The 'Shroom:Issue XLV/Top 10
Top 10
Hello dear readers, welcome to this special Top 10! You may remember that almost one year ago, on the Holiday Issue, I made a Decade Top 10, well, as part of the surprise I told you about in the Sub-Director Notes, I am writing this section again! This time, it has a different name, it is named “Tucayo’s 10 Favorite ‘Shroom Issues”, instead of Top 10. So, as you already know, this list is about my favorite ‘Shroom Issues of all the 46 there have been (not counting this one). Now, without more, let’s start with number 10
10: Issue III (Mar 07)
Issue III was released in March 2007, in this issue there were just 9 sections. In my opinion, the highlight of this issue, is that it marks the first appearance of the well-loved Fun Stuff, then known as Fun Section, but it wasn’t a team yet. For this issue there were amazing writers, such as 3dejong, 3rd-most-contributive-user Sir Grodus, then-director Wayoshi (who started promoting the Mario Awards I in this issue), WarioLoaf in the Fake News, would-be-Director Plumber, Aipom, Jorge and the Great Gonzo (Xzelion). Plumber, Sir Grodus and Xzelion debuted in this issue. Aipom retired in this issue, as well as the creator of the Fake News, Wario Loaf (he later returned for a special section).
So you have an idea of the date this was released, in Upcoming Games we had ‘’Super Paper Mario’’, ‘’Mario Party 8’’ and ‘’Mario Strikers Charged’’, in the new users section we had Bean, and the long-disappeared Trouble Center had just been created.
Wayo mentions in his director notes that then-Editor-in-Chief, HK47, missed the due date, and that next issue would be released April Fools’ Day, perhaps many people took that as a joke. Also, the Fun Stuff used the table layout that I loved so much. Oh, and it included jokes!!
Core Staff:
- Wayoshi, Director
- HK-47, EiC
- WarioLoaf, Fake News
9: Issue XVI (June 08)
*sigh* nothing better to get me nostalgic than Issue XVI, released June 2008. Why is that? Well, it marks my first issue as writer of The ‘Shroom :) It was small, having 9 sections, but it really means a lot to me. Let’s review quickly what this issue had.
Some of the writers were Stooby, Garlic, Wayo, Glitchman, RAP, InfectedShroom (Bloc Partier), Xzelion and myself (making all of the FS sections). If you see this issue’s Entertainment by RAP, you can see a really great section. The Fake News still had its old colorful self here. And apparently, in the interview, Glitchman, the writer, actually played the interviewee.
Both Garlic and myself debuted here, as well as Garlic’s section, Character Comparison, while Stooby gave control of the FN to Xze during this issue. This was BP’s last issue in a long time (he came back later for one issue on my request). Wow, we just worked together for 2 issues… I would swear it was much more… This was also Wayoshi’s last issue.
Core Staff:
- Glowsquid (then called Blitzwing), Director
- Stooby, Fake News
8: Issue IV (Apr 07)
Number 8, Issue IV, April 2007! The team was mainly the same as that of Issue III, with the notable inclusions of Confused, now-banned Maxlover2. This issue The ‘Shroom had an increment in sections, going from 9 to 12. Unlike Wayo stated in Issue III, this issue was not released in April Fools, it was released the 5th.
This issue included what we now know as Contact Us , or Ask Tucayo, perhaps. It was written then by HK47, and it had questions from Sonhis section included a peculiar section, called Mario Merchandise, written by ChrisAlassal, this section, as it name says, reviewed the merchandise related to the Marioverse. Interesting.
RAP, and his amazing Entertainment section, debuted this month, along with ChrisAlassal and his section. Even thought Entertainment and Fan Games, from Jorge, covered almost the same, both coexisted.
Core Staff:
- Wayoshi, Director
- HK-47, EiC
- Confused, Fake News
7: Issue XLI (Aug 10)
Lucky 7, Issue XLI, August 2010! This is the newest one in the countdown. This issue included Stooby as Director, and myself as Sub-Director, but due to many things, this issue had to be directed by me.
This issue includes, in my opinion, the best Fun Stuff section of the past year (awards themed, BTW). It also includes a Special Interview with none other than Porplemontage himself! RAP returned for this issue to write NIWA News after I dropped them. For this issue SMB started to use again the very useful Monthly Report tables, comparing August, July, and June. Another great section this month, was Edo’s Fake Games (“Super Mario Wars: The Great Toadstool Crusade”), it has great artwork, sense of humor, and everything needed for a successful Fake News section.
Some of the other writers during this issue were Coincollector, Leirin, Fawfulfury65, FunkyK38 and Killer Axe. Stooby was the interviewer at the time, but there was no interview in this issue. Ralphfan also had his special section, the Ultimate Character Tournament.
Core Staff:
- Stooby (absent), Director
- Tucayo, Sub-Director
- 2257, EiC
- Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
- SMB and P Trainer (absent), Music & Art
- SMB and MG1, Pipe Plaza
6: Issue XXIII (Feb 09)
Awww, good old issue XXIII, February 2009. After the election that left Stooby with 47 votes, and myself with around 5 votes, Stooby became Director of The ‘Shroom, and I, by Glowsquid’s recommendation, became his Sub-Director. And here started a new era of The ‘Shroom. Along with those two changes, the whole Core Staff (not called that way then) changed, after a four month lack of Fake News, Xpike became the Director. The Fun Suff team was created this issue, with veteran writer, Z3r0 Tw0, as the Director.
There were 13 sections in our first issue as Leading Staff. Some of the writers were SLNO, Stooby, myself, Jafffey (with his Good Game, Bad Game section, which was later abolished), Z3r0 Tw0 (with his famous Beta Elements), Dom, Grapes (interviewed Yoshario), Yoshario (then-called Clay Mario), Bloc Partier, Luigifreak and Ralphfan (who made one of the most elaborate Fake News section, Fake Sports’ Star Cup). Music Supplier was introduced here, but the user who suggested it never got to write it. BP also started the Classic Reviews. This issue marked the debut of Corka Cola and Luigifreak. This was the only section for Grapes, as well as the last one for Dom and BP.
Core Staff:
- Stooby, Director
- Tucayo, Sub-Director
- Xpike, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
5: Issue XXIX (Aug 09)
Number five, Issue XXIX, August 2009! This issue was very good, it included 17 sections, and amongst those sections, it was the first appearance of the Music & Art Team! This originated as a suggestion SMB made on my talk, SMB was the first director ever of this team.
Due to Stooby being busy in Real Life, this issue was the start of my second period as Director. The M&A Team wasn’t the only new thing introduced in this section, the rules to become a writer were greatly enforced, asking for a better grammar, spelling and punctuation, because of all the comments there were about this at the Feedback Survey. In this issue I also asked you to suggest writers for the Special Section we were having next month.
Some of the writers we had were SMB, Luigifreak, Yoshario, Z3r0 Tw0, Leirin, Mario304, Yoshi301, SuperShyGuy (Writing the now-disappeared Fangamers-report), and myself (I also co-wrote Calendar of Events with SMB). No debuts or retirement this issue. But Z3r0 Tw0 celebrated his first anniversary as writer of Beta Elements!
Core Staff:
- Tucayo, Director
- Stooby, Sub-Director
- Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
- SMB, Music & Art
4: Holiday Issue (Winter 09)
The winner of the 1st Shroom Award to Favorite Issue, the Holiday Special, from Winter 2009! This isse took everyone by surprise, no one knew of its existence except the Core Staff. Its main purpose was to give it as a gift from us to the readers and writers, for being amazing. And it worked! It was a great success, despite only having 6 sections made by the Core Staff. This issue was the first to feature a seasonal background (winter), and the lights you also see in this issue.
The sections this issue included were (all holiday-themed!):
- Fake News Special, by Ralphfan and SMB (then named SPMB).
- Music & Art Special, by Paper Pikachu
- Pipe Plaza Special, by MG1 and SMB. (Whoever thought PP couldn’t be holiday-themed, was mistaken)
- Decade Top 10, by me, where I reviewed the Top 10 games of the last 10 years.
- And the Staff Notes, where SMB, Ralph, Stooby, Paper Pikachu, MG1, and me wished you all Happy Holidays!
Core Staff:
- Tucayo, Director (my last issue as Director)
- Stooby, Sub-Director (his last one as Sub)
- Yoshario (absent), EiC
- Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
- Paper Pikachu and YellowYoshi127, Music & Art
- SMB and MG1, Pipe Plaza
3: Issue XXVIII (Jul 09)
We’re getting to the Top 3, and we have Issue XXVIII, July 2009! This issue featured the return of 3 veteran writers as guests to write the sections they did back in the old days, Shroobario in the Games section, Toadbert101 in Fake Ads, and WarioLoaf with a 2-page special of the Fake News. All three of them were amazing writers, and every month made great sections.
The writers we had for this section are basically the same as the ones in #5. This issue has one of the best Upcoming Games, if not the best, I have ever seen, courtesy of Paper Pikachu, who was debuting. Super Shy Guy and Clyde1998 also debuted here. Something curious that brought the attention of veteran users happened here. The inclusion of a section that had cause many problems in Plumber’s era, User of the Month. Fortunately, Zeldagirl (SMB’s sister), never sent in the section, and it was immediately removed from the Sign Up page. This was Xpike’s last issue.
The first Feedback Survey was held this issue. Stooby mentioned some changes to the Shroom in his Notes, but during the next month he had to leave, so such changes were not made, and actually, I don’t know what those changes would have been. Perhaps something we already made.
Core Staff:
- Stooby, Director
- Tucayo, Sub-Director
- Xpike and Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
2: Issue XXXII (Nov 09)
On number 2 we have Issue XXXII, November 2009! Well, you might say, what is special about this issue? Let me tell you, it was the issue with the most sections in the history of The ‘Shroom (20), including the beginning of the Pipe Plaza Team (thanks to a proposal that merged the old dead Pipe Plaza with us), a Special Monthly Report by Yoshario, a Special Interview by Nerdy Guy, and the UTC.
But that isn’t the most important part about the issue. This issue featured one of the biggest reforms in The ‘Shroom history. This started as a proposal in the Wiki Admins board in the forum, lead by Cobold. What would this proposal do? Well, what was made and what was proposed greatly differed, but one thing took to another. The original idea was to remove fan fiction, comics, fake news, reviews; as well as make the Shroom cleaner, improve our writing standards, set a minimum length, and make it MarioWiki-related only.
What was made? The Pipe Plaza was crated, and even thought I couldn’t see how it would work, it works now. The Job Interviews were created, and now applications have to be reviewed by all the Core Staff. The EiC was brought back (Yoshario became the EiC). Some sections were removed, such as Fangamers Report; Good Game, Bad Game; Top 10 (ironic, isn’t it?); Mario, Non-Mario; Tournament Central; Monthly Mulligan and User Battles. The Core Staff term was created, too. I hardly opposed all this changes, but I have to accept now that they have certainly worked, thanks Cobold, and sorry for all the problems I gave during this.
Cmario17, FunkyK38, g.narron, Monteyaga, Nerdy Guy and Waluigi48 debuted here. Funky still writes for us! Luigifreak retired after 10 issues, and YS left his section to focus on being EiC. A History of Video Games made it first appearance (and only to the date, I think)
Core Staff:
- Tucayo, Director
- Stooby, Sub-Director
- Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
- SMB (last one in a while) and YellowYoshi127, Music & Art
- SMB, Pipe Plaza
1: Special Issue (Sep 09)
Aaaaaand nuuuumbeeer oneee… You knew this was coming, don’t pretend you didn’t. The Special Issue!! Some people have asked me, why celebrate it in the 30th issue? Well, when I became Core Staff I wanted to direct a Special Issue, and the numbers that seemed the best to do something special are 10, 25 and 50. 10 had already passed, 25 was our third issue, and I completely missed it… and 50, well, it isn’t issue 50 yet. The other reason was that Issue XXX (30) could be target of bad jokes, so we named it Special Issue everywhere to avoid this. (And this didn’t stop all the bad jokes).
When I was planning this issue, along with my Core Staff, our plans was to make it look elegant, so we had {{Shroominvitation}} (looks fancy :3) to invite the guests. We also had {{Shroomspwarning}}, the fancy version of {{Shroomwarning}}. 36 people were invited, 10 accepted, but only 2 wrote their section (Knife and McCloud), despite this, the writers did an amazing job to make this issue special. We had 18 sections. This issue had a Welcome instead of the usual Director Notes. SMB did an amazing Calendar of Events, relating the history of The ‘Shroom, from the day of the creation of the Pipe Plaza (predecessor of The ‘Shroom), to the day of the Special Issue release. Stooby was interviewed, we had Toadbert again, User Brawl was introduced, Character Battle debuted here, we had a special comic and special Brawl Tactics and YellowYoshi127 started as M&A co-director!
Core Staff:
- Tucayo, Director
- Stooby, Sub-Director
- Ralphfan, Fake News
- Z3r0 Tw0, Fun Stuff
- SMB and YellowYoshi127, Music & Art
Thanks to everyone for reading this and I really hope you enjoyed it! Sadly, some great issues couldn’t make it to this Top 10, but only 10 could be chosen. It was a pleasure to write a Special Top 10 again. Goodbye!
