KoopaTV's March 2016 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Just a quick update on the site.

Did you like KoopaTV this March? If you don't, that'd suck. Anyway, as usual, we had great content this month. So great, that I decided to publish this newsletter talking about how great we were a day before you'd expect it.

It was so great, I could not wait.

You were great too. Take a look at the final standings of the one-month-long Round 7 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program: 

1. ShinyGirafarig — 57 points
2. Samantha Lienhard — 32 points
3. Nandin Lopez — 29 points 

ShinyGirafarig is our GRAND (and only) PRIZE WINNER! You get a $10 Nintendo eShop code! Just... not right away. ...I'm still in Brazil, and those aren't widely available here. Please understand.

Okay, back to how great we are. Let's check out my top five most recommended articles from March 2016, in chronological order:

1. Interactive User Interfaces... Helping You LEARN!
2. Paper Mario: The Series' First Trailers
3. Nintendo NY's Grand Reopening
4. Smash Ain't No Joke — But Little Mac Became One
5. The Media's Misreporting of the Wii U's Production Into Next Year

The great thing about KoopaTV is that every article is worth reading. I could've given a totally different set of five articles, and you wouldn't give me a weirder look than usual.

Stay tuned to KoopaTV. Whatever happens tomorrow will surely be awesome, right? Every day is awesome on KoopaTV! (Except Saturdays and Sundays.)

...Ugh, that optimism is making me sick.


While Ludwig is only pretending to be an optimist, if you actually are one, you should share KoopaTV's awesomeness to everyone you know! Spread the greatness.


The optimism wasn't making Ludwig sick, but something else...
Ludwig finally got to escape Brazil and get the eShop code for ShinyGirafarig.
Last month's newsletter is accessible here. It was published on the first of March.
Eventually, Ludwig got better and the rest of April happened. Here is its review newsletter.
For last year's March newsletter, click here. 
For next year's March newsletter, click here.

All CAPTURE THE CONFEDERATE FLAG Voice Acting, Sound Effects, PLUS...!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - ...Plus the final boss music. I promised it.

It has been a great three months on the trail, promoting KoopaTV's latest videogame, Capture the Confederate Flag. It's received many accolades from people, including KoopaTV's Best PC Game 2015 and Best New Character 2015. I heard it's fun, too.

I think enough time has passed that it's safe to dump spoiler-laden content onto you.

If you're comfortable with that, then keep going with the article. (I put the click here for more break BEFORE video embeds if you're viewing this article without being directly linked to it!)

If you're not, play the game by clicking on the first hyperlink in this article.

There is nearly NINE MINUTES of content here. That's much higher than any of our other games!

SPLATFESTS! Wins, Popularity, and Region Differences

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The rights of the minority. (Featuring: Excel PivotCharts and graphs!)

There is widespread frustration among the North American Splatoon community over Splatfest. KoopaTV readers read my detailed, reasoned rationale for my team picks for each North American Splatfest (in 2015, that was rated to be the best article series on the site — and it's still continuing into 2016). However, not everyone chooses their team decisions based on principle, or based on which team they genuinely like the most. There is a growing group of players that try to “meta-game” Splatfest: Choose the team that is most likely to win. How do they decide which team will most likely win?

In North America, there appears to be a pattern where the winning team has low popularity, and a high win rate. Meaning, choose the less popular team. More astute players believe that most of Splatoon's player base in North America are children, and children are more likely to pick a certain team. Therefore, pick the other team, for children are less skilled.

Central to this is the calculation for which team wins: Currently, it is Score =  Popularity% + (Win% * 6). The Win multiplayer was originally 2, then it moved to 4. For most of Splatfest history, it has been the current 6. This basically makes the winner of Splatfest to be the team that wins the most, since Popularity is basically rendered useless. Popularity is little more than a very interesting reported statistic — and I'm glad it's reported. The more statistics we know, the better!

Of course, I'm a stats nerd.

The increasingly important role for Wins stemmed from the massive anger Team Cats had against Team Dogs in the very first Splatfest, where Team Cats had 51% wins but only 38% Popularity. The Team Cats team said that 2% difference (51–49) would be very significant and that, given the number of matches, Cats must've done better than Dogs by thousands of matches. We all expected most Splatfests would be determined by Popularity since we thought the wins would be 50% each.

It turns out that if Team Cats actually won, it would be one of the most under-performing win rates of any winning team in any region. That makes Team Dogs in the bottom five for win rate. Look at this:

Gaming on a Budget on the eShop

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A mix of knowing the sales, and of good ol' conservatism. And finance knowledge.

I was given a really interesting request by Nandin Lopez. In effect, it's asking how to conserve your budget for the Nintendo eShop, what to get, and how to resist ruining your allotted money spend. 

He gave an example of saving money in his eShop account for the upcoming, very soon release of a localised MOTHER 3. But suddenly, you can buy Pokémon Blue on the eShop! What do you do? Spend the money you want to save for MOTHER 3? Or keep the money in your account just so you can be ready for MOTHER 3?

If you were me, you wouldn't have this problem because you would have a bank account and would use your debit card to refill your Nintendo eShop balance whenever you want or need to. I only buy Nintendo eShop card codes just to give away as KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program prizes — your last opportunity to WIN a $10 Nintendo eShop code ends in two days as of publishing, by the way.

There is a concept within finance (boring, I know) called the “time value of money”. Basically, it's the idea that a dollar is worth more in the present than in the future. There's a lot of reasons for this, such as the general inflationary trend of dollars (you will have less purchasing power as time goes on) and that the earlier you invest your money, the more times it can compound with interest (if you deposit $100 for 20 years and it grows at 2% interest every year, you get more money than if you waited 5 years, then deposited that $100 for 15 years to grow at 2% interest annually).

You're screwing yourself $14 by doing nothing for 5 years. Loser.
You too can play around — with the Future Value Calculator!

The purchasing power part may not potentially apply here, depending on your relationship to your eShop account. Why? 

Why I Don't Watch YouTube Personalities

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, I can only speak for myself... but it's for your benefit.

If ya have read select previous KoopaTV articles, you might get the impression we got something against YouTube personalities. And you'd be right.

Whether it was Rawk (RIP) with his very selective war against JonTron, or me repeatedly deeming YouTubers as “talentless” or comparing them to slaveowners (which is not a compliment given KoopaTV's slew of pro-Confederacy articles — not to mention our KoopaTV-exclusive game Capture the Confederate Flag), we got a distinct anti-YouTuber attitude here. I mean, I even went and wrote an article more-or-less agreeing with Jimmy Kimmel about how lame YouTube Gaming is. There's nothing inherent about a video-sharing platform that results in losers rising to the top, but that's apparently the case and what's happened.

So when people ask me “What YouTubers do you watch?” — and multiple people have asked me that, because it's culturally a standard thing to follow YouTubers like it is to drink coffee and/or tea — and I respond “None”, I get weird stares or emoticons. And it's not just not watching “gamers” on YouTube — I don't watch people in general.

Pokémon GO Having You GO to museums and stuff

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, now you know what the GO is for. GO outside!

While we can't seem to rely on the mainstream media or alternative media sources for accurate news, let's focus on something that a videogame company itself has unveiled. What better than the new news about the smartphone-exclusive augmented reality game Pokémon GO? This comes from The Pokémon Company International. Surely they know what they're talking about.

First of all, the Pokémon that you can encounter are location-based. Water Pokémon will be near bodies of water, for example. I can only assume you'll have to screw up an airplane by putting your phone off of airplane mode in order to have even a chance to find Rayquaza or Altaria. You may have to become an astronaut to find wild Clefairy or Lunatone. I wonder if Global Warming will wipe out the wild Beartic? Better visit the North Pole quick — the Polar ice cap was supposed to melt two years ago.

Anyway, there are PokéShops “located at interesting places, such as public art installations, historical markers, and monuments, where you can collect more Poké Balls and other items.” So if you live in the middle of nowhere with nothing interesting, how will you be able to “collect” anything? (Shouldn't the proper word be “purchase” if it's a shop?)

Don't worry, the game will have in-app purchases that I'm sure will take care of all your geographically-disadvantaged needs!

The Media's Misreporting of the Wii U's Production Into Next Year

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A destructive exercise by the media.

All over the media yesterday was this story: JAPANESE FINANCIAL PUBLISHER NIKKEI REPORTS NINTENDO TO STOP WII U PRODUCTION THIS YEAR. It spread not only through the gaming media, but also the mainstream media. No one waited for Nintendo to give a response to this rumour, or as Reuters put it,

“Nintendo could not immediately be reached for comment.” 

That's journalism-speak for “We're going to make up whatever we want, and if the Nintendo press person is on their lunch break or done with their job for the day when we phone call them, then we'll publish the story.” It's the tactic used by sleaze-balls. (If you look for its use on KoopaTV, you won't find it, because we actually have some semblance of integrity.)

Why is it sleazy? Because not all of those media outlets that reported the Nikkei report passed on Nintendo's response made hours later: 

Team Koopa's Rio Training Is Going Well!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm writing this from Brazil!

Looks like Belgium is falling apart. Fortunately, I'm in another country that begins with "b": Brazil. Specifically, Rio de Janeiro. I said before we're going to Rio, now we're there. Who is "we"? Team Koopa, representing Koopa Kingdom! We're going to win all of the awards! (Even if we don't have players participating in every sport... King Bowser tells me that we'll get the other medals somehow via other means.)

So we're here getting the lay of the land for training. There's a companion game to our training, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for the Nintendo 3DS. I don't recommend it. I mean, it's so bad that even though I'm a playable character in it, I'm not actually going to buy it. Apparently it's really a demo for the Wii U version coming out June 24, 2016, which will mark Team Koopa's second training session when we go back to Rio de Janeiro a lot closer to the actual 2016 Olympics date in August 2016.

But let me tell you, I'm doing well here at table tennis.

I beat Luigi and then some freaky pink guy!
...It's probably infected with the Zika virus.
(Screenshot from NNID DMan-U1).

If there's one thing I'll compliment the 3DS version for, it's the "Road to Rio" story mode. Well, it's pretty bad, but there's some cool stuff besides implying King Dad is a horrible person who steals medals and works with Dr. Eggman.

Shigeru Miyamoto's Designs Promote Eating Disorders

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The design of Wii Fit is dangerous to people's health.

Eating disorders and body image perceptions are huge problems in the United States. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders gives a 2011 source that up to 30 million Americans have an eating disorder, which is probably under-reported. Very big problem.

Shigeru Miyamoto is not helping that issue. In fact, he encouraged it. Normally, game designers and eating disorders aren't a connected thing. But Shigeru Miyamoto is no ordinary game designer. He was behind Nintendo's Wii Fit, a game designed to get you and your family to weigh yourself. Every single day. Here's a quote of Miyamoto's basic philosophy regarding Wii Fit's vision:

“But I’m sure it would be fun for people to measure their weight in the living room with the whole family, take data every day and check the graphs, then maybe poke fun at Dad who’s put on a little weight, or congratulate Mom on her diet.” 

Shigeru Miyamoto wants this Wii Balance Board to ruin your life.

Miyamoto believed it would be fun to measure your weight every day on the Wii Balance Board. And hey, that does sound kind of fun if you don't think about what you're actually doing. Even Miyamoto has some self-awareness and thinks it might be extreme, but he goes ahead anyway:

“I know this may sound a bit extreme, but measuring your weight is fun, and there are ways to keep fit when thinking along those lines."

Smash Ain't No Joke — But Little Mac Became One

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - There's more to Little Mac than being a For Glory meme.

It breaks my heart that Little Mac, a character that I was more hyped for to finally join Super Smash Bros. 4 than even myself, has had a net drop in reputation since he got in.

Don't get me wrong: I still love Little Mac (...not romantically, o-of course!). But I get the feeling he's widely disrespected by most other people, especially if they know him from Super Smash Bros. 4. 

Little Mac was very polarising when Super Smash Bros. For 3DS came out. To most players (who play casually), he's overpowered. To people who know what they're doing, Little Mac was pretty bad. This became more apparent in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U when folks could play with real controllers. There's also the fact that he got nerfed early on: His forward-tilt range got reduced, as did how far Jolt Haymaker went in the air, which stunted his recovery.

Now, he's recognised as a terrible character by the majority of people. Casuals believe all Little Mac does is Jolt Haymaker off the ledge, and competitive experts put Mac as one of the worst characters in the game.

The first tier list, pre-Bayonetta & Corrin.
Little Mac is very low, though the absolutely lowest non-Jigglypuff characters got buffed in 1.1.5.

It's a shame. It shouldn't be this way. A lot of people consider Cloud to be Little Mac done right — with Little Mac fallen to the wayside. I'd argue... we shouldn't treat Little Mac this way. Here's why.

Should Nintendo Go Into Virtual Reality?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I dunno. What the heck do you expect?

Depending on who you ask, virtual reality (VR) is going to be the biggest thing to ever happen to the videogame industry, or it'll be an over-hyped, money-sinking disaster. That said, every company is looking into it, and it's the biggest thing, I think, that people are talking about from the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) this week. Yeah, I'd be a terrible gaming writer if I didn't mention GDC this week.

You have the Oculus Rift at the end of the month. PlayStation VR in October for $399, to which Sony claims “the future of gaming is almost here.”

Nintendo is looking at virtual reality technology as well, within its research and development. We aren't just talking about the Virtual Boy, either. Will they formally enter the arena?

A Post-Bayonetta Super Smash Bros. 4 Balance Patch? STILL Nothing For Jigglypuff?!?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The Balloon Pokémon needs a JigglyBUFF.

Just another reason why we shouldn't listen to Masahiro Sakurai, even if it's about himself: He's supposed to be working on a brand new project, right?

...Why is there a brand new totally surprising patch for Super Smash Bros. 4 out last night? That's not the project he's supposed to be working on!

Patch notes: “Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.”

As usual, Nintendo's official notes for Super Smash Bros. are not helpful. The Splatoon ones? Great! Both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Splatoon were supposed to stop having updates. Splatoon in January, and Super Smash Bros. 4 in February with Corrin and Bayonetta. We can't trust anyone anymore to not treat their games as games-as-a-service, and I guess the specific designer's philosophies determine how much information Nintendo gives out every time there's a new update.

Fortunately, Smashboards members are compiling an exhaustive list of changes for patch version 1.1.5.

There's great stuff: Buffs for lower-tier characters. A well-appreciated Corrin nerf, especially to his insane Counter Stream attack!

...But there's a big problem, and it's not just that all your replays got deleted when you thought they'd be safe from further patches.

Build a Snowman or Build a Sandcastle?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Which will the Mexicans pay for?

This week, Splatoon asks us this question:

I'd rather build (choose one):
A SNOWMAN
A SANDCASTLE

Which Splatfest option will you choose for the big battle this Saturday (March 19, 2016)? Well, I'm not really strongly for or against these options, but Nintendo made it very easy for me to pick based on Callie and Marie's dialogue:

Petition to Abolish Daylight Savings Time!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's a complete disaster. Time to end it.

Yesterday mornin', the first thing I did when I got out of bed was change my alarm clock, my DS Lite's internal time, my New 3DS XL's internal time, and my Wii U's internal time an hour ahead. So 9:30? Nope, really 10:30. Oh dear, churches around the country probably lost all their congregants yesterday morning, or they all came late.

I'm not going to sit here and spout that Daylight Savings Time is an Atheist conspiracy or anything.

But I will say that Daylight Savings Time dooms the world, as I wrote in an article that still qualified as “Gaming Commentary” last year. 

Given that history of KoopaTV opposing Daylight Savings Time, let's see what's been happening across America as a result of KoopaTV's strong stance on the issue.

Nintendo NY's Grand Reopening

By SHINYGIRAFARIG - Never underestimate the motivation of Nintendo fans.

Nintendo World Store closed down on January 19, 2016 and reopened as Nintendo NY on February 19, 2016.

Curse you Nintendo NY for scheduling the grand reopening the same week that kids are off from school!

Curse you Nintendo NY for scheduling the grand reopening the same day that Fire Emblem Fates came out, which has the special N3DS edition XL as well.

Curse you Nintendo NY for not making separate lines for people who want to just mainly tour the building, those who just want to wait in line for Charles Martinet's autograph, and those who want to buy items. I understand that some want a mix of all of these but I do wish there was a way to separate them anyway somehow.

Curse you Nintendo NY if what I heard and read are true and there were line cutters. You got security personnel everywhere, how did you not catch them?

Mario Kart TV is being shut down!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We've bested yet another competitor.

Great news, everyone!

Yet another KoopaTV competitor is out of the market: Mario Kart TV!

You may remember them as the channel that Nintendo was funding to regularly show garbage like Luigi's Death Stare. Well, I remember them as competition against KoopaTV — and it has that plumber's name in it, so it's doubly bad.

After almost two years of giving you crappy content, Mario Kart TV has decided to shut down:

Summary: “We didn't really add value.”

If you want that statement in text:

“The Mario Kart TV website, which lets you watch highlight videos posted from Mario Kart 8, will be closing down as of 11:00 PM PT on Monday, April 4th 2016. We are very thankful to the many people who have used this website since it launched in 2014.

Even after the website shuts down, it will still be possible to watch Mario Kart TV and upload highlights from within Mario Kart 8 itself.
Highlight videos uploaded to YouTube from the game will not be deleted after the website shuts down.”

See, KoopaTV has exclusive content you won't find anywhere else. By comparison, Mario Kart TV's content was not only accessible from YouTube, but also Mario Kart 8. I don't know if anyone still plays the latter, since I don't, but many still watch videos from YouTube! Many people within its target audience have said they've never visited Mario Kart TV, and they haven't heard of it either. (You could say the same thing about KoopaTV too, I guess.)

So, here's a good idea: Spread KoopaTV's articles to everyone whom you know or feel might be interested! Then we can stay far, far away from the fate of Mario Kart TV, F-Zero TV, and Nintendo TVii.


KoopaTV lives and dies off Ludwig's mood and health. If you make him happy, hopefully he can keep himself alive. KoopaTV has bested many of its competitors during its lifespan — even the ones funded by huge corporations! That's thanks to you. Meanwhile, Ludwig is happy that he can announce that less things with Mario's name will exist on this very horrible day, MAR10. KoopaTV beats Mario (Kart) TV any day, because Koopas are better than evil red-hatted plumbers.


For an Enlightenment Movement article posted on last year's MAR10 Day, click here. It's a classic.
Also a classic is 2017's MAR10 article, with KoopaTV exposing a Mario-CIA assassination plot against former Mario Kart TV star, Waluigi.

Watch Kamek's Tom Clancy's The Division Stream!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - He's going to play through (some of?) story mode.

True to what we published yesterday, Kamek bought Tom Clancy's The Division! I also said that we probably wouldn't cover anything about it post-release, but KoopaTV breaks what's probable all the time.

Since he just got it (after a long download process — silly digital downloading folks!), he needs to go through story mode first. Plus, Ubisoft has scheduled maintenance this night for the multiplayer servers. Gotta make sure they aren't busted already. Early and often, that's what I say!

So, check out Kamek's Twitch stream here. He's streaming as of after this is published. I'll be watching. 

Just a warning: The game is M-rated, so, um, yeah. You're not supposed to watch if you're under 17.

English only.
By the way, did I ever mention Kamek has a sexy, manly voice? He does.

You can/should also follow/subscribe to Kamek's Twitch so you can watch his stuff without a KoopaTV article telling you to. He streams... irregularly.

If you don't watch, you'll miss the Bandit Keith impersonation.

If you missed the stream for March 9, Kamek says he'll stream more the night of March 10! (Around 10:30 PM.)


Kamek obviously didn't write this article because he's the one putting the stream together. What'd you expect? That's what we have staff for. DIVISION of labour. (Ludwig thinks he's brilliant for that pun.) 


KoopaTV later asks that you watch Jareditton's live stream of Star Wars games. There's a twist with this request: There is also a charity component!
Kamek's streams are so important they continue to get articles dedicated to their existence. This time for Yooka-Laylee!

Tom Clancy's The Division is Finally Out!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Is it the end of a KoopaTV running gag?

After KoopaTV held Ubisoft's figurative feet to the fire with their March 8, 2016 release date after they've been delaying it for years, Ubisoft finally released the long-awaited Tom Clancy's The Division! That article I just linked has the whole timeline with more links: Ubisoft has been touting the game since E3 2013. Then E3 2014. Then they showed it again at E3 2015, where they called it a world premiere.

It's out. Worldwide. Everyone's playing it on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or the PC. Even KoopaTV's very own Kamek, who might be livestreaming it somewhere. Just not as of publishing, and not on www.KoopaTV.org. So we're happy to break the news, since we've been following the game's every new development. Why, you could say we're obsessed with it. Everyone at the KoopaTV staff. Probably for different reasons.

KoopaTV is breaking that Tom Clancy's The Division is out before Ubisoft's own website does so.
(Screenshot taken Tuesday, March 08, 2016, after 9 PM Eastern.)

But there's more!

Paper Mario: The Series' First Trailers

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Two of these things are not like the other three.

I wrote on Friday that the announcement of Paper Mario: Color Splash was the worst thing to happen on Thursday last week. I wrote that I'd complain about it for months. That might be hyperbole. But it also might not. Here's the official start of it.

I'm joining this whole Internet chorus of complaints about Paper Mario: Color Splash. It all stems from the trailer, so I'd like for you to take another look at it. I'm embedding the trailer from the European Nintendo Direct, because it has slightly more information than the American one.

One thing Bill Trinen does that Nintendo of Europe Satoru Shibata does not do is refer to Paper Mario: Color Splash as an “action-adventure” game, specifically that Nintendo “always tries to challenge ourselves to bring something fresh to the action-adventure genre.” Nintendo only began to refer to Paper Mario games as action-adventure starting with Paper Mario: Sticker Star. They were “Role-Playing” before.

That's not a good sign, if we don't want another Paper Mario: Sticker Star. And believe me, we do not want that.

There are several arguments that optimists have to stay hopeful about the quality of Paper Mario: Color Splash, including that one cannot judge a game by its first trailer. How can we judge what direction Paper Mario: Color Splash is taking from just its first trailer? Well, let's compare it to the first trailers for the other Paper Mario games! One can learn a lot about a game's direction from the first trailer — it's the developer's/marketing department's first opportunity to leave an impression on what the game experience will be like. What's emphasised in that trailer will, presumably, be what the game emphasises as well. 

These were, I think, the earliest trailers for each game. I could be wrong. If I am, let me know:

Here's the Team Koopa Line-up at Rio 2016

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - ...I mean, we could have some secrets still, but consider this Team Koopa's press release.

Yesterday was disappointing for three reasons, from absolute worst to still awful: Paper Mario: Color Splash was announced, and it looks like it really does take inspiration from its disastrous prequel. I'll probably be ranting about it for months. Yesterday, there was also the 11th Republican presidential debate, and it didn't even have Ben Carson since he suspended his campaign. It was a horrible two hours and I'm glad I left the Republican Party.

The third reason is that Team Koopa wasn't fully represented in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in that Nintendo Direct. The Wii U version's opening movie, anyway. Oh, Wendy O. Koopa, Bowser Jr., Larry Koopa, and King Bowser were there. But I wasn't.

Left-to-right Koopas: Bowser Jr., Bowser Koopa, Larry Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa.

 
I already told you all I'll be joining Team Koopa. While I'm not seen in this awesome high-definition video reel, I'm still a critical member of Team Koopa and we'll be going down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later this month for training: March 18, to be exact.

There's a problem, though. Some plans have shifted as to what exactly I'll be doing. I blame translation issues from Portuguese to English.

KoopaTV's March 3, 2016 Nintendo Direct Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Some cuteness, but the most adorable Prince was missing?

We're bringing you yet another Nintendo Direct! Only Ludwig could make it, so it's just him. Lame.

But is that as lame as this Nintendo Direct, or is it a lot lamer because the Direct was great? Read Ludwig's on-the-spot reaction to it below! Watch along with the embedded video:

Interactive User Interfaces... Helping You LEARN!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Is this a lesson I could apply to Capture the Confederate Flag?

You know, at every opportunity you can get — and there's a lot of opportunities out there thanks to how great and open the game development community is — you ought to read developers' experiences making their games. A lot of the time, especially for smaller developers, they're pretty happy to just tell you their stories. They do this not only 'cause, hey, stories are great, but also so fellow developers can learn and we can all make better games together. They're called postmortems.

Juicy Beast Studios, the maker of Toto Temple Deluxe (available on the Wii U for $10!), failed to really make a profit on releasing it for all three of the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, and the Wii U. I didn't help that since I didn't buy the game either, but that's besides the point. Their developer didn't have any Miiverse presence, so honestly, I didn't even know Toto Temple Deluxe existed or anything about it. I... don't really actively check the Nintendo eShop in my spare time. Maybe I should. I hear it has awesome music.

“[W]e weren’t really able to get a featured spot on any the [SIC] storefronts, except for Nintendo who actually featured us on both the American and European front pages. Thanks Nintendo!”

The game is multiplayer-only (besides bots), up to four players. It's frenetic and exciting. You control your character to get the goat first and keep it away from the other players. Here's... not quite the trailer, but it's more informative, better, and way more-watched than the launch trailer:

(...Hm...TotoTV is a KoopaTV competitor.)

There's something really interesting about how the user interface was developed, though. Juicy Beast published an article on just that here, and I'd like to delve into that and use Capture the Confederate Flag as an example of the design philosophy at play... or, to be accurate, what I SHOULD'VE considered when making Capture the Confederate Flag. (I won't patch it now or anything, though.)

KoopaTV's February 2016 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Our first February with a leap day. Let's face it: It'll probably be our last one, too.

Yadda yadda yadda KoopaTV had a great February 2016, now it's March, that's how the calendar works. Let's pat ourselves on the back and move on. 

Top Five Recommended Articles

...Eh, we still want you to check out some great February articles. Even though February has the least amount of days in the year (February 2016 had one more than usual, though), it tied January 2016 as having 21 published articles. Here are the best 5 in chronological order, though they're all worth reading:

1. Cybersecurity Concerns: Paranoia or Serious Threat?
2. Were We Right About the Miiverse Summer Redesign?
3. A Pokémon-Sponsored Splatfest: Pokémon RED vs. BLUE
4. Donald Trump Demands Apple Boycott — For the Wrong Reason 
5. Fire Emblem Fates Ain't Censored, but Localised

Yeah there are some snubs there. That's what happens when you have a site with great content on a very regular basis but you only pick five to show off. What I find to be the best is also totally subjective to me. But you know what ain't subjective? Number totals. Which brings me to...