The 'Shroom:Issue 230/Pipe Plaza

From the Super Mario Wiki, the Mario encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
PipePlazaBanner.png

Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom230 Zange.png

Hello and Happy May!! You'll notice we here in Pipe Plaza have some weather happening that may have been more fitting for last month. Well... Can't really help it with a cloud-themed issue I suppose ^^;; Haven't really seen a lot of flowers either although that's not for lack of trying, I've just been horrifically busy and unable to touch grass. Don't live my life guys, you don't get free time...

If you're reading this on release day then I am getting ready to move into my first apartment where I won't have roommates next week, which is a little terrifying!!! I get the keys on the 26th, which will at least give me a few days to move stuff before my current lease is up on the 31st. Honestly I prefer it this way so I can kind of move stuff how I want on my own timeframe in those few days, instead of trying to do it all at once and feeling rushed. It'll be nice too because some of the places I love going to the most will be just a five minute walk away. That will be especially appreciated with a show I'm seeing in early June (TsuShiMaMiRe is coming back to town, babyyyyy!!) because they started construction on a street near the venue and as a result, the parking lot off said street that I normally use is now UNUSABLE, but I digress.

You know what else is back in town? If you answered What's in a Campaign?, then you'd be absolutely CORRECT!! We also have a wonderful guest section this month by our own Waluigi Time (talk) talking about the Awards Bonus Stars! If you love what you see here then remember that you, too, can write a very cool Pipe Plaza section of your own! Just head on over to the sign up page to learn more!

That's all from me this time, have a wonderful reading experience and rest of the month!!

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Sparks (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion! Taking silver, we have WHOA BABY A TRIPLE: It's a three-way tie between Waluigi Time (talk), Camwoodstock (talk), and GPM1000 (talk) with The 'Shroom Report, To-Do Tracker, and Mario Calendar, respectively! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 9 60.00% Sparks (talk)
2nd The 'Shroom Report 2 13.33% Waluigi Time (talk)
3rd To-Do Tracker 2 13.33% Camwoodstock (talk)
3rd Mario Calendar 2 13.33% GPM1000 (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
To-Do Tracker
Camwoodstock (talk)
No clue what to do? Join the fun and see what's been done!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Fun With Despair (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
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)
Stock bots? Or bot stocks? (I'd invest in robots...)
read more
Bonus Bonus Stars
Waluigi Time (talk)
But what if Bonus Stars were in EVERY year of Awards??
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy (late) May, everyone!! I hope everyone has had a wonderful month so far. Here at Mario Calendar, we like to take a look in the rearview mirror and examine all of the wonderful games of our favorite plumber's past. If it is related to Mario in some way, shape, or form, and it came out in the month of May at some point in the past 45 years, it's fair game. But, what did come out this month? Let's jump in and find out.

Region Abbreviations

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

Console Abbreviations

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

And that's it! I'm never particularly impressed with this month, but there is a newcomer that makes this month a whole lot more interesting… Yoshi and the Mysterious Book! I'm honestly not someone that has ever been particularly interested in the Yoshi subseries of games, but this one actually seems really cool. I love games that allow Nintendo to flex their creative muscles, and all of the experimentation with the different creatures do exactly that. I still don't have a ton of games on my Switch 2, so this might genuinely be worth picking up.

Also, as some exciting personal news, I have officially graduated college! It's crazy to be moving on from such a major chapter of my life, and it's even crazier that, through it all, Mario Calendar has been there alongside me. So thank you guys for accompanying me through this era of my life :) I hope you all have a great rest of your month, and I will see you all in June!

To-Do Tracker

Written by: Camwoodstock, of the Seven Stars (talk)

Howdy! It's been quite a heck of a few weeks, hasn't it? The digital release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the full release of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and on the wiki-end, it looks like we're about to see the resurrection of Pipe Projects, which will almost certainly be a shake-up to how maintenance is handled on the wiki. Before we worry about that, though, it's worth it to keep in mind how we got here... And by that, we mean talk about the last month of to-do bar stuff.

Note: All dates here were taken fairly late at night in EST; around 1-3 AM EST.

April & May To-Do Items
To-Do Item Apr 15, 2026 Apr 22, 2026 Apr 29, 2026 May 6, 2026 May 13, 2026 May 20, 2026
Spotlight focuses 2 4 3 3 3 2
Ongoing TPPs 8 7 7 6 5 8
Unimplemented Proposals 40+ 40+ 50+ 50+ 50+ 40+
Unresolved Discussions 227 234 232 235 237 238
To-do Lists 1,296 1,329 1,340 1,356 1,386 1,402
Sourcing Issues 17,492 17,448 17,410 17,351 17,278 17,229
Wanted Articles 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+
Requested Deletions 6 3 2 3 4 6
Suggested Moves 44 47 45 48 49 47
Suggested Merges 82 89 90 90 90 90
Suggested Splits 77 77 77 77 78 78
Missing Romanizations 136 122 112 92 44 65
Note Trims N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1
Unknown Meanings 189 130 125 98 98 130
Image Quality 3,912 3,914 3,919 3,925 3,925 3,918
Images Needed 830 829 827 830 850 860
Media Needed 561 568 571 581 590 596
Media Quality 23 23 23 24 24 19
Unused Files 300+ 400+ 400+ 400+ 400+ 400+
Files To Be Used 18 18 18 18 18 18

For some observations for how the numbers have progressed, and some potential targets:

  • To-do lists continue to grow in quantity. This might actually change depending on how Pipe Projects go...
  • We've got a pulse from Wanted Pages! Not numerically, but in terms of its Most Wanted. Clock hand was created, dethroning it from its truly commanding lead for most wanted page at over 1,300 redlinks it managed to accumulate through its all-star cast of navboxes. The new most wanted is... A tie, actually! Both Super Mario 4koma Manga Theater book 7 and book 8 sit at 963 redlinks... Though, we suppose we've just bolstered that to 964, huh?
  • Not much to say on Moves, Merges, and Splits. There are a few more Merges, but that's about it. Kind of a still month for that trifecta.
  • Media Needed continues to grow, gaining over 30 entries and approaching 600 total pages in need of more media.

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Fun With Despair (talk)

Wooow, it has been a long time since I've done one of these. What, like three years? I guess I was the 13th chair and we're on 16 now, so that tracks. Concerning, how fast time flies - but at the same time, it feels like it's been almost longer. Anyway, my mortal enemies can sleep easy because I'm not actually on the committee this year. Instead, consider this a... guest article, on behalf of the Awards Committee, which I actually am on. I'm sure Sparks (or any other member of his merry band of men/women/[GENDER EXPUNGED]) will be back at it in next month's issue, but for now, let me guide you all on a trip down memory lane.

By that, of course, I mean I'm going to talk about a couple polls from extremely recent history. Mario Party 6's Memory Lane was ostensibly about remembering something from a couple seconds ago - so at this point anything goes.

Archives

Out of the new courses introduced in Mario Kart World, which is your favorite? (Fun With Despair (talk), April 26, 2026)

Out of the new courses introduced in Mario Kart World, which is your favorite?

I have not played Mario Kart World. 28.83% (660 votes)
Rainbow Road 19.97% (457 votes)
Boo Cinema 8.78% (201 votes)
DK Spaceport 8.61% (197 votes)
Great ? Block Ruins 4.67% (107 votes)
Mario Bros. Circuit 4.67% (107 votes)
Dry Bones Burnout 4.06% (93 votes)
Crown City 4.02% (92 votes)
Bowser's Castle 3.98% (91 votes)
Whistletop Summit 3.15% (72 votes)
Faraway Oasis 1.92% (44 votes)
Starview Peak 1.66% (38 votes)
Cheep Cheep Falls 1.44% (33 votes)
Acorn Heights 1.14% (26 votes)
Dandelion Depths 1.09% (25 votes)
Peach Stadium 1.05% (24 votes)
Salty Salty Speedway 0.96% (22 votes)
Total votes: 2,289

Do you enjoy that recent Yoshi games are located in art-themed settings, such as yarn, hand-crafts, and book pages? (The Shadow Prince (talk), April 12, 2026)

Do you enjoy that recent Yoshi games are located in art-themed settings, such as yarn, hand-crafts, and book pages?

Yes, I greatly enjoy the unique art-themed settings new Yoshi games have and want them to continue in future games. 49.69% (792 votes)
I consistently somewhat like the art-themed settings, but would prefer some future Yoshi games to have standard environments. 25.47% (406 votes)
I have no opinion on this subject. 10.79% (172 votes)
I feel mixed on the art-themed settings but prefer Yoshi games have standard environments. 4.77% (76 votes)
My opinion or combination of opinions is not listed here. 2.95% (47 votes)
I do not like the art-themed settings for Yoshi games at all. 2.32% (37 votes)
I can enjoy these art-themed settings only when they do not affect the gameplay of the game. 2.20% (35 votes)
I can enjoy these art-themed settings only when they affect the gameplay of the game. 1.82% (29 votes)
Total votes: 1,594

Analysis

Out of the new courses introduced in Mario Kart World, which is your favorite? (Fun With Despair (talk), April 26, 2026)

Oh hey, would you look at that. I made this poll. Not exactly the pinnacle of human creativity, but this one had some clear intent behind it in a way that your usual (far more interesting) poll isn't - which brings us to why I'm here writing this in the first place. Last year, the Awards Committee was struggling to figure out what to do with Mario Kart World. It was a pretty new game, and most of us didn't have a Nintendo Switch 2. Most of us still don't, honestly. Lacking entirely in first-hand experience and working solely in the realm of anecdotal evidence, we threw Rainbow Road (Mario Kart World) and Great ? Block Ruins (talk about a mouthful) on there because we'd heard good things and they seemed to be popular. While we were right on the money with Rainbow Road being a hit, the Great ? Block Ruins proved to not be so great after all, and did rather poorly.

Somehow less ruined than its score on the Awards last year.

This year, we decided that we'd take a new initiative and work with the Poll Committee to poll the userbase on subjects like Mario Kart World that we aren't sure about, in order to narrow our picks down to a top 3 that correspond with what the voters actually found to be best of the game's bunch. This was the first of two polls that the Awards and Poll Committees approved for public use, and each of them has been a great asset to the construction of Awards polls. We'll definitely be doing this going forward - or I will at least, in the instance that every other committee member unceremoniously quits.

As this is being posted, there's another poll on the go for this purpose - in this case, the new Koopaling boss fights in Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park. Wow, and I gave the Great ? Block Ruins grief for its awkward name. Who the hell is in charge of naming these Switch 2 games, anyway?

Well, enough about that. Let's talk about some of these. Emphasis on "some". We've got a lot of options on this sucker, and most of them did pretty bad.

Our first-place winner is kind of interesting: almost a quarter of the total voters, at 660 votes, just outright haven't played Mario Kart World at all. The reason this is interesting, is because historically Mario Kart has been a... pretty big deal? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one of the best-selling games in human history with over 70 million copies sold, and I've never even met anyone outside of like, literal senior citizens who hasn't played it at least once. Apparently it's selling faster than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did in relative terms, but there seems to be way less buzz around it on the whole. Maybe those sales numbers come from the fact that it's usually bundled. Maybe it's too early to really say. It could just be that a lot of people own it but don't really care about it because of the controversial online mode. In any case, this "haven't played" number will probably go down over time as more games for the Switch 2 come out and make it a better investment. I know that's why I haven't bothered yet.

Screenshot of Rainbow Road (Mario Kart World)'s second lap
A truly beautiful course that looks more like something out of Spyro The Dragon than it does Mario Kart.

Predictably, out of the actual courses, Rainbow Road was a bit of a sweep, with over double the votes of the next-closest winner - 457 of them. Why is this predictable? Well, because it completely swept during 2025's Awards too, despite how new the game was at the time. In an ordinary circumstance, I'd claim recency bias, but honestly this course actually does just seem to be legitimately that good. I don't have the game or a Switch 2, but I've seen a couple videos of this course and it looks both absolutely gorgeous and like a lot of fun. Seriously, this thing is like a Greatest Hits collections of both other Rainbow Roads and some other awesome tracks throughout the series. It's got the train from 64's Rainbow Road, the big vertical rise at the start echoes the rainbow pipe in Double Dash's, it's got the winding overlapping branching paths of Electrodrome, everything about this track seems to be the peaks of the series distilled into one. Awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if this tops the Awards for a long time to come.

It also probably helps that as a longer single-lap course, it's immune to some of the shenanigans that come with World's new format.

Boo Cinema in Mario Kart World
Ahhh, kino. Literally.

Boo Cinema, with 201 votes, is another one I've heard a lot of talk about. Personally I always love the ghost-themed courses in Mario Kart, from DS Luigi's Mansion to the Twilight House battle course. That goes for Mario in general though, give me the ghost houses any day, baby. This is a particularly interesting take though, with the course taking you into a haunted theater and right into the screen, where you race through a sepia-toned film reel acid trip, before popping back out. Incredible idea and vibes, even if the course itself doesn't seem to be the longest or most complicated thing in the entire world by any means. A solid idea carried this course to the near-top of the list, which goes to show that sometimes that's all you need. Actually, that exact notion is present in the fourth place winner too: DK Spaceport, with only four less votes at 197 votes. Another nice and simple one, DK Spaceport has you racing up the classic 25m structure from the original arcade game, reframed as part of a rocket launch site. Again, just a cool idea. I feel like people don't talk enough about how much this kind of thing can skyrocket a just-okay course in terms of actual physical construction into the position to be considered a potential all-timer.

Then, there's Great ? Block Ruins, tied with Mario Bros. Circuit at 107 votes. Much further down the list than expected, with almost half the votes of the last two. I'm glad we did this, if we didn't put up this poll, then we at the Awards Committee might've made another mistake and put this one back on the ballot. After this point though, the votes slowly taper off and eventually absolutely crater. Cultivating a strong fanbase, Salty Salty Speedway is not.

I wonder though, are the huge vote disparities between some of these because Boo Cinema and its surrounding non-Rainbow Road courses are just that good? Or does Mario Kart World just have a load of total stinkers on its roster? You'll have to let me know in the 'Shroom discussion on the forums, it's a genuine question.

Do you enjoy that recent Yoshi games are located in art-themed settings, such as yarn, hand-crafts, and book pages? (The Shadow Prince (talk), April 12, 2026)

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island map screen
Since the moment Yoshi ceased to be merely a power-up to cast into the pit for some extra airtime, hand-drawn/crafted art has always been a core part of the series' aesthetics.

I've heard this debated a lot, whether the change to an art-themed setting was a good change for the Yoshi series or not. Some people get pretty opinionated over this, and I mean fair enough - you could argue it's similar to the age-old debate over Paper Mario's similar change. I however, would argue that the Yoshi series has pretty much always had this kind of aesthetic in some way, shape, or form. From the sketchy pastel artwork and file-folder level select of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, to the arts-and-crafts aesthetic that dominates Yoshi's Story. This kind of thing has been a part of Yoshi since long before Yoshi's Woolly World or its Kirby predecessor, and I can't imagine that's subject to change anytime soon. Honestly, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is probably closer to the original game's aesthetic than anything else.

Of course, when it comes to the discussion of Yoshi art styles, Yoshi's Island DS is an outlier and should not be counted. Also it sucks.

Despite some vocal online haters though, this art style seems to be beloved by a rather significant amount of the fanbase. With 792 votes, a whopping 49.69% of voters greatly enjoy the unique art-themed settings new Yoshi games have and want them to continue in future games- with another 25.47% of voters at 406 votes stating that they consistently somewhat like the art-themed settings, but would prefer some future Yoshi games to have standard environments. That's about 75% of total voters who at least somewhat like the style, with a majority of those voters seeming to love it. I'm kind of in agreement on that, even if I don't really like the way specifically Yoshi's Crafted World looks. Nintendo made a smart choice in giving the Yoshi franchise such a strong visual theme, especially when I feel like Yoshi had a period around the DS era where his games kind of struggled to find any solid identity.

Of course, I also empathize with that second group. The aesthetic runs the risk of either getting old or simply degrading in its attempt to look distinct from the previous game, something that seems to be a common opinion about Crafted World compared to Woolly World. Change can be good, and even if you're a fan of how these games look, some variety certainly wouldn't hurt. Look at the era of mainline Mario where everything looked like New Super Mario Bros. - a game that was by no means controversial on release, but grew to become rather virulently hated in certain pockets of the fandom due to the homogenization of series visual elements.

A further 10.79%, with 172 votes, just have no opinion on the subject, which... might be where I fall too at the end of the day? I like the way these games look, but I'm not really someone who cares for the franchise or plays any of the games outside of the original. In part due to a lack of challenge, in part due to a waning interest in Mario-adjacent franchises like Yoshi, in either case it's left me kind of apathetic to how these games look. I do think Mysterious Book looks pretty sweet though honestly, in a visual sense. Once again though, after this choice, there's another pretty significant drop-off. Most of the voters past this point could probably safely be considered outliers, with enjoyment - or apathy at worst - being the opinion of over 85%, but we'll go over the broad strokes.

Mysterious Book looks to be a gorgeous blend of both the more artistic style of more recent Yoshi games, and the more subdued pastels of the original.

76 voters are mixed on the subject, but prefer standard environments, which still isn't a vote with any particularly strong convictions against the art style in question. If I had to guess, Crafted World is the cause of a lot of these voters feeling the way they do. There haven't been a lot of Yoshi games that haven't had any "art-themed" influence, and I am a bit interested to know what people who picked this option consider to be a standard environment in the context of Yoshi, or how they could differentiate games utilizing these kind of environments from Mario games that include Yoshi as playable. Something else that drives my curiosity are the 47 voters who said that their opinion or combination of opinions is not listed here. Like I said with Mario Kart, if you voted for this I'd like to hear what exactly these opinions are - so please share in the 'Shroom discussion thread if you're reading this.

The amount of voters who actively dislike the style, in stark contrast to our number-one spot, is a pretty paltry 2.32% - or 37 voters. This... makes sense. Even people who hate the way one Yoshi game or another likes, there's usually at least one of these art-themed games where the visual style hits right for them. Hating how they all look is certainly a rare opinion. I haven't met anyone who thinks Woolly World in particular looks remotely bad, let alone hates the visuals.

Finally, 35 voters, and 29 voters only like the style when it does not or does affect the gameplay as well. Fair enough, honestly. No notes. I feel pretty similarly about Paper Mario and its more recent papercraft style focus too. No real notes here. I guess I lean towards wanting it to not affect the gameplay though, because at that point it kind of loses some of the Yoshi gameplay in favor of being a weird art-themed gimmick game, which could be pretty divisive among people who actually like the Yoshi gameplay and pick these games up to play a decent enough Yoshi game that isn't the SNES original or the buckets of gutter slop that came out for the franchise between it and Woolly World.

Conclusion

And that about wraps up my brief return to Poll Committee Discussion. I'm not sure who'll write the next one, but it will surely be someone with far more youthful vigor and intrinsic motivation. Thanks to Sparks for letting me write this one to discuss the Awards Committee collaboration poll - and thank you, the voter, for being a crucial part of this experiment. I would reassure you that our gathered poll data will not be used for any potentially malicious or esoteric purposes, but you voted without reading the fine print so legally I am not obligated to do so.

Before I go back into pseudo-poll-retirement, I'd like to wish a happy 100th to Lakituthequick (talk), who is such a crucial part of the operations of literally everything we do here and elsewhere that I could've even imagine how this community would run without him. Here's to 100 issues, and here's to many more. Now go look at the Cloudgazing article or something. It's a special commemorative event, what are you doing reading Poll Committee Discussion?

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Welcome back to what will be my final edition of The 'Shroom Report. I can't say I'm moving on to greener pastures, since Pipe Plaza's the greenest team we have, but sometimes you need to give a section a rest after it's been going for a while. But hey, it's LTQ's 100th issue, and I had relevant trivia prepared in advance! So here's the data on Issue 229, and as always, thanks to MightyMario for updating the spreadsheets.

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

​
  • 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. Additionally, established writers are mentioned the first time they contribute to a particular team.
  • Most Sections Written lists the current all-time record holders.
First-Time Writers
Writer Section
Martendo (talk) News Flush
New Sections
Section Writer
Homicide Activity Superchao (talk)
Picross Goombuigi (talk)
Riddle Moves Sentient freedom (talk)
Completion Centre Sentient freedom (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
News Flush Martendo (talk)
News Flush Sparks (talk)
News Flush Zdrmonster Productions
When Sparks Fly Boo1268 & Cloudwalker (talk)
Milestones
Writer Milestone
Boo1268 40 Fake News sections
Goombuigi (talk) 30 Fun Stuff sections
Hint Toad (talk) 10 Palette Swap sections
Ninja Squid (talk) 90 Main/Staff sections
Roserade (talk) 200 overall sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 550 overall sections
Zange (talk) 10 Strategy Wing sections
Zdrmonster Productions 1st Fake News section
1st Palette Swap section
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News Waluigi Time (talk) 186
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 171
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 219
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 228
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 194
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
Issue 167, released in February 2021, was the first time a bot was used to automatically upload images for The 'Shroom. Pages were also automated beginning with Issue 169, the first issue after the creation of the ShroomBot account. Prior to this, every page and image had to be added manually to the wiki by 'Shroom staff - Issue 166 took just under an hour to complete! Thanks, LTQ!

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 competitors from the UK series Robot Wars. It's been a while since we looked at anything. I've been on a bit of a hiatus from all 'Shroom writing, not solely because of Pokopia, but I did play a lot of it while I was gone! So for my return, we're going to look at what I think is one of the most peculiar set of robots ever entered in Robot Wars - Series 1's Stock Robots. That's right, we're going back to Series 1 for only the second and possibly final time!

  • Hmmm, kind of looks like a Battleship

    Hmmm, kind of looks like a Battleship

  • WYSIWYG? Man, I'm already dreading typing out this name!

    WYSIWYG? Man, I'm already dreading typing out this name!

  • About to give the competition the old one-two!

    About to give the competition the old one-two!

So you're probably asking yourself "who are the Stock Robots?" What does that mean?". The Stock Robots were three robots entered into Series 1 not by a roboteer, but rather by the crew instead. The three Stock Robots are Grunt, WYSIWYG, and my favorite, Eubank the Mouse. So now you're probably asking yourself "why is the production team entering robots?". Is this part of a scheme to tip the scales to make sure their favorite competitors make it further? Or is it even a plot to make sure they don't have to pay out whatever the grand prize is? No, it's nothing so sinister! Instead, it has to do with the fact that Series 1 is a weird series. As the first-ever series of its kind in the United Kingdom, the producers somewhat struggled to get entrants. That's why despite having established weight classes, Series 1 basically ignores them. For example, Barry competes with the heavyweights despite being a super heavyweight, there are several middleweights spread through the competition, and finally there's a whole episode that's just featherweights. But despite ignoring weight classes, the producers only managed to get 33 entrants. So to make up the numbers, the producers entered three robots that they owned (all three had competed in previous United States tournaments). Two of them (Grunt and WYSIWYG) are simple wedge bots, while the third (Eubank the Mouse) is a pyramid-shaped robot decked out in mouse decorations for some adorable flair.

These three were put in the competition, but, crucially, they aren't advertised as being from the crew. Instead, on TV, they're treated as just any old competitor. Now, there's one last thing we need to keep in mind. For fairness reasons, the Stock Robots were NOT allowed to qualify for the arena portion of the competition! As a reminder, Series 1 was only partially robot combat, with the first two rounds being the Gauntlet and the Trial (basically some sort of minigame) The worst-placing robot of each round was eliminated from the episode (for a more in-depth explanation of Series 1's format, please check this section. Every Stock Robot had to be eliminated at the end of the Trial stage, so just keep that in mind as we go through these!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. This time we're covering three different robots, so a video for each has been provided with timestamps provided in the section.

First up, we've got Grunt placed into Heat A. A nippy wedge with little bits on it, weighing 45kg (which I guess is considered a heavyweight in Series 1 – I'm pretty sure that's a middleweight nowadays), and sporting a top speed of 15mph, Grunt was build by judge Eric Dickinson's son Matthew Dickinson. Look at this Mr. Big Shot Robot Wars judge getting his son on television! Nepotism in the robot world makes me sick! Now since Eric knows that he's not a real competitor, surely he's going to take a dive right here in the Gauntlet so that a real competitor will make it through the trials, right? Grunt starts its run (11:20) by getting kind of fucked by the turntable, with the turntable pushing Grunt towards the route guarded by the House Robots. By the way, a really cool feature of the turntable is that it doesn't actually stop when it's straight on with the arena; it just sort of stops whenever.

You gotta stop them, Matilda!

Luckily for Grunt, that's the route it wanted to take anyways. It quickly blows right past Sgt. Bash and into the backside of Dead Metal. Dead Metal doesn't stop it for long, with Grunt managing to maneuver around Dead Metal. Realizing what's happening, Matilda desperately tries to stop Grunt and briefly manages to pin Grunt right before the goal. But she can't get her trunks under Grunt to flip him and she backs off. Right after she does that, Grunt sprints forward, completing the Gauntlet in a very short order. Great Gauntlet run! There's just one tiny problem…YOU'RE NOT A REAL COMPETITOR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? WHY ARE YOU TAKING A SPOT IN THE NEXT ROUND FROM THE REAL COMPETITORS???

Like, I understand you don't have enough competitors so you had to make up numbers, but why aren't they being given explicit instructions to take a dive???? Again, they aren't real competitors!

You know, funnily, this isn't even the worst anyone's ever done in Sumo.

Like, I get it. You're trying to make compelling TV, but, like, in the Trial (which is Sumo) against Shunt (20:02) Grunt (which, again, can't advance!) drives off the edge intentionally in 4.5 seconds because it's not a real competitor! So with that, our first Stock Robot leaves the competition. Maybe the next Stock Robot will understand the assignment and conk out in the Gauntlet!

For our next Stock Robot, we move forward to Heat C, where my least favorite Stock Robot (mostly because of the name) WYSIWYG is competing. Weighing only 10 kg and made from wood, WYSIWYG is by far the smallest of the Stock Robots and was interestingly enough built by judge Eric Dickinson (we've never mentioned the judges by name quite so many times in this section!). Since he is busy judging, WYSIWIG is driven here by Michelle Wheeley, the girlfriend of fellow competitor Cruella's team captain Philip Martin - oh great, more nepotism! WYSIWYG starts its Gauntlet run (9:03) by driving right into the gates that begin the maze. It then drives towards and crashes into the ramp, getting itself wedged on the ramp. Shunt attempts to dislodge it from the ramp, but in the process Shunt also gets stuck on the ramp along with WYSIWYG! Realizing this is just awful TV, Dead Metal shoves Shunt, which manages to dislodge WYSIWYG, who darts towards the gate maze. Unfortunately, it appears that WYSIWYG is very difficult to drive, and it doesn't manage to clear any part of the gate before deactivation is called. Unlike Grunt, WYSIWYG appears to have understood the assignment, having gone only 5.55 meters!

How are both of you idiots stuck?!

Unfortunately Plunderbird only moved 4.8 meters, so despite their best efforts, WYSIWYG just barely snuck through! I'm gonna grant WYSIWYG a lot of grace on this one. Not only did it not complete the Gauntlet, but trying to eyeball get less than 4.8 meters is quite difficult. Plus, WYSIWYG was actually moving backwards as cease was being called, and if the producers were smart, they'd have spotted WYSIWYG from its final destination instead of the exact spot it was in when cease was called, which would have been less than 4.8 meters. So this one isn't really WYSIWYG's fault, but there's one more wrinkle to this, because Dreadnaut is in this Heat, and if you know anything about Dreadnaut, you'd know that breakdowns will soon follow. So after completing its Gauntlet, Dreadnaut began smoking, and there was talk that, if it couldn't be repaired in time, then Plunderbird would be put through. Why didn't they just declare that "aw, whoopsie daisy, WYSIWYG has broken down and can't compete" and use that as an excuse to put Plunderbird back in? Why have WYSIWYG compete in the Trial when you know that it's not going to go past the Trial stage? It just doesn't make sense.

Here's the thing. As much as I credit WYSIWYG for seemingly attempting to take a dive in the Gauntlet, it does not take a dive in the Football Trial (15:32). Trial Football is kind of strange. It starts with each robot competing with each other to score goals, and the robot eliminated is supposed to be the only robot that doesn't score a goal. Just keep that in mind for now. In the first goal, WYSIWYG isn't doing much. Basically, it looks like it's trying to avoid touching the ball as much as possible. It's actually a pretty fun little event. Dead Metal blocks a shot from Wedgehog, whose team put these adorable little arms on it to control the ball. Then, Robot the Bruce (the predecessor to Chaos 2) manages to score the first goal.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop touching the ball!" - Robot Wars producers to WYSIWYG

In the second goal, WYSIWYG is much more active, darting all over the place and trying to corral the ball. It's unsuccessful, but it's still trying. At the same time, Dreadnaut does what Dreadnaut does best and breaks down, because of course it did! Here, Wedgehog manages to score the second goal thanks to an accidental assist from Dead Metal.

In the third goal, WYSIWYG does everything in its power to be as far away from the ball as possible, and since Dreadnaut is broken down, Cruella easily scores the third goal. They don't do a fourth goal; they just go "wow, look guys, both robots have broken down - guess it'll have to go the judges!". I'm like 90% sure WYSIWYG didn't actually break down; there was just no way to have the round with Dreadnaut being broken down like it was. Then, despite the fact that WYSIWYG was active every round, they rule that the ball touched Dreadnaut more. Now, this is probably true, but it's a terrible way to judge this. Still, with that, Dreadnaut would move on to the arena stage because, again, WYSIWYG wasn't allowed to at all!

That leaves us with just one more Stock Robot. Placed in Heat F, the final Heat, is my favorite of the Stock Robots - Eubank the Mouse. Built by Robot Wars technical consultant Derek Foxwell but driven in Series 1 by a man named Steve Dove (who would later enter Series 2 and Series 3 with his own robot called Challenger) and named after boxer Chris Eubank, Eubank the Mouse was a lightweight pyramid-shaped robot weighing just 15kg. But the reason I love it is because it's decked out in little decorations that make it look like a little mouse boxer, sporting little arms that hang weightlessly as it drives! It's adorable! Its weapons are even listed as a "right hook and left cross". I love it! But will I love its Gauntlet performance?

Eubank the Mouse's Gauntlet run (8:18) starts with it darting right towards the path blocked by the House Robots. A quick and very light machine, Eubank the Mouse darts right past the frankly quite useless Sgt. Bash before slamming into the wall and briefly getting stopped by Dead Metal as Sgt. Bash comes up from behind. Neither Dead Metal nor SGT. Bash can keep Eubank pinned for long as the mouse quickly and easily maneuvers away from the scorpion House Robot.

WiaCampaign8-230.jpg
That's right, Eubank! Give Matilda the old left right cross!]]

Only Matilda stands in the way of Eubank the Mouse completing the Gauntlet. Matilda charges in like a raging bull, but Eubank the Mouse easily slips away before hitting one of those weird spike pyramid blocks they put in the Gauntlet just to make the Gauntlet look more daunting. Eubank gets past the spiked mace that swings around the arena (which is, again, probably useless and just here to make the Gauntlet look more challenging) Not only does Eubank the Mouse complete the Gauntlet, but they actually do it faster than anyone in the episode. It's a run so impressive that even host Jeremy Clarkson (yes, the Jeremy Clarkson) compliments them on their performance! But again, they're taking a spot away from a real compet- Oh, wait a second, guys. Turns out the last place finishing robot in this Gauntlet is Elvis AND it only made it 2.75 meters? I, uh, no longer care that Eubank the Mouse qualified for the Trial because Elvis sucks.

"Oh, that's not good for me." - Robot Wars producers watching T.R.A.C.I.E. break down immediately

This puts Eubank the Mouse into the Trial stage to play Snooker with the rest of the real robots. Snooker is a pretty fun one. They put a ton of balls in the arena and the robots have to place them in their goals, with the robot with the least balls being eliminated. Because Eubank can't go on to the arena round, it just sort of drives around aimlessly without even really making an attempt to score a single ball. So, assignment complete, right? Surely every competitor managed to get at least one ball, right? NOPE! As soon as it starts, T.R.A.C.I.E. not only breaks down, but breaks down in such a way they are blocking their goal!

Eubank can't even accidentally knock in a ball for them! And to top it all off, they make it very clear that if multiple robots don't score any goals, then the robot going through will be the robot that was the most active. Obviously, that isn't going to be T.R.A.C.I.E., because I don't even think they get off that starting block! Also, somehow, despite not breaking down, The Blob (another competitor) manages to score zero balls! How is that possible!? Hell, even Scarab scores. What are we doing!? This is the worst competition ever! So because T.R.A.C.I.E. never moves, they basically go "uh, uh, uh, Eubank has irreparably broken down, so T.R.A.C.I.E. moves on!!!" in order to explain where T.R.A.C.I.E. (who somehow, btw, goes onto to win this Heat and goes to the Grand Final) isn't being eliminated right here! It's especially funny because they don't even do, like, an interview with Steve Dove. Instead, Johnathan Pearce just exclaims it while they're going over the results, while all the robots are still in the arena! What a disaster this round is!

So that ends the tale of the Stock Robots in the main series. The Stock Robots were very unpopular backstage, and I can understand why since they completely tip the scales of a heat. If you're in a Heat with a Stock Robot and you make the Trial stage, you know you're making it to the arena stage, which isn't fair to the competitors in the non-Stock Robot heats. Compounding that, they also eliminate robots in their own heat. Like, none of the Stock Robots go out in the Gauntlet, and for two of them they had to make up reasons to eliminate them from the Trial stage!

Now we're going to take a quick look at the robots they eliminated and see how they might have done if they had made it through!

  • A simple yet solid design.

    A simple yet solid design.

  • PLUNDERBIRD'S BACK, BABYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

    PLUNDERBIRD'S BACK, BABYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

  • This is a very strange concept for a robot.

    This is a very strange concept for a robot.

We're quickly going to dismiss Elvis, because it's an ugly robot that's just bad. The idea is Elvis is driving a UFO and its weapon is a pneumatic ram. Its shell can, like, move up and down? Idk, it's a bad robot that wouldn't make it far. But it probably would have gone out in the arena if we assume that T.R.A.C.I.E. breaks down immediately, which, oh god, that quickly makes this the worst heat ever! I assume Scarab would win the heat. Um, at least I hope so because the idea of Prince of Darkness, The Blob, or Elvis winning makes me sick. Overall, I don't think Elvis would have done much better.

Now, Barry and Plunderbird, those are the robots that really matter, because I think both of those could have made a Grand Final.

Built this little weirdo just to set it on fire!

Barry was a super heavyweight weighing 116kg with a plow at its front. It's definitely going to make it through the Sumo; that's like the perfect event for it. From there, its only competition is Roadblock, and, like Roadblock, Barry should be able to easily push around Shogun and Nemesis (the predecessor to Diotoir). Then, Roadblock is good, but it's also 30kg lighter than Barry, so if Grunt had "irreparably broken down", we might be looking at Grand Champion Barry. At the very least, I think we'd be looking at Heat Finalist Barry. As for Plunderbird, again, you're talking about a really good Series 1 robot with interchangeable weapons! The winner of its heat was Robot the Bruce, who though a solid machine is just a box on wheels, which means it would be a pushing contest. Plunderbird, who would have some sort of weapon and was a tracked machine, would have better grip. I think Plunderbird could have won that heat if only WYSIWIG had gotten a meter less!

If the Stock Robots had gone out in the Gauntlet, you could see a lot of changes in Series 1. Even Elvis, a robot that's just outright bad, changes a lot if it goes through (assuming that T.R.A.C.I.E. still breaks down since Elvis would have gone through the Trial on activity alone). Now, the flipside is of course that none of these competitor robots did any good in the Gauntlet and it wouldn't be fair to give them a free pass to the Trial, which is fair, I guess. But somebody was getting a free pass in all of the heats involving Stock Robots, so they might as well have given the free pass to the actual competitors as soon as possible. It would have made their Trial rounds better because you wouldn't have robots trying to take a dive.

Stock Robots (also later called loanerbots) would still occasionally be used, but never in the main series. Instead, they primarily exist in little side events like the Series 9 Battle of the Stars, in which all the celebrities were given loanerbots instead of using competitor bots like they did in the Series 4 celebrity special. My maybe-favorite Stock Robot is Ramrombit, a strange humanoid robot driven by George Francis (of Chaos 2 fame). Ramrombit appeared exclusively in Series 2, where it participated in a special Inferno Insurrection Grudge Match against Nemesis. Both robots were doused in flammable liquid and set out to be set on fire by SGT. Bash to the delight of the crowd!

They were also used quite frequently in the Nickelodeon Robot Wars to fill out spots in various competitions. Notably, the loanerbot Tut-Tut (also known as King Tut) finished 6-0, winning both the Extreme Warriors tag team terror and the Nickelodeon Robot Wars Challenge Belt. But even though Stock Robots/loanerbots would make appearances here and there in various side series, none of the three Stock Robots of Series 1 ever appeared again, making them just little oddities of Robot Wars before it became the big event it would grow into.

That's all for this month's What's in a Campaign?. Join me next month when I look at another robot!

Bonus Bonus Stars

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Bonus Stars! They're a pretty cool addition to the Awards Ceremony, giving attention to neat statistics, trivia, or just fun things that the Awards Committee noticed that wouldn't otherwise get recognition. Some of them are uniquely tailored to a year's happenings, while others are pretty objective statistics that could easily be applied to other years - and I thought, hey, why not do that? After all, this year marks the twentieth Awards Ceremony, and it'll only be the fourth one to have Bonus Stars! So let's dive into the Awards records of yesteryear and see where these Bonus Stars would've fallen if they existed back then.

One caveat before we begin. Unfortunately, the oldest Awards documents have been lost to time, and a lot of awards from 2007-2009 don't have their detailed results preserved anywhere. I've reconstructed them as best as I was able to from the old ceremony threads, but please note that there may be some inaccuracies and I've noted this wherever I felt it could have an impact. I've also opted to skip some years on certain Bonus Stars for lack of information.

If the Bonus Star was awarded in a given year, it's listed in bold text. Also, I'll be following the established Bonus Star rules, so only the results of the Mario and Fail Awards will be considered.

Most Competitive Runner-up

The second place winner with the smallest vote percentage gap behind first place.

Year Award Nominee % Difference
2007 Favorite Minor Character Bowser Jr. 1%
2008[1] Favorite Minor Character Bowser Jr. 1%
2009 Hardest Boss Giga Bowser 0.1%
2010 Favorite Yoshi Game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island 0.4%
2011 Favorite Super Smash Bros. Character Luigi 0.4%
2012 Most Innovative Concept/Game Gravity (SMG) 0.08%
2013 Most Underwhelming Boss Cloud N. Candy 0.51%
2014 Favorite Wario Game WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Game & Wario 		0.06%
2015 Favorite Mario Party Game Mario Party 10 0.31%
2016 Favorite Donkey Kong Game Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 0.13%
2017 Favorite Mario Party Game Mario Party 8 0.04%
2018 Favorite Add-on Content The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 0.07%
Worst Mario Kart Course Baby Park
2019 Favorite Sports Game Mario Super Sluggers 0.73%
2020 Worst Level Concept Autoscrolling levels 0.16%
2021 Favorite Supporting Character Rosalina 0.05%
2022 Favorite Mario Kart Item Crazy Eight/Lucky Seven 0.15%
2023 Favorite 2D Platformer Super Mario Maker 2 0.54%
2024 Favorite Power-up Super Bell 0.4%
2025 Favorite Musical Track The Grand Finale (M&L:BIS) 0.11%
  1. ^ The vote percentages for Favorite Mario RPG are unavailable.

And just for fun, might as well take a detour to look at how these nominees performed afterwards! If you don't care about that and only want Bonus Star statistics, you have my blessing to skip to the next table.

  • Bowser Jr. went on to win Favorite Supporting Character from 2009-2011. He consistently placed in the top three until 2016, when he got promoted to Favorite Major Character.
  • Giga Bowser managed a first place tie on Hardest Boss with Shadow Queen in 2010, then dropped to third in 2011 and was removed completely the following year. This was quite a while before Super Smash Bros.-related content was removed from Awards, so your guess is as good as mine why he disappeared.
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island returned to being the reigning champion of Favorite Yoshi Game from 2010-2017, after which the award was removed. It won again for the award's brief return in 2020.
  • Luigi didn't find much success on Favorite Super Smash Bros. Character, dropping down to third in 2012, which was the last year Luigi made top three for the rest of this award's run.
  • Gravity never got a chance to reclaim its gold trophy on Most Innovative Concept/Game as the award was cut the following year.
  • Cloud N. Candy maintained second place on Most Underwhelming Boss in 2014, and returned to first in 2015, the final year for this award.
  • Game & Wario got a first place tie on Favorite Wario Game in 2015 alongside Wario Land 4, while WarioWare: Smooth Moves stayed in second place. Neither of them appeared in the top three in 2016, but Smooth Moves got third place in 2017. Like Favorite Yoshi Game, the award was removed and had a brief reappearance in 2020, though neither of these games made it to the podium that time.
  • Unfortunately for Mario Party 10, its hypothetical Bonus Star was the only time it appeared in the top three of Favorite Mario Party Game at all. Apparently, the novelty wore off fast.
  • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze returned to first place on Favorite Donkey Kong Game in 2017 and 2020, the last two years this award appeared.
  • Mario Party 8 managed to squeeze one last win out of Favorite Mario Party Game in 2018, just before the Switch got in on Mario Party and proceeded to dominate this award. It still respectably stayed in the top three through the rest of this award's run from 2019-2022.
  • The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 dropped further to third place on Favorite Add-on Content in 2019, its final appearance in the top three.
  • Baby Park had a successful(?) run on Worst Mario Kart Course, winning from 2019-2022 until the award was cut because of its very stale results.
  • Mario Super Sluggers took second on Favorite Sports Game again in 2020, then won from 2021-2022, after which the award was removed.
  • Autoscrolling levels won first place on Worst Level Concept in 2021, and have consistently won the award every year since then.
  • 2021 was Rosalina's last year on Favorite Supporting Character, as she's been promoted to Favorite Major Character since. She's done pretty well for herself there!
  • Crazy Eight/Lucky Seven dropped down to third on Favorite Mario Kart Item in 2023, which is currently the last time it's reached the top three.
  • Super Mario Maker 2 dropped to third place on Favorite 2D Platformer in 2024, thanks to the appearance of a certain new nominee - I wonder what it could be? It fell out of the top three entirely the following year.
  • The Super Bell took third place on Favorite Power-up in 2025.

I can't tell you anything about "The Grand Finale" because voting hasn't opened yet for this year, but considering it's been trading wins with "Gusty Garden Galaxy" for the entire history of music-related awards, I think it'll do okay.

Best Performing New Nominee

Across all awards returning from the previous year, the newly added nominee that received the most votes.

Year Award Nominee Vote #
2011 Worst Platformer Hotel Mario 515
2012 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 7 783
2013 Worst Sub-series Mario Edutainment Games 783
2014 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8 1,286
2015[1] Worst Character Pink Gold Peach 290
2016 Worst Spin-Off Paper Mario: Sticker Star 741
2017 Worst Game Mechanic Stickers/Battle Cards (PM:SS/PM:CS) 475
2018 Favorite Mario Platformer Super Mario Odyssey 601
2019 Favorite Add-on Content Piranha Plant (SSBU) 327
2020 Favorite Add-on Content World Maker Update (version 3.0) (SMM2) 483
2021 Worst Remake Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS 478
2022 Favorite Add-on Content Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass 326
2023 Most Disappointing Update Cycle Mario Strikers: Battle League 348
2024 Favorite 2D Platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder 549
2025 Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level Piranha Plants on Parade 414
  1. ^ Going purely off the letter of the Bonus Star, this year's winner would've been Super Mario Maker on Most Anticipated Upcoming Game with 306 votes. However, since the nominee slate was completely refreshed that year, I don't feel it would be in the spirit of the Bonus Star to award it there.

Unsurprisingly, the newly added nominees that get the most traction are usually related to games released in the past year or two! Aside from Hotel Mario and the edutainment games refusing to stay away from Fail for very long, the only notable exception is Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, which was going on five years old by the time the Awards Committee added it to Worst Remake (and it wasn't doing anything too noteworthy in write-ins the previous years). Guess it took a while to find its... un-fans.

Worst Performing New Nominee

Across all awards returning from the previous year, the newly added nominee that received the least votes.

Year Award Nominee Vote #
2011 Favorite Retro Game Wario Land 6
2012 Most Anticipated Upcoming Game Game & Wario 15
2013 Most Anticipated Upcoming Game Mario Golf: World Tour 15
2014 Most Anticipated Upcoming Game Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Wii U) 13
2015 Favorite Modern Game (GCN/GBA and newer) Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 4
2016 Worst Game Mechanic Extra Life System 21
2017 Favorite Partner Developer Arika (Dr. Mario series) 7
2018 Favorite Actor Aimi Mukohara (Pauline [Japanese], 2017-present) 4
2019 Favorite Super Mario Odyssey Costume Santa 10
2020 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart Arcade GP VR 4
2021 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit 17
2022 Favorite Merchandise TAG Heuer Connected × Super Mario smartwatch 6
2023 Favorite Mario Kart Item Coin Box 10
2024 Favorite Supporting Character Grape 11
2025 Favorite Mario Kart Item Coin Shell 8

The only case of one of these nominees placing lower than write-ins was in 2025, when Coin Shell lost to three write-ins and tied with six more. In 2018 and 2023, the nominee tied with a write-in. Every other year, the nominee was able to get more votes than any write-in, or was on an award that didn't allow write-in voting.

Highest Vote Count

The single nominee that received the most votes.

Year Award Nominee Vote #
2010 Favorite Series Mario 168
2011 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart Wii 638
2012 Favorite Kart Game Mario Kart Wii 862
2013 Most Anticipated Upcoming Game Super Smash Bros 3DS/Wii U 787
2014 Most Anticipated Upcoming Game Super Smash Bros 3DS/Wii U 1,490
2015 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8 380
2016 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8 1,254
2017 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 1,130
2018 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 882
2019 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 771
2020 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 907
2021 Favorite Mario Kart Game Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 824
2022 Worst Character Pink Gold Peach 460
2023 Favorite Mario Movie (2023) Portrayal Bowser (Jack Black) 758
2024 Favorite 3D Platformer Super Mario Odyssey 594
2025 Favorite Non-game Media The Super Mario Bros. Movie 962

In case you ever wondered why there's no award specifically for Mario Kart games anymore, there you go.

Most Written In

The valid write-in option that received the most votes.

Year Award Nominee Vote #
2010 Favorite Sports Game Mario Super Sluggers 14
2011 Favorite SSB Character Meta Knight 33
2012 Favorite SM64/SMS Level Sirena Beach 35
2013 Favorite SSB Character Peach 40
2014 Worst Game Hotel Mario 135
2015 Worst Game Hotel Mario 27
2016 Favorite Super Smash Bros. Character Bowser Jr. 48
2017 Worst Spin-off Hotel Mario 26
2018 Favorite Item Hammer Suit 18
2019 Worst Remake New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 29
2020 Favorite Item Blue Shell 16
2021 Worst Enemy Porcupuffers 42
2022 Favorite Power-up Ice Flower 15
'2023 Favorite Boss Battle Bouldergeist 13
2024 Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level Piranha Plants on Parade 51
2025 Most Unremarkable Game Paper Mario: Sticker Star 28

The write-ins here got enough votes to beat at least one nominee on the respective award in 2010-2015, 2019, 2021, and 2024. There's no instances of a tie with any nominees, although there are a few times where a tie was averted by a single vote. And I would be remiss not to mention old Porcupuffer showing up with a whole lot of votes out of seemingly nowhere in 2021, which is almost definitely the result of the Vote P for F7 campaign ran by yours truly within the community in an attempt to get something other than Hammer Bros to win. Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be, but it was fun trying.

So, there you have it! Bonus Stars for every year of the Mario Awards to date. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this analysis, and don't forget to vote in the Awards when the polls come around again next month!

Is there a section you'd like to give a shout-out? Get a section in front of Poochy by filling out this form!
The 'Shroom: Issue 230
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 Cloudgazing
Retrieved from "https://www.mariowiki.com/index.php?title=The_%27Shroom:Issue_230/Pipe_Plaza&oldid=5351434"