The 'Shroom:Issue 122/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
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Hey you've found Strategy Wing for this month! I May have some exciting news to announce. Firstly, I would like to welcome to the team! He will be introducing a new section so be sure to go read it! Mario Calendar is absent this month because caught the life bug. I wish him luck with whatever he runs into. Secondly, I would like to make a reminder that next month is Issue 123 and will focus on Wario-related aspects. Feel free to send in a guest section, we're very excited to celebratethis purple overall-wearing mustached man and his friends. With all that out of the way, please enjoy thismonth's Strategy Wing.

Section of the Month Thanks to everyone that voted! Congratulations to for winning again! Thanks to for her section as well.

Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner
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Hello 'Shroom racers! And welcome to Mario Kart Wheel Tips Corner, here I plan to give you just some extra tips to help you with your racing, or just some changes in a track that might catch you off guard if you aren't prepared for them. Lights are out, let's start racing.

Kool Karts You can't race if you don't have a Kart to do it in, so in this section I'll give you some facts about a Kart, Bike, ATV or even tires and gliders that you can use hopefully for racing success.

In this edition of Kool Karts, we're going to be looking at an ATV, something we haven't down yet. The ATV in question? The Teddy Buggy, a simple ATV with no stat boosts, until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

In Mario Kart 8 the Teddy Buggy was only for aesthetic, it gave nothing, and took away nothing. However, all that changed in Mario 8 Deluxe, in this game the Teddy Buggy actually gives quite a few stat boosts, those being: air speed, acceleration, ground and air handling, and mini-turbo. It only decreased ground and water speed. This leads to the Teddy Buggy being suited to tracks where you're in the air a lot. Sadly, the acceleration boost is offset by the speed decrease, but with your handling, you might be able to catch them in the corners, especially as your mini-turbo will last longer.

What's Changed? Retro tracks are now a huge portion of the Mario Kart games, typically amounting to half the courses in the game. But usually these courses change some things up, so in this section I'll help you find out "What's Changed" in the retro tracks.

Coconut Mall was a fairly popular track, even if it wasn't one I particularly cared for. First appearing in Mario Kart Wii it would then appear as a retro track in the next game, Mario Kart 7. Graphical changes are obvious, but there were a few other changes. Miis no longer spectated from inside the mall, and the three who drove cars outside were reduced to two. All the advertisements relating to Miis were also removed. Gee they really hated them in 7, didn't they? Some Item Boxes had been replaced with coins, the jumps leading out of the mall were turned into glide pads, and the escalators now show what direction they're going up, instead of having the Pianta point at them. Oh, and the shortcut through the shop was changed so you could just drive through it.

Ace Shortcut In this small section I give you a way to shave a few seconds off your time, whether you know about it or not. Be warned, most of these shortcuts will require a Mushroom.

This issue I bring you a shortcut from Mushroom Bridge.

This shortcut can be used in both of its appearances. As you leave the first tunnel, straight ahead is a dirt path, if you use a Mushroom, you can boost over it, past some Toad houses, and back onto the track, skipping a corner.

Isaac Synergies
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Haha! April Fools ‘Shroom Readers! I waited a whole month to say that, because my last section, instead of synergies, I gave you...whatever the opposite of synergies is! What is the opposite of synergies anyways? Just give me a second, I’m going to google this...huh, there isn’t one. English is weird sometimes.

Anyways, let’s dive right into the basement for the synergy of the month. I present to you one of the most underrated items in my opinion: Serpent’s Kiss. This item does numerous things. First it gives you random poison tears, exactly like the item Common Cold. Poison is a great status effect that always empowers my run. Serpent’s Kiss also has a built in The Virus effect, which poisons enemies upon touch. Do note that this doesn’t prevent taking damage from enemies by itself. The last effect, is that poisoned enemies have a chance to drop black hearts. Black hearts are a valuable consumable that work much like soul hearts as they protect your red heart containers. Unlike soul hearts, once the black hearts are consumed, they deal damage to all enemies in the room. They’re very useful and has saved me many times. The synergies I will show you are ways to increase black heart spawning with Serpent’s Kiss.

This first synergy is a combo with another one of my favorite poison items, Scorpio. This zodiac symbol gives you poison tears all the time instead of randomly, increasing your chances of black heart spawning. It’s as simple as that.

Let’s focus on Serpent’s Kiss second effect: the built in The Virus. As I have explained two issues before, The Virus poisons enemies upon touch and gives a chance for killed poison enemies to drop black hearts. Gnawed Leaf is a good synergy for Serpent’s Kiss for this reason, however, because we are not talking about Gnawed Leaf this time, I can show you an even greater synergy with Serpent’s Kiss/The Virus. There is an active item called Unicorn Stump that’s very good, but only situationally. It has a one room charge (meaning you can use it in pretty much every non-cleared room once), and you are granted invincibility for a few seconds. You can't shoot and the invincibility doesn’t even deal damage, but you can still poison enemies from touching, allowing you to potentially rack up so many black hearts.

Maw of the Void and Athame are both amazing items. When the items proc, a large black ring surrounds you and heavily damages enemies. Maw of the Void triggers when you shoot for 3 or more seconds in a row and stop shooting, while Athame triggers every time you get hit. Both items have an alright chance for killed enemies to drop black hearts at 5% and 15% respectively. When paired with Serpent’s Kiss, they also apply the poison damage with the item, giving the best chance to drop these precious black hearts.

Black hearts are more rare than most other consumables, but if you can find ways to generate a ton of them like this, you could be nearly unstoppable. Join me next month where we will get a little Greedy.

Galactic Expedition
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Metroid II Retrospect

Hello everyone and welcome to this month's Galactic Expedition! This month, I'm doing something a little different. Apologies to those waiting for the next part of the walkthrough, but this month I wanted to take a step back and look at everything Metroid II has introduced into the series. I realize that the game is cryptic at times, and there are some glaring flaws (you should play AM2R if you can find a safe place for it, amazing game), but this title has done so much for the series that I want to focus on this month. I already focused on the importance of the story, so this month we're going to look at some more gameplay aspects of this.

Save Stations

Possibly one of the most important aspects of any game, Metroid II is the first title to utilize a save feature. While the first game used a password system, now players don't need to worry about writing down long passwords, or distinguishing certain characters. Many titles in the series are significantly longer, and the save feature is something absolutely essential for this. Similarly, on the title screen you have the option to have more than one save file at a time. So while you have data super far in-game, your friend can play as well without worrying about your save file being deleted.

Recharge Stations

Metroid II introduces Missile and Energy recharge stations. While they are somewhat hidden, they are something that are absolutely necessary. Gone is the grinding of repetitive enemies in order to recharge. You may have to backtrack a little, or go out of your way to find one, it's a lot faster to just simply touch one of these recharge stations than it is to shoot the same enemies hoping you'll eventually get back up to speed with what you need. Tying into this category is of course Samus's iconic Gunship that would return throughout the series as a place to reload.

Varia Suit

While the Varia Suit may have been introduced in Metroid 1, in there all it did was change the color. However, unless you're on a Super Game Boy, the Game Boy doesn't have color. So what Metroid II did was change the design. The iconic design of the Varia Suit came from Metroid II. This standard look would remain throughout the series until Other M.

Spider Ball

We already picked up this power-up last time, but Metroid II introduces the Spider Ball. This power-up allows you to scale walls to make your way around. It was absent in all the other 2D titles, likely due to how there's a lot more mobility in those, but Metroid Prime brought it back. In there it can only be used on magnetic rails, which is a good way to make the Spider Ball not so OP, and it likely would have been really awkward if you could scale any wall in a 3D environment.

New Beams

While Metroid II retains the mechanic where you can only carry one beam at a time, this game introduces two beams that would return throughout the series. The Spazer splits your shot into three, and the Plasma Beam is a powerful laser. While they are debatably inferior in this game, they would become great when stacked with other beams in future 2D titles, and they have definitely left an impression on the series.

Spring Ball

This nifty power-up allows Samus to jump in the air while in Morph Ball mode. When used in combination with the Spider Ball, it can be used to gain some extra height, and also cut the time it takes to scale walls a little. The Spring Ball would return in future installments, and there it would be useful in more ways as there wouldn't be a Spider Ball to scale the walls there. The Spring Ball is a fun little power-up that Metroid II introduced and I hope it stays.

Space Jump

Quite honestly one of the best power-ups in history, the Space Jump allows Samus to jump infinitely when timed properly. This in combination with the Screw Attack makes Samus unstoppable for minor enemies. The Space Jump allows so much in terms of mobility, and makes it so satisfying to just blast through everything. Of course in Metroid II this makes it so you don't need to Spider Ball everywhere because you can just jump up there, and this power-up is one of my favorites in the entire series.

Conclusion

Overall, Metroid II has introduced a lot of things that we tend to take for granted now. The power-ups it brought to the table are such a pleasure to use, especially in titles such as Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. Hopefully this month's edition will allow more people to appreciate Metroid II despite some of the more frustrating aspects that may be present within it. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time.

Party Trick!
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Welcome to this month's Party Trick! This month for our Mario Party we have a request from, who suggested to do Castaway Bay from Mario Party 6! Let's dive right into this map shall we?



This board has a few features about it that make it unique from others in Mario Party 6. Firstly, the way to obtain the star is different. Players start in the bottom center on the green grassy platform that has a star on it. Players are on a one-way path with a couple junctions here and there to get to the end of the map. When you reach the goal, one of two boats will be there for you. One of them is owned by Donkey Kong and he will let you purchase a Star for 20 coins. The other is under control by Bowser, who will either steal a Star or 20 coins if you have no stars. When someone reaches a boat, they will be sent back to the start, and the boats will switch places. For example, if someone gets to the goal and gets to DK's boat, then Bowser's boat is the one that will be there for the next person. The board is actually similar to Mario's Rainbow Castle from the original Mario Party that we covered back in Issue 118.

There's plenty of Happening Spaces throughout the board, let's take a look at them. Throughout the map, 3 of the Happening Spaces have a post with a star on it. If someone lands on this, it will switch the boats! This can be handy if you're about to end up having to run into Bowser, or if you want to switch from Bowser to DK to force someone else to lose a star. You can even take advantage of things like the Sluggish 'Shroom Orb to manipulate the Dice Block to specifically land on these spaces. Taking avantage of the Dice Block in general can be helpful, such as using a Mushroom Orb to pass someone in front of you to get to DK first. Plan your strategies accordingly to make sure you get the right boat.

There's also a Happening Space in the top left in front of a tree. If you land on it, you will have the opportunity to play a little minigame to collect coins. The Ukiki will throw coins and Spinies. Dodge the Spinies and get the coins. In Mario Party, free coins always come in handy so do what you can to make the most of it.

The two Happening Spaces on the third island serves a different purpose depending on what time of day it is. In the Daytime, it is a Mushroom statue, and you will be asked if you want to give respects to the Great Mushroom Spirit. You will have the chance to gain coins or an Orb from this. However, at night the statue is a Goomba. Youll be asked if you want to pay your respects, but no matter what you say, at the end of the event all the players will switch places. This can be another useful trick if you're about to end up running into Bowser. You can switch places making someone else be dangerously close to him instead.

There's a few other features on this board as well. At the top of the map where the right green arrow is, there is another way to gain a lead. During the daytime, this house is burned down, and nothing happens. However, at night, the cabin is built, and if someone visits it, they will summon Pink Boo! Pink Boo will offer to steal coins or a Star from another player. Stealing coins costs 5 coins, and stealing a Star costs 40 coins. This is reminisent to how Boo worked in the N64 Mario Party games. I recommend keeping a Flashlight on hand to defend yourself from anyone that plans on stealing from you, especially if you're in first place.

The last thing to mention about this board is the other green arrow at the top of the map. When a player passes it, they will be given the option to pay 10 coins to Shy Guy. This will allow them to ride a river-raft downstream and get closer to the Star. Obviously if Bowser is the one in control, it's probably not a good idea to go on the stream. However, when DK is in control, Bowser will load his boat up and try to attack you with cannonballs. If you're hit, you will not be able to continue your movement, whereas if you aren't hit you continue moving. Additionally if you're hit you will lose 5 coins.

That's all for this month's Party Trick! Next month is reserved to focus on Wario-related minigames, but you can still send me requests. Have a minigame or board you'd like me to do? Send me a message on my talk page or message me on the forums and you could be mentioned in Issue 124's edition!

Challenger Approaching!
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Greetings, beautiful 'Shroom readers! I'm your host, Roserade, and welcome to Challenger Approaching! This will be a segment where I discuss different video game characters and how I believe they should play if they were in Super Smash Bros.!

Looking upon the pages of the Wiki, you can find a lot of different Mario characters that have been lost in the sands of time. Many different characters and villains have simply faded away into the limbo of obscurity. However, there is one villain who, despite only ever appearing in one Mario game, has maintained popularity among fans, especially those who want a new Mario character in Super Smash Bros.: Wart.

Why has Wart maintained this popularity? I am unsure, but he would certainly be an interesting inclusion into Smash Bros. nevertheless. So, how would I want him to play?

Background

Wart is a villain who first appeared in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, alongside other familiar enemies such as Birdo, Bob-omb, and Shy Guy. As many know, Japan's sequel to Super Mario Bros., known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels nowadays, was tremendously hard compared to the original; so hard, in fact, that it was ultimately decided that the game was too hard for overseas audiences. Shigeru Miyamoto, who was helping with the development of Doki Doki Panic at the time, came up with the idea to reskin Doki Doki Panic to fit the Mario franchise to ship overseas. Ultimately, this obscure Japanese platformer became Super Mario Bros. 2 to overseas consumers. Thus, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad, all found themselves combatting the evil Wart to save the land of Subcon. You're probably wondering, "Roserade, why did all of these other Mario enemies stay consistent in the series, while Wart was swept under the Pidgit's magic carpet?" To that I say, it was most likely because the staff behind the Mario series wanted to continue highlighting Bowser as the big baddy, so having this other random amphibian king would have drawn attention away from the glorious King Koopa.

Main Idea and Characteristics

As with any Smash Bros. character, Wart needs to have a general direction for his fighting style to follow. In Super Mario Bros. 2, Wart attacks by burping bubbles and gets damaged by swallowing vegetables. This, coupled with his design being based upon a frog, which many people find gross, gives the impression that he is disgusting. That's how I want Wart to translate into Smash Bros.; I want him to be disgusting. Not just because he burps at you as an attack, though. 'I imagine his playstyle being disgusting, with cheap attacks and difficulty getting K.O.ed. Of course, a cheap character has to have a weakness. Plenty of Wart's attacks would be easily punishable if the attack is dodged. However, many different attack start-ups would have Super Armor, so punishing Wart would take patience. Once you've broken his loop of cheap attacks, he is all yours for the punishing.

Standard Attacks

The issue with establishing standard attacks for Wart is that he doesn't tend to use his body much, and the most prominent feature of his design is his head, which only covers so much. Using the concept of playing disgustingly, though, some ideas do arise. As I said before, Wart's attacks would be cheap in execution. His jab would be continuous jaw-jabs, his forward-tilt would be a head butt that initially has Super Armor, and his down-tilt would be a sweeping attack with his leg that covers a larger area than you'd expect. In the air, I imagine he would utilize a light spinning attack for his neutral air, as well as other head thrusts upwards and downwards. Beyond that, some simple crown swipes and kicks would suffice. With his forward Smash attack, Wart won't only be cheap with the execution; he'll be cheap with the move itself! He'd steal King Dedede's mojo and dive into an opponent, with plenty of launch power but tons of ending lag. For an upward Smash, he'd fire a large bubble from his mouth that, when it connects with a foe, sends them rocketing. A downward Smash would most likely be a simple slamming movement into the ground, although seeing Wart utilize an enemy or item from his source game would be pretty cool. Perhaps summoning some Ninjis...? Finally, throws would mostly consist of sending the opponent flying with his jaw, although a body slam downward throw would not be out of the question.

Special Moves

This is where Wart's personality would deliver most: his Special Moves. Special Moves have far more variety than any form of standard attacks, which means his disgusting tactics should be definitely highlighted here. His Neutral B would be Bubble Burp, where Wart would belch out a bubble like in his source game. This attack would have a bit of a start-up to it, but here's the catch: it can catch projectiles. If the bubble is still being launched while the opponent is throwing an object, the projectile would get caught in the bubble. Then, the next person who gets knocked into/runs into the bubble would get hit by the dropping projectile. This could cause some very interesting and hilarious predicaments if a Smart Bomb or Home-Run Bat gets caught. The bubbles could be popped by a second projectile hitting it, though, so sometimes the person playing Wart could get tricked! A Side B is a bit harder for me to come up with. Perhaps a shield or homing attack relating to Phanto. Wart's Up B is very fun to think about. While some sort of physical attack would feel the most natural for his recovery, Wart just hopping on a magic carpet and then recovering from practically anywhere is a humorous thought. If he were to use Magic Carpet, though, I imagine he could be knocked off by another opponent and get his carpet hijacked. For his final Special Move, his Down B would function in almost exactly the same way as Peach's Vegetable attack, although the vegetables would sacrifice their general utility for poison damage with whoever they make contact with. It'd be immensely hilarious if he could very rarely pull out a Smart Bomb, but one might say that's too overpowered. And finally, we come to Wart's Final Smash. You'd think that for the most ultimate attack of any character, I'd be pulling out all the stops with a concept that would completely blow. Your. Mind. That is not the case. Honestly, any good concept for his Final Smash is currently beyond me. So for now, I'm going to say he smashes a gigantic POW Block and sends any opponent onstage careening up to the heavens. I hope you have a better concept in mind than I.

Overall Analyses

Wart's playstyle in a Smash Bros. game would be one that reflects his personality in Super Mario Bros. 2. With Super Armor tilts, powerful Smash attacks, launching throws, and tricky Special Moves, Wart would be a disgusting character to play as and to combat. However, with plenty of ways to counter and punish his cheap moves, Wart would be one of weakness if an opponent can anticipate his attack. Still, especially on the unexpected foe, Wart would be cheap, powerful, and a representation of who he is in his (sadly) only appearance in the Mario series.

And that is my Character Concept. Thanks for reading!

Pokédex Power
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Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section that analyzes the Pokédex even more than Professor Oak, but that's mainly because he's a slacker. I am the real deal, even if I'm not a certified Pokémon professor, but who really needs to be one of those?

This month was actually a bit of a challenge. I wanted a Generation VI Pokémon that also appeared in Sun & Moon, but as it turns out only six Pokémon actually made the transition. Those were the Goomy line, but I'm planning on saving those for later; and the Phantump line, but I've restricted Ghost-type Pokémon to our annual Halloween issue. This left with me with one choice: Klefki. Klefki got a lot of stick on its reveal, because it's based on a generic object, but in all honesty I actually like these Pokémon, and let's be honest, Generation VI still provided good Pokémon designs like Hawlucha or Malamar. And besides, it's not like Generation I was any better, providing us Pokémon based on a ball or a bunch of eggs. Anyway, let's take a look at its Pokédex.

Generation VI

Right off the bat, Klefki doesn't seem all that threatening, or that useful a Pokémon, based on the Pokédex entries. I mean, unless key jangling has different connotations in the Pokémon world, in the real world I myself have never been threatened by someone shaking their keys at me, and I doubt a cute little fairy will make me change that. As with the second Pokédex entry, this doesn't seem like a way to prevent crime, but make it easier, as all someone needs to do is steal your Klefki and they have access to your vaults and safes. The other point I want to raise here, is that the Pokédex doesn't state whether these are wild Klefki or not, because if they are wild, then who's to say that they won't just zoom off with your keys, and leave you stuck out of your vault / safe?

Generation VII

Sun & Moon have a different approach to their Pokédex entries. Sun makes Klefki out to be a nuisance, and brings up my point in Y and Alpha Sapphire, as it states that Klefki will actually steal people's keys for itself. Kelfki is described as even-tempered, however, so it might be hinting that getting the keys back might be easy, unless you happen to annoy the Pokémon. Moon on the other hand, just offers up questions. Why does Klefki absorb the metal ions? Is it for food? Could it be how Klefki breed? And why does it collect keys? In all honesty, for the Pokémon being based on a key ring, no Pokédex entry actually offers an explanation for why this is part of its behaviour.

Conclusion

I wouldn't say Klefki has bad Pokédex entries, but it doesn't really have good ones. Like I mentioned in the above paragraph, no Pokédex entry explains Klefki's behaviour, the closest we've got is X and Omega Ruby saying they're collectors, but it would be nice to have a bit more information. Moon has the most interesting part by stating part of Klefki's biology, and it'd be nice if other Pokédex entries used this when describing Pokémon biology, when the Pokémon in question is based on a real life object. But remember kids, keys may not be scary in our real world, but apparently they are in the Pokémon world, so don't cross a Klefki, for all you know there could be deadly consequences.