The 'Shroom:Issue LXXXI

Issue LXXXI	December 21st, 2013	About

STAFF SECTIONS

OPENING STATEMENT
Henry Tucayo Clay (Talk)

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We open the last issue of 2013 with a statement from Tucayo.
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SECTION OF THE MONTH
Tucayo (Talk)

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See our lucky winner for the month, as voted by you!
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SPOTLIGHT
YoshiKong (Talk)

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The 'Shroom Spotlight gets the spotlight in this section!
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SCAVENGER HUNT
'Shroom Core Staff

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Find out more about one of the special events the Core Staff organized for December!
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END-OF-THE-YEAR AWARDS
'Shroom Core Staff

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An Awards celebration for our dedicated writers! Congratulations!
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DIRECTOR ELECTION
'Shroom Core Staff

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Come and vote for who you want to manage The 'Shroom for the next year!
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FEEDBACK SURVEY
'Shroom Core Staff

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Please tell us your thoughts on The 'Shroom!
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SUB-TEAMS

FAKE NEWS
MrConcreteDonkey (Talk)

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Fictional news section.
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FUN STUFF
Smasher (Talk)

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A series of games and fun sections for readers to participate in.
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PALETTE SWAP
FunkyK38 (Talk)

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The artistic part of the wiki, box-arts, music, comics and more!
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PIPE PLAZA
Paper_Yoshi (Talk)

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Find out all wiki-related events, news, and statistics.
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CRITIC CORNER
Palkia47 (Talk)

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Reviews and opinion pieces for games, movies, books, and more.
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MAIN SECTIONS

INTERVIEW
Superchao (Talk)

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Each month interviewing one of our users.
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BRAWL TACTICS
FunkyK38 (Talk)

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Strategy information for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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MARIO CALENDAR
Paper_Yoshi (Talk)

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The history of Mario series releases.
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UPCOMING GAMES
Paper_Yoshi (Talk)

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The future of Mario series releases.
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A HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES
Chuck Ballymoo (Talk)

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A critical analysis of different events during the history of video games.
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SPECIAL SECTIONS

MARIO HOLIDAY HINK PINKS
Chuck Ballymoo (Talk)

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Chuck presents a fun holiday game, followed by a tribute to Danny Wells.
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THE RE-FRESHED PAPER MARIO
Super-Yoshi (Talk)

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Chill out, max, and relax while TheFreshPrince does another papery review!
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EXPLORATION IN THE MARIO SERIES
Superchao (Talk)

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Superchao offers his perspective on exploration in the 3D Mario games.
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POLL COMMITTEE AD
Super Mario Bros. (Talk)

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The Poll Committee would like to share an important message with you this month!
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MARIO PARTY: ISLAND TOURNAMENT
'Shroom Core Staff

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It's the surprise ultra final round! Vote for your favorite Mario Party minigames!
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THANK YOU
Super Mario Bros. (Talk)

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A thank-you to those that have made the past three years a blast!
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CLOSING STATEMENT
SMB (Talk) & Turboo (Talk)

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We close this issue and end the year with notes from SMB and Turboo!
[read more]

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Opening Statement HO HO HO, I'm your merry Co-director, Tucayo, here to kick off this year's Special Holiday Issue! We have a great lineup this year, and - as usual - we will be releasing the sections one by one, as shown in the following schedule: [...] Among all the great sections we have this month, we have the third installment of the End-of-the-Year Awards and the Director Election for the 2013-2014 term! If you are interested in running you should check it out as soon as possible, as we have established a deadline for campaigns to be submitted. We are also having an end-of-year Feedback Survey we want to kindly ask you to answer. Read more... Section of the Month HI, I'm your rhythmic Co-director, Tucayo, here with the results for last issue's Main Section of the Month poll! For our November issue we had four Main sections, and we got 41 votes in the poll. With just one vote less than half the total, our historian-in-chief, Chuck Ballymoo (talk), won his second SOTM in a row. already. In his last section, Chuck took a look at a very particular and interesting subject, bad translations in video games. Great section, you need to check it out if you haven't That's all from me, remember to vote in every single thing you can! Read more... The 'Shroom Spotlight Ho Ho Hello! Welcome to the first ever holiday edition of The 'Shroom: Spotlight, which is a section dedicated to improving a selected group of articles across the wiki. To begin, let's review our progress on the articles featured in last month's edition. The first article, Bad Rap, was in need of plenty more images. And readers successfully uploaded plenty of them, well done! Our second focus was Mario Party, which initially had a massive six points of Trivia, has now been trimmed and all points have been removed or incorporated into the main articles. Our stub article focus, Spooky Attic, unfortunately didn't get any input. But our rewrite focus Use the Magnet to Get Rich Quick! was successfully rewritten from scratch to an excellent standard. Thank you to all who contributed to the Spotlight project this month. A new edition, of course means a new line-up to focus on. And each article is holiday-themed! Read more... Scavenger Hunt Hello dear readers, and welcome to our second Scavenger Hunt! We had a fun one last year, but unfortunately the difficulty level was too high. But don't worry, this year we're making it easier, since we'll give you a list of 10 items you need to find, as well as some helpful hints for where to look for them. You need to find: A stocking (not the one in the Spotlight!). A snowman (no, it's not the one in Opening Statement). A penguin. A piñata. Kwanzaa candles. A Menorah. A Dreidel. Santa Claus. Fruitcake. A candy cane. Read more... End-of-the-Year Awards Hello, 'Shroom readers and newspaper fanatics! Welcome to the third End-of-the-Year Awards! Back in 2011, we started giving out awards to honor our hard-working writers. We have several awards that we are giving out, most of which are divided into two tiers: Diamond and Golden Mario Award – Given to those who have written a single section for The 'Shroom for a longer period of time. Diamond Luigi Award – Given to those who almost always submitted their sections with perfect spelling, grammar, and formatting. Diamond and Golden Bowser Award – Given to those who consistently submitted their sections on time. Diamond and Golden Peach Award – Given to those who consistently produce sections of excellent quality. Diamond and Golden Yoshi Award – Given to those that have contributed many sections to the paper. Diamond Toad Award – Given to those that have helped out The 'Shroom in extraordinary ways. Diamond and Golden 'Shroom Award – Given to the individuals that produced the best sections in 2013. And now we have the Awards! Read more... Director Election Read more... Feedback Survey Hello, 'Shroom readers! We here at The 'Shroom thrive on praise, criticism, and feedback in general in order to maintain a quality project. If we have a feature we are running well, we need to know that it is a good product that we offer each month. If we have sections that need improvement, criticism will help us understand what we need to improve. We in the staff listen to our readers in order to provide them with the best experience each month, and that is why we have posted up a Feedback Survey at this time. Read more... Fake News Editorial Christmas again. Wow, has it really been a year since last Christmas? Well, yes, it has. But, in all seriousness, 2013 has gone quite quickly. Especially considering how terrible a year it was. It was awful. And 2014's probably going to be worse. But enough of this relentless pessimism. We have, of course, gathered here to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. I know you're probably bored of this, but Christmas isn't just about presents. It's not all about decorations, or (bad) music, or even good food. We have, and always do, neglect the one true meaning of Christmas. That being the Christmas edition of the Fake News, of course. Read more... Fun Stuff Director's Notes By Smasher (talk) Merry Christmas, everyone! We have a new writer this month: Chuck Ballymoo (talk) will be writing Guess Who! beginning this month. November's Section of the Month was Marshal Dan Troop (talk)'s Trivia, with fourteen votes. Megadardery (talk)'s Mind Bogglers came in second with thirteen votes, and Palkia47 (talk)'s Word Search came in third with seven. Read more... Palette Swap Director's Notes (FunkyK38 (talk)) Hello, all, welcome to this December issue of Palette Swap! Not much in the way of news and events this month, except that we have unfortunately lost one of our writers, Henry Clay Tucayo (talk). You will most definitely be missed, Tucky. I’ll call upon anyone else who might like to write a section for us, we can work out a schedule if you think time might be a problem for you! We have a fantastic story from Paper Yoshi (talk) this month, too, so be sure to check out Featured Character Artwork! If I don’t see you all next year as Director, do know that it was a pleasure bringing you all fabulous artwork and news stories and working with our fantastic crew! Best wishes and Happy Holidays! ~FunkyK38 Read more... Pipe Plaza Director's Notes (Paper Yoshi (talk)) Greetings, everyone!! Welcome to the 2013 Holiday Issue!! We've finally reached that wonderful time of the year, with both Christmas and the next New Year, 2014, rapidly approaching, and so The 'Shroom takes on a different look and feel to celebrate that. However, I still have no special news about the Pipe Plaza, so that means it's time for... Read more... Critic Corner Director’s Notes Palkia47 (talk) Happy December everybodyyyyy! You know what this means, it’s Christmastime! So naturally, as the butt of fat jokes, I guess I am inclined to say ho ho ho! Jerks. :’( As part of our festivities, let’s see what a few of my Facebook friends have to say about this holly and jolly time of year of the end of 2013 Year of Luigi and of Christmastime! Read more... Interview Superchao For my final interview of the year, I'm interviewing an old-timer who's been around the block under a pile of different names. Namely, Palkia47! Packy's been here for like five years and counting. Back in the day he was one of the more well-known users, and he's made a comeback lately too. ...Okay, I can't fake a good introduction even for the final one. Have fun reading this giant pillar of text! Interview Superchao: Hello, Shroom readers! For the final month of the year, I have successfully badgered Packy into accepting an interview! Superchao invades Packy's personal space with a notepad Packy flops at Porch with a broom Packy: Howdies! Superchao: Right, so, first and most important question: Does this mean I don't need to worry about chaining you down before you run away anymore? Packy: No... yes... >.> <.< Superchao: He's distracted! Now's my chance to ask the real first question. How did you find the wiki? Read more... Brawl Tactics FunkyK38 What's up, Brawlers? FunkyK38 here with y'all this month for another edition of BRAWL TACTICS! This month, I will be covering the stage Castle Siege from the Fire Emblem series! Castle Siege is an interesting stage with three different battlefields, all three of which I will go over in detail below! So, let's get started! You begin your battle, where else, on the roof of a castle under siege. This part of the stage has quite deep sides and a deep bottom, which are only intensified by how small the roof itself is. You don't get very much room to run around here, especially if you're playing with more than one opponent. Use this small stage to your advantage and knock your opponents off, and keep them off. If you like to use a character that fights especially well in the air, as I do, use this to your advantage when trying to force an opponent off the sides. Knock them around a bit, then use your range of flight to keep them from getting back to the main stage. If you can keep them from reaching the stage with their recovery jump, you should be good to go. If you haven't already figured it out, this part of the stage is perfect for Final Smashes that have a limited range, like Luigi's or Donkey Kong's, and also for Final Smashes where you have to chase down your opponent and target them, like Ike's or Meta Knight's. Read more...

Mario Calendar Paper Yoshi Hi, beloved readers, and welcome to the December Issue of Mario Calendar!! Many games were released in the past during this time of the year, as the Holiday Season is underway, and so our list gets bigger and bigger!! These are all the Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Wario games released during the twelfth and last month of the year: December 1st 1999 (NA): Game & Watch Gallery 3 (GBC) 2005: (JP): Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (GBA) (AU): Mario Power Tennis (GBA) 2006 (EU): Yoshi's Island DS (NDS) 2011 (JP): Fortune Street (Wii) Mario Kart 7 (3DS) Read more... Upcoming Games Paper Yoshi Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Holiday Issue of Upcoming Games!! I was actually supposed to write it for the November Issue according to my bi-monthly schedule, but I decided to postpone the section to December due to time constraints. However, my schedule won't be disrupted by that change: I will still write Upcoming Games in January, and the cycle will resume from there. Anyway, I think I've held you long enough, so why don't we take a look at the actual news? I myself believe that to be a terrific idea. The Actual News And so we get to the actual news. Nintendo held not one, but two Nintendo Direct conferences since the last issue of UG, one on October 1st, and the other on November 13th. As usual, Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, walked viewers through the new Wii U and Nintendo 3DS releases for the 2013 Holiday Season and 2014. Read more... A History of Video Games Chuck Ballymoo This month's History of Video Games will focus on Miyamoto's origins at Nintendo, as well as the origins of two other great men of the company who were transformative, and how all of their destinies intertwined. I think you'll enjoy this month's lesson. It's-a me, Miyamoto: My-a origins Shigeru Miyamoto was born in Sonobe, near Kyoto, in 1952. His family had lived there for several generations prior. From the time he was born, he harbored a whimsical imagination. He always liked to play pretend as a kid. In the early 1960s, Shigeru's father bought a color television set, and animated Japanese superheroes sparked the flame of his imagination (he would go on, of course, to create the greatest superhero of all time, y'know, the one in the red cap). He also enjoyed hiking up the countryside, exploring caves, canyons, rivers, creeks, and drawing his discoveries. This got him interested in cartooning. He would invent original cartoon characters and make them into flipbooks while in highschool. There, he started a manga club. Read more... Mario Holiday Hink Pinks Chuck Ballymoo Welcome to Mario Holiday Hink Pinks. A Hink Pink is a riddle with a 2-Word rhyming answer. For example, a parasite in a redwood would be a Tree Flea. Got it? Good. After you are have finished playing the game, check out a tribute to the late Danny Wells below. What would you get if Mario shattered the boss of the Freezeflame Galaxy in his Cat Suit, and his remains got all over his suit? What would you get if Wario parked his automobile in a distant outpost where General White resides? If Mario were to get duped on a mountain with a lost penguin, he would be a what? What would you call a lisping crab dressed like a Christmas Tree's STD? What would you call it if the Yoshi Kid from The Thousand Year Door used a 4FP move to drink some Orange Juice? Read more... The Re-Freshed Paper Mario Super-Yoshi Aw snap, you know who it is! It's your boy TheFreshPrince aka Anti-Malware Man aka S-Y aka 2fast2fresh aka pirplemontage aka ok I'm done, bringing you the daily fresh chronicles with round 3 about to start up in here! I brought Paper Mario: The quest for finding useless stickers and getting stuck for hours having no clue how to beat a boss or advance in the game last time, and the awesome classic that started it all way before that, so this time I'm gonna rewind back to 00's again and review Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door! Read more... Exploration in the Mario Series Superchao Hello, 'Shroom readers! I'm Superchao, and I've been saying I've been gonna write a special section any day now for approximately the entire year at this point so this is my last chance to actually make good on it. So, since I've been wanting to talk about it the whole time, I'll just go ahead and discuss my thoughts on exploration in 3D Mario games and how I've felt about the various "main" exploring games because of it. Super Mario Sunshine was one of my first Gamecube games, and that may be part of why it left the effect it did on me. I've always been a fan of it, even with FLUDD, and a big part of that comes from how open the world is. Rather than short levels, you get eight areas each with a large open area to explore; even Delfino Plaza has a lot to see and do. Read more... Poll Committee Ad Super Mario Bros. Season's greetings! Super Mario Bros. (talk) here, on behalf of the Poll Committee, inviting you (yes, you!) to submit ideas for our polls for 2014! The members of the Poll Committee love coming up with ideas and selecting polls to feature, but every now and then we feel it would be nice to have some ideas from outside of the group be considered so as to include the community at-large. It's an easy process, too! All you have to do is come up with ideas for what you want to ask your fellow MarioWiki-browsers and submit them to me via Private Message on the Super Mario Boards. The information you need to include when you submit an idea for a poll is: Poll Title — Give the poll a generic title that states what it is about. Some common choices for the poll title are the just the question itself or a shortened version of it. Question — Provide the question that you would like for the viewers to answer. Answer choices — And then provide the answer choices that you would like to include in the poll. Read more... Mario Party: Island Tournament Four months, 10 games, 38 polls, over 750 minigames... It all comes down to your final 10, ladies and gentlemen! In this Holiday Special Issue we will be having the final poll of this Tournament, and only one minigame will be crowned as the Super Mario Wiki's Favorite Minigame. Let's take a look at our contenders: Representing the original Mario Party, we have Mushroom Mix-Up, the 4-player minigame in which players had to run to the correct mushroom to survive! INTENSE. Our second contender is Face Lift, the minigame that originally appeared in Mario Party but which is now contending for Mario Party 2. This Battle minigame was inspired in the famous Super Mario 64 intro screen (the one where you distort Mario's face). FUN FOR ALL AGES. Read more... Thank You Super Mario Bros. Hello everybody, SMB here again. This year is coming to a close, and we are heading into a new one very quickly! Looking back on the year, we have had a lot of good times with each other. We here at The 'Shroom have tried our very best to produce quality issues every month– we have had a good crew of staff members and an excellent regular writing staff, as well as those that volunteer to help us on special occasions like this month. And so it would be hard to continue on with everything without giving out some more-than-deserved "thank you"s. The 'Shroom has become a very big production! To put things into perspective: the entire project started in 2006 with a humble three sections, and we are here today with a twenty-four section issue (and that is a conservative figure that counts the sub-teams as only one section each– the number is astronomically higher when you count every individual section that make up our sub-teams). Our writers do their absolute best when they write and submit their articles, and I am thankful for them all doing what they do so amazingly! We have a lot of talent here in our newsletter, and it is always exciting to see what we will be publishing every month and the enthusiasm behind it. Read more... Closing Statement Sub-Director's Notes I don't really have anything witty to put here, nor do I know how to make a full-fledged speech, but... I dunno, I've only been sub-directing for 3 months, but I feel like it was a nice experience. Regardless of whether or not I get to continue doing it in the future, it was nice spending that time with people and collaborating to make each issue as good as possible. I'd like to thank everyone who's contributed to this issue (and heck, the previous ones too), as well as everyone who has offered support and ideas to us; have a merry Christmas and a great New Year! - Turboo (talk) Read more...

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