The 'Shroom:Issue 202/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Welcome to 2024 and the first Pipe Plaza of the year! I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season. I can't believe I'm saying this but one of my Christmas gifts was laundry detergent which I'm actually VERY excited about. I love doing laundry!! That is a VERY Boober Fraggle thing to say but I DON'T CARE! Don't like how expensive detergent is getting though rip.

I don't think I ever actually mentioned this here but I got casted in my university's production of Heathers the Musical a while back! Because of this I had to go back up to school about a week early (which I didn't mind) for the start of rehearsals... and then we got an ungodly amount of snow so two of those rehearsals got cancelled. And now we're making them up this weekend. My point is I'm already mourning my loss of free time from now until about the first week of March. Also can the weather stop being so cold here PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU

Anyways, we have all kinds of fun and cool things here this month! You too can write fun and cool things for Pipe Plaza or any team your heart desires! Just go to the sign up page for more information!

And now I'm going to go apply an ungodly amount of chapstick and lotion because the cold is ruining me...

Section of the Month

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Did Someone Say Cereal? 8 40.00% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd Poll Committee Discussion 5 25.00% Waluigi Time (talk)
3rd Mario Calendar 4 20.00% GPM1000 (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox
Shoey (talk)
Everybody Loves Nate Morgan
read more
The 'Shroom Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
All the latest writers and all the milestones of the current ones.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Shoey (talk)
Napalm is actually very dangerous...
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy new year, everyone! I hope that you have all had a fantastic start to 2024. It is incredibly snowy and cold where I am, so I’ve been cooped up inside for the past week or so. I was planning on using this opportunity to finally play Super Mario Bros. Wonder, but I got completely sidetracked and addicted to Elden Ring, and that took over my life for a while there. I hadn’t really gotten into it until now, but it’s safe to say I won’t be playing any Mario for a while at this rate.

But just because I’m not playing Mario doesn’t mean you won’t get your monthly fill 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


Every time I look at this month’s selections, it just gets rougher and rougher. January has just about nothing going for it in terms of Mario games, which is something I have talked about a few times in the past. For my recent special section, I ranked this at 9th place out of 12, and you can definitely see why. A few good games (Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Brawl) came out, so it’s definitely not the worst month, but there are definitely far better.

Unfortunately, there are far worse too. Get excited for February and March… :( anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this installment of Mario Calendar, and I’ll see you next month! Back to Elden Ring I go.

Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello and welcome back to Shoey's Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox, The 'Shroom's deep dive into the madness that is the Sonic Archie comic. Last time, we covered the story of how the comic has two Eggmans. This month's topic is a little lower-stakes in terms of Sonic comic lore. This month, we're going to be covering the story of Nate Morgan, the most inexplicably important character in the entire comic.

What's that, Sonic fans? You've never heard of main character Nate Morgan? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! I'm shocked that you haven't heard of Important character Nate Morgan! Super scientist? Beloved friend of Sonic and Tails? Honorary uncle to King Maxamillion Acorn? What!? Nate Morgan still isn't ringing a bell? Well then dear reader, come and sit under the learning tree as I tell you the tale of Nate Morgan: Important Character.

Nate Morgan makes his debut in Issue 64, during Sonic's hunt for recently-debuting antagonist Ixis Naugus, the true king of the Acorn Kingdom. Eventually Sonic and Tails tracked the devious wizard to the snowy mountains of the Southern Tundra. Attempting to defeat the evil wizard, Sonic and Tails found themselves outmatched by the power of Ixis Naugus, only narrowly being spared thanks to the timely arrival of a friendly yeti named Eddy and an avalanche caused by an unknown-to-them space satellite (which was later revealed to be controlled by Robo-Robotnik). The friendly yeti, Eddy, taking advantage of the avalanche, rescues Sonic and Tails, bringing him to his castle, because, yes, this yeti has a castle. In this castle, we meet very important character Nate Morgan, an elderly Overlander (who, remember, are not humans).

Nate Morgan makes his debut

Nate Morgan quickly nurses Sonic and Tails back to life. Sonic, suspicious of the Overlander (which makes sense, since he's only known Overlanders who suck), tells him to back off, which startles Nate Morgan, who confuses Sonic for his father Jules the Hedgehog. Confused as to why this stranger knows his name, Sonic demands to know who he is, only to be interrupted by Ixis Naugus, who informs Sonic that the man is Nate Morgan, the key to Ixis Naugus' conquest of all of Mobius.

In the next chapter (65), Ixis Naugus attempts to convince Nate Morgan that he's the wronged party and that he was dragged into this battle by Eddy the Yeti. Nate Morgan doesn't believe him. I don't know why Ixis Naugus would think he would? It's established shortly after this that not only do Ixis Naugus and Nate Morgan know each other, but that Ixis Naugus' plots were what got Nate Morgan exiled from the Kingdom of Acorn in the first place! So, like, I don't really know why Ixis Naugus would think that he'd be able to bluff somebody as brilliant as Nate Morgan! Anyways, Ixis Naugus then nearly kills Sonic and Tails with his magic powers, but the cunning Nate Morgan tricks Ixis Naugus into pursuing what he thinks is a Power Ring (but really, it's a hologram). Shortly after that, Nate Morgan, important character whose been in a grand total of two issues so far, gives us his backstory!

Long ago, Nate Morgan was a scientist in the Overland city of Megaopolis. Nate Morgan, worked with a young scientist from a noble house, Julian Kintobor (hey, wait a minute…), to create a source of renewable energy. One day, after learning everything he thought he could from Nate Morgan, Julian Kintobor betrayed Nate, sabotaging one of his inventions and causing a huge explosion.

Nate Morgan betrayed by his protégé

Because nobody died and he had years of service to Overland, Nate Morgan wasn't imprisoned or executed; instead, he was exiled into the wild. Expecting to be killed by the Mobians, Nate Morgan was shocked to find that, instead, thanks to their King Fredrick, he was welcomed with open arms. Nate would quickly become a beloved advisor to the royal family and an honorary uncle to Prince Max, continuing his research. With access to a Chaos Emerald, Nate Morgan was able to bring the Acorn Kingdom into a new age of advancement, helping them bring their kingdom into a new industrial age powered by green energy. But most importantly, Nate Morgan invented the Power Ring. In the Archie Comic, Power Rings basically act as power enhancers, containing a small portion of the power a Chaos Emerald would have. Because of this, Power Rings are highly valuable because they give a significant strength and power boost to their wielder.

For his efforts, Nate Morgan was hailed as a hero to the Mobians. He would watch with pride as young Prince Max became King of the Acorn Kingdom, and, most importantly, he would take up a teaching position, molding young minds such as Sonic's father Jules as well as Sonic's uncle Charles. But the good times would not last. Unbeknownst to Nate and King Max, a conspiracy forged by two of the king's top advisors would bring down Nate Morgan. One of the two that would plot were Ixis Naugus himself, at the time the royal family's royal wizard who was jealous of Nate Morgan's brilliance and worried that his science would replace Ixis's magic. The other? Commander of the armed forces, Kodos, a giant burly Mobian influence by his hatred of all Overlanders.

The plan was simple. Kodos would, with a small band of soldiers, accompany Nate Morgan. They then took him to where they knew a small contingent of lost Overlander soldiers were (how they knew that there were Overlander soldiers lost in the woods is never explained). Ixis Naugus would use his power to enhance negative emotions to force a battle. After the battle, which only Kodos and Nate survived, Kodos lied to the royal family, claiming that it was Nate Morgan who tipped off the Overland troops to their position, a lie backed up by Ixis Naugus. The hope was probably that Nate Morgan would be executed, but, instead, wanting to spare his honorary nephew, King Max, who he loved like a son, from making an agonizing choice, Nate Morgan decided to go into self-exile.

Betrayed again, Nate Morgan once again goes into exile.

This is actually an important bit of information, because, in Issue 74, we learn part of the reason King Max was so trusting of Dr. Robotnik is because of how much he regretted letting Nate Morgan exile himself. Depressed with being exiled, Nate Morgan left for the snowy Southern Tundra, but not before getting rid of his Power Ring Forger. Fearing what could happen if it got into the hands of Kodos or Ixis Naugus, Nate Morgan dropped it into a murky river, hoping it would never be found… but instead it just kind of kept… making power rings? Which, like, this was a dumb plan anyways. He just left this thing that makes essentially portable magic powers in a river? Where anybody could find it? Dumb plan.

It's here that I would like to point out how strangely important Nate Morgan is. We have known Nate Morgan for an issue and a half at this point, and not only have we gotten his backstory, but he's like the most important character in the entire Sonic comic lore that's not like Eggman or Sonic. Think about it! This guy was:

  • A mentor to Dr. Robotnik.
  • A trusted advisor to King Max.
  • The man who brought The Acorn Kingdom into a new era of prosperity thanks to the advancements of green technology.
  • Inventor of the fucking Power Rings.
  • Teacher to future Minister of Science, Sir Charles the Hedgehog
  • Respected scientist in the Kingdom of Acorns who inadvertently brought Ixis Naugus into evil. Before Nate Morgan showed up, Ixis Naugus was content with his position as Royal Wizard, only conspiring with Kodos because he feared Nate's science would replace his magic.
  • This would actually lead to a snowball effect as revealed in issue 73, where Kodos trapped Ixis Naugus in the Zone of Silence, fearing that he would reveal their conspiracy. This made it so that there was nobody to keep the warmongering Kodos in check. Kodos would then take advantage of the increased tensions caused by the killing of Overlander soldiers during the conspiracy to fully provoke a war with the Overlanders.

It's just mindboggling to me how much importance is given to a character that, before this issue, had literally never been mentioned. But don't worry, because he and Sonic would instantly become best friends! Nate Morgan would reveal he had a whole stash of Power Rings! Unfortunately, Ixis Naugus would reveal himself once more, and, in the scuffle, all of Nate Morgan's Power Rings would be absorbed into Sonic, Tails, and Ixis Naugus. A great battle would occur and, at first, Sonic and Tails, being in their powered-up forms, had the advantage. But Ixis Naugus, more experienced with powers of this measure and having conquered the Zone of Silence, manages to outlast Sonic and Tails, using powerful magic that makes the Zone of Silence begin to leak into the world. This gives Ixis Naugus a great advantage, for Ixis Naugus is the master of the zone of silence. Soon, the power boost completely overwhelmed Sonic and Tails. Ixis Naugus would then attempt to kill Nate Morgan to eliminate another loose end, but Nate Morgan had one last trick up his sleeve and used a Power Ring hidden in his glasses to reseal Ixis Naugus back into the Zone of Silence.

Nate Morgan defeats Ixis Naugus.

Unfortunately, this came at a cost, for in doing so, this caused an avalanche inside the cave, and Eddy the Yeti would sacrifice his life to allow Sonic, Tails, and Nate Morgan to survive. After helping Sonic and Tails defeat Ixis Naugus, Nate Morgan agrees to return with them to Mobotropolis. After this, Nate Morgan begins to serve two roles in the comic book. He becomes pretty much the lead scientist/inventor of the Freedom Fighters, and he becomes the plot set-up man! Seriously, he sets up like four plots in the span of twenty issues.

A great example of him setting up plots is the very next issue, issue number 67. With Tails' plane running out of fuel (or ring power or whatever), Nate Morgan leads them to the lost temple of Shazamazon, where we learn that, at some point in the past, Nate Morgan:

  • Found this hidden temple
  • Broke into it
  • Stole the treasure inside of it (which was a legendary gem)
  • Used that gem to make a bunch of rings including this super powerful Ring of Acorns.
  • And left the Ring of Acorns in place of the gem.

They use the Ring of Acorns to power the plane, which allows them to return Mobotropolis. Oh, also, because I'm not going to talk about this later, the Ring of Acorns can apparently grant wishes! And before you ask, no, the wish is not used on literally anything cool. It's used to age Amy Rose up, lol.

I'm guessing that the Ring of Acorns was probably not originally meant to grant wishes. Here's what I think happened. Amy was originally much younger in the games, and then she was aged up when she returned in the 3D games. So my guess is that this was used as a way to square Amy's age with the games, as well as to give a better reason for Amy to play a more active role in the comic!

But anyways, enough about Amy Rose! It's time to get back to important character Nate Morgan! Sonic, Tails, and Nate made it back to Mobotropolis, with Nate in disguise so that his being an Overlander doesn't cause a panic. During King Max's announcement of the return of Prince Elias, leader of the secret service, Geoffrey St. John, removes the hood of Nate Morgan, accusing Nate Morgan of being an assassin sent to assassinate the royal family, only to be called off by King Max, who is overjoyed to see his Uncle Nate after all these years.

The joyful reunion of Nate Morgan and King Max (oh and Prince Elias is back or whatever).

After this, Nate Morgan would serve a number of roles in the comic. He gets kidnapped by a gang of villains and has to be rescued by Sonic and King Max's secret service. He fixes up a space shuttle so that the Freedom Fighters can defeat Robotnik's space satellites. When Bunnie starts suffering poisoning from her body rejecting her robot parts used in a failed attempt (by Robotnik, of course) to roboticize her, it's Nate Morgan who upgrades her body, allowing her to keep her robot parts. Nate Morgan helps save Knothole from a time distortion after it's discovered Knothole is three hours ahead of the rest of the world (don't ask). Nate Morgan hacks Eggman's computers, allowing the Freedom Fighters to figure out Eggman's next evil plan. Then Nate Morgan takes the Freedom Fighters to the Hidden City of the Ancients so that they can stop said plan. Nate Morgan even eats a chili dog with Sonic!

I pop huge every time Sonic's love of chili dogs is brought up.

Sadly, well, you know the saying "the brightest candle burns twice as fast," and, for important character Nate Morgan, that's exactly what happens! Starting in issue 92, when a large group of Overlanders return from, uh, outer space, things go awry. At first, Eggman is overjoyed to see his native race, but upon seeing his brother Colin among them, he decides he's going to roboticize all of them! Upon learning this fact in issue 99, Nate Morgan, though loyal to the Mobians, decides that he can't leave his people to die and resolves to save them. Oh, also, not only is Eggman planning on robotizing all the Overlanders, but he also, like, buried a bunch of toxic waste under his city that's slowly poisoning the Overlanders. So not only will he roboticize them, but they'll choose to be roboticized, is his plan, because Eggman is a dick! But before Nate Morgan leaves, he does inform the Acorn Royal Family that Eggman no longer has the Sword of Acorn, and that the spider ninja Arachnis has it instead.

The Sword of Acorn, by the way, is the magic artifact that everyone wants right now. For some reason, it has magical powers because of its link to the Source of All (oh god, the fucking Source of All, we'll get to that!). Apparently, it can also return free will to roboticized Mobians for some reason. I don't know why the sword would have that ability, but it does! For lore reasons!


Main character Nate Morgan just decides to try walking into Robotopolis. He's immediately captured because… uh, of course. I don't know why he'd think he could just walk in? Once again, dumb plan. Upon being captured, Eggman asks brilliant scientist Nate Morgan if he could explain why It is that when a Mobian is roboticized they become a mindless slave, but roboticizing an Overlander instead turns them into an immobile statue. Before Nate Morgan can answer, he's rescued by Uncle Chuck and Muttski (Sonic's dog), who were playing the role of double agents. Taking advantage of this distraction, as well as Sonic and Princess Sally defeating Eggman's swatbots and using the Sword of Acorn to restore free will to all the Mobian robots, Nate Morgan manages to subdue Snively and bring down the force field that had trapped everyone inside the city. Unfortunately, Nate Morgan would pay dearly for his heroics, as Eggman furious roboticizes Nate Morgan, who solemnly accepts his fate, knowing that he dies protecting his people.

Nate Morgan's final sacrifice

Turned into an immobile statue by Eggman, Nate Morgan could do no more to help either the Freedom Fighters or protect his people. Interestingly enough, despite being turned into an immobile robot, we would still get one more physical appearance from main character Nate Morgan. In issue 101, thanks to the continuing changes of reality brought upon by an unknown energy source, Nate Morgan briefly returns to life to inform the Freedom Fighters that these shifts in reality are not caused by Eggman, reasoning that Eggman would never do something this unpredictable. Nate Morgan would turn out to be correct, with the reality distortions being caused by the power of future topic, fucking Chaos Knuckles. Then In issue 105, Sonic and Princess Sally attempt to restore Nate Morgan's free will by using the Sword of Acorn, but, unfortunately, the sword doesn't work on Overlanders for unexplained reasons. Although there are some musings about finding a way to restore all the Overlanders' free wills, they're dropped pretty quickly as a Nuke Strike from Secret Station would destroy Robotropolis and all of the Roboticized Overlanders with it, this including Nate Morgan, who is now sadly deader than dead.

Interestingly enough, this wasn't originally supposed to be the end for Nate Morgan. While head writer Karl Bollers disliked the character (more on that below), he still wasn't quite ready to give up on him for some reason. Originally, Nate Morgan was going to survive the Nuclear Strike from Station Square. Or, more specifically, his robot statue was going to. Then the Bem (oh god, I'm going to have to talk about Bem someday) were going to return Nate Morgan back to his flesh form. Except this was going to render Nate Morgan amnesic. The plan from there was that Nate Morgan was going to be found by the returning Badniks led by Coconut. Coconut was then going to trick Nate Morgan into building robotic versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. These robots were going to be the main villains of a planned arc set to start in issue 150. But these plans never materialized, as Karl Bollers left the comic after one too many clashes with Ken Penders. As such, important character Nate Morgan remained dead never to return!

I would argue Nate Morgan is the most perplexing major character in the Sonic comic. Like, he comes in with all this fanfare, being connected to all these characters, but after his debut he immediately fades into more of a background role. Like, yes, he stays "important" for his entire brief run, but he really doesn't! He basically exists to set up plots, like the Lost Temple of Shazamazon or leading the Freedom Fighters to the Hidden City of the Ancients. But even in those roles, once they kick off, he doesn't really do anything. He's there, but he's given such a lesser role compared to the other Freedom Fighters.

His whole gimmick is that he's this brilliant inventor, but the comic is swimming in inventors. You've got Rotor, who is the head mechanic of the Freedom Fighters. You've got Sir Charles, who is a brilliant scientist in his own right. And you've even got Tails, who is also a super smart inventor. So Nate Morgan's big thing is something that's done by three other characters. It's clear that the intent was that he was supposed to be Robotnik if Robotnik was good, but it's just as clear that they didn't really have any ideas for him after that. It doesn't help that he was, by Karl's own admittance, one of Karl Bollers' least favorite characters, described by Karl Bollers as "a walking plot device". Which is honestly a true description! The Freedom Fighters need to get into space? Don't worry, Nate Morgan managed to fix up a rocket shuttle he found. Oh, we need to know what Eggman is up to? Don't worry, Nate Morgan managed to hack Eggman's computers and just happens to know where this hidden colony of Overlanders is!

I think Nate Morgan is a classic "and then what?" character. They had a concept, they introduced it, they built it up, and then realized they didn't have any ideas for it. Because of that, Nate Morgan never really gets fleshed out as a character. He's just a friendly old scientist. Like I said, I think the role he supposed to play is being the good version of Robotnik, but it gets undercut by the fact that the Freedom Fighters already have inventors, so he kinds of gets reduced to this boring plot device. So, it's really no surprise and, sadly, no big loss for the comic that he was written out so quickly. It does give him a very unusual story, though, and now you know that story – the story of Nate Morgan, important character.

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers, and welcome to another edition of The 'Shroom Report! Last time, a lot of stuff happened! This time, not much stuff happened. Such is the ebb and flow of The 'Shroom. Anyway, here's the data I was able to gather from Issue 201. Thanks as always to Meta Knight for maintaining our spreadsheets!

As a reminder, here's how this works:

​
  • First-Time Writers lists everyone who wrote their first section for The 'Shroom in the previous issue. This isn't applicable, so it's absent this month.
  • Milestones covers certain section numbers reached in the previous issue. Writers are mentioned for every 10 sections written in a team and every 50 sections written overall, teams are mentioned for every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom itself is mentioned for every 500 sections.
  • Most Sections Written lists the current all-time record holders.
Milestones
Writer/Team Milestone
Waluigi Time (talk) 110 Fake News sections
60 Palette Swap sections
30 Strategy Wing sections
winstein (talk) 50 overall sections
Main/Staff 2,200 sections
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News MCD (talk) 148
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 129
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 191
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 174
Strategy Wing Yoshi876 (talk) 115
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
The oldest section currently being written is Sport Report in Fake News. It was introduced all the way back in The 'Shroom's second issue, simply under the name Sports.

What's in a Campaign?

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello and welcome back to What's in a Campaign?, a section where we look at various robots from the hit BBC show Robot Wars. Last month, we looked at one of my all-time favorite robots, the full-body spinner/awkwardly-shaped ram bot, Corkscrew. This month, we return to Series 3 (a Series we spend a disproportionate amount of time looking at, it seems) to look at a robot that's very near and dear to my heart. That's right! Napalm's back, babyyyyyyyy!

The return of Napalm, my beloved <3

After their surprising Top ten finish (nearly a top eight finish!), the Dartford Girls Grammar School team return with Napalm, who is the same as it ever was! That's not hyperbole, either; Napalm is quite literally unchanged from Series 2. They didn't even buff out the damage it took to its titanium shell! God, I love this robot. Napalm sports the wiggliest titanium armor. Its main weapon is, in reality, its plow-like shape. At the back are two mandibles which act as its main weapon even though they aren't even supposed to be weapons (they were supposed to be used to control a chainsaw that was mounted on the back). Why isn't there a chainsaw? Well, the chainsaw fell off during their gauntlet run in Series 2 and never got put back on! I love Napalm so much!

Despite looking like it's going to fall apart to a slight breeze, Napalm is actually quite durable. The armor has a lot of give to it and, because of that, it actually absorbs a lot of punishment, allowing Napalm's innards to stay protected. In addition, while Napalm isn't the fastest machine (with a top speed of 15mph), it has decent pushing power thanks to the plow at the front. Also, during Series 3 teacher David Crosby reveals Napalm cost 5,000 pounds to build… which, like, lol, there's no way that's true!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. This month, we don't have a video of just Napalm's fights. Instead, we have a video of the Heat it was in. If you wish to watch along, timestamps will be provided.

As a returning Semi-Finalist from Series 2, Napalm was given an automatic qualifier into Series 3. As we all know, Series 3 changed the way Robot Wars worked, switching the series to its more well-known all-combat focus, with Series 3 specifically consisting of nothing but 1v1 fights, for better or worse (worse). Placed in Heat G, Napalm would be placed against the tracked lifter that is Kater Killer.

This fight (9:35) is one of the classic dumb Napalm fights that make Napalm steal my heart so :). Napalm immediately gets to the side of Kater Killer. who started the fight backwards for some reason. I think Kater Killer gets stuck on the plow of Napalm. because it can't get away. Then we get a classic Robot Wars fight edit. because suddenly Kater Killer is behind Napalm! But Napalm in reverse, mind you, and so is easily pushing the tracked machine slowly around the arena. Now, that might not sound impressive, but the thing is that pushing a tracked machine shouldn't really be possible. Tracks are supposed to give you better grip on the arena, and better grip means that you're going to have an easier job pushing things around while not getting pushed around yourself. With Kater Killer, no, that's not what happens at all. Instead, Napalm nearly pushes Kater Killer down the pit.

Napalm coming sorta close to pitting its opponent!

But this is a Napalm fight, so Kater Killer is able to slowly get away, because, I mean, Napalm winning a fight in decisive fashion? Are you mad??? The two robots separate, and Kater Killer gets to the side of Napalm. Despite this, it's still not able to push Napalm around! It's not like Kater Killer is this super light robot either. It only weighs 4kg less than Napalm. The two robots then kind of just go around in circles as this fight goes to a judges' decision.

This fight went a full five minutes and was only two robots just lightly pushing each other around! God, please somebody release the unedited footage, because I need to see this! It's a pretty easy decision by the judges. I mean, Kater Killer did literally nothing that entire fight. The judges give the fight to Napalm and the crowd starts thunderously booing! I don't know if they're booing because they think Kater Killer won the fight or if they're booing because they realize this means they have to watch more fucking Napalm fights. It's probably the latter, because Napalm outright wins this fight. The audience might be unhappy, but I'm thrilled as we head for Napalm's second round fight against another newcomer, the animal-themed piggy bot, Robopig.

Before their fight with Robopig, during the pre-match interview, the little snot-nosed brat on Robopig's team says Napalm looks like a pile of junk! The nerve of him… Oh, wait. David Crosby (and the Robot Wars community) agrees with him, calling the comparison spot on! Still, after those vicious slanderous words, the fight (30:17) begins with the two robots ponderously driving towards each other before clashing in the middle of the arena! Robopig, who is slower but more maneuverable, takes an early advantage, getting to the side of Napalm and attacking it with its dreaded hinged spike! Robopig pushes Napalm around by its side before attempting to strike at the back of Napalm.

The pig pushes around the pile of junk!

This allows Napalm to use its fearsome mandibles (as Johnthan Pearce called them during the Napalm hype package at the beginning of the show). These mandibles bounce right off the plastic barrel Robopig was using as armor, doing nothing! Robopig shrugs off Napalm's mighty attack and again rams Napalm on its broadside. This time, Robopig pushes Napalm into the CPZ, where Shunt attacks Napalm with his axe. To Napalm's credit, the armor doesn't buckle; instead, the axe sort of just bounces off. Robopig again lands a mighty shove onto Napalm's side and attempts to push Napalm back into the CPZ, but this time Napalm manages to trick Robopig into entering the CPZ, where, this time, Shunt lands axe blows into the pig. Yet the robots escape, and Robopig attempts to go back on the attack. Robopig begins to push Napalm slowly, but then Robopig goes too fast and ends up riding up the plow of Napalm.

The pile of junk topples the pig!

Robopig ends up fully driving up the plow of Napalm and ends up stuck on its back, unable to land back on its wheels, only being saved from landing on its back by its spring tail. Robopig reverses with the hope of using its speed to force momentum to allow it to land back on its wheels, but, instead, Robopig falls on its back, unable to right itself. Napalm actually wins a fight via KO from its own efforts!

This win puts it in the Heat Final, on the cusp of another remarkable Semi-Final run. In the Heat Final, Napalm faces off against the dark horse of the Heat, Steg-O-Saw-Us. Originally a reserve who only got placed in this Heat after the breakdown of fellow dinosaur-themed robot T-Wrecks, the mighty wrecking dino Steg-O-Saw-Us dominated its fights, defeating both Orac's Revenge and Henry by knockout with ease. The Heat Final (36:55) starts with some tentative action as Steg-O-Saw-Us gets an early shove in on Napalm. Steg-O-Saw-Us then goes on the offensive by quickly getting to the back of Napalm and, with a full head of steam, slamming Napalm into the wall of the CPZ, causing Napalm to scrunch up from the force.

Steg-O-Saw-Us crumpling Napalm like a can

The slam causes Napalm to get stuck on top of Steg-O-Saw-Us, who takes advantage by slamming Napalm again into the wall, this time dislodging Napalm. Steg-O-Saw-Us continues on with its attack, ramming into Napalm and preventing it from escaping the CPZ, following up by hitting Napalm right on the plow, causing Napalm to spin in a circle from the force. Napalm recovers from this assault and pushes Steg-O-Saw-Us into the arena wall. The two robots are wedged together, so the House Robots attempts to push them apart, but in doing so they inadvertently cause Steg-O-Saw-Us to get even more stuck on its side.

So close to another Semi-Final…

Napalm nearly wins the fight right here. Just a few more inches and Steg-O-Saw-Us will topple onto the wall and be unable to right itself. But Napalm just can't quite finish the job, and Steg-O-Saw-Us ends up back on its wheels. Back on its wheels, Steg-O-Saw-Us continues to batter Napalm, landing slam after slam onto Napalm as bits and pieces of Napalm's armor hang by threads. Steg-O-Saw-Us batters Napalm all around the arena before landing it into the CPZ, into Sir Killalot's territory. Sir Killalot impales Napalm on its lance before slamming it into the arena wall.

A battered Napalm fights to the bitter end.

But despite all the punishment Napalm has taken, it still fights on. Its grates are buckled and its plow is barely hanging on, but still Napalm fights. Napalm manages to get around Steg-O-Saw-Us and push it into Sir Killalot, but the speedy dino manages to get away before once again throwing Napalm into the arena wall. Steg-O-Saw-Us continues its attack, but can't put away Napalm as the clock counts down and the fight goes to the judges.

This is only a judges' decision legally. Steg-O-Saw-Us dominated that fight from start to finish and easily secured the victory, but despite being dominated, this is probably Napalm's best fight. Napalm, despite taking a ton of damage, despite its armor being completely destroyed, despite being thrown around the arena from wall to wall, never breaks down. It's still mobile the whole fight. It's incredible the amount of damage Napalm took while still able to just keep fighting. There are even brief moments where it's on the offensive. Hell, it was a couple of inches away from outright winning the fight!

This is where I've never really understood Napalm's reputation as this all-time terrible robot. Is Napalm great? No, obviously not, and, yes, by Series 5, Napalm is a pretty bad machine. But in Series 2 and 3, Napalm is a perfectly average robot, and one that's competently built and never breaks down (outside of one single fight in Series 2). No matter how much punishment it takes, it keeps chugging along. Despite its reputation, Napalm is involved in one of the best fights in Series 3, and whatever you want to say about its Heat Final fight in Series 2 (which even I'll admit it shouldn't have won), Napalm made back-to-back Heat Finals through its own efforts, which is something a lot of better robots can't claim!

Napalm would never really find success again. There was an upgraded version called Shadow of Napalm… that didn't really work. I've heard that, basically, they made the shell the wrong size, which caused severe mobility issues.

A somewhat-worthy successor
Coming soon to a Pipe Plaza section near you!

Then they'd bring back Napam for Robot Wars Extreme 1 and Series 5… sort of. In the later parts of Extreme 1 and Series 5, they were using a "new" version of Napalm, officially called Napalm 2 but always referred to as Napalm. Napalm 2 had a new armor shell and a slightly better weapon system, but I think it had most of the same innards as the original Napalm. By this point, Napalm was a pretty poor robot, but the team leaned into it, having more of a fun and gimmicky vibe to them. Despite being pretty poor robots, neither Shadow of Napalm nor Napalm 2 went out in the first round of Series 4 or 5, with Shadow of Napalm making it through its first round fight in surprising fashion after future heat finalist and Annihilator champion Disc-O-Inferno broke down. Napalm 2, meanwhile, scored a huge upset victory over fullbody spinner Warhog via judges' decision after Warhog's spinner failed to work.

I genuinely love Napalm. It's one of my favorite robots. The fact that no matter how bad it gets, it always finds a way to make it out of the first round, I find that just delightful. Napalm even has one of my all-time favorite fights, its mayhem fight against The Spider and Gemini in Extreme 1, which I will cover someday!

Is Napalm this great robot? No, it's not, but that's not a bad thing. The team behind it wasn't exactly a team of engineers. This was a fun little project for them, and they must have loved it, because they were in every series from Series 1 to Series 5/Extreme 1. And it's not like they took themselves too seriously. They knew what Napalm was, and, by the end of their time, they were leaning into it really hard. I love Napalm. I love every iteration of the machine… unless you count the team's first robot, Detonator. I don't like that robot. The Napalm machines other than it, though, are just these mediocre-to-poor machines that have disproportionate success, and I love it!

That's all for this month! Join us next month when we look at another robot!

The 'Shroom: Issue 202
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Directorial Address
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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