The 'Shroom:Issue LXIII
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| Issue Template:ShroomIssue | June 16th, 2012 | About |
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Director's Notes
Hello readers of The 'Shroom! Welcome to the new edition of The 'Shroom!
The Poll Chairperson Election has started! The election will run from the release of this issue (June 2012) until the release of next month's issue (July 2012). Candidates have until then to post up campaigns, make the case for why they should be elected, try to accumulate votes, and participate in the debates. The winner of the election will become the next Poll Selection Committee Chairperson and will be responsible for designating the other six members of the Committee (one of the members will be appointed as the Vice-Chairperson). For more information, see the Poll Chairperson Election article.
The Special Issue will be released next month, so please be sure to check by then! We have many surprises in store, and as mentioned last month, some of these surprises have been months (and in some cases, years) in the making! The Feedback Survey will be run next month as well, so everybody will have the chance to give their opinions on the issue and some of the changes that will be implemented to the paper as of then.
Please be sure to check back on July 21st, 2012, when the Special Issue is to be released!
Until next month,
Sub-Director's Notes
...
...zz...zzzz...zzzZZZzzz...
...
...zzzZZZzzzzzzZZZ...zzzZZZZngk! Eh wwwha...?
Oh. People. Hello. Where is this? What?
Oh.
OH!
I get it, I'm supposed to say something here! I had a hunch I was forgetting something!
Anyway, I think it is about time for me to wake up from my extended hibernation to say thanks. Thanks to all the prolific writers, both old and new, that helped this project become what it is today. This might sound terribly generic, but I would not say it here if I did not mean it.
The 'Shroom really has come a long way. I remember times in which most of our articles were pretty much various incarnations of "Wario farted and it smelled bad. Lololol. Everyone died, except Toadswart because he exploded and then died anyway!" These times, and I thank the divine dog that walks the heavens that this came to be, now lie behind us. Today, we have many great contributions, and we will probably have many more, as long as there are people, passionate people, who are willing to share a portion of their time with us to entertain the rest of the community. For those people, I would like to express my gratitude.
Next issue will be a Special Issue. Issues like that are usually high points of 'Shroom history, because they tend to be quite a bit larger and more diverse than our regular issues. I hope, when that issue is released, you will be here with us to participate.
Thank you very much for everything.
— The Edo
Activity Announcements
Hello, great users of this here excellent resource of information for the informatively-deprived! I am Marioguy1 (talk), your Activity Director returning once again to bring you the Activity Announcements. Wow was that an excellent Mafia game! 'Shroom Mafia II just finished and I sure enjoyed myself! I have so much to say about that...but I can't fit it all into this section. So be sure to check out the section "'Shroom Mafia II", for full details on how the game played out and some comments from players of the game.
As for what else is going on with The 'Shroom...well I believe that with this issue, we have entered our Summer season of The 'Shroom and switched our background to this lovely yellow background you see now. But with the Summer comes to Poll Committee Chairperson Elections. The Poll Committee manages the poll that is viewable on the front page of the wiki. The poll changes bi-weekly and is managed by the Poll Committee. For more information on the Poll Committee, see here. Every June, the Poll Committee re-elects their chairperson, an election hosted by The 'Shroom. So be sure to go vote!
Finally, The 'Shroom Spotlight. No significant edits were made to the Super Mario Sunshine-related articles in the past month, so I can't really name a winner. On that down-note, I don't think I'll mention that there were no significant edits to pages anymore. If the month has a winner, I will name them, but if not, I don't want to bring our party down. If you think you've done some significant good for the articles of the month's spotlight, but I didn't notice you, contact me on my talk page or on the forums.
Now for this month's game. If anyone has watched or heard about Nintendo's E3 presentation, they will have heard of this game. It's probably my favourite game announced by Nintendo, and this month's spotlight relates closely to it; Pikmin 3! Pikmin 3 is a game where the player controls a bunch of little pikmin and gets them to complete tasks to reach large goals. It really shows the power of little things working together. Which relates it to this month's spotlight: Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis! Edit articles relating to that game to help the wiki, as well as possibly be named the winner! I hope everyone has an excellent summer, I know I will, and doesn't forget to do their homework! See you next month!
Section of the Month
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Hello, dear readers, it's your self-congratulatory adjective Affiliates Manager, Crocodile Dippy (talk), here presenting the results of the May section of the month vote because no one else wanted to do it and I’m such a good Samaritan. This month we had a grand total of 16 votes, that's six more than our last section of the month vote! Keep 'em coming; these arbitrary accolades are nothing without your input! So enough attention grabbing, our winner for Issue LXII by %31.25 of the votes was Toad85 (talk) for a third time, winning on his hit series A History of Video Games. This time, he covered the Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd trial, explaining why big corporate fatcats are assholes and why Brooklyn Bridge metaphors are the only thing more potent than a stylized OBJECTION in the courtroom. Definitely a worthy read, and I'm quite glad it's been recognized as such; kid's on to good things, mates. Runners-up were yours truly for Crocodile Style Reviews, gathering %25 of the votes, and Stooben Rooben (talk) for his Interview by a %18.75 of the total votes. Also, I voted for Toadbert101 (talk) for his Fake Ads section, so give him a cookie too. June's Section of the MonthNothing much to say here, just vote! Please be honest while voting, and don't vote for entire sub-teams. Votes like "Fun Stuff" or "Fake News" are invalid. Clickie. Voting starts June 16th and ends July 8th. |
Fake News
Editorial
I am disappointed, guys. I specifically told you not to spill anything on my carpet, and what do you do? Spill nothing on my carpet. You realise how long nothing takes to get out of carpets?!
Anyway, welcome to the Fake News! This month, we're down on a few sections, but we do have a new section this month. Edofenrir (talk), Sub-Director and ex-Fake News director, under the persona of Koohitsu, has been hired for the Fake Interview/Monthly Inquisition, so congratulations to him! And with that, on with the section:
Pyro: Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, gents, ladies, golden enemies, and that Poltergust 5000 over there! It's an exciting time with all of this E3 stuff going around, and I even got a new assistant! Her name is Kersti.
Kersti: It's only temporary, I need to be in a game, you know.
Pyro: The other day, we went to Yoshi's Island, a tropical island full of birds on magic carpets, Yoshi Cookies, and strange "X"s all over the place. Locals say these X's mean there are beans under them or something, but I've heard from a certain someone that it isn't true. BEANS, BEANS, THE MORE YOU EAT, THE MORE YOU~
Kersti: NO.
Pyro: Okay, bossy. Anyways, there's a local inn called "Yoob's Belly". The floor is soft and mushy, and there's RC Shroobers all over the place! Wooh! Stay at it for the night if you can afford it.
Kersti: Are you mad?
Pyro: I'm not entirely sure...
Kersti: Yes, you are.
Pyro: No, I'm not.
Kersti: Yes, you are.
Pyro: No, I'm not.
Kersti: Yes, you are.
Pyro: No, I'm not.
Kersti: WE HAVE COME TO A CONCLUSION.
Pyro: ...that you can never have cookies without evil milk.
Kersti: ..........I quit.
Pyro: NO! COME BACK! I NEED SOMEONE TO PAY MY BILLS!
*door slams*
Pyro: ...Uh, I didn't need her anyways. Back on subject. At the nearby shop in the village, you can find unreasonable amounts of Yoshi Cookies...for free.
Cookie Monster: C is for Cookie and cookie is for me!
Pyro: Don't think about it.
Cookie Monster: COOKIE IS MINE!
Pyro: NO STOP DON'T LEAVE THE STUDIO~
We interrupt this section with breaking news! The Cookie Monster has destroyed half of Yoshi's Island. However, he has been sued by Baby Bowser for not drinking evil milk with it. We now return to your regularly scheduled program.
Pyro: I've gotten arrested once already, so I'm prepared.
Audience: GET ON WITH THE SECTION.
Pyro: Well, half of it is destroyed, so I really have nothing else to say except...
...Always drink evil milk.
Pyro: Well, this has turned into utter chaos, so this is goodbye.
Written by: 
Koohitsu
Oh hi everyone, I am very happy to see you here, reading this silly little interview. I mean, of course I'm not really seeing you, since this is a newspaper section, and I guess you're not really seeing me either, but... you know what I mean, right? Anyway, for everyone who doesn't know who I am, which I think will be all of you, considering this is the first time I'm doing this here ever, uhm...
I'm sorry for rambling. I am, like, sooo nervous right now. Let me... Let me try to start over. To properly introduce myself: I am Koohitsu, the Paratroopa. I will be conducting the interview today. Now. Like, right below this introduction in fact. My guest today is someone who has traveled a lot, even though he is still so young. He has made quite a name for himself when he helped the famous Mushroom Kingdom hero Mario solve a great crisis in Star Haven. He is here today, and I hope he will be easy on me: Goombario, the Goomba!
"Goombario! Hi! Welcome to the interview."
"Yeah, hi."
"So Goombario, I'm sure many people are already well aware who you are, but for all the adorable little dumplings out there who don't know you, please introduce yourself."
"Ok! So, I am Goombario. I live in Goomba Village, together with my little sister, my parents, and my grandparents."
"A big family of mushrooms!"
"Yeah, I suppose you could say it like that."
"Ok, so you traveled a lot, and you also helped saving the Mushroom Kingdom once. That must have been pretty exciting! How did you experience this... well, this experience?"
"Oh yes! That was such a great time! Especially since I got to hang out with Mario a lot! I don't know if you know this, but I am actually a really, really, REALLY big fan of Mario."
"I vaguely heard about it."
"Anyway, it was all about that jerk Bowser stealing the Star Rod from the Star Spirits, and us foiling his evil plans left and right. It all began when my sister found Mario in the woods near our village, heavily injured. It was strange. I was so worried because he was unconscious for so long, but at the same time I was also excited, because FREAKING MARIO was in our village! I wanted to get his autograph so badly, but dad forbade me to ask because Mario was still out and recovering."
"I see."
"Of course I tried to sneak into the Toad House and get the autograph anyway. I waited until late at night and sneaked outside while dad was asleep, but Goombaria saw me and tattled. I was so mad!"
"I can imagine."
"So mad, I took her favorite doll and threw it off the veranda into a tree later!"
"Wait, that's terrible! Why would you do that to your little sister? Siblings should be supportive of each other and get along!"
"But... but me.... Mario... I... autograph... no... I mean.... fan... me... meet Mario!!!"
"Perhaps so, but that's no reason--"
"Mario is great!!!"
"*sigh* Alright. So Mario was there with your people. And later you were allowed to accompany him, right?"
"YES! So great! I remember Goompa telling me to go with Mario! It was the happiest moment of my life! Seriously! I was just so utterly happy, a little happier and I probably would have had an accident right then and there!"
"Uhm... ok?"
"Mario is great!!!"
"I suppose, and eventually you and Mario reached King Bowser and put an end to his plans, is that right?"
"Sure did! Mario and I are such a good team! I even bonked that fiendish turtle face right on the head! Right between the eyes, while he was giant and pumped from all the Star Rod powers! The danger, the rush of adrenaline, it was all so invigorating!"
"Sounds like you had quite an adventure!"
"The best, man! Mario's adventures are the best! As long as he is around, that Bowser should just bag it and leave, because there is no stopping Mario!"
"Right. Staying on the topic of Mario--"
"Mario is great!!!"
"Yes, deary. Staying on the topic of Mario: You are quite the fan. And you and your family live in the Mushroom Kingdom and are loyal to the princess. I find that a little strange."
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, most Goombas that I know and have spoken with are loyal to King Bowser, and they say that Mario is a terrible man and his mistreatment of the Goombas is horrendous. Yet you and your family live quietly among the people that a large fraction of your kin considers as a threat. Why is that?"
"I don't know what those other Goombas' problem is. We never had any problem with the nice people from Toad Town or other places. Most of those Goombas come from Dark Land, right? Maybe it's the lack of sun that's getting to them or something, and they feel like blaming someone else. No offense, by the way."
"Don't sweat it, dear. But not all Goombas that resent Mario and the princess are from Dark Land. There is also quite a few in the Mushroom Kingdom itself."
"Oh. Yeah. We have a few of those right next to our place, actually. Very rude people."
"Ever since your adventure with Mario, those Goombas also seem to have a bone to pick with you personally!"
"What??? Why me?"
"I'm not too sure why, but fact is that the Goomba community worldwide has begun to stir right after your exploits with Mario were made public. And the consensus seems to be that, while they are happy that Goombas finally seem to get some recognition by society, they are also mad that the first Goomba to make it big was such a vocal supporter of the Mushroom Kingdom."
"But..."
"I've done some digging before this interview started, and what I found was not very flattering. Goombas online call you a dry-bellied, smelly cheep cheep, a filthy, spoiled Goomnut, and a peach-eating traitor to the royal Koopa line."
"That's so mean!"
"They also like to look for pictures of you and draw stink lines above you, so they can repost them everywhere! I found like a hundred of them just by researching your name."
"You know what? I don't care for anything those people have to say. The thing is: I know Mario! And Mario and I are chums! And they're not! So they feel like doing things like this because they, too, know that Mario is great! Secretly, they're all wishing they could make the same experiences that I made with Mario. And that's why they're jealous!"
"That's a very clear statement. And while not everyone may agree, no one can deny that it was well said!"
"Yes! Mario is great!"
"So, do you have any other interests? Like, maybe a hobby, or something else. Something that doesn't revolve around Mario."
"I don't understand the question."
"Well, I mean, you know... Something other than Mario. Something that makes you your own, independent person, rather than just a satellite revolving around your role model."
"I am Mario's number one fan. I don't think you understand the significance of this. My passion for Mario's heroism is an inseparable part of my personality! Seriously, I am even named after the guy!"
"Oh, I only noticed that now!! I am such a slowpoke sometimes! You're named after Mario, and that's why he is your hero!"
"Yeah!"
"And does this make you happy? How do you feel with your name?"
"It's... it's great..."
"... You hesitated there for a moment."
"..."
"Is everything ok? Do you need a break?"
"No... ... ...no..."
"This topic seems to make you uneasy. Maybe we should just talk about something else?"
"..."
"So uhm... Did you and your family ever go on a vacation anywhere, and where would you like to go the most if you had the choice?"
"...it's hard."
"Pardon me?"
"Being... being named after Mario... being me... It's hard."
"What about it do you think is hard?"
"Everything. Everywhere I go I always hear the same. "Oh, adorable little Goombario! He is named after Mario, it's so funny!" "Try hard, Goombario! Go and reach for your dreams like Mario!" "Try to be strong and brave, like Mario!" "Be like Mario!" "Be Mario!" It is... It is so hard."
"Oh... uh...."
"I mean, I like Mario! He is an awesome hero, super friendly, and what he does is really impressive. Mario is great! Mario is really really great! Mario is... sometimes... sometimes Mario is just too great. It is so hard to live up to the person you're named after if that person happens to be the most famous person in the entire Kingdom. So hard... so... so... I'm... I'm so sorry."
"Uhm... uh... d-don't be. It's fine, really!"
"I just wish I could take a break from it all sometimes... Everyone... everyone always goes on about Luigi... about how he never escapes Mario's shadow, and how depressing it is. Try being Mario's shadow some time. At least Luigi has his own name!!"
"Uhm... I'm sooo sorry that I brought this up! Don't cry... I'm sure that everything will work out somehow!"
"One day I had this idea that I could study really hard, read a lot of books, travel guides, newspapers, everything. I wanted to do something new! Have something I came up with on my own! So I got really involved in honing my knowledge and I created the Tattle ability. It was my thing. Goombario's invention!"
"That sounds lovely!"
"And then the jerks from the badge shop came and made a badge that made it all obsolete!! And I was back in the bottomless pit again!!!"
"That's awful, I'm so sorry!"
"I'm... I'm just so... so lonely!"
"Goombario?"
"So lonely!!!"
"Ok, well, uhm... So this was this months interview. It went really... uhm... nice!"
"So lonely!!!"
"My first interview ever, and I already managed to make my guest have a mental break down and cry. This is, like, such a good omen!"
"Sob... sniff..."
"Anyway, I think we have to stop the interview here. I'll have to look after my guest now. Poor Goombario needs a big hug."
"Mario is great..."
"See you!"
Written by: Travix Man (talk)
Hello, Chief TravixMan here, and I say, I am here reporting that crime rates have been increasing again with two stories to tell. These stories might make you glad. They might make you sad. They might even make you mad. Give a listen to these new tales.
1. Wiggler's Anger Problem
Wiggler was having a peaceful walk to his garden. He was growing carrots. Lots and lots of carrots. However, Larry Koopa sneaked to the caterpillar's garden and took the carrots with some Monty Moles. Wiggler quietly told Larry to put the carrots back. Larry did not compromise with Wiggler, and loaded his small blue airship with carrots. Wiggler began to turn red, when the blue shelled Koopa then began destroying the rest of the crops. Wiggler became furious and ran up to Larry, and punched him in the face. Larry used his wand to send a fireball towards Wiggler, and a fight ensued. Flutter, who was Wiggler's neighbor, contacted HQ at 3:25 PM.. Wiggler will be serving his carrots alright... In prison. His sentence is 3 days in prison, due to being completely innocent. Larry Koopa, on the other hand, will be serving a month in prison. Maybe that's what you get when you pick a carrot from the wrong guy. Get it? Pick a carrot, pick a fight? Oh never mind.
2. Shy Guy's Wild Ride
Shy Guy, Koopa Troopa, and Goomba were walking to Dry Bowser's Wild Rodeo, anxious to ride on the un-tamable Chain Chomp. When they got in, Dry Bones, one of their friends and worker of Dry Bowser's Wild Rodeo, greeted them, warning them that the Chain Chomp was furious that night. Dry Bones also explained that Dry Bowser is taking a ride on the Chain Chomp. Shy Guy then exclaimed he doesn't want to be shy anymore, and so he said Get off that Chomp, Mr. Dry Bowser, because I'm gonna take a ride today Dry Bowser then asked Well, okay then, if you and yer friends want to get killed on that durn Chain Chomp, be my guests Haw haw haw After they walked away from him, Goomba said What did he mean by if you and yer friends want to get killed ? I don't really know, but let's give Shy a little bit of good luck. Koopa Troopa responded. The two each gave him good luck, and Shy Guy got on the Chain Chomp. You better git offuva that Chain Chomp, it's a mad dog Bahawhawhawhaw Dry Bowser said with 3 Dry Bones wearing black leather cowboy clothing, who were also laughing. “He ain’t gonna stand a chance on that there Chomp, he better give up now while he has a chance! Dah heh heh!” The Dry Bones that was wearing black and white referee clothing announced “Welcome to Dry Bowser’s Wild Rodeo! Stay on the Chain Chomp for a minute, and good luck!” The timer set, and the Chain Chomp was released. The Chain Chomp was certainly un-tamable as Dry Bowser said, as it kept shaking Shy Guy off of it. Shy Guy kept trying to hold on to the rope, but nearly fell off. As he nearly fell off, Chain Chomp opened it’s mouth, preparing to eat Shy Guy by taking out it’s toungue. Shy Guy then swung with his body, and got back on the Chain Chomp. The timer grew down to 10 seconds, and Dry Bowser was becoming more furious. “I’ve had just enough of this dang excuse of time! Git offuva that dang Chomp!” He got out one of his glass bottles of Chuckola Cola, and threw it at the Chain Chomp. The Chain Chomp turned red, and flung Shy Guy off of it, then broke out of the ring to chase Dry Bowser. “Oooh, sorry... There was only 1 second left.” The referee said. Koopa Troopa and Goomba went over to pick up their friend, and when they did, they saw his face un-masked. “What, what are you two looking at?” Shy Guy asked. “... Nothing.” Said Koopa Troopa, “Just nothing.” “We were worried you would’ve been killed by that thing!” Goomba said as Shy Guy put his mask back on. “Could you please get me over to the hospital?” Shy Guy asked. “Sure, Shy.” Koopa Troopa said. All three friends laughed and left. Meanwhile, Dry Bowser certainly had his hands full with Chain Chomp, but as he was still running, he heard cuffs come on him. “What in the blazes?...” He stopped and noticed Princess Daisy, who was arresting Dry Bowser. “One witness said you cheated and threw this at that Chain Chomp, causing the rider to fall off.” Princess Daisy said as she held up a Chuckola Cola bottle. “I didn’t!.. I couldn’t have!... I... CURSE YOU, DRY BONES!!!” Princess Daisy took Dry Bowser into the police car, and then looked behind her and said, “Thank you for your help.” “No problem. It’s what I do.” The Dry Bones, who was the friend of Koopa Troopa, Goomba, and Shy Guy said. “Now if you excuse me, I’m gonna go find my friends.” Princess Daisy gave a thumbs up, and drove off. The night was now criminal free as usual.
So, two stories, with 2 criminals. What would happen if they meet with each other? (Since Dry Bowser and Bowser are separate people.) All would be revealed next month, at the same spot of Fake Police Blotter.
Written by: 
MrConcreteDonkey (talk)
Hey, guys, it's MCD. Today, I went to Toadofsky's Store, a shop run by ex-composer Toadofsky. The shop sells many musical instruments and records, including some of Toadofsky's compositions.
| Item | Image | Price | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Drum | 
|
90 Coins | "Don't let the price or resemblence to a tadpole put you off! If you can find a Large Enough Body Of Water, this thing sounds just like a steel drum!" |
| Large Enough Body Of Water | 
|
400 Coins | "Lines, plumbers, steel drums and islands sold separately." |
| Toadofsky's Composition #001: Steel Drums in a Large Enough Body Of Water | 
|
50 Coins | "30 seconds of fantastic music! So great, I had to point to it!" |
| Electric Guitar and Amplifier | 
|
120 Coins | "All of the hip new bands are using these! With this and just one Large Enough Body Of Water, you can be hip too!" |
| Brick Block | 
|
1 Coin | "Please, take these. Some guy in a pointy hat gave me hundreds of them. I can't leave the shop. They have my wife." |
Out of sympathy, I decided to take a Brick Block home. Big mistake. Upon taking one from the packed store, many of them fell at once on top of the owner. He was not badly injured, but he wasn't extremely happy. In fact, he was angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. He became the Incredible Hulkofsky, and charged me two coins for the Brick Block I bought. It was a sad day for my wallet.
Would I recommend this shop? If you're looking to get anywhere in music, then this shop is a great place for you to visit! If not, jumping on the tadpoles is fun anyway! DISCLAIMER: I do not promote violence to tadpoles, and please do not jump on a tadpole in real life. You will most likely crush them. These tadpoles are trained professionals, and, secretly, don't exist anyway. The owner is extravagant, and his music is truly amazing and inspiring. If you can find it under the pile of Brick Blocks, that is.
Thanks for reading the Fake News this month!
Fun Stuff
Director Notes
by Gamefreak75 (talk)
No news is good news. Be sure to tune in next issue for some exciting stuff.
Mystery Images
HI! Sorry, I got confused with the background.
Trivia
by Raven Effect (talk) Did you know that:
- The boss Clawgrip, is the only boss in ‘’Super Mario Bros. 2’’ that isn’t from ‘’ Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic?’’
- Bob-ombs have rarely seen hands that are only in ‘’Super Mario Bros. 2’’ and ‘’Paper Mario’’?
- Out of the 4 Renzor boss fights in ‘’Super Mario World’’, only one of them is required to beat the game, and that’s the one at Chocolate Fortress?
- The Bowser’s Castle in ‘’Mario Kart 64’’ contains an area with a green Thwomp in a cave?
- According to ‘’Super Mario Bros.’’ the ? blocks are actually Toads cursed by Bower’s black magic?
- That despite appearing in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Geno is still owned by Square Enix?
Quiz
By Post-Damage Invincibility (talk)
Hello people who love Mario trivia quizzes! There's so many countless Mario games where true fans can put their knowledge to the test! You've come to the best place for a Mario quiz, on the newsletter of inarguably the greatest Mario-related website on the planet. This quiz contains two Stumper questions at the end, a Stumper and a Super Stumper. A Stumper is a type of Bonus Question. They are questions only a true-blue overalled Mario fanboy can answer, and if you happen to know one or both, they are worth a whopping five bonus points each!!! That means the best possible score for this quiz is 30/20! Unless stated otherwise, Bonus Questions are usually worth on one extra point, but missing them can never hurt your score. However, they can triumphantly take your score over the maximum!
- Simple Riddle: Looking up at the ceiling can be quite revealing. Eye the bright light to make your world quite an alright sight. On a round rug where Mario's feet touch the floor, look up and soar to a cloudy place you adore, in which you've never been before, where your coins be like scarlet. Name the game where this occurs.
- Medium Riddle: Into what do big Kongs who are slow go to grow even mo'?
- Challenging Riddle: Where do you find 119 from 120 on an island so very sunny?
- What's the first world Mario sees a Monchee in Mario vs. Donkey Kong?
- From the game Paper Mario, name the move that looks just like the egg-throwing move in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
- Monty Moles obstruct the racers in only one course in Mario Kart 64. Name it.
- How many courses in Super Mario 64 can Mario lose his hat? Name them.
- Name the 4-Player Mini-Game in Mario Party 3 in which the players fights the other players on a set of conveyor belts with Podoboos?
- Which court in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 contains a Gooper Blooper?
- What character wielded the Minimizer?
- In Super Mario Galaxy, name all the Galaxies where Mario has to beat the Spooky Speedster in a race for a Power Star?
- In which Mario Sports title did an old man ask the player if he was the little imp who tried his course long ago?
- What does the mayor first say when Mario rescues him on top of the golden mushroom at the end of The Goopy Inferno?
- In what game does Wario get his ugly mug on the Moon in the best possible ending?
- In Donkey Kong Country 3, how many rooms are in the first Bonus Level of Doorstop Dash?
- According to the instruction Manuel for Mario Golf 64, "This energetic gal is the best female player on the circuit." Who was this referring to?
- Also in Mario Golf 64, how many yards is the first hole in Toad Forest?
- In what game does Wario have to smash his Alarm Clock?
- In Paper Mario, how many Star Pieces are unearthed by shaking the ground on Pleasant Path?
- Stumper: Stumper: What game is the following quote from and who says it? Also, under what circumstances? "Hey, you! How about lending me your clothes? No dice? What a drag."
- Super-Stumper: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 came with E-Reader cards called Power-Up Cards. What did the player get from the Item 12 Power-Up Card?
| Click to find answers! | |
|---|---|
| |
Guess Who
- This character appears in the sixth chapter of the game.
- This character gives out two key items.
- This character resides in the western part of the area.
- This character will ban Mario from their residence if the plumber whacks their tree too many times.
| Click to find answers! | |
|---|---|
Guess that Game
- This game was released in 1999.
- This game has Transfer Pak functionality (characters can be transferred from another game).
- This game has eight courses.
- The European/PAL version of this game has a different intro theme.
| Click to find answers! | |
|---|---|
Word Search
By Gamefreak75 (talk)
Sorry for the delay! The answers to April’s word search. Answer
This month’s word search:
Find the Differences
Hiding Koopa
By General bob-omb (talk)
A goal of one million coins? Mario is going to need plenty of gold flowers for this one... but with so many coins wouldn't the value of a coin plummet? There goes the economy. (Oh, and its hiding koopa. The paratroopa doesn't count.)
Music & Artwork
Director's Notes (Smasher (talk)
Hello everyone, welcome to another installment of Music and Artwork!
A small change this time around: Ralphfan (talk) has been fired from Random Image of Month. Taking his place starting this month is Paper Yoshi (talk).
That's pretty much it. Enjoy.
Character Artwork of the Month (Rise Up Above It (talk))
Today's Character of the Month is the Ancient Minister from the Subspace Emissary mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Not much to say about him without giving a little history of events involving him in the gamemode, but that' might be going out of this section's jurisdiction too much seeing as one of the reasons I picked out the Minister is because he's a fairly unknown and obscure antagonist throughout the story. Eventually it turns out he's R.O.B. and he joins the team (technically, this should not be a spoiler, as you wouldn't be a new fan here without playing Brawl). All because of some nice emotional scenes involving the ritual sacrifice of R.O.B. citizens for the glory of Mother Subspace (and a betrayal or two). And so, because of the emotional scenes and his initial obscurity, the Ancient Minister gets Character of the Month for June 2012!
Random Image of the Month (Paper Yoshi (talk))
Hello readers, and welcome to Random Image of the Month!
This month's image comes from Mario Party 5. It depicts Dinger Derby, a 4-player minigame, in which the objective is to hit baseballs thrown by a pitching machine. Players should try to hit as many baseballs as possible, aiming for victory by hitting the most pitches among all four contestants.
Music Factoid (Post-Damage Invincibility (talk))
Game Over music is a bitter-sweet affair. It means defeat. In the original Super Mario Bros., it meant you had to start the entire game over. In Super Mario Bros. 3, it meant having to start the entire world over. Game Overs could be even more drastic for lazy or cocky gamers in RPGs such as Paper Mario, as it meant the erasing of all progress made since the last blue Save Block had been struck. In more recent 3D adventures, such as Super Mario Galaxy, a Game Over meant... absolutely nothing. Yes, the penalty for a game over has softened over the years, but the catchy tunes that go along with them are what make them bitter-sweet. You may watch some of my favorite Game Over tunes in this order:
- New Super Mario Bros.
- Paper Mario: It is a variation of the immortal Ground Theme, the most famous piece of music not in Mario history, but video game history. Koji Kondo is the man who wrote it. While Kondo is an extraordinarily ugly man, his music is as beautiful as anything in Heaven or Earth.
- Super Mario World: That classic Super Mario World Game Over everyone knows.
- Super Mario Land: Not only is it my personal favorite Game Over theme, it is one of my favorite compositions in video game history. Absolutely stunning. Really, when you hear it, you are literally stunned.
- Super Mario 64
- Wario Land III: The Game Over from Wario Land III is quite unique in that Wario can only be killed by the final boss. That is something that had never happened before in the Marioverse, and has never happened since.
- Super Mario Bros. 3: We all know and love it.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: The special Game Over for when you join the Shadow Queen.
- Super Paper Mario: The Game Over from when Dimentio robs the Bros. of their free will and enslaves them.
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Screenshot of the Month (Fawfulfury65 (talk))
Hello fellow 'Shroom readers! For this month's Screenshot of the Month, I've picked out a screenshot from the upcoming game, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
The game was shown recently at E3 2012, and it looks like another must-have for the 3DS, so I thought it would be appropriate to choose a picture from the game. This game is going to feature more ghosts and more mansions than the first Luigi's Mansion, and it's up to Luigi to capture those ghosts with the Poltergeist 5000. In the picture, we can see Professor E. Gadd, inventor of the Poltergeist 5000, in his lab with Luigi. The lab is redesigned and looks a lot more high-tech than in the first game. The graphics look pretty good, compared to a lot of 3DS games. Dark Moon certainly looks like a worthy successor to the first game, and it's my most anticipated Mario game as of now.
Alrighty. Tune in next month for yet another Screenshot of the Month!
Sketch Related to Mario (an anonymous Dark Land Goomba)
Sprite of the Month (FunkyK38 (talk))
For this month, I have this enemy for you: a Drillbit Crab from Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: 
. It's June, and we are all getting out of school and hitting the beach, whether in real life, or just in the Marioverse. When you're on Plack Beach, don't let these little guys catch you by surprise. They can hurt!
Pipe Plaza
Director's Notes (Paper Yoshi (talk))Hello readers, and welcome to the June Issue of Pipe Plaza!! Unlike last month, there are no news regarding the sub-team, so this section will be pretty short. Remember to sign up for one of the vacant Pipe Plaza positions! The sub-team may already have a good amount of writers, but having even more users around here would be really good. If you wish to sign up, leave a message on my talk page or PM me on the Super Mario Boards and I'll send you an application form. It's a fairly simple process, so please consider writing for the Pipe Plaza sub-team. Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now. I hope you enjoy this issue! Forum Update (MrConcreteDonkey (talk))Hey guys, it's MrConcreteDonkey, and welcome to the Forum Update. Sorry I missed last month, but, as I said in the Fake News editorial, I had keyboard troubles. I'm annoyed while writing this, because I had a lengthy draft of this typed up and lost it all! :( This month I'll be covering April and May, because I didn't send anything in last month. Main Story: Well, if you're active on the forum, I'm pretty sure you'll have some idea of the drama that erupted during late May, but I'll give a summary of the events:
8. Do not publicly question us on policies. We will listen to a well reasoned opinion on why policies should be different, but this needs to be done through PM. As such, creating topics or posts that insult or question the authority of a moderator is not allowed. We don't care how upset something makes you, you have the ability to handle things privately in a peaceful manner. The topic and QuickTopic soon descend into an argument.
So that's what happened, basically. It seems everything's back to normal now, after this kerfuffle. Statistics: In April, 496 topics were made. 28397 posts were made, and 31 new users joined. The most online was 144 people, and that was on the 23rd. In May, 641 topics were made, as were 26573 posts. The most online was 143, and 46 people joined. Smasher (Smasher (talk)) –32223 Rat (Ralphfan (talk)) – 25094 Nega-Man (Mileycyrussoulja (talk)) – 22670 UltraMario (UltraMario3000 (talk))– 22140 Solar Blaze (SolarBlaze (talk)) – 15797 Jeff (Superjeff64 (talk)) – 15712 Klavier Gavin (Legend of Lily (talk)) – 14037 Baby Luigi (BabyLuigiOnFire (talk)) – 13135 Nabber (Nabber (talk)) – 12659 Herr Shyguy (Shyguy27 (talk)) – 12271
Blue signifies the user is at the same position as last month. Red signifies the user is at a lower position than last month. Bold signifies the user is a new entry to the top 10. Mafia: Currently ongoing are Nabber's Nabber Mafia, SexyEspeon and Touko Fukawa's (QuizmoManiac (talk)) Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Mafia, Klavier Gavin's (Legend of Lily (talk)) Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes Mafia and New Super Mario's (New Super Mario (talk)) World War III Mafia.
That's a lot of stuff this month! Thanks for reading it all, though...or, wait...did you read it? YOU DIDN'T, DID YOU?! :'( Mario Calendar (Paper Yoshi (talk))Hello, everyone, and welcome to Mario Calendar!! June and July are very important months for gaming, due to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the E3, being held around this time of the year. Thus, many games, including Mario ones, are released during those months, which makes our list slightly bigger. These are the Mario, Yoshi, DK and Wario games released sometime during June:
And that's all for June! See you in Upcoming Games! Community Report (Bop1996 (talk))Hello, welcome to June's edition of the Community Report. Policy Changes and Updates
Proposals from the Past Month
Proposals and TPPs in Progress
Sitenotices from the Past Month
Promotions and DemotionsThere were no promotions or demotions in the past month. Tip of the Month (FunkyK38 (talk))All work and no play makes wiki editing boring work. It's alright to take a break from a big project once in a while. Collect some friend codes, go on Wiki Chat, make a couple new friends, consider it a little reward for working hard. But don't get too distracted from your job, or you might get in trouble for goofing around too much, especially when you are working on a project that has a specific deadline.
Upcoming Games - Special E3 Coverage: Issue 1 (Paper Yoshi (talk))Hello once again, readers, and welcome to the first Special E3 Issue of Upcoming Games! This year, E3 was all about games for Nintendo. And due to that, we have a fair amount of Mario games to cover here in Upcoming Games. This month will be dedicated to the three 3DS Mario games, one of which was unveiled some weeks before the E3. Those are New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star (previously known as Paper Mario 3DS) and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (previously known as Luigi's Mansion 2). New Super Mario Bros. 2After traveling to the home console realm, New Super Mario Bros. is back to the DS line, this time exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS! As seen during Nintendo's 3DS Software Showcase, NSMB2 will heavily feature coins. Those little gold pieces are literally everywhere in this game, being obtainable in a variety of ways. The game also brings a feature from Super Mario Bros. 3 missed by many gamers in Super Mario 3D Land: the Super Leaf is once again a power-up, but now it transforms Mario into Raccoon Mario, rather than Tanooki Mario, which means players will be able to fly for the first time in a Mario 2D platformer (not counting ports and remakes) after Super Mario World, originally released in 1990. Additionally, as shown in the game demo, New Super Mario Bros. 2 will support local cooperative two-player mode. The second player will control Mario's little brother, Luigi. However, the game's breakthrough feature lies in its availability. New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the first Mario and Nintendo game to be available both at retail stores and as a digital download at the Nintendo eShop. Paper Mario: Sticker StarAs the game's name itself implies, stickers have a major role in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Not unlike coins in New Super Mario Bros. 2, they will be obtainable in many different ways. Stickers will also be usable in various situations, such as during battle, as the only way to attack enemies, or in the overworld, allowing Mario to complete puzzles in order to advance through the game. Furthermore, Sticker Star will return to the RPG system from the original Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, featuring turn-based battles similar to the ones from those two games. Luigi's Mansion: Dark MoonAnd last, but not least, is Luigi's new solo adventure, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon! Not much new info has been revealed about the game, however, aside from the new name and a few gameplay elements. Luigi is once again tasked with defeating ghosts, which is made possible by Professor E. Gadd's newest gadget, the Poltergust 5000. He has to search for those creepy creatures in multiple mansions, while completing puzzles and unlocking new areas. Luigi will also be aided by Toad in some levels.
Release Dates
And that concludes the first part of Upcoming Games' E3 coverage. I'll be back here with the second part, which will cover the Wii U games, next month! See you then! "Stay tuned to Upcoming Games for news on the games you'll be playing soon!" |
Hey there guys! I'm back for another issue of Fading into Obscurity! How have you guys been doing? Having fun? I know all of you in school are absolutely loving this time. I had fun today, went out to see The Sound of Music; nice play. It inspired this month's section. This month we'll be looking at a Pixl from Super Paper Mario, and a oft-unused pixl at that. Meet Piccolo.
Piccolo's only appearance was in Super Paper Mario, back in 2007, as pretty minor optional playable character. In that game, he/she/it joins up with Mario after he goes through an incredibly long sidequest all around the world whose name I do not know. After Piccolo joins your party, she gives Mario access to more hidden items through her melodious songs. Piccolo is an overall benefit to Mario's team, but not a crucial member and is often missed or forgone. I'd like to draw another parallel to the Sound of Music. At the end of the play, Maria and her family walk off into the sunset, similarly, Piccolo is slowly being forgotten, and her relationship to music, ignored. Piccolo appears to be fading, but not into a sunset - into obscurity.
So it's that time of year again, the few short-lived days where all the major game developers and publishers get together to shove their new games and hardware into their fanbases' faces until their brains burst from their ears into the dank caves of spoilsport cynics such as myself. Regardless of my dumb views on the exploitative nature of E3, it's still a great source of information for gamers and journalists alike, which means a great source of extremely presumptuous and baseless scrutiny and sarcasm to explain why everything E3 stands for is absolutely nothing to get hyped about. Just like a professional game journalist! I know I promised to make this column more relaxed than my reviews, but give me one month of the year to let loose and be a prick, that's all I ask. So let's get started!
Microsoft!
Microsoft predictably opened with a trailer of Halo 4, because what else are they going to open with? Fable: The motherfucking Journey? Astonishingly, less than 10 minutes of the conference was dedicated to the power armoured cash cow, primarily so they could reserve half of it to talk about all the new entertainment features the XBox 360 will soon have that have absolutely no bearing on games whatsoever. I would not use my DVD player to play anything except movies, or my toaster to toast anything except bread; I don't see why everyone is so bloody keen on turning video game consoles into the next generation PC. And while I'm sure plenty of people will be taken in by the gimmick of Kinect's voice recognition bollocks or the new SmartGlass feature, I still can't understand at all how screaming into a little box or using a phone as a controller are going to revolutionize gaming.
Microsoft's conference was marked by a distinct lack of actual game coverage, perhaps because they realised there was bugger all of actual interest for them to brag about. Aside from the shameful catch-ups to Nintendo's tedious music and fitness successes, the majority of new titles were just reboots of any big-name franchise largely associated with the Microsoft name; new Halo, new Forza, new Gears of War, new Tomb Raider, new Fable and of course, a new Call of Duty, this time set in the future with a remarkable lack of actual black ops despite being in the bloody title. Here's a tip for next year, Microsoft; when you've got a few eye-catching IPs on the way, dedicate some actual time into explaining them, since from the trailers alone I wasn't able to tell what the fuck either of them were supposed to be about.
Sony!
Unlike the other two, Sony's conference was the only one that couldn't be simply described as "more of the same old shit". Kind of. A little bit. Well, at least they gave proper coverage to their new games. On that, they opened with a new title from the creators of Heavy Rain titled Beyond: Two Souls, so we can all expect as little gameplay as possible from it, but I'm sure it'll attract the cool alternative crowd just because Ellen Page is in it. I must say, though, I am very intrigued by The Last of Us, which is looking like I Am Alive with a bigger budget, better gameplay and a goddamned escort. Oh shoot, just as I was starting to get hyped about something.
But Sony isn't forgetting the beloved nostalgia dollar! God of War: Ascension continues the series' trend of mindless gore over coherency and tact, and the violence seems to be getting amped up again as their only real form of innovation, although there does appear to be a power that allows Kratos to reconstruct the stuff he just destroyed, so that's a good way to completely miss the appeal of God of War. Speaking of Kratos, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale! is being announced for both PlayStation 3 and Vita with cross-platform multiplayer because that idea didn't sound stupid enough when Nintendo announced it; I guess it was inevitable that Sony would eventually play catch-ups to the ever-popular "nostalgia-mooching crossover fighter" genre that Capcom vs. and Super Smash Bros. have spearheaded, but who honestly cares? The fact that a Big Daddy is appearing as a playable character screams of desperation to me, like the barrel of iconic Sony characters doesn't reach quite as deep as the company hoped it did.
For a while I thought Sony was finally going to dedicate themselves to games and not all the gimmicky hardware that the other two have indulged themselves in, but what a naïve little child I am. Aside from the baffling interest in smartphone connectivity that everyone suddenly has, Sony unveiled their brand new Wonderbook peripheral, an addition to their line of stupid motion controls bollocks that allows you to live out a storybook by waving a giant book-shaped controller around like a fucking 3-year old. I guess it'll keep the kiddies entertained, but I feel there's a tremendous limit to what one can do with such an accessory; I mean all they had to show for it was a Harry Potter game, and I'm having a hard time thinking of other uses aside from a book-throwing contest which would probably be worlds more fun than reliving My Immortal.
Nintendo!
Speaking of awful gimmicks, we still have the glorious Wii U awaiting a release, glorious because of how stupid it is. I liked the dual screen on the Nintendo DS because they were so close to each other that it was easy to switch your focus between both, but I can only imagine it being a tremendous strain to keep looking back and forth between the controller and TV. I don't understand how giving us the option to play the game in smaller resolution is going to add anything to the experience, but then this is the company that made an entire handheld built on blowing up your retinas, so I shouldn't be too surprised. There are also motion controls which look even more awkward and unnatural than the Wii's controls, I never thought it possible. Label me a Luddite if you must, but when I play games I want to play them lazing away on the couch with a good-ol' fashioned button-based controller; I don't want to start waving my arms in the air trying to get a good work out, I want to relax and get immersed in the game without having to worry about slapping myself in the face.
But anyway, let's talk games, although there isn't much I really want to talk about. They boldly claimed that they would be showing off over twenty three games during their two conferences, and to their credit they did indeed have the most games on display, it's just that almost all of them were more bloody sequels or third-party ports. Aside from the obligatory catering to their bullshit music and fitness demographic and the glorified hardware tests designed to show off what the console can do, Nintendo's main selling point this year was the announcement of a brand new Pikmin game for the Wii U, this time boasting a few more of the little shits and the ability to coordinate between four different protagonists, so I ask; where will there ever be a non-contrived situation where you need to use four commanders?
And of course where would Nintendo be if it didn't have another generic Mario platformer to whore out? But this year they've come extra prepared, because they have not one but two to wave in the faces of every fanboy with just a little bit too much spare money laying around, distinguishable only because one has Mario collecting hordes of coins in a masterful representation of Nintendo's true motives, and the other has a playable Mii. Holy shit Nintendo, are you even trying anymore? They also had a new Luigi's Mansion and Paper Mario to show, but are they really this starved for original ideas? I mean they look fun enough, but don't you have any ambitions beyond leeching off the same boring characters in the same tried and tested formulas year after year? On the plus side, Platinum Games is collaborating with them to make the amusingly quirky Project P-100, although I'll be pretty pissed off if they don't grant you a power to commit mass Mii genocide.
Anyway, enough of the boring big three, let's look at some third-party titles!
Dishonoured! Yes I'm spelling that the proper British way, shut up. From the looks of things, Bethesda are planning to follow-up their sandbox funland Skyrim with another sandbox funland set in the Victorian era with steampunk robots and blokes in stupid outfits (so basically, Morrowind). It appears the game won't just be straight-up RPG action but will also feature stealth elements as well, because everyone was rushing to play the assassin classes in the Elder Scrolls games. Maybe if the trailer wasn't so pretentious I'd be able to figure out more about what's supposed to be going on, but I guess disjointed gore shots are just all the rave these days.
Crysis 3! So the invisibility suit is still there? Yes? Cool! We get to use a crossbow now like Hawkeye wearing a glowing trash can? Cool! Is there any noticeable difference in gameplay otherwise? No? Bollocks! Although I do like how the shattered remains of New York are now overgrown, but this makes me question why so few other games set in ruined cities do the same.
Assassin's Creed III! Please Ubisoft, just end the story already, it's been a good five years spanning five main games and even more spin-off bullshit, it's time to just put the Desmond arc to sleep and move on. Mind, they've now finally walked away from wog boy Ezio and are exploring a new ancestor in Revolution-era United States; one Connor Kenway, an indigenous fellow who doesn't look very indigenous at all so as to not scare away all the white folk. Combat still seems wonky as shit, but you can apparently jump through trees and climb cliffs now, which lead me to ask why you couldn't do that right from the start! For some reason there's even ship warfare in the game; excuse me for raining on your parade and hypocritical mocking innovation, Ubisoft, but isn't this supposed to be a stealth game?
Rayman Legends! Gameplay looks fun, thematic design is delightfully quirky, Wii U controls look dumb, when the fuck are you going to finish Beyond Good & Evil 2, Mr. Ancel?!
Far Cry 3! TITS!
Quantum Conundrum! So it seems one of Valve's employees has gone off on her own way to make what appears to be a less grim version of Portal with chubby little animals that look like something out of a Studio Ghibli film… ok I can't say anything sarcastic or mean about that, let's just move on.
Watch Dogs! So Ubisoft are still riding high on the success of Assassin's Creed, because their new game has you walking around a digital city to find your target and then promptly kill him with a quick time event, but not wanting to seem too lazy they've eliminated the freerunning and parkour and instead replaced it with cover-based shooting. Oh, will the good ideas stop rolling in for this company? OK in all honesty, the setting is pretty cool and the ability to fuck with computer networks seems interesting enough, but aside from listening in on private calls I'm not entirely sure how it'll aid gameplay other than forcing cars to crash so you have more chest-high cover to fall asleep on.
What's up, 'Shroomigos? Glad to know you're back to see another interview. You know, these filler introductions are really hard to write. Maybe I should babble about something here to take up space. Like, Team Fortress 2. My favorite weapon is the Axtinguisher. There's nothing more fun than setting someone on fire and shredding their burning flesh with an axe wrapped in barbed wire. I probably just scared you there. Maybe I shouldn't babble. I'll shut up now.
The Target
This month, I decided to interview someone who's been around slightly longer than Smasher (last month's interviewee). After delving into various threads on the forum, I decided an interesting choice would be Ralphfan. Having been a member of this site for nearly four years, and having participated in numerous community events, I figured he'd have some interesting things to tell us.
Once particularly active in the wiki, Ralphfan is now mostly a frequenter of the chatroom and forum. In fact, he has the second-highest post count on the forum. Ralphfan has held various positions of power during his time here: 'Shroom Core Staff, Chat Operator, and Director of the Awards Committee, all up until this year. Despite having held so many administrative community positions for such a long time, Ralphfan has also been the center of some trouble throughout this site's past. Though not always the instigator, Ralphfan has been in a number of fights and flame wars in the chatroom and on the forum, resulting in his suspension on more than one occasion, as well as his demotion from Chat Operator. Ralphfan has calmed down noticeably since then, although he was removed from his Awards Committee and 'Shroom Core Staff positions due to rather questionable work ethics. Needless to say, not everyone is on terms with Ralphfan.
Troubles aside, many people still find they can get along with Ralphfan just fine, and many people still interact with him (at least, on the forum — I can't speak for chat) in a perfectly normal manner. Perhaps Ralphfan's most notable feature is his love for sports. Baseball, football, hockey, soccer, basketball; you name it, he likes it and has a team to root for. He's also an avid fan of animated shows, such as Family Guy and The Simpsons. (His username, Ralphfan, is derived from the character, Ralph Wiggum, from The Simpsons.) Ralphfan also digs such things as Harry Potter, Mario, Homestuck, AC/DC, among many, many other things. More people probably have common interests with Ralphfan than they realize.
The Interview
Me: Good day, 'Shroom readers. We're back again this month to perform another interview.
Me: This time, with a very familiar face around the community: Ralphfan!
Me: Say hi to your rabid fans
Ralphfan: Hi guys
Me: Well, then, I guess I should stick with my routine starting questions:
Me: When and how did you find the wiki?
Ralphfan: I found it in October 2008 looking for some images for a school project.
Ralphfan: I joined on November 13, 2008.
Ralphfan: So it's been three years and seven months to the day.
Me: Wow, I didn't realize you'd been here that long already.
Me: You've nearly been around long enough to be considered a retro user :P
Ralphfan: I joined the forums on March 10, 2009 and chat around the same time.
Me: You're a really active member on the forum, too. You have, what, 25,000+ posts?
Me: That's pretty impressive, considering I don't even have 10,000. I think only Smasher has more posts than you.
Ralphfan: I can check ... yeah, 25,192.
Ralphfan: I remember when I used to care so much about that sort of stuff.
Me: Lol, a lot of people used to. I think I even created topics celebrating milestone post counts.
Me: You used to be quite active on the wiki, but in recent years, you're way more active on the forum. Why is that?
Me: I would assume you're like me and prefer chilling out to working too hard. :P
Ralphfan: I haven't really found as much to contribute to the Wiki since I haven't actually been playing a ton of Mario games lately.
Ralphfan: And that too.
Ralphfan: Plus I really like the community here, even with all its drama.
Ralphfan: There's something about this place where no matter how frustrated you get, you always want to come back.
Me: Haha, I know what you mean. Nearly 5 years of drama and I keep coming back for more.
Me: I've also found I have less to contribute to the wiki. There's only so much Mario info one person can provide.
Me: Speaking of Mario games, what are some of your favorites?
Ralphfan: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is by far my favorite.
Me: I believe you're the fourth person I've interviewed who has said that The Thousand-Year Door is their favorite Mario game. I feel like I should start up some secret club for us.
Me: What do you like so much about TTYD?
Ralphfan: I've always liked RPGs and I feel that Nintendo put a ton of work into all the background characters and the locations.
Ralphfan: The backtracking at the Twilight Trail sucked, though.
Me: I died so much at that part during my initial playthrough.
Ralphfan: I didn't die there, but I lost a lot of coins fleeing enemies.
Me: Lol, well, I'm stingy and like to save up coins to buy awesome badges, even if it means death. I even shoot for 999 coins. Mr. Krabs playstyle.
Me: I agree that the characters and locations in TTYD have a lot of care put into them. That's partly why I find the game's atmosphere so easy to get into.
Ralphfan: I also like the Strikers series, Bowser's Inside Story, Super Mario World, and the original Super Mario Galaxy a lot.
Me: Bowser's Inside Story, I own and have played a bit of, but haven't come close to beating yet. I decided to beat Partners in Time beforehand.
Me: Super Mario Galaxy I also haven't played much of, but the level design and music are absolutely great from what I know.
Ralphfan: Super Mario World has to be my next favorite after The Thousand-Year Door.
Ralphfan: In fact, it was the first game I ever played.
Ralphfan: The last Bowser fight was ass. Took me almost 20 tries to beat it.
Ralphfan: I was so bad at throwing the minions at him.
Me: Oh yeah, I remember that one. He was in the clown car and you had to throw Mecha-Koopas at him. That was tough.
Me: Let's see...what are some of your favorite non-Mario games?
Ralphfan: I play Madden, FIFA, NHL and MLB a lot. I'm a big fan of all of those.
Me: I've played some FIFA games on the DS, they're quite fun. The graphcs are really clean too.
Me: Haven't played many other sports games, unless you count NASCAR. I guess it's just not really my thing.
Me: That reminds me, what are your favorite sports? Your favorite teams?
Ralphfan: Well, it's tough to pick a single favorite, but I like just about every major sport. I'd say hockey and baseball are my top two, though.
Ralphfan: My favorite hockey team are the San Jose Sharks, and the Philadelphia Flyers are my second team.
Ralphfan: Baseball, I root for the Oakland Athletics.
Ralphfan: Football, I root for the Baltimore Ravens.
Ralphfan: Soccer, I prefer the US National team and Real Madrid. Other than that I just like seeing a good game, but I'll also root for whoever is facing FC Barcelona and Argentina.
Ralphfan: Basketball, I mostly watch college teams and root for the University of Maryland and University of California.
Ralphfan: They're also my favorite college football teams.
Me: My grandfather used to really like the Ravens. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about those teams to really converse about.
Me: Hm, do you think you could share some interesting facts about those teams? Perhaps some things that makes you like them so much?
Ralphfan: Well since it's baseball season, I can talk about the A's a bit.
Ralphfan: Unlike a lot of teams, you can actually go to a game in Oakland without having to sell an arm, a leg and your soul. It's also one of the few places that hasn't been overrun by bandwagon fans.
Ralphfan: I'd say the lack of a new stadium really helps with that. :P
Ralphfan: They're also the subject of Moneyball, which was a nominee for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Ralphfan: The movie is about how they put together winning teams without money to pay players. There's also a book that was written about their system a few years back.
Ralphfan: The movie is easy to watch even if you're not into baseball, while the book is more for fans who like all the advanced stats.
Me: I've actually been wanting to see Moneyball. Even though I don't watch many sports, I'm very fond of good sports movies.
Me: I forgot it was about the Athletics. It must be cool that your favorite baseball team has a movie based around them.
Ralphfan: Aside from the Sharks and the soccer teams I support, my family has a lot of history in supporting all the teams I listed.
Ralphfan: I'd like to take a quick break from this interview to ask that you all follow Loic on Twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/CanadaLoic
Me: Snap, I remember seeing that Twitter account. I need to follow that. Everyone else should do the same to aid the search for Loic.
Me: Where was he last spotted?
Ralphfan: Somewhere in Canada.
Me: You're a large enough hockey fan to go undercover in Canada and retrieve him. I'm putting you in charge of the Loic-Retrieval Effort.
Ralphfan: I'll be in British Columbia for a few days this summer. I can try something then!
Me: Summer in Canada is a ridiculous concept. Everyone knows it's always cold there!
Me: Let's see, I'll head back around to wiki and forum questions again for a while.
Me: Do you remember who your first friend in the community was?
Ralphfan: Dom was one of the first. I also met you, SMB and Tucky pretty early on.
Me: Dom was a pretty odd guy. Definitely really cool, though. I sort of miss him.
Me: I do remember meeting you when you were pretty new. I think we met when you signed up for Fake News?
Ralphfan: Yeah, I think that's how.
Me: That was the start of a pretty lengthy career for The 'Shroom, too. And then later that year, Wayo appointed you and I to help him with the Awards.
Me: You also had an extended career working with the Awards Committee, and went on to direct some very successful ceremonies.
Me: What was that like?
Ralphfan: The two I directed were as different from each other as imaginable.
Ralphfan: The first year I was directing with you, and that was pretty fun. It was tough when you were busy, and the fact that Wayo, the last director, vanished without giving much guidance made it awfully hard.
Ralphfan: It was still fun, though. We had some bumps in the road... For example, a problem with the polls really reduced vote counts.
Ralphfan: Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to direct, even with all the work that went into it. In fact, I was away the week scripts were due. That made for quite an adventure.
Me: Wayo vanishing was a laughably bad move on his part, but I think it helped in letting the Awards grow out from what Wayo just wanted it to be. We included more awards, tourneys, prizes, and a larger turnout on the forum.
Ralphfan: The 2011 show, I felt, ran a lot smoother. We didn't have too many shitstorms like the year before, we shattered voting records and drew great crowds for the ceremony.
Me: Unfortunatley, I wasn't around to see the 2011 show, but from I have heard and seen, it seemed like a very good show.
Ralphfan: I have a feeling Turb will do even better with this year's show.
Me: I'm very confident Turb will do exceptionally well this year.
Ralphfan: I think my favorite part was hosting the Mafia game last year.
Me: On the subject of Mafia, you're one of the people who's been playing it the longest and the most on the forum.
Me: You've had...a lot of different roles over the years. Which one is your favorite to play that you've gotten so far?
Ralphfan: Hmm...that's tough.
Ralphfan: I like being Godfather a lot, but I also like being Cop or Doctor.
Ralphfan: I remember in Toy Story 3 Mafia I was a really good Godfather. We lost two of our four Mafia members before Day 2, but MG1 and I ran the show from there.
Me: Godfather is such a fun role. It's my second favorite, next to Hypnotist.
Ralphfan: Hypnotist is another cool one, yeah.
Ralphfan: I also really like hosting, and I hope to host another game in the near future.
Me: Your games are usually quite fun. TTYD Mafia was awesome, even if Ninji killed me early on. :P
Ralphfan: Thanks.
Me: No prob.
Ralphfan: Well, the first version was great until BluePikminKong fucked it up.
Ralphfan: We had 300 posts on Day 1. Well, 240 if you want to be more precise.
Ralphfan: Anyway, I like the games where everyone gets really into it.
Me: Same here. It's rare to find, but those are always the best games. Lots of info to be scrutinized in people's posts, suspicions run ultra high...my kind of Mafia game.
Me: Do you have any set themes or gimmicks for your next game?
Ralphfan: Well, I have some ideas for some funny roles, but some of the value would be lost in revealing those now.
Me: Understandable. Revealing roles before the game can take a lot of fun out of things. Good to know you're already working on ideas, though. I bet it'll be a fun game.
Ralphfan: It'll probably happen sometime in the fall because I'm going to be away a lot this summer.
Ralphfan: Summer is usually a good time to host because people can be more active, but you also have a few people that are away for extended periods of time that can't play.
Me: Yeah, that latter part is always something to be wary of when starting sign-ups before summer. Most of my games were in the summer and encountered similar problems.
Me: So...what would you say is your proudest accomplishment around the community? It can be anything.
Ralphfan: I guess the award shows. People seemed to like those a lot.
Ralphfan: We were also on time in both of them.
Me: I agree, the scheduling was pretty spot-on.
Ralphfan: I was a real hard-ass about it, but it worked.
Me: Sometimes that's what it takes. :P
Me: Considering you were in charge of multiple shows, I think that's something to be very proud of, especially given the turnout.
Ralphfan: It's nothing, really ...
Ralphfan: ok it's actually quite an accomplishment
Me: yes
Me: you will be showered with gold dubloons and autographed stanley cups later in life for your grand efforts
Me: ...I better roll out my last handful of questions.
Me: This question will be mandatory as long as I'm in charge of interviews, so how about it: What kind of music do you like?
Ralphfan: I like just about any type of rock or metal, and I also like R&B a little. Soundtrack music can be pretty good, too.
Me: Sweet, rock and metal are always welcome. There's some really good R&B out there too.
Me: Might you have any recommendations?
Ralphfan: Well I've been recommending "When It Snows" to people but you already know that quite well, obviously. :P
Me: Nope, I have absolutely no idea who that is because I, in no way, composed and recorded that song. No sirree.
Ralphfan: I also like some dubstep because it's perfectly ok in dubstep to randomly yell "YES, OH MY GOD" or "CALL 911 NOW".
Me: Lol. I have hardly listened to any dubstep, but that sounds pretty funny.
Me: For some reason, those rather random phrases reminded me of something I meant to ask you earlier.
Me: Family Guy or The Simpsons?
Ralphfan: Family Guy. I love them both, though.
Me: I expected Simpsons to be your answer, because of your namesake. Pretty interesting. Who's your favorite Family Guy character?
Ralphfan: Another minor character: Ollie Williams.
Ralphfan: "IT'S RAINING SIDEWAYS"
Me: Sounds like "SPACE WEATHER" to me
Ralphfan: "SWIMMING HOLE"
Me: "Oh, he gon' get it."
The wild Stooben and domesticated Ralphman then ended their travail of invoking comedic material to spruce up their dialogue. Stopping after only a handful of efforts, they then proceeded to regain their dignity.
Me: Ahem...so what are some hobbies you have offline?
Ralphfan: Well, I work as an umpire for a local youth baseball league and I'm involved in a Boy Scout troop.
Me: Very nice! You must like the outdoors a lot.
Me: I bet being an umpire is pretty exciting during a game.
Ralphfan: It is, especially with the older kids when the plays are a lot closer.
Me: Sounds like you've got a pretty sweet gig.
Me: What's it like where you live?
Ralphfan: Well everything costs more here, but that's because the weather is included in the cost.
Ralphfan: At least, that's what I'm told.
Ralphfan: Right now it's in the high 60s [Fahrenheit] and sunny.
Me: Sounds just about perfect to me. No wonder you like being outside so much.
Me: We usually have very nice temperatures here, but it sometimes randomly hails or rains for five minutes at a time.
Me: The summers are hot as hell, tho.
Ralphfan: Yeah, our definition of really hot is usually 85°. Although, out around Sacramento it's routinely 95° in the summer
Me: Yeah, 95* is about average here in the summer.
Me: No summer is complete without one food, tho: Burgers.
Me: Who do you think has the best burgers?
Ralphfan: Of large chains, In-N-Out and Five Guys.
Me: We don't have In-N-Out out here, but I hear they're the shit.
Me: A Five Guys just opened up down the street earlier this year. I will try one of their burgers next time I'm down that way.
Ralphfan: In-N-Out is like Five Guys with fewer menu options but much lower prices.
Ralphfan: Both are good quality. Five Guys is really expensive, though.
Me: Well, then I hope it's a really good burger!
Me: Aaaannnd, I've kept you here for too long already. I need to wrap things up.
Me: So...is this the final question?
Ralphfan: Hmm...I prepared for this question but I'm still not too sure.
Ralphfan: I'm gonna go with yes, though.
Me: HA! Well, you would be WRO—
Me: wait a second
Me: Aw man, it is the last question. :(
Me: You've figured me out....now I have to get you a prize or something.
Ralphfan: A pony would be nice.
Me: With a hockey puck cutie mark?
Ralphfan: Lol yes.
Me: I will have that shipped to you soon.
Me: Well, I guess this is goodbye... Will I ever see you again?
Ralphfan: Someday, in the stars.
Me: I guess that will have to do.
Me: Say bye to your fans!
Ralphfan: My Ralphfanfans?
Me: Yes, lol, that's perfect.
Ralphfan: Bye!
In Closing
Ralph is a pretty interesting guy. Though he's made quite a few enemies due to his sporadic behavior and "hardass" methods, Ralphfan tries to improve his ways, as well as amend problems, in some cases. I've never known him to run from his problems, but I can't deny that there are many cases in which problems that's he's a part of aren't fixed. But as long as you learn something from your mistakes, it can end up being worth it. Although this hasn't been a particularly good year for Ralphfan or his efforts, he hasn't ran from the community or the people that took action. I think it's entirely possible that he'll turn around again soon and do something to impress people, something that will earn him a second chance with a lot of people. He's done it before, I don't see why he can't do it again.
In layman's terms, this.
That'll be it for this month's installment. Thanks for reading, and tune back in next month!
What's up, Brawlers? FunkyK here with this month's issue of Brawl Tactics!
This month, I will be covering the Legend of Zelda stage Bridge of Eldin!
This stage succumbs to the same curse as Temple in Melee: they are both huge stages. Bridge of Eldin is not nearly as massive as Temple is, but it's one of the bigger stages introduced in Brawl.
Let's talk about the size first. This stage is just one flat bridge. You would think that this would make it easier, since there are no moving platforms, no upper or lower levels, no hidden areas, easy, right? Well, not always. If you are an avid two-player brawler, you shouldn't have much trouble with this. It's when you expand to three- to four-player brawls that this becomes a problem. I am talking about the camera positioning. The camera is set so that whenever someone moves away from the center, it will pan out so that person will never go off-camera. This makes the stage seem much bigger, and with the bigger stage, you will get more air-space between the ground and KO height at the top. Basically, when you launch your opponents, you will either need the force of an Electrode explosion or the launch power of a bumper. Most of the time, when you send your opponent flying, they will go up in an arc and come back down on the other side of the bridge, if they've manipulated it well, thus giving them time to recover and forcing you to run all the way across the darn thing to get them. The camera positioning not only hinders vertical KOs, it also makes it hard to see what you are doing. When the fighters are at either end of the stage, the camera will stay panned out, and small items like Deku Nuts, Screw Attacks, and Franklin Badges will be lost until it's too late, as well as making it nearly impossible to identify poisonous Mushrooms without hitting the camera function and zooming in, which can ruin your plan entirely. Items also fall on the far sides often, so you will have to run all over the place to get to them when the middle is gone, but more about that later. If you have vision problems, like I do, you might have a hard time keeping up with the action when the camera is this far away.
Now, on to the positives for this stage's size! It seems like this is the perfect stage for a certain type of Final Smash- that's right, the straight-shot. All four of the LoZ characters have one of these, as well as Marth, Mario, and Samus. The straight shot is perfect for a Zero Laser, and the length of the bridge will keep Marth from getting a KO, unless you use his right at the edge of the sides. Ganondorf has the best advantage here. Beast Ganon has a HUGE range, and dragging your opponent over that much of the stage will do a lot of damage, as well as pulling in anyone who might have escaped at the beginning. This stage is also good for characters like Snake, where you have to aim at your opponent. The lack of any other ledges helps to keep your opponent in one place. Really, only a few characters get the short end of the stick here, like Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Jigglypuff. When your Final Smash is stuck at one end of the stage, your opponents will be laughing at you from the other side. Try to draw them in close, then surprise them. Besides the Final Smash pluses, this stage has pretty short sides compared to its height. You might find it easier to just lauch your opponent off the side, as I do, and it works when the camera is fully panned out.
After that, you might think this is just a lame bridge, if you've never played on it before. But experienced Brawlers and LoZ players know that this is not the case. I speak, of course, of King Bulbin and Lord Bulbo. After about a minute into your brawl, more or less, they will charge onto the stage, full-force, and drop a bomb right in the middle of it. You will know when he's coming. If you miss the war horn and the rumbling, the camera will pan out to look at whatever direction he's coming from, unless you are already standing on that side of the stage. You'll want to watch out for him, too. If you're in his path, he will run you over. You have to jump over Lord Bulbo and hit King Bulbin so he falls back. Until he gets up, he won't do any more damage to the other players. But he will drop the bomb regardless of when you hit him. You don't have very long with the thing, so I suggest evacuating as soon as possible. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage when it explodes, but the force will launch you right to the sides, and if you've got about 50% damage, you will get KO'ed. If you can trap your opponents near the bomb before it explodes, you should be good to go.
So you now have to deal with a huge hole in the middle of the stage. This forces the battle to be fought on either side, which can get annoying with the camera situation. If your opponent runs around a lot, you will have a lot of chasing to do to get at them. I would suggest that you avoid trying to cross over the hole if you are using a bigger character such as Bowser, and definitely if you are using an Up Special that can send you plummeting to your death, like Ike or Kirby. This can get especially tricky when the Smash Ball comes out. It will take its sweet time moving from side to side, and characters who enjoy an extra couple of jumps will get the advantage when it's stuck in the middle. When it comes to this, you will just have to wait it out for a Twilight Portal to put everything back together again.
Well, that's all for me this month, Brawlers! Hope this inspires you to cross a few bridges, and maybe win a match or two! See you next month on BRAWL TACTICS!
| Prototype 2 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Developer | Radical Entertainment | ||||||
| Publisher | Activision | ||||||
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, XBox 360 | ||||||
| Genres | Action, sandbox | ||||||
| Rating(s) |
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| Available From | |||||||
- Mature
- Eighteen years and older
- Fifteen years and olderIt seems Activision have a very skewered image of what Special Forces divisions are actually supposed to do in times of national crisis; maybe I'm just ignorant, but it seems to me that any government-funded U.S. military branch, no matter how super special secret and privileged, would want to limit civilian casualties as much as possible regardless of the circumstances surrounding the disaster less they be charged for war crimes, at least when good ol' fashioned American civilians are concerned. In Prototype, they try really, really hard to paint the U.S. military as complete amoral assholes dedicated to the oppression and genocide of anyone without a gun taped to their pelvis, to the point where 'cartoonishly evil' doesn't even come close to cutting it; but then, no sane government would fund a bioweapons project capable of turning any odd person on the streets into immortal god-like killing machines with their free will still in-tact, so I guess we can pin all this down to the storywriters being completely pissed.
So for those of you not in the know, Prototype was a supervillain sandbox with an interesting premise that failed to elevate anywhere beyond being a simple murder frenzy – a very fun one, mind. It was frequently compared to another supervillain sandbox released around the same time titled inFamous, but I've always felt more of an affinity towards the scruffy-voiced walking tesla coil due to better narrative and coherent characterization, two very important facets Prototype sorely lacked. As nonsensical as the morals choice system was in inFamous, it at least gave Cole McGrath some semblance of consistency with his personality, whereas Prototype dedicates many of its cutscenes and dialogue into depicting the protagonist as a misunderstood, semi-benevolent good guy forced to do bad things for the greater good, despite gameplay allowing you to slaughter thousands of innocent civilians with little consequences for no better reason than it being hilarious. Lo and behold, the sequel is more of that and then some!
It's been fourteen months since the virus outbreak in the first game and Manhattan's looking pretty good for a city left in absolute shambles but who cares about consistency, am I right? We get to step into the shoes of a new walking biohazard named James Heller, a grumpy soldier with hilariously inappropriate "smack talk", who sets out to take vengeance on the protagonist of the original game, Alex Mercer, for unleashing the virus in the first place thus inadvertently killing his wife and child. But things don't go so well when Mercer infects Heller thus granting him Mercer's abilities, all part of his grand plan to spread the virus and create a new race of "Evolved" beings. Of course Heller doesn't go along with Mercer's ambitions and instead uses his powers to fuck everything up, a lesson to all omnivorous viral supervillains to not give god-like powers to people that hate your guts.
Not that the plot made any sort of sense to begin with, resembling a jumbled conspiracy wall more than anything else. It's never really explained how they managed to stop the first outbreak or how the second outbreak managed to occur, and I fail to see the purpose behind Mercer enlisting selected Blackwatch and Gentek bigwigs as his mutated subordinates to get intelligence and tear the organizations down "peacefully" from the inside when he's depicted as a laughably evil cartoon villain; he doesn’t even need their help, considering he's basically a god. This makes the entire goal of killing Mercer even more ridiculous, conveniently ignoring the big twist in the last game that he was really the virus itself all along and not just an infected human, even showing at the climax that he can restore himself so long as there's some semblance of the virus still left. And there's still the matter of Heller's moral indignation; effort is put into characterizing him as more sympathetic and benevolent to the squishy mortals than Mercer was, but when he's throwing buses at civilians left and right it comes across as very insincere and like he has split personality disorder or something, which is just as well because everything else in this bloody game is schizo as well. There's one overblown scene where he prepares to kill the Blackwatch colonel once and for all to find out the whereabouts of his daughter (who turns out to be alive, by the way), but decides to spare him upon overhearing that he has a wife and daughter whom he hopes to return to when the New York crisis is over; what about the families of the seven hundred thousand soldiers you killed to get to this colonel, you hypocritical fucking prick? I don't think "they didn't call you while I was readying myself to disembowel them alive and eat them cell by cell, so I didn't know" would ease their mourning.
The story just really bugged me in particular because so much of the gameplay is just fluff, having not really changed much from the original. The difference between Heller and Mercer is purely cosmetic, as you still run and glide around a large sandbox to reach the marked objective on your mini-map – killing everything along the way – and spend those missions either infiltrating military bases, slaughtering them and their infected experiments, or some combination of both. Say what you want about inFamous 2's lack of gameplay evolution, at least there was a whole new well of powers to use; Prototype 2 instead settles for slightly tweaked versions of the powers from the original game, the only glaring innovation being that they've introduced a grand total of one new power-up! Save some ideas for the next game, mates! Your friend could swap out the disc for Prototype 1 while you weren't looking and you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, except that the combat all of a sudden feels right.
See, while nothing has really been added, I wouldn't dismiss the game as having no amount of fresh appeal because the developers have significantly improved the flow of combat; I especially like how you can now equip two powers at a time as primary and secondary attacks rather than having to manually switch between each power amidst a swarm of armoured tanks and ravenous mutants. New abilities are granted to you only gradually as the game progresses rather than all being piled on you within the first quarter, so unlike the original I found myself actually using all the attacks instead of just the overpowered Whipfist technique, which in this is granted to you only very, very late in the game. Even travelling feels smooth and natural, even better when you glide above a group of pasty scientists and come crashing down on them with giant hammer fists to give new meaning to the phrase "hammer time". And while not a particularly useful bonus skill, being able to plant a "BioBomb" in an unsuspecting soldier and watching him scream in terror as he explodes into a mess of tendrils killing everyone around him is more entertaining to me than my sanity really should allow.
The upgrade system has had somewhat of a makeover, certainly for the better; rather than manually upgrading powers at your own leisure a la God of War, now experience gained from completing missions, eating important personnel, or just killing people indiscriminately is automatically pooled into a single level up bar so Heller can evolve and gain new skills of your choosing like Pokèmon for sociopaths. It feels more balanced and like the developers actually cared to put some order into the disorganized nightmare that was the first game's skills menu; you even upgrade your powers by actually using them, I can't believe they didn't do that in the first place. What is still a bother are the side missions, which continue to maintain the issue of resembling tedious mini games rather than legitimate add-ons to the story, which is annoying because completing these missions are the only ways to get the optional stats bonuses. I question the training regimen of Blackwatch when their soldiers simply stand around in patterns waiting for Heller to come crashing down on them like he's playing supervillain bowling. Some of the rewards get really obtuse, too; how the fuck does racing across the rooftops to pick up intel improve Heller's defensive qualities?
But really, I'm nitpicking at this point; there's still a tremendous amount of sandbox fun to be had from latching on to a helicopter five yards away, hijacking it, and then shooting all the squishy soldiers on the ground before they realise what the fuck. I've said before in my Skyward Sword review that I don't mind developers making a largely similar sequel so long as it's used to correct all the bad design choices from the first game, and while there was certainly more Prototype 2 could've done to differentiate itself from its predecessor, I'll still give it a thumbs up for at least being more refined, balanced and flowing a bit nicer. If the game just had more to show for its three year development, took itself a little less seriously, and tried to make the story actually make some degree of sense, then I might've touted it as one of the best games of the year, but like its predecessor it fails to elevate anywhere beyond being an unintentionally hilarious if not mildly annoying murder playground. But you know, maybe that's enough these days; I'm sure I would've felt more engaged in Modern Warfare 3 if they gave me the option to drop the SMG and just start throwing tanks at perpetually screaming Russians.
'Shroom Mafia II
Hello there everyone! That was an exciting game! 'Shroom Mafia II just ended over at the forums, and it was fun! Here's the game thread, if you missed it. There is still discussion going on in the lounge if you want to participate.
The game begun with the innocents losing some key roles, like the reviver and rolecop. A clever conversion by the mafia then effectively eliminated the entire mason party. Tucayo figured out who the convert was and vigged them. After that, Bop1996 and Yoshi123 used their cop powers (daylight and insane cops, respectively) to try to uncover mafia. They uncovered Superchao, then Quizmo. After Quizmo's death, St00ben cleverly deduced that the Godfather was Packy and vigged him and then, due to a lucky shot in the dark, the innocents managed to lynch Superchao.
The MVPs of the game were Packy and Becky (for the mafia), Tucayo, Bop and Yoshi123 (for the innocents), Mario4Ever (for the third party) and Stooben (because he's awesome and has his own party). However, overall, if I had to pick a game MVP, I would pick Yoshi123. Yoshi123, Bop and Tucky all worked very well towards eliminating the mafia, however Yoshi123 did the entire thing with the handicap of being an insane cop. So I'd consider him to be the overall MVP.
Lucky for you guys, I managed to get some answers out of four of those elitist mvps (not really, but they did answer a few questions) which I will now share with you.
Question: Overall, how do you think this game turned out?
Tucayo: Pretty good. It was fun, but it would've worked better if more players were active
Bop1996: Fairly well, even if the mafia beyond Blocky and Quizmo didn't seem to put up much of a fight, and killed me waaaaaaaaaay later than I should have been killed.
Palkia47: I think it turned out really well. It was really fun.
Yoshi123: I feel this game turned out really well.
Question: How well do you think you did in this game?
Bop1996: I think I did fine, although I definitely could have done better. I did catch Quizmo and Blocky, and helping Timmy understand his insanity was very helpful in the end, but I could definitely use some practice at scumhunting since I haven't survived until the end as innocent a whole lot still.
Tucayo: Heh, I'd like to think I did great. At least I didn't kill any innocents (or did I?) and I killed Becky, so I guess I contributed importantly to the game's outcome.
Yoshi123: I think I did pretty well, but only because I was the cop. XD I honestly was expecting to have a "Got overly excited when Smasher showed up as mafia." for a negative.
Palkia47: I guess I did okay... I regret being inactive around the first part of the game (I was nervous about being the godfather), and I got screwed over by Quizmo. So... I could have done better.
Question: Did you have any sort of strategy going on at any point in the game, or were you just playing it by ear?
Tucayo: It was mostly random voting/voting the inactives, except for those times we actually had a lead. Oh, and I successfully guessed Becky was the convert.
Palkia47: I didn't specifically have any strategy. Just the usual that most mafia members do - try to act like an innocent and see where it goes from there. I don't know if it would have worked any longer because of Quizmo, but... oh well.
Yoshi123: Nah, I didn't exactly have a strategy, but then when I learned that I was insane I had to change things up a bit. =P
Bop1996: My strategy was to get inside your mind figure out who you'd assign mafia roles to and check them before they checked me.
Question: If you could change one thing that happened, what would it be?
Yoshi123: I'd change the part where I became all excited when Smasher showed up as leading staff but he actually wasn't.
Bop1996: I would have bought five spotlights instead of two that night that Zeuzio visited me.
Palkia47: Should have killed one of the bigger threats in the game instead of some other people - should have killed people like Stooben and Tucayo.
Tucayo: I would have let Tucayo live. Or at least die last.
Question: Were there any major flaws that you noticed with the game?
Tucayo: Not really a major fault, but I would have liked the stories to have continuity. I wanted to see if the revolution failed. Oh, and I would've liked to have some sort of resistance, instead of everyone following the bandwagons. It made us win, yes, but it could have been more interesting.
Palkia47: I don't think there were any major flaws, just the inactivity sucked some of the fun away from it...
Yoshi123: Hm, I guess that the player list was lacking proper info and didn't get updated on the right days.
Bop1996: Inactive mafia, which wasn't really a host problem. Also, Crash wasn't' the mafia roleblocker, but that's a minor issue.
Question: Do you have any suggestions to pass on to other mafia players, from your experiences in this game?
Palkia47: Never. Trust. Quizmo. >:( Nah, just do better than we did - that's probably the most blatantly obvious advice I can give.
Yoshi123: If you're a cop, always do more checks and don't get too excited if one of your early results is a mafia. You could be an insane cop!
Bop1996: Sometimes, psychology helps almost as much as logic.
Tucayo: Always try to lead the innocents. If someone else is leading and you are mafia, kill him or get him killed. If you are innocents, simply confirm his innocence.
Question: Any other comments?
Palkia47: Just like to say thank you, MG1, for letting me participate in the 'Shroom Mafia. I really, really appreciate it. Sorry that I was rather inactive for part of the game.
Tucayo: Last mafia game was a flop, so major props to MG for making this game so good and choosing a great theme. And thanks to everyone who played!
Yoshi123: Was a great game and had fun! ^____^ And HELL YEAH MVP
- “For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.”
- —Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Hello everybody. I would like to once again welcome you to another issue of the ’Shroom, and another “A History of Video Games” article. I am your host, Toad85.
We shall now return to the year 1985. As you all know, the console market in the United States was pretty much dead, thanks to the Video Game Crash of 1983. Atari was in the red, Mattel and Coleco had already evacuated the industry, and game developers were disbanding one by one. It was pretty dismal, especially considering how the video game market had previously been one of the fastest growing in the United States. Gamers began to do things other than play Atari or Intellivision; for example, there was this newfangled craze called “reading”.
But in Japan, game companies were alive and well. Granted, the Crash had taken its toll on the console aspect of the industry (there were no Japanese console manufacturers at the time), but Japanese kids kept on pushing their yen into arcade machines and handhelds. And what company was at the center of Japan’s market?
Take a wild effing guess.
Who else?
This, my eighth ‘Shroom article, is about Nintendo’s foray into the worldwide console market. Namely, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
PART FIVE: NOW YOU’RE PLAYING WITH POWER! TOASTER POWER!
As I’ve said I don’t know how many times, 1983 was not a good year to be a game developer or console creator in the US. But, as I just said above, it was a good time to be one in Japan. And Nintendo was the front-runner, off of the successes of Donkey Kong and the Game & Watch.
I will now briefly talk about the Game & Watch, partly because I feel like going off on a tangent and also because it’s better to explain now than never. Game & Watches were small LCD-screen portable games produced by Nintendo shortly before Donkey Kong hit it big. Each individual device held its own game; if you wanted to play another Game & Watch game, you had to buy a whole ‘nother system. Luckily, they were pretty cheap, so it’s not quite analogous to having to buy a frigging new 3DS every time you wanted to switch from Super Mario 3D Land to Star Fox 64 3D. That would be just plain annoying. Still, it’s interesting to think that Nintendo was in the portable game market before the console market.
But by far their biggest success was ironically released the same year the industry in the States crashed. The Family Computer, often referred to as the “FamiCom,” was not only received extremely well by reviewers, it sold millions and millions of units. Critics loved the extremely advanced graphics and innovative d-pad, but by far the FamiCom’s greatest asset was its game library. Sporting such classics like Donkey Kong, Excitebike, and Mario Bros., the FamiCom captured Japan’s imagination. After two years of watching FamiCom boxes move off of store shelves in Japan, Nintendo decided the time was ripe to introduce its masterpiece of a console to the world.
Nintendo’s salespeople obviously had its work cut out for them. Any sane person would consider an attempt to bring a game console from Japan over to the United States, where the last thing on anyone’s mind was gaming thanks to Atari’s foolishness, an illogical and fatal move. But Nintendo ignored logic and pressed on. Nintendo was determined that their console would be loved by gamers around the world, especially in the Crash-stricken USA, and pressed on.
But while Nintendo desperately wanted to sell the FamiCom in the USA, they were sane enough to realize that trying to market a game system in the Americas would lead to blank stares from consumers. The solution? Market the FamiCom as an entertainment system; as a personal computer, not a console.
Nintendo’s first draft for the international FamiCom was unveiled in 1984, and was dubbed the “Advanced Video System,” or as I call it, the “Aivsuh”. The Aivsuh was designed by Nintendo employee Lance Barr, and was to be seen as a full-on computer. Not only did it have wireless controllers, it sported a keyboard, zapper gun, cassette player, and even a piano keyboard. No, I’m serious; the Aivsuh almost had gamers playing piano. The Aivsuh dropped the Famicom’s family-friendly Pokèball color scheme and went with a futuristic grey look. Needless to say, all these surplus gadgets, plus the many structural similarities to systems like the Intellivision and Atari 5200, no doubt turned retailers off, as evidenced by the fact that none bought any. Barr went back to the drawing board and started working on Plan B.
President of Nintendo of America Minoru Arakawa sent Barr a new design for the American FamiCom. Arakawa decided to keep the “entertainment system” idea, but instead of marketing the FamiCom as a high-end computer, they would take the toy route. The FamiCom, now dubbed the “Nintendo Entertainment System”, would now be a drab rectangular box designed by Barr in just one hour. The controllers would once again be wired, but could be removed from the system. Both keyboards were dropped, as well as the cassette player, but the zapper gun remained. The major selling point this time around was this little bro:
This little something to my left is called a “Robotic Operating Buddy” or “R.O.B.” for short. The idea was that R.O.B. would be advertised as the central piece of the NES; the top toy in the box. The petite plastic pal could, put plainly, play with you. No, it seriously could; if you owned either Gyromite or Stack Up, R.O.B. can assist you during gameplay by messing with the little circular blocks seen in the picture. It was a pretty innovative concept, and it’s unlikely to be repeated.
Another thing that set the NES apart from older systems like the Atari 2600 and the Colecovision developed with the controller. See, a staple of video game consoles and arcade games before the NES was the joystick. The joystick was pretty much the representation of a video game’s controls; move the joystick, move the playable character around. The NES, though featured something that we today call a d-pad. While fairly common in Japan, these buttons had never been seen before in America. Not only did this help the NES lose any sort of connection to consoles of the past, it presented gamers with a new challenge. To master a game, you now had to master the d-pad. It was a bizarre, clumsy, yet strangely comfortable way to play when it first came on the scene.
As a final move, Nintendo of America proposed a distribution deal with Atari. Nintendo’s idea was that, since Atari was a household name and knew how to move boxes, the NES would get a quicker start via a partnership with them. However, Atari turned down the offer at the last minute, after seeing Coleco demonstrate a port of Donkey Kong for the ColecoVision. Atari believed that Nintendo was also in cahoots with Coleco (which they were not), and didn’t want to deal with a third party.
Nintendo decided to go it alone, and test-drive the NES in the New York area. President of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi resolved that if the NES could succeed in such a large and varied metropolitan area, it could succeed anywhere. If it was a flop, then no export for you.
In order to attract retailers for their New York experiment, Nintendo offered a win-win situation: if the NES was a success, the retailers would get gobs of money and wouldn’t have to pay Nintendo back until the end of the year. If it was a flop, like the experts predicted, then Nintendo would buy back any NES’s that remained unsold. By October 18, 1985, Nintendo had attracted about 500 retailers in the New York area. This includes world-famous toy store FAO Schwartz, land of the floor piano. The original shipment consisted of 50,000 NES consoles.
The public was wary of the NES, as was predicted, but the system’s toyish appearance and strong lineup of games convinced many parents to buy. In fact, one of the pack-in titles was a now-well-known title created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto himself: a sequel to the popular arcade title, Mario Bros., entitled Super Mario Bros. The game was bright and cheery, and with so many old Atari and Intellivision gamers not used to full side-scrolling, it was pretty revolutionary as well. No doubt this pack-in game convinced a lot of consumers to purchase the NES.
Nintendo wasn’t able to sell all of their consoles, but did well enough to keep pushing the U.S. market. In early 1986, Nintendo came to the Los Angeles market, and then Chicago, and then San Francisco, and by the end of the year, the NES had gone nationwide. NES’s were flying off the shelves, several games had already sold a million units, and had taken a nation by storm. By 1987, 5,400,000 units had sold.
Of course, you can’t have a good healthy game lineup without some third-party games. And Nintendo, unlike Atari, was completely open to the idea of third-party developers. However, Nintendo had a few rules that third-party developers had to follow:
- Third-party developers can only make 5 games per year, to avoid saturating the market.
- If you make games for Nintendo, you can’t jump ship and make games for another console, like the Atari 2600 or Sega Master System.
- No extensive blood, gore, sexual content, or religious messages.
- All cartridges would be made by Nintendo. Nintendo added a lock-out chip to their cartridges to make sure only their cartridges would work on the NES.
Of course some companies, like Tengen and Wisdom Tree, attempted to bypass Nintendo’s rules, but for the most part developers acquiesced to Nintendo’s rules. Designers like Konami and Capcom were given Nintendo’s “stamp of approval” for their games.
By 1988, Nintendo had sold 9.4 million NES’s, and was becoming a dominant force in the marketplace. In fact, it was the dominant force; with Mattel gone, Atari failing every time they do anything and Sega still relatively obscure, Nintendo almost had a monopoly. But that didn’t mean they had no competition. Sega’s Master System still sold reasonably well, and Tengen unsuccessfully attempted to sue Nintendo about Nintendo’s lockout chip after they grew bored of making games for the 7800. In 1990, Nintendo sued a small company named Comerica over their nifty little invention: the Game Genie. Again, though, the small company won. Still, though, Nintendo found 90% of the gaming market by the end of the decade.
OK, that’s enough writing for this month. Tune in next time where we’ll discuss the history of some of the NES’s more famous games and third-party companies. I’ll be taking suggestions if you want me to confer about a particular NES-era game or company; just PM me on the Forums. I’ll try to find as much as I can about your requested game; plus I have some I’ll do without prompting.
Also congrats to me for writing my longest article yet. According to Word, I have 1,938 words and 9,572 characters.
I’m Toad85, your local video game historian, and that’s the way it was.
Hello there my wonderful people! Last month I reviewed our favourite bird, Fluzzard so I thought I'd change it up this month and review a very famous fish. Big Bertha? Naw, too mainstream. I pick Boss Bass
Storyline
Is there supposed to be some storyline behind Boss Bass? I went around researching for this section to find a storyline and the closest thing I found was "they apparently eat others of their species".
Design
I don't really like Nintendo's SM64-era design policy, which was basically "make it big, call it a boss". It left a lot to be desired, as does the design of Boss Bass. As with the other designs, the severe lack of distinguishing features turns me off of the design.
Humour
I think Boss Bass is supposed to have a goofy facial expression but I don't really get it...
Potential
As much as I absolutely adore Boss Bass (he's lying!), I'm going to have to say that I can't see him amounting to anything more than an obstacle, at most a mid-boss. The lack of any distinguishing features or personality just doesn't make him boss material (despite any misconceptions given by his name).
Used Potential
Well, I guess this is something that can score high. Nintendo used all the potential they could out of this guy. I guess my only gripe here would be that he's a pretty rare obstacle.
Total
I never thought I'd see the day when something scored less than Fluzzard did, but Boss Bass hits the spot. Perhaps if I had reviewed Big Bertha it would have gone better...? Regardless, Boss Bass is too much of a Cheep Cheep to get a high score, and gets 4/10. I promise, next month I'll go for a positive review.
| Character | Who? | Storyline | Design | Humour | Potential | Used Potential | Overall |
| Fluzzard |  |
7/10 | 4/10 | 5/10 | 6/10 | 3/10 | 5/10 |
| Boss Bass | |
4/10 | 2/10 | 2/10 | 4/10 | 8/10 | 4/10 |
| Lava Piranha |  |
8/10 | 6/10 | 5/10 | 8/10 | 6/10 | 7/10 |
The Hint Block with a face is native to the Yoshi series. Anyone who has ever played a Yoshi game will never forget them. They are jovial white blocks with faces that continued the spirit of the faceless message blocks of Super Mario World. They appear in Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, and Yoshi's Island DS. Only in Yoshi's Story do their mouths ceaselessly move. They have a cameo in the original Super Smash Bros., appearing in the Yoshi's Island stage. Sadly, future games in the series failed to give them recognition in the form of Trophies or Stickers.
Powers & Abilities
None, other than the uncanny ability to lend a hand to good ol' Yoshi. They have the power to magically float unsuspended in the air, but that is certainly not an uncommon ability for animate blocks in Mario's world, let alone animate ones such as the Hint Blocks.
Personality/Traits
They are very knowledgeable and informed of Yoshi's surroundings. "RUN AWAY!!! HURRY!!!” may be one of their most famous quotes, warning Yoshi of Tap-Tap the Golden. They can also tend to be poetic. Let us take Pak E. Derm's Hint Block for example: "Pak E. Derm will not let you by, unless you give something special a try." Of course, as you know, the Hint Block was cueing Yoshi to perform a Ground Pound to knock Pak E. off his feet. Nintendo has not seemed to have forgotten Pak E. over the years, featuring him in the Smash Bros. series in Trophies and Stickers.
The Bill Board signpost first came into being in Super Mario 64, but it was not until Super Mario Galaxy that Miyamoto breathed new life into them and gave them personality and become sentient. Though they do not have a mouth, they can speak. But since they were not sentient in Mario 64, it is unknown who wrote the message on them. One noteworthy non-sentient sign in Mario 64 said: "It Is Decreed That One Shall Pound The Pillars."
Powers & Abilities
Well, they are signposts who can speak (at least since Galaxy). They also give Mario useful advice/tips. What wondrous things one will see in the Marioverse so oft taken for granted such as these.
Personality & Traits
Starting with Galaxy, the signposts develop personality. There are four kinds, all with real first names that rhyme with "Bill" including Bill (which is incidentally itself a real nickname for "William"). You have the verbose Gil Board, who refers to himself as "The famous Gil Board". There's also regular Bill Board, who notably shows Mario how to roll on top of the Star Ball. Phil Board teaches Mario how to move in a bubble, and Jill Board, the only female (???) signpost, who informs Mario how to control Boo Mario.
Winner
Hands down (even though he doesn't have any) Hint Block. He is unique, he is funny, he is unforgettable, poetic, charming, and he has a face.
Poll Committee Chairperson Election
Sunday, 23 May 2010, a proposal concerning several changes in our current Main Page was accepted by the community and passed. This proposal can be viewed here.
One point this proposal addressed was the creation of a Poll committee, a selected group of users to create and select polls to feature on the Main Page. The members of this committee are meant to be selected by a person in charge of the committee, the Poll Committee Chairperson, who shall be elected by the community. The second annual Poll Committee Chairperson Election is taking place here.
What does the Chairperson do?
As the person in charge of the Poll Committee, the Chairperson holds several responsibilities. The essential obligations of the Chairperson are listed below.
The Poll Committee Chairperson...
- ...needs to select six users who will, together with the Chairperson, form the Poll Committee. These six users should be trusted members of the community.
- ...needs to select one of these six users to be their surrogate. The surrogate will replace the Chairperson in case they are not able to hold their position anymore.
- ...should suggest, discuss, and vote on polls in a sub-forum exclusively for the Poll Committee. These polls should be appropriate and not be detrimental for the Mario Wiki's reputation. A forum account is required for the position of the Chairperson, as well as for every other member of the committee.
- ...should be active. They should be able to cast a vote every two weeks. If a decision cannot be made, the Chairperson holds the right to abstain from voting (the committee needs to be informed of this abstain however). Repeated failure to cast a vote or abstain might result in a loss of the chair position.
- ...holds the right to suggest the dismissal of a certain committee member if said member does not uphold their responsibilities properly. A vote among all committee members will then commence. If three other members agree with the suggestion, the member in question will be dismissed. The Chairperson then has to select another user to take their place.
- ...will keep their position for one year, provided that nothing out of the ordinary happens. After that period, a new Chairperson will be elected. The old Chairperson holds the right to attend this election as a candidate once again and thus has the chance to be elected for another year.
If you think you might be a suitable candidate for this position, you can enter this election as a candidate.
How do I become a Chairperson?
To become the Poll Committee's Chairperson, you need to be elected by the Mario Wiki Community. For this matter, you can campaign in the election below. You can join the election as a candidate at any time, except if the election reaches Overtime. If you are interested, follow these steps to nominate yourself:
===Your Name=== Your reason why you should become the Chairperson ====Votes====
- You can enter the election by filling out this form and posting it below. New campaigns go to the bottom of the page.
- In the past two Poll Chairperson elections, listing the Vice-Chairperson pick as the runningmate in a campaign has been the standard procedure. However, it should be noted that in this election, listing a runningmate is not a requirement to be a candidate and it is only optional that a runningmate be listed.
- You can only nominate yourself. Entering someone other than you in this election will not be tolerated.
- Make sure your campaign has reasonable grammar, so people can understand what you are trying to say.
- After your campaign is set, people might add their votes to the Vote section of your campaign. As a user of the Mario Wiki, you have a vote as well, and you are allowed to vote for yourself.
- If you have the most votes by the end of the election, you will become the new Chairperson. If there is a tie by the end of the election, it will continue between the candidates with the highest amounts of votes for one week. This procedure is called Overtime. If there is still a tie by the end of the new deadline, the election will once again be extended by one week. Overtime continues until one candidate has the highest amount of votes.
- Please take this matter seriously! Joke campaigns and profanity will be removed without warning. Additional steps might be taken against violators of this rule.
How do I vote here?
You can vote by going to the Vote section of a campaign and add this form to it. Remember to replace “Name” with your actual user name.
#{{User|Name}}
Alternatively, a user may cast an anonymous vote by using the form below. Note that people may see who voted anonymously when viewing the page history.
#'''X'''
You can only vote for one person at a time. If the election reaches Overtime and your candidate gets eliminated, you can cast another vote for the remaining candidates if you like.
Debates
If there are still questions left, feel free to ask one of Mario Wiki's admins.
Candidates
Crocodile Dippy / Master Crash
I was really hoping to do this next year, but no one is running this year, so you've all forced my hand! Don't want to labour introductions, so credentials:
- Former MarioWiki Sysop (resigned)
- Former MarioWiki Chat Operator (demoted)
- The 'Shroom Affiliates Manager
- Former Userpedia Bureaucrat (resigned)
- Userpedia Forum Global Moderator
- Xephyr Board Head Honcho
I honestly thought I'd done more than that in my five years in this community. I'm a wee bit disappointed now. But bugger that noise, all that basically amounts to is me knowing how the Wiki and forums work, being capable of communicating effectively, and capable of managing projects efficiently and in a timely manner. Don't need to read too much, so just some small things I want to note;
- Master Crash (talk) (I shall call him Reizy) will be my vice-chairman. He is a very calm, friendly and well-respected member of our community, and is currently a Chatroom Operator, MarioWiki Forum Global Moderator, Userpedia Bureaucrat, and former Userpedia Forum Global Moderator. He's got the experience, the friendly face, and the social skills, so I'm sure he'd make a fine vice-chairman.
- No, I'm not hand-picking the rest of the committee out of random. That's not fair at all. If you're interested in joining, send me an application on the forum (because you will need a forum account to be in the committee), and I will decide the other five committee members from there. I'm not just looking for experience – as it would nice to get the newer blokes some basic training on the Wiki – but also your dedication and personality. A good nature and eagerness to learn and contribute to the Wiki efficiently can carry you a long way.
- As harsh as this may sound, I don't tolerate negligence. Sometimes things just come up that take priority over the committee, and I understand that; but if you're consistently failing to do your duties as a committee member without notice I will have to take action (I'll give fair warning, don't worry; I'm not a scary monster that boots you for one strike). I know it's my job to keep the committee up to speed and organised, but there's really only so much I can do for you if you aren't willing to put the effort in. Sorry, but that's just how it works.
- I won't be interfering with committee votes unless there's a tie that needs breaking. Simple as that.
Thanks, and have fun.
Oh yeah, I should probably have some sort of base for the application. I guess it's three-fold: 1) your skill set; 2) why you want to be a committee member; and 3) what your plans for the future are. Optionally, you can also add a fun fact to help you stand out; nothing too personal, tho. I don't want to know about that sort of thing, and any sane person wouldn't want me to know about it.
Votes
- Nabber (talk)
- Mario4Ever (talk)
- MrConcreteDonkey (talk)
- Henry Tucayo Clay (talk)
- Mushroom2002 (talk)
- Raven Effect (talk)
- MarioSmasher (talk)
- Bop1996 (talk)
- Koopa K (talk)
- Mario3D (talk)
- Smasher (talk)
- MySweetLord (talk)
Tucayo / Edofenrir
Well, HI! I am Tucayo, longtime SMW member (but I haven't been here as long as DP has, I give him that). You have probably seen me around, but in case you haven't, let me present you my credentials.
- Former Super Mario Wiki Patroller and SysOp (resigned)
- Former #mwchat operator (resigned)
- Former 'Shroom Director, Sub-Director, Fun Stuff Director and Social Networking Manager.
- Current 'Shroom Statistics Manager (I deal with 'Shroom polls!) as well as longtime collaborator.
- Former Userpedia SysOp (resigned)
- Former Local Moderator in the Marioboards (demoted)
- Former NIWA forums Global Moderator and SMW Representative
As you can see, I have experience all around the community. Experience I have gained in over four years of hard work. And, as DP said, projects like this are a great way to gain experience and to get to know the SMW. That is why, I will also look for a diverse committee. Responsibility is what I'll be looking for in the committee members, should I win. I know how to work in team and I know how to lead one, so I would be a fit choice for the job.
Even if teams like this need new faces, they also need experience. That is why, if I win, my vice-chairman will be Edofenrir, who is currently part of the Poll Commitee. Edofenrir is a respected member of the SMW, with experience on the wiki, forum, 'Shroom and Poll Commitee. He currently moderates child boards related to The 'Shroom, and is the distinguished Sub-Director of our beloved newsletter. As for the rest of the Commitee; given the case I win, I shall invite my fellow candidates to be part of the team. The three remaining spots will go to those interested in taking part. If you are interested just drop a line in my talk page telling me what's your favorite Woody Allen movie and why.
Votes
Toad85 / TBA
Hello, it's Toad85 again. Unlike the first two candidates, I'm a relatively new user, and I have few, if any even count, credentials. I am a decent coder, I'm adequately creative, and I'm a good writer. I don't have a running mate just yet.
However, I plan on using this election as a stepping stone to eventually becoming a very contributory member of the Super Mario Wiki community. Even if I fail to win, which is the most likely outcome, I will still gain experience and grow as a member in the community.
If I win, I probably won't do much to enhance or change the job itself; mostly I'll be working on how to actually perform it in the first place. I might flesh out my role as chairperson if I'm elected, but for now it's just kind of a "get it done and do it well" kind of campaign.
Anyway, good luck Dippy and Tucayo, and vote for me. :)
Votes
- Pichi-Hime6 (talk) I think you deserve a chance ^^
- TonyStark (talk) As a newcomer myself, I second that.
Purity Essence/MysteryGirl2012
Hello, It's Purity Essence. Unlike most others, I am a few months in the Wiki now, and MG2012 and I set things straight. I have a few Mainspace edits, and I'm working on cleaning up the Toadette article.
I'm in this for the fact that it might set my mind straight, and so I'll make more helpful edits. I also have a little experience, which will be helpful.
