Gluten Wars the Splatfest: Pizza vs. Burgers

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What I think... plus the opinions of many others!

The next North American Splatfest is December 5, 2015! It’s Team Burgers vs. Team Pizza! So turn on your Nintendo Wii U and get ready for awesome Splatoon action! (Forgot about Xenoblade Chronicles X, okay?)

(Those times are in Central.) “I hope you’re hungry for action!” “And food!”

Believe it or not, but we didn’t have any Splatfests for the entire month of November! The last one was still the Halloween Pirates vs. Ninjas — and my pick, Team Pirates, won! We’re actually behind Japan now, which has had eight Splatfests. North America and Europe each have had seven. Most of Japan’s have been food-related, but this is only North America’s second eating-related Splatfest since Marshmallows vs. Hotdogs!

Considering Team Marshmallows won, and that hotdogs and burgers are basically the same thing except set up in a different orientation, Team Pizza should definitely at least be more popular and with approximately the same skill level.

It makes sense, too. People try to get you to come to their events with PIZZA. “Economics Club meeting Thursday night at 7! Pizza will be served!” Or something. And it’s not just your college club — it spans everything, even crunch time at videogame companies. Everyone loves pizza. Including me! Even if it’s made from Pac-Man!

...A-Are you SURE Pac-Man is gluten-free?!?

But I’m sort of... impartial in this debate, so I’ll defer to the strongly-held opinions of the following people:

(Round 3) Ludwig's Best. Game. Ever 2015 Votes

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Thirty-two of the top games a sheltered gaming community thinks are the best ever.

You might be asking which game I think GameFAQs will crown as the BEST. GAME. EVER. At this point, it's been decisively proven that GameFAQs has lost control over their own contest. Thanks to dedicated crazies at tumblr rallying tens of thousands of votes in support of a game that literally just came out! Jeez, what a honeymoon period.

So it's less GameFAQs and more the Internet. So in that case, KoopaTV does matter! Not that we can tip the scales of a poll. And not that we all think the same way. Well, whatever. Here's what I think. You can vote here, by the way.

TIME FOR ROUND 3! I think the "3" I made here is pretty good!

See my Round 2 picks here. The games I picked did... pretty well. I mean, I voted for who I'd want to win, not who I think will move on. It just so happened that most of them did move on.

Round 3 begins Sunday, so this article won't be on the Best. Game. Ever. tab on this site until Sunday. I just don't want to have polls missed without you knowing my opinion! I'm very important, you see. Also, formatting change: There will be TWO matches a day in Round 3, not the four matches we've had in Rounds 1 and 2. (Round 1 pick here.)

Head to the comments section if you want to start a conversation about any of my choices, or perhaps what YOU'D vote for! And for the first time ever, I'm going to occasionally give comments as to why I'm making certain votes within the article. That should make for a value-added experience.

Black Friday: Get the Splatoon-Super Smash Bros. Wii U Bundle

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's the best Wii U deal I've ever seen.

It's time for the holiday season to begin. According to Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime,

"Wii U has something for everyone leading us into the holidays. If you're still waiting to jump in, or looking for a great gift this season, keep an eye out for a new Wii U bundle this holiday. Featuring not just Super Smash Bros. For Wii U but also the surprise hit of the year: Splatoon."

Then he immediately follows,

"Also, be on the look out for some great deals on the original Nintendo 3DS XL system. If either of those strikes your fancy, be ready come Black Friday."

While according to our awesome feedback (and thanks for filling it out — and if you still haven't taken the KoopaTV Feedback Form Part I along with the KoopaTV Quiz Part I, what are you waiting for?! It's fun and rewarding!), the majority of y'all have a Wii U and pretty much everyone already has a Nintendo 3DS, if you DON'T own them or you want to give a very good gift, here's your best chance ever.

"Smash Splat Special Edition Deluxe Set" starting at $249.00! Not even $249.99!

You can see more awesome Nintendo deals at Nintendo's special happy holidays deals page. The only reservation I'd have with this is you don't get the cool GameCube controller stuff with it.

Maybe I should use this chance to get some kind of replacement Nintendo 3DS system for my current defective disaster that is now preventing me from actually enjoying new games coming out? ("Replace your broken 3DS with a newer 3DS that might also break!" isn't a good sales pitch. I've heard people say that's how the PlayStation 2 sold so much, and I used to be able to point to my indestructible Nintendo systems and laugh at them.)

Ludwig's Pokémon Fate Finally Lacks Shells

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Just started and bought Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon! Might be as far as I get.

Once upon a time, there was a game series called Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. It was on the Game Boy Advance as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and it was amazing. You became a Pokémon and had a partner. The Pokémon you had was based on a personality test. Back in Red Rescue Team I was Treecko, and my partner was Squirtle. My team was Team TeamKoopa... 'cause I didn't know they'd prefix "Team" to the name you picked.

Then there was the sequel! Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time was what I got, and I was destined for Turtwig! My partner? Once again, Squirtle! We had some amazing shell-shocking action, and my team was Team TeamKoopaRedux. (This time the redundancy was an intentional tribute.)

After that, there was Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, generously gifted to me by a fantastic KoopaTV reader for my birthday. The same fantastic person who is sponsoring November-December's KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program prizes of a $30, $15, and $5 Amazon codes! (And anyone, including you, can and should try to win those. Start by reading that page to figure out how.) I wouldn't have gotten it myself, since I've heard some bad things about it. Those bad things were... more or less right. 

There was no fate, destiny, or personality test. You just got to choose between five Pokémon (instead of having, like, nearly 20 possibilities from the previous titles): Axew, Pikachu, Snivy, Oshawott, and Tepig. I chose Axew as my character and Oshawott as my partner. We were known as "The KoopaTV" in the game, which gave many opportunities for screenshots. Except the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Miiverse community doesn't allow for screenshots. There were no opportunities for anyone with a shell in Gates to Infinity. There was a very lacking selection of Pokémon in general, while its prequels and sequel have every known Pokémon in them. Let's pretend it never happened.

Fortunately, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon's does have a personality quiz! And so, you may be wondering... who am I there?

Localisation Is Not Censorship

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Localisation and censorship are actually mutually exclusive.

There is a lot of controversy lately that Nintendo is engaged in outright censorship of games coming from Japan to North America. KoopaTV is an anti-censorship bastion of freedom fries, so it makes sense that we should join in the pile demonising Nintendo, right? ...But, alas, these cries of censorship come only from people who... have no idea what they're talking about.

Over the course of this article, I will illustrate the difference between what people think Nintendo is doing — censorship — and what they and other companies actually do: localisation. Or localization for you z-diehards out there who are going to search engine that way.

What do people consider censorship nowadays? Maybe the lewd outfits in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water that got replaced with Nintendo lady costumes instead. I've heard complaints about the "boob slider" in Xenoblade Chronicles X that I didn't even know existed got taken out of the localised version of the game. There is a rumour that in Bravely Second, Nintendo (the outside-Japan publisher) changed the Tomahawk (class in Japan) class to the Cowboy class (class outside Japan). Though the "Cowboy" name is what people are calling it, not what the game would call it.

None of that is censorship. 

Nintendo Badge Casino

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Gateway to Internet gambling.

Once upon a time, Nintendo released this quirky 3DS application called Nintendo Badge Arcade that allows you to put "badges" (nice little pictures of Nintendo characters) on your 3DS menu. This decorates it substantially to go along with your themes, folders, and game thumbnails! It's "free-to-play"... not really. It's basically a crane game and you use a dollar of real money to get 5 crane chances.

Here's what my home screen looks like now:

Ludwig's 3DS home screen, featuring Starly, Makuhita, Lucario, and Staravia.

The folders used to be labeled "DUDE", which was totally unintentional. These stand for "Daily" (Starly), "Useless Shit" (Makuhita), "Demos" (Lucario), and "e-Shop Games" (Staravia). I haven't changed this since folders were first invented on the 3DS and it's served me sort of well! Though there has definitely been mobility, like Swapnote going from "Daily" to "Useless Shit".

Anyway, I got those badges from the "practice" plays that, if you're fortunate enough, seem to give you 1-3 free tries at the crane per day. Could you just grind off that?

Well, no. Because the badges are available for only a limited time, and apparently dozens of these are available at any given moment and expiring at any given moment. The result? If you want everything, you need to pay. A fortune. 

(Round 2) Ludwig's Best. Game. Ever 2015 Votes

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - From 128, we have 64. DIVISION by two!

We are lots of steps closer to figuring out what the Internet (or at least GameFAQs) will consider to be their BEST. GAME. EVER. ...Eh, we can probably take a good guess that it'll be a certain game involving a musical instrument, sages, an overly difficult submerged temple in a lake, and a stormy windmill.

That game won't be the one I'll be supporting (well, I'm voting for it this round, but still), and this is all about who I'll be voting for, not who I think will win.

I don't even remember what font I used for the rounds, so I'll just take the 2 they got. What will happen in round 3?
You can vote every match here when it's up on GameFAQs. Four matches every 24 hours. (One division a day.)

See my Round 1 picks here. Many of them didn't make it to Round 2, including some of the games I would take to win their divisions. (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney!) But hey, sometime you'll get my pure favouritism bracket. For now, we're still in reality.

Round 2 begins Saturday. Or in less than an hour after this is published. Wanted it to be timely, you know.

Head to the comments section if you want to start a conversation about any of my choices, or perhaps what YOU'D vote for! 

What Happened to Tom Clancy's The Division?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - You know, the apocalypse begins on Black Friday...

Memetic inside jokes can lead to powerful reactions. It's the reason why Tom Clancy's The Division is one of my most anticipated games even though I'm never going to own it. Sadly, it doesn't look like it'll be an edutainment MMO but instead an open-world online shooting RPG, though I maintain if it was edutainment it'd be even more profitable. Division blessed us all starting in Ubisoft's E3 2013 conference. Then it continued to get mentioned in Ubisoft's E3 2014. And then it had a WORLD PREMIERE in Microsoft's E3 2015, apparently retconning the previous two years of E3. Ubisoft finally gave us release details at their 2015 conference. Given the fact that its development has unexpectedly spanned three years of E3 conferences, I think Division deserves a status update.

According to Ubisoft back then, the game is supposed to come out March 8, 2016, on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Betas are supposed to come out earlier than that in 2016, though according to The Division's website,

"Xbox One players will be able to experience the beta first during an exclusive this December. An additional beta on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 system, and PC will take place in early 2016. More details are coming soon!" 

So if you got an Xbox One, you're luckier than the rest. That's fair, I guess. Ubisoft clearly liked Microsoft more for The Division!

Also according to the FAQ,

Electronic Arts — Nickel and Diming Customers

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They claim they don't WANT to. It just happens.

Not much to write about here: According to GameSpot, Electronic Arts through their Chief Financial Officer Mr. Blake Jorgensen, has declared,

"I do think there's a bit of consumer fatigue around feeling like they're getting nickle and dimed all the time. And a lot of mobile games don't allow you to have fun unless you've paid for it, so we're looking at new models of ways to try to alleviate some of that fatigue that's going on. Some of those might come in the form of subscription-style, but some of them might simply come in different ways to play games over time so you don't feel like you're always getting nickel and dimed."

I would like to note that GameSpot's transcript (which I faithfully quoted), which came from Jorgensen's speech at the invitation-only UBS Global Technology Conference, spelled "nickel" two different ways within the same paragraph. I can confirm it's supposed to be "nickel". Meanwhile, "Nickle" tends to be a surname.

UBS is a financial services broker-dealer, by the way. It's not a videogame thing, just a bunch of technology companies at some conference so people will invest in them. Activision Blizzard is there too, which is important to note for a snarky point I'll make shortly. Activision is represented by Amrita Ahuja, who is their Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. So don't feel bad if you've never heard of this conference or its attendees, since it's not meant for the lay-person like, say, E3 would be.

Now for substance, though this pretty much writes itself. 

Linkle's Derivative Doom

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't like her at all. Or what she stands for.

When Nintendo first introduced Linkle to us last week for Hyrule Warriors Legends on the 3DS, I was just having trouble figuring out what her name actually was. Lingle (Tingle + Link)? Winkle? Amazingly, my live reaction was,

"Featuring an original character that looks like Zelda."

That's right. When Bill Trinen said, "She [Linkle] looks quite familiar", I thought Linkle resembled Zelda more than Link!

If Zelda were smiling here and not looking down, you'd see a ton of similarities!

I thought Linkle was a parallel version of Zelda dressed up in a Link costume. You know, some sort of Link fangirl. And I guess that's still what she could be. The day after the Direct, I wrote:

"Linkle. Linkle... Linkle...... What a disgrace. Tecmo Koei is shaming the Zelda series with their idiotic "original characters". I think it's to the point of parody now. Maybe it was a parody to begin with, with their other "original characters" in Hyrule Warriors that end up taking a ton of attention? (And are majority female for some reason.) I don't know." 

I still don't know, but there is something I do know now, and it has to do with the reaction to Linkle's existence by professional grievers...

KoopaTV Judges CBS's Democrat Presidential Debate

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The title is a misnomer. They're not running to be your president. They're running to be your tyrant.

We don't want KoopaTV's judgments of these presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley (how long does he plan to be there?) to get stale. So let me put it up front:

This will be the last Democrat 2016 presidential primary we'll be judging. Oh, I'll still watch them because of my masochist behaviours. But we could keep giving analysis on the events of Thursday's Nintendo Direct and have plenty of material without wasting articles on these D-denominated dimwits.

More importantly, this is all still a coronation of Hillary Clinton. She is the inevitable candidate that no one with an operating brain has love for. At least the other side has an on-going exciting soap opera of moving parts full of drama and intrigue. And at least some candidates on that other side are bringing up issues surrounding the videogame industry, or even directly referenced a specific game. Meanwhile all the Democrats have is a candidate who has a past of trying to ban videogame sales.

And that's a good segue to go into the tyranny they wish upon America! 

Was the November 2015 Nintendo Direct THAT Mind-Blowing?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Ludwig is the rain Cloud over your hype.

Now that it's been a full day and then some, let's look at yesterday's Nintendo Direct more objectively.

There was a LOT discussed and mentioned in yesterday's Nintendo Direct in North America and Europe. Here's a graphic showing... pretty much everything, I hope.

I worked hard on trying to get everything to fit!

 

Ludwig's Nintendo Direct November 12 2015 Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Just me here... but WHAAAT.

We haven't had a Reaction Log since E3 2015. Now, Nintendo is finally having a new Nintendo Direct! Join KoopaTV's staff in our live reactions to the Nintendo Direct today! ...Nevermind it's just Ludwig everyone else is an absentee. Maybe they didn't believe there really could be another one of these in a post-Iwata world. But I think they did fine without him. So here's the embedded video, and read my reactions after the page break!

KoopaTV Judges The Fox Business Network Republican Debaters

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They're not all the candidates, so Lindsey Graham won't be winning any "cute" awards.

The last time the Republican candidates debated, it was a total waste of time if you wanted to see the candidates talk about solutions to America's problems (that may exacerbate the problems, but at least they're trying) instead of trashing crappy moderators.

Now we're in a debate on mostly economics issues with Fox Business Network, featuring Neil Cavuto as moderator. What that means is that unlike the "buncha jokahs" of CNBC, we're promised a debate on economics done right. And hey, that's mostly what we got.

We got two debates, actually. The "loser" or "undercard" one, and the main one. I'll go over my thoughts on all twelve candidates from those, WITH SUPER CONTEST AWARDS!

Myth: School Takes Up All Your Time!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's a bad excuse. The problem is actually you.

I get told sometimes in my direct-marketing campaigns, "Oh, your site looks really interestin' Mr. Koopa, but I'm too busy with [excuse here] to read it." And that excuse tends to be academics-related, probably because this site attracts mostly teenagers. People just have bad time management skills. Time management is a skill that you have to develop and practise. The good news is that that means it's obtainable, not something you need to be gifted with. People would love to be good at time management — if you're efficient with your time, you get time-savings that you can use as you choose. It's the same with money and cost-savings.

So because I want you to vaporise the notion that you just don't have the time to read KoopaTV 'cause you're so busy doing something else ("I'm in school and I have mid-terms every week until finals!" — seriously, it doesn't matter when I ask, you're always having a mid-term. Back in my day, people had one mid-term and it was in the middle of the term!) I am going to drop some time management knowledge on you. Then maybe you'll have the time to watch the debates on Fox Business Network tonight, or you can watch them on replay later.

The Effect of Fan Influence

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Does the organisation even want your influence?

Some guy named Unknown had this request for me:

"write about ringabel brave and influence of him (and the rest of your fans) on koopatv over the years"

Um... Well while I'm not going to speak to the influence of a specific fan (who apparently has an on-again off-again relationship with KoopaTV, and regularly trash-posts his and my Google+ accounts — though he's free to correct the record in the comments section), I will say that our fans are very important to us. I don't know if I can point to a specific thing, but fans have made a multitude of requested articles happen that wouldn't exist otherwise as you can see from the comments of the requested articles article.

And if you haven't seen Friday's Feedback Form Part I yet, you should. We're actively looking over your responses, and if you give something substantive to discuss we'll even engage in a conversation with you. Isn't that nice?

Unfortunately, not every company is nice. If a company won't even bother to have decent customer service, the likelihood they'll give a crap about what fans want is pretty low. Customer service reps are a company's first line of interaction between the company and the fans. They're out there in their cubicles every day being fed a wealth of information about the needs and troubles of their customers, and if the company doesn't invest in 'em, then the company is losing out on all that and doesn't give a shit.

KoopaTV Feedback Forms and Quizzes!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Fun for you, points for you, and data-mining knowing our audience more for us.

We promised we'd get into the feedback survey two months ago in our August 2015 Review Newsletter. Now it's happened.

Every new KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program period, we'll make new Google Forms that you can participate in. If you leave your handle in there, then you will be awarded points for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program.

So, feedback forms and quizzes. They're fun. They'll be different every new KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program round. You will get credit for them. The exact point values are in the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program article and may change between rounds.

Basic summary: You aren't graded on your answers in the Feedback Form and will get the point value just for submitting. You are graded on Quizzes and get one point for every correct question. You may only submit once for KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program points per round, and only for the round assigned to the particular form/quiz.

You're free to take previous out-of-season forms and quizzes. We'll still look at the results and you'll still have fun. Click here to jump to the current Feedback Form, and click here to jump to the current Quiz.

Feedback Forms

Current Feedback Form

Round 50 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XLII

Previous Feedback Forms

1. Round 49 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XLI
2. Round 48 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XL
3. Round 47 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXIX
4. Round 46 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXVIII
5. Round 45 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXVII
6. Round 44 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXVI
7. Round 43 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXV
8. Round 42 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXIV
9. Round 41 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXIII
10. Round 40 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXII
11. Round 39 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXI
12. Round 38 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXX
13. Round 37 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXIX
14. Round 36 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXVIII
15. Round 35 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXVII
16. Round 34 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXVI
17. Round 32 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXV
18. Round 31 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXIV
19. Round 30 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXIII
20. Round 29 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXII
21. Round 28 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXI
22. Round 27 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XX
23. Round 26 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XIX
24. Round 25 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XVIII
25. Round 21 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XVII
26. Round 20 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XVI
27. Round 19 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XV
28. Round 18 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XIV
29. Round 17 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XIII
30. Round 16 (September 1–October 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XII
31. Round 15 (July 1–August 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XI
32. Round 14 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part X
33. Round 13 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part IX
34. Round 12 (January 1–February 27): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part VIII
35. Round 11 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part VII
36. Round 10 (September 1–October 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part VI
37. Round 9 (July 1–August 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part V
38. Round 8 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part IV
39. Round 7 (March 1–March 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part III
40. Round 6 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part II
41. Round 5 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Feedback Form Part I

Quizzes

Current Quiz

Round 50 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XLII

Previous Quizzes

1. Round 49 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XLI
2. Round 48 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part XL
3. Round 47 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXIX
4. Round 46 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXVIII
5. Round 45 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXVII
6. Round 44 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXVI
7. Round 43 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXV
8. Round 42 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXIV
9. Round 41 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXIII
10. Round 40 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXII
11. Round 39 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXI
12. Round 38 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXX
13. Round 37 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXIX
14. Round 36 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXVIII
15. Round 35 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXVII
16. Round 34 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXVI
17. Round 32 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXV
18. Round 31 (March 1–April 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXIV
19. Round 30 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXIII
20. Round 29 (November 1–December 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXII
21. Round 28 (September 1–October 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XXI
22. Round 27 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XX
23. Round 26 (May 1–June 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XIX
24. Round 25 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part XVIII
25. Round 21 (July 1–August 31): KoopaTV Quiz Part XVII
26. Round 20 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part XVI
27. Round 19 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part XV
28. Round 18 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part XIV
29. Round 17 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XIII
30. Round 16 (September 1–October 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XII
31. Round 15 (July 1–August 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part XI
32. Round 14 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part X
33. Round 13 (March 1–April 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part IX
34. Round 12 (January 1–February 27): KoopaTV Quiz Part VIII
35. Round 11 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part VII
36. Round 10 (September 1–October 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part VI
37. Round 9 (July 1–August 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part V
38. Round 8 (May 1–June 29): KoopaTV Quiz Part IV
39. Round 7 (March 1–March 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part III
40. Round 6 (January 1–February 28): KoopaTV Quiz Part II
41. Round 5 (November 1–December 30): KoopaTV Quiz Part I

Note: KoopaTV collects your feedback information solely for the purpose of improving KoopaTV, discussing your feedback and answers among the staff, and giving you points for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. KoopaTV does not share your responses or personal information with any third parties. Submitting the forms and quizzes is an affirmative action indicating you understand this.



Look forward to future rounds where the questions on these forms will be changed! Fun! If you have any ideas for good questions, KoopaTV is all ears in the comments section.

ESA Study: 48% of Gamers are Conservatives

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If this is true, then this is extremely pleasing!

The Entertainment Software Association, America's biggest videogame trade and lobby group (they're our good pals), has released a new study out today, Essential Facts About Gamers and Politics. In their own words,

"The first-of-its-kind survey explored the political attitudes of video game players, providing a snapshot of their political leanings and positions on key issues." 

Take a look at this mandatory-to-view infographic released by the ESA that summarises their findings. One of the most interesting findings are the political leanings of gamers:

Yo, what? 48% conservative? I thought we were in the MINORITY.

This is more interesting when compared with non-gamers:

King Activision: Murders and Executions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Bobby Kotick is making deals. Expect him to run for president later.

I have always been really happy when enemies decide to conveniently and transparently pair up with one another. It just makes things so much easier that you now only have to focus on one alliance, right? Suppose one day I felt like trashing Activision. But that same day, I also felt like trashing King Digital Entertainment. Well, why not both at the same time?

And now I can do that without a tangent, since Activision has now completely acquired all of King for $5.9 billion. Just outright bought. Everything. Call of Duty (oh, there's one of those coming out in a few days, right? It's that time of year again) now sits under the same roof as Candy Crush Saga. Skylanders now sleeps with... um... whatever other franchises King has. Fortunately, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick knows a lot more about his own acquisitions than I do. He just won't name names or give specifics, like a certain guy running for president.

"But when we looked at King, we saw four great franchises with lots of potential, one super franchise, and a fantastic pipeline. That got us really excited." 

The Retail amiibo Shelf and National StreetPass Weekend

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring: The day after Halloween.

A day in the life of Ludwig: Well, a special day. After spending Halloween playing Splatoon to support the victorious Team Pirates in Splatfest, I needed to obtain the $10 eShop gift card that was the prize of Round 4 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. You know, for our lustrous winner ShinyGirafarig. I also wanted to finally get Yoshi's Woolly World after having such a warm, snuggly article for its launch.

So it sounds like what I needed to do was go to a videogame store. Well, let's go to my reoccurring local Best Buy!

This time we have a ton of Captain Olimar & Pikmin amiibo.

Yoshi's Woolly World with the included yarn Yoshi amiibo ($60 bundle) wasn't on the shelf, so I had to ask for it from the back-room. And it was there! But while I was waiting for the Best Buy rep, I was wondering around the store.

I figured out that promising a $10 Xbox Live code or a $10 PlayStation Store code could be... bad ideas, as I teased yesterday. There was no $10 Xbox Live code in the store. The lowest denomination was $25. There were $10 PlayStation Store codes, but they were in a set of 3 that were $30 total. There was also, like, 1 of them at the front of the store instead of near all the PlayStation stuff. Not very reliable. Meanwhile, Nintendo's eShop cards had plenty of $10 denominations in both weird AR card forms I don't trust, and just the code.

I also found something else...

KoopaTV's October 2015 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We get to claim victimhood, too. Plus, Round 5 begins!

KoopaTV has all the news and videogame commentary unfit to print or to air, so we're stuck to a poorly-made website (with a cool domain name) instead. That said, we're fundamentally your website. So we wanna let you know what's happened over the past month and how you can help make your own site (by which I mean this one) better. Get ready, we got headers and anchors again.

More Censorship

This sucks to say, but we have more news continuing off a series of bad news. We've told you before how KoopaTV's videogame Defend Anita Sarkeesian got censored to hell from our content-hosting website. Then last month, Part 4 of our guide to Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! also got removed. Well it turns out that on October 1st, Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! itself got censored.

"We removed this project because it is too violent or scary for the Scratch website. Scratch is for kids ages 8 and up, so it's important that everything shared is appropriate for all ages."

This is a huge loss for the world, but fortunately you can see most of what the game had to offer by watching Jareditton's Let's Play of it here. Of course, there's nothing like playing the game, and you can get the file to download and play on your computer if you ask me nicely.

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 4 Results

Of course, you want to know who won. It's not really a surprise since we have this whole publicly-available spreadsheet, but here are the final standings between September 1 and October 30 for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program!