The 'Shroom:Issue 211/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom211Zange.png

Spooky Scary 'Shroom Sections Send Shivers Down Your Spine

Happy Spooky Season, friends! I hope you've been enjoying our Anton Special Issue and Costume Party so far! Naturally, I've decided to dress up as a character from one of my favorite spooky movies. If the raincoat didn't give it away, I'm Coraline Jones! Maybe I can talk my roommates into watching Coraline with me when we do our spooky movie night, I haven't watched it in a hot minute and it's such a good one...

If you're reading this on release day, I'm currently in my hometown for the weekend! Some of my friends and I are going on our Annual Friend Trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze. I say Annual but I don't think it happened last year... But we're doing it for sure this year though! We've had this planned since August and I'm very excited. We're heading to a different pumpkin patch this year than we have before but I still think it'll be a good time!

Anyways, it's time for the spoooookiest fact ever: this issue has the LAST Anniversary Announcements of the year! AAAAAHHHHH!!! But you know what's not spooky? The fact that we're always accepting applications for writers to write new sections for us! You could write about the history of every Halloween candy ever!! Or basically anything else you can think of!!! Just head on over to the sign up page to get started.

Have a spook-tacular rest of the month~

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Waluigi Time (talk) with Awards Analysis! Second place is Hooded Pitohui (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion! Finally, third place is Shoey (talk) with Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Awards Analysis 4 30.77% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd Poll Committee Discussion 3 23.08% Hooded Pitohui (talk)
3rd Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox 2 15.38% Shoey (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
MightyMario (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Lakituthequick (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
Awards Analysis
Waluigi Time (talk)
Awards may have come and gone, but let's talk about the results!
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)
Oh baby a TRIPLE
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hey everyone, welcome to Mario Calendar's October installment! I absolutely love this time of year - the vibes are immaculate, and the vibes only get better from here on out for the rest of the year. This month, I've been thinking back on the anniversary of Mario Odyssey - can y'all believe that was 7 years ago?? Time has FLOWN by, and it's only getting faster. Anyways, let's see what else came out this month.

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

I can never believe this month when we get to it!! Mario Odyssey and Wonder are the two magnum opuses of Switch-era Super Mario. Obviously, there isn't much more than that besides Bowser's Fury (which is amazing in its own right), but the point is, THESE ARE REALLY GOOD GAMES. Which means October is Nintendo's Mario month! This is where they put the mainline releases, and it's awesome to see that sort of consistency. It seems like they always have something - this month, the new Mario Party is coming out! Is that any good, by the way?

And let's not forget the games of old that have graced this month! The North American release of Super Mario Bros.? The Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 3? What a great month for Mario. And I hope it's a great month for you too! See you next time :)

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: MightyMario (talk)

Hello, MarioWiki! It's MightyMario with the latest edition of Poll Committee Discussion! Let's get right into it!

Archives

All Paper Mario games have had a partner who uses a "Tattle" function to describe the area you're in or foes and NPCs. Which is your favorite? (MightyMario (talk), September 14th, 2024)

All Paper Mario games have had a partner who uses a "Tattle" function to describe the area you're in or foes and NPCs. Which is your favorite?

Goombella 44.47% (982 votes)
I like them all. 11.50% (254 votes)
Goombario 11.05% (244 votes)
Tippi/Tiptron 10.60% (234 votes)
I have no opinion. 9.28% (205 votes)
Olivia 6.48% (143 votes)
Huey 4.35% (96 votes)
I don't like any of them. 1.13% (25 votes)
Kersti 1.13% (25 votes)
Total Votes: 2,208

Where do you most prefer boss fights to occur in 3D Super Mario platformers? (Hooded Pitohui (talk), September 28th, 2024)

Where do you most prefer boss fights to occur in 3D Super Mario platformers?

I have no preference as to what range boss fights span. 37.67% (657 votes)
In a dedicated "arena" space cordoned off from the rest of the level (e.g., Torkdrift or Dino Piranha). 23.39% (408 votes)
In a relatively small arena space, but one that's directly integrated into the rest of the level (e.g., King Bob-omb or the Chill Bully) 17.95% (313 votes)
Across a large portion of the existing level (e.g., Phantamanta or Mollusque-Lanceur) 11.24% (196 votes)
In a level almost entirely designed and used specifically for the battle (e.g., Hisstocrat or Kingfin) 9.75% (170 votes)
Total Votes: 1,744

Analysis

All Paper Mario games have had a partner who uses a "Tattle" function to describe the area you're in or foes and NPCs. Which is your favorite?

Goombella in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch).
Everyone's favorite tattle partner!

This poll was created by me using an external submission. The top consensus is that Goombella is the one people like the most, with the other Goomba partner, Goombario, in third place, as second place was filled by voters who liked all of the partners. Tippi and her robotic replacement Tiptron came in fourth place, the voters who had no opinion on the partners in fifth, Olivia folding into sixth, Huey splashing into seventh, the voters who don't like any of the partners taking eighth, and finally the partner with no a-peel, Kersti, in ninth place. It seems that the partners from before ""Sticker Star"" are seen as better to most of the pollers.

Where do you most prefer boss fights to occur in 3D Super Mario platformers?

Mario and King Bob-omb dueling on Bob-omb Battlefield.
Mario's first foray into the 3D added new dimensions to boss fights.

This poll was made by everyone's favorite bird/blue Toady, Hooded Pitohui, and focuses on where boss fights take place. Surprisingly, the top choice was that no one minds where the fight takes place! In second place, we have the fight taking place in an "arena", sectioned off from the rest of the level, followed by the choice for a smaller "arena" (pretty soon it'll just be Mario and the boss in a tiny circle). In fourth place, voters preferred if the fight spanned across the level, using the location as an arena. Finally in last place, we have the fight taking place in a separate level built for the boss, which is the least popular choice.

This has been Poll Committee Discussion and we'll see you next time with more polls!

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“Scribble, but my opponents keep having their second tier awakening when they receive the prompt.”
—Ninelevendo (talk · Boards)

Hello and welcome to another spooky episode of Anniversary Announcements, where the spooky part involves the shortness this edition has this month.

I do have to give a shoutout to Anton though for this edition, as he has helmed the Mario Awards for many years and lifted the quality to a high we still can enjoy today. Here's to many more issues! 🎃✨🎇

Tournaments

Only one activity needs to be reported on for this year's tournament scene.

THE Scribble Smorgasbord
The fifth and final round has been drawn, and we have another winner: congratulations to GBA for having a flawless 5-0 record this year!
A sixth bonus round was also played in which players could optionally match up with opponents of choice with additional agreed-upon play rules. These do not count for the final scores, but have displayed another great and interesting set of scribbles that are definitely worth checking out.

With that, we are done awardsing this year! We and I hope to see you again next year for another great season of awards. Have a good one!

Awards Analysis

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Waluigi Time here again with another edition of the new and hopefully improved Awards Analysis. This month, we have a special Super Mario Bros. Wonder themed edition with two of our new awards from this year, M11. Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level and M12. Favorite Wonder Effect!

Archives

M11. Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level

M11. Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level

The Final Battle! Bowser's Rage Stage 20.06% (248 votes)
Welcome to the Flower Kingdom! 11.73% (145 votes)
The Final-Final Test Badge Marathon 9.95% (123 votes)
The Final Test Wonder Gauntlet 9.87% (122 votes)
High-Voltage Gauntlet 6.63% (82 votes)
Color-Switch Dungeon 6.47% (80 votes)
Maw-Maw Mouthful 4.29% (53 votes)
Piranha Plants on Parade 4.13% (51 votes)
The Hoppycat Trial: Hop, Hop, and Awaaay 3.48% (43 votes)
Secrets of Shova Mansion 2.99% (37 votes)
Total Votes: 1,236

M12. Favorite Wonder Effect

M12. Favorite Wonder Effect

Singing Piranha Plants 25.05% (364 votes)
Wubba transformation 9.15% (133 votes)
Metal transformation 8.74% (127 votes)
Top-down perspective 8.53% (124 votes)
Jumping to the rhythm 7.71% (112 votes)
Musical Ghost House 5.78% (84 votes)
Ancient Dragon 5.30% (77 votes)
Goomba transformation 5.02% (73 votes)
Quiz 4.47% (65 votes)
Zero-gravity/floating in the air 4.27% (62 votes)
Total Votes: 1,453

Analysis

M11. Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level

The battle with Castle Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Wonder
So he turned himself into a castle? Big deal, now he can only move in two directions.

Naturally, Super Mario Bros. Wonder needed some special representation this year since it was the biggest release in the Awards cycle, but there was quite a bit of discussion leading up to these awards coming to be. Obviously, we ended up with awards for both levels and Wonder Effects, but at first we were discussing it as an either/or question. This was mostly because of how intrinsically tied they both are, and the possibility of redundancy between the results. We actually went with Wonder Effect first, but we also added Wonder Level in the following meeting thanks to some convincing arguments from TPG afterward. Aside from Wonder being the big release of the year, Wonder Effects are often reused and used better in some levels than others, limiting the awards to just Wonder Effect would mean that levels that used multiple effects or none at all would be unrepresented, and the levels have their own merits aside from the Wonder Effects.

Based on the results, it seems like the concerns of overlap were unfounded (although I suspect it would be different if Piranha Plants on Parade wasn't limited to write-ins). In the top four, we have two levels that use a medley of Wonder Effects instead of just one (The Final Battle! Bowser's Rage Stage and The Final Test Wonder Gauntlet), one with no Wonder Effects at all (The Final-Final Test Badge Marathon), and sort of an odd one out, Welcome to the Flower Kingdom!, the first level in the game. I'd say that one got by on its own merits of being iconic to a lot of players, and not just skating by on its Wonder Effect. As a matter of fact, Inchworm Pipes only made it to 12th place on Favorite Wonder Effect. It looks like the bookends of this game were the most memorable to players, and there's only a one vote difference between the Badge Marathon and Wonder Gauntlet!

Now, correlation between those two in the top ten isn't entirely non-existent. In fifth place we have High-Voltage Gauntlet, which features Metal Mario as its Wonder Effect, and that one took third on Favorite Wonder Effect. We also have Maw-Maw Mouthful and the Goomba transformation in both top tens. But other than the Elephant Fruit in the room that I'll address in a minute, that's really all the direct overlap there is. I have to admit, I'm impressed that the voter base as a whole seemed to grasp what we were going for here with the separation, because sometimes they don't really want to do that as my fellow directing staff who saw all the Bowser write-ins on Favorite Boss Battle the past two years can attest.

Anyway, that Elephant Fruit in the room, Piranha Plants on Parade! If you paid attention to Wonder discourse, you probably know that this was one of the game's more iconic levels. It wasn't an official nominee, but it got a whole lot of write-ins, earning the Most Written-In Bonus Star and everything! I can't speak for everyone else on the Awards Committee, but for myself, I intentionally avoided nominating Piranha Plants on Parade for Wonder Level because, if we're being honest, its popularity is carried by the funny singing plants from the Wonder Effect. Imagine that taken away, and it's not a particularly interesting or noteworthy level anymore. Since we had a Favorite Wonder Effect award, it made more sense to leave it over there.

Usually awards that are specific to a game are one-and-done because nothing really changes, the game is out and people have their opinions already. I think this one might just have another year left in it, though. Even though Bowser's Rage Stage has a nearly 10% lead of the votes, Piranha Plants on Parade has the potential to be a juggernaut in the results as a full nominee, and there were a few other write-ins that did decently well relative to some of our lower placing nominees too. After all, the Awards Committee is far from infallible on what's popular, especially for a new award like this one. Sometimes it takes the write-in votes to sort things out for us!

M12. Favorite Wonder Effect

Piranha Plants on Parade level thumbnail
We're really giving them something to parade about!

Looks like I've picked two awards that were heavily tied together in discussions again, because I don't really have anything left to say about where Favorite Wonder Effect came from! If you're only reading this analysis and skipped M11 right up there for some reason, you should probably go read that. So, singing Piranha Plants won, which was probably an easy guess (one of these years someone should bring back Guess the Results), and it won by a lot! At 25.05%, it's one of only four nominees in the Mario Awards to win with more than a quarter of the vote this year (the others are Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Bros. Wonder curbstomping their competition on 3D Platformer and Modern Game, and 2D Platformer respectively).

Besides Piranha Plants running away with all the votes, there's some pretty close results below it! There's only a difference of 9 votes between the 2nd and 4th placements. I'm kind of surprised that the Wubba transformation managed to beat out Metal Mario here, mostly because the latter has nostalgia going for it. They even brought back the theme from Super Mario 64! At the same time, Metal Mario is basically just "you don't die now", while Wubba is more unique in its gameplay style. Top-down perspective is another interesting one to see placing so high, and I think it's because the gameplay isn't really something that's been seen in Mario games before. I guess you get top-down perspective in the 3D games sometimes, but it's not like it changes how you play. Looking at these results overall, it seems like the most popular Wonder Effects are the ones that shake up gameplay a lot or at least give you a big spectacle that sticks with you long after you've beaten the game.

Unlike Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level, I don't think there's much chance of seeing this one coming back for another year. Singing Piranha Plants had an even bigger margin of victory than Bowser's Rage Stage, and there's not any strong contenders in the write-ins. So congratulations to Piranha Plants on your ultimate victory, at least until Super Mario Bros. Wonder 2 comes out, maybe.

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed this wonderful edition of Awards Analysis! Next month we'll be turning things over to everyone's favorite bird Hooded Pitohui for some more analyses.

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! It's time to report things again. Aside from the usual statistics, this issue marks Anton's 100th in the Critic Corner Director position! You probably know that already, considering this entire issue is dedicated to that. If this section is somehow your first time hearing about it though, you win the 'Shroom equivalent of those achievements in video games that get patched in after someone does something that the developers never thought anyone could actually do. Anyway, back to the usual stuff, here's everything from Issue 210! Thanks to Meta Knight for the spreadsheet upkeep as always!

For new readers or anyone needing a refresher, please open the box below.

​

Categories that are not applicable this month are crossed out.

  • First-Time Writers lists everyone who wrote their first section for The 'Shroom in the previous issue.
  • New Sections lists recurring sections that started their run in the previous issue. This includes returning sections that previously went inactive.
  • Guest Sections lists one-off submissions from the previous issue.
  • 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.
First-Time Writers
Writer Section
Fizzle Life of the Party
New Sections
Section Writer
Dry Dry Data DryBonesBandit (talk)
Fungal Forager's Field Guide Shoey (talk) and Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Awards Analysis 14th Poll Committee
Life of the Party Fizzle
The Peanuts Sessions Waluigi Time (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
News Flush Waluigi Time (talk)
News Flush Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Mouser's Bomb Blast Boo1268
Random Image of the Month Shoey (talk)
TV Tomorrow Tribute Waluigi Time (talk)
Shoey's Shoetacular Reviews Shoey (talk)
Setting the Stage Hooded Pitohui (talk)
TV Tomorrow Commentary Tracks Quizmelon (talk)
Milestones
Writer/Team Milestone
FunkyK38 (talk) 200 Palette Swap sections
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 60 Fake News sections
Legend 8 10 Fake News sections
Quizmelon (talk) 100 Fake News sections
Shoey (talk) 20 Main/Staff sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 30 Pipe Plaza sections
Main/Staff 2,300 sections
Fun Stuff 1,400 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) 145
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 200
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 192
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 117
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
With a total of 97 Section of the Month awards, Anton is the closest writer to reaching the milestone of 100 wins, a distinction currently only held by Yoshi876. Impressively, those awards come from just two sections - Dear Anton and Anton's Half-Baked Reviews.

What's in a Campaign?

Written By: Shoey (talk)

Hello and welcome back to What's in a Campaign? a section where I take a look at various individual campaigns from the hit BBC show Robot Wars. It's been a little over a year since we looked at robots that could have done better, so this month I've decided we're going to take a look at three robots that fell before they should have thanks to bad luck, bad draws, or close decisions. For our three robots, we have V-Max from Series 4, GBH 2 from Series 6, and finally Corkscrew also from Series 6. As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Because these robots didn't make it very far in the tournament, they didn't exactly qualify for their own "best of" videos, so two of these robots will have general heat videos with timestamps provided below.

Starting in chronological order, we've got V-Max, a robot created by the engineers Mick Pearce and Richard Drayson. Weighing 77.5 kg and powered by two Bosch 750W GPA drive motors, V-Max is a classic earlier-style front-hinge flipper similar to Cassius or Firestorm. CO2-powered with the power being provided by a paintball canister, V-Max is capable of flipping over any opponent in the field, and the pneumatic ram also allows it to self-right! Relatively quick for the time, V-Max has no problems driving around the arena, but its armor is thin aluminum which was still pretty standard for the time!

Flipping power to the max!

Unique among robots that we've covered, V-Max didn't actually originally qualify for Series 4! V-Max fought in three qualifier battles, defeating a robot called 5 of 7 before blowing a fuse against Braveheart and being flipped over for dead by an unnamed robot (none of these other robots qualified either). V-Max was instead invited to be a reserve, which basically amounted to "hey, hang around in case some other robot goes tits up before the first round". Now, other series, such as Series 2, 3, and Extreme, provided events that reserves could participate in separately from the main series, but not Series 4! In Series 4, the only way to appear was to qualify for Series 4. But during the last heat (Heat P), Series 3 Heat Finalist Onslaught suffered a catastrophic breakdown and was unable to compete. Their loss was V-Max's gain because, in the last heat of the show, V-Max was selected to compete in the competition.

V-Max would face off against another returning Series 3 heat finalist, the 18th-seeded dog of war Cerberus, as well as newcomer raging bull Terror-Bull! V-Max starts the fight (1:49) by quickly darting off the line. V-Max lands a little shove onto Cerberus before crashing into the wall and then throwing itself into Matilda's tusks, but don't worry, this is pre-Series 5 Matilda so she's basically worthless. V-Max escapes Matilda but in the process Terror-Bull gets to its side and attempts to flip it, but it barely gets V-Max off the ground at all.

V-Max telling Cerberus to lie down

I think there's a classic odd Robot Wars edit, because in one second V-Max is alone driving far away from the action while trying to drive back into the action, but in the next cut it's stopped as Cerberus drives over its flipper. With one flip, V-Max puts Cerberus on its back. It's a beautifully clean front-hinge flipper flip; Firestorm would be proud. Cerberus cannot self-right, so V-Max, who wasn't even supposed to be in this tournament, scores a huge upset victory, not only making it to the second round but KOing a seeded former heat finalist in the process!

Unfortunately, the good times for V-Max would be short lived, because their second round opponent is none other than the second seed, the destructive Hypno-Disc! Determined to go out fighting, V-Max starts its fight with Hypno-Disc (5:21) by charging straight as Hypno-Disc as Hypno-Disc attempts to get a little distance so they can speed up their disc. They managed to get to the side of Hypno-Disc, but they can't quite get under Hypno-Disc, who escapes. Hypno-Disc now has their disc at full speed and charges at V-Max, hitting them on the side and tearing off an entire side panel in one hit.

You know, a lot of robots didn't even get this much offense against Hypno-Disc.

Hypno-Disc quickly lands a second attack on the other side panel, but doesn't quite do as much damage! In the process of all this, Hypno-Disc does severe damage to V-Max's CO2 system and CO2 comes pouring out. Hypno-Disc keeps on the attack, tearing away more armor for the unexposed side of V-Max. Driving around the arena, V-Max crashes into the arena spike, appearing to get stuck, which lets Hypno-Disc get an uncontested shot, fully tearing off the other side panel (it's a bad fight for side panels). But V-Max refuses to quit and charges at Hypno-Disc, this time getting completely under its side! Unfortunately, by this point, the flipper of V-Max is completely broken down, so all V-Max can do is drive Hypno-Disc into the arena wall.

Stop, please! V-Max has a family!

V-Max flees to try and line up and attack before V-Max and Hypno-Disc meet weapon-to-weapon, which you'd think would favor Hypno-Disc, but actually neither side really gets anything out the exchange as the two just bounce off each other! By this point, V-Max is starting to slow down and one final hit to one of its exposed sides breaks it down completely. It was a valiant effort, but V-Max falls to the mighty Hypno-Disc.

V-Max is really interesting, because I actually like it quite a bit. It's a bit outdated, having more of a Series 3 design, but I think it would have beaten every robot in this heat except Hypno-Disc. And you have to give it credit. Unlike some robots such as Terror-Bull, who threw its fight against Raizer Blade so they wouldn't have to face Hypno-Disc, V-Max tried to take the fight to Hypno-Disc; it was only held back by the fact that it was just an inferior machine. I think If it and Terror-Bull had swapped opponents and Terror-Bull had faced Hypno-Disc, then V-Max would have easily been a heat finalist. I even think there's a couple of heats it could have won! Heat K and I produced Mousetrap and Splinter as winners, respectively, and I think V-Max could have won both of those. In a number of other heats that produced heat finalists such as Knightmare, Kronic the Wedgehog, and the Mourge, I think V-Max could have made heat finals over each of them! I'm not saying V-Max was this great machine. Its ceiling was definitely heat final in a competitive heat or semi-finalist that loses in the first semi-final round out of a weaker heat, but still I think for a reserve it's a super solid machine and it makes me sad that it got stuck in the sacrificial heat against Hypno-Disc, one of the few machines that was really going to use its weakness of thin armor against it. I wish the team would have returned in future series, but after going home with little more than a bucket of bolts, I guess they decided they'd had enough fun!

Skipping two series, the next robot we're going to be looking at is GBH 2 (it's technically G.B.H. 2, but that's tedious to type, so no, it's GBH 2). Successor to Series 2 semi-finalist GBH and one of the better robots in Series 6, GBH 2 was built by Mike Smith, Alex Smith, and Steve Dove. GBH 2 was an interesting two-flipper design. The first flipper, at the front, could operate as both a weapon and a self-righting mechanism, while the second, rear-mounted served as more of a lifter than a flipper. This is an interesting concept because it means it can flip both forward and backwards. And unlike most rear-mounted weapons, which are usually things like "static spikes" or "useless cutting discs", the back flipper can actually lift a robot! Inspired by a Porsche 962 Group C car, GBH 2 weighs 96 kg and is powered by two Bosch 750W, meaning GBH 2 is quick and nimble around the arena.

A very stylish successor!

In the qualifiers, GBH 2 faced off against Double Trouble and one of my least favorite robots, Infernal Contraption. Nobody won this fight, so I guess the producers just decided "fuck it" and put all three of them in the competition. Placed in Heat D, GBH 2 faced off with the class act Sir Chromalot, the spinning blade of The Alien, and the many eyed ICU (who, fun fact, was just a repainted and upgraded Series 3 X-Terminator). The fight (6:33) starts with The Alien hitting ICU with its blade, sending the eyeballs of ICU flying; it's pretty funny. The Alien then cleaves GBH 2 over, who immediately self-rights. ICU rams GBH 2, who fires the rear side lifter just a hair too late as The Alien comes in for another attack. GBH 2 gets to the back of Sir Chromalot and pushes them a bit as Sir Chromalot flips over The Alien. The Alien self-rights as GBH 2 pushes ICU into the wall, using their lifter to pin them onto the wall and activating the pit button in the process.

THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR BRINGING A SERIES 3 ROBOT TO SERIES 6!

ICU manages to self-right back on its wheels, so this might be the first fight in history where all four robots actually successfully used their self-righters. GBH 2 attacks ICU, who is clearly the weak link, as The Alien knocks over Sir Chromalot with their spinning bar. GBH 2 flips up The Alien with its rear-mounted lifter before being taken for a ride by ICU and The Alien. Shunt throws over ICU as GBH 2 and The Alien fight each other, with ICU quickly self-righting. Sir Chromalot throws over both GBH 2 and ICU, with GBH 2 managing to self-right, but ICU does not and ICU is counted out, leaving only three remaining.

Sir Chromalot and The Alien battle each other (more like bumping into each other, really) as GBH 2 drives towards the already-counted out ICU, which, like, hey, idiot-for-brains, the fights over there! GBH 2 gets back in the fight, throwing Sir Chromalot over with a mighty throw! Sir Chromalot is dented to shit as they try to self-right, but my guess is that's from The Alien, not GBH 2. Sir Chromalot struggles to self-right but just manages to do so as GBH 2 slams into The Alien. An all-time classic thing happens where the floor flipper throws ICU, causing them to land back on their wheels, where they attempt to get back in the fight, but Growler shuts them down. As Growler takes care of ICU, GBH 2 gets a rear lift on The Alien before getting a full flip on Sir Chromalot, followed by another lift on The Alien.

A strong finish for GBH 2!

Sir Chromalot can't self-right and GBH 2 pushes The Alien into the CPZ wall as the clock ticks down. Now, even though Sir Chromalot wasn't able to self-right, it wasn't counted out before the fight ended, so the fight went to a judges' decision. This is a very close fight and, honestly, it's probably the best four-way melee in the history of the show, so you should all watch it. But based on Style, Damage, Control, and Aggression, they give the fight to The Alien and Sir Chromalot, sending our boy home. Now, to be honest, I agree with this decision. Here's the thing, I don't think it's at all controversial that The Alien went through; after all, they did by far the most damage and damage is so heavily weighted that The Alien is easily through. Now, GBH 2 versus Sir Chromalot is where things are interesting, and I actually think that overall GBH 2 had a better fight with more dominant moments and more aggression. But Sir Chromalot gets credit for killing ICU because it was their flip that left them unable to self-right. Because of how heavily weighted that KO would be, even though I think GBH 2 was better overall, I think the ICU kill puts Sir Chromalot over the top.

I think GBH 2 is a really good robot with a really good design that just so happened to have the bad luck of being placed in the most even melee the show has seen. Series 6 is just so top heavy that I have a hard time believing it could win any heats outside of maybe Heat F, which was won by 13 Black. It would also have a chance at a heat finalist placement it was placed in the Heat H, where it would beat Spawn Again ('cause any robot with a pulse would), but there's no way it could beat Supernova, so it wouldn't make the semi-finals. But I think it makes the second round in every other melee outside of the chance of, like, Razer deciding to eat it or Hypno-Disc mauling it to death. And I think it could make the heat final in a number of heats. It's a solid robot that should have been better in its rankings; it's just that Series 5 and Series 6 is kind of dark period of Robot Wars where the field is so top heavy it's hard for any robot to break through.

With our final robot, Series 6's Corkscrew, we've saved the best for last! Now, we've covered Corkscrew before back in Issue 201! In that issue, we looked at Corkscrew in Series 5, where Corkscrew's motors burned out in the first fight and they were unable to spin. In Series 6, Corkscrew had a few upgrades! For starters, the green paint job has been replaced by this sick-as-shit blue paint job with menacing jaws! Very cool, very awesome. But in robot-related news, Corkscrew now sports six blades capable of spinning up to 1400 rpm, giving it 360 degrees of killing potential! Powered by three Bosch 750s, Corkscrew has a top speed of 20 mph, making it a very fast and very deadly kill-bot!

The menacing terror of Scotland!

In the qualifiers, Corkscrew apparently hit the wall so hard it took four men twenty minutes to get it unstuck. Despite this (probably because they were scared of it), Corkscrew was given a place in Series 6. Placed in Heat I, Corkscrew was matched with the much reviled eight-seeded Panic Attack Gold, the flipping Kronic 2, and shitty Razer clone R.O.C.S.. So, the fight starts (6:06) with the other three robots doing probably the worst thing you could do when you face off against a big fuck-off spinner like Corkscrew. Instead of attacking it while it's speeding up, the three robots attack each other, making a big pile as R.O.C.S. gets its crusher into Kronic 2. This allows Corkscrew to get up to full speed. Coming in hot, they hit the back of Panic Attack, completely tearing off Panic Attack's back skirt. Corkscrew then comes back in and just completely fucks Kronic 2 all the way up.

So fast you can't even picture it

With one blow, they hit them so hard that part of Kronic 2's top armor rips off and the armor protecting one of its wheels is just gone! At this point, Kronic 2 is reeling and Corkscrew is pulling off one of the most impressive performances since Series 4 Hypno-Disc! But as quickly as it began, Corkscrew's run would end. In a panic, Kronic 2 hit the pit button, which the Corkscrew team didn't see. Because of this, Corkscrew makes no attempts to avoid the pit as it descends, and a blow to Kronic 2 would cause Corkscrew to ricochet off Kronic 2 and into the pit, ending what could have been a legendary run.

And just like that, it's over.

In the pit, the Corkscrew team captain would ask to see the tape, not believing the pit button had been pressed. It had, but due to a production snafu, the pit didn't actually drop until 30 seconds after the button had been pressed. Regardless, Corkscrew crashed out in the first round.

I truly believe that if Corkscrew hadn't fallen in the pit, Corkscrew had a good chance of making the Grand Final in Series 6. The only robot in its heat that was going to even begin to challenge Corkscrew would have been Terrorhurtz, and it still had no chance! Corkscrew would have fucked Terrorhurtz up! In the semi-final, Corkscrew would have faced Spawn Again, who was barely working even by Spawn Again standards. Their top 8 fight would have been tough because they'd have faced Bigger Brother, who is one of the only heavily armored flippers, and one successful flip would have ended Corkscrew's run, but still I give them a chance because one blow from that disc when it is fully charged could have ripped the flipper right off. If they made the Grand Final, I'd even say they'd have a really good chance against Razer, because I don't know if Razer could have bitten down on them before Corkscrew tore it to pieces. Regardless, I firmly believe that Corkscrew could have easily made at minimum a top 8 in Series 6 had it not been for the bad luck of being pitted while it was dominating! Because of that, I think Corkscrew is one of Robot Wars' biggest "what ifs?". It was just so destructive in Series 6 only to fall in the first round, and who knows what would have happened if it hadn't.

That's all for this month's What's in a Campaign?. Join me next month when I look at another robot!

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The 'Shroom: Issue 211
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
Specials The 'Shroom Staff-Baked Reviews
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