The 'Shroom:Issue 194/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)

Shroom 2021 Pitohui.png

Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom! The bird is the word here in Pipe Plaza! You may not have been expecting to see me here, but, well, after hearing about that big discovery in the News Flush in Fake News this month, I rushed over to Pipe Plaza to check things out and… well, I may have visited the wrong Pipe Plaza.

It all worked out, though. I happened to notice that Zange left some great new sections on the desk in their office, so I took the opportunity to put them together! The team in green is plenty big this month, with some massive tables of proposals and changes to awards in Community Report and Anniversary Announcements. Since you're here in the green team, why not slip into the green bin and check them out? And if you don't quite get that joke, the answer is waiting in Anniversary Announcements, so you have double the reason to check it out!

Your favorite robot combat section, What's in a Campaign, is also celebrating its second anniversary this month. Shoey is covering a robot with a gigantic legacy, a robot that's been the de facto face of Robot Wars, even. Read on to find out about one of Behemoth's most notable runs!

I'll leave you there, and clear out before Zange makes it back in. Maybe I still have time to make it to the other Pipe Plaza… I'll go see if I do, and you, readers? You go and enjoy!

Section of the Month

Thank you all for your votes last month! You pushed current Poll Committee Chairperson Fun With Despair (talk)'s edition of Poll Committe Discussion, featuring the ever-popular annual April Fool's poll, to the top, but not by itself! Waluigi Time (talk) also did well with his detailed look at the many proposals and promotions of March and April. Keep on voting, and showing your support for our writers!

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 4 30.77% Fun With Despair (talk)
1st Community Report 4 30.77% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd Mario Calendar 3 23.08% GPM1000 (talk)
Mariowiki sections
Community Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
The month gone by in promotions and proposals.
read more
NIWA News
PanchamBro (talk)
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Turboo (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Lakituthequick (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
Non-wiki sections
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Shoey (talk)
For the second anniversary, we have a Behemoth with a massive legacy!
read more

Community Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! It's time for another Community Report. We've had a very busy month, which makes me wonder if this section is some sort of proposal magnet. I'll keep this intro brief so we can get into it, but first I'd like to give a shoutout to longtime bureaucrat Glowsquid, who has stepped down from his staff position after a nearly 13-year long run. Thank you for your many years of work!

All information is accurate as of May 16, 2023. Proposals marked with an asterisk are updates on ones first covered in last month's issue.

DEMOTIONS
AFFECTED USER PREVIOUS RANK CURRENT RANK DATE
Glowsquid (talk) Administrator / Bureaucrat Autopatrolled April 17, 2023
RECENT PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY OUTCOME DEADLINE
Add level maps for levels with no maps A proposal to add map images on level articles that currently don't have them. The proposal was canceled by the staff for being unnecessary, as there is generally no need to create proposals just to improve pages or add missing content. CANCELED BY THE ADMINISTRATORS
(read more) 		April 11, 2023
Trim and merge Smash spirits and stickers A proposal to trim the lists of stickers and spirits from the Super Smash Bros. series to only contain information directly related to the Mario franchise, following a successful proposal to do the same with trophies. Unlike that proposal, which passed with full support, this one received pushback. The opposition cited their gameplay function compared to trophies, noting that Mario characters can equip any spirit to boost their abilities, and even some stickers from other games include Mario characters as some of the fighters that can only use them. The proposal failed, although what to do with stickers that don't have a Mario connection at all may still be up for debate. DO NOTHING 4-0-0-1-8
(read more) 		April 20, 2023
Create an article for Punch-Out!! (NES) A proposal to create an article for the NES version of Punch-Out!! and classify it as a guest appearance. The proposer argued that Mario's appearance as Little Mac's referee in the game should be enough to qualify it as a guest appearance. The rest of the voters opposed, pointing out that Mario's actual gameplay role was negligible, leaving it as a cameo appearance. FAILED 1-6
(read more) 		April 20, 2023
Merge every Super Smash Bros. stage into game-specific lists A proposal to merge Super Smash Bros. stages not based on the Mario franchise into lists based on their debut game, following a successful proposal to do the same to fighters. The proposal initially gained some opposition for being too vague, but was clarified and passed after one extension. A list has been created for the original Super Smash Bros., but the others have not been made. PASSED 9-3
(read more) 		April 26, 2023
Classify Just Dance series as a guest appearance A proposal to create an article for the Just Dance series based on the appearance of Mario songs in Just Dance 3 and Just Dance 2018. The proposal received some opposition over its methods, with some voters preferring to make individual articles for both games as opposed to a series article, but the proposal passed regardless. PASSED 5-3
(read more) 		April 27, 2023
Remove articles about Sonic characters A proposal to remove articles of Sonic the Hedgehog characters and replace them with a list article or external links. The proposal was withdrawn after receiving some opposition pointing out that the Mario & Sonic series has full coverage under the wiki's coverage policy. CANCELED BY PROPOSER
(read more) 		April 30, 2023
Discourage drive-by templating part 2 A proposal to require that merge, split, and rename templates be accompanied by an active talk page discussion or proposal, so that the reasons for the suggestion are easy to find. This followed a similar proposal that required various maintenance templates (such as requests to rewrite or add more images) to have reasons accompanying them. The proposal passed with no opposition by the time it ended, and all uses of these templates that did not meet the criteria have been removed. PASSED 21-0
(read more) 		May 4, 2023
Create interwiki link templates to current and former NIWA wikis and other wikis A proposal to create templates to link to certain other wikis. The proposal failed on the basis that linking to other wikis can already be done with prefixes in normal links, and that the new templates would not be easy enough to remember to make them useful. FAILED 1-4
(read more) 		May 12, 2023
Turn the Stafy article into a disambiguation A proposal to turn Starfy's article, which is currently a redirect to the Assist Trophy page, into a disambiguation page. The proposer argues that there are many other appearances of Starfy relevant to the Mario franchise, and that these should be listed on a disambiguation for easier navigation. An option was also provided to recreate Starfy's article, but creating a disambiguation page received the majority of votes. The change has not yet been made. PASSED 8-4-1
(read more) 		May 15, 2023
RECENT TALK PAGE PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY OUTCOME DEADLINE
Create a page for Ground (block)* A proposal to create a page for the Ground element from the Super Mario Maker games, following precedent of other course parts that have their own pages. It passed with no opposition, and the supporters unanimously agreed to allow comparisons to similar elements in past games (i.e. the ground tiles from Super Mario Bros.). The page has since been created and can be found at Ground (block). CREATE WITH COMPARISONS 0-4-0
(read more) 		April 11, 2023
Figure out how to reorganize mines* A proposal to reorganize the mine article. Option 5 gained the most support, and split off three additional articles for different types of mines - mine (fruit) (Mario Party 6), Mikey Mine (Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel), and spike ball (seed) (Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker). OPTION 5 0-0-0-0-0-0-6-2-0-0-0
(read more) 		April 14, 2023
Merge Super Mario Bros. 3 Ice Block with Super Mario World Grab Block* A proposal to merge the throwable Ice Blocks from Super Mario Bros. 3 with the Grab Block on the basis of identical function. The majority of voters instead decided to split the throwable blocks into their own White Block page, based on a lack of proof that both types of blocks were meant to be the same. As of writing, the change has not yet been made. SPLIT WHITE BLOCK 3-1-0-6-1
(read more) 		April 14, 2023
Merge Prince Froggy with Frog Pirate* A proposal to merge the Yoshi's Island boss and enemy type due to no distinction between them in Japanese sources. Much debating followed, with the opposition pointing out Prince Froggy's unique gameplay role and the distinction in English materials. The opposition gained the majority and it was decided to leave the pages as-is. FAILED 1-6-16
(read more) 		April 14, 2023
Merge Fire Orb with Fireball, or split the Super Mario RPG version of Jump* A proposal to merge Fire Orb with Fireball. The proposer argues that the Fire Orb move is just the Super Mario RPG equivalent of Mario's standard fireball attack and should be merged. All voters agreed to the merge, but the change has not yet been enacted. PASSED 12-0-0
(read more) 		April 14, 2023
Remove bosses from Super Mario Bros. 2 in Category:Characters from other Nintendo games A proposal to remove the Super Mario Bros. 2 bosses from the category of characters originating outside the Mario franchise. The proposer did so on the basis that enemies from the game are excluded from the category, with the rest of the supporters instead focusing on how many elements from Doki Doki Panic have become so closely tied with the franchise. The opposition pointed out that they still originated from outside of the franchise regardless, and should be included. Following some rewrites to the category page for clarity, many of the supporters switched, and the proposer canceled the proposal halfway through. CANCELED BY PROPOSER
(read more) 		April 22, 2023
Delete Pokémon While it may sound like the editors of the Mario Wiki collectively decided to delete the entire Pokémon franchise, this proposal only concerns the Pokémon article. The article served as a catch-all list for Pokémon in the Super Smash Bros. series, including those summoned from Poké Balls, appearances in stages, as trophies and stickers, and fighters. The proposer argues that the page wasn't necessary as that information could be better covered elsewhere or was no longer eligible for coverage. The proposal passed unanimously and the changes have been made, with the exception of the Pokémon article being redirected to the series category instead of full deletion. PASSED 21-0
(read more) 		April 28, 2023
Split Yoshi's Island between the Mario franchise and the Yoshi franchise A proposal to split the versions of Yoshi's Island seen primarily in the Mario and Yoshi franchises, mainly based on different Japanese names and some shared design elements. Arguments brought by the opposition included the split being unnecessarily confusing for readers when viewed in light of the differences, ambiguity such as the Partners in Time incarnation using elements of both, and modern Japanese material doing little to distinguish them. FAILED 13-18
(read more) 		May 1, 2023
Rename Big Steely to Iron ball A proposal to rename Big Steely, which has fallen out of use since Super Mario World, to the more recent iron ball name. By the end of the proposal, there was no opposition, and the change has since been made. PASSED 10-0
(read more) 		May 2, 2023
Merge Mona's Elephant, Mona's Pig, Mona's Monkey, 4.1 and 4.2, and Mona's Bear to Yum Yums A proposal to merge some minor WarioWare series characters into their group article. The proposer argues that their nature as a group is emphasized more than as individuals, with none of them playing major roles in the series individually. The proposal passed with little opposition, and the results can be seen on the Mona's Pets article. PASSED 15-1
(read more) 		May 5, 2023
Reinstate Demon as an article on the Shadow Queen and Shadow Sirens' species A proposal to restore the deleted Demon article to use solely as a page for the species of the Shadow Queen and Shadow Sirens. The opposition pointed out that the term was only used to refer to the Shadow Queen, and never in a way that implied it was a species. FAILED 1-1-8
(read more) 		May 5, 2023
Remove the list of Super Smash Bros. series objects A proposal to delete a list of minor objects from the Super Smash Bros. series and move the information elsewhere. The proposer argues that it is no longer needed, and that objects such as stage elements are better covered with their respective stages. The proposal passed with little opposition, but the change has not yet been made. PASSED 11-1
(read more) 		May 10, 2023
Merge Ice Piranha Plant to Frost Piranha A proposal to merge the Ice Piranha Plant from New Super Mario Bros. U with the Frost Piranha first seen in Paper Mario. The change had been discussed for several years prior based on the shared Japanese name and similar concept, but remained inconclusive. The newest development was Nintendo's Mario Portal website using the Frost Piranha name to refer to both enemies. The proposal received some opposition, pointing out the different English names in its earlier appearances and differing color scheme, but the supporters won and the merged page can be found at Frost Piranha. PASSED 13-4
(read more) 		May 12, 2023
Split Mr. Game & Watch back to his own article A proposal to restore Mr. Game & Watch's article after it was merged in a proposal targeting Smash fighters. The proposer points out Game & Watch's appearance in Game & Watch Gallery 4 where he physically appears alongside Mario, and numerous cameos in the extended Mario franchise. It passed with minor opposition, and can once again be viewed at Mr. Game & Watch, with some modifications to comply with other Smash proposals. PASSED 14-1
(read more) 		May 12, 2023
Create a new version of Template:More media for articles that have no media A proposal to create a new template for requesting media on a page. The proposer notes that there is only a template for requesting additional media on a page, but not one for specifically requesting media when a page has none at all, unlike images. A recent proposal requiring reasons for maintenance templates makes it difficult to request media on these pages. The voters unanimously agreed to create Template:Media missing, which is now in use. PASSED 7-0
(read more) 		May 12, 2023
Split Balloon Burst into the versions from Mario Party and Mario Party 2 A proposal to split the two versions of Balloon Burst, based on their different gameplay and Japanese names. The supporters also pointed out other minigames that are split with less differences, such as names and visuals. The proposal passed and the new pages can be found at Balloon Burst (4-Player) and Balloon Burst (2 vs. 2). PASSED 7-0
(read more) 		May 12, 2023
Establish policy for the naming of crossover subjects A proposal to set a formal precedent for names of subjects from other series to address gaps in the naming policy. The proposal would allow the use of names from other series if they are unnamed in crossovers, and would prioritize the most recent name from a Mario crossover even if its name is changed in the original series. The voters unanimously agreed to establish both policies. PASSED 6-0
(read more) 		May 14, 2023
ONGOING PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY LINK DEADLINE
Create articles for Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix songs A proposal to create pages for the songs from Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. The proposer argues that they are the game's equivalent of levels and deserve articles. Besides deciding to create them or not, the proposal is also trying to determine how to organize coverage of songs that are arrangements of other themes from the Mario series and what names to use. Currently, the option to create pages separate from information on other games and using their names from Mario Mix is in the lead. Read more May 18, 2023
Split major classic remakes A proposal to split remakes of older games. The proposal includes options to split all remakes and to split them on a case-by-case basis. The opposition is currently in the lead as a result of the proposal not making it clear what would actually be split if it were to pass. Read more May 19, 2023
Make changes to MarioWiki's editbox wallpaper A proposal to update the graphics used in the editing field to replace the GameCube era renders. The proposal includes options to update the current graphics, or to create multiple themes that could be changed with Special:Preferences, however it does not specify what graphics would be used under either option. Currently, the option to update the graphics without creating additional themes is winning. Read more May 21, 2023
ONGOING TALK PAGE PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY LINK DEADLINE
Move Template:Wikia to Template:Fandom A proposal to rename the Wikia template to Fandom, to be consistent with the site's rebrand in 2021. Some users have opposed on the basis that Wikia is still the more well-known name. Read more May 19, 2023
Delete Rhythm Heaven Megamix and move content to List of Mario references in Nintendo video games A proposal to reclassify Rhythm Heaven Megamix as a cameo appearance and delete its page. The proposer argues that the only relevant content are levels reskinned to be WarioWare themed. The opposition currently has the majority, arguing that the WarioWare content is substantial enough to be a guest appearance, and pointing out other games that have received guest appearance status. Read more May 21, 2023
Decide what to do with Black Chest Demon A proposal to solve the problem of Black Chest Demon's conjectural name. The options are to use the official "four heroes" name, merge them with the black chest article, or pick a different conjectural name. Currently, the options to rename to four heroes and merge with black chest are tied. Read more May 27, 2023
Move the Mario (franchise) article to Super Mario (franchise) A proposal to change all instances of Mario franchise across the wiki to Super Mario franchise. The proposer has provided several sources showing Super Mario to be the brand name used by Nintendo. A second option to rename it and also merge the Super Mario platformer series article has also been provided. The option to rename without merging is currently winning. Read more May 28, 2023
Delete Category:Spin-off series A proposal to delete the category for spin-off series. The proposer argues that most of the series on the wiki would be considered spin-offs, and points out the inconsistent usage of the category, which only contains four articles. The supporters currently have an uncontested lead. Read more May 28, 2023
ONGOING UNFEATURE NOMINATIONS
ARTICLE SUMMARY LINK DEADLINE
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! PnnyCrygr (talk) nominated the article to be unfeatured, citing concerns about the quality of the writing and presentation (or lack thereof). Since being nominated, Camwoodstock (talk) has worked on the article to address the problems mentioned so far. Read more June 30, 2023

If you didn't believe me when I said we were busy, well... there you go. See you next month for more wiki happenings!

NIWA News

Written by: PanchamBro (talk)

NIWA logo with the japanese characters for garden in the background (にわ)

Hey, it's me PanchamBro. I sincerely apologize for the lack of activity for the past couple of months, but I'm back now in a more mentally stable approach. It's time for this month's NIWA News, a section regarding news with each of the 32 members of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance. We'll be going through staff changes and related wiki news over February and into May, but this may be short as I will not be able to cover any news on time. Again, sorry.

NEW MEMBER ALERT
Kovopedia has classed NIWA!
Kovopedia Logo.png

Back to school too soon? Well you don't have to write, you got magic to delight! Kovopedia has joined the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance on March 2, 2023! Dedicated to coverage of the Magical Vacation series, the wiki originally had its start on Fandom in 2010, and went independent in 2022.

If you're interested to learn more about the Baklava solar system, hop on their Discord server and give them your support!

Staff changes
  • abcboy and Maverick Nate have been promoted to Deputy Editor in Chief on Bulbapedia, while Tiddlywinks is now Bulbapedia's Head of Games. Congrats to everyone involved!
  • Heddy has been promoted to bureaucrat on Inkipedia, whilst Perfectionist and Exaskliri are Inkipedia's newest admins, and Yoshifan52 and Trig Jegman are Inkipedia's newest patrollers. Congratulations to all of them for this exciting news!
  • On the other hand, Miss Delibirda has stepped down as patroller for Inkipedia. I wish them all the best and thank them for all the work they have done on Inkipedia.
  • Aid1043 has been promoted to moderator on Kingdom Hearts Wiki, while khwiki:User:Mikoto has been promoted to janitor. Congratulations, and I wish you the best to defeat the darkness!
  • AnalogBreakdown has been promoted to rollback on Metroid Wiki. Congrats on the promotion, and I wish you the best to get the wiki up tight!
  • Midnight blue has been promtoed to patroller on Pikipedia after a history of fantastic edits! Congratulations!
  • In adition to his promotion on Inkipedia, Trig Jegman has been promoted to admin on StrategyWiki and Wars Wiki. Congrats!
  • Our very own Mario (LeftyGreenMario to be exact), RHG1951, Swallow have been promoted to admin on Super Mario Wiki. Congrats to you three on the new job.
  • On the other hand, Glowsquid has stepped down from his bureaucrat and admin roles on Super Mario Wiki after more than 10 years on the job. Gonna miss ya as staff lol. And also, thanks for all the work you've done on Super Mario Wiki. "You're the best player ever", quoting one dumb CDi game.
  • Basic Person has been promoted to moderator on WiKirby, while WillIdleAway has been promoted to patroller. Congrats to both for the promotion!
Zelda Wiki needs your help!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has recently released and Zelda Wiki needs your help! With a lot of information to cover about the game itself, your contributions help provide readers the information they need for all things related to Zelda. Do be sure to read their Getting Started guidelines regarding the ins and outs of the wiki, and join their Discord and give them a good hand!
Affiliate and partner news
  • Fallout Wiki and The Obey Me Wiki have become NIWA's newest affiliates. Fallout Wiki has been a long time affiliate of StrategyWiki and many others, while The Obey Me Wiki, currently hosted on Miraheze, had originally jumped ship from Fandom since 2022. Congrats to both on becoming NIWA's newest partners in crime...wait that's wrong uhhh newest partners...partners...

That's it for any related NIWA news that I could gather for this month's 'Shroom. I don't think I may continue further as my wiki interests dwindle, but we'll see next month. Later!

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Turboo (talk)

13th Poll Committee Banner

hello. I'm the guy who was forced to write May's Poll Committee Discussion. today I bring you: polls. in June? who knows.....

Archives

Now that it has been released, how do you feel about the Super Mario Bros. Movie? - (Fun With Despair (talk), April 10th, 2023)

Template:Archived Poll

Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this? - (BBQ Turtle (talk) and Waluigi Time (talk), April 24th, 2023)

Template:Archived Poll

Analysis

Now that it has been released, how do you feel about the Super Mario Bros. Movie?

get in

Ah, the movie. It would have been a waste to not have a poll about this one ASAP, so thank God the polls got cycled out the weekend right after it released in most countries. As a bit of waxing poetic before getting into the actual results, something extremely important to note about this poll is that its voting total has absolutely eclipsed all other single-choice polls in the history of the current Crowdsignal account, with a whopping 6,114 total. This is literally 2x the amount of votes that the majority of our single-choice polls have gotten! It's absolutely no surprise though, considering that the movie is highly accessible, is the most high-profile Mario content in years, and has likely pulled in a lot of interaction via friends/family members/miscellaneous confused moviegoers Googling who Foreman Spike is.

Now, perhaps this is unsurprising considering, well, the site's demographic, but 56.04% of voters - the highest scoring option here - agreed that the movie was greatly enjoyable and did a good job portraying the world and characters. As someone who leans closer to option 2 after having just recently watched it, I can only really assume that a lot of people think it's just a fun movie - which lines up with forum commentary, at least, and that's valid. Not much to say here other than that it's perhaps surprising just how much this option dominated the vote with the total amount that this poll had, but again, I'd assume the majority of people going to the main page of the Mario Wiki have an at least somewhat positive opinion on the film.

In second, we have the option 2 I was referring to - 21.51% of voters enjoyed it, but had a few problems with the story, characters, or other aspects. When looking at the Poll Discussion thread again, most option 2 commenters have primarily mentioned a dissatisfaction with how "compressed" the movie feels at times, with regards to how it develops its characters - and honestly, that was my own problem with it. I'd be curious to know what other aspects of it people took issue with; I've definitely seen complaints about the use of licensed music being off-putting or certain voice acting performances, even in the aforementioned thread, for starters. Haven't seen many people complain about the plot, which is also included in this option, but I suppose it's relatively inoffensive? I dunno. Email me if you think it really sucked major ass.

You see, despite the "yeah it was ok" option being nestled right under one of the "I haven't seen the movie yet guys!!!" options total-wise, I believe it's worth examining the latter three as a group because that's just how I'm rolling. 12.04% of voters were excited to see it later, 2.80% wanted to give it a chance despite low expectations, and 2.65% flat-out weren't interested in going to it. I feel it's interesting to note that this is a somewhat... fluctuating option? The poll went up five days after the movie released in America and a lot of other countries I'm not going to list here (list in the sidebar) and lasted for two weeks after that, so it makes me wonder how many of the voters for the first two went and saw the film after voting and then couldn't exactly change it afterwards. I guess as a bit of unnecessary Calculator Facts™, all of these combined means that 17.49% of people who voted in the poll hadn't seen the film at the time of voting. So there's that, I guess.

Callback time!!! Remember the "yeah it was ok" option? Well, 4.12% of people voted for it and thought the movie was just decent but nothing special. Where is the line drawn between this option and "it was good but it had some issues," I wonder? A few people who picked the latter mentioned that they were closer to thinking the film was just decent than greatly enjoying it, yet they still mentioned liking it enough. It's also surprising, how much of a gap there is between the 4.12% here and the next closest option polling at 12.04% of voters. Crazy how Mario Wiki still has Mario fans on it??????

That's also evidenced by the dead-last option, considering only 0.85% of voters - that's literally only 52 guys out of 6,114 by the way - said that they did not enjoy the movie. I just don't think most people who disliked it would immediately go on the main page to vote in a poll and say they thought it sucked, I guess? My first thought was running the poll in some sort of neutral site like, you know, let's say Zelda Wiki or something and seeing what the votes would be like there, but... well, it's not like it's a terrible movie, demographics or no demographics, at least in my opinion. Ultimately, the only conclusion I have is that 89.59% of voters had some form of relatively positive sentiment about it, whether that was really enjoying it, thinking it was good but flawed, or being excited to see it. Mario Sweep, baby!

Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this?

Me when I'm fully voice acted (I'm stuck on the main menu for a typing game)

This poll is from the deep archives of yesteryear, originally pitched by BBQ Turtle (talk) and revived by Waluigi Time (talk) for the current cycle. It originally didn't make the cut due to low activity, but it's a newly interesting question to pose in the wake of the movie daring to have a fully-voiced Mario for an hour and 32 minutes: how much of this can the general public handle, whether it's Charles Martinet, Lou Albano, Chris Pratt, or even that guy they got to voice him in Hotel Mario? The answer may shock you:

30.27% of voters said they were really just fine having him portrayed inconsistently between games. That's it. That's the top scoring option. In all seriousness, I think this makes enough sense when you consider, let's say, the contrast between Super Mario 64 and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - two games where he's, respectively, fully voice-acted and only speaks in gibberish. I'd say both of these have been received quite well overall, so it really feels to me like the implementation of Mario's voice matters just as much as how he talks - hence the inconsistency between games can be perfectly fine.

Incidentally, our next highest-voted options actually fall into those games' two bins: 20.39% of voters wanted Mario to have full voice acting, while 14.93% preferred just gibberish. One thing to note about the former is that at least one voter was unsure whether "full voice acting" encompassed complex sentences vs. just little quips like "let's-a go" - and I am admittedly curious as well to know what the voters were intending when they picked this. As I mentioned before, I do consider Super Mario 64 to technically be full voice acting, but I still would lean "full sentences" when I actually read the option? It's a bit of an odd discrepancy, but I suppose people do just want to hear Mario talk, regardless. Going back to the Mario & Luigi series for the latter "bin" of sorts, voters on the forums were on board with "this strange Italian man [...] just charades-ing his way through an adventure". I have to say this is my personal preference, considering how animated that series' scenes are with just pantomiming and gibberish Italian accents. I'd imagine other voters outside our slice of commenters are endeared to the concept for quite similar reasons.

11.72% of voters, meanwhile, preferred only text box speech for Mario. Honestly, I actually have a little bit of trouble pulling an example of this out of memory? He might talk like this in the Mario & Sonic Olympics games or some Mario Party game or something. I know one of you guys will DM me soon after this article releases and be like "but Turb, he talked with full text boxes in New Super Paper Mario & Luigi Deluxe: 3D Hot Rally" but oh well! Regardless, someone on, you guessed it, the forums did say they'd be cool with textboxes, namely as a way to slowly build more dialogue and character with him. And honestly, that makes sense - I'd genuinely assume this would be the most realistic method to get Mario more dialogue if that's what you're interested in, since his full-sentence voice clips are usually very choppy and integrated into the gameplay vs. anything to do with the story. As a side note since it's a simple "no opinion" option... well, 10.86% of voters just didn't have an opinion on how he's portrayed. I suppose there's actually not that much overlap between being fine with whatever Nintendo wants to do and just flat out not having an opinion, considering both choices got a good chunk of votes.

The two options bottoming out here are similar yet half opposed to each other - 7.52% of voters want Mario to be silent and for other characters to speak on his behalf, while a smaller sliver of 3.14% want him to be silent and not spoken for. To my understanding, the former is more in line with Mario having some sort of Lassie-esque quality where he, for example, stands next to a well making this face and Toadsworth responds in horror like "Oh gracious, Master Mario, the princess has fallen down a well???"? I might be misunderstanding it, though, because there's also characters like Starlow who kind of serve a similar function, but she overlaps with him having gibberish speech in the same games, so... I dunno, really. Again, email me if you know the difference for sure. I can only assume wanting him to be completely silent and not spoken for would be reverting to basically just pre-Martinet era platformers, so there's not much to say there. Classic JRPG hero Mario, I guess.

Lastly, there's not too many ways you can group the results for this poll and analyze them, I think - all of them feel pretty different in some way, even the two silent treatment options. In conclusion: the world is in turmoil and people are in pain. Even still, we can take comfort in knowing that Nintendo will use their archival clips of Charles Martinet until the end of time immemorial.

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed this issue of Poll Committee Discussion. Honestly I legitimately have no idea who will be writing the one in June, but it was nice to see you guys again. Thanks for having me, Pipe Plaza. Please remember to vote in the polls because mine is on the main page for like two more days as of this issue's release and it has Peppino in the image. thank you

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

Template:Quote2

Good May people, this is Anniversary Announcements! Summer is coming up, the heat is turning up for certain, and the committee has been busy, so let's get to it!

Tour de tournaments

In this section of AA, I shall update you on all things tournaments, including new ones and progress in ongoing ones.

While the tournament scene is still fairly calm, we do have one tournament thread up now! Let's cover it.

Mario Boards Mega Brawl
A story brawler in which user-submitted characters (which must be pre-existing characters that have relevance to them) get to fight each other. Battle results are weighted based on popularity vote and randomness.

Besides that, a relic hunt, based on gameplay from the Living Game series of games, is being planned by Waluigi Time (talk · Boards), and a new Anniverary Scavenger is being planned by Lakituthequick (talk · Boards).

Awards changes

In this part of AA, I will describe all updates and changes to the meat and bones of the event, the awards. This includes additions, removals, and changes of both awards and nominees within.

As mentioned last month, we aim to reduce the amount of awards this year to ease the workload of everyone involved. As such, for every award we went past, we considered if it's worth keeping based on relevance and recent results. An award could be immediately removed, put on hold, or greenlit for updating.
These three categories have been dubbed the red, blue, and green bins in the vernacular, as the former two are marked in those colours in our documents.
Despite that, there are also a couple of new awards to fill some of the spots that came free.

New awards

These awards are brand new, or sometimes return from two or more years ago.

Mn1. Favorite Mario Movie (2023) Portrayal (new)
The best portrayal of a character as seen in the 2023 The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This award focused on how well a voice actor played a character, rather than being about actors or characters individually.
Mn2. Favorite Bowser Battle (new)
The best boss battle with Bowser found in a Mario or Mario spin-off game.
Cn1. Favorite Retired 'Shroom Section (new)
Exact definition pending, this award will focus on sections that are not currently being written, rather than writers who are no longer writing any section.

Updated awards

Awards that existed last year and have been updated based on recent releases or with high-ranking write-in votes from last year.

M8. Favorite In-game Track (renamed)
Renamed from "favourite instrumental track" to cover any track that appears within a game, after the removal of favourite lyrical song last year.
M14. Favorite Boss Battle
Due to the overwhelming results in favour of Bowser over time, he has been split off of this award into his own. The top results of the removed DK, Yoshi, and Wario boss battle awards have been added, among others.
M16. Favorite 2D Platformer (renamed)
Renamed from "favourite 2D Mario platformer" to also include the other franchises, which don't have their own award at the moment.
M17. Favorite 3D Platformer (renamed)
Renamed from "favourite 3D Mario platformer" to also include the other franchises, which don't have their own award at the moment.
F5. Worst Level Concept
F6. Worst Game Mechanic
F14. Most Shameless Business Decision
  • Mario Kart Tour / Dr. Mario World gacha
  • Limited-time availability of Super Mario 3D All-Stars
  • Nintendo Switch Online subscription
  • Artificial scarcity (NES/SNES mini, certain amiibo)
  • Restricting availability of old games
  • Requiring YouTube creators to surrender a sizeable cut of their profits
  • Adding advertisements to LEGO Mario voice lines
  • Refusing to fix issues causing Joy-Con drift at point of production
  • Frequent takedowns of fan content
  • Reselling older games at the price of modern releases
  • Restricting availability of game soundtracks
  • Utilizing a 'free update' model to justify releasing games with minimal content at launch
  • Failing to properly credit artists for music used in The Super Mario Bros. Movie
C3. Favorite 'Shroom Section Design
C5. Favorite 'Shroom Team
  • Fake News
  • Fun Stuff
  • Palette Swap
  • Pipe Plaza
  • Critic Corner
  • Strategy Wing

The bins

The blue bin contains awards that may have potential left, but will only be considered to be kept to fill up necessary awards spots. The red bin contains awards that have been removed entirely.

M5. Favorite Level Theme (to be considered)
This award has potential, but is considered to be fairly broad.
M6. Favorite 2D World (removed)
This award was revamped from "favourite 2D level" last year, but is considered to still be mess.
M7. Favorite 3D Mario Level (to be considered)
Not as messy as 2D level or 2D world, thus considered viable, but not strong enough to secure a stay.
M10. Favorite Art Style (removed)
After a focus move last year, the results didn't change enough to warrant keeping this award.
M11. Favorite Game Mechanic (to be considered)
This award has had similar results in the years it existed and no new features to be added to it.
M12. Favorite Add-on Content (to be considered)
Some diversity exists in the results, but the nominee names and criteria are somewhat unwieldy.
M13. Favorite Game Setting (removed)
This award has had the same top results for several years without new settings to be added, and is thus considered stale.
M15. Favorite Merchandise (removed)
This award has been removed due to the variation in specificity of its nominees, and overall vagueness. Considerations for any movie merchandise resulted in similar comments.
M21. Favorite Mario Party Game (removed)
This award has been stale for a while and no new games can be added.
M22. Favorite Sports Game (removed)
This award has been removed in favour of a "favourite genre" award due to stale results.
M24. Favorite DK Boss Battle (removed)
This award was removed in favour or discontinuing the three subseries award cycle.
M25. Favorite Yoshi Boss Battle (removed)
This award was removed in favour or discontinuing the three subseries award cycle.
M26. Favorite Wario Boss Battle (removed)
This award was removed in favour or discontinuing the three subseries award cycle.
M27. Favorite WarioWare Microgame Stage (removed)
This award received very few votes last year, meaning that the general interest is not there.

For some additional trivia: M21 and M22 were the only awards that have existed since the very beginning of the Mario Awards, 16 years ago, in unmodified form, but have now finally met their end.

F1. Worst Character (to be considered)
This is a staple award, but has had the same top results for several years.
F7. Most Underused Game Mechanic (removed)
This award is considered to be outdated upon entry last year.
F8. Worst Game Objective (removed)
The results of this award have staled over time.
F11. Worst Mario Kart Course (to be considered)
There have not been enough new courses that are worthwhile to add to this award recently.
F12. Worst Mario Party Minigame (removed)
The results of this award have been stale, with the same top results even when it existed five years ago.
F15. Most Disappointing Game (to be considered)
This award has stale results with little dynamic.
C2. Favorite Retired 'Shroom Writer (removed)
This award is being removed in favour of an award for retired sections, rather than writers.
C10. Wiki Contributor Award 2021 - 2022 (removed)
This award has been removed due to a mutual disinterest between wiki staff, awards committee, and voters.

Wew, that gets us to the end of the awards we have covered thus far! I hope you got through it without much issue, and I hope to see you again next month! f8tx0G5.png

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hey there everyone, I hope you’re all having a fantastic May so far! I know it’s not strictly Mario-related, but I have to mention Tears of the Kingdom! I just got out of school for the semester, so I’ve been doing just about nothing other than playing Zelda. But I hope you take some time away from your adventures in Hyrule to read the newest Mario Calendar!

Region Abbreviations

Abb. Region
ALL All Regions (JP/NA/EU/AU)
JP Japan
NA North America
EU Europe
AU Oceania/Australia
SK South Korea
CHN China
UK United Kingdom

Console Abbreviations

Abb. Console
NES Nintendo Entertainment System
Famicom Family Computer Disk System
SNES Super Nintendo Entertainment System
N64 Nintendo 64
GC Nintendo GameCube
GB Game Boy
GBC Game Boy Color
GBA Game Boy Advance
DS Nintendo DS
3DS Nintendo 3DS
Switch Nintendo Switch
Wii VC Nintendo Wii Virtual Console
3DS VC Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Wii U VC Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console
VB Virtual Boy
G&W Game and Watch
64DD Nintendo 64 Disk Drive
MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System
CD-i Philips CD-i
IQ iQue Player
NVS Nvidia Shield
ACPC Amstrad CPC
ZX ZX Spectrum
Coleco Colecovision
TI-99 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

And that’s everything! This was honestly a fascinating month for two main reasons. First of all, there is a really interesting abundance of Donkey Kong and Wario throughout this month! Donkey Konga 2, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, the Switch port of Tropical Freeze, DK: King of Swing, Wario World, Wario Land, Wario Land 3, WarioWare: Twisted, and that’s not even all!! It seems like this month might be a popular month for Nintendo to release their games that are not strictly Mario-related but still take place in that universe, but I am unsure as to why.

Secondly, there were just a lot of really solid games this month! The original releases of Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario Kart 8, and New Super Mario Bros. all took place within the last few days of the month in a five-day window, which is crazy. I imagine that particular weekend is a popular one to release some of their biggest games, which is likely related to the beginning of the summer season and a lot of people getting out of school for the summer.

By the way, am I the only one that is shocked that Mario Kart 8 will be ten years old next year? That’s absolutely crazy! Anyways, I hope you guys have an awesome rest of your month, and I’ll see you next time. Time to get back on the Zelda grind!!

What's in a Campaign?

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello, and welcome back to What's in a Campaign?, The Shroom's number one Robot Wars section. It's the second anniversary of What's in a Campaign?! That's right. We've had two years of destructive discs, high flying flippers, and robots of other varieties! This month, to celebrate, we're going to cover something special, because, for the first time, we're going to cover a Robot Wars reboot run! Yes, up until now, we've only covered robots from the classic series (series 1-7 and Extreme 1 and 2) various spin-offs attached to the classic series. Not only are we covering the reboot for the first time, but our first ever reboot coverage is going to chronicle what is probably my favorite run of all time. This month, we're looking at the Series 10 run of Robot Wars legend Behemoth!

The old War Horse returns!

Built by team Make Robotics, with team members Anthony Pritchard, Michael Pritchard, Kane Aston, and Kevin Cleasby at the helm, Behemoth was really the one constant in Robot Wars. First appearing all the way back in Series 2 and appearing in all the subsequent UK series, the Behemoth team's longevity is unmatched. Whereas a lot of contemporaries had either retired or stopped updating their robots, the Behemoth team never did. Even after the original series ended in 2004, the Behemoth team continued to appear in live events and in various tournaments. Then, when Robot Wars returned, Behemoth returned with it, even being part of the first televised heat of the reboot. You know, while Behemoth might not be the most famous robot, you could really argue that it's just not Robot Wars without them, because, outside of a single series, they're always part of it, always competing despite having a lot of bad luck.

WATCH OUT, SPINNERS!

And let me tell you, despite the fact that twelve years had passed, the Behemoth team's bad luck continued in the reboot! Sort of! In Series 8, Behemoth made its first heat final since Series 4, but, unfortunately, it went up against Carbide, who was the most powerful spinner in Robot War's history, and it just lost outright. Then, despite a good performance in the heat itself, they were not given the wild card spot that would have taken them into the Grand Final. In Series 9, after losing a very close fight to Eruption, Behemoth's bad luck reared its ugly head again during a match against Cherub where, if they were to win, they'd get a rematch with Eruption in the heat final (Series 8 and 9 had a completely new format that I'll cover when I cover a robot from those series). Behemoth would lose against Cherub after switching out their front scoop for a new grabber-style weapon. This would prove to be a mistake, because the grabber did not work, and they lost a match they had no business losing. To make matters worse, team captain Anthony Pritchard stormed out of the interview. Now, this actually got misrepresented, because it was thought that he did it because he was angry over losing to a team of children, but that's not right. What actually happened was that he wanted to use the front scoop, but his team outvoted him and they went with the grabber, so he left the interview to avoid basically cussing out his team on live TV.

I'm not gonna do a lot of tech specs this time, mostly because the Behemoth team had been upgrading the machine throughout the years. Behemoth is slightly faster in the reboot series, now having a top speed of 14mph. In addition, the team has two different types of scoops.

There's the main dump truck-style scoop, which is their primary scoop. Then there's a special stronger scoop made of stronger metal that also curves outwards. This scoop is for when they face off against extremely strong spinners like Carbide. The idea is that the curves will absorb impacts, making it less likely that the scoop will buckle. Other than that, standard upgrades basically made a robot that was already good even better.

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic 'Robot Wars' Wiki. So, there isn't actually a full compilation of Behemoth's Series 10 fights, so, instead, I'm going to have videos of what I think are the best fights in the run. You'll know when to watch them when you get to them in the writing.

So, Series 10 has a whole new format, different any other series, and I think it's the best Robot Wars has ever had. In the past, the first round matches, whether they were 1v1, 3-way melees, or 4-way melees, always ended with at least one robot going home after a single fight. That sucked, because people put a lot of effort into this, and one bad fight or even just a bad draw could mean they put in all that work and they only got one fight (pour one out for GBH 2 in Series 6). So, for Series 10, they decided to do something different. The format goes as follows:

  • Six robots per heat.
  • The first round is two 3-way melees.
  • The winner moves onto to the next round.
  • The losers go into, basically, a loser's bracket, where the four losers would face off in two 1v1 matches.
  • The winners of those would then face off against the winners of the original 3-way melees.
  • The winners would move onto the heat final, but the losers of those 1v1 matches would go into a third place playoff.
  • The winner of the third place playoff would go into the 10-Robot Rumble.
  • The Winner of the heat final would go into the grand final, while the loser would get a spot in the 10-Robot Rumble.
  • The 10-Robot Rumble would feature ten (shocking, I know) robots from across the heat, and the winner would get a place in the grand final.

To me, this is great, because not only is everyone getting at least two fights, but I'm also being promised a 10-Robot Rumble, which, just off numbers alone, is going to have a wild variety of robots of varying quality. Who knows what could happen when ten robots face off! Anything could happen. A robot that could never win a heat could end up qualifying for the grand final.

It'll be chaos in the arena!

Plus, you can't tell me that you're not excited when you hear "10-Robot Rumble"! I really think this is the best format they ever did, because every robot, no matter the heat, has a realistic shot of at least getting a chance to make the grand final. There are no more heats of death where two of three robots are bound to destroy everything and everyone just got a bad draw. Bad draws are kind of eliminated, because it's not single elimination! You're always going to have a second chance!

Behemoth, again, is in the first heat of a series, being placed in Heat A of Series 10. This time, though, they aren't just in the first heat; they're in the first match! Behemoth is placed against the newcomer vertical bar spinner, Donald Thump, and also against the series veteran drum spinner, Sabertooth. Behemoth starts off the fight by going after Sabertooth, who gets around Behemoth and flips them with it's drum spinner. Behemoth then goes in for a charge on Donald Thump, but overextends and ends up flipped by the floor flipper (in the reboot, the floor flipper is just a regular arena hazard that goes off when you drive over it).

Not even a scratch!

Behemoth finally gets an attack in, hitting Donald Thump's spinner straight on with its titanium scoop, causing Donald Thump's weapon to briefly stop spinning. Behemoth then sends Sabertooth away with a flip from its scoop. Donald Thump breaks down following an attack from Sabertooth, and Behemoth and Sabertooth dance around each other, looking for an opportunity. Behemoth goes for the Dial of Doom! So, just as a note, let's talk about the Dial of Doom. In the reboot, instead of a pit button, there's the dial of doom, which either opens the pit, sends out a rouge House Robot, or, in Series 10 only, activates the fog of war (we'll get to that... Oh, we'll get to that). The Dial of Doom opens the pit right as Sabertooth drives over the side of it, nearly eliminating the drum spinner. Sabertooth then drives into Behemoth's scoop, flipping itself over, but KOing Behemoth in the process. Unfortunately for Sabertooth, they are unable to self-right despite being invertible! So the fight... just kind of goes to the judges.

Oh my, it's a double knockout!

The judges give the fight to Behemoth and, uh, the Sabertooth captain disagrees and so do I! I'm a big Behemoth guy, but they didn't really do anything! Sabertooth KO'd both of its opponents and should have been given the win! But my opinion doesn't matter, so Behemoth goes on to the next round and is guaranteed at least a spot in the third place playoff!

In the second round, Behemoth gets the luckiest draw in the history of time, because, in the loser bracket 1v1, Donald Thump loses to The Swarm! What are "The Swarm", you ask? Well, you see, the guy who built Series 5 runner-up Bigger Brother apparently got hit really hard on the head and asked himself, "what if instead of one big robot, you instead entered five small robots?".

Thanks I hate it.

So it's five robots, hence the name The Swarm. Each member of The Swarm has its own weapon, but they cannot use all five, because you're only allowed four team members in the pod. I'm gonna cover the fight, but, spoiler alert, Behemoth does not lose to a bunch of tiny robots! The four parts of The Swarm that fight Behemoth are:

  • Blenda, the heaviest of the five. Blenda has a big spinner on it that's pretty good for a lightweight!
  • Skye, a wedge bot made with the idea that it would get robots stuck underneath it.
  • Rubber Duck, a flipper, which I'm sure will work great against Behemoth!
  • Pinza, an adorable little robot with horizontal pincers.

In order to win by knock out, Behemoth has to KO three of the four tiny baby robots. The fight starts with The Swarm scattering before Behemoth just straight up runs over Skye. There's a lot of tiny robots just driving around as Behemoth is like "what the fuck", then Blenda slams into Behemoth, an attack so forceful it sends Blenda flying while doing, uh, nothing to Behemoth. This breaks Blenda, by the way, so they're out. Then Behemoth KOs Pinza by... it honestly looks like Behemoth simply pushes Pinza into Skye, and then Pinza just sort of rolls on top of the wedge and over it, getting stuck on its back. So that's two out! No, wait, never mind! Blenda's back babyyyyyyyyyyyyy. This really changes the momentum of the fight, as, while Behemoth is kicking Rubber Duck's ass, Behemoth accidentally drives into House Robot Matilda's flywheel, flipping over in the process!

Tiny robot takes to the Skye.

Behemoth then flips the tiny wedge bot Skye out of the arena, which is counted as an official OUTTA, by the way. The fight just breaks down, I guess, because Blenda is down for real now, then, in the process of flipping Skye out of the arena, Behemoth re-rights Pinza, who then catches on fire. I guess Pinza was eliminated, because the fight ends with Rubber Duck still alive, but Behemoth just goes through. I hate The Swarm. It's probably one of my least favorite ideas, because it's just stupid. But, regardless, Behemoth moves onto the heat final and is now guaranteed a spot, at the very least, in the 10-Robot Rumble.

In the heat final, Behemoth would face off against Series 8 Champion and Series 9 Grand Finalist, the flipper of Apollo, in a match where Behemoth is definitely the underdog. I'm not going to beat around the bush. This is one of the top five Robot Wars fights of all time. Everyone should watch it. Stop reading this and go watch it (this is where you go and watch the video I linked)! The fight doesn't start out great for Behemoth, who immediately drives onto Apollo's flipper, getting flipped in the process! Behemoth has a little trouble self-righting, but manages to do so with a little help from Sir Killalot. Apollo stays on the attack, sending Behemoth into the air again, but this time Behemoth lands on its wheels. Driving through the arena spikes, the battle becomes a test of driving as both robots look for any opportunity to strike. Finally Behemoth strikes, getting to the side of Apollo and flipping the former champion over. Behemoth continues its assault, and, refusing to let Apollo self-right, they push Apollo into the arena wall and into the Dial of Doom. The Dial of Doom unleashes the dreaded Dead Metal, who interrupts Behemoth's attack, shoving its grinding disc into the titanium scoop. Behemoth gets away and continues to attack the still-on-its-back Apollo. Behemoth pushes Apollo up the side of the wall, and, finally Apollo self-rights.

This almost proves disastrous for Behemoth, because, as Behemoth is reversing away from Dead Metal, Apollo pounces on them.

So close to disaster

With Apollo flipping them into the air and very nearly out of the arena, Behemoth lands mere feet away from another crushing loss. Behemoth, having nearly seen death, goes back on the attack, again getting to the side of Apollo, once again flipping it over. This time, Apollo lands on the flame pit, but, again, Apollo self-rights. Behemoth charges again at Apollo, but Apollo's flipper is just a little lower than the scoop of Behemoth. Apollo gets under Behemoth, throwing them away, and, in a very cool visual, Behemoth is thrown into the claws, Behemoth physically rolling over them while staying on its wheels. Apollo charges at Behemoth, but this time it's Behemoth whose weapon is lower, and this time Behemoth is under Apollo. Apollo frantically reverses, attempting to flee and reposition itself for another attack, but Behemoth refuses to end its pursuit and catches up to the fleeing machine, getting to its backside and throwing them into the air.

Victory at last!

The momentum of this attack carries Apollo straight into the pit, or, as Robot Wars commentator Johnathan Pearce put it in one of the greatest calls in Robot Wars history:

Apollo are down! Apollo are down! Splashdown, Apollo! Behemoth, the greatest moment in twenty years! Twenty years of hurt and grief, end with huge celebrations, and frustration for Apollo!

Behemoth has done it. For the first time in over twenty years, for the first time since their debut in Robot Wars Series 2, Behemoth has won a heat. The longest-serving veteran in the history of Robot Wars, a robot who, whether it be bad strategy, bad luck, or bad draws, just could never get over the hump, a robot and a team who just a year ago suffered one of the greatest humiliating defeats in the history of Robot Wars, has finally won another heat and are moving on to the grand final. For a team that never stopped competing even through years of heartbreak, even when the show went off the air, even when the reboot produced more heartbreak, the team never gave up and finally they did it. They got over the hump in one of the greatest fights in the history of Robot Wars, and, for the first time, they can call themselves grand finalists.

In the grand final, Behemoth would actually face off in grudge matches from Series 8 on both sides of the coin. The first robot in this this 3-way melee is Carbide, the reigning champion and the robot who sent Behemoth packing in Series 8. The other robot is the chain flail-wielding Nuts, probably the greatest Cinderella story in the history of Robot Wars, and one that we will be covering someday. Nuts, in Series 8, was in the same heat as Behemoth and Carbide, losing to both of them. We got a real grudge match special in this fight! Facing off again the terrifying blade of Carbide, the Behemoth team broke out their special stronger curved scoop. The fight starts off with Behemoth and Carbide going at each other as Nuts spins in place and the Nuts minibots scatter. With its stronger scoop, Behemoth actually starts off well against Carbide, pushing it around and not being sent flying by the spinner... at least until Behemoth and Carbide attack each other head-on. This does send Behemoth spinning away and puts a big gash in the scoop. But Behemoth holds up quite well and still manages to push Carbide around! But, then, if you thought the Behemoth curse was over, joke's on you! Because what happens next could only happen to Behemoth! So one of the little Nuts minibots hits the Dial of Doom. As this is happening, Behemoth and Carbide again collide head-on, scoop to spinner. This again sends both robots spinning away.

Oh, Behemoth...

But Behemoth spins right onto the the pit just as it's releasing from the Dial of Doom. Behemoth is eliminated from this fight not by Carbide, but rather by a 3kg minibot. The winner of this fight, by the way, is somehow Nuts! Because Nuts, in one of the greatest attacks of all time, uses its chain flail to hit right where Carbide's weapon chain connects, severing the chain and disabling Carbide's spinner. They then nearly KO'd Carbide when Carbide ended up on its back and got stuck under a minibot, before winning on a judge's decision. Do you see why we need to cover this!!!?

Luckily, though, this is not the end of Behemoth. Series 10's grand final has basically the same format as the heats, with the only real difference being that there's no third place playoff for the losers of the semi-final and there's no 10-Robot Rumble to qualify for (duh). In their loser's bracket match, Behemoth faced off against the equally destructive spinner of Magnetar. The fight, again, starts off well for Behemoth, who flips over Magnetar with ease. Magnetar easily self-rights, though. Magnetar then flips Behemoth over with some very powerful attacks of its own, though, once again, Behemoth self-rights almost instantly. The two robots then dance around each other, looking for an advantage before Behemoth charges at Magnetar, getting under it and throwing it in the air. Unfortunately for Behemoth, this would prove to be a mistake, because they do not flip over Magnetar, rather, they simply throw them to the side. But in the process, Behemoth overextends on its charge, driving over Magnetar's drum and exposing its side.

Well, that's not good...

Magnetar quickly takes advantage of that, attacking the exposed side of Behemoth and disabling the drive system on the side. Now, here's why things get controversial. Behemoth is reduced to only being able to spin in circles. Now, in the classic series, that would qualify as being immobilized, but the reboot changed the rules. Now, as long as you can get out of your turning radius, you are not considered immobilized. Because of the way Behemoth is spinning, they are indeed able to get out of their turning radius, so they are not immobilized. At the same time, Magnetar's drum stops working. Despite this, they still keep trying to attack the spinning Behemoth. They keep attacking despite not having a working drum, and Behemoth manages to spin around and get to the back of Magnetar, where they flip them over. Magentar's self-righter broke after the first time it self-righted.

Top four, here we come!

With a broken self-righter, they can't self-right, and Behemoth, despite being reduced to spinning in circles, actually wins this fight by knockout and will finish in the top four of series 10! Like I said, this fight's controversial, and a lot of people think Behemoth should have been counted out. To be honest, they're just wrong. Behemoth, by the rules of the reboot, was not immobilized. They beat Magnetar perfectly fairly.

This puts Behemoth in the semi-finals, just one win away from the championship round. In their semi-final match, Behemoth would face off against Series 9 runner-up and 10-Robot Rumble winner Eruption in what is a rematch from Series 9. Once again, three for three in these grand final fights, Behemoth starts off hot, getting under Eruption and throwing it into the House Robot corner.

A hot start for the old War Machine

Behemoth keeps up the attack as Eruption struggles to self-right, but Behemoth ends up in the claws of Dead Metal, so Eruption gets away. Behemoth refuses to let up, though, and once again gets under Eruption, but this time Eruption just barely manages to get away before Behemoth can finish the flip. Finally, Eruption manages to get to the side of Behemoth, throwing it into the air, with Behemoth doing multiple rotations before slamming back onto the arena. This time, it's Behemoth who struggles to self-right and Eruption who stays on the attack. With Eruption flipping Behemoth into the air again, this time Behemoth lands on Dead Metal, who grinds that disc into Behemoth. Behemoth finally gets away and hits the Dial of Doom. This releases Dead Metal, who doesn't get anybody, just like the worst of Assist Trophies. Eruption and Behemoth attack each other head-on, with Eruption getting under the scoop and again flipping Behemoth over. Behemoth continues to have self-righting problems and Eruption keeps up its assault. Eruption throws Behemoth around, who again hits the Dial of Doom, which this time releases the Fog of War.

Yes! Finally I can talk about this stupid idea. So the Fog of War is basically as follows. They release smoke into the arena for 10 seconds, so now none of the roboteers can see. It's kind of like the Blooper from Mario Kart, but here's the thing. NOBODY CAN SEE! Nobody at all can see, not the audience, not the opposing robots, not the robot who hits the Dial. The Fog of War provides no advantage to anybody. It's like if the Blooper from Mario Kart also inked the person who activated it. All the Fog of War does is grind fights to a halt, because, again, nobody can see a goddamn thing. The worst part of the Fog of War is that it has a 33% chance of activating when the Dial of Doom is pressed. This goes up to a 50% chance if the pit is released. That means there can be multiple times during a fight where nothing happens because nobody can see anything. It's objectively the worst arena hazard ever put into the show, and I honestly can't believe they didn't see the obvious problems with it.

When the fighting resumes, Behemoth and Eruption charge at each other, but a lot like in the Apollo fight, the scoop of Behemoth just isn't low enough to consistently get under the flipper of Eruption, so Eruption is always at an advantage. The fight just kind of goes like that with from here on, with Eruption constantly flipping and throwing Behemoth.

Probably always gonna end up like this...

The coolest moment is when, Behemoth gets flipped into Matilda's flywheel before Eruption very nearly throws Behemoth out of the arena. The fight goes to the judges, but the decision is obvious. Eruption is declared the winner, and, for Behemoth, the miracle run is over. But because there is no third place playoff, Behemoth ends Robot Wars Series 10 in joint third place.

Like I said, this is my favorite run in all of Robot Wars, because it's my favorite robot finally living up to its potential. After years of heartbreak, Behemoth, a robot which never stopped competing, finally won its second heat. Then you throw in that Behemoth ends this with a top four in the UK championship, and it's just a perfect end for Behemoth, one of the defining robots of Robot Wars. Series 10 would end the reboot series, with the BBC canceling the show again after only three series. It's really unfortunate, because Series 10 was the strongest the show had ever been. It really felt like, after the terrible format of Series 8 and 9 (we'll get to it someday), the show had finally found the perfect format. Not only that, but Series 10 was probably the strongest Robot Wars had ever been as far as a robot combat show should be. Maybe someday Robot Wars will return again, but, if it doesn't, at least it went out on the ultimate high note. That's going to be all for this month. Join us next month when we cover another robot in What's in a Campaign?!

The 'Shroom: Issue 194
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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