The 'Shroom:Issue 179/Palette Swap

Director's Notes
Written by:

Welcome to the February 'Shroom, everyone!

I spent a few weekends this month diving deep into Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and while I have yet to fully complete the game, I've really enjoyed what I've experienced so far. You could absolutely describe this game as "Breath of the Wild but Pokemon", but I don't think that's a bad thing, considering how good of a game BotW was. There are things I love in Legends Arceus, there are things I hate, and there are things I wish they had done better, but overall, it's a really, really fun game that I can't recommend enough if you like Pokemon or if you enjoyed BotW. Now to clear up my JRPG shelf before the year's surprise drop: Xenoblade Chronicles 3!

RubberLuigi returns with another short story for you all, plus our regular sections ramp up with surprising twists and turns as well! I won't keep you any longer, so please read on and enjoy!

Happy reading!

~FunkyK38

Section of the Month You all loved the fan works last month! Holding the title in first, we have the Waluigi Time Comic, by. Following that is a two-way tie between 's World of Plight and Shmaluigi, Private Investigator by. Next is RubberLuigi's RubberLuigi's Reads debut, then 's Drawn and Pressed. Thank you to everyone that voted, and please keep it up for this month as well!

Drawn and Pressed
Written by:



There are many ways a comic strip gains the attention of the public. By this medium's nature, it is usually the newspaper that would greet new readers to their world, but if a work has an adaptation, it would be how new readers or watchers would be greeted. And if the adaptation is more popular, it would be the default way to introduce others to their work. For our topic today, Over the Hedge is a comic strip that is more well-known for its animated film than its medium of origin, mainly because it is developed by Dreamworks, who is a proven and popular animated studio. Even though the comic strip is best-known for a film, that does not mean the comic strip is not worth checking out, because I find it to be an entertaining comic strip for its general sense of humour and quirkiness.



Created by the team of Michael Fry (writer) and T Lewis (artist), the concept of the observation on humanity in Over the Hedge was originally conceived as a faltered comic strip The Secret Life of Pigs, but pigs were out of fashion despite the idea being solid, and if I were to guess, the short run of US Acres cursed the idea, though it is not helped by how pigs are not kosher in several countries. The idea was retooled later to be about different animals, and instead of being in a farm, the setting was changed to the suburbs, which turned out to be a winner of an idea that caught the eye of an animation producer. Eventually Dreamworks got the rights to produce an animation based on the comic strip, which would be released a little over a decade after this comic strip started. Based on this tidbit, we can gather that the film's origins is somewhat parallel to the comic strip that made it unusually complementary to it. Besides that, the creators were also involved with the film, giving it a more authentic feel and spirit to the original.



In Over the Hedge, the main characters include RJ, Verne, and Hammy. The gist is that RJ is a mischievous raccoon and Verne is a sensitive but intelligent tortoise. RJ also seems to be apathetic and pretends to be an intellectual (his head is, at times, jokingly shown to not contain his brain), and his favourite food is Twinkies. Meanwhile, Verne is described as being a quick-witted observer and being caring, and as expected from a cartoon tortoise, his shell is detachable (unlike many cartoon tortoises, Verne is also blessed with a pronounced nose and a few strands of hair). The comic strip pretty much started with the former two characters, with Hammy the squirrel only coming into his own later on (even briefly being erroneously called "Sammy"). Of the three characters, Hammy is the most eccentric, and also hyperactive. He is very likely the character that is identified to be the most well-liked, as evidenced by the amount of merchandise bearing his face on the blog. The comic strip also features irregular characters, some recurring throughout the years like Fred the Wood Tick, or some that were frequent early on but aren't around much recently, including Verne's nephew Plushie, Velma and Luby (female tortoise and raccoon), or even Clara (a young human girl that got to converse with the suburban creatures). There are even characters that were introduced recently, and my personal favourite has to be George the T-Rex, who is a dinosaur who was brought to the present (involving time travel and being shrunken down in size), and loves riding lawnmowers.



The premise of Over the Hedge is how the woodlands have taken over the suburbia, and thus the animals living in the place adapted to the life of the suburbs. In general, the animals have been well-acquainted with the human life, as they usually made observations on the follies of humanity (e.g.: observing an intercourse from a window), partake in human recreation like golfing, or to wreak havoc on the lives of the humans. By way of being funny animals, the animals also have been acquainted with the technology, so for example, they would be able to use smartphones, and Verne is intelligent as to be able to do programming on a computer. By way of being a sort of commentary of humanity, references to real life and real people would also make their way into the comic strip. At times, the writing also delves into the surreal, where there are cases of unusual characters who have no business being in the comic strip showing up, like the personification of death, or even cases of breaking the fourth wall where even the creators of the comic strip might show up. Although George the T-Rex is one such character, I felt that there is enough cartoonishness to make his presence worthwhile. The different directions that the comic strip could go gives the comic strip some form of variety, so it never quite got too formulaic.



Still, there is a need to address something very important about the comic strip, as outlined in the opening: it is more likely for somebody to know about it from the Dreamworks animated film as opposed to the comic strip that it originated from. If a body of work is adapted into a film, the film would usually be the more well-known way for others to become familiar with a work. This is thanks to how films are generally promoted, and the production values that usually come from getting the feature screen treatment. Because of such a treatment, it is considered lucrative to have a film adaptation, because the nature of it raises the awareness of that work. On the other hand, a film adaptation could end up overshadowing the original body of work to which it sourced its material from, and might end up with a different perception on how the characters behave. Perhaps one example is Shrek, which was originally an illustration book, but it's more well-known as a film series. On the other hand, comic strips tend to be one of the least popular types of medium, especially a comic strip created in the latter years. It would take something as globally-defining as Garfield to be able to still be identified a comic strip, which is admittedly a rare event. In this case, Over the Hedge is a comic strip that was created in 1995, and when it got a film in 2006, it became the most well-known version of the work. Although not a film adaptation, it remains to be seen if the same would happen for Big Nate, which did receive a CGI adaptation (available not long after this article's publication), or perhaps Phoebe and Her Unicorn (2015), where it would receive an animated adaptation in the future.



If you have not seen the animated film before, the gist of the film is that RJ inadvertently destroyed the food of a bear named Vincent, as he was looking to burgle it. RJ promised compensation of the food for Vincent in exchange for not eating him, and stumbled upon a group of woodland creatures (including both Verne and Hammy) who was woken up to the development of a suburbia, located as the title suggests, over the hedge. RJ thus convinced the group of animals to help him steal food, though without revealing the real reason he needed to resort to their help. In contrast to the comic strip, in which RJ and Verne were established to be familiar with each other right from the beginning, the film established that they never met before in their life and have their differences that resulted in a rough time with each other. In this way, one can call it a possible origin story for the characters even if the film is not necessarily billed as one, because the comic strip already portrayed the woodland creatures being accustomed to the suburban life right from the beginning. The animated film does have some differences in character design, namely how Verne looks more like an actual tortoise and how RJ is portrayed with sclera. The characters created for the film are basically owned by Dreamworks, meaning that despite their good first impressions on the public, they can't really be used. Related to this, Vincent the bear's model is reused in another Dreamworks movie, Bee Movie, so it could be inferred that they can use it when they see fit. When the original characters ended up appearing, they appear as stills in dotted prints, much like any image if they are clearly foreign, such as clearly real life people (the cartoonists are still portrayed as a cartoon character, similar to Stephen Pastis from Pearls Before Swine).



For the character voices, before I watched the film in question, I imagined that RJ would sound suave due to his imagined intelligence and his apathy, Verne to sound formal and not so deep for his intelligence (despite tortoises stereotypically having a deep voice), and Hammy to sound a bit high-pitched (but not so) and has a motor mouth (owing to his hyperactiveness). I am very sure that the actual casting will not be how I imagined the characters sounded, and imagined them as something more generic. After watching the film in question, RJ does not sound remotely how I envisioned. However, I am glad that Verne does not sound deep, though he's not as formal as I thought. Hammy sounded deeper than I thought (but not so deep), but still have the hyperactive tone down. In my opinion, the film is quite serviceable to what the comic strip is about, as it is its own thing, and does not appear to try to be what the comic strip is about. The characters made for the film are serviceable to its original tale, but I can't imagine them populating the comic strip because the characters in the film felt like they serve their purpose for the film only.

Although the film adaptation is decent, the comic strip would still be worth checking out for how different it is. While it is a pity whenever a foreign medium eclipsed the original medium of the work, partially because of the misunderstandings that arise as a result, it is usually a net positive for the work in question because at the very least, they have a modicum of popularity.

Over the Hedge can be read at https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge

Thank you for reading.

Site Seeing
Written by:

Hello dear readers and welcome to Site Seeing, in which I'll go over some of the websites Nintendo releases to inform the public about their games and series! Today we are visiting the site of a game that was released a year ago this month, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury!

Overview
This site opens with a big image of the Super Mario 3D World portion of the game, featuring the main group art with the logo laid out on top. About a second after we enter, the Bowser's Fury part is also introduced as it slides into view to the right. It takes up about a quarter and also includes its main artwork and logo, but this artwork is animated with moving fire from Bowser's mouth, falling rain, and flashing lightning. Below these two follows a bar with buttons in it to buy the game and watch the trailer. As we scroll down to the next section, we see Cat Mario next to some accolades by game reviewers and a short blurb about the game. Below that are two cards with short video clips that invite you to play in multiplayer mode (Play Together) and to explore the worlds (Explore), each with links to subsequent pages on the site. This section is closed off with rotating coins and a clear pipe. The next section teases Bowser's Fury with a large picture of Fury Bowser, on a dark background with a clip of the giant cat bell. Then we have a lighter section that tells us about a sticker scavenger hunt on this site with which one can earn platinum My Nintendo points, and shortly tells us that amiibo are supported in this game. The section is closed by artworks of Peach, Toad, Luigi, a Super Bell, and Cat Mario. The second to last portion takes us to another image editor, dubbed the Cat Transformation Centre, complete with the obligatory puns, and the last section, which is included in all other pages as well, calls for buying the game again.

On the Play Together page, it opens with a large card with the same clip we encountered on the homepage, but with more words underneath. This card also features art of Mario kicking brick blocks and a Goomba as the other characters watch. Underneath this card, the playable characters are introduced in individual cards. The next section also introduces Captain Toad, illustrated by him sitting on a floating miniature level. The next section introduces the multiplayer options proper, depicting local multiplayer on one system or multiple systems, as well as online multiplayer, all with the appropriate imagery and asterisks (additional games, accessories, and Nintendo Switch Online may be required and are sold separately). Artworks of four enemies conclude this page.

The Explore page similarly opens with the video from the main page, but its complimenting text is shown underneath its card instead. This text is accompanied by Toad kicking a green shell at Luigi. Said text introduces the scenery found in-game, which is shown in a big slider. Each of the six numbered worlds has a screenshot from a level and a short blurb. A card underneath shows the "friendly faces" in the game, Plessie and the Sprixie princesses, along with a picture and their purpose. Seven power-ups are laid out below this card, and finally, a quick word about the new snapshot mode and how it works. The page ends with more information about amiibo, and art of another four enemies.

Finally, the big attraction of this version of the game, Bowser's Fury. This page opens with a big animated hero image of the main art and logo, although this animation is a lot simpler than the one we found on the homepage. We are shortly introduced to the story and can watch the trailer in the next section. This section also features art of the five kitten colours (green, black, pink, calico, and blue). Up next is the "clash of the giants", which introduces Giga Cat Mario as the powered-up form when using the Giga Bell. It shows Giga Cat Mario, as well as the much smaller cat versions of a Koopa Troopa and a Goomba. The final section introduces Bowser Jr. as Mario's partner in this mode, with a clip of him doing some things around Mario as he walks around. Art of the duo looking up to the side and a row of catified Biddybuds below decorate this clip. More amiibo and what they do follow up, and finally the section concludes with five cat enemies.

The last main page is Buy Now, which simply shows the main four playable characters from the main boxart, as well as the box itself, and the methods of purchase (digital or physical). It also shows the Nintendo Switch itself and links to more information about it. The latter section also features Cat Peach.

And finally the Cat Transformation Centre. Similarly to previously featured image editors, it lets you take a picture or upload one, and then add various artwork around it. In this site, the features are a little bit more limited, not allowing you to move your own picture around and not having backgrounds.

Design
As a Mario game, it shall be to no-one's surprise that the primary palette for this site consists of red, but a golden shade of yellow is also common, likely as a reference to Mario's cat form being that colour. These are also the main two background colours, together with yellow, pink, and blue, matching the other playable characters. On the topic of backgrounds, these use patterns like polka dots and monochrome art from the game's stamps. The page dedicated to Bowser's Fury uses a different set of colours, like dark grey, dark blue, and deep orange, and patterns, such as the spikes from the logo and triangle waves.

Sections are, as usual, divided with patterned borders as well. Most dividers are a thick wavy line, with lineless wavy dividers happening within cards and very occasionally between sections. Furthermore, combined with the thick line in a couple of places, pawprints are shown above or below the line.

You may have noticed my usage of the word "card" to refer to certain boxes of content. This is a term used in user interface design in analogy to physical cards that have something specific on them. They also often resemble actual paper cards, depending on the design system. For example, in Google's Material Design system, cards have shadows and are often seen in groups with similar content on them. The exact content is up to whoever is designing their app or site.

For added dynamics, almost everything animates into view as one scrolls through the pages, moving in a direction that fits with the element as it fades in. Cards move up, pairs of amiibo each move in from opposing sides, running characters move in the direction they are running, coins pop up about as they would in-game when you run into one that causes a trace to appear.

The character cards on the Play Together page have a neat effect on them when they are hovered over with the cursor: the characters grow a little, the coloured background gets moving waves, and the entire card gets an outline in the character's colour.

Font families used on this site include Libre Franklin for body text and Barlow for headers.

Tech
This part may not be of interest to everyone, or may you even understand any of it. But it can be interesting to some people who are curious about some of the technology used to create this site.

No big frameworks are apparent, but there is a smaller library, Stimulus, that ties the site together, and is bundled with webpack. To nobody's surprise, this site is hosted on Amazon Web Services.

I'll start off with webpack. As I've written about before, webpack is a module bundler, which can bundle JavaScript, CSS, and other resources into a single or several files, which enables the programmer to write and organise their code in separate smaller files. Webpack then (pre)processes that into a small bundle.

Next is Stimulus. This library aims to add functionality to 'existing HTML', which is to say that it doesn't generate HTML itself. This functionality takes the form of "controllers" that can be applied to specific elements, and don't control the entire page from a central point. For example, autoplaying videos, scroll animations, the paw prints, and the stickers are all separately controlled by these. This has an added benefit that if one builds a site like this, it can work without JavaScript enabled, although this site depends on it to show the various things that animate in.

Conclusion
Aesthetic visually, not too complex underground, this is a beautiful site with a lot of life to it. The videos and animation help a lot, and the Cat Transformation Centre is a fun addition. Because there are also not too many gears in the background, the site runs smoothly as well.

And that was it for February! Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you again in nine weeks!

Waluigi Time Comic
Drawn by:



World of Plight
Written by:

The Approach

By Magolor04726

I looked through the computer monitor at the threatening castle that towered over the fighters.

“Wow. Azcron really knows how to make a scary building.” I commented. Indeed, the tower of a building shot upwards, stretching this way and that, touching the heavens. Threatening spikes jutted out everywhere and it was colored a dull brownish-black, clearly made to accommodate a large army. The heat of Karkaton was almost visible around the Fighters as they stood outside Fox’s ship.

Sakurai nodded. “Be careful everyone!”

“My sources say that Azcron forced his army to build a place where he could look down onto our world,” Samus explained.

Link nodded. “I heard from Kilton that the army simply calls it ‘The Skyscraper,’” he said before adding, “and he made me promise to bring him back some monster parts.”

Little Mac stared upward. “That doesn’t scrape the sky; it obliterates it.” He wasn’t wrong. The thing almost disappeared into the clouds, it was so big.

“If he wants to look down on our world, I would assume he has some sort of throne room on the top floor,” Mega Man mused.

“Are we even sure this is the right place?” Fox asked.

I continued looking through the monitor. “Fox, take a step to your left.”

“Uh, OK.” About three seconds after Fox moved, King Dedede hit the ground where Fox had been with a sickening “THUD!”

“WOAH, MY GOSH!” Fox yelled, jumping back farther.

Kirby ran over to Dedede and tapped him on the head, attempting to get his attention. The King sat upright in a daze, teetered, and collapsed on his back.

“Yeah, I’d say this is the right place,” I said as Pac-Man helped King Dedede up again.

“Are you alright?” Sonic asked.

“Ow,” he replied. “I’m not as resistant to falls like that anymore. Those power-leeches or whatever really work.”

“How’d you get out of there?” Pit asked.

“Been working at hacking away at the wall for quite a while. Finally broke through, saw you guys, and jumped down.”

Mario looked back up at the tower. “Who else is-a in there?”

“Besides Isabelle, I don’t know. We had to share a cell for about a week, and then she was moved. I heard something about Ganondorf, but I never saw him.”

“He’s in the hospital right now,” Ryu explained. “After Waluigi drained the rest of his power with those Power-sites, he’s been in a coma in the hospital ever since.”

Dedede stared at Ryu.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.” Link said.

“Wait,” Samus interjected. “So the others might not even be here?”

“Let’s worry about that after we at least get Isabelle and find out if Azcron is here,” Snake said.

“Should Dedede be brought back?” I asked. “He doesn’t really seem capable of-”

“No way!” Dedede declared, getting up shakily. “I want to give that Azcron a clobbering he’ll never forget!”

“Right!” Mario exclaimed. “LET’S-A-GO!”

Shmaluigi, Private Investigator
Written by:

Termination Notice: Part 1

Some people seem to think being a private investigator is all glitz and glamor, like it's some movie or TV show. So what was my big assignment today?

A trip to the store.

Yeah, that's about it. Bread, eggs, milk, Waluigi Time Cereal - I was out of pretty much everything. Unfortunately for me, this meant it was time for another visit to the local JojaMart. I hate giving that corporation my money, I really do, but ever since they opened up here in New Wikisburg, there's not much of an alternative... At least I feel a little bit better pretending that none of it goes toward Mr. Morris' salary, anyway.

JojaMart was unusually packed today. Apparently, they were doing a promotional event for a product launch, some banana-flavored candies or something. I couldn't care less, I just wanted my groceries. If I had a coin for every time I had to say "excuse Shmaluigi" because someone was blocking something I wanted to grab, well, my grocery bill would've been a lot cheaper.

I turned my shopping cart down the breakfast food aisle, and that's when I saw him. Mr. Morris was here! Great, just great. The only thing that could've made this trip worse was getting roped into a conversation with that creep. I attempted to avoid him by ducking behind a life-sized cardboard cutout of the cereal magnate Waluigi Time and kept my fingers crossed, hoping he didn't see me.

"Mr. Shmaluigi? Why, Mr. Shmaluigi, is that you?"

Drat.

"Oh, it's you, Mr. Morris..." I grumbled, trying to be as unapproachable as possible. Unfortunately, Mr. Morris approached nonetheless. Of course he did. Why would that go any differently?

"Why, Mr. Shmaluigi, what a pleasure it is to see you coming to your JojaMart family for your needs today. Should I take it that you've heard about our launch event? Yes, already, our sales projections for our new Jojanana Bites are soaring, and we're certain that the satisfaction level of the members of our Joja family will follow suit."

I was about to open my mouth to say something when he continued rambling on. "Of course, we owe some of our success to you, Mr. Shmaluigi, and your... power of persuasion. Why, without you, I may have been forced to leave the New Wikisburg region." It took just about all the restraint I had not to ram into him with my shopping cart.

"It is with that in mind that I'd like to once again offer you a Joja Membership, Mr. Shmaluigi. Why, for someone who has contributed so much to this company like yourself, I'm certain the corporate office will voice no objections if I offer you a membership at a twenty-five percent discount. If you become a member of our Joja family today, you'll even be able to purchase our launch-event offer of a six-month supply of Jojanana Bites and Joja Cola for a mere twenty coins."

"Yeah, well, Shmaluigi's very busy, maybe some other time," I said, trying to brush him off. Having to shop here was bad enough already, but being a card-carrying Joja member would make me a sellout. Forget the savings, my principles were at stake!

"I understand, Mr. Shmaluigi. Yes, of course, your satisfaction always comes first. Do allow me to add, however, that there is more that I can offer you than only all of your needs fulfilled for the lowest possible price. You, Mr. Shmaluigi, are respected. I believe you could become an excellent ambassador for the Joja Corporation, with your history and work ethic. I understand that an investigative career offers few lucrative lines of work. If ever you should find yourself struggling to pay your bills, there are opportunities to raise your standard of living available to you, provided, of course, that you are willing to purchase a membership. Our ambassadors, I am sure you can understand, can't be without one..."

My stomach turned at the thought of it. I couldn't shake the mental image of me getting stuck working as a cashier and being miserable the whole time. And I bet any money that someone like Detective Luigi would come in and say "hey Shmaluigi, looks like the detective business didn't work out, ha ha ha". No thanks.

"Work with YOU?" I scoffed, "Ha! Shmaluigi made that mistake once, it's never happening again."

"...very well, Mr. Shmaluigi. Your position is very clear to me, now," Mr. Morris said with a frown, "Enjoy your shopping experience, and I will depart. I can hardly hold disciplinary meetings on idle chatter if I am the one having idle conversations with customers. Please let any of our family members know if there is any way we can assist you."

As Mr. Morris turned to leave, the assassin droid IG-11 walked into the aisle. This day just kept getting worse! I may have only encountered him once before, but I already knew that wherever this guy went, trouble wasn't too far behind.

"Pardo-". Mr. Morris stopping himself from getting back to his business? That was a surprise. I wondered if maybe he had a bad feeling about this, too. "Rather, wait a moment. You are an unfamiliar face. You wouldn't happen to be a first-time customer, sir, would you?" Right. It couldn't have been that easy.

"Oh great, not you again," I groaned. This wasn't exactly the place I expected to encounter a killer robot.

"My directive does not involve you, Shmaluigi. I came here for him," IG-11 replied, just before raising his blaster towards Mr. Morris.

"Egads! You! Explain yourself now! What business do you have, violently assaulting me as you have? You have ten seconds to lower your weapon and explain yourself, or I will be forced to ask security to escort you out of the building!" Mr. Morris reached for something in his pocket. For a moment, I was almost hopeful that Mr. Morris had a weapon, but all he pulled out was a cell phone. I don't know how fast whoever he planned on calling could come, but I knew IG-11 could get a shot off before any help arrived.

In a split-second decision, I tackled Mr. Morris to the floor as IG-11's laser flew past us, leaving a fresh hole in a cereal box on the shelf.

"Gah!" I couldn't tell whether Mr. Morris was reacting to being tackled to the ground, or to his cell phone tumbling out of his hand and sliding across the floor. However, what I could tell was that he realized he wasn't in control of the situation anymore. It's too bad he couldn't have been desperately pleading for answers in that pasture instead of here. "Again, what business do you have with me!?"

I knew we didn't have much time before he would take another shot, so I tried to buy us some time by using my foot to shove my shopping cart into IG-11, knocking the mechanical brute over.

"Mr. Shmaluigi! Please, treat the products we stock with more respect! Any losses due to damaged and stolen products must be deducted from the wages of our on-duty cashiers."

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," I shouted, pulling Mr. Morris up off the floor and dragging him out of the aisle. I ran through the store as fast as I possibly could, taking a chaotic, zigzaggy path to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible. I didn't know exactly where I was headed, but the objective was clear: get out of Dodge.

"Mr. Shmaluigi, I- if you would please slow- slow your pace for a moment, I-" Mr. Morris apparently had less stamina than I thought a man who worked fourteen hours a day would have. "I would suggest that we exit through the- the front door. We cannot have this cretin threatening- threatening me, members of our family shopping today, or the store."

"We can't just let that robot rampage through the streets! He's not going to stop until you're dead or he's out of commission," I replied. As we continued running, I spotted the door to the storeroom. "Aha! If we lure him in there, we can keep the rest of customers out of harm's way."

"Mr. Shmaluigi, I cannot allow that!" That's what gave him enough of an energy boost to catch his breath? "Only Joja employees are permitted in the storeroom. The reprimand I would receive for letting you into that room, where you could gather information on our inventory and suppliers to sell to our rivals, is unimaginable!"

I didn't even know how to respond to that, so I just looked at Mr. Morris with my best "are you kidding me" expression and pulled him into the storeroom anyway.

"Maybe there's something in here we could use," I thought aloud. As my eyes scanned the storeroom, I noticed a pallet stacked with boxes of Joja Cola. They seemed sufficiently heavy to take IG-11 down, or at least I hoped so...

"There must be something in here we can make use of. The fire alarm and associated sprinkler system, perhaps? Though, reconsidering it, the lawsuit we could face if we short-circuit a robot over a misunderstanding is too great a risk to make that an option. If I hide, would he be open to negotiation? Whatever misunderstanding may have arisen here, a generous off-"

I couldn't help but wonder in what world an assassination attempt of this nature could possibly be considered a misunderstanding. Knowing that he would keep rambling on with this nonsense if I didn't stop him, I interrupted Mr. Morris with my own plan. "Shmaluigi's going to try to knock some of these Joja Cola boxes on him. Make sure he walks past these."

"Mr. Shmaluigi, we have discussed this already! You cannot dam-"

"Just go! Unless you'd rather be in The 'Shroom under next month's Obituaries, of course."

Just then, IG-11 burst through the storeroom doors. I hid behind the Joja Cola boxes as Mr. Morris ran ahead. IG-11 walked right past the pallet, and as he did, I toppled a stack of the boxes onto him.

"To think, this morning has gone from a successful product launch to this horrific chase. I can only give my thanks that it is over. This nightmarish scenario is over, isn't it, Mr. Shmaluigi? He is incapacitated, correct?"

"Shmaluigi hopes so..."

I approached the pile of boxes to inspect the aftermath. All I could do at this point was keep my fingers crossed and hope that was enough to take the assassin offline.

To be continued...

Thanks for reading the beginning of the new story arc! It's probably about time we finally got an appearance from Morris. Special thanks to Hooded Pitohui for writing Morris' dialogue and helping with developing the story, it's been a lot of fun working with him so far. In other semi-relevant announcements, if you didn't already know, this month marks a year since Shmaluigi first appeared as a mafia game roleplay. Pretty cool, huh? I like how the timing worked out with starting this story in that regard.

For the time being, Magolor04726's Shmaluigi, Private Investigator YouTube channel is going on a hiatus. In the meantime, I'll keep you informed of any updates with it.

Koopamon
Written by: Booguette

File 6: The gym battle

As Mario stepped into the gym, the smell of rocks and dirt (If rocks and dirt smell like anything at all) welcomed him. The gym’s interior was nothing like Mario had imagined. There was an uphill section right after the entrance that looked like a mountainside, with rocks that acted as pathway borders. The gym leader (A Toad with brown marks on his head), stood at the top. By the entrance was another Toad in a purple suit.

“How’s it going, champ-to be?” He asked. “Don’t tell anyone, but I stole that line from my cousin in Sinnoh. The gym leader here is Stoad. He specializes in rock types and is the first gym leader in the gym challenge, but that doesn’t mean you should take him lightly!”

“I won’t.” Said Mario.

As Mario was about to go up the hill, the Toad said “Oh, I almost forgot. Stoad won’t be your only opponent. Halfway up you will encounter a gym trainer. Gym trainers are Koopamon trainers who the gym leader trains personally. Sometimes you may be able to walk past them, but sometimes you have to fight all of them. But I’m making this take too long. Go and get em, Champ-in-the-making!” And with that, Mario began to walk up the hill.

Mario defeated the gym trainer easily and walked up to Stoad the Toad. “I’m Stoad!” Said the Toad. “I’m Hard Block City’s gym leader, and I specialize in rock-type Koopamon! You are here for your first gym battle, I presume?”

“Yes.” Answered Mario.

“Very well then! Let us waste no time!” Stoad went to the wall to Mario’s left and flicked a switch. Mario turned around as he heard a deep rumbling. He saw that around all the rocks was a small circle, and then the area inside the circles started to descend underground. Once all the rocks had gone fully underground, Stoad flicked another switch and the ground beneath Mario’s feet started to rumble as if an earthquake had occurred. The hill began flattening, and Mario understood what was going on. When the hill had completely flattened out, Mario walked to the challenger’s side of the battlefield. The Toad who had talked to Mario earlier went to the middle of the battlefield.

“The gym battle between Stoad, the gym leader, and Mario, the challenger is about to begin! The battle will end when all of a trainer-Oh, forget it. You two know the rules. Now, battle begin!”

“Go, Fire Bro!” Said Mario.

“Go, Mini Brolder!” Said Stoad. The Mini Brolder looked like a small rock, but with eyes and yellow arms and hands that made it look like it was wearing plastic gloves.

“Fire Bro, use fire ball!” Mario called out. The fireball bounced and hit the Mini Brolder, but it looked like it did next to nothing.

“Ha!” Laughed Stoad. “Your Fire Bro’s fire attacks won’t do anything against my rock-types! Mini Brolder, use take down!” The Mini Brolder rammed into Mario’s Fire Bro so hard it took some damage as well.

“Fire Bro, use headbutt!” Mario shouted. Fire Bro head butted the opposing Koopamon, but Headbutt too didn’t do much damage to Stoad’s Koopamon.

“Mini Brolder, use tackle!” Said Stoad. The Mini Brolder tackled the Fire Bro, bringing it to a low amount of HP.

“Urrgh…Fire Bro, return!” Called Mario as he held out his Koopaball for the Fire Bro to return to. “Go, Koopa Troopa!” Said Mario as he sent out his green Koopa Troopa. “Koopa Troopa, use shell attack!” The Koopa Troopa curled inside its shell, spun toward Stoad’s Mini Brolder, and defeated it.

“Nice move.” Said Stoad. “Now go, Rock Chomp!” Out of the Koopaball came a large and fierce-looking Rock Chomp. “Rock Chomp, use bide!” The Rock Chomp tensed and began to glow orange. “Bide is a move where the Koopamon stores energy and can’t attack for two turns, but at the end of those two turns, The Koopamon releases all that energy in an all-out attack.” Said Stoad.

“But if we can take it out before two turns pass, we win! Now Koopa Troopa, use shell attack!” Called Mario. The Koopa Troopa spun in its shell at the Rock Chomp and hit it on one of its lower rock rings. “And again!” Said Mario. The Koopa Troopa spun in place a few times in its shell and then launched itself at Stoad’s Rock Chomp.

''Will Mario be able to defeat Stoad's Rock Chomp in time? Find out next time on Koopamon!''

RubberLuigi's Reads
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It was practically a routine at this point: another month, another new plan from Bowser to try to steal Princess Peach. It was such a repetitive cycle that the Mario Bros. themselves had even started to become bored of it. After so many different times that Mario and Luigi had foiled Bowser’s world domination plans, they just wanted to be free of the constant nuisance that was interrupting their lives so much.

“Bro, I think we gotta get help from someone else to get rid of Bowser for good,” Luigi explained dejectedly.

“Why’s that?”

“Every time we get rid of him and we think he’s gone for good, he always comes back.”

“I guess you’re right, aren’t you?” Mario tilted his head down slightly.

“But who would help us?” Luigi asked as the two started to think. Wario would help if there were enough money in it, but his hefty physique made him somewhat useless when it came to the agile platforming the brothers usually had to do. Toad and Toadette would help, but they didn’t offer anything that would help permanently do away with Bowser. Rosalina could help, but she was too far away for the brothers to easily find.

“How about King Boo?” Mario asked.

“King Boo? Bro, are you crazy? He’s stuck you in a painting three times, and he tried to put me in one just a couple years ago when we went to that hotel.”

“He has a bunch of magic powers he can use to help us, bro,” Mario affirmed. “How do you think he got me in a painting?”

“I guess,” Luigi shivered. The younger but physically larger brother had to go on three different haunted house adventures in his life, none of which were quite to his enjoyment.

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll go talk to him for you.” Luigi perked up a little. He was worried Mario would be putting himself in danger by visiting King Boo’s mansion uninvited, but he was used to his brother being a lot riskier than he was himself.

“Thanks, bro,” Luigi said with a hug.

“Hehe, you’re welcome. I promise I’ll be back by tomorrow, okay?” Luigi nodded. “See you then, bro.” The two waved each other off before Mario got in his trusty kart for a drive to the Boo Kingdom.

King Boo closed his eyes as he relaxed in the hot tub on the top floor of his mansion. He typically spent an hour or two every day there, mostly as a way to get away from any actual duties. That was, until one of the many Boos working at his mansion came to deliver him a message. “Mario is at the front door to see you, your spookiness,” he said.

“What does he want? Can’t you tell I’m busy?”

“Your scariness, he -”

“Enough with the formalities, just get on with it already.”

“He didn’t say what he wanted but he said it was urgent.”

“You didn’t tell him I’m busy with my…king…things?” King Boo frowned slightly.

“He insisted on seeing you.”

“Ugh, fine, King Boo grumbled as he splashed his way out of the hot tub. “Tell him I’ll be down shortly.” The smaller Boo rushed off as King Boo toweled himself dry. He made his way down to the front hall as Mario continued to become more impatient. Both the plumber and the king prepared themselves for a fight in case the other one started to attack. “What do you want with me, Mario?” King Boo could barely even bring himself to look in Mario’s general direction.

“Bowser -”

“Grr,” King Boo grimaced, “don’t even talk to me about him.” Despite that the two had similar reputations as villains, King Boo hated to be brought up in the same context.

“What? We wanted your help getting rid of him.” King Boo stared at Mario, dumbfounded.

“Pardon?”

“Me and my brother are tired of him always coming back and we want your help making him go away forever.”

“Now you’re talking,” King Boo perked up. He still wasn’t entirely trusting of Mario after he had been captured by Luigi several times, but he figured he should at least hear Mario out. “What do you need?”

“Magic,” Mario said with quite a bit of confidence.

“Heh heh heh…” King Boo let out his signature menacing laugh. “I got you on that. What’s in it for me, though?” Mario just shrugged; he realized he should have expected the question but still had no answer. “Oh, no worries, I know exactly what I want to do.”

“Do you need me for anything, King Boo?”

“Not at all,” King Boo answered. “And what’s in it for me but an entire kingdom?” Mario blushed a little. The mind of King Boo was a very strange one, but Mario figured it would be best to let the king do his work on his own time. “Actually, I do need one thing.”

“What is it?” Mario was prepared to get in his kart and speed off.

“Stay here and take care of my mansion.” Mario was surprised by the hospitality. “You can even invite your brother over. Top floor’s off limits, that’s it.” Mario thanked the king for letting him, as well as Luigi, have almost the entire mansion to themselves. Shortly after, King Boo vanished away, seemingly into thin air; however, he had other plans over at Bowser’s castle.

“Well, well, I can’t say I expected to be seeing you today, King Boo,” Bowser said as he greeted King Boo.

“Nobody expects King Boo, heh heh heh…” King Boo laughed, knowing what he was planning to do a few minutes from now.

“What brings you here? Come to plan the next big attack with me?”

“Potentially,” King Boo replied. “I’d like to go somewhere more…private, if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure thing, King,” Bowser answered. If Bowser had any idea what was running through the mind behind King Boo’s glowing purple eyes, he would have regretted allowing King Boo the privacy a lot more. The king of Koopas led King Boo off to his throne room far in the back of the castle. Bowser had worked with King Boo in the past, albeit not the same King Boo that was in the castle now. Bowser had recruited an impostor King Boo to work under him while Bowser ransacked the sky for Mini Stars; however, Bowser had no idea there even were impostor kings, let alone that they had been set up by the real King Boo.

“You sure do have plenty of gray in here, don’t you?” King Boo may not have been the most colorful person, but he was a fan of the color purple; the gray brick walls even bored him.

“They’re lava proof,” Bowser explained. “Kinda need that in this place.”

“I see,” King Boo said somewhat dismissively. “You and your lava baths, I suppose.”

“Yep, that’s exactly it.” King Boo looked around, still impressed by just how boring the place looked. There were no real amenities like the ones he had at his own mansion, either; just empty halls and plenty of statues of Bowser all around. “So, what’s this big plan, eh, King?”

“Oh, there’s no plan. I’m not even particularly interested in the princess the same way you are.”

“Then why are you here? You never come here on your own unless it’s to work with me.” Bowser was getting visibly frustrated at the idea that King Boo was here entirely to waste his time.

“You see, I’ve been thinking of getting an…addition to my kingdom.”

“You ain’t gettin’ any of my kingdom, you hear? It’s all mine!” Bowser growled.

“But, King Bowser, can’t you see you have such prime real estate for a king like me?” King Boo had expected the negative response he was getting from Bowser; there was no chance a regular talk would convince Bowser to give up even an acre or two of land from the Koopa Kingdom, let alone a significant addition.

“You’re not getting it, and that’s final! Now get out of my castle before you waste any more of my time!” Bowser yelled. He instinctively shot a fireball out of his mouth directly at King Boo, who vanished again before reappearing completely unphased.

“Oh, no, I’m not giving up that easily.” King Boo had a way of remaining calm in almost any situation that no one else could seem to replicate, no matter how hard they tried.

“I said get out!”

“You can’t make me,” King Boo taunted. “And if you’re going to be that way…” he trailed off. Suddenly, as he held out one of his nubs, a large, gold picture frame manifested itself. While the painting inside initially seemed to have nothing on it, it started to swirl as a heavy breeze formed inside Bowser’s throne room.

“Wait, wait, King Boo, not like this! I’m sorry!” Bowser’s angry demeanor quickly turned into one of panic as the void started to grow and the breeze became stronger. These same paintings were the ones King Boo had used to capture Mario, Luigi, and several others when he baited them into a luxury hotel stay a while back; while Bowser had not seen them firsthand, he had definitely heard the story.

“It’s too late for you, heh heh heh…” King Boo had no intention of actually trying to negotiate with Bowser. If he was being honest, he was tired of Bowser constantly getting the spotlight for being such a terrible villain. And even with Bowser being as annoyingly persistent as he was, it was only a matter of time before he gave up on attacking the Mushroom Kingdom and set his sights on the Boo Kingdom; might as well nip that problem in the bud before it even becomes a problem.

“I’ll do anything! I swear!” Bowser felt himself getting lifted off his throne.

“Nope.”

“Please! Don’t do this to me!”

“Nope, sorry.” King Boo watched in delight as Bowser struggled to resist the pull of the painting and its void.

“Nooooooo!” Bowser yelled as he gave into the painting. As the void closed up, a sepia tone image of Bowser being scared for his life appeared inside the painting.

“Well, you’re probably going to be worth at least a few thousand coins someday,” King Boo retorted. “And what should I do about your spoiled brat of a son?” he asked the painting, knowing he would get no response. “Maybe a new Goomba will do,” he said to himself. He continued to admire his new proudest achievement for the next few minutes before he disappeared back to his mansion.

“Well, boys,” King Boo said as he presented his newest painting to Mario and Luigi, “I got him.”

“Thank you, King Boo!” Mario exclaimed.

“Yeah, thanks a lot!” Luigi added.

“Does this mean you won’t try to capture us in paintings anymore?” Mario asked.

“Hmm…” King Boo pondered. “They do say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I suppose this is a truce.” The two brothers celebrated even more as King Boo, who now had two kingdoms to rule over, went to hang up his prized possession. A Goomba with a familiar red tuft and single fang ran into the room, as if he had been summoned there.

“Hey, who’s this?” Luigi asked as the Goomba ran up to his leg.

“That used to be Bowser’s horrible son. The one who would never shut up,” King Boo explained. The Goomba simply started chirping; however, none of the people looking down at him cared that Bowser Jr. was begging to be returned to his old form.

“Whoa, so that’s why he still has his red hair,” Luigi said.

“Yep,” King Boo nodded. When he finished hanging up the picture of the former Koopa king, he stared at it briefly. “What do you two think?”

“It looks really good,” Mario answered, and Luigi nodded in agreement.

“Good, good. Now, what do you say about dinner?” King Boo offered. The two brothers, never ones to pass up a good meal, started to get excited.

“What’s for dinner, King Boo?” Luigi asked.

“Heh heh heh, I think you know.” The king had already arranged for a large Italian feast for the three of them. The two brothers giggled as King Boo led them into a large dining room for the biggest spaghetti dinner they had ever seen.

As time went on, the brothers grew their relationship with King Boo. The residents of the former Koopa Kingdom seemed to become much happier under the leadership of King Boo; after all, they weren’t going to be put in danger because of their king’s refusal to take no for an answer. The residents of the Mushroom Kingdom were equally as happy with the takeover of the Koopa Kingdom. And as for Bowser?

“You know, you’re more useful as a wall decoration than you ever were as a king,” King Boo thought to himself.