The 'Shroom:Issue 189/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2019 Zange.png

And just like that, we've hit the last issue of the year! Man, it's been kind of a wild ride... Then again I did just suffer through finals week and time no longer feels real.

If you're reading this the day it releases, I got home from campus yesterday to start my winter break. I get the next month off! Which is really weird because I've never had more than two weeks of winter break in my life until now... However will I survive boredom? (aka send me book or show recommendations maybe??)

Anyways, we've got some cool stuff going on this month! If you want to become a part of the cool Pipe Plaza stuff, feel free to head on over to the sign up page!

Happy Holidays, and enjoy the rest of your month~

Section of the Month

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Poll Committee Discussion 8 44.44% Fun With Despair (talk)
2nd NIWA News 5 27.78% PanchamBro (talk)
3rd Mario Calendar 3 16.67% GPM1000 (talk)
Mariowiki sections
NIWA News
PanchamBro (talk)
Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings from the NIWA wiki network!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
Vruet (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Non-wiki sections
That NIWA List
PanchamBro (talk)
Take a look at some of the strangest articles in NIWA!
read more
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
Roleplay Update
MightyMario (talk)
MightyMario is providing us with all the latest happenings of the forum roleplays.
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Mustard Machine (talk)
King to B3. Wait, this isn't chess...
read more
Forum Update
Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Think you missed anything on the forum lately? Fear not, just read this!
read more

NIWA News

Written by: PanchamBro (talk)

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

Hey it's me PanchamBro. It's time for this month's NIWA News, a section regarding news with each of the members of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance. We'll be going through staff changes and related wiki news over November and into December.

BREAKING NEWS
Dragon Quest Wiki has been expelled from NIWA
Dragon Quest Wiki expulsion announcement.jpg

You may have recalled last 'Shroom edition that Dragon Quest Wiki was on its way to move to its new host, Follower of Light. Well, the move occurred sometimes during December, but a very unpleasant incident regarding the actions of the new host following their takeover of Dragon Quest Wiki, and concerns that the new host "cannot be trusted to safeguard users' private information" has resulted in the wiki terminating its membership, as well as being expelled from the Nintendo Indepdendent Wiki Alliance in a unanimous vote.

The removal of Dragon Quest Wiki from every NIWA wikis is on the way, with SmashWiki currently discussing possible actions to take with the Dragon Quest Wiki interwiki links. If you have a SmashWiki account and are an active editor of SmashWiki, please share your opinions on the matter.

Though it ends a 10 year relationship that was formally established on March 30, 2012, the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliances has no indictment towards the Dragon Quest Wiki editors and wishes the best for them going forward.

NEW MEMBER ALERT
Wapo! Drawn to Life Wapopedia has joined NIWA!
Drawn to Life Wiki Logo.png

A new member has joined the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance! Drawn to Life Wapopedia (or Drawn to Life Wiki or Wapopedia) is the newest wiki in the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance as of December 13, 2022, based around the Drawn to Life series. Originally founded on Fandom (then Wikia) on July 8, 2008, the wiki went independent on November 16, 2020 in anticipation of Drawn to Life: Two Realms's release. The community has grown immensely following the independence, and has a Discord server for all Drawn to Life fans. While the series isn't normally associated with Nintendo, the first four titles of the series had been released exclusively on Nintendo platforms.

Wapo! Go check Drawn to Life Wapopedia if you can!

StrategyWiki icon.png Staff changes
Farewell, Sweet Prince...
November 30th marked the end of the Dragalia Lost mobile game, and with the game's end-of-service, Dragalia Lost Wiki is on the way to move to a new server to reduce costs. Editing has also been restricted to users. If you still want to fix minor errors on the wiki, please do create an account to edit. Or join the r/DragaliaLost Discord server and discuss any potential errors.
The Edge of Tumblr
Fire Emblem Wiki has officially launched its Tumblr account! The Tumblr will serve as a repository for interesting Fire Emblem trivia every Tuesday, so if you're interested to explore the hidden knowledge of Fire Emblem, do check out the Tumblr!
Inkipedia icon.png Big Run is coming! z9WckN9.png
Inkipedia Big Run Alert.jpg

Inkipedia's main page now features a new module that alerts readers of new Big Run events, including the recent Big Run event on Wahoo World. I hope you are ready to defend your turf from Salmonids now!

Big Milestone!
A big milestone was reached on Nookipedia, as the wiki has capped off on 1,000,000 edits! Congratulations to the Nookipedia editors for this accomplishment, and I hope that they keep on climbing! Over 1,000,000 edits and growing!
Making New Friends in the Nuclear Bunker
StrategyWiki has entered into a partnership with the Independent Fallout Wiki, due for release in January 2023. The two friends are bounded together in a nuclear bunker, and I wish them the best of luck with their friendship!
Affiliate and partner news
There are plenty of exciting times from our affiliates. In particular:
  • Bulbagarden is holding its annual Holiday Contests, with $2,000 USD worth of prizes on the line. Winners of these contest will receive a Pokémon title on the Nintendo Switch or a Pokémon merchandise, while grand prize winners of the 12 Days of Trivia and the Bulbagarden Holiday Raffle will also recieve a Nintendo Switch OLED Model. If you're a cultivated Pokémon fan, check the contest details here.
  • The Doom Wiki has signed an affiliation pact with the currently in development Independent Fallout Wiki. It seems that monsters are a common bond that the two wikis can get behind, and I hope the two the best!
  • Wikisimpsons' main contributor Solar Dragon has been hard at work creating update pages for The Simpsons: Tapped Out after a major contributor for those pages went silent. If you want to support Solar Dragon's efforts, they have opened their Ko-Fi space for such donations! Thanks to Solar Dragon for supporting Wikisimpsons!
  • Zelda Wiki's partner Zelda Universe has released its final chapter in The Wind Waker English dubs. Go check it out here!

That's it for any related NIWA news that I could gather for this month's 'Shroom. I'll see you next time for my latest issue of That NIWA List, and hope you have a happy holiday and a New Year!

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: Vruet (talk)

13th Poll Committee Banner p4OiZn9.png

Hello! Vruet here; long time reader, first time writer. Hope y'all are bundled up and staying warm (or keeping yourself cool if you're in the southern hemisphere!) as we get into December's Poll Committee Discussion.

Archives

Mario games have had varying levels of amiibo functionality. Which method of implementing amiibo do you like the most? - (Waluigi Time (talk), November 7th, 2022)

Mario games have had varying levels of amiibo functionality. Which method of implementing amiibo do you like the most?

I prefer when amiibo are used to unlock exclusive items in the game (such as costumes) that can't be obtained otherwise, but aren't very important to gameplay. 34.28% (629 votes)
I prefer when amiibo are used to unlock certain items early or make the game easier (such as getting a power-up) as long as they can also be obtained without amiibo. 26.27% (482 votes)
I have no opinion. 9.81% (180 votes)
I do not like amiibo being used in Mario games at all. 9.1% (167 votes)
I prefer when amiibo are the core of a side mode (i.e. Mario Party 10's amiibo Party mode). 8.83% (162 votes)
I prefer when certain features in the game are tied exclusively to amiibo (i.e. Super Mario Maker's Big Mushroom). 6.59% (121 votes)
I prefer when the entire game is built around amiibo (i.e. Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge). 5.12% (94 votes)
Total Votes: 1,835

What kinds of Mario merchandise have you owned? - (Vruet (talk), November 21st, 2022)

What kinds of Mario merchandise have you owned?

amiibo 17.00% (1,524 votes)
Plushies 16.86% (1,511 votes)
Action Figures 12.17% (1,091 votes)
Apparel 10.93% (980 votes)
Board/Card Games 10.68% (957 votes)
LEGO Super Mario 9.92% (889 votes)
Mario Kart Hot Wheels 5.83% (523 votes)
Other/Not Listed 5.28% (473 votes)
Food 5.24% (470 votes)
Mario Kart RC Cars 4.17% (374 votes)
I have not owned any Mario merchandise 1.92% (172 votes)
Total Votes: 8,964

Analysis

Mario games have had varying levels of amiibo functionality. Which method of implementing amiibo do you like the most?

Tap me on your Switch for all the goodies you can imagine, or maybe just a power-up or something

We start this month's discussion with a poll covering a topic I'm admittedly not too familiar with. It's a great little poll created by Waluigi Time about amiibo and the benefits they provide in various games. Personally I have no interest in amiibo and voted no opinion on this one, though as you'll see when we go over the next poll, the Mariowiki community evidentially loves these little figurines.

Overall it seems like the voters like the bonuses they can provide, with 81% of the vote going to amiibo-positive options. However, the top two options have close to three times the votes of the more amiibo-heavy bottom three options, showing that people do not want the games to rely too much on amiibo. As someone who doesn't own any amiibo, the amiibo-light options make the most sense to me. While you still receive some added benefit for owning them, you also don't feel like you're missing out on too much without.

Now while I said I voted no opinion, there is one specific option that I absolutely loathe and can't comprehend anyone choosing. That option would be the 6th place one, calling for exclusive features tied to amiibo. I don't know about you guys, but the idea of being locked out of a feature entirely because I didn't buy a plastic figurine that's probably already been bought out and is exclusively available for resale annoys the heck out of me.

amiibo have been around for a while now and they continue to be rather popular. I can't imagine Nintendo will abandon them anytime soon, so perhaps we'll see the benefits they tend to provide continue evolve and change with time.

What kinds of Mario merchandise have you owned?

A magnificent array of options

While our polls frequently cover the games and recently the upcoming movie, our second poll of the month covers another area of the Mario franchise: the merchandise. Although the results weren't entirely different from what I anticipated, there's still a few things that surprised me.

The most popular option was amiibo, which isn't too surprising. It makes perfect sense given the low price, high availability, as well as the rather high amount of options (according to the amiibo page, there's 22 different ones in the Super Mario line alone, not even counting the other Mario-related amiibos!) Coincidentally, this also ties into our first poll, and the total vote count for the amiibo-positive options roughly matches up with the amount of people who claim to own (or have owned) an amiibo. This is rather unsurprising, if you like the concept of amiibo, you'd probably buy some, but its still interesting how close the numbers are. The next two options, plushies (losing to amiibo by only 13 votes!) and action figures cover a similar niche to amiibo, being generally character-focused merchandise, though without the added video game connectivity. These three being up top makes me wonder what specific characters are most popular in the merchandise department, surely the big man with the red cap is up top, but how do the rest fair?

The most surprising result for me was our 6th most popular one, LEGO Super Mario. While the building blocks sets still seem to be decently popular, pulling in around 900 votes, I thought the high availability and rather significant marketing push would result in a higher placing. The most common (and most affordable) sets seem to target a younger audience and are more focused on a unique style of play compared to other LEGO sets, so maybe that plays a part. The more display-oriented sets like the ? block and Bowser are rather pricey, especially when compared to every other bit of merchandise on the list, so that may explain it.

The option coming in last place isn't necessarily surprising. One would certainly expect that the target audience for a Mario poll on a Mario website would be more likely to own at least some Mario merchandise rather than not. However, It's surprising just how low that number is. Only 2%?! I was expecting around 5% of the vote at the least, or even for it to maybe beat out some less popular categories.

In the coming months we will likely see even more merchandise released in the lead up to the upcoming movie, I wonder how this new wave of merch would change things if we were to run something like this again?

Conclusion

I don't really have too much else to say. Thanks for reading and happy holidays!

That NIWA List

Written by: PanchamBro (talk)

In many of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance wikis, there are plenty of articles that are considered unusual to readers alike. Today, I'll showcase these articles from one of the many Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance wikis.

This section was inspired by Wikipedia's unusual article page, which documents the most unusual articles documented on the site. Unlike Wikipedia however, the selection of unusual articles here will be decided on a case-by-case basis, whether or not the documented material is weird enough to warrant being on this section.

KotS Anime Eastern Forest.png

'Twas the night before Christmas (or I don't know...December 18th???), and all was well in the world. The wikis of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance were at rest. Among the wikis sleeping in the night, WiKirby, having fulfilled its duties of making a forgotten land unforgettable, slept in its bed, tired from the work. Suddenly, a bang! It seems like the no-good King Wikikia had begun its invasion of Dream Land in order to rule them and force them to use the Kirby Wikia. WiKirby knew it had to put up a good fight, so it went out to take on its trademark ability...of wiki articles! Except...WiKirby only had one article at its disposal, the Eastern Forest!!

How could that be?! Was WiKirby not prepared for King Wikikia? Well the truth to understand that situation is to understand the Eastern Forest itself. The Eastern Forest is a location found in the Kirby of the Stars anime, or Kirby: Right Back at Ya! depending if you like 4Kids' decision to label onigiri as "jelly-filled donuts". The ancient Eastern Forest is located next to Whispy Woods Forest and is described to be much older than Whispy Woods Forest, which is understandable considering the numerous times that Kirby has killed Whispy Woods. The Eastern Forest is home to the elder tree Acore, a tree that Kirby showed mercy with unlike Whispy Woods, and Kirby's friends Rick and Coo.

The vegetation of the Eastern Forest is somewhat comparable to the Pacific Northwest, with canopies covering the forest in a shade, and the forest located near several cliffs and mountains. But unlike the Pacific Northwest, the Eastern Forest is spared from deforestation that would have resulted in a Starbucks opening. See, in the episode War of the Woods, King Dedede wants to destroy the forest so he can build his country club, a great analogy of every old and retired Americans wanting to play golf instead of having to lie down in their retirement home and watch Rock TV. But while King Koopa might value some good old brainwashing to get what he wants, King Dedede values murder to get what he wants. And so King Dedede spend his time trying to kill Acore before Kirby can do so. He and his partner in crime Escargoon try to cut Acore down before his animal protectors stop him in his tracks. Then Kirby and his friends fend off those animal protectors, giving Dedede and Escargoon another opportunity to kill Acore, but that also fails when Kirby's gang realized what was going on. At this point, King Dedede decides to do what all good rulers do: flood the forest, and hope Acore dies. Waiting for a storm to happen, King Dedede sets off a flash flood that floods all of the Eastern Forest. But what the flooding only did was take Acore and (quoting a particular starfish) "push it somewhere else". In the end, Acore is safe, and King Dedede and Escargoon "blasted off again".

Now that we understand the Eastern Forest, what did WiKirby gain when it shallowed the Eastern Forest? Well, the article is fairly short at describing the location. Due to its appearance in only one episode in the anime, not much can be said that wouldn't necessary pad the article a bit. It's also worth noting that the article has an infobox, a thing normally reserved for articles that require a lot of information, but the infobox only contains a caption and a screenshot. It's a small, yet fun bite of an article, one that WiKirby once featured as "Good" before the rules for the standard were revised. With all that said, WiKirby used the power of the Eastern Forest to defeat King Wikikia once and for all. Dream Land was once again safe from King Wikikia, but they vow to return next Christmas and take on WiKirby once again...which depends on if WiKirby isn't occupied trying to document all the good of the Kirby series. And so, WiKirby celebrates through the night, giving the Christmas spirit to every wiki across the universe. And that makes this story a worthy addition to that NIWA List.

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy December!! This is probably my favorite month of the year, and it also comes with a very special fact: this is my 5-year Mario Calendar anniversary! It has been crazy to see how the paper has evolved over the years, and I’m so proud to be a part of it. I hope everyone’s holiday season is going great, and let’s get into some Mario games!

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
  • December 19
  • December 31

And that’s it for December! Honestly, while the second half of the month isn’t incredible, I think Nintendo had a very strong showing for the first half! They had games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii! Overall, I would say this is a very strong month for Mario games. I hope you guys have an awesome rest of your month, a very happy holidays, and I will see you next month!

Roleplay Update

Written by: MightyMario (talk)

Hello again! This is MightyMario with Roleplay Update! December is very special for me because I was born this month! Let’s see what happened in the Roleplay section in November!

New RPs

Nintendo High RP! | by Nellie Rose Morningstar | Brrring! What’s that? That’s the school bell for Nintendo High, where various Nintendo characters fill the positions of a school where anything can happen! Based of the YouTube series of the same name, Nellie Rose Morningstar plays as Nellie, a student whose dad is the Vice Principal, and Long John Spaghetti plays Luigi (per the norm).

SMRPG ROLEPLAY!! | by OhoJeeonFire | A roleplay based upon the game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. No players yet!

The Adventures of Kolorado and Kangaroo | by Green Ranger | Join legendary explorer Kolorado and his adorable sidekick Rooshi on an unforgettable adventure! There are no players yet, but multiple users have expressed interest in participating.

Notable Events

Nothing notable this month, unfortunately. Maybe next month!

And this was another edition of Roleplay Update! I’m MightyMario and see you in January (Happy New Year!) for more updates!

What's in a Campaign?

By: Mustard Machine (talk)

Hello, Pipe Plaza, readers and welcome to What's in a Campaign?, a section where we take a look at various competitors from the hit UK show Robot Wars. Last month, we took a look at my beloved Napalm's surprising top ten run in Series 2. Unfortunately, this month, we're going to be upping the quality of robot as we take a look at Series 4's King B3.

Built by Simon Harrison, who is joined by work colleagues Grant Hornsby and Tony Sharp, King B3 (originally known as King Buxton) first appeared in Series 2, where it managed a top eight finish, just barely losing out on a grand final appearance after its motors caught fire during a match against reigning champion Roadblock (Simon Harrison would later admit that, by the end of Series 2, King Buxton's motors were basically on borrowed time). Returning in Series 3, King Buxton would this time make the heat final, losing to their rival 101 (King Buxton had beaten 101's predecessor Robo-Doc in Series 2) after, again, King Buxton's motors caught on fire.

Pretty boxy box

King B3 is essentially a box on wheels that can run both ways up. In Series 2 and Series 3, King B3 was armored in aluminum, but, for Series 4, Simon Harrison switched to clear perspex. It's pretty cool because, much like a later Game Boy Color or see-through N64 controller, you can actually see the insides of King B3, which I think is neat. Because fires had been an issue for both Series 2 and Series 3, Simon Harrison added cooling fans designed to keep the motors from overheating. King B3 has two weapons, one in the front and one in the back. In the back, King B3 has a petrol-powered 9" cutting disc which is capable of spinning at 3000 rpms. At the front, the main weapons of the robot are two lifting spikes, capable of both piercing robots and lifting up to 80 kg. It's important to note this lifting function isn't really designed to flip robots over, rather, it's designed to lift robots on King B3's spikes, allowing King B3 slam them around the arena. King B3 weighs in at 77.9 kg and has a top speed of 14 mph.

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. Surprisingly, there isn't a compilation of King B3's Series 4 fights, so this time there will be two videos if you want to follow along. I'll still be providing time stamps.

As a former semi-finalist and heat finalist, King B3 was granted a seed for Series 4, which automatically granted them a place in Series 4, but the number they give them is honestly kind of insulting. King B3 was given the seed number 17 (out of 32), which is low for a robot with a top eight finish and a heat final. I don't know if they could have gone that much higher, but there's at least two robots that are seeded above King B3 who absolutely shouldn't be. The first is Bigger Brother, seeded number 14, who are seeded off the "strength" of their Series 3 semi-final run. The problem is, they only made the semi-final because the Ultor team (who actually won the heat final) didn't have enough time off from work and thus had to drop out. Then you have Killerhurtz, seeded number 16, who appeared in both Series 2 and Series 3 and picked up a combined zero wins. Instead, Killerhurtz was seeded entirely on the backs of their finishes in Battlebots, where they were a legitimately good robot. But, again, that's not Robot Wars. Honestly, King B3 has a better pedigree then all three robots who are immediately seeded ahead of it, because even Wheely Big Cheese, who was given the 15th seed, only had a heat final in Series 3 as its best placement. I think they really should have switched Killerhurtz and King B3's seeds around, because it doesn't make sense that King B3 would be seeded against a robot that was 0-3 in Robot Wars fights at that point.

Funnily enough though, King B3 originally wasn't supposed to be seeded 17th. They were originally seeded 19th. What happened was Series 3 semi-finalist Trident was originally going to return with the 16th seed, and a sequel bot to Series 3 semi-finalist Blade called Blade's Big Bruva was seeded 14th. Both of these robots dropped out, which caused all the robots seeded below them to move up spots (it also led to Centurion and Suicidal Tendencies being given the 31st and 32nd seeds). Unfortunately for King B3, though, the 17th seed (along with the 18 seed) were seeds of death! By being given the 17th seed, King B3 was placed in Heat A along with reigning champion Chaos 2 (Cerberus, who was given the 18th seed, was placed in the same heat as Hypno Disc)! Funnily enough, however, being in the same heat is probably better for King B3's chances than their original seed would have been, because, if they'd have been given the 19th seed, then the flat box King B3 would be placed in the same heat as the Crusher Razer. That matchup, Razer probably wins before going on to win Series 4... but that's a story for another day.

In their first round melee, King B3 faces off against the fullbody spinner maces of Attila the Drum and the wedge/rear drum bot Medusa 2000. The fight (17:54) is dominated by King B3, who starts the fights off by slamming into Medusa 2000 before pursuing Attila the Drum, who spins ineffectually. King B3 then flies over Medusa 2000's wedge twice before slamming an on-fire (it's a small fire) Attila the Drum into the wall. Catching Attila's cylinder in its drum, King B3 drives it the full length of the arena, slamming it into another wall and into SGT. Bash, who lights even more of the drum on fire.

Attila the drum - great name, bad bot

The rest of the fight is pretty ponderous, with King B3 performing another slam on Attila the Drum before the fight counts down to a judges' decision. Looking at Style, Control, Damage, and Aggression, the judges send King B3 and Medusa 2000 through to the next round. This is honestly kind of a flaw with the three-way melees, because my description didn't cut anything Medusa 2000 did out. Medusa 2000 did almost nothing, but because King B3 picked on Attila the Drum the whole time, Attila was eliminated (it's important to note the crowd boos Attila the Drum being eliminated). This happens quite a bit. One robot will dominate the other robot while the third robot does little. Then, when it goes to a judges' decision, the robot who does little goes through on the strength of not being dominated. That's why I think the three-way melees are fine, but the four-way melees introduced in Series 6 are so much better.

Moving onto the second round, King B3 unfortunately has a problem. Remember how I was telling you King Buxton caught fire in Series 2 and Series 3? Well, it caught fire again. This time, it was a small fire that has burned out the motors that control the lifting forks, so King B3 won't be able to use them in the heat semi-final. Matched up against the flipper Atomic, the fight (31:23) starts with a pushing match where Atomic and King B3 are evenly matched in power. Atomic ends the pushing match by throwing King B3 away with their flipper. Another pushing match follows, with Atomic briefly getting the advantage on King B3 and pushing it into Dead Metal before King B3 manages to get behind Atomic and drives it into the wall. Atomic then chases King B3 around the arena before managing to flip it over, which is not really a problem for King B3 since it can run both ways up. Atomic then pushes King B3 into Sir Killalot just before tragedy strikes. Atomic runs into the wall, the force of which causes Atomic's flipping arm to fly clean off.

That's not a great sign...

King B3 goes on the attack with its spinning blade, but, uh, then it happens again... King B3's motors once again catch fire and King B3 breaks down, and the bot is counted out of the competition.

A disappointing run for sure, but this is not the end for King B3's Series 4 run. Series 4 had a number of side events, the first of which was a pinball event that was broadcast throughout the series (another event, the sumo, was also aired). King B3 had a very good run in this, scoring 225 points and finishing 4th overall, but the real main event was the introduction of the Tag Team Terror, a tag team competition originally meant to debut in Series 3 finally making its debut here. The Tag Team Terror operates basically like wrestling tag team matches. Robots enter as teams of two. One robot begins the fight initially, but it can tag in its partner at any time. Robots aren't supposed to enter the fray unless they're tagged in but, lol, they do anyways. Nobody actually cares about the rules. For their partner, King B3 were teamed up with probably the most logical pairing in the show's history, because King B3 teams up with their fierce rival 101. King B3 and 101 are probably the strongest team in the four team field, because both robots have been semi-finalists, whereas the other teams primarily consist of a semi-finalist and a not semi-finalist.

The team of rivals faces off against, in the first round, the ax bot and Series 4 Semi-Finalist X-Terminator (who, for some reason, is using the Series 3 ax) and the flipper Inverterbrat. Before I talk about the fight, I have to say I love the King B3 and 101 "rivalry", because, in their interviews, they completely play it straight and both argue that they have the better robot. It's just the best seeing these guys talk about how their robot is going to do more in the fight than the other. King B3 starts the fight (17:08) against Inverterbrat by running into its foe. It appears that King B3 gets the better of the exchange, because something goes flying off of - I think - Inverterbrat after it makes contact with King B3's saw. King B3 then gets a lift on Inverterbrat, hoisting it on its wheel before Inverterbrat manages to slip away. King B3 then tags 101 and Inverterbrat tags X-Terminator. 101 uses the superior grip of its tracks to push X-Terminator around while X-Terminator furiously, if ineffectually, attacks 101 with its ax. King B3 then tags (?) in and attempts to push X-Terminator around as again X-Terminator pops King B3 with it's ax. While this is happening, 101 attacks Inverterbrat, slamming it into the wall. King B3 takes one of X-Terminator's decorations off with its blade as 101 slams into X-Terminator (because the rules don't matter).

If only this was Series 3...

If you're wondering why Inverterbrat isn't helping its partner, well, unfortunately for X-Terminator, this isn't Series 3, where Inverterbrat made a heat final. Rather, it's Series 4, where Inverterbrat broke down in the first round of its heat on the route to losing every fight it was in. So as Inverterbrat kind of limps around the arena wall, 101 comes in and once again slams it right into the wall. X-Termintor tries to help its partner, but 101 manages to get under X-Terminator and slams X-Terminator into Inverterbrat. 101 fully kills Inverterbrat as King B3 pushes X-Terminator into the wall. The rest of the fight is just 101 and King B3 bullying X-Terminator, slamming into it and pushing it around. There's some pretty fun moments at the end with 101 and King B3 landing attacks on each other "accidentally". Officially, the fight goes to the judges, but it's obvious who won, and King B3 and 101 are sent to the final.

In the final, King B3 and 101 face Firestorm and Scorpion, who is, for some reason, teamed up with Firestorm. Also for some reason, Scorpion was the only robot who wasn't seeded that was given an automatic spot in Series 4 even though it's both terrible and looks bad! The championship match (35:20) is really a 2-1 handicap match, because Scorpion can't do anything to King B3 or 101, because, I, mean come on! The damn thing is using a chainsaw! Once again, King B3 stats the fight. Scorpion somehow manages to get an attack off with its chainsaw, but because robots aren't made of wood, it doesn't do anything! King B3 then manages to push Scorpion onto the flame pit, burning away its stupid fiberglass shell. King B3 crashes into Scorpion repeatedly with both its forks and disc before tagging in 101. 101 manages to get under Scorpion, and Firestorm finally decides to join the fray to help its partner!

Only non-seed to auto qualify!

This causes King B3 to rejoin the battle, pushing Firestorm back into the tag area, where the usually-very-reliable Firestorm just breaks down. At the same time, 101 seems to immobilize Scorpion. With victory in hand, the two robots then turn on each other, with 101 attacking King B3 as King B3 finishes off Firestorm. King B3 gets the better of 101, pushing them into the claws of Dead Metal, who was free to roam the arena because the fight was over. But then it turns out Scorpion was not dead, and the burned husk of Scorpion attempts to rejoin the action! King B3 attempts to finish off Scorpion but is interrupted by 101, who slams King B3 into Scorpion. King B3 manages to chase 101 away and finally puts the finishing blow onto Scorpion as 101 returns to attack King B3 from behind!

YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE PARTNERS!

Everything just breaks down completely, with the House Robots deciding that enough is enough, that they can't support such senseless carnage. The House Robots manage to corral 101 and King B3 long enough for a cessation to be called. King B3 and 101 easily take home the championship and become the first ever Robot Wars' Tag Team Terror champions. My absolute favorite part of this is that, for some reason, despite knowing that there were going to be two robots that would win, the producers of Robot Wars only made one trophy, which, by his own admittance, Simon Harrison snatched up and ran away with. But don't worry, they would eventually give the 101 team a trophy, but, according to Simon Harrison, it was smaller then the one he got.

Two robots, one trophy...

As a competitor, Series 4 would be the last time King B3 was really relevant. In Series 5, Simon Harrison would return with an upgraded design called King B. Powerworks, but this robot would see little in the way of success. Not only was the design starting to become outdated, but robot tended to go berserk during fights. This would cost them big during the Extreme 1 Tag Team Terror when, after dominating most of their fight against Diotior and Mega Morg, King B Powerworks would go berserk and be reduced to spinning wildly on the arena floor. It would also cost them their rubber match (deciding match) against 101, when the same thing happened. In Series 5, King B Powerworks would again go out in the heat semi-final before failing to qualify for Series 6. In Series 7, King B Powerworks would return only to go out again in the heat semi-final before being bounced from the All-Stars tournament. King Buton would even go on to appear in the first reboot series as King B Remix, a robot that by Simon's own admittance was hastily built in only six weeks. In Series 8, King B Remix managed to get out of the group melee stage, even managing to kill Overdozer, but it would score no victories after that. Unfortunately for King Buxton, that cost it its positive televised win-loss record (it now sits with eleven wins and twelve losses). A really good early series robot who, if not for the motors being on borrowed time, could have won Series 2, King Buxton was just never going to be competitive after Series 4, when robots got better weaponry and more complicated designs. But for Simon Harrison, it wasn't all about winning. A lot of it was just for fun and, in fact, a new version of King Buxton called King Buxton 20 (in honor of King Buxton's 20th anniversary as a robot) still fights to this day on the live circuit.

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

Forum Update

Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)

Hello, all of you readers of The 'Shroom! It sure has been a productive and thrilling year of Forum Update, hasn't it...? I've had less time and energy to get this out consistently than I thought I would this year, but 2022 deserves one more for the road. Let's jump right into one final update on the forum in 2022!

News

For all the time that has passed since the last update, there's surprisingly little in the way of major news! With Awards Killing Game: Odyssey and the 2022 Scribble tournament wrapping up in November, the awards board for the year was archived on November 21st. In news more interesting to those concerned with aesthetics and small traditions, the forum's logo is now snow-covered and the top of the forum has a string of colorful lights for the holidays.

The largest change made since the last forum update is the complete removal of ads for logged-in users on the forum.

Re-Threading Old Ground

Helix Fossil - February of 2014, nearly nine years ago, now, in those ancient days, a game, a simple little experiment, took the Internet by storm. Someone out there asked the question. Could a mob of Internet users, all able to control the game, collectively beat Pokémon Red? While many editions of Twitch Plays Pokémon have since come and gone without fanfare, the original swept over the Internet like a wave, amusing participants and onlookers alike. This stream did not go unnoticed on this forum, and, as this month's featured old thread reveals, the strange pseudo-religious tongue-in-cheek lore that came to surround that original stream did not go unnoticed either.

Statistics

  • Total Threads: 41,535 (Difference: +342)
  • Total Posts: 2,252,063 (Difference: +15,338)
  • Total Members: 3,526 (Difference: +94)

Thread of the Month(s)

A very long division post - In the words of Shy Guy on Wheels, a very divisive thread, Meta Knight, in classic fashion, puts together a step-by-step guide to a (not-so-)arcane technique. Follow along, and find out what wonders you can create with his secret skills!

Quotes

Forum Games

  • Awards Killing Game Odyssey - The game ended in November, with six surviving players facing off against a veritable boss rush to escape Circitus Island.
  • Pirate Mafia (lounge thread) - This simple game, with only a few empowered roles, kicked off on November 30th, and pits the Nakama (town) against the Scallywags (mafia). As of the time this article was written, the game was in lylo, putting the Nakama in a precarious position.

Interactive 'Shroom Threads

  • Nominations are currently closed for Waluigi Time's Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown as the section gears up for the championship event in January. Expect voting to re-open after January's issue is released.
  • You can still vote in Northern Verve's merit ranking to determine the order he'll cover Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's fighters, determining which fighters get covered in his 'Shroom section! Few fighters remain, so if you want to have an impact, get your votes in soon!

That's all that I have to report from the forum this month, and, for the foreseeable future, that's all I'll be reporting from the forum in general. Perhaps someone else out there would like to take up Forum Update and put their own spin on it? I encourage you to do so, if you're interested! We'll see what the new year holds for Forum Update, but, whatever happens, I'm certain there will be plenty of activity on the forum itself in 2023!

All information above was correct as of 11:55 EST on 14 December 2022.

The 'Shroom: Issue 189
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • End-of-the-Year Awards • Director Election • The 'Shroom Holiday Scavenger
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
Specials Thank You, Ninja Squid! • PC Election Proposal
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