As the title says, I certainly haven’t abandoned Delfino Plaza, nor will I ever intend to. I am just basically getting sick of WordPress.com’s screwy setup, and where it may prove convenient for some people, I am actually planning on getting hosted again, though I am not sure when that day will be. All I know is I need to learn more about hosting/website mumbo-jumbo, including coding knowledge, and basically how to maintain a professional website. I will still continue to write articles for this site until the change officially happens, though that may not happen for months, so I wouldn’t get all excited yet =P .

Excellent news with the SM64 Star Guide! Course 1 – 11 is already completed! And I’m officially working on Course 12: Tall, Tall Mountain. Ciao for now, more work should be done within time

“Hey everyone! This is Mushroom Knight speaking, I’ve been a long time poster on Delfino Plaza and this is my first article

The world of the very first Zelda game has always interested me. Certain monsters seem to all have special environments they live in. I will discuss the kind of environments some of the monsters from LoZ seem to like.

Well there is only one thing I can say for this article: ‘short and sweet’, and very informative, too. Isn’t that cool? Thank you Mushroom Knight for the article donation, and as of which, I find very helpful because of my absense–Star Guides don’t write themselves!

I apologize if I was too busy to post this, but the day after Cloud joined as staff, another one followed. That one happens to be Mushroom Knight, and I am sure all of you can recognize him as being a active member. He’s a article devotee, which should be quite benefical to us. Welcome Mushroom Knight! May your new postion be well for you!

We have a new staff member, in only about two days too! His name is Cloud, and his role here will be to send me Super Mario Bros./Legend of Zelda-related news. Welcome here Cloud!

-Elven Warrior

Hello to those who are viewing this, I have been very busy lately, so Delfino Plaza “may” have appeared to be inactive, but just the opposite. I have been doing allot of underground work, and to help me and my work, I created a Staff Opening page, and a Staff page to contain all of the staff members of Delfino Plaza. Hopefully some people will apply and help me, as I cannot do too many multiple projects and expect them to turn out properly. If you are interested in helping Delfino Plaza, please visit that page.

We have also changed from that inadequate looking theme to this fresh theme with a green look to it. It comes with a customizable header option, so I’ll be getting one up later.

And lastly, there will be posts and polls to come, as soon as I can muster the time. I’ll be working on Zelda Eternity’s Image Gallery today, too, so I’ll probably be busy as usual.

-Elven Warrior

(Do you like the new avatar? Took me awhile to make, it did. The contrast between green, bright green, and yellow fits quite well to the name: “Elven Warrior”.)

Hail, I thought of a article related to Super Mario 3. Just recently I started playing the older games on Virtual Console, and in addition to finding out a few secrets to Super Mario 2, I noticed some cool facts about Super Mario 3, and how it is very irregular to most of the games. I know every game is unique, but there are some qualities in a video game that only come once, you know? So without further ado…

Overview. Super Mario 3 actually is more of an fantasy-based game, giving a nice classical feel to it. Throughout the game Princess Toadstool sends you letters warning you of upcoming worlds, and she also gives you helpful items that are rare to find normally. Mario goes on a perilous journey to attempt to save the princess, but he has to first save the seven Kings of the Mushroom Kingdom, to whom were cursed by the Koopalings. After retrieving all seven magic scepters and helping the kings, there is word that Bowser found and kidnapped Princess Toadstool. Mario goes to the rescue, and after clearing many hard obstacles, he manages to make Bowser Ground Pound himself into a hole (just like in Super Mario 1, except there is no axe to cut the bridge, and there is no lava). With the princess saved, she thanks you and simply says “bye-bye”. It is truly a game of an honest value, however I will be depicting some features of it up next.

Various Power-Up Abilities. One of the most particularly interesting features of Super Mario 3, and what makes it especially fun is the Power-Up Items. Unlike Super Mario 1, this side-scrolling game doesn’t feature the default Power-Up item above the Mushroom being a Power Flower, but a Super Leaf that turns Mario into a Racoon. Racoon Mario can fly in the air with the help of his tail after he has ran a long distance and his “P”(Power) gauge is flashing. Racoon Mario doesn’t actually look like a Racoon, more-so does he look like a Cat. When I was younger and I played it on NES, I actually used to call him a Cat, because his sprite does look like one, and the box art could go either way =P . In fact a few days ago my older brother mentioned that he only sees him as a Cat, though as it is stated officially that he is Racoon Mario, there is another Racoon transformation that could sooner pass as Racoon Mario. This Power-Up item turns Mario into Tanooki Mario, which has the same abilities as Racoon Mario, except this one looks a little more like a Racoon, and by pressing down on the control pad, instead of him ducking, he turns into a stone statue and, for awhile he is immune to all attacks and enemies.

There are, of course, other Power-Up transformations, and some very peculiar ones at that. A classic one, Fire Mario, can shoot fire grenades, basically that form is just an enhanced normal-sized Mario. There is Frog Mario, and where the transformation isn’t so well on land (he hops instead of walking), he performs very well in water stages, and can swim very agile, swift and he can change directions very easily. And last but certainly not least, perhaps the best Power-Up Mario can turn into, Hammer Bro. Mario! Certainly it is much better than Fire Mario’s abilities, because if Mario ducks down he protects himself with his shell armor. He also can throw hammers in certain directions like the Hammer Bros..

The Airship Assaults. One of my favorite features in Super Mario 3, are the Airships. The Airships have army-related equipment, with cannons, Monty Moles that throw screwdrivers, and even scorching fire that is released out of unique cannons. I remember the side-scrolling events, and how hard it was not to be hit. The design of the Airships are quite dynamic, and it is fun how different they are from the previous games. The Koopalings made an interesting fight, however they seemed no more than push-overs to me, in fact out of all of them I only lost to the first one, Larry Koopa.

As I stated in the overview, the game has a fantasy feel, which is a nice touch. It is heroic of Mario to retrieve the magic scepters and fix the Kings to their normal, non-cursed states. What other game can you do that in? None that I have heard of, and of course it’d never be the same without our stout, Koopa-thrashing plumber of the Mushroom Kingdom.

I might write about more things in the future as I figure them out, but I believe it is pretty much covered =) .

-Elven Warrior

Hello all, I apologize for the little bit of inactiveness around here, but I have been writing an article for Delfino Plaza, which is going sort of slow because I am not happy with it - it seems way too short. *Puts on reading glasses* ah yes, I’ll be uploading the Villains & Enemies page (sorry Bowser, there are too little images of you to have your own page, it is all about quanity) soon time soon, and I am about 26% complete in the Super Mario 64 Star Guide, you can’t rush these things you know! Currently the next course for me to write in the guide is course 5: Big-Boos Haunt (that’s right, I’ve covered course 1 – 4 so far, all with the additional 100 coin tips, sounds exciting, huh?), which should be fun, and I should be able to get done with that one fast because it is more of an simple course.

Well that’s it for now, the article may be up in a few days, I definitely have to tweak it more, hopefully Dancing Pianta will be able to give me some advice. I also might change the Author Avatar, but there is only so much one can do with avatars.

Hello all, this article was written by Shinobi of Zelda Kingdom. It is an interesting article that will show you a few theoretical aspects about the Zora race. Take a looksee.

“Here’s a theory I’ve been developing for years. Almost years anyway. This article will look at the Zora’s from Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and The Wind Waker, and see how they have evolved and adapted to the ever changing world of Hyrule.

Ocarina of Time:

The first time you meet a Zora in Ocarina of Time, according to the immediate plot anyway, is during your third mission as a child to gain the spiritual stone of water. The Zora’s are protected by a mighty waterfall, which can only be parted by one who plays the melody of the royal family; Zelda’s Lullaby. This is because the Zora’s are the guardian’s of the royal family, and a long time ally. The Zoras’ home is Zora’s Domain, a very aptly named kingdom partially in water and partially above. The Zoras worship their guardian spirit, Jabu-Jabu, a large whale. His stomach serves as Link’s third dungeon as a child. Inside, Link must save Princess Ruto, a spunky and arrogant young Zora girl who has become lost in her guardian’s stomach. In the end Link saves the day as always, but when he accepts the Zora’s Sapphire, the spiritual stone of water, he gets more than he bargains for. Ruto’s mother told her to give the stone to the man she would marry one day. For this reason, the Zora’s sapphire is often called the Zoras engagement ring.

In Ocarina of Time, Zora’s are very arrogant in general, though some are nice enough to play games with Link.

Twilight Princess:

Presumably hundreds of years later, the Zora’s have moved slightly, though they kept the name “Zora’s Domain” for their residence. If one were to compare a map of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, they would see that Zora’s Domain has moved North somewhat. In addition, Old Zora’s Domain can be found upon entering Zora’s Domain from Hyrule Field. This is seen in the steps that lead down to a shop in Ocarina of Time being present. Princess Ruto is not present in this game, but she is replaced by the sickly Prince Ralis (Why do all princes have to start with an R and an A?) . After his mother was killed by Zant’s messengers, Ralis fled but got sick from lack of water and was later found by Ilia. He is later saved by Link, and after spending some time near his father’s(and presumably mother’s) grave, he returns to Zora’s Domain as the rightful heir to the throne.
Zoras are much more friendly in Twilight Princess, and seem to enjoy mingling with other races. In particular, they like the Goron’s hot springs. Kakariko village is said to be a special place for the Zoras, and is where the grave of the royal Zoras is found. In Zora’s Domain, some Zoras will tell you about a special rock formation called mother and child rock.

The Wind Waker: 

By the time of Wind Waker, there is not one Zora to be seen, except for by Medli, a young girl of the Rito tribe. This Zora comes to Medli in a dream-like vision that teaches her a song needed to enter a temple with Link and power the Master Sword. By this, it is thought that the Rito, the bird-like race introduced in Wind Waker, are the descendants of the Zoras. If you consider the facts, Rito only gain wings when Valoo, their guardian spirit, grants them a scale. This would explain how they came to be a bird-like race. My theory is that the Zoras and Sheikah merged into the Rito to avoid death by the Great Flood, and with the powers of the Sheikah they were able to transform (read my Sheikah article for more info on this ) .
Since there are no Zoras in this game besides Medli’s silent descendant, it’s hard to say what became of the Zoras as a race and how they changed. One interesting fact is that mother and child island can be found in this game, which is likely mother and child rock from Twilight Princess.”

Intruging, huh? Be sure to give your opinion!

Excellent news! Delfino Plaza is bound to get more traffic because I am writing the Super Mario 64 Star Guide, and it is going to be fun because every time I play Super Mario 64 (about 3:00 PM Central Time) I will have a notepad and I will write notes of ‘what to write for Delfino Plaza’, like where 8 Red coin locations are, and well, basically just write all the Power Stars (in order, from Course 1 to 15).

Also, a Legend of Zelda fansite, Zelda Kingdom, is allowing me to post one of their articles, which I look forward to because they do write some pretty thought-provolking articles, in addition to being plain-old enjoyable. I may soon be writing some articles over there, as well.

Well there you have it! Also expect to see a Princess Peach page up in a few days.

Hello, I have found out only recently why Super Mario 2 is the blacksheep of all the Mario Bros. series, as the levels and enemies were exceedingly random at first, it turns out Nintendo had deeper intentions for this game.

The Original Protagonists. In Super Mario 2, Shigeru Miyamoto based the players on characters from Doki Doki Panic, and as you see in this image below, you will see the comparisons.

The four players are Imajin, Mama, Tina, and Papa.

Mario has Imajin’s well-balanced play style, Luigi has Mama’s ability to jump a high distance and sort of float in the air, Princess Toadstool has Tina’s ability to stay in the air for a limited amount of time, and finally Toad has Papa’s strength where he can lift vegetables more easily and swiftly. Here is my opinion on this: I don’t see how Mario characters could possibly be based around such a random group. One good thing came out of it, is that in future Mario Bros. games, Mario is always well-balanced, Luigi has the high jump ability in some games, and is portrayed very light, Princess Toadstool keeps her floating ability in the Super Smash Bros. series, as well as picking vegetables out of the ground, however Toad didn’t keep any of his abilities really. In most of the games he is in, he is usually very weak, but I suppose his instant handicap of not being able to jump very high stays with him.

Doki Doki Panic, the Japanese game for the Famicom Disk System

These characters were random to begin with, and I really do not know how Nintendo converted them into the Mario Bros. heroes. The characters slightly resemble each other, but I still have my doubts toward Mama and Luigi – they are completely unrelated in everything. This game has more odd facts as this article continues, and how Nintendo based Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad on such random characters, I’ll never know.

Scenery, and unexpected staples? In Super Mario 2, you’ll notice that the locations you traverse through, are very different than any other Mario Bros. game location. In the Mario Bros. series, you’ll never see beanstalks, vegetables, magic potions, and more except for in Super Mario 2. There is an explanation to this and I’ll note, that Shigeru Miyamoto focused more of his time on the development of Doki Doki Panic. The reason why is because Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was originally to be Super Mario 2, but people complained at how the game was unbearably hard and difficult. So eventually Shigeru Miyamoto decided to release Doki Doki Panic to the USA, except with the Mario Bros. heroes in it. So in other words: Super Mario 2 is really a rip of Doki Doki Panic, with a few modifications, and of course different characters.

Another thing that impacted the Mario Bros. series, though not intended, was several enemies from Super Mario 2 became generic Mario Bros. enemies in the future of games. Such as Birdos, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, Shy-Guys and a few more.

Overview. The plot of Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario 2 are somewhat similar. In Doki Doki Panic rather than it being Mario’s dream, it is actually two children reading a book when suddenly Wart reaches out of the book and captures the two children, where the original Doki Doki Panic Protagonists appear, whereas in Super Mario 2, Mario has a dream of a stairway leading to an alternate world, and much to his surprise, when he visited the location he saw exactly what he saw in his dream. I had a thought the other day, of how Nintendo thought of so many random and diverse things to play a role in Super Mario 2, but I eventually figured out that nearly all of it a little child could think of. The sporadic events of climbing beanstalks, going inside vases and stealing keys from tiki-ish masks, riding on eggs, I mean, how hard is that to think of? I also forgot to mention the fact that you get a crystal from inside a Birdo to open up a Hawk Mouth… The game was fun, in an innovative way, but when I come to think of how the logics of the game works, the game sounds like it would have been really easy to make.

Well that is just my take on it, and now you know why Super Mario 2 is quite so different from all the rest of the series.