The 'Shroom:Issue 174/Pipe Plaza

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Director’s Notes

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Written by: Zange (talk)

Hello all you wonderful readers out there! Welcome to September! College started back up for me and I'm kinda dying! Time management sucks!! Send help and lots of snacks!!!

Bit of a smaller one this month but we've still got some great things! If you want to be one of those great things here in Pipe Plaza head on over to the sign up page for details!!

Enjoy this month's Pipe Plaza~

Section of the Month

Pipe Plaza SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st What's in a Campaign? 6 50.00% Chester Alan Arthur
2nd Anniversary Announcements 3 25.00% Lakituthequick
2nd NIWA News 3 25.00% Alex95
Mariowiki sections
NIWA News
Alex95 (talk)
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Lakituthequick (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
Non-wiki sections
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Chester Alan Arthur (talk)
The highs and lows of Behemoth on full display!
read more

NIWA News

Written by: Alex95 (talk)

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

Promotions

  • Alex95 was promoted to the rank of Bureaucrat for the Editor-in-Chief position of Lylat Wiki!
  • Waluigi Time was promoted to the rank of Administrator on the Super Mario Wiki!
  • Ceiling Master returned to the rank of Administrator on Zelda Wiki!

Demotions

  • Disaster Flare has stepped down from his positions on SmashWiki and Lylat Wiki.
  • Several members have lost their admin positions on Zelda Wiki due to inactivity or stepping down.

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“I was going to write a speech, but I coded for like a week straight and then slept for 4 hours, so just enjoy games without a speech.”
—2257 (Talk Page · Forum Profile)

Welcome back to Anniversary Announcements folks! A short one, for there are only things to tell about tournaments today.

Tournaments

So, what has happened in the past month?

Mario Awards Scribble Deathmatch

The game finished last month, but GBAToad is planning on posting his final thoughts soon.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Time Trials

A surprise round was played for the eliminated players, of whom the fastest time would be able to re-enter the tournament finals. The final round played out on all three Rainbow Roads in the game, and the winner was determined by the shortest accumulative time. The one with this fastest time was Ninja Squid! He beat fantanoice, who finished second, and Ninelevendo, who ended third. Congratulations!

Minecraft

Isle of Feenik
(render by The Pyro Guy (talk))
All three days have been completed with big fanfare! Despite a few technical difficulties in some minigames, people had a great time. Video recordings are being processed and uploaded to watch the event back.
Besides the games, a big aspect that was revealed for the event is the main hub, the Isle of Feenik. This is a big adventure island with various regions and locations, upon which missions can be completed that reward you with Curious Relics, comparable to Power Moons in Super Mario Odyssey. The island contains a whopping 180 Curious Relics, spread over 15 regions. Despite this year's games being over, this island will remain open indefinitely and visiting it is greatly recommended.

Panel de Pon

This tournament has ended! Congratulations to Troy for dominating it with a perfect end score! Following up are Turboo in second, and Goombuigi in third.

Super Mario Hint Hunt

The second round was planned to start on 3 September, however ultimately the game was capped off as is with one round played. As such, the winner of the Paper Mario: The Origami King hints is Ninelevendo, and the winner of the Super Mario Odyssey hints is Kirbyo. Congrats to both!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate singles and doubles

Singles and doubles have both finished! Singles have been won by Yoshiwaker, followed up by Ninelevendo and fantanoice. Doubles have been won by fantanoice and Ninelevendo, followed up by The Pyro Guy and Luigi 64DD, and Superchao and Turboo. Congratulations to everyone!

Wario's Woods

After a delay, the sixth and last round is currently ongoing. A look at the scoreboard shows that fantanoice will end in first place, congrats in advance! Shoey and Ninelevendo follow up after her.

Yup, that's it for this year. But boy, was this a great awards season! Presentations, tournaments, the build-up towards them, I dare say an all-around good year. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you again right here next year. Buh-bye!

All information above was correct as of 17 September 2021.

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy September everyone! I know September is a very busy time (as is August, which is why I was unfortunately unable to submit my section last month), but hopefully you still have time for another issue of Mario Calendar!

Region Abbreviations

Abb. Region
ALL All Regions (JP/NA/EU/AU)
JP Japan
NA North America
EU Europe
AU Oceania/Australia
SK South Korea
CHN China
UK United Kingdom

Console Abbreviations

Abb. Console
NES Nintendo Entertainment System
Famicom Family Computer Disk System
SNES Super Nintendo Entertainment System
N64 Nintendo 64
GC Nintendo GameCube
GB Game Boy
GBC Game Boy Color
GBA Game Boy Advance
DS Nintendo DS
3DS Nintendo 3DS
Switch Nintendo Switch
Wii VC Nintendo Wii Virtual Console
3DS VC Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Wii U VC Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console
VB Virtual Boy
G&W Game and Watch
64DD Nintendo 64 Disk Drive
MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System
CD-i Philips CD-i
IQ iQue Player
NVS Nvidia Shield
ACPC Amstrad CPC
ZX ZX Spectrum
Coleco Colecovision
TI-99 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
  • September 8
    • 1981 (JP/NA): Chef (G&W)

This was a fantastic month for Mario. Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan for the first time, as well as Super Mario Bros. 2 and the North American release of Super Mario 64. A truly revolutionary month for Mario games and gaming as a whole. And of course, with the new WarioWare game having come out, there’s more Mario fun to be had to this very day! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you next month!

What's in a Campaign?

By: Chester Alan Arthur (talk)

Welcome back, Pipe Plaza readers, to another edition of What's in a Campaign? where we take a look back at robots from the hit show Robot Wars. I'm your host, Shoey! Last month, we took a look at Series 7's low-pressure flipper, The Grim Reaper. This month we're going to stay in Series 7 and, as a favor to my good buddy Vommack, we're going to be looking at my personal favorite robot, Behemoth and its Series 7 run.

Behemoth first appears in Series 2, built by Team Make Robotics, a team originally consisting of brothers Anthony and Michael Pritchard along with their father Edward Pritchard. After Series 2, father Edward would leave, being replaced by a friend of the team named Kane Aston. Behemoth is modeled after a bulldozer, featuring a reinforced titanium pneumatic-powered bucket scoop capable of flipping up to 300kg, as well as an overhead axe that's used to score damage points (in theory.) Behemoth would be one of Robot Wars' longest running team. After debuting in Series 2, Behemoth would appear in every Series until Robot Wars' untimely cancellation. For Series 7, Behemoth kept many of the changes they made from Series 5 to 6, where they replaced their four-wheel drive system with a chain-driven six-wheeled drive system powered by LEM-130 motors. This change allowed the Behemoth team to fix one of the biggest problems with the machine, that being that its top speed was only about 7MPH, but, with this upgraded drive system, the top speed was raised to a much more respectable 12MPH. Behemoth also contains an arm on each side for self-righting purposes.

As stated above, Behemoth is one of the biggest veterans of Robot Wars, having competed in every series since Series 2 as well as in tournaments such as both Extreme 1 and Extreme 2. Unfortunately for Behemoth, after winning their heat in Series 2 and finishing in the Top 8, it has been diminishing returns ever since. In both Series 3 and 4, Behemoth would crash out in the heat final, and in Series 5 and 6, they'd do even worse, crashing out in the second round of their heats. And while Behemoth would have some success in side tournaments, such as controversially finishing runner-up in Series 3's Robot Wars World Championships on a split decision to Razor in a match that many people believe Behemoth should have won, as well as defeating the terrifying Hypno Disc in the first round of Extreme 1's All-Star tournament (before again being defeated by Razor in a close judges' decision). A combination of bad luck, poor draws, and strategic errors would prevent Behemoth from reaching the heights many thought it should reach. Despite these past failures, Behemoth, unlike many previous veterans, decided to return for Series 7, where they were given the number ten seed and entered into heat L, where the team looked to finally prove that they could still be elite.

My favorite robot

Reminder that all images are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. If you'd like to view the matches, as always, a link will be provided below and I'll include timestamps before each fight.

Placed in Heat L in the first round, Behemoth would come up against the Dutch robot Tartus (equipped hydraulic claw), UFO (equipped with a front-hinge flipper, although, in this fight, it isn't working), and finally, in a grudge match from Series 5, Crushtacean (a control bot with crab-like claws used to grip onto other robots). From the start (1:23), this fight is all Behemoth. Within the first five seconds, Behemoth charges in, gets under Tartus, and flips it over. Since, for some reason, despite this being series 7, Tartus does not have a self-righting mechanism, Tartus is immediately ko'd.

It's 2004! Why can't you self-right!?

From here, with UFO's flipper not working, Behemoth begins to target Crushtacean, getting a couple of good flips on it and ramming it into the wall. At the same time, seemingly realizing Behemoth has no interest in it, and wishing to score points itself in case of a judges decision, UFO also attacks Crushtacean, using its wedge shape to get under Crushtacean and drive it around (at one point driving it right into Behemoth's scoop).

REVENGEEEEEEEEE

The fight ends at the arena wall. UFO gets under Crushtacean, who tries to drive off UFO, but, at the same time, Behemoth uses its scoop on both of them, throwing Crushtacean up too high, where Crushtacean lands on the top of the arena wall, halfway wedged and unable to move. From there, Behemoth takes its scoop and flips up the pinned crab, throwing it out of the arena, sending Behemoth and UFO into the 2nd round.

In the second round, Behemoth came up against Robot Wars Extreme 2: New Blood tournament runner-up, Mute. Mute is a unique front-hinge flipper whose flipper, while not technically the most powerful in terms of weight it could lift, (only being able to lift 200kg) released so much CO2 with each flip that it only needed to get a small part of a robot on its flipper to lift it up. Despite this, going into the fight, Behemoth was considered to be a heavy favorite to win this fight and advance to its first heat final since Series 4. The fighting (5:32) begins with both robots circling each other, with Mute managing to get under Behemoth but not being able to fire their flipper. Then, Behemoth is able to turn into Mute's side, flipping the newcomer over, and then, like clockwork, the Behemoth curse strikes.

Only Behemoth...

You see, the Mute flipper is so powerful that, when it self-rights, it goes up high into the air and basically somersaults. Unfortunately for Behemoth, in doing so, Mute lands on top of Behemoth, clipping its aerial and getting it stuck in forward gear. Because Behemoth can't show controlled movement, they are counted out, sending them out in the second round again, this time in a particularly humiliating fashion.

Here is where many of our stories would end, but, fear not, for Behemoth would get a chance to redeem itself in the Series 7 All-Stars tournament. The All-Stars tournament was a tournament that focused on only the most successful robots in Robot Wars, consisting of previous Semi-Finalists as well as robots that had at least five years of robot combat experience (an exception was made for the robot Dantomkia, who had only been in Robot Wars since Series 5, because there weren't enough working robots to fill out the roster). Since Behemoth fit all those categories, they were entered in the tournament and placed in four-way melee against fellow Series 2 Semi-Finalist and long time diminishing-return bot, King B, Powerworks, The twin bladed former runner-up named Pussycat, and the aforementioned flipper bot Dantomkia. Unfortunately for Behemoth, this fight (17:33) would not go its way at all.

Goodbye, Behemoth. I loved you once.

Taking on Dantomkia, Behemoth briefly manages to get under Dantomkia, but, in doing so, gets too close to the wall. Dantomkia gets under them, pushed them into a CPZ, and flips them out of the arena, ending their All-Stars run before it even really began.

So far, Series 7 has been a poor run for Behemoth. It lost its heat Semi-Final matchup in humiliating fashion, and then barely did anything in its All-Stars match. But being a crowd pleasing veteran with a history of providing entertaining matches, Behemoth, as well as the top eight finishing Dutch flipper bot, Gravity, were invited to participate in a special exhibition called House Robot Rebellion, where the two bots would take on three of the House Robots for the audience's entertainment. For this House Robot Rebellion, the producers decided to chose all the newer (debuted in Series 6 or later) House Robots, those being Mr. Psycho, weighing 750kg sporting a crushing hammer and a hand0like claw to grab robots, the incredibly speedy, dog-based robot, Growler, who could open its, allowing it to also grab robots and use its incredible weight (375kg) and relatively high top speed (17mph) to slam them into walls, and, finally, the newest house robot, debuting in Series 7, sporting two completely useless boxing glove-like spikes, Cassius Chrome. This fight (11:32 - the reason it is earlier in the video than the previous fight is because it was aired first but was the last fight filmed), is honestly incredible. For the first and really only time, a House Robot Rebellion features robots who are actually legitimate competitors, with Gravity immediately flipping Growler onto its back, eliminating it completely from the fight. At the same time, the Refbot pushes the pit release button, and, as it's descending, that goddamn moron Cassius Chrome drives onto the pit, where Gravity flips it on to its side, seemingly immobilizing it. Gravity then starts attacking the Refbot as Behemoth begins to put its axe into the back of Mr. Psycho, smashing up a back panel as Mr. Psycho backs up, pushing Behemoth into the back wall.

I STRIKE AT THEE BEAST!

Gravity then moves in to attack Mr. Psycho, who immediately drives his hammer onto the top of Gravity, immobilizing it in one blow. Suddenly, what looked like an easy romp for our competitors has swung in favor of the House Robots! Behemoth attempts to lift Mr. Psycho, but obviously fails before attempting to drive its axe into Mr. Psycho's armor (while this is happening, there's a great moment where Gravity, whose flipper is still working, flips up on the hammer of Mr. Psycho, causing the hammer to shoot up before landing right back on top of Gravity). Also, at some point that's not shown on the TV edit, the pit is brought back up, with Cassius Chrome back on its wheels, leaving Behemoth to drive into them as it's spinning in a circle. Behemoth again gets to the back of Mr. Psycho and drives its hammer into the same back panel it attacked earlier before accidentally hitting the wrong part of Mr. Psycho, causing its axe to fly right off. Oh, and then the floor flipper flips Behemoth, because, fuck it, there's no rules!

IT'S ANARCHY IN ENGLAND!

The fight ends with Behemoth attempting to use the lifeless body of Gravity to take the House Robots' blows, but, at the same time, Mr. Psycho has completely stopped as the fight goes to the judges. Or, at least, that's how a normal fight would end. Instead, host Craig Charles lets the audience decide who won, and the audience votes in favor of Behemoth and Gravity, giving Behemoth, the longest serving competitor in all of Robot Wars, a victory in the last-ever filmed match of the classic series.

Behemoth's run in Series 7 is the most goddamn Behemoth thing I've ever seen. You've got super high moments like dominating its first-round melee and legitimately winning a House Robot Rebellion, and then you have moments where it's the only robot to ever be KOed by a robot self-righting on top of it and moments where it gets thrown out in the first round of the All-Stars tournament. But our story doesn't end with Series 7, because the Pritchard family genuinely loves and are passionate about Robot combat, and would continue to compete on the live circuit the entire time Robot Wars was off TV. On the live circuit, Behemoth managed to find the success that eluded it on TV, finishing third in the 2005 UK Championships, third in the 2013 Robot Wars live championships, and even managing to win the 2006 Roaming Robots Winter Tour Championship. At the same time, Team Make Robotics also found quite a bit of success in other weight classes, where they competed with basically smaller versions of Behemoth. Then, in 2016, Robot Wars returned to TV for the first time in twelve years, and Team Make Robotics jumped at the chance to compete with their latest version of Behemoth. But those wars are a story for another day.

The 'Shroom: Issue 174
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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