Koopas Dominate Sports

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We're superior.

As you may expect from the webmaster of a site called KoopaTV, I (only) play as the Koopas in any of Mario's sporty spin-offs. My loyalty and dedication to my own kind is paying off pretty well — between all the members of Koopa Kingdom, we're doing very well and scoring just fine. There's a reason why we thought it was a good idea to attempt to enter the 2016 Summer Olympics as Team Koopa — WE HAVE THE SKILLS.

I wasn't sure whether or not to separate this by sport or by Koopa, since there'll be some redundancy on the basis that Koopas are multi-talented, so I hope this reads well. By the way, for the purposes of this article (and, well, in general), Mario Sports Mix doesn't exist. No one ever talks about it. It's a mess.

Baseball

The Koopas are some of the best baseball players around. When Bowser is up at bat, it's irregular if he doesn't just get a homerun. Almost every Koopa has chemistry with King Bowser in Mario Superstar Baseball (...Magikoopa doesn't), and chemistry gives a power-up to the folks who share it. (Stronger hits, better fielding.) King Bowser also has the fastest fast ball, from a pitcher's perspective, in the game.

Similar to King Bowser Koopa, Hammer Bro. and Boomerang Bro. are also extremely good, getting consistent homeruns with his sweetspot hammer, or an amazing curve for base-running, respectively. Magikoopa has fantastic fielding with his magic wand, as well as a great Star Hit that hugs the foul line and ensures you get on first base... or second.

The folks like Koopa Troopa, Paratroopa, and Dry Bones are also pretty reliable and decent fielders with good throwing arms. Bowser Jr. may actually be the weak link. Since Magikoopa lacks chemistry with the rest of the Koopas besides Bowser Jr. (fixed in the sequel where Magikoopa has chemistry with Bowser), and there aren't enough for a 9-player team, I recommend King Boo and Boo (Boo has chemistry with Magikoopa) instead of Goomba and Paratroopa to fill the last slots. Boo and King Boo are ridiculous as-is, and also serve as additional pitchers, if not main pitchers since King Bowser's fielding chemistry and Laser Beam abilities can be put to better use if he's not pitching.

CAPCOM Summer Sale 2018 — Ace Attorney, too!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm actually jealous that you can get the entire Ace Attorney franchise at this low a price.

On Monday, I wrote about the rather underwhelming Prime Day 2018, but pointed out that the Ace Attorney anime box set for Part 1 of Season 1 was on sale for 34% off. I also wrote that...

“Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that is three whole games for $30 on the 3DS. If  [that] sounds a lot more appealing and a natural deal, you're free to go to the eShop at any time and buy it. (But if and when an Ace Attorney game gets discounted past its natural bargain price, KoopaTV will tell you.)”

Just days later, a whopping FOUR Ace Attorney titles are discounted past their natural bargain prices, because for a limited time only (less than one week), it's the CAPCOM Summer Sale, 2018!

How do these discounts compare to previous CAPCOM sales? (Spoiler: Most favourably.)

A Casual Tier List Cannot Exist

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - How do you define casual?

In a discussion about Shulk in the Super Smash Bros. series today in the KoopaTV private Discord server, RawkHawk2010 asked me if Shulk's Monado Arts selection buff would increase his tier list position for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I said no, pros tend to mainly use Jump and Speed Monado Arts, and Shulk professionals are already very good about quickly button-mashing to the art they need. Then Rawk, feeling defeated about the prospect of Shulk rising in the competitive tier list, asked me if there is a tier list for casuals. I answered a flat “no”.

Over a decade ago, I wanted to try to make a casual tier list for Super Smash Bros. Melee and post it on the Nintendo NSider Forums. This never happened, because I gave up during my idea-formulation. How would I define the skill level of a casual? They obviously can't wavedash or L-cancel, but can they at least jump? Shield? Use up-b off the stage to recover? I've encountered a lot of players in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U's online modes who couldn't or wouldn't do any of those things, even with my helpful UPBRECOVER name-tag in the latter game. (And then demonstrating Up-B Recoveries, with their character, in front of them in the next match. Yeah, I try to be helpful to newbies.)

I remember Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime's pathetic performance versus Hungrybox in the Nintendo World Championships 2015 — Reggie literally didn't know how to use the jump button.

Reggie lost this many stocks in only four minutes, and Hungrybox wasn't exactly trying.
Should the casual tier list be based on players like Reggie?

The Splatfest Race War: Squid vs. Octopus

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Insidious race war creation. We're not for it.

A couple of weeks ago, Nintendo revealed the next Splatfest theme for Splatoon 2. While it was announced some time ago, KoopaTV has chosen to procrastinate on writing an article about it until the last week before the Splatfest occurs. There's a reason why, but let's reveal the theme before I explain everything:

Which sea creature do you like more?
Squid or octopus?

At first glance, someone unfamiliar with Splatoon 2 may see that theme and think, “Well, so what?” They're just asking about sea creatures. You know, like the kind that you can go to visit an aquarium to see. 

But... this is actually much more dangerous than an innocuous inquiry about sea creatures. It's extremely dangerous, as Off the Hook's Marina points out immediately after Pearl reads the fax machine message identifying what the Splatfest theme is:

Prime Day 2018; of dogs and an attorney

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - For gaming, it's what you'd expect.

After indefinite refreshing of Amazon and trying for many hours, I've gotten past their 503 errors (service unavailable — not a good message when a lot of the world now relies on Amazon cloud services for keeping their Internet lights on) featuring dog photographs, ostensibly of the dogs that their employees are allowed to bring into their office. As far as I'm concerned, these canines are little better than Chain Chomps, and they're the ugly face of Amazon's technical errors.

Having made my way past the treacherous mutt-ridden annals of Amazon, what have I found for Amazon's Prime membership-only Prime Day super-sales day from a gaming perspective? Truly... not much. That's not a surprise, since I sort of write that every year.

Once again, it's a great time to buy stuff like carrying cases, SD cards, headsets, chargers, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Nothing truly amazing or a must-purchase. One item is notable, though. (And... not a must-purchase.)

You can get the box set for the Ace Attorney anime Part 1 (episodes 1–13) at 34% off, or $43 instead of $65. That still isn't even close to covering the noted price gap between the anime part that covers four-fifths of one game, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that is three whole games for $30 on the 3DS. If the latter sounds a lot more appealing and a natural deal, you're free to go to the eShop at any time and buy it. (But if and when an Ace Attorney game gets discounted past its natural bargain price, KoopaTV will tell you.)


There is an article that Ludwig has to write before this week is over, but he's been absolutely dreading doing so because he's afraid of what it will do to KoopaTV's reputation, so he's trying to delay it. It'll be obvious what the article is when it comes. All of that is to say nothing about Prime Day 2018, which makes sense, since there isn't anything to say about it.


Prime Day 2017 wasn't all that good, either, but at least Ludwig tried to do something extra with the article space.
For that $43 you could spend on the anime, you could buy the entire Ace Attorney series.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Future Updates: Trump Pack!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A KoopaTV exclusive scoop.

Did you hear that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch will still be getting additional content? It's true. Shinya Takahashi, general producer on most of Nintendo's games in the past several years (also referred to as “that Takahashi guy” in a recent article about the 78th Nintendo shareholder Q&A), said so in this social media video from Nintendo of America covering a range of topics, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Here is Takahashi finishing a low-resolution bow to the camera, stating,
“There will be further updates for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so please look forward to it.”

For some context, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just got an update allowing you to use the Nintendo Labo Toy-Con Motorbike as a control method, which means that the Nintendo Labo is spreading its cardboard control over more than just other cardboard, but to any form of software that it can find. Since you can now find software in pretty much any product nowadays, this makes the Nintendo Labo extremely dangerous should you allow automatic updates. (Sometimes, such as in Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U, you don't get a choice and it updates itself for the worse.)

What kind of updates are we looking at? Well, KoopaTV did an investigation and found this in the works for a NEW CHARACTER:

Revisiting amiibo Economics in 2018

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Market conditions changed, and amiibo are less of a priority for both Nintendo and consumers.

In the same interview where Nintendo of America's president Reggie Fils-Aime described why Nintendo continues to prop up the Nintendo 3DS, he described Nintendo's stance on amiibo to be, “We continue to be all in.” This is contrary to new all-of-Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa's went-out-of-his-way omission of amiibo in his letter to shareholders. It's likely wiser to take Furukawa's word on this over Reggie's, but here's the data count of how many amiibo are releasing in what year, if you want to just look at the numbers and not executive spin:

Data applies to North America only; compiled by counting the amiibo Character Lineup page on July 12, 2018,
plus Super Smash Bros. series Ridley, Inkling Girl, and Wolf. (Those aren't on the page.)
amiibo card series counts as one amiibo per series.
2018 figure represents as-of-now announced amiibo. More may be to come.

Still, to this day, the Super Smash Bros. series amiibo is not complete. In fact, there's some new members that appear to slightly bend the amiibo economics:

With Zero not in Mega Man's Final Smash, where is he?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What isn't he fighting for?

Is this already easily explained within the Mega Man community?

Between Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,
Mega Legends (the name for Mega Man's Final Smash) added Proto Man and Bass.

From the live reaction log for Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation, which proves a natural desire for Zero (to the point of seeing a character in red and mistaking him for Zero):

“[12:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: MEGA MAN

[12:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: MEGA MAN'S FINAL SMASH HAS ZERO
[...]
[12:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Proto Man and Bass

[12:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: wtf I thought it was Zero

[12:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: <_<”

With Proto Man and Bass there, where is Zero? Originally, Zero wasn't included because everyone included in the Final Smash was using a Mega Buster, leaving Zero to be a Mii costume. But Proto Man uses his Proto Buster, and Bass uses his Bass Buster. Zero also uses a Buster, appropriately named the Zero Buster. (In Mega Man Zero, he also used a handheld Buster Shot gun.) As a Buster-user in the Mega Man X franchise, the Zero Buster was more powerful than X's Mega Buster. He definitely can stand up there as a legend and shoot a big laser beam with the rest of them. No problem there.

Zero is not a “Mega Man”, but neither are Proto Man or Bass. Zero, at least, has his own game series, so I'd say he's more of a legend than either Proto Man or Bass. The only legendary thing Proto Man ever did was... almost... blow up President Lincoln's...statue. As Proto Man himself said, “almost only counts in horseshoes.” Zero qualifies to be there, so for him to be omitted when Proto Man and Bass are allowed must mean something.

Will Zero be a new playable character? An Assist Trophy? ...Would the former be a barrier to prevent Phoenix Wright from becoming a playable character?

Can we just get CAPCOM to make a “Nintendo vs. CAPCOM” already?


If there is a really straight-forward explanation for why Zero wouldn't qualify for being part of Mega Man's Final Smash, Ludwig would like to hear it. The only reasonable explanation is that Zero decided that being there wasn't worth fighting for.

What is MariCAR Inc., and why is Nintendo suing them?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Just from the headline alone and without reading the article, do you already have a guess on why Nintendo would sue?

Yesterday, I published an article about Nintendo's 78th annual shareholder meeting, and I teased Question 13 from an investor about MariCAR Inc.. Now, as promised, here's a whole article dedicated about it. First, I'll quote the exchange, with the first block being the investor, and the second being former Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima's answer:

 “For several years, there has been a company operating public road go-karts in Tokyo, which has damaged the image of Mario as they raced around the streets. We heard that Nintendo sued the company and lost the first trial. Is this true?”
“The lawsuit that we brought against MariCAR Inc. is still ongoing, and a court decision has not yet been made. Although we submitted a complaint to the Japan Patent Office regarding the MariCAR trademark held by MariCAR Inc., the decision was made that they could keep the MariCAR trademark. We are aware of some articles online that have mistaken this decision for Nintendo having lost the case. We cannot provide details of matters subject to court proceedings, but we will continue to fight to protect our intellectual property through the courts. There were reports of accidents involving public road go-karts, so we are making every effort to deal with this issue from that perspective as well.”

Two things stand-out from Kimishima's response:

Nintendo 78th Annual Meeting of Shareholders: Fun Q&A!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - No, the amusement park won't take away from game sales.

I like to share Nintendo-related moments of amusement with my audience. In that spirit, here is the questions & answers summary from Nintendo's 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which may be the last time we ever see now-former president Tatsumi Kimishima say stuff to people. (The meeting took place on June 28, and the Board of Directors voted in Shuntaro Furukawa as the new president after the questions.)

I guess I'll just give a paragraph to interesting question-answer combinations and let you know which I'm talking about. That sound alright?

Take Question 2, for example. The investor is freaking out about Nintendo's stock price, which is falling ever since E3 2018 and before. (Buy low, sell high, folks.) Just to illustrate:

In the picture: Nintendo's stock collapsing since the end of April.
(As you can see from the watermark, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance.)

Shinya Takahashi and Kimishima discussed E3 to divert the topic, and Shinya Takahashi claimed that E3 2018 was dedicated to not only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but also Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!. And I'm not too sure, based on what we saw, that the latter is true. It only had one (lame) appearance on Nintendo Treehouse Live, after all. It was at the beginning to get it out of the way.