Vote Ludwig Von Koopa For Biggest Troublemaking Koopaling!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They call it a “fun poll”, I call it a matter of personal pride.

Presumably since around the launch of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe last month (which I dismissed as a dud in its release day article), everyone's favourite kid-friendly official Nintendo site, Play Nintendo, has been running a poll titled “Koopaling Troublemaker Fun Poll.” Otherwise asking, “Which Koopaling is the biggest troublemaker?”

Here are the results so far of the poll:

I'm not in first place? What is this?

 

This is an absolutely shameful result so far. There's no definitive end time to the poll, so I think it's up to KoopaTV readers to right the wrongs of the results.

To be explicit, the problem is that I'm only in third place, behind Lemmy Koopa and Roy Koopa. In reality, I am by far the most troublesome of all of the Koopalings! I'll prove it with LOGIC.

Reggie Fils-Aime Retiring; Doug Bowser Promoted To President of Nintendo of America

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - By the way, KoopaTV is the site that cared the most about Doug Bowser prior to today.

Today in the news, current Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime (alternatively Reggie Fils-Aimé) announced that he will be retiring from Nintendo effective April 15. Since KoopaTV has more important things to publish on April 15, I'll be writing my thoughts on this now.

Perhaps more important than Reggie retiring (at the age of 57—but I have no doubt he's rich) is who is retiring him: Doug Bowser, who joined Nintendo in 2015 as Vice President of Sales. Mr. Bowser later got promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing after the departure of Scott Moffitt, Nintendo's previous Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. (Mr. Bowser and Mr. Moffitt happen to look pretty much identical.)

I'm not going to go over a retrospective of the career of Reggie Fils-Aime or write about memes spawned because of him, because that's sappy, cliché, and I don't think you care. I know I don't. A long-time KoopaTV reader recently asked me who Reggie Fils-Aime even is. I'll just say this: Prior to becoming President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America in 2006, Reggie was also the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing.

Rawk Hawk: The Spirit Battle

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Happy birthday to RawkHawk2010 the staffer!

Today, February 20, happens to be KoopaTV staffer RawkHawk2010's birthday. He's now 9 years old! Wow!

As a present to his continued longevity, and to start what might be a trend for this site, I'm going to write a concept of what his Spirit Battle would be like if Rawk Hawk managed to get any representation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The last time he's gotten anything was as a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. With a Spirit Battle, he'll get a lot more! First some details on what kind of spirit he'd be, and then details on his actual fight and the references included.

Spirit Details

Name

Rawk Hawk

Series

Paper Mario series

Class

Advanced

Spirit Type, Ability

Support

Physical Attacks ↑

Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee/Pikachu Really Does Suck (Demo)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - You can decide by the end if this is just confirmation bias or I make genuine points.

Ever since its announcement, I've had a very negative slant towards Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!. Then I went ahead and basically used series director Junichi Masuda's comments about Pokémon: Let's Go as an indication that he's jumped the Sharpedo. Then we ignored its release day and haven't mentioned it since, except the obligatory mention that it's a 10-million seller.

I'm pretty sure that, for my part (can't speak for the other staffers but this likely holds true for them as well), I wasn't going to mention Pokémon: Let's Go ever again except for the release of the next Pokémon mainline RPG for the Nintendo Switch. In what capacity that would be in would depend on if I like that next game or not.

And then they released a free demo of Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! (as well as Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!, but I assume that's the same content) on the eShop last week. I played it.

I didn't like it. Here's why.

Yoshi's Crafted World's Train-Building and Cow-Murdering Philosophies

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The Yoshi's Crafted World demo makes a perfect KoopaTV discussion piece.

With the proposed Green New Deal putting high-speed trains and farting cows back on the public mind, Nintendo released a demo of Yoshi's Crafted World on the Nintendo eShop, following last week's Nintendo Direct.

On KoopaTV, we have trains and cows on the mind all the time, so this is topically appropriate. Plus, I have very strong opinions on the Yoshi franchise.

We already knew from Nintendo's E3 2017 (back when Yoshi's Crafted World was called “Yoshi 2018”... whoops, that slipped) that cows and Moo Moo Meadows Milk play a big role in the world. Let's examine just what that role is, how trains go into it, and our critical commentary on all of that.

9th Place on Tetris 99; and Other Tetris Things

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't like Tetris.

Once upon a time, a year ago, I was asked in a request to write about Tetris. I never did, since I dislike Tetris, and I was planning on interviewing someone associated Tetris to fulfill that request. She agreed, and then bailed on me. After repeated requests. So I never planned to write about Tetris ever again.

Suddenly, the Nintendo Direct from two days ago introduced this releasing-after-the-Direct game, Tetris 99, or as we called it first (before anyone else), “Tetris Battle Royale.” Free for anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, which is everyone on the KoopaTV staff thanks to our family group.

It's a VS. Tetris game (the kind where if you get combos you get to dump trash on other people's boards), but there are 99 players. Not 100. But 99. You probably don't have to worry about 98 other people ganging up on you, though. Like other battle royales, there's a large enough space of possibility that people are concerned with one another but probably not you. Just know you'll get some trash blocks and more trash blocks the more you play.

I wouldn't say there's that much direct interaction between players, then. Or maybe there is and I just don't know what I'm doing.

I've played Tetris 99 for over 15 minutes, so I'm obviously quite qualified to write a whole article about it.

Everything We Know About Town For Nintendo Switch After A Couple Of Nintendo Directs

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The game's plot is about a secret, much like everything else about it.

The previous Nintendo Direct, the Nintendo Direct in September 2018, introduced a new GAME FREAK title for the Nintendo Switch named Town. Yesterday's Nintendo Direct didn't mention Town at all, to the chagrin of literally no one. There's a certain segment of the population that was expecting news about a different sort of town, one in the Animal Crossing vein, and they're quite upset. But GAME FREAK's Town? Nah.

...Well, except me, because I'm interested in what GAME FREAK's non-Pokémon designers are doing after the success of Pocket Card Jockey. So here's the 44 second-trailer of Town from 5 months ago, and all we know from it:

KoopaTV's February 13, 2019 Nintendo Direct Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Enthusiasm lacking.

I already did much of my introduction to this log within the reaction log below for the Nintendo Direct of February 13, 2019. First Nintendo Direct of the year.

In attendance are myself, Rawk, Wendy, and non-KoopaTV-staffer-but-friend Ryu, or MarioSun90. For a while, the Direct was appealing to his specific tastes... and then it changed.

Please feel free to watch the Nintendo Direct as we live-react to it. Here's the embed, but the optimal thing is to open it in another window and compare our reactions (per the time stamps) with the video's time-stamp.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the headliner of this Direct, but let's just say that this website doesn't care.
But don't take the above-the-fold's word for it. Read the whole reaction log and confirm for yourself!

The CAPCOM Store Grand Opening!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring no Ace Attorney sellable items. (Not yet.)

Just so we don't get confused by similarly-titled grand opening store articles, the CAPCOM Store is a digital storefront selling all things CAPCOM—merchandise and games. Plus, there is a membership rewards program, which is sort of like what Club Nintendo used to be. (Nothing compared to the free KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, though!)

It just opened. Grand opening! 

Let's see what's on the CAPCOM Store. Fortunately, CAPCOM put together this awesome group artwork of their major franchises to represent the store:

From back row to middle row to front row, left to right:
Grigori (Dragon's Dogma), Rathalos (Monster Hunter);
Arisen (Dragon's Dogma), Ada Wong (Resident Evil 2), Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil 2), Zombie Cop (Resident Evil 2), Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2),
Ken (Street Fighter V), Ryu (Street Fighter V), Chun-Li (Street Fighter V), Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney), Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney), V (Devil May Cry 5), Dante (Devil May Cry 5), GreatSword (Monster Hunter World);
Mega Man (Mega Man), Roll (Mega Man), Nero (Devil May Cry 5), Palico (Monster Hunter World).

There's just one problem with that artwork, compared to what's in the store.

The New 2019 Three-Pillar Nintendo Management Policy

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Resource allocation. And hopes and dreams.

Back around 2003–2005, Nintendo had a three pillar strategy. The Nintendo GameCube, the console business, was the first pillar. The Game Boy Advance, the handheld business, was the second pillar. And the Nintendo DS, this weird gimmicky handheld thing with two screens, was the third pillar.

They called the Nintendo DS the third pillar because if it failed, the handheld business could still live on in the Game Boy line. The fate of the DS was very uncertain, after all, and when it launched, it had weird experimental games rather than the hardcore epics that defined the early-mid 2000s. Gamers were a select, nerdy group of people who were threatened by casuals coming in from the PlayStation 2's DVD player, and the likes of Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton trying to ban videogames.

Eventually, Nintendo collapsed their second pillar, made the DS their handheld line, and transformed the GameCube into the Wii. Two pillars, and Nintendo was the one bringing the casuals in by redefining the image of the gamer.

That was a long time ago. It's 2019 now, and Nintendo's three pillars are now, according to Nintendo's recently-released management policy outline that came after their financial results for nine-months into the year ending March 2019...