The 'Shroom:Issue 212/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

In the great words of famous rock band The Smiths, "I'm too tired, I'm so sick and tired." Yeah, that's been a good summary of my month so far...

Anyways, Happy November and Happy New Shroom Issue!! It's nearly American Thanksgiving, which means it's the weird period of time where we still have Halloween decorations up in my apartment (a good chunk of which are courtesy of a Halloween party we hosted) but I've already started dabbling in the Christmas music. And that's perfectly okay! (don't let anyone tell you otherwise)

We've got some pretty cool sections for you to read this month! Always remember, you, too, can write one of these pretty cool sections at any time! just head to the sign up page to learn more!

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Waluigi Time (talk) with Awards Analysis! Second place is Shoey (talk) with What's in a Campaign?! Finally, third place is GPM1000 (talk) with Mario Calendar! 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 6 40.00% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd What's in a Campaign? 4 26.67% Shoey (talk)
3rd Mario Calendar? 2 13.33% GPM1000 (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
Awards Analysis
Hooded Pitohui (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)
🦀ANOTHER COOL ROBOT🦀
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

What's going on, everyone? I hope your November has been fantastic! You know, I was thinking to myself… what would be the perfect activity for a nice November day? And, I came up with the perfect answer: what if I wrote an issue of Mario Calendar? So here we are!

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

What an insane month!! The first thing I want to focus on is this month's release - Mario & Luigi: Brothership. I basically haven't heard anything about this game, and I'm wondering if it's worth checking out. I did see a lukewarm IGN review of it, but I honestly have learned to put little stock in IGN reviews. I'm definitely going to check it out, but it's just good to see the Mario & Luigi franchise live on! There are too many dead Nintendo franchises, and I'm glad this isn't one of them.

I am also just extremely curious about Donkey Kong Hockey. This was NOT the Mario-adjacent sports title that I knew I needed, but it sounds so sick. Can we get a modernized version of this?? I can't explain it, but Donkey Kong just has the perfect aura for a hockey game. And, in all seriousness, I would love to see a full Mario hockey game - we got some in Mario Sports Mix, but it's such a cool sport that totally deserves a full game like Tennis or Golf. Make it happen, Nintendo!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the penultimate Mario Calendar installment of the year! It's always so much fun to write these, and I look forward to next month. November is always a great month in the world of Mario! Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US, and happy November to everyone!

Awards Analysis

Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)

Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom! It's your 2024 Awards Sub-Director, Hooded Pitohui, here to take a crack at writing our new Awards Analysis. I hope you've been enjoying these so far (thanks, Waluigi Time, for getting this off the ground) and that they've been providing some insight both into the results of the awards and the work that goes into designing them. Maybe you'll consider joining the Awards Committee next year after reading these, hm? We're always open to new faces joining, so please inquire and keep an eye out for sign-ups next year if you have any interest!

That's enough of the big-picture talk, though! Let's get into the granular details!

Archives

M17. Favorite Mario Kart Course

M17. Favorite Mario Kart Course

Coconut Mall 10.19% (171 votes)
Waluigi Pinball 9.54% (160 votes)
Rainbow Road (MKW) 8.76% (147 votes)
Rainbow Road (MK7) 8.52% (143 votes)
N64 Rainbow Road (MK8) 5.96% (100 votes)
Mount Wario 5.78% (97 votes)
Yoshi's Island 5.72% (96 votes)
Maple Treeway 4.95% (83 votes)
Electrodrome 3.99% (67 votes)
Airship Fortress 3.75% (63 votes)
Total Votes: 1,678

F5. Worst Level Concept

F5. Worst Level Concept

Autoscrolling levels 13.87% (228 votes)
Restrictively low timers 10.46% (172 votes)
Search Party levels (SMBW) 9.12% (150 votes)
Dark/low vision levels 8.70% (143 votes)
Cappyless/F.L.U.D.D.less missions 6.63% (109 votes)
Checkpointless Challenge 6.08% (100 votes)
Automatic levels (SMM) 5.54% (91 votes)
100 Coin Stars/Shine Sprites (SM64/SMS) 5.11% (84 votes)
Water levels 4.56% (75 votes)
Roshambo Temples (PM:CS) 4.38% (72 votes)
Total Votes: 1,644

Analysis

M17. Favorite Mario Kart Course

Would you believe that the award which produced one of this year's biggest shakeups was on the chopping block at one point in time? When the Awards Committee first passed over this award in its third meeting, it was set aside to be reworked and/or re-evaluated by a decisive vote. The Booster Course Pass hadn't led to any major changes in the results in 2023, and none of the courses added in Wave 5 or Wave 6 were on the committee's radar as particularly well-liked. That, combined with a general fatigue around Mario Kart awards after an entire decade of Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe), led us to sideline the award until we had an idea of how many new awards we wanted to introduce. As it turned out, after our additions and cuts, we had 21 awards including this one! We nearly took a yes-no vote on axing M17 to bring it down to an even 20 (with the suggestion that, were it kept, we would at least add Squeaky-Clean sprint), but as we prepared the vote, it was pointed out that we had also marked Favorite Sports Genre as a potential drop. In the end, we pitted them against each other, and in an 8-1 vote, we dropped Favorite Sports Genre.

Wii Coconut Mall as it appears in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
You just got Coconut Maaaaaall'd!

It's a fine thing we did that, too, because this award's winner broke a nine-year streak! From 2015 to 2023, Waluigi Pinball consistently claimed first place in this award, often with a pretty healthy margin. That's fairly impressive for a course that wasn't even in the base Mario Kart 8! What course managed to topple this dominating streak? That would be Coconut Mall, which... appeared last year, actually, in the first wave of the BCP. That raises the question, what changed this year that helped Coconut Mall shoot up from 2023's third place to take the crown? Well, our Awards Director, Roserade, gave us some perspective on that question all the way back in the committee's fifth meeting of the year. According to Rose, with the BCP having reached its end, a large number of videos cropped up on YouTube ranking the courses it added, and a number of those videos became rather popular. At the time, they mentioned that they believed those videos could shake up the results this year and that Coconut Mall had prevailed in a lot of those lists. I don't actually want to sit through a bunch of course rankings to verify that myself, but given how these results shook out, I'm not doubting that those videos had an effect here!

Taking a broader view of things, while the toppling of Waluigi Pinball is a surprise, it isn't wholly unexpected that it was Coconut Mall to finally do the deed. Since 2015, the top three of this award have always been Waluigi Pinball, Coconut Mall, and various Rainbow Road incarnations. In fact, in the whole history of this award, the only times the top three didn't feature this combination were in the award's very first year (2011), when Bowser Castle snagged second, and in 2014, when Electrodrome snagged first fresh off of Mario Kart 8's debut.

Wii Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Welcome back, Star Bits and Galaxy vibes.

Of the jostling Rainbow Roads, it was the Mario Kart Wii incarnation which squeezed into the top three this year, knocking Mario Kart 7 off the podium and pushing 8's take on the N64 Rainbow Road down a peg, too. This is the first time the Wii incarnation has appeared in the top three since... either 2012 or 2011. The winner of 2012 is just listed as "Rainbow Road" and the presentation has been lost to time, so it's hard to say if that was for the Wii or 3DS. Regardless, until it reappeared this year in Booster Course Pass 6, Wii's Rainbow Road was shoved under those aforementioned other two from 2013 until this year, so, ah, it seems it's good we didn't end up axing this award after writing off the BCP.

Outside of the top three, I do notice that DS and Wii courses are doing pretty well, making up half of the top ten. We are twenty years on from the DS and nearly twenty years on from the Wii, so I suppose those should be around the peak of their nostalgia booms. That combined with these courses getting reappearances in 8 (Deluxe) seems to be serving them well! I wonder if we'll start to see 3DS courses get a similar boost in, like, five years from now... It'll be interesting to see, and it'll also be interesting to see if Coconut Mall starts a new streak or slips back down next year! I mean, it did place 4th in "Worst Mario Kart Course Remake", so while everyone is apparently ranking it as the best of the BCP, there's also a lot of discontent with the changes made to it. Maybe that hurts it next year!

Regardless, I think when it comes to this award, we can all agree on one thing. It's about time for a new Mario Kart to inject some further shake-ups into these rankings! Perhaps with the Switch successor...

F5. Worst Level Concept

There isn't as much to be said about this award's history this year. We initially set it aside for further review (I was the lone vote to green bin it...) when the worst new level concept between Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Princess Peach: Showtime! we could come up with was the falling Starmen Wonder Effect, which we broadly agreed wasn't bad so much as merely underwhelming. Then, as we moved into Worst Game Mechanic, I remembered Search Party levels existed and tossed them out as a suggestion. We quickly decided that they would better fit the level concept award, so we went back and added them, which solidified this award's place in the lineup.

The first Wonder Token in the level Search Party Puzzling Park in Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Ah, yes, I love jumping aimlessly because I didn't happen to bring the right character.

Clearly, keeping the award on the strength of Search Party levels paid off, seeing as how they managed to crack the top three in their debut! Even with that shakeup, though, Autoscrolling levels maintained their first place streak with a comfortable margin and Restrictively-low timers kept its run of silvers going as well, with both of them maintaining a lock on their positions since 2021.

Taking a broader view of things, setting aside some positions having swapped around, in terms of big changes to the top ten, this award has had one drop-out and addition each year since 2021. In 2021, newcomer "Blast the Fury Blocks" from Bowser's Fury managed to just squeeze into the top ten by knocking out "Surfing Galaxies", only to itself get knocked out when "100 Coin Stars/Shines" was added the next year, This new addition fared a little better, landing in seventh (though with only two votes above the joint eighth-placers that year). It managed to rise to sixth the next year, but "Secret of ___" levels from Super Mario Sunshine dropped out as "Star Ball Galaxies" saw a resurgence that spring them into ninth. Then, this year, "Star Ball Galaxies" got bumped out as Search Party levels leapt into third.

What's the point I'm making, tossing out all those years and placements? Well, this is a pretty tough award for a newcomer to place high in, for one. The trend of the past few years has been for newcomers to start in the bottom half of the top ten, and they've had a mixed track record when it comes to avoiding dropping out the next year. I doubt Search Party levels have any chance of dropping out next year, though I could see them falling in the rankings. Regardless, for a newcomer to make the podium goes to show you how widely-disliked these levels are! I fully understand why they don't endear themselves to anyone, either. They were easily the weakest part of Wonder in my books, and a couple of them were simply annoying (looking at you, An Empty Park? and Puzzling Park). I suppose they were meant to take advantage of the online features, but even then, that just kind of... gives away the solutions and renders the whole exercise pointless? Or perhaps I'm just old, dagnabbit, and no fan of games that want me to play online...

Anyhoo, that's all I have to say about this one. Brothership doesn't seem to be faring too well, so perhaps one of its islands will give us next year's new addition and we'll see Roshambo Temples drop out (not that they should... As one of the two Color Splash players out there, it's validating to see them on this award). Who knows, though. If this year is any indication, even a stellar game can throw in a level concept that just isn't that fun in practice.

Conclusion

That's everything for this month! Thank you for reading! Looking ahead to next month, I'll leave you in the hands of our Poll Committee Chairperson, MightyMario (talk), to end off the year!

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! More reports! I don't have anything interesting to say! It's times like these where I wonder if I should just make a stock intro or something. Anyway, here's everything from Issue 211, and thanks as always to Meta Knight for keeping the spreadsheets up to date!

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.
Guest Sections
Section Writer
Musical Quiz Waluigi Time (talk)
Random Image of the Month Shoey (talk)
Kingdom Rush Alliance Review Sparks (talk)
Top 13 Video Game Halloween/Spooky Songs Boo1268
The 'Shroom Staff-Baked Reviews The 'Shroom Staff
Milestones
Writer Milestone
Boo1268 10 Fake News sections
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 120 Strategy Wing sections
Shoey (talk) 80 Fake News sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 140 Fake News sections
30 Fun Stuff sections
40 Strategy Wing 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) 201
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 194
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 121
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
The longest running active sections in each team (not including periods of retirement) are currently Mushroom Tribune (Shoey and Hooded Pitohui, since Issue 168), Where in the Marioverse is Carmen Sandiego? (FunkyK38, since Issue 123), Shmaluigi, Private Investigator (Waluigi Time, since Issue 172), Anniversary Announcements (Lakituthequick, since Issue 96 with seasonal hiatuses), Book Review (FunkyK38, since Issue 98), and Koops, Your Emblem is on Fire (Koops, since Issue 150).

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 campaigns from the hit robot combat show Robot Wars. Last month, we took a look at three robots who I thought could have done better than their early exits implied. This month, we're heading back to Series 5 with a single robot, the crab-themed Crushtacean.

All-time great pun!
I love the Power Glove! It's so bad!

Built by Ian Visser, Dominic Visser, and Richard Hartley and representing both the Netherlands and South Africa, Crushtacean is powered by an 800-watt motor and was a two-wheeled invertible crab bot. Notably, the wheels for Crushtacean are exposed in a way that a long enough axe or a hammer could hit them, but a spinning disc would not be able to. Armored with 12mm thick aluminum and also sporting red LED eyes to intimidate its foes, Crushtacean is, as its name suggests, literally a crab! It even comes complete with hydraulic crab claws for a weapon! Now in theory these claws served as crushers with 300-500 kg worth of crushing strength, but, in reality, the claws weren't meant to really damage robots. Rather, Crushtacean is a classic example of what's called a "control bot". The idea is Crushtacean would use its claws to grab onto its opponent, then it could drive them around, slamming them into the wall, into the house robots, or even down the pit!

The claws of Crushtacean worked in a very unique way, too. Instead of being activated by a lever or a button, the weapons master of Crushtacean wore a special glove fitted with sensors. That glove would raise and lower the claws as the wearer closed and opened his hands like this was a mid-2000's movie theater arcade game. I don't really know how much benefit this gave the claws, but it looked pretty cool.

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. Timestamps are provided in the section.

In the qualifiers, Crushtacean defeated future Robot Wars Extreme 2: New Blood Championship Heat Finalist Edge Hog to qualify for the main series. Placed in Heat H, Crushtacean's first opponent is fellow animal-themed robot (and future Tag Team Champion) Robochicken-Evo. The fight starts (1:28) with Robochicken immediately having to turn itself around so it can get its flipper into the fight because its weapon is at the back. Attention, people that built robots in the early 2000s! Don't put your primary weapon at the back! Put it at the front! Why do you want to drive in reverse for an entire fight? It doesn't make any sense! The two robots bump into each other and Robochicken gets a small flip on the side of Crushtacean, lifting it in the air. I'm not going to lie; the next, like, twenty to thirty seconds of the fight are just two robots bumping into each other, not doing anything. So this is a classic Series 5 first round fight! Crushtacean attempts to grab onto the back of Robochicken, you know, where the flipper is, so Robochicken just flips it away!

That's what I call a face lift

And by "flip", I of course mean "lightly lift it off the ground"! The two robots spin around in circles for a little bit before Crushtacean briefly gets its claws into the side and flipper of Robochicken, but it doesn't do anything with it as Robochicken escapes before getting another little lift on Crushtacean. Robochicken then drives straight into SIr Killalot's CPZ like an idiot, where Sir Killalot lifts Robochicken up by the neck, costing it precious, precious control points.

Robochicken escapes with its head still intact and gets another flip on Crushtacean as it's retreating from the CPZ. Robochicken's flipper, though, gets stuck on the top of Crushtacean, allowing Crushtacean to finally get its claws embedded into Robochicken!

Crab > Chicken

Crushtacean takes full advantage of this, slamming Robochicken into a CPZ wall! With the chicken in its sights, SGT. Bash comes in and slams into the pinned Robochicken. Crushtacean is 100% tired of this fight so they hit the pit release button. As this happens, Robochicken struggles to escape the "might" of SGT. Bash, but finally manage to do so. They come back on the attack and attempt another flip, but this time the flipper gets caught in the claw of Crushtacean, preventing it from retracting! But the awkward positioning of the flipper prevents Crushtacean from doing anything with Robochickenl. The fight ends with the two robots spinning around. They show a lot of this fight for a fight that's honestly pretty boring. It's probably because this is the same heat with the Wheely Big Cheese-Axe Awe fight that went for like 15 seconds, so they had to pad out the episode with fights that went to the judges.

It's actually a very close fight, so close that it's a split decision 2-1 in favor of Crushtacean, which I think is probably the right decision. It's very close. Robochicken definitely wins the aggression category; it landed five or six hits compared with one or two slams by Crushtacean. Crushtacean won on control 'cause Robochicken did things like drive right into Sir Killalot's CPZ and Crushtacean managed to get its claws around the flipper of Robochicken and slam it into the wall. Style is probably a wash, but I might lean towards Crushtacean for when it caught Robochicken's flipper mid-flip. Finally, on damage, Robochicken never got its stupid bawk-bawk chicken-head axe into the fight, so it had no chance to score damage points. On the other hand, Crushtacean did get its claws into the fight a little bit. Plus, the slam from SGT. Bash and the grab by Sir Killalot mean that, while Crushtacean probably didn't score very many points on damage, Robochicken would have lost them for getting damaged itself. So, while it's very close, it's probably less about what Crushtacean did and more about what Robochicken did wrong that resulted in sending Crushtacean through.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" – Behemoth, probably

In the second round, Crushtacean faced off against a much higher-quality robot! That's right! You know him, you love him, it's my personal favorite robot, 15-seed Behemoth! The fight (7:14) starts with Crushtacean making a beeline for the pit release button, which... Smart play. You're a control bot, so this should always be your strategy. Behemoth pursues and gets to the back of Crushtacean, hitting it on its top with its stupid useless axe that has never damaged anything! Behemoth spins around, briefly trapping Crushtacean between its axe and scoop, but Crushtacean gets away. Behemoth keeps up the attack, getting its scoop between the claws of Crushtacean, but since this is Behemoth between Series 3 and 10, naturally something stupid happens that costs Behemoth what should be an easy victory!

Behemoth attempts to flip Crushtacean away, but instead Crushtacean drops straight back down, pinning Behemoth's scoop onto its claws. Behemoth attempts to escape by backing up with Crushtacean. What happens next is just classic Behemoth. Behemoth attempts to activate its scoop, which is in the air, to get some distance away from Crushtacean.

This causes Behemoth to pop up in the air. Crushtacean, who is pursuing Behemoth, pushes them straight onto their back, pinning it on the angle grinder. This is all because Behemoth launched itself into the air at the front! Crushtacean then immediately locks its claws on the side panels of Behemoth, who is furiously attempting to self-right, but because Crushtacean has them clamped, they are unable to self-right or escape Crushtacean's claws. Crushtacean then immediately dumps Behemoth in the pit!

This could literally only happen to Behemoth

I think this is probably Crushtacean's best moment and probably the best control bot win in the show. It's a huge shock upset, and it's all by the merits of Crushtacean, who just clamps onto Behemoth, never lets them go, and dumps them as soon as possible! This would send them into the heat final to face off against the most powerful flipper in Robot Wars, 10-seed Wheely Big Cheese!

This is a fight that I distinctly remember watching as kid. This was the episode of Robot Wars I got caught watching on Tech TV where my brother called me a loser for watching it! Yeah, well I showed him! Now I write about Robot Wars for an official online newspaper, SO WHO'S THE REAL LOSER, HUH?

Anyways, Crushtacean has a secret weapon for its heat final fight with Wheely Big Cheese, that being a cheese grater attached to one of its claws! The fight (11:42) starts with Crushtacean attempting to bait Wheely Big Cheese into an attack, but in the process it drives into an arena wall. Which, that's a stupid place to go against any flipper, let alone Wheely Big Cheese! Didn't you see the last fight where Wheely Big Cheese threw Axe Awe like 15 feet in the air from the center of the arena? Wheely Big Cheese does get under Crushtacean, but they're not able to do anything. Crushtacean escapes (technically), but in doing so drives right into a CPZ, where Dead Metal grabs them and plunges its circular saw into them. Luckily for Crushtacean, Wheely Big Cheese apparently subscribes to a "the only good robot is a dead robot" policy, so they get under Dead Metal and just launch them! They don't flip them over, but they do manage to get them off Crushtacean! Unfortunately for Wheely Big Cheese, they throw themselves over in the process.

That's karma for being an ingrate, crab!

Crushtacean, ungrateful jerks that they are, attempt to use this to their advantage, but they accidentally grab the angle grinder, which allows Wheely Big Cheese to escape. I think for a brief moment the claw was stuck in the angle grinder, but Dead Metal helped free them (which is the secondary function of the House Robots). Wheely Big Cheese then misses a flip on Crushtacean, who hits the pit release button.

Wheely Big Cheese cracking Crushtacean's shell

Crushtacean attempts to grab Wheely Big Cheese with its claws, but instead drives on top of Wheely Big Cheese's flipper, who this time makes them pay, sending them high in the air! The might of this flip causes Crushtacean to start having mobility problems, which Wheely Big Cheese quickly takes advantage of, flipping Crushtacean across the arena. In the process, Crushtacean losses its aerial and, with that, all mobility is gone. Crushtacean is counted out, sending it out of the competition after a fairly strong heat final run.

At the end of Series 5, Crushtacean was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Award along with Fluffy and S3. The award would be won by Fluffy, which is odd considering S3 made the top eight and Fluffy crashed out in the heat, but oh well. This would be the only main series where Crushtacean would do much of anything. It crashed out in the second round of its heat in Series 6, where it would have the notable distinction of being the last robot that legendary back-to-back UK Champion Chaos 2 would defeat. In Series 6 though, Crushtacean was awarded The Most Original Entry award, which, like, what? You got the Original Entry Award on your second competition? You're not even original at that point! You've already been here! Then, in Series 7, Behemoth would get its revenge, tossing Crushtacean out of the arena in the first round melee. Crushtacean also appeared in Series 9, one of the many old-school robots who tried to make a go of the reboot, but it died immediately.

Why does this crab kill everything I love?

However, Crushtacean would have considerably more success in international competitions. Thanks to the fact that team member Ian Visser worked in the Netherlands, Crushtacean, fighting under the name Krab-Bot, would compete in the second Dutch Robot Wars Series, defeating former Dutch Grand Finalist Twisted Metal Evo to make the Grand Final before being defeated by Series Runner-Up Philliper 2. Then, in the Robot Wars Extreme 2: Commonwealth Carnage, representing South Africa, Crushtacean would finish runner-up, losing to Firestorm in the finals. On the way to that finale, however, Crushtacean scored an all-time classic win over Corkscrew where, after taking a hit from a full-speed Corkscrew, Crushtacean slammed Corkscrew into the wall before closing its claws on the blades of Corkscrew, stopping them in their place. Crushtacean would then dump Corkscrew in the pit for an amazing control bot win!

Finally, in Robot Wars: Third World Championship, Crushtacean, again representing South Africa, made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, scoring a win over Dutch Champion PulverizeR in its semi-final qualifying melee before being defeated by the terrifying Supernova.

Crushtacean was a quality robot with a lot of quality wins. It was never going to be a world beater and it probably lacked the offensive firepower to ever win a heat, but it was a solid robot as seen by not only its Series 5 appearance where it beat robots that would go onto to become a Tag Team Champion/Heat Finalist in Robochicken and Behemoth, but also its solid history of success in other tournaments. It's a fun and unique design. I mean, they turned a crab into a functional and successful robot! It's a solid upper-middle robot with a heat final ceiling that could maybe win one of the weaker side tournaments, sure, but still it has wins over Heat Finalists, Semi-Finalists, even robots that had made or won Dutch Grand Finals. It's a good robot with a notable, very eye-catching design, and the fact that it is as good as it is makes for a cherry on top. That's all for this month's What's in a Campaign? . Join me next month as I take a look at another robot!

The 'Shroom: Issue 212
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Awards Director Election • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
Specials Mario And Luigi Brothership Custom Instruction Manual
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