The 'Shroom:Issue 186/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Don't ask me how it's already September I couldn't tell you either!!

Anyways, college has been treating me well so far! One of my classes right now is pretty much just me learning how to sew, which is an adventure in and of itself. I keep saying my one saving grace there is that I have people who sew and are GREAT at it on both sides of my family. But I'm not doing too bad I think. I am currently back home for the weekend, which is weird after being on campus for almost a whole month but at the same time I think I needed this. I missed my room and all my things! And also I finally got to open the kpop albums I ordered before moving :>

As always, if you like what you see here in Pipe Plaza and you have an idea for an awesome thing you want to write, you can absolutely do that! All you have to do is head over to the magical sign up page which has all of the things you need to do in order to start writing that awesome thing!

Enjoy the month and may you have fall weather arrive for you soon~ (because it sure hasn't happened here!)

Section of the Month

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 8 53.33% Fun With Despair (talk)
2nd NIWA News 3 20.00% PanchamBro (talk)
3rd What's in a Campaign? 2 13.33% Mustard Machine (talk)
3rd That NIWA List 2 13.33% PanchamBro (talk)
Mariowiki sections
NIWA News
PanchamBro (talk)
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Waluigi Time (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
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
Roleplay Update
MightyMario (talk)
MightyMario is providing us with all the latest happenings of the forum roleplays.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Mustard Machine (talk)
Wait a minute, this isn't the Silverchair song...
read more

NIWA News

Written by: PanchamBro (talk)

Hey it's me PanchamBro. It's time for this month's NIWA News, a section regarding news with each of the 32 members of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance. We'll be going through staff changes and related wiki news in August. Let's begin!

Staff changes

Wiki news

Several issues ago, I've mentioned about Dragalia Lost ending services later in 2022. After a final update was released on July 25, it was announced that Dragalia Lost will be ending service on November 30, 2022. Players will not be able to play Dragalia Lost after this date, so if you are still willing to help support r/DragaliaLost and Dragalia Lost Wiki with their archive project, please join their Discord server!

It was announced in late July that FlyingRagnar will cease hosting Dragon Quest Wiki by October 1, 2022, with the site providing a database and file dumps for a future host to take over. Developments on who the new host of Dragon Quest Wiki is still being questioned, but I would appreciate sending your thanks to FlyingRagnar for providing Dragon Quest Wiki for 12 years!

Inkipedia New Logo.svg

After 4 months of discussion and voting on the new Inkipedia logo, the verdict is in! The winner of Inkipedia's Logo Contest 2022 is ninckvinny! Their new logo came a long way from their first submission, and with time to provide modifications, this new logo looks inkin' good. Speaking of which, to coincide the new logo and the release of Splatoon 3, the wiki has removed MobileFrontend and transitioned entirely to a new Timeless-based skin. It seems that a new era has dawned for Inkipedia.

Pikipedia's featured image has returned as of August 16th. If you want to nominate a new image to be featured on Pikipedia, please do so at their featured image nomination page. I can't wait to see what images are to be displayed on Pikipedia!

WiKirby needs your help in deciding what to do with its Good template. Historically, the template has been used to mark articles that met the quality standards on WiKirby, but with over 80% of WiKirby's articles being marked as "Good", there appears to be a problem with the template's use; additionally its use on files is being called into question. A referendum has been launched to address this issue, by abolishing the Good template on files, redefining the usage of the Good template, and prevented self-authors from nominating their own articles. Depending on the outcome, users can decide whether or not to implemented these changes, do away with the Good template, do nothing, or remove the Good template on files. This voting closes on September 20th, 11:59 UTC, which is a couple of days away. If you are a long-time reader of WiKirby, or are an editor there, please vote on the referendum here!

Over at our affiliates, Bulbagarden, Bulbapedia's parent company, participated in Trainers Unite 2022 with the intent to raise money for St. Jude Children's Resarch Hospital, known for their focus on childhood diseases such as leukemia. Throughout this week-long charity event, Bulbagarden raised $2,001.00 for the hospital, right behind Pokethon at $4,827.93. Congratulations to the Bulbagarden team for their hard work!

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that come a week later on September 23th, the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance's annual Cross-Wiki Week will begin. Unlike previous Cross-Wiki events, this event will last a full week, ending on September 30th. Some of NIWA's affiliates will also participate in this event. To participate, you may edit on a wiki that you have not contributed to, or one that you rarely contribute to. Contributions will be ranked based on how substantial the edit you create is, and the more ratings you receive, the higher the chance you win a prize. Two winners of this event will receive a $20 Nintendo eShop card (€20 in Europe). This event is to encourage contributions towards other wikis as their editors may also provide their contribution here on Super Mario Wiki. If you are participating in this event, please be mindful of submitting your work at this page in order to be counted for. I hope to see many MarioWiki editors branching out to other wikis for help!

That's it for any related NIWA news that I could gather for this month's 'Shroom. See you next month!

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

13th Poll Committee Banner

Hello there, Poll Committee Discussion readers! It's Waluigi Time here again, coming to you on behalf of the Thirteenth Poll Committee for the first time. With the last of the Twelfth Committee's output covered last month, today we're getting into the first set of polls made by this committee! So I won't delay things any farther, let's get started.

Archives

Recent Mario sports games have been criticized for fast releases with small amounts of content coupled with promised free updates. How do you feel about this? - (Turboo (talk), August 14th, 2022‎)

Recent Mario sports games have been criticized for fast releases with small amounts of content coupled with promised free updates. How do you feel about this?

I don't like it, and I would prefer the games get delayed so that they launch with more content. 45.95% (913 votes)
I don't like it, but I'm ultimately fine with it provided the updates add things I want. 18.62% (370 votes)
I have no opinion. 13.84% (275 votes)
I like it, since I enjoy being surprised by what each update adds. 10.57% (210 votes)
I like it, because regular updates keep the game relevant and people play for longer. 7.95% (158 votes)
I like it, as it allows for speedier releases that let me play the game sooner. 3.07% (61 votes)
Total Votes: 1,987

Out of the video games you've played recently, how many of them were Mario games? - (TPG (talk), August 29th, 2022)

Out of the video games you've played recently, how many of them were Mario games?

I play a good mix of Mario games and non-Mario games. 47.03% (1,158 votes)
I usually play non-Mario games, but sometimes play Mario games. 18.36% (452 votes)
I mostly play Mario games, but sometimes I try games from other series. 16.53% (407 votes)
Almost every video game I play is a Mario game. 8.77% (216 votes)
I only play Mario games. 4.91% (121 votes)
I almost never play Mario games. 2.56% (63 votes)
I don't play video games enough to know. 0.93% (23 votes)
I never play Mario games. 0.89% (22 votes)
Total Votes: 2,462

Analysis

Recent Mario sports games have been criticized for fast releases with small amounts of content coupled with promised free updates. How do you feel about this?

HI! I'M DLC!

Our first poll of the term comes to us courtesy of Turboo (talk), covering what's been a hot topic of discussion lately - the business model that Nintendo's been using with their Mario sports games. If you've been paying much attention to the discussion surrounding Mario Strikers: Battle League, you probably know that the game's been criticized for not having much content at launch, with Nintendo promising additional content through free updates. Though when you look at how the previous sports title, Mario Golf: Super Rush, was handled, you can probably forgive people for being skeptical that these updates will actually fix anything.

As you can probably expect, the reception is less than stellar, according to this poll. Nearly half of the voters said that they did not like the business model, with 45.95% selecting this option, and would prefer it if Nintendo delayed the games to give them more development time and more content. I don't really think this is an unreasonable request, considering that in terms of content scope, the modern releases are often compared unfavorably to games we saw on the Gamecube and Wii over a decade ago. In second place, an additional 18.62% of voters said they didn't like it, but were ultimately okay with it as long as the updates added things they want to the game. If I had to speculate, this set of voters is less concerned with the lack of content itself, and more that things they want to see are omitted and may never appear in the game.

In third place, 13.84% of voters have no opinion on this. It's possible that a sizeable chunk of that is from people who just don't play Mario sports games. You probably noticed that we got to the "I don't care" option before any of the positive options, which isn't a good sign for Nintendo! 10.57% of voters said that they liked it because they enjoyed being surprised by what content is added in the updates, 7.95% said that they liked it because updates keep the game relevant for a longer period of time, and finally, the remaining 3.07% said that they liked it because they get to play the game sooner than they would if Nintendo spent more time on it. Not to shame the voters, but remind me not to hire those last 3% if I ever get into game development.

So, a combined 65.39% of the voters don't like what Nintendo's up to, and only 21.59% actually like it. Maybe it's time to switch course, or maybe these games will keep selling so well that Nintendo can just keep ignoring us. Wouldn't be the first time.

Out of the video games you've played recently, how many of them were Mario games?

How much of your free time has Mario captured?

Our second poll is an interesting concept from TPG (talk), asking voters how much Mario they've played recently compared to other games. I was curious to see what the results on this one were, since it seems like in discussion with community members, it's not uncommon to find someone who rarely, if ever, plays Mario games anymore. Let's see what the average Mario Wiki main page visitor/poll voter has to say.

Variety is the spice of life for the voters who picked the first place option, with 47.03% saying that they play a fairly even mix of Mario and other video games. Based on last month's analysis, a lot of them are probably playing Kirby. Coming in second is 18.36% of voters who usually play other games, but sometimes still dabble in the plumber's adventures. I have to admit I was surprised to see this one so high. Right behind that one is the opposite option, 16.53% of voters said that they mostly play Mario games, but sometimes try other games.

As we approach the halfway mark, variety pretty much goes away completely. 8.77% of voters said that almost all of the video games they play are Mario ones. I'm kind of surprised that this got so few voters, considering we are a Mario-centric website. Following that, 4.91% of the voters play Mario games exclusively. From here everything else is the complete opposite, with 2.56% of voters saying they almost never play Mario games, 0.93% of voters saying that they don't play video games often enough to know, and in last place by a single vote, 0.89% of voters who don't play Mario games at all. I'm not all that surprised that the people who aren't very interested in Mario make up the minority here, though it's interesting to see that we get more people who just aren't that interested in video games in general than people who are, but just don't play Mario (albeit not by much).

I feel like there's sometimes a stereotype that Mario fans don't branch out into playing other games, but with the top 65.39% of voters here playing other games as often or even more than Mario, maybe it's time to rethink that. If we want to toss in the third option there, that's 81.92% of voters who consider both Mario and non-Mario games an important part of the time they spend playing video games! Pretty neat.

Conclusion

That wraps up this month of Poll Committee Discussion! In our first two polls, we had one that went pretty much how you'd expect, and one with some results that might be surprising. As a wise bartender once said, perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Be sure to keep voting in the polls, because if you do, you're technically in this section by making the voter numbers go up! We'll be back next month with another committee member covering what we've got coming up. Don't miss it!

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“If I die, will you fulfil my one non-murder-related request? Punch that Rainbow Dash right in her stupid smug horse mouth.”
—Shoey (talk · Boards)

Hello again readers, this is Anniversary Announcements for the month of September. It's not the 21st night yet, but I do remember.

The news is, there is no news, so let's go straight to tournaments, shall we?

The Tournaments

Awards season has as good as ended, but there are still a few tournaments that overflow the usual August period. In this subsection, I will summarise upcoming and ongoing tournaments and update you on their proceedings.

Awards Killing Game: Odyssey
After the two vessels sank, the survivors have washed ashore on an abandoned island, which they dubbed Circitus Island. After seven months of peace, however, the Killing Game was restarted due to an unfortunate sequence of events.
Due to the workload the hosts have, and Hooded Pitohui taking more of a background role, TPG has joined the team to assist with the ongoings of the merge map.
Panel de Pon Tournament 3
This tournament has ended! Due to a lot of people dropping out near the end, an official ranking was not made up, although it is possible to look at the Challonge bracket to see where everyone ended up. Shout-outs go to Troy and Goombuigi, who have played all matches they could, and Troy specifically for winning all of them. Congratulations!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tournament (Singles and Doubles)
This tournament is in its last round, the seventh, and due to being the last one, does not have a specific deadline.
Minecraft
Play weekend has gone over and was a success! The in-game hub is still explorable, as well as the environment in which the hub was originally located as extra beta content.
Scribble Showdown
This game is ongoing and currently in its fourth round.

Awards season is as good as over, with just a few tournaments remaining, which are all expected to wrap up in the next month. Next month, I will likely be back to report on those, so until then, de mazzel!

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hello everyone, and welcome to September’s very special issue of Mario Calendar! There’s nothing actually special about this Mario Calendar… hey, it’s a new issue of Mario Calendar, that should be special on its own! Let’s get into it.

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 is a super strange month for Mario games. Obviously, it was incredibly foundational for the series--Super Mario Bros. and Mario Bros. both came out on NES, and Super Mario 64 came out in North America! On the other hand, it seems like a lot of the month was just full of filler. However, in my opinion, that does nothing to take away from the achievements that this month has had! If we didn’t have September and the games that it brought, the Mario series would be radically different, if not non-existent. See you next month!

Roleplay Update

Written by: MightyMario (talk)

Hello again! This is MightyMario with Roleplay Update! Let’s see what happened in the Roleplay section in August! I would also like to congratulate Mushroom City Car Wash for winning the first ever Favorite Roleplay award at the Mario Awards, with Tales from the Megaverse, Into the Cosmos, and Super Mario RP for all tying for second place!

New RPs

No new RPs, unfortunately.

Notable Events

  • In Mushroom City Car Wash, the Klonoa arc by Toadettefan continues with the Doctor (Long John Spaghetti) appearing in the Dream World to help Klonoa (Long John Spaghetti) and Huepow (Toadettefan) stop their Nightmare counterparts and rescue Ellie.
  • Meanwhile, in the ongoing second tale of Tales from the Megaverse, the crew of the Halberd make preparations to visit Grievous’ abandoned warship Devastator.

New Bans

None. Keep that streak going!

And this was another edition of Roleplay Update! I’m MightyMario and see you in October for more updates!

What's in a Campaign?

By: Mustard Machine (talk)

Welcome back, Pipe Plaza readers, to another What's in a Campaign?, the sections where we take a look at the various competitors from the hit show Robot Wars. Last month, we took a look at the giant flipper Wheely Big Cheese. For this month, we're going to stick with the flippy-bots and look at the Series 6 run of veteran British flipper Spawn Again.

Classic British flipper

Spawn Again is the quintessential British flipper, which is basically just a wedge with a flipper. First appearing in Series 5 and Extreme 1, for Series 6, Spawn Again's weight has been increased massively, going from 79kg to 92kg. Spawn Again also now features a much more powerful motor than it did in Series 5; despite this, the team dropped its top speed from 25mph to 20mph.

To counter the fact that Spawn Again oftentimes threw itself on its backs with its flips, a roll cage was attached to the back to prevent it from getting stuck on its back. Its weapon is a pneumatic powered wedge flipper, a very powerful flipper that's perfectly capable of throwing the competition around. The flipper wedge also has a piece of metal attached to it to help Spawn Again get under robots. Unfortunately, the flipper also had a tendency to jam in the upwards position after throwing attacks. In addition, Spawn Again suffers from the same problem every Scutterbot does in that it's constantly almost breaking down during fights.

Built by Darren Hayden-Ball and Luke Jackman, the team behind Spawn Again was often called Team Scutterbot (with their first two robots being Series 3's Spawn of Scutter and Series 4's Scutter's Revenge.) In Series 3 through Series 5, the team portrayed themselves as tough guy bad boys (think the Plunderbird team but with a better robot), But in Series 6, with their robot constantly in shambles, the team instead spend their time onscreen basically panicking as they try to get Spawn Again working.

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. If you'd like to watch any of these fights, check out this video. Time stamps are provided in the section.

As a team that had never failed to make a Series semi-finals before (and had also never won a match in the semis), Spawn Again was given the 10th seed and placed in Heat H. This left Spawn Again facing off against the terrifying spinning disc of Supernova; the other good crusher in Robot Wars, Tiberius 3; and Short Circuit, a robot that was originally designed for Series fucking 2. In this fight (1:18), Spawn Again contributes almost nothing to this fight and in fact barely works throughout the whole fight. You would think that would be bad news, but, luckily for Spawn Again, none of the competitors are interested in attacking it at all. Instead, they basically just fight each other for the majority of the fight. The only thing Spawn Again does in this fight is flipping Tiberius 3. At some point, Supernova hits Spawn Again with its disc, which causes Spawn Again to spin around. Now facing Tiberius 3, Spawn Again then slowly moves forward and flips over Tiberius 3 (who I'm 90% sure was already broken down).

Guess it only takes one flip!

By this point, Supernova had already knocked out Short Circuit, because, again, that robot was designed for Series 2. So, despite doing almost nothing, Spawn Again moves on!

In the second round, Spawn Again was put against Spam. Spam is a weird little robot with a strange piercing tong-style weapon that rotates. It's very weird and it's very ineffective. In fact, the only reason Spam made it out of round one was because the judges ruled that The Hassocks Hog was immobile because it was reduced to spinning in circles. In order to make it into this fight, the Spawn Again team had to:

  • Cut and reweld the chassis
  • Rebuild the gearbox
  • Replace the batteries
  • Reinforce a bunch of components
  • Replace the bearings
  • And fix numerous electrical problems

And after all those repairs, Spawn Again still barely works in this fight! It drives a lot better in the sense that it actually moves, but, despite getting its flipper under Spam a number of times, it never fires it because the flipper apparently isn't working. Then, within thirty seconds, Spawn Again begins to slow way down. You might think here that ole Spawn Again is in trouble, what with its weapon not working and the fact that it can barely move, but that would imply the opponent isn't going to make a huge mistake. You see, what happens is this: Spam hits the pit release button and then just drives into the pit!

Rather be lucky than good!

Oh, also, right before Spam drives into the pit, Spawn Again manages to fire its flipper, which of course jams it! So, again, despite doing almost nothing, Spawn Again is through to the heat final.

For the heat final against Supernova the Spawn Again team has finally figured out why their robot has been barely working. It turns out that they were getting interference from their starter motor, and they have replaced it with a lawnmower motor which should fix the problem. So in the heat final (11:19), Supernova goes on the attack first as Spawn Again moves towards one of the walls. Supernova drives up the flipper of Spawn Again and, what do you know, the flipper actually works! Not only does it work, but this flip causes Supernova to drive into one of the arena angle grinders blade-first. That appears to break something in Supernova, because Supernova is unable to drive away. Spawn Again then does the impossible! Ut hits a second flip on Supernova without breaking its own flipper!

Really does only take one flip!

This flip causes Supernova to be wedged on top of the angle grinder in such a way to where Supernova can't drive away because its blade is digging into the wooden floor. Supernova is then counted out and, goddamn it, in classic Scutterbot fashion, Spawn Again somehow, someway manages to make it to the Series semi-finals.

This is the fourth time a Scutterbot has managed to make a Series semi-final, but each of the previous three times the Scutterbots have gone no further. Spawn Again is placed up against the unseeded axe bot Terrorhurtz (sequel to the legendary Battlebots/Robot Wars competitor Killerhurtz), a robot who got out of the heats themself by demolishing former Series champion Panic Attack. Could this be the match? Could team Scutterbot finally ascended into the top eight?

AND THE BLOWS RAIN DOWN!

The answer is no. In this fight (17:11), Terrorhurtz destroys Spawn Again, landing blow after blow with its axe. At no point does Spawn Again even managed to land a successful flip (in fact, on numerous occasions, Spawn Again attempts to use its flipper, only to have Terrorhurtz's axe smash the flipper back down). It's axe destruction as Terrorhurtz puts dent after dent into Spawn Again. Finally, Dead Metal gets its claws on Spawn Again, putting its giant Circular Saw into the body of Spawn Again. Spawn Again is then counted out with another first round loss under its belt.

But Spawn Again, like all first round losers in Series 5 and Series 6, has one last chance to escape the first round. Spawn Again is placed in the losers' melee, going up against Series 5 runner-up and fellow flipper Bigger Brother and the horrifyingly destructive disc of Hypno Disc. The odds are against them, but maybe, just maybe, Spawn Again can win this melee (22:45) and finally crack the top 8! As with most melees that feature Hypno Disc, the two other robots immediately attempt to double-team Hypno Disc before its disc can spin up to speed. Spawn Again strikes first, slamming Hypno Disc into one of the walls. Hypno Disc then strikes Bigger Brother, who is leading with its heavily-armored rear, causing Hypno Disc to spin away from the recoil. Hypno Disc themself are taken out when, after again hitting the armored back of Bigger Brother, the momentum spins Hypno Disc disc into the wall. The force of hitting the wall with their disc completely immobilizes Hypno Disc.

Unfortunately, the Robot Wars' production crew stop focusing on Spawn Again and Bigger Brother to show the House Robots putzing around with the dead Hypno Disc, because the next thing we see is Bigger Brother and Spawn Again wedged together. Refbot slams into the two bots to unwedge them, and, oh my god, Spawn Again manages to flip Bigger Brother over right by the arena wall! They're so close to victory! One flip could do it!

So close to the top eight...

But this is Spawn Again, and, not only does their flip on Bigger Brother jam their own flipper, but it also appears to do something to their mobility because Spawn Again is barely moving. Bigger Brother then self rights and dumps Spawn Again down the pit. Once again, Spawn Again has failed to crack the top eight.

This is absolutely the most Spawn Again run that Spawn Again ever had. Throughout five battles, Spawn Again only worked in two of them, really (and even in the last battle it still broke down on its own). This is probably one of the worst semi-final runs in Robot Wars history, because, quite frankly, Spawn Again had no business making it out of the first two rounds of its heat, let alone to the semi-finals.

Spawn Again is a very weird robot, because when it works, its really effective, but it just never seems to work over long stretches of time. Spawn Again would return in Series 7, where it would actually have one of its strongest runs, easily dominating most of its heat until, in classic Scutterbot fashion, its goddamn pneumatic system literally explodes during the heat final against Raging Knightmare. After that, it finds itself tossed out of the arena, denying the team their fifth semi-final.

To be honest, I've never been a big fan of the Scutterbots, especially Spawn Again, a robot that more often then not wasn't working properly who would only make semi-finals either through luck or bad heats. That's all for this month. Join us next month when we look at another (hopefully better) robot!

The 'Shroom: Issue 186
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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