The 'Shroom:Issue 193/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Hello and Hoppy April! Hope everyone that celebrated Easter had a good one.

As of writing this, I just got back from watching the Super Mario Bros movie! I'm still VERY MUCH riding the emotional high from that. I will say, it was a ton of fun being able to pick out the music sampled from the games in the movie soundtrack. Literally a scene would pop up, music would start and in my head I would be like "HEY I KNOW THAT PIECE". Slightly related but bless my boyfriend for being able to put up with me when I watch movies, I watched it with him and I was being a Very Passionate Mario Kart Fan when the Rainbow Road scene started. In short, I like to think I'm a fun person to watch movies with lol.

We have some cool new stuff this month!! First, it's everyone's favorite time of the year, the time when Lakituthequick and Awards Announcements make their grand return! Second, we have the return of a section that hasn't been seen in Pipe Plaza in many years: Community Report, courtesy of Waluigi Time! What incredibly cool people making some incredibly cool Shroom sections. If you're reading this and want to achieve incredible levels of coolness, you too can write for The Shroom! Just go to the sign up page to learn more!

That's all from me this time around, so enjoy the rest of your month!

Section of the Month

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 11 55.00% Fun With Despair (talk)
2nd What's in a Campaign? 6 30.00% Shoey (talk)
3rd Mario Calendar 3 15.00% GPM1000 (talk)
Mariowiki sections
Community Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
The month gone by in promotions and proposals.
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Fun With Despair (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)
Bunny on the loose!!!
read more

Community Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers, and welcome to Community Report! After a four-year absence, I'm bringing this section back and taking you on a dive into the wild world of promotions, proposals, and... featured articles. Rats, ruined my alliteration. I'd like to thank the previous writer of this section, Ninja Squid, whose work I'm using as a foundation here.

Before we get into the wiki news from the past month, I can't go without mentioning April Fool's Day! This year, the wiki was transformed into the super Mario Wiki, covering all things to do with the name Mario, in an effort largely coordinated by, fittingly enough, Mario (talk)! The joke seemed to have been well-received by our readers, and was even voted as the favorite April Fool's joke of the past four years in a poll on the wiki's Twitter account, beating 2021's Super Wiki which was notably a Community Award winner last year. If you'd like to see the super Mario Wiki in all its glory, you can find it archived in BJAODN.

All information is accurate as of April 7, 2023.

PROMOTIONS
AFFECTED USER PREVIOUS RANK CURRENT RANK DATE
Mario (talk) Patroller Administrator April 5, 2023
Swallow (talk) Patroller Administrator April 5, 2023
RHG1951 (talk) Patroller Administrator April 5, 2023
RECENT PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY OUTCOME DEADLINE
Change how we display staff ghost information in race course infoboxes A proposal updating how staff ghosts are presented in the infoboxes of Mario Kart race courses. The proposer argued that between the introduction of kart parts in Mario Kart 7 and different staff ghosts for 150cc and 200cc courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is too much information for the previous text-based approach. A much more compact alternative using images was suggested, and the proposal was uncontroversial, passing without opposition. PASSED 10-0
(read more) 		March 24, 2023
A quick and dirty amendment to the January-February 2023 Smash proposal Following a proposal that resulted in the majority of non-Mario fighters in the Super Smash Bros. series being merged to list pages, this amendment proposes trimming extra information on the ones that remain. Consistent with the goal of the original proposal, the move lists of non-Mario fighter would be condensed into the game sections in their history. The proposal passed with no opposition. PASSED 5-0
(read more) 		March 26, 2023
RECENT TALK PAGE PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY OUTCOME DEADLINE
Listing Rosalina's appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie No spoilers, don't worry! A proposal to include Rosalina's appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie on her page. The proposer's only arguments were speculation based on references to Super Mario Galaxy, so without any actual evidence, the proposal gained some opposition before being vetoed by the staff. (Worth noting, had her appearance been confirmed, a proposal wouldn't have been necessary.) VETOED BY THE ADMINISTRATORS
(read more) 		March 31, 2023
(vetoed March 18)
Add product IDs in the infobox A proposal suggesting to include the official serial codes for games in their infobox. That's pretty much it. The proposal passed with no opposition following one extension to reach the minimum number of voters. PASSED 4-0
(read more) 		March 18, 2023
Decide which Thwomp design to use for the infobox artwork A proposal to pick the Thwomp design to be used in the infobox, as their modern design varies from game to game and shifts between spikes and blunt edges. Shortly before the proposal, artwork of both designs was included in the infobox. The proposer aimed to choose one or the other, either picking one of the designs or just using the most recent artwork, but the majority of voters chose to keep using both designs simultaneously. USE BOTH 1-0-3-9
(read more) 		March 29, 2023
Swap Construction Site Fight with Balloon Barrage A proposal to swap the names of two levels from Donkey Kong Land. The proposer argued that since the level names didn't match the levels they were attached to, but did describe each other, they should be swapped. The proposal proved to be controversial, with the opposition arguing against defying the only official sources for the names. The proposal ultimately failed to reach consensus after reaching the maximum three deadline extensions, leaving the issue up for further debate. FAILED TO REACH CONSENSUS 10-9
(read more) 		April 6, 2023
ONGOING TALK PAGE PROPOSALS
PROPOSAL SUMMARY LINK 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. Aside from the issue of creating the page, the proposal also seeks to decide whether comparisons to elements in past games that the Ground elements are based on (i.e. mentioning the ground tiles from Super Mario Bros.) is acceptable. Read more April 11, 2023
Figure out how to reorganize mines A proposal to reorganize the mine article. The proposal outlines six distinct types of mines based on name, appearance, and behavior. The goal is to determine which variants should be split off and how the new articles should be organized. 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. The proposer argues that both items function identically, so the Ice Blocks from 3 should be merged with the Grab Block. Alternatively, the Ice Blocks from 3 can be split into their own page, separate from other Ice Blocks in the franchise. Read more April 14, 2023
Merge Prince Froggy with Frog Pirate A proposal to merge the Yoshi's Island boss and enemy type. The proposer argues that because Prince Froggy is not distinguished from the other Frog Pirates in any Japanese sources, the pages should be merged. The opposition has argued that the pages should remain separate for varying reasons including Prince Froggy's unique gameplay role and the distinction in English materials. 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. An alternative option has been presented to split Super Mario RPG's Jump move for consistency. Read more April 14, 2023
RECENTLY FEATURED ARTICLES
ARTICLE SUMMARY OUTCOME DATE
Dr. Crygor PnnyCrygr (talk) nominated Dr. Crygor to be featured after working to improve and expand his page. Additional issues were taken care of during the nomination process. PASSED 7-0
(read more) 		March 30, 2023
RECENTLY UNFEATURED ARTICLES
ARTICLE SUMMARY OUTCOME DATE
Ganondorf Although not formally nominated, Ganondorf was unfeatured by default after a proposal affecting coverage of Super Smash Bros. fighters merged his article into a new list of fighters debuting in Super Smash Bros. Melee. N/A March 23, 2023

And that's everything I've got for now! I'll be back with more wiki news next month, including updates on the ongoing proposals listed here. (Actually, by the time you're reading this, all of them should be done, assuming no extensions. Not really that ongoing, huh?)

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Fun With Despair (talk)

13th Poll Committee Banner

Welcome back to- wait a minute, wasn't I just here last month? Well, I was actually, but I'm bringing you another Poll Committee Discussion this month, mostly because of our April Fool's poll and some interesting lore behind it. Obviously there's not much to analyze there, but the real life "Super Mario" candidates definitely deserve a shoutout or two, don't they?

Anyway, can you believe it's April already? Feels like both an eternity and no time at all. Probably in part because the winter around where I live was too brutal to really leave the house at all, but it's been a strange last little while for sure. Doesn't help that the Mario franchise at large is devoid of new announcements besides non-gaming media such as theme parks and the movie. Maybe one day, we'll get a new Super Mario game but until then... have some polls, to soothe your soul.

Archives

The Mario franchise has had live-action elements before (i.e. The 1993 film, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!). Would you like to see more live-action content? - (Cosmic Cowboy (talk), March 14th, 2023)

The Mario franchise has had live-action elements before (i.e. The 1993 film, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!). Would you like to see more live-action content?

I have no desire to see more live action content. 27.18% (585 votes)
I enjoy live-action Mario content and would like to see more content of this nature. 18.49% (398 votes)
I am fine with live-action content, though it feel as if it should not have priority among Mario content. 16.91% (364 votes)
I feel as though that live-action content should be relegated to simple and minor forms, such as commercials or web original shorts. 14.45% (311 votes)
I have no opinion. 8.97% (193 votes)
Yes, though I would prefer using actors in costumes, in the same vein as Lou Albano or Bob Hoskins. 8.22% (177 votes)
Yes, although I would like to see more content with mascot suits, similar to the ones used in advertisement and web original shorts. 5.76% (124 votes)
Total Votes: 2,152

What's your favorite thing about Super Mario? - The Poll Committee, April 1st, 2023)

What's your favorite thing about Super Mario?

On May 23, 1994, he died at his home in Decatur. 33.52% (351 votes)
He still pumps iron at the gym at the grand old age of 94. 19.2% (201 votes)
He is not on social media. 10.89% (114 votes)
He has never been married. 8.5% (89 votes)
He spends roughly 15 days per year on land. 6.97% (73 votes)
He has no children. 5.64% (59 votes)
He worked a tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. 5.64% (59votes)
He owns a two-bedroom condominium in Miami. 4.01% (42 votes)
He uses everything the gym supplies – any type of machinery, from spinning classes to lifting weights. 3.44% (36 votes)
Cruising costs him between $60,000 and $70,000 every year. 2.2% (23 votes)
Total Votes: 1,047

Now that Super Nintendo World Universal has opened, what are your thoughts on the Nintendo theme park? - (Raregold (talk), March 28th, 2023)

Now that Super Nintendo World Universal has opened, what are your thoughts on the Nintendo theme park?

I cannot visit at this time, but I want to. 41.68% (1152 votes)
I plan to visit eventually, and I am excited! 35.49% (981 votes)
I have no opinion. 6.73% (186 votes)
I visited and enjoyed my time at the park! 6.62% (183 votes)
I am not interested in visiting any Nintendo attractions. 4.02% (111 votes)
I plan to visit eventually, but I am skeptical. 2.97% (82 votes)
I am not interested, and would rather visit other Nintendo attractions like Super Nintendo World Japan. 2.03% (56 votes)
Total Votes: 2,764


Analysis

The Mario franchise has had live-action elements before (i.e. The 1993 film, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!). Would you like to see more live-action content?

Luigi introducing Patty to Mario in "Day of the Orphan" from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
The Mario Bros. reacting to an Option 1 voter.

Live Action Mario content has been kind of a strange subject for a while. With the most notable example of live action content being of course, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'s live action segments that bookend each animated episode, it's sort of easy to see why the concept has remained prevalent in the minds of fans for a while. That being said, it's not exactly the fond variety of "prevalence". Despite being rather old at this point, and remembered by few who still remain as part of these communities, the Super Show's live action segments are kept alive in modern memory through YouTube poops, random shitposts, and the eternally bizarre "Do The Mario" dance sequence at the end of it all. All that being said, it's probably important to take a step back and look at whether the notoriety of live action Mario is due to any kind of legitimate interest from the fandom, or whether its simply remained a curious matter, a strange thing to examine from the outside.

And, well, that does seem to be the case for many, but it's more nuanced than one might expect. 27.18% of voters have absolutely no desire to see more Mario live action content, which is... understandable. While the Super Show is something that a lot of people have some kind of fondness for, the live action segments are largely relegated to mockery through their frankly strange premises and while iconic, bizarre portrayals of the characters as well as introducing weird original characters like the Ratagator. It was a different era of television, back when video game content was thrown to the wind and studios were told to do whatever the hell they wanted. It's easy to see why a fair amount of people just wouldn't be into the idea of introducing this kind of content in the modern age, where such things might be considered, dare I say, "cringe".

But not far behind... 18.49% of voters seem to think the opposite, that live action Mario content is interesting, something desirable. Taking the opposite perspective as the above voters, it's interesting to think about why this might be the case. While the Super Show's live actions segments might be largely laughed at nowadays, it's hard to argue that Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells aren't franchise icons in their own way, and Mario live action content has been kept alive over the years due to various commercials and other promotional content. This is something that both 16.91% and 14.45% also agree on - that live action Mario should be relegated to simple content or advertisements, rather than full television episodes, or mainline content in general. Between the Japanese Mario Kart commercials and the hilarious commercial for Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64, Mario-based live action content has thrived in the background, being unique and charming in its own way, without impacting the mainstream perception of the series or the content of the series itself.

Speaking of the Super Smash Bros. commercials though, the last two categories this time are locked in eternal conflict: does live action Mario content progress through simple costuming with charismatic actors, or through full mascot suits? Well, history shows that it doesn't necessarily need to be either. While a big chunk of voters voted against live action Mario content, it's plain as day that in some sense, it will continue, whether in the form of simple advertisements or otherwise. How it turns out though... remains to be seen. Will the success of the movie lead to more live action content? Will it continue to be the domain of commercials and silly mascot suits? It remains to be seen, though I feel like the movie has given a fair amount of people a level of confidence in Nintendo-related media that they didn't have prior.

What's your favorite thing about Super Mario?

Pictured: Yet another Mario completely unrelated to the April Fool's poll.

This one is gonna be short, because it's our April Fool's poll, and therefore almost literally has nothing to analyze. People voted for the option about the year that Super Mario died - largely because it is probably objectively the funniest option to pick in this scenario. That being said, the April Fool's this year did involve several real-life Super Marios, so I feel like it's probably important to talk about a couple of them here, if only to immortalize them in some way. Super Mario leaves a rather large pair of shoes to fill after all, so let's-a-go.

First of all, Mario Salcedo was a man who has lived exclusively on cruise ships for about 20 years, spending only about 15 days on land per year, stopping only for a brief moment for COVID-19 before getting right back into it. While he's not exactly out there stomping... koopas, this is still a pretty notable feat for obvious reasons, and he's been nicknamed "Super Mario" as a result of his globetrotting exploits. Of course though, our top voted entry features a different Super Mario, a professional wrestler by the name of Candy Ray Candy, who fought under the name "Super Mario Man" in Japan briefly. Yes indeed, he was the man who died in '94, though not without leaving a large career in wrestling behind him, working under various promotions under various names.

But of course, you can't forget Mario Sanna, a 94-year-old man nicknamed Super Mario at his gym due to his tendency to continue to pump iron at an age where most people would crumble into dust. At the end of the day, our April Fools' poll served as not just a funny goofball poll, but as a shoutout and tribute to those lucky few who proved themselves to the point of sharing a nickname with Nintendo's own mascot - and I hope that maybe, just maybe, some of you have learned something over the course of this dumb meme analysis.

Probably not though, because it's just three dudes named Mario.

Now that Super Nintendo World Universal has opened, what are your thoughts on the Nintendo theme park?

Yoshi's Adventure in the Super Nintendo World
"Please Mario, free me from this terrifying CGI child".

Well, this one is... expected. Considering the large amount of minors that visit our website, the 41.68% of voters that want to visit but cannot honestly checks out. Unlike something like the Super Mario Bros. Movie, the theme parks are extremely localized to specific places, on top of being rather expensive even excluding that. With all that being said, it's not much of a surprise that such a large amount of voters is unable to visit something like that. The same largely likely goes for the 35.49% of voters who plan to go sometime in the future - it's not particularly easy to drop everything and travel to a theme park as an adult either, though it's interesting to see so many people who want to check the place out.

At least 6.62% of our voters have already visited the park, and had a good time there. I think on the whole, considering the circumstances involved with visiting a theme park, this is a pretty good recommendation across the board. While it may not seem like a large amount of people, 6.62% of our average voter base is a fairly decent number considering how many people were simply unable to go to the parks at all.

That being said though, 4.02% and 2.97 percent respectively either have no interest in the Nintendo parks or are skeptical, which is a fair opinion to have for sure. Considering the travel costs, is it really worth it to go to the Super Nintendo World Universal park at all? It does not seem to have much in the way of content that would convince someone who isn't already invested in the concept, so that's already a potential black mark in its favor. The real elephant in the room though comes from our final option, with 2.03% thinking that the park isn't worth going to when they could go to the Japanese park instead, which boasts the same rides and more.

While I am aware I am part of a small minority, this option was my own personal pick just because I would rather go to the park with more options while simultaneously visiting somewhere new and cool like Japan. I figured more would pick this one, honestly, but I'll go grumble in the corner with the rest of the Super Nintendo World Universal naysayers, until our collective curses wreak havoc upon your lands.

Either way, regardless of which park people go to, I'm sure both have lots to offer, and I encourage everyone to venture out and have fun at whatever Nintendo park may spark their interest. There's something out there for everyone, and hopefully you'll be able to find your own "thing", no matter where you decide to go.

Conclusion

Another one bites the dust.

Next time I'll force someone else to do one of these, but as long as I keep doing them... my section of the month votes grow, my power begins to exceed all others... my strength... infinite...

But really, I hope you had fun reading the 'Shroom this past month. While Pipe Plaza may not be the most popular category in the paper, I think it's an important one, and there's no group I'd rather work with. I hope you all have a good month, because I'll hopefully not be seeing you again next time. Go bother whoever writes the next PCD, and leave me free of sin.

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“The awards I would want to pick I don't think I could properly do justice, however, if I get saddled with some random crap I can boil my Joy-Con.”
—Fun With Despair (talk · Boards)

Hello everyone, and welcome to this month's edition of Anniversary Announcements, where I nerdy Mario fan talk about our yearly awards!
We're back! It's good to be back! It's gonna be a blast!

The awards committee

There have been some big changes to the formation of the committee this year. New direction, and new roles! The people of the awards committee comb through the awards and their nominees and update, replace, or remove them. In addition, this year we'll see a bit more of a division of roles across the committee members, in order to take a bit of the load off of the direction.

This year's committee consists of:

You can contact any of these fine folks with questions you may have. I, Lakituthequick, am yet again back to writing Anniversary Announcements, so if you have questions about that, feel free to contact me on the wiki, Boards, or on Discord.

News update

We have a bit of a shake-up on a few topics this year.

An animated GIF of the phrase "the voting has changed" in all caps wobbling.
(courtesy of GBA (talk · Boards))

First of all, the voting has changed. The Mario and Fail categories of voting have their window reduced to two weeks, and the Community category will be open for one week. Additionally, the latter will have its polls altered to allow up to four options to be selected at once, to balance the shorter time frame and allow people to support multiple candidates.
The shorter voting window allows for a longer window in which presentations can be worked on, giving presenters more space. Additionally, most of the votes are cast during the first week of the polls being open, meaning we miss some, but not necessarily too many votes overall.

Secondly, we aim to reduce the total number of awards from the current 60 to around 45. This will also aid in reducing the workload for people making presentations, as well as any back-up presenters. Additionally, there is a plan to hard-limit the number of presentations per person to four, to prevent overwhelming anyone with too many.

All of this was discussed in our first meeting, for which logs are available from the meeting logs thread on the Super Mario Boards.

And that's the first bit of info of this year! Thanks again for joining us, we love you very much, and is it the third Saturday yet?

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy April, everyone! I hope that you have all had an amazing start to your spring or fall, depending on where you guys are located! But regardless of season, we can all come together for what everyone has been waiting for: the newest Mario Calendar article!

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

This is honestly one of the most interesting months of the year in my opinion. It’s essentially the definition of “quality over quantity,” because it has a pretty great amount of stellar games - Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Paper Mario, Donkey Kong’s Famicom port and more all came out this month. While it doesn’t seem like a target month for the main Super Mario series, there is no shortage of great spinoff titles this month. However, the reason that I say “quality over quantity” is because there is a strange gap from the 15th to the 18th where absolutely no games were released. If you’ve been following this section for a while, you’ll know that there are very few extended periods of time where no games are released, so this is fascinating to me. If anyone knows why this might be, please let me know!

It is also important to acknowledge that there was a revolutionary release this month in 1980: on April 28th, 1980, Nintendo released the Ball Game & Watch title, kicking off the Game & Watch franchise. While this is by no means an impressive game from today’s perspective, it has had an incredible impact on the world of Mario and the world of Nintendo as a whole. It was Nintendo’s first handheld console, which started a line of consoles that has built up to today’s Switch and brought us games such as Super Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Thank you, Game & Watch!

Finally, I want to mention a more modern release that, while not a game, is still incredibly important for this franchise. I’m definitely not the first or only person to mention this, but on April 5th, The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out! It’s doing ridiculously well at the box office and had the largest opening weekend for an animated movie of all time, with it having brought in $377.5 million. It’s the power of Mario!! Anyways, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your month, and I’ll see you next time!

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 robots from the hit BBC show Robot Wars... is what we usually say! But this month, we're going to be doing something a little different! You see, it's almost the two-year anniversary of What's in a Campaign? (in fact, we're just a month away), so for our 23rd covered robot, we're, for the first time, going to be looking at a robot from one of the Robot Wars International series, specifically Bunny Attack from the short-lived Nickelodeon Robot Wars.

Nickelodeon Robot Wars is an odd show in a lot of ways. Filmed at the same time as the second and final season of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors, this show is another (and final) attempt by Robot Wars producers Mentorn to tap into the United States market with a United States-branded show. Like Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors and the other international spins-offs, Nickelodeon Robot Wars was filmed and produced in England. Probably because this is supposed to be a more kid-friendly version of Robot Wars, they had to rename Sir Killalot to Sir K, lol. Despite being filmed at the same time as Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors: Season 2 , Mick Foley does not reprise his role as host, instead being replaced by Dave Aizer. On the other hand, Stefan Frank, the commentator for the two Extreme Warriors series, did return.

Off all the international versions of robot wars, this one, to me, is the weirdest one, airing between August and September 2002 on Nickelodeon as part of their Nickelodeon SLAM! Block. The entries in Nickelodeon Robot Wars consist mostly of robots from the second Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors season as well as some robots made by the technical crew (called Loanerbots) and as a few robots (two of whom you'll know by the end of this month's issue!) who only competed in Nickelodeon Robot Wars, which is weird. It's a very weird lineup because they don't really get the cream of the Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors crop. Instead, it's almost entirely robots who crashed out in the heats or, like, bots that were built by the technical crew, so a lot of the episodes are very lackluster and don't have great fights. Nickelodeon Robot Wars is a lot like the Robot Wars: Extreme 2 series, where, instead of being one tournament, every episode is a different tournament. The series lasted six episodes, each being only a half an hour long, so instead of the usual five to seven matches that most other series have, each episode only has four fights. This really hampers most of the tournaments, because one of the episodes is the US Championship, but it only has four robots in it, so it's a very lackluster tournament. But there's one tournament that doesn't suffer from this problem, and that's the annihilator, the main tournament that this month's focus Bunny Attack fought in.

TIME TO DROP THE HAMMER!

Built by electronics engineer Mike Chester for his two sons Andrew and Ben, Bunny Attack is a triangular robot armored in aluminum and coated in flammable fur, and it's also a cute little robot! First appearing in the second Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors series, Bunny Attack found little success, crashing out in the second round of its heat. Powered by two wheelchair motors, Bunny Attack has a top speed of 12mph. For a weapon, Bunny Attack has an 8lb sledgehammer that swings at a lower speed than maybe even I could swing a sledgehammer. Bunny Attack also doesn't have a self-righter. Bunny Attack can best be described as a fun-but-bad robot. Now, you might be asking yourself "why the hell are we looking at a mediocre robot from a forgotten spin-off?". It's a good question, and the reason is because Bunny Attack has quite a bit of a connection to my Robot Wars fandom. When I was a young lad, Robot Wars aired at an inconsistent time slot on a channel called Tech TV. I had seen a decent amount of episodes, but I had seen it very out of order. Still, I was a fan of robot combat, but, more specifically Robot Wars, because, somehow, despite living in the United States, I never saw an episode of BattleBots. Then, one night, a tiny little Shoey happened upon Nickelodeon Robot Wars on a channel called "Nickelodeon Gas," which was a premium channel that aired all of Nick's old game shows (the 2000s were a wild time for cable). Let me tell you, I was excited, and the episode that was on was this annihilator. As I watched, something drew me to Bunny Attack and, in fact, Bunny Attack is one of the very first robots I can really remember rooting for. That, plus the fact that annihilators are just a cool concept, is why we're looking at Bunny Attack today.

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. If you'd like to watch any of these fights, check out this video. Time stamps are provided in the section.

It's been a while since we covered an annihilator, so, just as a refresher, an annihilator is a tournament that consists of five (in this case) robots battling out in free-for-all matches. Each round, a robot is eliminated either by KO or judges' decision until there is only one robot left. The last robot standing is declared the champion. It's objectively the coolest type of tournament Robot Wars does, because anything can happen in a free-for-all between five robots. Joining Bunny Attack in the annihilator are:

  • Basenji - A box robot with a wedge at the front and a saw at the back, its primary attack strategy is high speed rams.
  • Techno Trousers - It's literally a robotic pair of pants with a hydraulic lance in each pants leg.
  • Hannibal - One of the only non loanerbots to appear in Nickelodeon Robot Wars but not any other Robot Wars series, Hannibal is an invertible box with lifting spikes at the front. They aren't powerful enough to flip robots over, but are good enough to let Hannibal drive opponents around.
  • The Piecemaker - One of the other non loanerbots to appear in Nickelodeon Robot Wars but no other show, it's also the lightest robot in the field at only 99 pounds, and is armed with two circular saws at the front larger than its own wheels.

The fight (4:30) starts with Bunny Attack on the defensive as Basenji rams into it twice while Bunny Attack attempts (but fails) to strike it with its "mighty" hammer. Luckily, Basenji doesn't keep up its assault, and, instead, Bunny Attack starts fighting Piecemaker, landing two thunderous blows on Piecemaker with its hammer.

Robot combat happens?

Basenji dominates this first round, slamming Piecemaker into the wall and looking very impressive in doing so. As this happens, Bunny Attack and Hannibal bump into each other as Techno Trousers slowly drives around. Techno Trouser is somehow barely moving as Basenji shoves it, and, after landing off Basenji's wedge, Techno Trouser breaks down completely. As Techno Trousers is counted out, Bunny Attack does land some attacks on Piecemaker and a blow on Hannibal. The fight ends in the traditional post-match beatdown of the fallen robot by the House Robots, which, notably, does impact Bunny Attack when, after being launched by the floor flipper, Techno Trousers lands on top of Bunny Attack. Regardless of that, though, Bunny Attack does move onto the next round.

Bunny Attack starts the second round out (10:04) much stronger, going after the smaller Piecemaker, immediately pushing it around and thundering down hammer blows upon it. As this happens, Basenji presses the pit release while Bunny Attack continues to put pressure on Piecemaker, pushing the smaller bot into the grinder. From here, the fight breaks down into basically two one-versus-one fights, with Bunny Attack attacking Piecemaker and, separately, Basenji and Hannibal duking it out.

Basenji wisely flees the might of Bunny Attack.

Bunny Attack would dominate the much smaller Piecemaker as Basenji just kind of drives down the pit! Which is a shame, because it was probably the strongest robot in the field. But, with that, Bunny Attack is through to the next round.

The third round (13:45) actually starts with a neat little bit, with Hannibal attacking Piecemaker before Bunny Attack attacks Hannibal from behind, making a little robot fight train. As part of this violence train, Dead Metal saws into Piecemaker before Piecemaker manages to escape, and Bunny Attack rains down blow after blown onto Hannibal (who put a carrot between their forks to mock Bunny Attack), although to little affect. Bunny Attack continues to attack Hannibal, managing to push it around before, after another powerful blow, the hammer breaks off from the sheer power of Bunny Attack. Bunny Attack rams and rams into Hannibal, who hits the Disc of Doom dial for, uh... some reason? For those of you who don't know, the Disc of Doom was an arena hazard that was a giant spinning disc that usually at best temporarily affected a robot's driving if they drove onto it. Piecemaker attempts to rejoin the fight, but the smaller robot is ignored by the two larger robots.

Bunny Attack chases the carrot.

The fight ends with Bunny Attack ramming into Hannibal as the fight goes to a judges' decision. The judges eliminate Piecemaker, which probably makes sense. Yes, Hannibal spent the majority of the fight being dominated by Bunny Attack, but Hannibal did push Piecemaker into Dead Metal. Plus, after that, Piecemaker did nothing the rest of the fight. So it does make sense that Bunny Attack and Hannibal would be put into the championship round.

The championship round (18:46) starts with the two both driving around each other, looking for an advantage. Hannibal manages to get the advantage, driving their lifting forks under Bunny Attack and driving it around, although it does lose the carrot in the process. Bunny Attack then becomes the only robot ever affected by the Disc of Doom, getting stuck on the disc until the disc manages to spin the bunny off. Bunny Attack fires its hammer in anger as it charges at Hannibal, but, as Hannibal does all fight, it manages to once again keep its forks under Bunny Attack, preventing Bunny Attack from using its warhammer. Despite bending one of its forks on the charge, Hannibal keeps control of the fight, easily driving Bunny Attack around the arena and into Shunt, who lays into Bunny Attack with its ax. It's kind of funny. In the last fight, Bunny Attack dominated Hannibal, but in this fight, Bunny Attack can't do anything to the boxy machine. As Bunny Attack attempts to escape Shunt, Hannibal keeps the pressure on, driving Bunny Attack into the arena wall before driving them back into the waiting ax of Shunt. Bunny Attack attempts to fight back, but Hannibal does just a great job of always keeping its forks pointed at Bunny Attack, which, even though they're bent, allows Hannibal to use its superior pushing power to keep control of the fight. Hannibal again pushes Bunny Attack into a House Robot, this time pushing the bunny into Dead Metal, who slices thorough the fur of Bunny Attack with its circular saw. After this, Bunny Attack finally manages to get to the side of Hannibal and drops down its hammer upon them.

Well they did, uh, better than expected!

By this point, though, it's too late, and the fight ends with the two robots locked onto each other. The fight goes to a judges' decision, and, contrary to what commentator Stefan Frank says, it's not close. Hannibal dominated that fight and is easily awarded the fight and the annihilator championship. With that, Bunny Attack ends the annihilator with a very good second place finish!

Surprisingly, this wouldn't be the only time Bunny Attack would fight on Nickelodeon Robot Wars. Earlier in the series, Bunny Attack faced off against Hoot in one of the series' special vengeance battles. This is very heated rivalry where the two robots had... uh, never faced off! In fact, Hoot was a loanerbot who would later be, weirdly enough, used in the second Dutch Robot Wars, replacing a robot named Reflex. This a weird one, because Hoot is driven by the Piecemaker team, but this fight airs before the annihilator did (as every episode did, since the annihilator was the final episode), so I don't know if this was originally supposed to be a vengeance battle for that but Piecemaker broke down, or if there was some other reason behind it all. Maybe they gave them a robot with an animal theme so they could fight for best animal robot? I don't know. It's very weird I don't know why this fight happens. Nickelodeon Robot Wars is dumb.

The heated, hate-filled vengeance battle (9:49) starts with Hoot attempting to get its spinning bars up to speed. Bunny Attack drives into Hoot, whose bars just stop upon impact with Bunny Attack, doing negative damage. Every time Hoot hits Bunny Attack, their spinning weapon just stops; it's awesome. Bunny Attack no sells the spinning weapon and delivers blows upon Hoot and pushes it around a little. Tap! Tap! Tap! Down comes the hammer onto Hoot, who appears to be stuck on Bunny Attack. Seriously, it's just Bunny Attack barely raising its hammer and dropping it on Hoot. Commentator Stefan Frank says it best when he says Bunny Attack's hammer is gravity fed and compares it to a butter knife. Sir K decides that he's bored and drives into the middle of the arena, pushing Bunny Attack into Hoot, again allowing Bunny Attack to tap the roof of Hoot. Bunny Attack then gets stuck on the steam vent and Hoot charges in for attack, the result of which I do not know because there was too much steam, so nothing could be seen. When the steam clears, Hoot, with its weapon fully up to speed, charges at Bunny Attack and, with a mighty strike, frees Bunny Attack from the vent... and bends the shit out of two of its own spinning arms. Bunny Attack takes the advantage? I guess?

WHO APPROVED THIS?

They keep the advantage until Sir K again grows bored of whatever this is in front of him and manages to pull the hammer right off of Bunny Attack. The fight goes to the judges as Bunny Attack pushes Hoot around. Host Dave Aizer decides he's not going to waste the judges' time with this fight, and instead polls the audience, who I guess correctly vote that Bunny Attack is the winner, finally putting an end to their eternal rivalry with Hoot or whatever.

Despite being... well, Bunny Attack, Bunny Attack was actually surprisingly successful with a five-win, two-loss record. Like I said, Bunny Attack can be best described as a fun-but-bad robot. As for Nickelodeon Robot Wars, it would end after its initial six-episode run, with reruns later being aired on Nickelodeon Gas. Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors would also fail to be renewed for a third season, ending the attempts by Mentron to expand Robot Wars into the US Market. In fact, 2002 would be the end of American televised robot combat, with both Battlebots and Robotica ending their runs later in the year. With Robot Wars ending in 2004, the original age of televised robot combat would end. But it wouldn't lay dormant forever, for, in 2016, Robot Wars would find itself back on the air again, and that, dear readers, is where next month's story shall be. So join us next month for the very first What's in a Campaign? to feature a robot from the Robot Wars reboot!

The 'Shroom: Issue 193
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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