EU): Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)


 * December 5
 * 2003 (EU/AU): Mario Party 5 (GC)
 * 2005 (NA):
 * Mario Tennis: Power Tour (GBA)
 * Super Mario Strikers (GC)
 * 2011 (NA): Fortune Street (Wii)
 * 2013 (JP): Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Wii U)
 * 2014 (NA):
 * NES Remix Pack (Wii U)
 * Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
 * Ultimate NES Remix (3DS)
 * 2017 (CHN):
 * Punch-Out!! (Shield)
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Shield)


 * December 6
 * 1982 (NA): Green House (G&W)
 * 1999 (EU/AU): Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
 * 2004 (NA): Mario Party 6 (GC)
 * 2007 (AU): Mario Party DS (DS)
 * 2012 (JP): Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
 * 2014 (JP): Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)


 * December 7
 * 2000 (JP): Mario Party 3 (N64)
 * 2012 (EU): Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
 * 2018 (ALL): Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)


 * December 8
 * 2005 (JP): Mario Kart DS (DS)
 * 2011 (JP): Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)
 * 2012:
 * (JP):
 * New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)
 * Nintendo Land (Wii U)
 * (AU): Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)


 * December 9
 * 2004 (JP): Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (GBA)
 * 2010 (JP): Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)


 * December 10
 * 1992 (EU): Mario Paint (SNES)
 * 1994 (NA):
 * Wario's Woods (NES)
 * Wario's Woods (SNES)
 * 1999 (JP): Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
 * 2015 (AU): Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)


 * December 11
 * 1999 (JP): Mario Artist: Paint Studio (64DD)
 * 2008 (JP): New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (Wii)


 * December 12
 * 1983 (JP): Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES)
 * 1991 (JP): Yoshi (GB)
 * 2003 (JP):
 * Donkey Konga (GC)
 * Donkey Kong Country (GBA)
 * 2010 (NA): Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (Wii)


 * December 14
 * 1996 (JP): Mario Kart 64 (N64)
 * 2001 (JP): Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (GBA)


 * December 15
 * 1983 (NA): Donkey Kong (Commodore)
 * 2008:
 * (JP): Game & Watch Collection 2 (DS)
 * (NA): Game & Watch Collection (DS)
 * 2016 (ALL): Super Mario Run (iOS)


 * December 16
 * 1993 (EU/AU): Super Mario All-Stars (SNES)
 * 2004 (JP): Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GC)


 * December 17
 * 1992 (EU): Yoshi (NES)
 * 1999: (JP): Mario Party 2 (N64)
 * 2004 (JP): Nintendo Badge Arcade (3DS)
 * 2015: (JP/NA/EU): Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Wii U)


 * December 18
 * 1998 (JP): Mario Party (N64)
 * 2013 (NA/EU/AU) - NES Remix (Wii U eShop)
 * 2015 (AU): Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Wii U)


 * December 19
 * 2013 (JP): NES Remix (Wii U eShop)


 * December 21
 * 1997 (JP): Yoshi's Story (N64)
 * 2019 (ALL): Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong Jr. (Switch eShop)


 * December 22
 * 2017:
 * (JP/NA/EU): Arcade Archives: VS. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)
 * (EU/AU): Mario Party: The Top 100 (3DS)


 * December 23
 * 2011 (EU): Fortune Street (Wii)
 * 2017 (AU): Arcade Archives: VS. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)


 * December 24
 * 2008 (JP):
 * Bird & Beans (DSiWare)
 * Dr. Mario Express (DSiWare)
 * Paper Airplane Chase (DSiWare)
 * WarioWare: Snapped! (DSiWare)


 * December 25
 * 2003 (CHN): Mario Kart 64 (IQ)


 * December 27
 * 2018 (JP): Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey (3DS)


 * December 28
 * 1997 (JP): BS Super Mario Collection (Satellaview)
 * 2017 (JP): Mario Party: The Top 100 (3DS)


 * December 29
 * 2005 (JP): Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)


 * December 30
 * 1992 (EU): Yoshi (NES)
 * 1994 (NA): Tetris & Dr. Mario (SNES)


 * December 31
 * 2013 (NA): Dr. Luigi (Wii U eShop)

2021 has come to a close! It’s been quite the year, and while I’ll obviously be back again next month, I do think it’s important to reflect on the past. And since I’m the Mario game history guy, I’ll do that! We had Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Mario Golf: Super Rush, WarioWare: Get It Together!, Mario Party Superstars, and Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online this year. That’s quite the miscellaneous collection! Hope you guys have a great rest of your month and an awesome trip into 2022, see you next year!

What's in a Campaign?
By:

Welcome back, 'Shroom readers, to our final part of the Series 3 one-shot robots! Last month, we looked at decent-for-Series-3 robot Blade. This month, finishing off our trilogy, we're going to be upping the quality and looking at the hydraulic jaws of Pitbull.

Named after a Pitbull but painted like a Dalmatian (when asked about this, the team said that, before they painted it, the robot looked like an Armadillo, so at least they got close), Pitbull was built by friends Ivar Bundulis and Phil Botting, with some help from the Suicidal Tendencies team. Pitbull features a unique weapon: hydraulic crushing jaws. Built to simulate the bite of a dog, this bite is definitely worse then its bark, with these jaws having the crushing power of 750kg. While an impressive amount, that's sadly not as great as it sounds, because only the lower jaw is capable of movement. Taking advantage of almost the full weight limit, Pitbull weighs 79.6kg and has a top speed of 15mph. Now, despite its barrel shape, it's important to note that, unlike something like The Morgue, Pitbull is not a roll over design. That is, it's not designed to roll back on its wheels if it's flipped over. Its armor is made out of stainless steel and fiberglass and it features a welded 25mm square box section, 5mm aluminum floor pan chassis. This is a pretty solid design, all things considered. While it's unfortunate that both the upper and lower jaws don't move, which takes away some of the actual crushing power and turns them into more of a grabber and control bot, The lower jaw is low enough and the robot is fast enough that it doesn't have a problem getting under most robots.



As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. As a sign of how much better Pitbull is then the last few robots we've covered, somebody actually made a full compilation of its fights!

Pitbull actually has a fairly interesting qualifying story. It showed up to the initial qualifiers, unfinished and lacking armor, weapons, or even a failsafe, but despite that, it was chosen to participate. The only problem was that the producers didn't get around to choosing the entrants until a few months after the initial qualifiers, and, assuming they didn't get on the show, the Pitbull team didn't work on their robot in the meantime. Needing to finish their robot and do so quickly, the Pitbull team was lucky enough to live near Team Thermonuclear Warfare (builder of Suicidal Tendencies), who helped them get the robot ready only two days before it was time for filming!

Placed in Heat B, Pitbull's first fight was against legendary robot Sumpthing. Sumpthing, designed and built around the idea of being a low tech robot fighting against the high tech revolution, is a classic. Captained by probable stoner Mr. Diggs, and sort of spun off from the early robot combat legend The Master, Sumpthing has as its weapon a static pickaxe that it brings down on its opponent. The fight (1:08) starts fast, with Sumpthing immediately charging in and launching an axe attack at Pitbull, the force of which manages to completely immobilize Sumpthing.



Yes, you read that right, the force of Sumpthing's own attack causes it to completely break down because it's Sumpthing. Pitbull doesn't realize Sumpthing broke itself in less than five seconds, so it goes in on the attack, but cease is called and Pitbull moves on to the next round without really doing anything!

In the second round, Pitbull comes up against returning Series 2 heat finalist, Technophobic, and its large lifting arm. Pitbull starts the fight (4:25) off strong by slamming Technophobic into the wall. It follows by landing another charge on Technophobic, causing the lifting robot to spin away near the pit. Technophobic manages to get under Pitbull, lifting it up, but is not able to flip it over, causing Pitbull to run away. There's some pretty decent back and forth action until Pitbull clashes with the arena wall, getting its jaws stuck in them. For a moment, it looks like Pitbull is gonna get counted out as neither Sgt. Bash nor Dead Metal are able to dislodge it from the wall.



But then, with a mighty lurch, Pitbull gets itself free and grabs ah old of Technophobic, grabbing it and holding it over the flame pit, where the petrol-driven motor of Technophobic burns out, sending Pitbull to the heat final.

In the heat final, Pitbull comes up against heat favorite and returning Series 2 top-8 finisher Behemoth. On paper, this is a pretty evenly matched fight, with Pitbull being faster but Behemoth being heavier and having a flipping weapon. The fight (8:23) starts out relatively tentatively until a bit of poor driving by Pitbull once again leaves it stuck in the wall, allowing Behemoth to get under it and flip it over (revealing the message PTO on the bottom of Pitbull). In theory, this should have ended the fight, because Pitbull doesn't have a sharp enough design to return to its wheels. But, controversially, Pitbull is flipped over near a CPZ, and Dead Metal, while attempting to grab it, manages to return Pitbull to its wheels and the fight continues. The two charge into each other, with Behemoth getting the better of Pitbull and managing to lift but not flip Pitbull. However, after that exchange, Pitbull begins to take over the fight, using its superior speed and its low jaws to grapple onto Behemoth. Getting a fantastic grapple on the side of Behemoth, Pitbull drives it into Sir Killalot's CPZ while also slamming it into the walls.

But then we have another controversy, because Pitbull lets go and, as Behemoth is escaping, it goes over the stupid floor spikes that everyone hates, which cause it to flip over. Since Behemoth can't self-right, Behemoth is counted out and Pitbull is sent through to the Series Semi-Finals. It's a really interesting fight, because, on one hand, Behemoth does genuinely deliver a killing blow and Pitbull is only saved by its proximity to Dead Metal's CPZ, but on the other hand, after that Pitbull dominates the fight and even if Behemoth wasn't flipped by the spikes Pitbull would probably have won the fight in a judges' decision.

In the Series Semi-Final, Pitbull got a somewhat unlucky draw and was matched up with flipping bar-and-conveyor belt robot Firestorm (who, by the way, is the favorite robot of the local Statistics Manager, Ninja Squid). The reason I say it's unlucky is because Firestorm is a pretty competent flipper and Pitbull doesn't really have a way to self-right. Surprisingly, Pitbull starts off dominating the fight. They immediately (13:32) get their jaws under Firestorm and drive Firestorm around, as Firestorm doesn't have the power to escape. Pitbull makes the mistake of driving over the floor spikes while having Firestorm in its jaws, and, while the spikes don't have the power to flip both robots over, they repeatedly drive into Pitbull, preventing it from driving off the spikes since it still has Firestorm in its jaws. Finally, Pitbull and Firestorm manage to get off the spikes and Pitbull lets go of Firestorm (at the time I believe Robot Wars had a rule that basically said you weren't allowed to lock into a robot for more than sixty seconds at a time.)



Firestorm manages to get under (but not fully under) Pitbull, who, in an attempt to get away, drives over the other floor spike, which sends Pitbull up and over. Unlike last time, nothing is here to re-right the dog-based machine, sending a once promising robot out of the tournament. But in an impressive moment from beyond the grave, after being put down by Sir Killalot (for entertainment purposes, the House Robots would often attack fallen robots.) Pitbull, rammed into Sir Killalot and its jaws managed to sever one of Sir Killalot's hydraulic lines.

For Series 3 and a first time entrant, Pitbull is a very good robot. The jaws worked really well and, while they couldn't actually crush things, it made for a very good control bot. Had Pitbull not been flipped by the floor spike, Pitbull might have managed to beat Firestorm and have gone on to face Panic Attack, who couldn't drive really well in Series 3, so it's very well possible Pitbull could have been a grand finalist. Unfortunately, Pitbull would never appear in Robot Wars again. The team had simply had their fun and no longer wished to participate. Which, honestly, is a shame, because it was a really good robot that could probably have made a heat final even in Series 4. I do think it's funny, though, that of the 3 one-time appearing Semi-Finalists, Pitbull is both the best one and the only one that never had any intentions of returning to Robot Combat.

Forum Update
Written by:

Hello, readers of The 'Shroom! Welcome to the first issue of Forum Update since July. It's nice to be back, especially considering I plan to return to doing these consistently each month next year. With thanks to for the formatting of the section, let us get into updates on the forum between July and December of 2021!

News
Well, plenty has happened in the community in the past five-or-so months, but we'll focus on forum-specific news, lest we run into the problem of having too much to reasonably cover.

First and foremost, our board for involved, strategy-heavy forum games was renamed from "The Glitz Pitz" to "Strategy" on September 22nd, 2021. The local moderator of the board, GBA, opted to rename the board to bring it in line with other boards by giving it a name which better immediately reflects its purpose and the types of threads found within it. For more information, see his opening post in the Strategy board's new General Discussion thread.

After a very successful and enjoyable Awards season, the 2021 Awards board was archived on November 10th, 2021. With its archiving, the board can now be found under the "Archive" category on the forum, and the associated Awards Staff Board is now publicly viewable.

The party hat thread once again saw use by a number of our community members this year in August as folks donned their party hats for Awards. GameFreak75 celebrated his forumversary once again this year on November 11th, slapping us all in the face with a reminder of the passage of time. More recently, Waluigi Time posted a tier-list of mafia roleplays (consisting of characters that participants in this year's batch of mafia games) that someone would "least want to meet in a dark alley". This thread has inspired some imitators, some less serious, such as Ninelevendo's tier list of the taste of barbecued mafia roleplays, and some more serious such as InsaneBlathers' tier list of mafia roleplays which one would least want to fight in Super Smash Bros..

In addition, the Mario Boards Secret Satan event, a Secret Santa-like event where participants create a thoughtful-but-rather-odd gift, has started. Participants have until 6PM EST on December 26th to send in their gifts, and are advised to keep in contact with the organizer, Edofenrir, if they encounter difficulties. This year's event has an illustrated prologue and a humorous little video accompanying the opening.

Oh, and, to celebrate the holiday season, the forum has been decorated! A snowy logo and colorful lights at the top of the site have added a little festive flare this December.

Bans
Well, there's been a few bans since the last edition of Forum Update, as noted in our ever-helpful Ban Log. These ones speak for themselves, so check them out in the log for more information.

Statistics

 * Total Threads: 40,646 (Difference: +437)
 * Total Posts: 2,223,875 (Difference: +22,150)
 * Total Members: 3,324 (Difference: +105)

Thread of the Month(s)
Mindless Mafia - In this year's true joke game, Alex95 kicked off a thread with a mafia game where anything went. No, really, literally "anything" that didn't break the forum rules went. Vote off a dead player? Play while dead? Count sand? The possibilities were (nearly) endless.

Quotes

 * "what am I signing up for" - Shy Guy on Wheels, becoming the first to fail TPG's thread of riddle-like instructions
 * "This post activated a really dumb part of my brain so please bear with me as a describe a bad idea for a Mario Boards anime OP that will transport us back to 2009." - Hooded Pitohui, about to describe an anime OP for the Boards
 * "Now we'll ask the question: is it possible to rearrange line segments S'A and AB such that the start of the first segment is on point S' and the end of the last segment is on point Ey without use of a straight line? We can reuse our previous proof and conclude that point A cannot exist anywhere other than a straight line." - Meta Knight, doing math with pasta
 * "It seems like everything I do in Mindless Junk copies a trend, therefore: WRITE FOR THE METS BABY LOVE THE METS ALRIGHT BABY LET’S GO GET A HOME RUN BABY LOVE THE METS LET’S GO METS" - Ninelevendo, making an important announcement
 * "my cousin's wife's dog's brother's real estate agent sent me the following CONFIDENTIAL screenshots which are completely (real) and in no way fake fake fake (real) (real) fake" - GBA, revealing a new fighter in Super Smash Boards

Mafia

 * Yoshi the Space Station Manager and InsaneBlathers started Lost in Space: Galactic Mafia on July 14th. The game ended with a victory for the innocent faction on August 4th.
 * Ninelevendo's Pokémon Masters Mafia began on August 29th, and ended with an innocent faction victory on September 18h.
 * Waluigi Time's Waluigi Time Cereal Mafia, a loose, joke-like game, began on October 1st and, after over one thousand posts and plenty (positive) chaos, ended with a mafia faction victory. Two independent factions, the independent Al ("all the way to work!") and independent Joe also won.
 * Reverse Input's Lightning Mafia+, a game which featured a full map and some freeform night actions, began on November 10th, and ended, after a very tense game which even saw participants producing art, on December 2nd.

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 on hold for January in Waluigi Time's Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown. Nominations are expected to open again for February's issues with the new system tested for December's issue, where Waluigi Time offers a few nominees that you can support with reactions if you aren't interested in nominating your own fighter.
 * 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.

Well, that may not quite be all of the news from the community, but that mostly gets this section caught up. Please look forward to more Forum Update in 2022. There's bound to be plenty on the forums next year, and I'll summarize it all right here for you!

All information above was correct as of 16:53 EST on 11 December 2021.