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The 'Shroom:Issue 192/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

Hello and happy March everyone! It was just St. Patrick's Day, so I hope you all wore green to celebrate! I no longer have to worry about that because it seems the paint from Pipe Plaza has gotten on all of my clothes after being here for so long. Send help and a metric ton of stain remover...

On my end, I'm enjoying my spring break before I get thrown back into having to memorize monologues for an audition. I think I have material very close to picked out though which is always a good thing! I'm pretty confident that I've learned and improved enough since my last audition to get a part this time so here's hoping!

We are a small but mighty team this month! If you want to be a part of Mighty Mighty Pipe Plaza, here's your nudge telling you to go check out the sign up page to learn more!

Enjoy your month and may your weather be warm because it sure isn't here!

Section of the Month

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 7 41.18% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd What's in a Campaign? 4 23.53% Mustard Machine (talk)
2nd Mario Calendar 4 23.53% GPM1000 (talk)
Mariowiki sections
Poll Committee Discussion
Fun With Despair (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
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?
Mustard Machine (talk)
2-5-9 summons the Cyber Sliders! Wait, wrong show...
read more

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Fun With Despair (talk)

13th Poll Committee Banner

Welcome back to another Poll Committee Discussion, I’m Fun With Despair, Poll Commitee Chairperson, bringing you another… Poll Committee Discussion.

That was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?

Well, I have to write something here. Y’know, fill the dead air and such. Gotta make the intro post. It’s important. Crucial to the brand. All glory to the brand. May the glorious ‘Shroom assimilate us all.

Archives

The Mario & Luigi series has been dormant since AlphaDream's bankruptcy in 2019. How would you like the series to continue? - (Waluigi Time (talk), February 14th, 2023)

The Mario & Luigi series has been dormant since AlphaDream's bankruptcy in 2019. How would you like the series to continue?

I would like Nintendo or another studio to develop a new Mario & Luigi game. 77.83% (2602 votes)
I would like Nintendo to create a new RPG series to replace Mario & Luigi. 6.7% (224 votes)
I have no opinion. 6.01% (189 votes)
I would like to see remakes/remasters of the existing games, but I do not think Nintendo should make a new one. 5.23% (175 votes)
I would like to see the original games re-released on other hardware, but I do not think Nintendo should remaster them or make a new one. 3.02% (101 votes)
I do not like Mario & Luigi and don't want to see it continue in any form. 1.2% (40 votes)
Total Votes: 3,343

On which of these Nintendo systems have you played Mario games? - (Hooded Pitohui (talk), February 28th, 2023)

On which of these Nintendo systems have you played Mario games?

Switch 13.8% (3221 votes)
Wii 12.59% (2938 votes)
Nintendo 3DS 11.13% (2597 votes)
Nintendo DS 10.39% (2424 votes)
Wii U 9.94% (2321 votes)
Gamecube 7.69% (1795 votes)
Nintendo 64 7.6% (1775 votes)
Game Boy Advance 7.57% (1768 votes)
SNES 7.05% (1645 votes)
NES/Famicom 6.29% (1467 votes)
Game Boy/Game Boy Color 5.96% (1390 votes)
Total Votes: 23,341


Analysis

The Mario & Luigi series has been dormant since AlphaDream's bankruptcy in 2019. How would you like the series to continue?

Sprite of a Dark Fawful Bomb from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey.
Still less of a bomb than the M&L remakes.

It’s no secret that the future of the Mario RPG spinoffs is in a bit of a weird place right now. For years, the Mario & Luigi series was the last holdout in the genre - ever since the Paper Mario series went off to do its own thing after the release of Sticker Star on the 3DS anyway, and it was a series with its fair share of… interesting releases.

Let’s take a bit of a history lesson, shall we?

If you’d rather not, I’m sure you can scroll down a bit and find the raw analysis - though you’ll also find that this poll is so completely stacked that it’s rather hard to write much about on its own without context. The people know what they want, apparently.

In 2023, developer AlphaDream released Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a game that was so popular that it’s been rereleased twice and entirely remade once. It’s defined the world and characters for many a fan, and produced the character that has probably went on to be the most popular non-mainline character in the series; the ever-memorable Fawful. It was a big success both critically and commercially, leading to several sequels on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS.

While Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story on the DS are both remembered fairly well today (albeit the latter more than the former, which is mostly notable for the rather strange, dark tone of the story and certainly not the world or gameplay), Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam on the 3DS would go on to have a much less pleasant reputation. With the former suffering criticisms of tedious length and overwhelming tutorials, and the latter facing accusations of soullessness and unoriginality due to the lack of original characters from the Paper Mario series, things began to change for AlphaDream’s reputation.

Then, for whatever reason, instead of continuing the series, they decided to remake and release both Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story for the 3DS. The latter being a game that you could already buy and play on the 3DS as it was. Nobody bought them, and they promptly went bankrupt. Whether you believe that they remade those games out of the goodness of their hearts or as a cheap cash grab, there’s no denying that this leaves both the series and the future of the Mario RPGs in a bit of a weird place. With the development studio no longer existing and Paper Mario no longer embracing its RPG roots, the very concept of a Mario RPG may very well be a dead dream.

So, that brings us to today, where Waluigi Time (talk)’s asking everyone what they think Nintendo should do next when it comes to this iconic series. Do they continue it with a new team? Do they replace it with something new? Well, anyone who read the results up there should know that I’m asking a futile question, because a whopping 77.83% of our 3,343 voters (wow, that’s a lot! You people sure are passionate) think that yes, Nintendo (or another development team they hire) should continue the Mario & Luigi series. The Mario & Luigi series is important to a lot of people, and it boasts so many unique things that even at its worst, there’s something to be found in every one of these games. There’s people who outright wouldn’t even like this franchise if not for these games, whether they be simple RPG fans, or active contributors to the Tumblr Sexymanification of Fawful, and even in spite of the series’ relative decline, it’s obvious that a huge amount of fans - Mario & Luigi specific or otherwise, who think these spinoffs have something worth keeping.

Now, that’s still not the only viewpoint obviously. 6.7% of our voters think that Nintendo should start a new RPG franchise to fill the void, and this one is my personal pick. While Mario & Luigi is honestly almost a generation-defining series, after witnessing AlphaDream’s (and the series’) death spiral, I feel like I’m more interested in something new. Nintendo needs something fresh for the Mario franchise at this point, and a brand-new RPG could be just the thing. Mario & Luigi, sadly, is mired in a history of relative mediocrity at this point for a variety of reasons, and I feel like a fresh start could really help a Mario RPG take off in the same way that first game did.

On the other side of the coin, 5.23% think that the series should remake its existing titles but not make anything new, while 3.02% think that the series going forward should be limited to just rereleases. Well, I’ve got some good news for that 3.02%, because they’re already doing that with Nintendo Switch Online, at least with Superstar Saga. I think the 5.23% that voted for remakes is somewhat more interesting though, because the previous remakes didn’t do particularly well by any means. Has the market simply changed now that the 3DS is out and the Switch dominates both the handheld and console categories? Would these hypothetical remakes ideally be HD 3D games? Something akin to the 3DS remakes? Would you buy the remakes if they came out now? I’m genuinely curious about this, so feel free to drop by the forums and let me know in either the Poll Discussion thread or the ‘Shroom thread.

…And as for you, the 1.2%, the 40 people who voted for the option claiming that you did not want the series to continue, well, joke’s on us because you’re probably the only ones among us to be blessed with the gift of prophecy. There’s been no sign of Nintendo wanting to continue the franchise or even keep a leg in the RPG genre at all since the collapse of the developers, and the frequency of first-party releases has slowed to a crawl. If anything’s in the works, it’s going to be a long time coming.

In any case, while we may no longer have AlphaDream, 77.83% of you still have… some kind of dream, a wish to see a beloved series continue, despite all odds.

For now, all that’s left to do is to wait and see.

On which of these Nintendo systems have you played Mario games?

Yes, this is the same image I used for the poll. You are very clever for noticing. Good job.

Hoo boy, a nice, simple, easy one to talk about after that last one. Guest submitter (and previous Chairman) Hooded Pitohui (talk) brings us a poll that I personally think is best to refer to as somewhat of a userbase age range litmus test. On which Nintendo systems have you played Mario games… Quite the question, isn’t it? Mario as a franchise has existed for over 40 years now, spanning a variety of consoles over that length of time.

So, what’ve you played on?

Well, before we get into the results, I have to say that because this one’s another big multiple-choice poll, the actual percentages and numbers probably aren’t going to mean terribly much to people. Someone who voted that they played on the Switch may well have voted every other category, so I’m going to discuss this one using some broader strokes across the board. There’s also the fact that some people probably have emulated and voted based on that, so really it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

The first thing to glance at here, is the interesting fact that the Wii U is a solid 526 votes above the Gamecube despite both of them having sold about as well as a carton of expired milk at a clothing store. There’s an obvious reason as to why I labeled this a litmus test for the age of our voters though, because I’m pretty sure this is exactly why the Wii U and Gamecube have such a gap between them. If I had to guess, a lot of the random voters we get are probably aged 14-16 and therefore were at the prime age for a Wii U to be the up-and-coming Nintendo console when they were at the right age for it, just like a lot of our older users were around the time of the Gamecube’s release.

As for the Wii being above the Wii U, well, everyone alive on this planet owned a Wii regardless of age and also you could play Gamecube games on it, so I’m honestly surprised it’s not higher than the Switch.

Once you start going below the Gamecube on the rankings here, you do start to see much smaller decreases in percentages and voter counts though, which, as one of the people who did grow up and have their parents get them a Gamecube, does check out. I had a Nintendo 64 before that, and a Game Boy Color (which, you have to remember, existed as their primary handheld until 2001 brought the GBA) - if you had one of these systems, chances are you had all of them. This especially applies once you take into consideration the heavy interconnectivity advertised through games like Pokemon Stadium or the Gamecube “equivalents”. That whole era felt like everyone had everything, it was kind of wild.

And, of course, while the Game Boy sold like hotcakes for the above reasons and simply because of the sheer novelty at the time, it doesn’t surprise me that it ranked last. The Game Boy did not have very many Mario games at all, and almost all of them besides Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on the Game Boy Color were at least in my own professional opinion, utter dog water.

Conclusion

Well, that was fun. Always enjoy doing these, personally. I have to enjoy them. Gotta fill the void. Gotta keep the brand consistent. Gotta keep posting and helping the ‘Shroom to grow. There’s nothing else. We are all forsaken.

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

March is officially here, and that marks a very important date in the world of Mario--this is the final month in the history of humankind that will take place before the release of The Super Mario Movie. It will truly mark a new era in the history of this species, and what better way to celebrate that than the release of a new Mario Calendar???

Region Abbreviations

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

Console Abbreviations

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

One of the things that I immediately noticed about this month is that it is unusually back-loaded. There are many days in the first half of the month that have no games at all, but then the back half of the month has many days that all have a lot of games. This is a phenomenon that takes place several times throughout the year, and I honestly struggle to really place my finger on why exactly this takes place. This obviously makes me inclined to believe that releasing a game in the second half of the month is somehow more financially lucrative, but I’m not sure what would make that the case.

The other notable thing about this month is that there are quite a few mini/microgame collections that have been released in March throughout the years. Mario Party, Mario Party 9, WarioWare: Touched, WarioWare: D.I.Y., and more were all released this month, which is interesting. Because March overall does not have a lot of heavy hitters in terms of core franchise games, it is likely that they reserve smaller-scale releases for months like this.

Overall, a somewhat uneventful month in the world of Mario games can actually paint us a very clear and telling picture of Nintendo’s philosophy when releasing games, and insight into how the gaming industry does that in general. I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s Mario Calendar, and I hope to see you again next month!

What's in a Campaign?

By: Mustard Machine (talk)

Hello Pipe Plaza readers, and welcome back to What's in a Campaign?, The 'Shroom's only source of Robot Wars content. Last month, we looked at the hubris-driven Series 7 run of Tsunami. This month, we turn back to the sixth wars as we look at the terrifying disc of 259.

Robot Wars pioneer Adam Clark, who had already had quite the career in Robot Wars, having built five robots that had competed in various competitions in the show's history and having built the first ever antweight robot, is the man behind 259. However, for all the success Adam Clark had at getting on the show, success within the show itself had eluded him, with none of his robots picking up any combat victories (although Wowot probably should have, but that's not important right now). For Series 6, Adam Clark, taking direct inspiration from the Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors (an American spin off of Robot Wars) bot Cyclone, brought in his new Robot 259 (named after how his son would say "2, 5, 9" instead of "3, 2, 1" during the Robot Wars countdown).

That's a mighty looking disc!

The body of 259 was a four-wheel drive, low-to-the-ground box design with side skirts to help reduce ground clearance. Powered by a 600w motors and taking full advantage of the weight limit at 100kg with a top speed of 9mph, 259 was a fairly compact design, but the wheels weren't fully armored and 259 lacked a self-righting mechanism. The real main event of this robot, though, is its huge vertical fly disc, a massive vertical disc with holes cut into it to help the robot stay within the weight limit. Powered by an imported X-950 Briggs & Stratton motor and capable of spinning upwards of 130mph, 259's disc was a sight to behold. Not only could it rip its opponents to shreds, but it could also flip them over from the sheer force of its blows. 259 featured the most powerful vertical spinner in Robots Wars to this point and was a robot people were terrified to fight.

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.

259 unsurprisingly dominated its qualifier fight against Chip, Colossus, and former Semi-Finalist, Splinter, KOing all three in less than thirty seconds. Following this domination, 259 was placed into Heat E, where, in the first round, it faced off against: Fellow vertical spinner Infernal Contraption, the claws of Infinity, and, finally, series veteran and former-Razer-defeater, the lifter/crusher Aggrobot 3. During its first televised fight (1:22), 259 would show how destructive it was. Starting the fight off a little slow while getting its disc up to speed, 259 would finally enter the action, smashing into Infernal Contraption and damaging its wheel before hitting the back of Aggrobot 3 and bending part of its weapon at the back. After doing serious damage to its other two opponents, 259 finally completely destroys the claws of Infinity.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF 259!

As Aggrobot 3 and Infernal Contraption fight, Infinity flees towards the pit release button, which would end up being a strategic error, as Infinity would shortly thereafter drive down the pit themself. With only two opponents left and only needing to take out one of them, 259 set its sight on Infernal Contraption, bashing into the robot again and again, tearing at the tires, and even throwing it into the wall. By the time it lets up, one of Infernal Contraption's wheels is no longer working at all. 259 goes back on the attack, striking Infernal Contraption again and again, sending it spinning in the air and ripping off its back armor exposing its batteries.

PURE FLIPPING POWER!

One more attack, and it's over. Infernal Contraption is counted out, and 259 and Aggrobot 3 (by virtue of not being killed by 259) move on to the second round.

In the Heat Semi-Final, 259 is matched up against a legally-a-fellow-vertical-spinner number nine-seeded bot, the radically redesigned Wild Thing (they made Wild Thing bad... for some reason). 259 spends the early part of the fight (5:15) destroying Wild Thing. Once its disc gets up to speed, 259 just annihilates Wild Thing, bashing it across the entire arena. It's a very impressive display. Wild Thing is flipping and spinning, and pieces of Wild Thing are flying everywhere.

DESTROY THE BAD WILD THING!

But even though this version of Wild Thing might be a terrible robot, it's still a Wild Thing, so it just wont die. Despite this tremendous assault, Wild Thing keeps going and they even last long enough to catch a break. After about thirty seconds of getting their ass kicked, the weapon belt of 259 comes off (probably from recoil damage caused by 259's kicking ass), and the disc of 259 stops. 259 then hits the pit release button as the fight breaks down into a pushing match, since 259 can't really do anything without its blade and Wild Thing's blade is also disabled (not that it would have done much anyways). So the two robots just push each other around and, in a total indictment of this new Wild Thing design (seriously, I hate it so much), 259, which is a robot that's entirely a big blade, wins the pushing battle! 259 easily gets under Wild Thing and pushes it around, but then 259... just kind of breaks down in the last twenty-six seconds of the fight.

They lost to Series 6 Wild Thing...

So the result of this fight is actually somewhat controversial. You see, the official decision is that Wild Thing moves on by knockout, but that's not technically what should have happened. You see, the rules say you aren't considered immobilized until after thirty seconds of being immobile, and, when the fight ends, 259 had only been immobile for twenty-six seconds, so the fight technically should have gone to a judges' decision. Had it, that decision is one which 259 would have easily won. But the judges ruled that, although 259 wasn't immobile for the full thirty seconds, the only reason it hadn't been immobile for thirty seconds was because the fight ended, so they didn't want to reward it for technically beating the clock. This is actually something I agree with, because, yes, technically 259 wasn't immobilized long enough, but the fact is that the only reason it wasn't was because the five minute timer ended just four seconds before it would have been. So, I agree with the judges that 259 was fairly counted out. One person who does not agree with the judges was pit reporter Philippa Forrester, who, for the first and only time, openly disagreed with the judges' decision. Even though some disagreed, the decision stood, and 259, after a brilliant start, was sent out of the tournament.

But this wouldn't be the end of 259 in Series 6! After the main tournament had finished, there was a special "UK vs Germany" side tournament that aired for both the UK Robot Wars and the German Robot Wars, with 259 being one of the robots that would represent the Union Jack. Having learned their mistakes from previous tournaments (such as Series 4's War of Independence tournament, which, if not for a swap putting Series 1 robot Detonator in, would have seen all four American robots fall in the first round), the format of the UK Vs Germany special featured a two-sided bracket, with one side being robots that fought for the UK and one side being robots that fought for Germany. This was done basically to ensure that a UK machine and a German machine would meet up in the final round. In the first round, 259 would face off against the flipper bot known as Judge Shred 2½.

So, in theory, despite the destructive power of 259's disc, Judge Shred 2½ would actually be at an advantage since 259 can't self-right. But as this fight (9:57) will show, there's a difference between theoretical and factual. 259 would start by attacking the flipper and Judge Shred 2½ would attempt to take advantage of this by flipping 259.

Pictures taken before disaster

But Judge Shred 2½ does not flip over 259. Instead, 259 goes up in the air before coming down right on top of Judge Shred 2½. 259 opens the flipper panel, just destroying it and I'm pretty sure they either destroyed the C02 canister of Judge Shred 2½ or severed the lines, because a huge cloud of smoke comes out. 259 then keeps on the attack, tearing off an entire side armor panel to go along with Judge Shred 2½'s mangled flipper. 259 stays on the attack still, completely destroying Judge Shred 2½, immobilizing it with ease. However, worryingly, once again after delivering a powerful attack on the already dead Judge Shred 2½, 259 breaks down. This time, however, it does not matter since Judge Shred 2½ was itself already immobilized, so 259 is sent into the next round.

In the second round, 259 was matched up against a robot we've covered before! That robot being the horizontal bar spinner, Fluffy! Once again, 259 is technically at a disadvantage despite its destructive disc. This time, it's because, in theory, if a vertical spinner faces off against a horizontal spinner, the horizontal spinner has the advantage because it has a larger attack ratio than the vertical spinner. This is because its bars or disc cover a larger area than a vertical spinner does. But we've already seen 259 defy theory once! Can it do it again and represent the glorious Union Jack against Germany in the finals? The answer is no! Fluffy wins this fight (13:59) in about five hits. The robots spend the first ten or so seconds getting their weapons up to speed, but it's clear that Fluffy has the advantage. The first blow in match is the two robots' blades hitting each other, but then Fluffy strikes the right-front side of 259, caving in its armor, damaging one of its wheels, and dislodging one of its drive belts.

NOT SO COOL WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU, IS IT!?

At this point, 259 is still mobile, but that's when Fluffy hits them again, dislodging another belt, which just comes completely off. 259 tries to remain in the fight, but just doesn't have anything for Fluffy, and, after a broadside attack by Fluffy, 259 is thrown over where it can't self-right. 259 is counted out and Fluffy is sent into the finals to represent Queen and Country... where they would embarrass themselves in a fight that would see Fluffy's weapon break down and the German machine Das Gepäck (who was actually Dutch, by the way) dominate them in route to a fucking draw. That's right! This tournament ends in a draw! The crowd boos this decision, and Das Gepäck is given the trophy. They say they're gonna get Fluffy a trophy of its own, but they never do! The whole final is a farce, lol!

So that would be the end of not only 259, but also Adam Clark in the televised heavyweight scene. Adam Clark would return in Robot Wars: Extreme 2 with a middleweight version of 259 for the middleweight championship, where he would make the finals before losing because of a story I don't want to get into! So, yeah, despite having a really, really destructive weapon, 259 only had a very small amount of success. Now, it was also given the Series 6 Best Design award, which was deserved; it's a pretty sleek and sexy bot. 259 is also another great "what could have been," because they dominated Wild Thing. They should have easily made the Heat Final. Which, they probably would have, because, well, Wild Thing won the Heat Final against Vader, so they really should have made the semi-finals, and, if everything else still shook out the same, that means they'd have faced Razer in the semi-finals. I think they win that fight. I don't think there's very much Razer could do to 259, and Razer has always had a weakness for powerful discs. Now, I don't know if they get past Dantomkia, because that was a really good flipper bot, but, still, 259 could have easily made the top eight and could have had a really good chance of making the Grand Final. 259 might have even had a shot at winning the whole thing. 259 is really sad, because this is a robot that was really a serious UK Championship contender, but it never even makes it to a Heat Final, instead losing a fight that it was handily winning. But, alas, such is the mistress of fate in robot combat.

That's all for this month! Join us next month when we look at another combat robot!

The 'Shroom: Issue 192
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
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