Nintendo's Results For Fiscal Year Ended March 2021

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Nintendo made a lot of money.

The numbers are in: Nintendo has easily blew past their forecasted financial goals for how many Nintendo Switch consoles and games they thought they'd sell when they announced their projections a year ago. Nintendo is, without a doubt, one of the companies that benefited immensely by the Chinese Communist Party Virus that has plagued Earth for over a year now. But they'll officially keep referring to it as a “risk” rather than a boon. (An actual risk they cited for future plans is not being able to acquire semiconductor chips... which is a problem almost every other company involved with technology is facing now. ...And that's a lot of companies, which is why there's a shortage.)

If there's one just-released financial document from Nintendo you might want to view, it's their financial results explanatory material presentation. The big goal that Nintendo will be working towards by the end of March 2022? Sell 25.50 million more Nintendo Switch consoles (Switch + Lite), and sell 190 million more games. Note that Nintendo's stock price is down because the projected numbers are lower than the year they just completed, and stockholders like to see continuous improvement, not projected decline.

Here's some of the games (but far from all) that contributed to Nintendo's success. Some will likely continue selling in significant quantities into this new fiscal year...while others will be dead:

We are DEFINITELY talking about Ring Fit Adventure below the page break.
Shout-out to Fire Emblem: Three Houses failing to sell enough copies to have updated numbers, still making it so it officially hasn't passed three million yet.

Parking out of the Toy-Con Garage and into the Game Builder Garage

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The specifications are unclear, but quite important!

In a surprise news drop, Nintendo revealed a new experience coming to Nintendo Switch next month: Game Builder Garage. Here's the trailer, and here's the info page.

As the name implies, you are building games in this...garage. Well, Game Builder Garage is meant as an educational tool (for $30) on some basic concepts of game programming and design via guided tutorials and a Free Programming mode. But it's very familiar... and that's because it's obviously inspired by the Toy-Con Garage infamously associated with the Nintendo Labo that also tried to teach programming the very same way.

If you click that link in the preceding paragraph, you'll get to an article filled with videos set to Private. That's because Nintendo has totally given up on the Nintendo Labo after KoopaTV waged a very justifiable war against it for two years and vanquished it. The Labo videos are put on private and the Labo mini-site is gone. The cardboard forces have moved on to other things, the success of which we should be able to evaluate very shortly as Nintendo is about to do a financial disclosure covering their recently finished fiscal year.

All of that said, before our righteous anti-Labo defensive war, I didn't think that poorly of it. I mean, I wasn't enthusiastic, but I could recognise some potential in the concept. So what about Game Builder Garage?

A PlayStation-Discord Partnership Coming Early 2022...?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We know nothing about the extent of it yet. ...Don't trust anyone who claims to know beyond what's written here as of publishing.

So Sony Interactive Entertainment is very proud to announce that they have entered into a partnership with gamer-focused messaging service Discord, to bring... some kind of integration in early 2022. Sony put out four paragraphs of jargon, really explaining nothing about what they actually plan to do. They also invested money (funding) into Discord.

This statement was (purposefully) written so the reader can get whatever they want out of it:

Together, our teams are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network. Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together.

Sony announced this yesterday. I'll interpret it as not an important announcement for Discord, because between yesterday and today, Discord hasn't mentioned the story on their news or blog pages. If this was gonna be the next big thing for Discord, you'd think they'd mention it.

Let's compare this announcement to a similar one made almost exactly three years ago... this time from Microsoft's Xbox:

KoopaTV's April 2021 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Start of Spring? Late bloomer!

April 2021 was a screwed up month for KoopaTV, owing to the fact that the first week was erased from existence due to our complications with Nintendo.

That affects EVERYTHING in April, so... Keep that in mind. By the way, at the end of this newsletter, there's some BREAKING news that will affect the smartest among you, you so better read it.

Top Four Recommended Experiences of April 2021

This part of the newsletter is normally the Top FIVE Recommended Experiences, but because KoopaTV had a whole week chopped off, I've turned it into the Top FOUR Recommended Experiences. Just to be proportional. I mean, I could easily add a fifth article to this chronologically ordered list:

1. How PAC-MAN 99's Privacy Policy Lies To You — Ludwig actually read the legal documents associated with PAC-MAN 99, and identified a crucial distinction between what the documents suggest and what actually happens in practice.
2. LEGO and Nintendo Announce "Adventures with Luigi" Starter Set — We already know from prior KoopaTV articles that LEGO Super Mario is dangerous—now there'll be a LEGO Luigi to go with the horrors.
3. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles—WORLDWIDE RELEASE: July 27, 2021! — In terms of significantly happier announcements, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles—a compilation of TWO Ace Attorney games that have never released outside of Japan—was announced, and they'll be in PHYSICAL copies outside of Japan! Super hyped!
4. Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 37: The Abs Song — If you enjoy the intersection between exercise and song, then this is for YOU. ...And it's for you even if you don't already know that you enjoy that.

There's many other experiences from April 2021 not on that list (not as many as other months, but still plenty), so be sure to check those out too. Every KoopaTV article is worth reading!

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 37: The Abs Song

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Only the greatest abs make the list!♪

This is the 37th KoopaTV Fitness Log on KoopaTV! That's very special. Why? ...Well, I dunno. It's the week after 36, I guess. Same type of reason why the 50th or the 100th would be important. It's all arbitrary. What's not arbitrary is my devotion to being in shape so I can best represent Team Koopa Kingdom at this year's Olympic Games. I'm on the maximum difficulty level in the training regiment at 30!

This log features Ring Fit Adventure's World 37: Extra Fitness Lv. 231, which is based off World 14: Moppets Gone Missing, covered initially here and then concluded here. There's supposed to be a lot of fog and a lot of ghosts. I'm not a fan of either. Well, with the exception of Boo and King Boo in Mario Superstar Baseball.

Typing that last sentence in the preceding paragraph REALLY made me want to put off my fitness journey to go to my GameCube and play Mario Superstar Baseball, but I stuck to doing the right thing and started playing Ring Fit Adventure on Sunday. ...Actually, that might be the wrong thing, since I haven't eaten yet today and I'm hungry...

Well, if you insist... and I can't resist... I better work out right now and not do something else!
(Martha and Carrie were formerly ghosts back in World 14.)

The ghosts that once plagued this world in the story mode are no more, and they're singing an irresistible song about abdominal muscles. Instead of joining in the song about training abs, we go to the spooky Missed Highway to actually train our abs. While the ghosts are gone and turned to humans, the fog is still omnipresent. Apparently, Dragon Fruit grows here (I only found one, at the end), so if you find leveling up to be important, definitely drink a smoothie to double your ingredient haul. There are also two Treasure Chasers with 100 and 150 coins, and this is also the world where Blue/Red/Yellow/Green enemies are greatly replaced with Cobalt/Garnet/Ochre/Malachite enemies. That is supposed to represent an enemy quality buff. Right after completing this highway, I went to the Game Gym north of it, and it's Bootstrap Tower (Novice). Novice?! We've been on Advanced-difficulty minigames for a few worlds now! Why back to novice? Then I remembered why—it's the Novice layout, but all in fog. Which isn't considered a different difficulty than Novice in terms of how the game tracks your high scores. Still, for completing it, I got a Defense Drink.

The Lental Region's Pokémon in their Natural Depth... if you want

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - How eager are you to go on nature trails?

Three and a half months ago, I wrote a controversial article titled Telling You Now: New Pokémon Snap Shouldn't be $60. I still stand by that sentiment, by the way. It's just now New Pokémon Snap actually releases on the Nintendo Switch tomorrow, so I figured I'd comment on the new stuff we've learned about the game since.

For starters, today Nintendo released this rather compelling trailer showing many Pokémon interacting with one another within a natural habitat, and if you have a fondness for the Pokémon outside of them as competitive battling tools, you should appreciate it.

Not only are you passively observing and taking photos of Pokémon in their habitat, but you can affect the environment by tossing items like Fluffruit and the Illumina Orb, or scanning the environment or playing a melody. You can also take different routes within levels, upgrade the levels by exploring them enough (which prompts new/different Pokémon and interactions to occur, which allows for new photo opportunities), and uncover... mysteries. And of course, your photos are graded.

Previous KoopaTV screenshots of New Pokémon Snap feature Bouffalant in the day.
But you can also encounter Bouffalant at NIGHT! ...And they're asleep, as they should be. Good moos.

There's gameplay and interactivity, sure, and there seems to be lots of Pokémon personality. I still think this should be half the price of what it is for the content that's contained. Yeah, I'm biased against the whole genre, I guess. If you want some further interaction with the Lental Region before buying the game, check out Nintendo's website for it, which is a whole interactive experience.

I think a big reason people are actually interested in New Pokémon Snap—besides nostalgia—is because they're in an artificial drought and want to fill it with something. Personally, I haven't bought any games yet in 2021. I still have lots and lots to play from the games I currently own, some I haven't even started. That'll change within one to three months. Depends if I'm sold on Famicom Detective Club or not before I pick up The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles at launch.


Is Ludwig a jerk for advocating for adventure games instead of rail photography romps, when both are niche genres nowadays with questionable interactivity? Let him know in the comments section; and if you are picking up New Pokémon Snap, why you're doing so. Ludwig promises he'll stop skipping new Pokémon games when the Sinnoh remasters arrive.

KoopaTV Live Reactions: SOTU 2021 + Tim Scott's Response

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Technically not a State of the Union, but “President Biden Addresses a Joint Session of Congress”.

While KoopaTV is supposed to be a videogame commentary story, sometimes we get caught up in doing non-videogame-related things that we would rather not do, but must do, thanks to the TV in KoopaTV's name. Carrying America's State of the Union addresses every year is one of those things, since those end up on every channel.

KoopaTV's whole staff should be here to react to it, but they all fell asleep just at the THOUGHT of listening to President Joseph Robinette Biden talk for over an hour. However, since I've built up some STAMINA with my weekly fitness training (look at KoopaTV's Friday articles), I'm in the best physical condition to endure this onslaught of boredom and monotony. ...Still, it's quite the challenge. Check out my log and see if I survived.

Also, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina gave the Republican Response to the address.

[8:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Joe Biden took over the TV part of KoopaTV. :(
[8:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh87V3f0FaA
[8:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: 3.8k Likes and 12k Dislikes.
[8:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He didn't even start yet.
[8:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...But they're probably right.
[8:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I can't tell if the White House stream won't start until Biden starts talking, or it's glitched.

(There's no substantive difference between a State of the Union address and a Joint Session of Congress speech.)

[9:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's past the time it's supposed to start and it hasn't started, but... nothing happening is probably better.
[9:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...nevermind it's starting.

Monster Hunter Digital Event April 2021 Thoughts

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Warning: My thoughts are mostly for Monster Hunter Stories 2.

Just last month, CAPCOM held the Monster Hunter Digital Event - March 2021. Now today, there's the Monster Hunter Digital Event - April 2021. Maybe we'll get one next month, too. Like before, this talked about both Monster Hunter Stories 2 and Monster Hunter Rise, and in that order. Unlike last month, both games got about the same amount of time to shine:

Quite frankly, it's better to just look at the Monster Hunter Stories 2 website to see the new information than to watch through the event. CAPCOM's web designers did a fancy job of putting blue dots next to the new info. Basically, on top of the basic plot points we learned last time about the protagonist's newly hatched Rathalos super-pet/friend supposedly being a calamitous creature that will bring ruin to the world, there are several organised Hunters that want to capture/kill your pal. Which, hey, makes sense. Everyone in the land probably knows the legends of what your Razewing Ratha is supposed to do, and based people adventuring a lot as their occupation, word must get out fast.

International Olympic Committee's Olympic Virtual Series of 2021

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We are NOT talking eSports, though.

As you may know, I'm an Olympic athlete. Team Koopa Kingdom will be at the Tokyo 2020 (2021) Olympic Games in under 100 days. As you may expect, I'm pretty interested in the intersection between videogames and the Olympics. We previously wrote about how there was an Xbox tournament at the 2018 Special Olympics (featuring Forza Motorsport 7), but that's not the real Olympics. Later in 2018, Thomas Bach said that he's definitely against eSports at the Olympic Games due to an association with violence. He's still in charge.

We also noted there are three videogames based on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. One is Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - The Official Video Game, which released only in Japan in July 2019 and has apparently been forgotten about since. There is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which released in 2019 as well. It's pretty bad. Lastly, there is THE PEGASUS DREAM TOUR, which I asked the developers about back in mid-2020. It's still not out yet, but they're allegedly working on it for a 2021 release.

HOWEVER, what this article is ACTUALLY about (I buried the lede, didn't I?) is that the International Olympic Committee is partnering to produce the Olympic Virtual Series (OVS), the first-ever Olympic-licenced event for virtual sports! The series begins this May 13 and ends June 23. Those partners are...

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 36: There in El Dorago is Lord Dragaux!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - But we're going to his other stadiums first to dismantle statues.

Normally, my main goal in playing Ring Fit Adventure on a weekly basis is to... be in better shape for the purposes of winning the Tokyo Olympic Games. We call it KoopaTV Fitness Fridays. Last week, we cleared World 35.

This week, however, in the spirit of the United States of America, our main goal this week was to tear down statues. Which, by the way, still requires finesse.

The best place to find statues to destroy is Ring Fit Adventure's World 36: Extra Fitness Lv. 225, based off World 13: El Dorago, with the majority of that content covered in our Week 12 log. I'm continuing to play on difficulty level 30.

Now, Ring doesn't remember where Dragaux is, but according to my notes in KoopaTV's Week 13 Fitness Log, he's in the bottom left Dragaux Stadium. THEREFORE, we'll do that LAST. That's because we want to stock up on Dragaux Statue Cores and Dragaux Statue Fragments obtained by destroying Dragaux Statues and Mini Dragaux Statues, respectively. General Store Number 32 is offering the Stone Dragon II clothing set but they require those items (two Cores and two Fragments—Cores are more scarce), while the Peacock Contender II set requires two Peridot stones.

I do remember. I just wrote it in the paragraph above, Ring.
I hope you read my content and not just look at the pictures and the captions.

Dragaux surprisingly acknowledges that the bottom left Dragaux Stadium is the real one without us having to clear any of the other ones first, just by visiting it from the overworld map. But we can cancel out of that and do the others.

We're visiting Dragaux first thing, but we're not actually going to enter his Stadium until the end.

Let's start with the top right Dragaux Stadium, which is two minutes of a Squat-powered rail cart into a Dragaux Statue miniboss. Dragaux Statues can punch you, gleam through its eyes at you to reduce your defence, and my favourite action of all, shoot laser beams from its eyes that do far more damage than the punch. (Still not enough to be a threat.) Defeating it forced it to drop a valuable Dragaux Statue Core