The 'Shroom:Issue 210/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Hello happy 'Shroom readers! Welcome to September, where pumpkin spice everything is in full swing and the fall weather still hasn't quite hit yet! (seriously it was almost 90 degrees here today... send help) Since last month I finally have a job!! I work at Crumbl and I am a total cookie whiz kid now hehehe. I love it there so far, all my coworkers are awesome and shifts have been pretty chill for the most part. (minus my first shift, that was chaos and we don't talk about it) Definitely enjoying free cookies too, muahahaha. :>

Anyways, we've got some super cool and super awesome sections for you this month, including a new section from everyone's favorite Poll Committee! You, too, can always become part of these cool and awesome sections just by heading to the sign up page to find out more!

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Shoey (talk) with What's in a Campaign?! Second place is Waluigi Time (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion! Tying for third is Waluigi Time (talk) with The 'Shroom Report and Lakituthequick (talk) with Anniversary Announcements! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st What's in a Campaign? 4 44.44% Shoey (talk)
2nd Poll Committee Discussion 3 33.33% Waluigi Time (talk)
3rd The 'Shroom Report 1 11.11% Waluigi Time (talk)
3rd Anniversary Announcements 1 11.11% Lakituthequick (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Hooded Pitohui (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Lakituthequick (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
Awards Analysis
Waluigi Time (talk)
Awards may have come and gone, but let's talk about the results!
read more
Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox
Shoey (talk)
Villainy of mammoth proportions here!
read more
The 'Shroom Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
All the latest writers and all the milestones of the current ones.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Shoey (talk)
But where's Thing 1? :(
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Hey everyone, welcome back to Mario Calendar!! I hope everyone's month has gotten off to a wonderful start! College is kicking back into full gear for me, so I've been super busy. But, of course, I'm not too busy for 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


The big thing that I HAVE to point out here is that Super Mario Bros. came out in Japan this month in 1985! It's crazy to think that it's almost been 40 years since it came out - it will be the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. this time next year! Of course, it'll be the 44th anniversary for Mario as a character thanks to Donkey Kong, but that doesn't count (because I say so).

Other than that, it wasn't a particularly interesting month! It's definitely acting as sort of a prelude to the next couple of months for the holiday season - if I remember correctly, October is when it really starts to get crazy. so, I guess we'll just have to wait until next time for the good stuff! See y'all next month :)

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)

Hello there, all you readers of The 'Shroom! It's your local Strategy Wing Director, Hooded Pitohui, back here again on behalf of the Poll Committee. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, we didn't magically induce poll-related news with the two polls from Natalie J. that I'm covering today. On the other hand, I do have some Poll Committee-related news to share with you!

News

After a lengthy absence, the Poll Committee's Awards Analysis is coming back, albeit in a brand-new form! It was fairly well known that Awards Analysis was far and away the Poll Committee's largest and most energy-intensive project, and that covering thirty (sometimes more) polls in detail tended to cause a lull in activity among the PC afterwards. In the past, there have been attempts to make the project a little easier by changing the timing of the PC schedule so Awards Analysis didn't fall so near to the start of the term, but this year, we're going a step further and overhauling our approach. With MightyMario (talk) overseeing these changes and Waluigi Time (talk) spearheading them, we'll be covering the awards throughout the year 1-3 at a time, borrowing the format we already use for Poll Committee Discussion. Now, this means we won't be covering every award in a year, but every year tends to bring a few awards with results where little has changed and there isn't much we can discuss anyways, so we'll simply elect not to cover those and prioritize the awards where there's something interesting to say. You can see this new approach in action elsewhere on this very page, so be sure to check it out and let us know what you think!

Archives

What form of Mario fan content do you most enjoy? (Natalie J., August 31st, 2024)

What form of Mario fan content do you most enjoy?

I enjoy fanart and drawings of characters in the Mario series. 25.45% (497 votes)
I watch Mario gaming content, such as Twitch streams and YouTube videos. 21.30% (416 votes)
I play fan games and ROM hacks of existing Mario games. 19.66% (384 votes)
I enjoy fanmade animations using characters from the Mario series. 9.01% (176 votes)
I listen to fanmade musical arrangements and mashups of songs from Mario games. 8.24% (161 votes)
I have no opinion. 7.07% (138 votes)
I enjoy written works of fiction set in the Mario universe. 3.79% (74 votes)
I have not interacted with any Mario fan content. 2.92% (57 votes)
I mainly enjoy a form of Mario fan content not listed here. 2.56% (50 votes)
Total Votes: 1,953

What is your favorite series of Mario sports games? (Natalie J., August 15th, 2024)

What is your favorite series of Mario sports games?

Mario & Sonic 19.56% (415 votes)
Mario Tennis 16.68% (354 votes)
Mario Baseball 13.48% (286 votes)
I have not played any Mario sports games 12.77% (271 votes)
Mario Strikers 10.37% (220 votes)
I have no opinion 9.05% (192 votes)
Mario Golf 7.96% (169 votes)
I do not like any of the Mario sports games 4.43% (94 votes)
Mario Sports Mix/Mario Sports Superstars 3.58% (76 votes)
Mario Hoops 2.12% (45 votes)
Total Votes: 2,122

Analysis

What form of Mario fan content do you most enjoy?

Art by hakka0515.

Our first poll from Poll Committee powerhouse Natalie J. takes a closer look at all the unofficial Mario content floating around the web, fanworks and fan creations in all their variety. Right away, we can see that visual media dominates this poll! Fanart, videos, fan games, and animations all have a visual component which written works and musical arrangements generally lack (though not always, in the case of the latter). I'd say this falls in line with expectations. Mario games, far and away the most popular and accessible way to engage with the Mario series, are audiovisual, actively responsive experiences; seeing the plumber and his friends bing-bing-wahoo their way around is a core part of the experience for most people.

Diving into those more specifically, it's not surprising that fanart tops the list. Drawing tends to be one of the easiest and most prominent ways for anyone to engage with a series and its fandom. It's widely-accessible, easily shared, and easily spread. In fact, one respondent on our forum who selected fanart as their favorite form of Mario fan content pointed out that our forum has a thread dedicated entirely to fanart, a demonstration of how easy it is for art to spread around the Internet. The reach fanart has is such that a popular piece of fanart can even produce its own trends, as was well-demonstrated with wikipedia:Bowsette.

While fanart tends to be popular in any fandom, it's interesting to see videos and streams ranked so high. Although I wouldn't necessarily say it's surprising, either. Mario - videogames in general, really - lends itself well to being shared via a video format. Again, the nature of the medium plays a role. Videogames are dynamic and always in motion. It's difficult to capture them in shots recording only slices of time, or to convey what's happening through writing alone. The easiest way to bring someone along and show them something about the game is to let them see it in motion, which video facilitates. The simplicity and broad range of Mario probably contributes here, as well. You can get a large variety of video types out of it, from straightforward Let's Plays to challenge runs to level breakdowns and analyses. You can have technically-heavy videos from speedrunners like pannenkoek2012, easter egg showcases, demonstrations of Mario Maker levels, tier lists of enemies or Paper Mario badges, simple recordings of a madcap Mario Kart race with some friends. Since Mario games are so simple and accessible and because they span so many genres, there is no shortage of videos to be made.

Fan games are a tad less accessible than videos and art, requiring that folks overcome a little technical barrier to find and set up, but they offer the most direct translation of that active and responsive Mario experience, with animations rounding out these audiovisual experiences. Getting into the lesser-voted options, though, just because fan-made music and written works don't translate that experience from the games as wholly doesn't mean they aren't popular. In fact, a cursory search of FFNet and AO3 turns up over 22,000 works tagged with Super Mario Bros. between the two sites, and you can find countless arrangements of the music from Mario games on YouTube. Needless to say after seeing that number, no matter what form it takes, Mario fan content is popular!

I do have to wonder what the voters who said they most enjoy a form of Mario fan content not listed here had in mind. I thought we might get a mention of cosplay for that one, but there was no such mention on the forum. I figure it would be niche, but popular enough to get noted on account of Mario characters broadly having simple-but-highly-distinctive designs. Slap on a red shirt, some overalls, and a red cap, and you're recognizably Mario, after all. Maybe if you voted for the "other" option, you can share what you were thinking about!

What is your favorite series of Mario sports games?

The front North American cover for Mario Sports Mix
Sports!

This poll immediately presents an interesting opportunity; we can compare these responses to the sales numbers of each of these sub-series! Using information obtained from the Game Data Library, we can see that our top two results align with the reported sales of Mario sports titles. Mario & Sonic tops the list with over 25 million units sold and nearly a fifth of the vote, followed by Mario Tennis with over 13 million units sold and over 15% of the vote. After that, though, we begin to see some divergence. Going by sales alone, you would next expect Mario Golf to take the top-spot, but instead you see Mario Baseball, which is actually the lowest-ranked sports series in terms of sales (excluding the one-off Hoops 3-on-3 and the two mixed sports titles, to better compare it against ongoing sports series).

While this might seem odd... I think there is an explanation, and it lies with Mario Super Sluggers. A much-beloved game drawing praise on our forum even now, from 2011 to 2022, it consistently placed within the top three in the "Favorite Sports Game" category in the wiki's annual Mario Awards. It even placed first in eight of those years! It pulled that off without even having a PAL release, which is no small feat. Clearly, there is a lot of enthusiasm for Mario Super Sluggers, and given that it's only a few years off from being twenty years old, I would imagine no shortage of nostalgia for it, either. I'd attribute Mario Baseball's high placement to the Super Sluggers bump. Although, this wiki having primarily a North American userbase, I suspect if this poll were more internationalized, we'd see that effect diminished!

After that, we still don't return to a direct correlation between sales and ranking in this poll. Mario Golf ought to come before Mario Strikers according to sales, but it ranks lower here. They're certainly a contrasting duo, with Mario Golf being the oldest of the series and being fairly laid-back while Mario Strikers is newer and known for being fairly chaotic. I would speculate that the lackluster Super Rush dented golf here, but... well, Battle League was arguably even worse and more poorly-received, so I'm not sure what the differentiating factor is. Maybe it, too, comes down to the age of the Wii generation. The Wii is entering its peak nostalgic era and had a well-liked Strikers game but no golf game of its own. Perhaps Toadstool Tour nostalgia is giving way to time and the Wii's much larger install base.

Stranger and stranger, these results deviate greatly from the "Favorite Sports Genre" award we ran in 2023's Mario Awards. The top three in that award don't even match the top three of this poll, with baseball nowhere to be found! Mario & Sonic actually placed third in that award, ceding the top spot to Mario Tennis and coming in behind Strikers. Did... did the Paris Olympics give Mario & Sonic a significant boost this year? Did everyone have Olympics on the brain and re-evaluate the series. That's the best can come up with on that front. Why baseball rose up in this poll after not placing on the podium in the award, I have no answer for!

Perhaps strangest of all here, though, is that just over 270 visitors to the site have never played a Mario sports game! As prevalent as they are, I'm shocked. I'd think anyone with interest enough in Mario to visit the wiki would have played at least one. I was expecting this response to stay in double digits. I suppose that raises a follow-up question... If you haven't played one of these series, which, if any, would you be most inclined to try...? I suppose that could be a poll question for another day!

Conclusion

Well, that's all for the month, then. Keep an eye out for new polls and be sure to check out Awards Analysis. For now, I depart, but you can come right back here next month for more poll discussion by MightyMario (talk)!

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“I'm waiting on two more who are chatting in here instead of doing anything.”
—Toadbert101 (talk · Boards)

Do you remember
The 21st night of September

Welcome to Anniversary Announcements, where the bad intro jokes basically write themselves! We're nearing the end of the season, so no big things are happening anymore, but that doesn't mean there is nothing to talk about.

Tournaments

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

Archipelago Multi-World Randomizer Event
No news is to be reported since last month.
THE Scribble Smorgasbord
This tournament is in full swing, with three completed rounds as of this issue. The overall consensus is that everyone is putting up their top game this year, as well as an increase of discussion and talk about each scribble as the voting opens.
Awards Hunger Games
A The Hunger Games themed role playing game in which user-submitted characters are put in a randomizer to determine the flow of the game. In between each event, players play out the characters' responses.
No news is to be reported about this tournament since last month.

And that is it again for this month! As things are winding down, I expect one last update to be next month, so until then, have a good one!

Awards Analysis

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Waluigi Time here on behalf of the Poll Committee once again, but this time it's not Poll Committee Discussion. Instead, Awards Analysis is back! Yep, after a 2-year absence we're back to talking about the results of the Awards polls. For those of you who have read previous editions of Awards Analysis, you might already notice that something is different since you're reading this on the Pipe Plaza page. Instead of the traditional special feature covering all the awards at once, over the next several months we're going to be taking a handful of awards and analyzing them gradually. Also, we aren't going to be covering all 30 of the Mario and Fail Awards, which really just means we'll be skipping the ones where there's not much interesting to say, since there's always a few of those. For the first edition of this new Awards Analysis, I'm going to be covering M1. Favorite Major Character, M2. Favorite Supporting Character, and M15. Favorite Boss Battle.

Archives

M1. Favorite Major Character

M1. Favorite Major Character

Luigi 16.94% (331 votes)
Mario 14.89% (291 votes)
Yoshi 13.77% (269 votes)
Waluigi 8.80% (172 votes)
Rosalina 7.73% (151 votes)
Wario 7.57% (148 votes)
Bowser 7.11% (139 votes)
Princess Daisy 5.53% (108 votes)
Princess Peach 4.40% (86 votes)
Toadette 3.99% (78 votes)
Total Votes: 1,954

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

Captain Toad 11.11% (191 votes)
Professor E. Gadd 9.37% (161 votes)
Funky Kong 9.19% (158 votes)
Cappy 9.13% (157 votes)
King Boo 7.39% (127 votes)
Kamek 6.98% (120 votes)
Pauline 6.81% (117 votes)
Diddy Kong 5.99% (103 votes)
Poochy 5.70% (98 votes)
Birdo 5.12% (88 votes)
Total Votes: 1,719

M15. Favorite Boss Battle

M15. Favorite Boss Battle

Shadow Queen (PM:TTYD) 12.56% (190 votes)
Super Dimentio (SPM) 7.34% (111 votes)
Megaleg (SMG) 6.74% (102 votes)
Bouldergeist (SMG) 6.41% (97 votes)
King Boo (LM:DM) 5.88% (89 votes)
Culex (SMRPG) 5.82% (88 votes)
Mechawiggler (SMO) 5.42% (82 votes)
King Olly (PM:TOK) 5.09% (77 votes)
Rawk Hawk (PM:TTYD) 4.56% (69 votes)
Kaptain K. Rool (DKC2) 4.49% (68 votes)
Total Votes: 1,513

Analysis

M1. Favorite Major Character

Holiday 2022 artwork of Luigi
Pretend these gifts are all Awards trophies.

Yeah, if you've followed Awards for any length of time you probably already know what happened here. Luigi won and Mario and Yoshi placed top 3, so it's still the status quo since 2011. Believe it or not, there is interesting stuff to talk about on this award, though!

The big proposal this year - which was actually first proposed in 2023 and rejected but we tried it again - was to merge Favorite Major Character and Favorite Supporting Character into a single award, with two major arguments. First of all, the results for both awards had become very stale. Luigi has dominated Favorite Major Character for almost all of the history of the Awards, and Waluigi has won Favorite Supporting Character by a wide margin every year since 2015 (with the exception of 2021, where he beat Rosalina by a single vote - however, she was moved back to Favorite Major Character in 2022, leaving Waluigi with little actual competition). To add to the problem, Daisy has traditionally been one of the strongest performers on Favorite Supporting Character, but her playable role in Super Mario Bros. Wonder made it very likely that she would be moved up to Favorite Major Character, leaving Waluigi with even less competition. It would be very difficult to argue that the Awards shouldn't have a character-focused poll at all, but a combination could potentially shake up the results and, if nothing else, free up one slot for something fresher. Second, the distinction between Major and Supporting is a subjective one that has traditionally caused overly long debates to decide who is eligible. Removing the distinction would eliminate the need for those debates and allow the committee to get to the other awards more quickly.

Spoiler alert, this was rejected a second time! You may or may not have been able to guess that since I'm covering these two awards separately. The big problem was that this proposal would pretty much crush the chances of any of the less notable characters, since they'd have to fight Luigi. Oh, and the rest of the main cast, I suppose. Thankfully, we did manage to solve the problem of stale results through an alternate proposal! Instead of a full-blown merger, we did a nominee swap and brought up not only Daisy, but the man himself, the king of Favorite Supporting Character, Waluigi. For this to work, though, we needed to do a little bit of tweaking on Supporting Character. Its definition specifically mentioned characters who were exclusive to spin-offs (and if we're being honest, that's the only reason why Daisy and Waluigi were on there this long) so we just took that out!

Anyway, back to the results. The committee members hoping for a climactic showdown between the Luigi and Waluigi voters didn't get one (Personally, I never expected one!), but Waluigi still made a very decent showing at 4th place! Not even close to cracking into the top 3 though, but if your name isn't Luigi, Mario, or Yoshi, you really just take what you can get here. Wario dropped down from 4th last year to 6th, so I guess Waluigi probably took a decent chunk of his usual voters on this one. As for Daisy... not much to write home about for her performance. Better than Peach, though?

M2. Favorite Supporting Character

Artwork from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
Sometimes, the path to greatness lies in disqualifying your strongest competition.

I'm also tacking this one on since all of that meeting stuff equally applies to this award too. So, how did this award do with its two biggest nominees out of the picture? Probably more or less how you'd expect.

Captain Toad has done pretty well on this award lately, managing top 3 placements in 2022 and 2023, so I'm not too surprised to see him taking 1st with Waluigi and Daisy out of the way. He didn't get the 10%-ish margin of victory that Waluigi usually does, but still has a decent lead, so good for him. The rest of the top 3, Professor E. Gadd and Funky Kong, were also relatively high placing nominees. Notably, Cappy has dropped from placing just below Captain Toad last year to only 4th place this year. There's probably just more Captain Toad/E. Gadd/Funky fans than Cappy fans among the former Waluigi/Daisy voters, though. I don't think it has anything to do with interest for Odyssey declining since that game is still demolishing the competition elsewhere.

Oh yeah, speaking of new games, they didn't do very well! We added Prince Florian from Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Stella and Grape from Princess Peach: Showtime! and they all placed within the bottom 4. In fact, Grape ended up getting the Worst Performing New Nominee bonus star! I don't think we'll be inviting her back next year, but I do see good things in Penny Crygor's future if those write-ins are any indication...

Semi-related, there were talks to create a new award if the merger had gone through that would fill this one's niche by covering characters with limited or one-off appearances. Those fizzled out pretty quickly after we decided to keep Favorite Supporting Character separate.

M15. Favorite Boss Battle

Battle against the Shadow Queen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)
Leaving the rest of the nominees in the shadows!

On the other hand, not much going on here besides the usual swapping out of nominees from year-to-year, so let's get straight into the results. After coming in 2nd last year, Shadow Queen takes 1st place! Do I really need to say it? Obviously, the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake is responsible for the attention here. Between old fans reliving a classic game and new fans getting to experience it for the first time, there was a lot of hype surrounding this release, and it's had quite the impact on the results of the Awards. Notably, Shadow Queen had a pretty big margin of victory compared to last year's results. Last time, the top 3 on this award were pretty closely spaced (9.88%, 8.51%, and 8.35%), but this year, Shadow Queen had more than a 5% lead! As is usually the case with results tied to fresh releases, it'll be interesting to see how these results hold next year.

And in 2nd, we have another bump up in the rankings for Super Dimentio, who took 3rd last year. Even though he's from Super Paper Mario, this seems to be another case of the Thousand-Year Door effect. It's a common theme across several awards that nominees related to the Paper Mario series in general performed better in the top 3 this year. I don't think that's a coincidence when the game widely considered to be the best in the series just got remastered!

Otherwise, there's a few interesting tidbits, but nothing I feel the need to devote a whole paragraph to. Megaleg, last year's winner, still got a very respectable 3rd place. Maybe it'll rise again as the Paper Mario hype dies down, or maybe its win last year was just a one-off. Also, the two new nominees both did very well! Bouldergeist got so many write-ins on this award last year that it received the Most Written In bonus star, and with a very solid 4th place, that was definitely no fluke! Culex also made a decent showing of 6th as this poll's sole Super Mario RPG representative, ending up with just one vote shy of the top 5. Just a reminder that every vote counts!

Conclusion

That's all for now! So, what do you think of this new format? Love it? Hate it? Entirely indifferent? The Poll Committee would love to hear your feedback!

Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello, and welcome back to Archie Sonic Comic Shoebox, a section where I look at various storylines from the pre-reboot (we'll get there) era of the long running Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic book! Last time, we looked at the quality and good storyline where Charmy the Bee got permanent brain damage. This month, for the first time, we're going to look at my favorite non-Mighty the Armadillo character. That's right, this month we look at the sophisticated and all-powerful superior being, Mammoth Mogul. More specifically, we're going to be talking about his greatest victory.

One of the comic's many original villains, in my opinion Mammoth Mogul is the best of all of them. First appearing in Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness Special, Mammoth Mogul is a wooly mammoth who has existed since ancient times, surviving thanks to the power of his Chaos Emerald. Mammoth Mogul, believing himself to be the most intelligent and most powerful creature on Mobius, desires to conquer Mobius (I know, very original). In his pursuit, Mammoth Mogul is different from most of the comic's villains. Mammoth Mogul oftentimes operates in the shadows, using his magic to manipulate events around him, such as freeing Enerjak from space to have him attack Echidnaopolis. Then, in the confusion of Enerjak's attack, using the Sword of Acorn to steal the Chaos Emeralds powering Enerjak for his own purposes, alongside attacking Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles with his full strength as Master Mogul (which doesn't work, by the way). Mammoth Mogul also constantly plays the long game, using his powers to seek out people with great potential and then offering them a portion of his powers to help them reach their potential with the promise that they'll owe him a favor later.

Mammoth Mogul creating an ally

Unfortunately, despite his power, intelligence, and ability to craft seemingly-perfect plan, Mammoth Mogul is straight up not having a good time in this comic book, being defeated and humiliated at every turn by Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. No matter what sort of plan Mammoth Mogul pulls off, no matter how much power he gathers, he's unable to defeat Sonic and his friends. To make matters worse for him, for a long time, he doesn't even have a huge rivalry with Sonic. Instead, he is more like Tails' arch enemy! That's right, he's slumming it with Tails! Also, in a meta sense, he's on the fantasy side of the comic book with Ixis Naugus, having magic-based plans and a lot of fantasy elements to his stories, which unfortunately is the worst thing possible. That means he gets really stuck into the Source of All/Sword of Acorns storyline, which is the absolute low point of the comic book. It's by the far the worst storyline and I think it's what leads to the comic book getting so unpopular that they fired Ken Penders. I mean, look at this nonsense!

This should have gotten the comic cancelled.

Anyways, back to Mammoth Mogul who, yeah, doesn't have a good time. Not only does he fail to defeat Sonic and friends as Master Mogul, but he ends up trapped in the Master Emerald. Then he escapes the Master Emerald, which is honestly a worse fate because then he becomes part of Sword of Acorns plot. We'll get to that someday (unfortunately), but tl;dr, he raises an army. Then, Ixis Naugus, who has been freed from the Void of Silence, shows up with the sword. He tries to defeat Mammoth Mogul but fails and then he swears allegiance to Mammoth Mogul, who is revealed to be the creator of the Ixis Order. So now Mammoth Mogul has the stupid sword, so you'd think he'd wipe the Freedom Fighters out now that he's all-powerful or something, right? NO! I don't want to spoil what happens so I can talk about it in my future section, but it's pretty stupid! Just know that he does kill Sir Connery, which makes him a hero in my book. This all ends with Dr. Eggman capturing Mammoth Mogul and his army.

Mammoth Mogul defeated again :(

Dr. Eggman locks Mammoth Mogul and his troops in the Egg Grapes, where Mammoth Mogul briefly uses his powers to protect his troops, but eventually his own power drains enough that Mammoth Mogul has to remove his protection. This leads to Ixis Naugus being reduced to a mindless beast and the Arachne Spider Clan being destroyed (Ian Flynn thought they were dumb and wanted to reduce the number of characters). Mammoth Mogul would later be freed by Dr. Eggman's AI Adam as part of the Anonymous storyline (someday), but it would cost him his Chaos Emerald as well as the loyalty of the Destructix, who abandoned him just because he attempted to use them as shields against the Egg Grapes (selfish jerks). Desperate and without a Chaos Emerald, Mammoth Mogul stupidly walked into a trap set by Rouge the Bat, who claimed to have stolen the Master Emerald. Instead, this obvious trap was sprung and Mammoth Mogul and Ixis Naugus would be arrested alongside good characters Nack the Weasel, Beans the Dynamite and Barks the Polar Bear.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Mammoth Mogul wouldn't stay in jail long, however, being captured by Dr. Eggman along with the majority of Knothole and thrown into an Egg Grape during that whole Sonic-proof robot situation we covered in issue 207. Briefly freed by the Freedom Fighters, Mammoth Mogul attempted to seize control of the newly-built New Mobotropolis, but was quickly thwarted by Nicole, who had programmed the city to be able to deal with the likes of him. Mammoth Mogul was thrown back into a magic-proof cell along with the rest of his rouges. However, weirdly enough, Mammoth Mogul doesn't like being in jail which brings us to the meat of our story Issue 185!

Issue 185 opens with Mina Mongoose, Tails, and my main man Mighty the Armadillo building some sort of building (I don't know what – and who cares? It's just more not-Mammoth Mogul horseshit). Nicole tells Sonic that Mammoth Mogul wishes to see him. Which, like, why does Sonic care? Mammoth Mogul is in jail, Sonic! You don't need to go see him if you don't want to! But Sonic does go see Mammoth Mogul in his magic-proof jail, which they… sort of don't explain how Nicole managed to make magic-proof cells. I guess the answer is science? It's usually either science or magic in this comic book. But anyways, Sonic goes mostly to taunt Mammoth Mogul, as Sonic tends to do. Mammoth Mogul uses a lot of big words to basically tell Sonic to let him go, referring to the situation as a stalemate.

Look, Mammoth, I love you, but you don't seem to have a lot of cards here.

Sonic scoffs at this request because Mammoth Mogul is in fact in jail right now. I don't see how he's in any position to make demands. Even Nack the Weasel points out from another cell that Mammoth Mogul has no leverage, and he hates Sonic! Despite being stuck in a jail cell with, you know, no leverage, Mammoth Mogul still insists that Sonic free him, warning him that, if he doesn't, Mammoth Mogul will create a new Fearsome Foursome and wreck Sonic's shit. Sonic bursts out laughing because all of Mammoth Mogul's allies are locked up, and then he leaves.

Plot over, right? Well, no! It turns out Mammoth Mogul wasn't bluffing, and this goes back to what I said earlier. Mammoth Mogul always plans a contingency. Remember how I said that Mammoth Mogul would give power to people in return for a favor later? Well, it turns out a few of Sonic's friends had unknowingly made deals with Mammoth Mogul in the past…

Mammoth Mogul reveals that, when he was stuck in the Master Emerald, he felt Mina Mongoose's desire to save her mother after Robotnik captured the old city. Mammoth Mogul then appeared to her from the Astral Plane and granted her Super Speed like Sonic before marking her and erasing her memory. When Mighty the Armadillo was but a small child, his family had been imprisoned for theft. With Mighty not understanding what happened and wanting to save his family, Mammoth Mogul appeared before him, granting him his super strength before erasing his memory and marking him.

Mighty the Armadillo's sick-ass backstory revealed!

Finally, there's Tails. Now unlike Mina and Mighty, Tails never made a deal with Mammoth Mogul. Instead, during some dumbass Chaos Knuckles storyline, a supercharged magic Tails was supposed to be the one hope to defeat Chaos Knuckles. Instead, Mammoth Mogul captured Tails, replaced him with a doppelganger, and drained the powers of the real Tails in order to recapture his lost strength. While Sonic eventually figured this out and saved the real Tails, Mammoth Mogul took advantage of this and marked Tails. Mammoth Mogul from his cell activates the marks, turning the three from sleeper agents into active agents. But who is the 4th member of the new Fearsome Foursome? Why, isn't it obvious…?

I was hoping it would be Heavy and Bomb…

For a brief period, Mammoth Mogul has the Troublesome Threesome attack Sonic, but naturally that doesn't work well. Maybe it would have worked, but Ash (who I think is in Mina's band or something), appears and aids Sonic. Mammoth Mogul than pivots and orders the Troublesome Threesome to split up in different directions. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Sonic and Ash venture into the prison to speak to Mammoth Mogul and demand he return their friends. Mammoth Mogul tells Sonic that he's still willing to bargain with him if he'll listen to Mammoth Mogul's terms. Now, this is actually very important, because Mammoth Mogul has realized something that no other villain realizes. If you fight him head on, no matter what happens, no matter how much power you obtain, even if you build a Sonic-proof robot, Sonic will always come out ahead. So Mammoth Mogul has devised a plan that Sonic can't attack head on. Mammoth Mogul reveals that he's ordered Tails to fly into the sky as fast and as far as possible until the atmosphere gets so thin he passes out, he has ordered Mina to use her super speed to run into the middle of the ocean where she's been commanded to stop and drown, and finally Mighty the Armadillo has been ordered to simply walk into Dr. Eggman's base.

Mammoth Mogul's truly brilliant plan!

While Sonic is fast enough that he could save any one of them, they've spread out so much that Sonic can't save them all, and it's too risky to try and involve the other Freedom Fighters because there isn't enough time to explain everything. Mammoth Mogul has gotten around his "Sonic always wins" conundrum by crafting a plan that doesn't attack Sonic head on. Instead, it creates a problem that even Sonic's super speed can't fix. But Mammoth Mogul is a man of business and pragmatism. He tells Sonic that, in return for a Chaos Emerald, he will return all of Sonic's friends safe and sound. Reluctantly and without any options, Sonic steals one of the Chaos Emeralds from Castle Acorn and gives it to Mammoth Mogul despite Nicole (who doesn't know the stakes) trying to stop him. That's right guys, Sonic actually loses for once!

Upon getting the Chaos Emerald and freeing himself from prison, Mammoth Mogul keeps his word and returns Sonic's friends safe and sound. Having become all powerful again, Sonic thinks that he's immediately going to have to fight Mammoth Mogul and his allies, but Mammoth Mogul shocks him by telling him they're not going to fight. Mammoth Mogul explains that he realized something while he was in prison. Mammoth Mogul realizes that he's immortal and Sonic isn't! To loop back around to what I said two paragraphs ago, Mammoth Mogul realized that, even though he's achieved literal godhood twice, Sonic still ended up defeating him. He lost even after he managed to remove the curse on his Chaos Emerald that caused his plans to fail… (oh yeah, I forgot to mention there's, like, a way overcomplicated explanation that the ancient walkers cursed Mammoth Mogul's Chaos Emerald so that all his plans would fail). Even after Mammoth Mogul managed to remove the curse during the stupid Sword storyline, he was still beaten by Sonic and his friends!

After loss after loss, it's time to change his approach. While Sonic might have his number in physical altercations, there's one thing Mammoth Mogul has over Sonic, and that's time! Like I said, Mammoth Mogul is immortal and Sonic isn't, so Mammoth Mogul decides that, as long as Sonic is alive, he's not going to engage in active villainy. Instead, he's simply going to bide his time and, eventually, when Sonic gets too old to fight or, god forbid, dies, that's when Mammoth Mogul will make his move!

He's just the best!

This is why I love Mammoth Mogul. He's just so different from the other villains. He's not this crazy madman or a power-crazy evil wizard that can't quit doing evil things for no reason. He's a logical villain who has decided to play to his strengths and enjoy his life while he waits Sonic out. I just love that he literally goes "you're going to die someday and I'm not, so, fuck it, I can wait". And he really does (for the most part) retire from active villainy. In his retirement he reopens Casino Zone, which had been abandoned by Dr. Eggman, turning Casino Zone into the most happening spot in Mobius. He even hires Dr. Eggman's old Badniks, much like how the Penguin would hire released criminals for the Iceberg Lounge!

MAMMOTH MOGUL, RESPECTABLE BUSINESS MAN!

Like I said, Mammoth Mogul would remain on the sidelines, content to wait for Sonic to get old or die. He really became a thorn in Sonic's side when he had Sonic kidnapped and then saved him as part of a plot to hurt Sonic's reputation and when he allowed Geoffry St. John to return Ixis Naugus' mind back to him so he could claim the throne. Outside of that, Mammoth Mogul was content to sit on the sidelines, letting his enemies weaken themselves while he waited for his moment. After all, unlike them, he was immortal; no matter what happened, he'd be able to outlast them. Unfortunately for Mammoth Mogul, that lax attitude would have disastrous affects for the planet Mobius, but that's a story for another issue.

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Before we get into the stats, I have a couple of corrections to make. First of all, I reported in the last issue that Shoey wrote 400 sections overall as of Issue 208. Turns out, I was off by one section and he actually reached that milestone last month, so I'm mentioning it in the milestones again! Second, back in Issue 208's edition of The 'Shroom Report, I accidentally attributed an extra section to FunkyK38 in the Most Sections Written table. That's corrected now, which is why the number hasn't gone up since last time. Both of these were my fault and do not reflect in any way on our wonderful Statistics Manager Meta Knight, who I have to thank as always for keeping the spreadsheets maintained and making this section possible! Anyway, with all of that out of the way, here's everything from Issue 209, now with approximately 12% more accuracy.

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

​

Categories that are not applicable this month are crossed out.

  • First-Time Writers lists everyone who wrote their first section for The 'Shroom in the previous issue.
  • New Sections lists recurring sections that started their run in the previous issue. This includes returning sections that previously went inactive.
  • Guest Sections lists one-off submissions from the previous issue.
  • Milestones covers certain section numbers reached in the previous issue. Writers are mentioned for every 10 sections written in a team and every 50 sections written overall, teams are mentioned for every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom itself is mentioned for every 500 sections.
  • Most Sections Written lists the current all-time record holders.
First-Time Writers
Writer Section
Paper Plumm (talk) A Paper Mario: The Origami King Review
New Sections
Section Writer
A Paper Mario: The Origami King Review Paper Plumm (talk)
An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 2 Sparks (talk) and MightyMario (talk)
Another Ogre Battle Section Shoey (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
Featured Sprite Waluigi Time (talk)
Milestones
Writer Milestone
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 110 Strategy Wing sections
Roserade (talk) 150 overall sections
Shoey (talk) 400 overall sections
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News MCD (talk) 148
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 143
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 199
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 190
Strategy Wing Yoshi876 (talk) 115
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
As of this issue that you're reading right now, Quizmelon's 100th edition of TV Tomorrow makes him the first 'Shroom writer to write 100 editions of the same section! Now that's dedication!

What's in a Campaign?

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello and welcome back to What's in a Campaign?, a section where we look at various robots from the hit show Robot Wars. For the last two months, we've been looking at different Series 4 Heat Finalists, one who I like and one whose gimmick I think was stupid. Well, this month, we're going to be looking at something completely different. This month, we return to a simpler time, Series 3, to look at Thing 2, the first robot in one of my favorite lines of the robots, the Wild Thing (no, Demon doesn't count, stop writing me letters about it) line.

What ever happened to Thing 1?

Thing 2 was built and driven by Nick Adams, who had been part of the mediocre robot Demon's team in Series 2. With Thing 2, Nick was accompanied by his daughter Isabelle Adams and son Jake Adams. At a first glance, Thing 2 doesn't look like anything special.

Nick Adams' biggest mistake...

Thing 2 is a basic two-wheeled wedge bot armored in polycarbonate with an aluminum frame and side panels. On top are a foam axe to intimidate the robot's opponents and a foam sorcerer's staff, which according to Nick Adams powers the robot! (It's really powered by two 4-pole DC motors.) At the back is Thing 2's "main" weapon, a back lifting arm fitted with a spike, 'cause an early series robot without a useless back weapon is like a fish out of water; it just doesn't work! In reality, this weapon would be rarely used, just as all back-side weapons would end up (the spike isn't even fitted to the ground!). While Thing 2 might look unimpressive, it does have one major thing going for it! Nick Adams is one of the best drivers in the history of the show! Under the control of Nick Adams, Thing 2 zips around the arena, pushing its opponents around. Even the producers had to admit that, while they weren't super impressed by the robot, Nick Adams could drive!

One of the best pure wedge bots in Series 3, Thing 2 does have a few downsides. For starters, it doesn't have a self-righter (which, to be fair, weren't exactly standard at the time) and its two-wheel design combined with its speed does make turning a little awkward. This in turn leads to a few times where Thing 2 has to kind of pace side-to-side to line up its shoves. But again, luckily for Thing 2, it's under the control of one Nick Adams, one of the ten best drivers in Robot Wars

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Surprisingly, despite how good of a robot Thing 2 is and how good the fights are, there isn't actually a compilation of just Thing 2 fights, so this month we have two videos with timestamps provided.

The only of the Thing robots to not qualify automatically, Thing 2 qualified, as all Series 3 robots did, by running the Gauntlet. Placed into Heat N, which is kind of an opportunity heat because, while there is a robot that is set up to be the favorite (we'll talk about him in a second), I don't think that there's this overwhelming favorite like you'd see in heats in future Series.

Thing 2's first opponent would be the robot it would controversially defeat in its Series 5 Heat Final, Prizephita, because, man, time is a flat circle. Now, in theory Prizephita, who sports a flipper, would have the advantage on the self-righter-less Thing 2. And, in fact, the fight (20:14) starts with Prizephita getting under and nearly flipping over Thing 2. Thing 2 attempts to respond in kind by lifting Prizephita up with its lifter spike. But, again, it's not on the ground, so it just sort of hits the middle of Prizephita and, like, kind of lifts them off their wheels. Seeing that the lifter wasn't working, Thing 2 than decides to embark on the natural strategy of "ram with wedge". Thing 2 easily gets to the side of the much slower Prizephita and manages to turn Prizephita over with a combination of its speed and its wedge. Prizephita does manage to self-right, which, hey, was still a pretty novel thing at the time. Unfortunately for Prizephita, while it's a fine robot, Thing 2 is just way better. It's faster, its wedge is superior, and its got Nick Adams! As soon as Prizephita self-rights, Thing 2 charges into their side, once again toppling them, although this time Prizephita lands on its wheels.

Thing 2 with the knockout blow.

Thing 2 then takes a second to line up its attack before again charging at Prizephita, getting under them with ease, toppling them over, and slamming them into the wall. Prizephita desperately attempts to self-right, but they just aren't able to. I think the angle they were on the wall prevented their flipper from hitting the ground. Good guy Thing 2 attempts to help them by ramming them off the wall and into the CPZ where Sgt. Bash waits. They almost get back onto their wheels, but Sgt. Bash stops them cause he's a jerk. Sgt. Bash then pushes them into the wall, which is stupid in Series 3 and has openings. This causes Prizephita's glove to get stuck on the wall, fully preventing them from self-righting. Now, they might have already been counted out (Refbot wouldn't be introduced until the next Series), but if they weren't, then I don't think this KO should have counted since I don't think you're supposed to be able to be KO'd by getting stuck on the wall like that… Regardless, Thing 2 was way ahead on points and it would have taken a lot to turn the tide of this fight, so Thing 2 moves onto the next round with a dominant victory.

The next fight is what really solidifies Thing 2 and the Thing line in general. In the Heat Semi-Final, Thing 2 faces off against All Torque. Hey… we talked about them last month! They're the guys who made Small Torque… and Hippobotamus, as seen in issue 181 (man, we cover these guys a lot for some reason). Now, before the team started building whatever the hell those are, they built All Torque.

Just because you could doesn't mean you should!

All Torque is a solid ram bot that dominated its Heat in Series 2 before falling in the Heat Final to King Buxton in what was considered an upset. Upgraded with a bulldozer-style blade to better get under and control robots, All Torque was, in my opinion, the favorite for this heat and probably would have been seeded had seeds been a thing. Going into this fight, I think in the producers' eyes, All Torque would be a heavy favorite!

And to be honest, the fight (29:34) doesn't start great for Thing 2! After a brief amount of sizing each other up, All Torque and Thing 2 clash wedge-to-wedge, and, well, Thing 2's buckles, lifting into the air and allowing All Torque to get under Thing 2 with its bulldozer-style blade. All Torque presses its advantage by pushing them into the wall, where Thing 2 quickly escapes. The two then dance around each other for a little bit, with each robot landing a glancing blow as they both look for an opportunity to strike. Finally, the two again clash wedge-to-wedge, and once again All Torque proves to have the superior wedge, although this time Thing 2 manages to escape All Torque's charge at the last second, sending All Torque crashing into the wall.

Ohhhhhh, it's better if your wedge doesn't come off the ground!

Thing 2 then attempts to get its lifter in the fight, but, like, guys, it's not gonna work! Your spike is higher than All Torque (spoiler, the Thing team never does figure out this whole lifter thing). Like two boxers throwing jabs at each other, All Torque again manages to pressure Thing 2 into the arena wall. There's a lot of great driving in this fight. Thing 2 zips around the arena, attempting to get the better of All Torque, but each time All Torque is able to reposition its wedge to block Thing 2's attacks. All Torque manages to use its back to push Thing 2 near the CPZ, where Shunt and his diamond-tipped axe readies to strike.

Poor form, Nick…

Then, in a rare case of bad driving on Nick Adams' part, he ventures into the CPZ while attempting to position an attack on All Torque, allowing Shunt to land a direct blow on Thing 2, destroying the magic scepter that powers Thing 2! Luckily there must have been some reserve magic in Thing 2, because they're able to continue fighting.

Thing 2 than manages to land its first direct attack on All Torque, pushing All Torque into the wall near Shunt. While All Torque manages to briefly escape Shunt's wrath, All Torque makes a mistake. Attempting to keep Thing 2 trapped in the CPZ, All Torque eats an axe blow from Shunt that was intended for Thing 2. In fact, I think All Torque might have literally pushed Thing 2 out of the way and taken the blow in their place, lol. The axe goes right through the top armor of All Torque, who flees.

That's right, Thing 2 doesn't need House Robots to fight its battles!

Thing 2 keeps up the pressure on the clearly shaken All Torque. Thing 2 gets under the side of All Torque, forcing them into the CPZ of Sgt. Bash, but Thing 2 doesn't wait for Sgt. Bash to attack its opponent. No, Thing 2 keeps on the attack, ramming them so hard into the wall that it forces All Torque up and over their wedge! All Torque desperately attempts to cut off Thing 2's momentum as the two wedges again clash wedge-to-wedge. Except this time, Thing 2 has the advantage! All Torque is unable to push Thing 2! Now you might be asking yourself why this is when All Torque was winning the battle of the wedges earlier in the fight. You see, All Torque has made a huge mistake; they didn't kill Thing 2 early in the fight. Generally, the longer the fight goes, the weaker a robot gets. And this makes sense. Damage starts to accumulate and batteries start to die. It makes sense that, the longer a fight goes, the worse a robot is going to be for wear. But this does not apply to any of the Thing robots! Nobody knows why, but for some reason, a Thing robot is going to be just as strong at the start of the fight as it will be at the end of the fight. In fact, it's going to be stronger by the end relative to its opponents, because, while you're slowing down, a Thing robot is still fighting at max strength.

And that's what happens here! Three times in quick succession, the wedges clash, and each time Thing 2 is the one with the advantage. All Torque is starting to slow down, but Thing 2 is still in prime form! Shortly after hitting them into the side of the wall, Thing 2 comes in on a frontal attack, glancing off of All Torque's wedge. All Torque starts smoking after Thing 2 hits them. Now, more than likely, the motors began burning out during the multiple pushing battles where All Torque's tires were just spinning in place. All Torque attempts to keep fighting, but Thing 2 easily gets to its side, pushing it across the arena and into the wall. Escaping the wall, All Torque goes on the attack, slamming into Thing 2, who just laughs it off. All Torque attempts to land another charge, but Thing 2 manages to get to its back, and in what I think is a pretty cool visual, Thing 2 shoves All Torque into the CPZ but we see it from the perspective of the Shunt Cam.

Nobody could survive such an onslaught!

You just see Shunt bounce in the air a little bit from the impact of All Torque being slammed into it. Shunt then brings down another axe blow onto All Torque before trapping All Torque in its bulldoze blade. Thing 2 begins ramming into All Torque as Shunt rains axe blows. Unable to survive this hellacious onslaught, All Torque finally breaks down, sending Thing 2 into the Heat Final after what was truly a fantastic fight!

NO! BAD THING 2! QUIT BEING BIT BY A DOG!

In the Heat Final, Thing 2 would meet the shiniest robot in the history of Robot Wars while it was fresh off its ten second victory (5th quickest fight off all time) against Griffin in the previous round. What is this shiny new bot? It's the dog of war, Cerberus! Unfortunately, this fight (38:50) can't hope to match the quality of the previous fight. Cerberus is a fine enough robot, but it's kind of a paper Heat Finalist. It is first round opponent, Killerhurtz, drove into the pit, and Giffin just never really worked right. Cerberus attempts to strike Thing 2 with their back tail, but Thing 2 is easily able to get under the side of Cerberus (although curiously they don't really do anything with it…). This is followed up by like ten seconds of the robots not doing anything but getting close to each other (classic early Robot Wars). Finally, they charge each other and Cerberus gets the advantage, bouncing off the wedge of Thing 2 and getting to Thing 2's side – and, more importantly, its wheel!

Thing 2 teaching Cerberus to roll over

Cerberus uses its jaws to bite down on the wheel of Thing 2, preventing them from escaping while driving them around for a little bit! Thing 2 does escape though, and attempts to slam into Cerberus, but instead just kind of hits the wall, lol… This Allows Cerberus to slam them back into the wall. The two robots push each other around, with Cerberus spinning around to land a blow with its tail on Thing 2, causing Thing 2 to flee. Cerberus gives chase, but Thing 2 flanks them, getting around them and charging them… which actually leads to a pretty scary moment for Thing 2 where they drive over the tail of Cerberus, sending them in the air, teetering towards disaster. Luckily, they land back on their feet.

The two robots drive around the arena before clashing head-on again. But this time, Thing 2 gets the advantage and gets Cerberus from the side on its wedge. Cerberus attempts to hang on, but they can't; the angle of the wedge combined with the speed of Thing 2 sends Cerberus onto its back. Cerberus can't self-right, sending Thing 2 into its first of four Semi-Finals!

A surprisingly dominant performance

Placed in Semi-Final A, Thing 2 got a tough draw, facing off against the reigning champion Panic Attack. This fight (13:53) starts with Thing 2 getting to the side of Panic Attack and pushing it around a little bit before Panic Attack pretty easily escapes. Panic Attack spends the next little bit of the fight running away from Thing 2, who gives chase. At one point, Thing 2 slams into Panic Attack, losing one of its decorative balls in the process (which might honestly count as damage points for Panic Attack with how weird Robot Wars scoring can be). Panic Attack attempts to spin around to gets its lifting forks under the pursuing Thing 2, but it overspins (for what it's worth, Kim Davis has gone on to say that this version of Panic Attack was almost undrivable) and Thing 2 slams into Panic Attack, pushing them into the claws of Dead Metal. Dead Metal pushes Panic Attack into the wall before letting them go as, again, Thing 2 attempts to use that goddamn rear spike! Guys, give it up! It's a bad weapon! Use the wedge!

Why do bad things happen to good robots?

Panic Attack again flees, but this time Thing 2 gets behind Panic Attack and just slams them into the wall. At this point, Thing 2 is, how you say, thoroughly handing Panic Attack its ass. But unfortunately, it's just not meant to be. Immediately after slamming Panic Attack into the wall, Thing 2, after a little dancing with Panic Attack, would reverse itself onto the fight-ruining floor spikes, which would shoot up at Thing 2. Now, normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but Panic Attack followed Thing 2 onto the floor spikes, which also went off on Panic Attack.

Someday…

This shot Panic Attack's body up in the air and, since the spikes had pushed Thing 2's wedge on top of Panic Attack's body, this all caused Panic Attack to essentially flip Thing 2 over from the force of the floor spikes. Since Thing 2 doesn't have a self-righter, a promising run was ruined by those fucking floor spikes. Which, by the way, just so you know, this is the second straight fight ruined by those goddamn spikes. The Pitbull vs. Firestorm fight ended with the spikes flipping over Pitbull! It's very frustrating to see a poorly thought-out arena hazard ruin what could have been a really good fight. But, unfortunately, Thing 2's run comes to an end with a Semi-Final appearance.

Sadly, Thing 2 wasn't invited to appear in any of the Series 3 side events. That's probably because, as much as the producers were impressed by Thing 2's performance, the robot itself was just a really good wedge bot. I can see why you wouldn't want to really shine a light on it when there were more interesting robots to feature.

Thing 2's run ends on a bitter note, but it does begin a very solid run of robots with the upgraded Wild Thing line, each of whom would become a Semi-Finalist in their respective series. In fact, I think the Wild Thing in Series 4 is the peak of the Wild Thing line, with probably its best fight (which we've already covered from its opponent's perspective, but maybe, just maybe, we'll cover it someday from Wild Thing's perspective…).

That's all for this month! Join me next month for another What's in a Campaign?, where I'll cover another hopefully-just-as-quality robot!

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The 'Shroom: Issue 210
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
Specials TV Tomorrow Commentary Tracks
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