KoopaTV's October 2018 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The biggest site announcement in years. That, and more!

You all want to know winners and rewards and whatever, but I have far more important KoopaTV news to share. So without further self-promotion and filler, here's this header to chomp on:

KoopaTV Is Changing Our Publishing Format and Focus

We have been listening. Not just to you (though that's important), but to one another, and to the Internet as a whole. Demographics are changing. Trends are changing. Our own lives are changing. Sometimes too fast. KoopaTV has strayed quite a bit from its original intention, and I think it's finally time to change course again to get closer to both that intention, and to a product that people might expect from a gaming commentary story like KoopaTV.

Effective Monday November 12, KoopaTV will be changing our publishing schedule. Now it will be appointment reading:

• Monday — Kamek
• Tuesday — RawkHawk2010
• Wednesday — Wendy O. Koopa
• Thursday — Ludwig Von Koopa (me!)
• Friday — Witch Princess

We are also changing our focus in the content formats of our articles. You may have noticed lately that KoopaTV has been promoting streaming gameplay content more. Those aren't random acts on our part. We recognise the variety of ways that Internet people are consuming content — younger generations are afraid of reading words, for example — so our publishing philosophy is now this: if a staffer enjoys making content a certain way, go for it. Don't want to write a blog article but you'd rather stream instead? Go ahead. ...Just write something on KoopaTV to let people know to watch the stream, and put the videos on demand here so people who miss it can still enjoy it.

KoopaTV exists to spread truth & levity about the things we care about. We have a narrative, a story we want to tell, that permeates all site activities. That's not tied to just one particular format.

To make it clear what is what, we'll be introducing a new category to the site — Game Streams, and we'll be retroactively updating previous articles with this new category.

Here's another thing that's changing: If a staffer misses their day and nothing is published on KoopaTV that day... then oh well! It'll just be empty then. Of course, we'd like to have content every weekday, but you know, sometimes things happen. At least you'll know which staffer to track down and yell at.

Some weeks, the schedule might be broken if there is a particularly time-sensitive event, such as something we need a Reaction Log for.

It's a big change, but we want to showcase our other staffers’ diverse talents more. Please understand. ...And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments section. Now, then, onto the next header (which also includes more information about the change!):

Rawk's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations Experience

By RAWKHAWK2010 - There may be fake news, but my experience was great and real.

Today, the Funimation Simuldub of Season 2 of the Ace Attorney anime begins. Since it covers Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, now is the best time to showcase my Miiverse archive of that game!

Now is also the best time for you to vote for Miles Edgeworth over Luigi in Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X contest. He won't win, but you can make him look better than not!

(Spoilers for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations follow. Obviously.)

I totally didn't plan (see date of the Miiverse post) that my first image would talk about Fake News,
which is in the beginning of the intro of the Season 2 anime.

There's a new Ace Attorney anime opening and "Fake News" is mentioned in the second line. pic.twitter.com/IByP3gTSzQ

— Rawk (@RawkHawk2010) October 7, 2018

Herman Cain Sold Out To Western Journal

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - CainTV and KoopaTV started off at the same place. The destinations, though...

Once upon a time, in early 2012, businessman, Pokémon master, and failed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain created a website called CainTV. CainTV featured weird family-friendly, Christian-friendly, and Republican-friendly videos that took too much production value to maintain, so CainTV was then relaunched in August 2012 as CainTV 2.0, a blog-based site with a rotating cast of columnists, the core of which are still around today. It fascinated all of us.

Once upon a time, in May of 2013, KoopaTV was born. Its introduction post format was pretty much copied from the CainTV 2.0 introduction post. The point of our site was to take CainTV and apply it to videogames, for fun. We tried to do that pretty closely. Eventually, Herman Cain took HermanCain.com and redirected CainTV.com to that. I bought LudwigVonKoopa.com a year ago (much later than CainTV became HermanCain.com) but we keep that redirecting to KoopaTV.org. I've done absolutely nothing with the domain and now they're asking me if I want to renew it. That's a discussion for the comments section.

Skip to September 2018. HermanCain.com now redirects to WesternJournal.com/HermanCain, and displays the notice,

“Same HermanCain.com, new home. We've partnered with The Western Journal to move HermanCain.com to WesternJournal.com. Same content, same attitude, same Herman Cain. ”

Western Journal is this right-wing clickbait site that Herman has been working with since September 2015, when he had his million-strong Facebook page suddenly start sharing Western Journal and Conservative Tribune articles, with headlines like, “Cop Orders Coffee From Dunkin' Donuts. After Leaving He Notices What's Written On The Cup...” He also recently made a fake Political Action Committee, America Fighting Back PAC, which is just a front for Western Journal. Throughout all of this, CainTV articles continue to be nice.

Here's what Herman Cain's site's articles now are like:

How Does The Clout-Based Splatfest System Change Anything?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Or, why was the Splatfest scoring system changed at all?

We have now had two Splatfests in a post-Splatoon 2 version 4.0.0 world, where there was a new Splatfest scoring system introduced. There was the Retro vs. Modern Splatfest, and last weekend was the Trick vs. Treat Splatfest.

There are two ways to play in the new system: Splatfest Battle Normal (you can play with yourself or up to three friends, with randoms filling the rest of the slots) and Splatfest Battle Pro (you play by yourself with three randoms). On top of the personal ranking system to go from Fanboy/Fangirl to King/Queen, and on top of “Splatfest Power” that exists for a bragging-rights competition that is only accessible via Splatfest Battle Pro, there is a Clout system. Clout is what is used to determine actual wins for the greater Splatfest teams, which are a best-of-three consisting of Popularity, Normal Clout, and Pro Clout.

In Splatfest Battle Pro, the amount of Clout you get depends on if you beat the opposing team or not, and you get more if the team has a higher team Splatfest Power than yours. You get zero Clout for losing. 

As for Splatfest Battle Normal, you get a Clout bonus based on if you win or not (1,000 Clout), plus the amount of turf you inked, plus a synergy bonus multiplier if you're cohesively fashionable with the other members of your team. (So people playing with their friends that coordinate this ahead of time have a Clout advantage.) That means Splatfest Battle Normal players get Clout even if they lose. 

If you're in a ditto match (same Splatfest team choice among the two teams Turf Warring) then there is no Clout gain by anyone for either Pro or Normal.

As you might suspect, the average number of Clout for Splatfest Battle Normal will be higher than Splatfest Battle Pro (higher ceiling and higher floor), so with that in mind, here are the final results for the Trick vs. Treat Splatfest, courtesy of Splatnet 2.0 (mobile-exclusive information as opposed to in-game):

Meltan Evolves Into Melmetal and Takes A Selfie

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Melmetal takes a selfie while playing Pokémon GO.

A lot has been discovered about the Mythical Pokémon Meltan since my article about it one month ago. It turns out that real Meltan do exist in the present era, and they aren't just trickster Ditto.

We have also now learned that Meltan can evolve into the behemoth Melmetal. While you could compare Meltan to a Ditto, Melmetal is best compared to a metallic Regigigas, which turns out to be different than a Registeel. Replace Braille with hex nuts. Melmetal isn't that interesting — aside from being big and creating metal, it has a special move called Double Iron Bash, which is just the Klink evolutionary family's Gear Grind (physical Steel attack that hits twice), but with a chance to flinch.

The way one gets to possess Melmetal is more interesting than the Pokémon itself, which is disappointing, counterproductive, and convoluted.

One can get a Meltan by having the Mystery Box item in Pokémon GO, which you can get by sending a Pokémon from Pokémon GO to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! Once you you open the Mystery Box, Meltan will appear on the field map. Then you can catch it, and the Mystery Box closes. You can re-open it after waiting some period of time and sending another Pokémon to a Let's Go game, and then you can presumably get more Meltan.

Watch Wendy Stream NieR Automata (Take 2B)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - (Why am I the one writing this?)

Continuing yesterday's timely Alucard advertisement, Wendy O. Koopa is currently streaming NieR Automata to support 2B in the GameFAQs Character Contest X. Not that she needs the help against whatever a Cayde-6 is:

These are the results 5 minutes in. They could be wildly different later!

 
The stream has ended, and here is the video on demand!

Watch I forgot how to play Nier so I'm playing it again. :D from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

If you want to see 2B's infamous booty, you better watch the stream. (It's in there.) Personally, I've never watched gameplay of NieR Automata before and I already voted for 2B. So this is an educational experience! Hoping I don't regret my vote.

Post-stream, I can confirm I made the right decision.


It's Take 2B because Wendy had trouble getting the stream to actually work. Oh well.


Wendy's streams are great. Here's her first stream advertised on KoopaTV, with A Hat in Time.
Rawk foreshadowed Wendy streaming NieR Automata in this article about why he enjoys KoopaTV streams over other ones.

It's Called Lost Painting Because The Music Is Missing

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Masahiro Sakurai, Alucard, and THE PLAN.

As of 8 PM Eastern today, the second half of Division 3 of Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X contest has started. As of 9 PM Eastern today, the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Smash Blog has updated with the music update of the week.

The blog:

“You can now listen to "Lost Painting" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Doesn't it resurrect memories of obtaining the Crissaegrim in the game? This version is an arrangement by Tetsuya Shibata from Unique Note. Give it a listen using headphones, too!” 

However, as of writing this, there is no new content on the Music Page.

This article was published about twenty minutes after the timestamp in the picture,
if you're wondering how long it took me to write this. Still no music there, despite the “You can now” writing.

Which character is currently battling in a very contested battle for his contest tournament life in the second half of Division 3 during Round 1? Alucard, the star of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The very same game that the Lost Painting music is from. The very same Lost Painting music that is... lost, and unavailable for listening right now.

All we have is the most-viewed version of the original Lost Painting song from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on YouTube. When was this one uploaded? ...Exactly 11 years ago, on October 23, 2007.

Coincidence? I don't believe so. Masahiro Sakurai would prefer for Princess Peach to beat Alucard in the match (Princess Peach is a playable character, while Alucard is a mere Assist Trophy), so he's withholding the music right now to not give Alucard a boost. However, the fans want Alucard and they want Lost Painting. That's why Alucard is blowing past prediction estimates and is destroying Princess Peach, and there is nothing that Masahiro Sakurai can do about it.

I voted for Alucard. Shouldn't you?
(Also, vote for Godot.)

Therefore, I make a plea to Masahiro Sakurai: Please make the Lost Painting music available. It's been nearly an hour as of writing, and Princess Peach isn't going to catch up. Besides, it's a really neat song in the original game, and I want to hear what the musicians who volunteered to put a lot of Castlevania music into the game have done with it!

Update after 11 PM: Lost Painting is finally available. Took a while.

Ludwig was going to write about something else today, but this was way too good to pass up as an article. KoopaTV will take full responsibility for when Lost Painting is made available after this article publishes.

Cheating Ōkami's Blockhead Grande With Nintendo Switch Video Capture

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Pity difficulty plus video capture equals possible to win!

I am thoroughly enjoying my time playing Ōkami HD on my Nintendo Switch. You know, enough to spell Ōkami correctly, as opposed to the incorrect “Okami” that people probably search for. (So if I didn't spell it wrong, then no one would be able to find this article.)

I am getting to the end of the game (at least, I think it's the end) with the Kamui area. (Not to be confused with anything from Fire Emblem.) There is a reoccurring clan of overconfident talking barrier wall characters named Blockhead. They appear in dungeons to prevent Amaterasu (the protagonist) from passing from either side. Amaterasu needs to tackle Blockhead's front side. Once that happens, flashes will appear — in a randomly-generated order — on Blockhead's body indicating where Amaterasu needs to draw dots using the Celestial Brush. Blockhead doesn't even know he has this weakness, and then it's too late and the wall crumbles.

The very last Blockhead is Blockhead Grande. Grande is an optional foe — he is literally in a secret hole in the Kamui ground that Amaterasu needs to dig up with a secret hole-digging skill. He guards some rare treasure, but unlike the Blockhead before him with three or four dots, Blockhead Grande has eight. That's more than I can comprehend. To counteract this a little bit, Ōkami HD has pity difficulty for non-combat puzzle sequences like this. (For all I know, it has the same for combat, but I've never gotten anywhere close to a game over.) The game makes timed sequences slower, for example.

But it's still really hard, or impossible. So using the Nintendo Switch's unique Video Capture and Screenshot abilities, here's my step-by-step guide for what I did:

Round 1 Picks: GameFAQs Character Battle X!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It begins.

Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X has begun! Read all about the contest at this page, which will also serve as an index for all coverage of the contest from KoopaTV.

The contest actually started a day earlier than I thought it did (8 PM Eastern on Thursday as opposed to Friday) so my bad. The first four matches in Division 1 are already done as of publishing (the second four are going on now!). For your information, Round 1 has four matches per day, so we'll see Round 2 in about two weeks from now.

Vote here at the top of the page: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/

I will be telling you exactly who I'm voting for and why for every match in the contest, and Round 1 has the most matches. Take a look at which characters I like... and which I really do not:

Elevators are Funny, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Stream

By RAWKHAWK2010 - A happy article?!

Over the past year I guess you could say Rawk's article energy has been somewhat downcast. It's true! Almost everything I've written in 2018 has been about something bad. One particular dark moment was symbolized by the Sea of Thieves article in which I told Sea of Thieves "see ya" and formally renounced my (modern) Rare Ltd. fan status. I don't even want to talk about it really, but I must, for it contains significant past experience with the topic matter at hand: streams. See, Rare was banking on annoying cult-of-personality streamers to market the game. That was their goal. The streamers would do what Rare hadn't managed to do in ten or so years and make a Rare game seem exciting to the public at large. It turned out that hinging the game's success on easily-excitable streamers didn't work since even they got bored, but even if it had worked, it wouldn't work for me because I don't get the same camaraderie buzz as everyone else does from this culture. Watching someone do a Fake News screech as they get eaten by a shark, and then comment-screeching alongside a thousand other comment-screechers in response...it's all just too fraudulent. It's counterfeit energy! And too impersonal to boot.

Let's rewind a bit. Kamek's long-ago streaming of Yooka-Laylee -- in which he fortunately had an audience of 2 or 3 at most -- was when I decided his soft-spoken radio voice was made for commentary. Seriously, his voice could reawaken the Beanstar. Anyway, the experience was good (if it wasn't, then his "beautiful chair" for E3 2017 wouldn't have been his streaming center), but its nature as something relatively fleeting meant it didn't play hugely into my view on "streams" or what they might ever mean to KoopaTV. There's also simply the fact that this is Yooka-Laylee we're talking about, developed by a company I was in an abusive relationship with for years where my backing was repaid with all kinds of stupid decisions. (Hence why I was insulting them in the article I just linked.)

Now skip all the way to last week and KoopaTV is treated to a stream of Yooka-Laylee's similarly-Kickstarted rival, A Hat in Time (specifically the "Seal the Deal" DLC for it that came out a month ago), this time by Wendy. (That's right, Wendy! The real-life non-imaginary Wendy that Ludwig didn't fabricate to fill a staff position!) A game I knew little about but had always kinda wanted, I found watching A Hat in Time to be a breath of fresh air on its own merits. More importantly though, Wendy was a magnet for trouble in it, and Wendy made things happen (or rather, things happened to Wendy) that I was adamant about insisting didn't get lost.

Here's Wendy falling through an elevator.

Watch Welp, I fell through the elevator. :( from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

Individualising Our Koopa NPCs For Great Victory

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I know all about NPCs. Believe me. You'll want to hear me out.

I look around social media, and see that dissing Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) has become a fashionable thing to do. Before you do that again, maybe you should listen to my perspective. I'm Ludwig Von Koopa, a Prince of Koopa Kingdom. I rule over thousands and thousands of Koopas — some civilians, many Troopas. You might consider them to be “just” NPCs. I consider them to be patriots.

These social media mavens are making claims that NPCs do not have an inner monologue and can not think. They claim NPCs just say the same lines of dialogue over and over and can not handle anything different.

Well, those characterisations may describe a lot of NPCs out there, like Bethesda NPCs in Skyrim who, across the world, talk about the same story about how their knee was crippled by an arrow. But I am trying to make a lot of progress within Koopa Kingdom. We have the best nationals, and I see every NPC as an opportunity for greatness.

Three Reasons Why Junichi Masuda Is Pokémon's Miyamoto

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And that headline is supposed to be a bad thing, by the way.

Absolutely nothing good is happening in the realm of Pokémon: Let's Go. The game (in two versions: Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!) was repulsive at first impression, and it's somehow getting worse as we learn more and more about it. I get the same puking kind of feeling that I did whenever I begrudgingly wrote about Pokémon GO for this site. I don't want to revisit that.

Now that Pokémon: Let's Go is releasing in exactly one month, GAME FREAK honcho and series director Junichi Masuda is having a lot of interviews where he can't contain his own excitement. This is one with Eurogamer, and a shorter one with The Verge. I'll be referring to these interviews throughout this article.

My basic thesis is that Masuda is turning into the Pokémon version of Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo — a well-respected guy within the company who has been around since basically the start and has a lot of power and creative control... and is using that power for the detriment of the series he is working on because his vision is so out-of-touch.

Here's three examples from those interviews. They are all intertwined if you think about it, so the headline saying there are three reasons is sort of disingenuous, but I didn't say they are completely distinct with no overlap. Anyway, I make good points, so read on:

Trick or Treat Splatfest — Splatoon and Halloween

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My decision may surprise you. Or it might not. How well you do know me?

I do not like Halloween. I have written why I do not like Halloween in an article three years ago. That disliking for Halloween will colour my comments in today's article about Halloween, which is over two weeks away from Halloween.

Anyway, there is another Splatfest in Splatoon 2 this weekend! Yes, not even a month has passed since the previous Splatfest, and we already have another one. That's okay. I want another chance to understand the new Splatfest scoring system as of Version 4 — I was going to write an article about it after the September Splatfest, but it turns out I didn't understand it enough to write something coherent.

The theme? You've been discussing it for years... you just didn't know it. But enough talk. You must finally pick one by this FRIDAY October 19 at 6 PM:

“It's time to decide. Are you Team Trick or Team Treat?”

Trick or Treat? ...Really. That's the Splatfest theme. Well, if it's going to be a question asked millions of times every year, and it's an either-or situation, then sure, I guess Inkopolis needs a Splatfest to legally decide what's better.

KoopaTV's GameFAQs Character Battle X Index

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - X... index... Hm... Anyway, this will help organise our coverage.

A new grand gaming contest is coming very soon: GameFAQs Character Battle X, the 10th character battle contest in GameFAQs.com history! (Note the URL isn't actually GameFAQs.com anymore) You may remember previous GameFAQs tournaments covered on KoopaTV (their first rounds are hyperlinked at the bottom of this article), including Character Battle IX. We'll also cover this contest, since it's a very interesting exercise in the worth of characters in games, and a repudiation of anti-character philosophies. It's educational, in any case.

Character Battle X features 136 videogame characters trying to be crowned as the best, as voted by GameFAQs users. (Registered users’ votes count for double, while unregistered users count for normal.) 128 characters are distributed throughout the 8 divisions, while 8 Legends — Mario, Link, Samus, Cloud, Crono, Mega Man, Snake, and Sonic — await them after the division finals. (Sephiroth is usually in that group to make the Noble Nine, but he got demoted)

This article will provide links right below this paragraph to all of KoopaTV's coverage of Character Battle X, which begins October 19, with several matches a day. So please check back then for Round 1's article. Future rounds will get their own articles. As for this article, I'll also be providing what the 128-character bracket is here, for reference.

The 16-character Finals Division bracket is at the bottom of this article, and coverage of that begins starting on list item 5 in the index immediately below this text.

KoopaTV's GameFAQs Character Battle X Coverage

1. Ludwig's Round 1 Picks
2. Ludwig's Round 2 Picks
3. Ludwig's Round 3 Picks
4. Ludwig's Divisional Final (Round 4) Picks  
5. Ludwig's Final Division Picks (the rest of the contest)

Nintendo Finally Explains To People How To Get Torna

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And then proceeds to mis-explain to people which kingdom Torna even is.

Normally, RawkHawk2010 is the guy who is supposed to write about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on this site. (Please ignore the fact that he hasn't done so for even one whole article.) He's the only staff member who cares about the game — he actually obsesses over it. The first thing he asked Witch Princess when she joined was if she cared about the Xenoblade series. She said yes, but I'm pretty sure she only said that to get along with her new coworker instead of being genuine.

Unfortunately, Rawk either still has a very weird sleep schedule (due to Xenoblade Chronicles 2), or Hurricane Michael pwned him where Hurricane Irma could not. In either case, it's up to me to cover what Rawk has identified as a problem for the past month (or more) — Nintendo had not properly explained to people how to acquire Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country. Rawk had once said,

“I think it's the most confusing Nintendo-published release of all time and it deserved a demonstration video way more than Nintendo Switch Online did. Most people are still going to think retail Torna is just a code.”

(Nintendo's mini-site dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country seems to explain it pretty well, if you ask me, but let's pretend that Rawk has a point here.)

I wonder if this pair of Nintendo-made content satisfies his concern:

Special Save File Versions of NES Games in Nintendo Switch Online!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Another Nintendo Switch Online surprise benefit?

Just last week, I wrote about an unexpected and surprise gift from Nintendo's subscription service, Nintendo Switch Online — a 7-day free trial that lasted longer than 7 days.

Today, Nintendo offers another surprise: The Legend of Zelda SP, or The Legend of Zelda - Living the life of luxury! Alternatively, it's just The Legend of Zelda with a special hacked save file, and isn't another game at all so it shouldn't get italics or be treated as a new or different release. It's not differentiated at all on Nintendo's page for Nintendo Switch Online's NES games on their website. The Nintendo press release makes no big deal of it, but mentions that “[s]pecial save data for other NES titles will become available in the future, offering fun new entry points into fan-favorite games.”

It's the same game, but with a SPECIAL ribbon on it.

To be exact, the special save data provides for Link to start the game with the White Sword (second strongest sword), the Magical Shield (the best shield), the Power Bracelet (not a big deal like in other The Legend of Zelda games), and the Blue Ring (pretty big deal, raising Link's defence substantially), and a full rupee count. That essentially makes it an easy mode, which isn't a comment meant to be demeaning in any way.

Are People Angrier At Spin-Offs Now Than Before?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Or is this a case-by-case basis?

Now (or, you know, months ago) is a good time to clear the backlog of KoopaTV article requests. ShinyGirafarig asked (back in... June) about...

“Why have gamers gone from accepting Mario spin offs like Mario Kart, the Wario series, Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi and Luigi's Mansion or Pokemon spin offs like Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon to being angry at spin offs like Hey! Pikmin and Metroid Prime: Federation Force?” 

(Let's not... consider Donkey Kong Country to be a Mario spin-off, okay?)

Is that actually true? If it's true, why is that the case? 

Hm, where to start with that claim...?

Well, to start, I think the premise is false, and I'll provide counter-examples.

Wendy is Live-Streaming A Hat In Time: Seal the Deal Right Now

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - She's busy streaming, so I'm stuck writing the promo.

Want more indie game coverage? Wondering if Wendy O. Koopa actually exists as a staff member? Alright, let's solve both of those problems. She's live-streaming A Hat In Time (Seal the Deal DLC) right now on Mixer (main stream) and Twitch (secondary stream). Say hi. (Pick one. Twitch lags behind Mixer, but the staff is in Twitch.)

She is also playing with modifications.

She has made three save files in A Hat in Time... but she doesn't know why.
Which she'll play, I don't know (as of writing this).

Now that the stream is over, here are some videos on demand. First, Wendy got trapped in the elevator during the walrus captain's fetch quest, which I likened to the DL-6 Incident:

Watch Welp, I fell through the elevator. :( from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

And here's the whole stream:

Watch Blind run of #SealTheDeal from A Hat In Time. :D from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

HI KOOPATV.
“Oh, of course, HI KOOPATV. I remember now, having seen it written down earlier. On my ticket.”

Lots of really cute seals on-board the cruise ship.

“Egg.”

Oh, one more bug. Drowning and not dying, so you're stuck... alive.


Watch Invincibility Frames????? from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

The crows have excellent taste. Do you?
“I have family in HI KOOPATV. I am very glad that this is where we are going.”

Wendy said it was a lot of fun streaming for us. Let her know what you think in the comments section!


There is a pretty big contrast between when Wendy streams and when Kamek streams, like he did for Yooka-Laylee.
This was such a successful and fun stream that it was recognised as the Best Game Stream Experience of 2018.

FIFA 19 Releases; Box-Art Athlete Cristiano Ronaldo Accused of Rape

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Electronic Arts isn't in a good position, so they better hope it really is FAKE NEWS.

Last week, FIFA 19 released, to critical anticipation for people who enjoy playing Electronic Arts's sports games, which happens to be tens of millions of people. Personally, I don't care for soccer (or association football). In fact, I dislike it, as you'll find out if you click that hyperlink.

Anyway, a Portuguese guy named Cristiano Ronaldo is on the front cover of FIFA 19's box art, and he's a central focus of EA's marketing of the game (besides Alex Hunter — but for Nintendo Switch buyers, it's just Cristiano Ronaldo). He's among the top two soccer players in the world, next to Lionel Messi. As far as I can tell, Cristiano Ronaldo is the only reason why people around the world even know that Portugal exists.

Let's get my Nintendo Switch victimhood out of the way for this article:
Why is the “Nintendo Switch Edition” considered an alien?
Why isn't it on the Compare Products table?
Anyway, victimhood aside, the point is that Ronaldo is on the cover, and there's a “loan” benefit about him if you pay more money.

Unfortunately for Electronic Arts and their box art, Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of rape by an American woman named Kathryn Mayorga, reported in the German paper Der Spiegel one day after FIFA 19 released. Kind of bad timing. It turns out that the rape accusation, which depicts the act as occurring in 2009, existed to the public as of last year, but there wasn't a name of the accuser until now. Between 2017 and a week ago, it was just an anonymous rumour.

To make things unfortunate for Ronaldo's credibility, he reportedly doesn't deny the sex took place... but that it was consensual. Therefore, he denies the rape allegation and has called it “fake news.” Ronaldo and Mayorga already had an out-of-court settlement in 2010 for hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for her silence (thus no one knowing about a rape until 2017), but now she's breaking the terms of the settlement so she can ask for more money.

October 2018 Ace Attorney Franchise Sale — Timely and Topical

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Exclusively on Nintendo eShop for less than a week.

We clearly have Ace Attorney on our mind at KoopaTV, with three Ace Attorney articles published just last month alone. (All of them are hyperlinked throughout this article.) And later this month (later this WEEK, on October 6), the second season of the Ace Attorney anime is showing in Japan. It's being “simuldubbed” by Funimation as of October 30, which doesn't sound very... simultaneous with October 6.

Funimation doesn't know what words mean, but, whatever, it's still getting it in English sooner than it otherwise would be.
(Something is weird about Maya and Phoenix's fingers.)

Meanwhile, CAPCOM is setting the Ace Attorney games at big discounts in the Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS. But in North America. It's NOT on sale in Japan. Some Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons games are, but not Ace Attorney.

Ace Attorney Franchise Sale from October 4 to October 10.
“Defend the innocent with courtroom hero Phoenix Wright! Ace Attorney titles up to 70% off for a limited time.”

Let's try and figure out why CAPCOM would have the Ace Attorney games on sale in North America but not Japan right now. And, of course, compare how deep the discounts are!

CAPCOM, Don't Keep The Superior Mega Man 11 Soundtrack Hostage

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They're going to sell the pre-order bonus later, right?

Congratulations to Mega Man fans everywhere (unless you're just in it for Mega Man Legends). Mega Man 11 released yesterday, and the reviewer consensus is that it is... good!

“Good” might not sound like much, but it's a significant improvement from Mega Man 11's nearest comparison point, Mighty No. 9. At launch, that game was considered... awful. Mega Man has returned to form, in a game developed by CAPCOM. No complaints.

Well, one complaint. The game's techno soundtrack isn't very interesting or captivating. I remarked after playing the Block Man demo that Block Man's music isn't catchy. It's forgettable, really. In fact, the instrumentation used throughout the entire game does the composition a disservice. This is problematic, since Mega Man games are supposed to have amazing music, but many reviewers commonly cite the soundtrack for Mega Man 11 to be the weakest part of the game.

Remember how I wrote in an earlier article that Mega Man 11 had pre-order bonuses, and I praised that CAPCOM was putting enough effort into the game that pre-order bonuses existed, but I dismissed what the actual bonuses were? Well, guess what one of those bonuses was...

The 7-Day Nintendo Switch Online Trial Was Longer Than 7 Days

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, that's awfully nice of them. Also, the KoopaTV Family Plan has started.

I said it to the universe: I'd be using the 7-day Nintendo Switch Online trial for the Retro vs. Modern Splatoon 2 Splatfest. (Once I fully understand the new Splatfest system, I'll write an article about it... but quite frankly, I still don't understand it.)

I got the free trial on Saturday, September 22, at 4:09 PM Eastern time. Apparently, the free trial expired Monday, October 1, at 1:09 PM Eastern. That's nearly nine days. That's more than a seven-day free trial.

Compare the Purchase History with Your Subscriptions. Longer than seven days.

 
This week is National Customer Service Week, previously covered here during 2015. Giving free extra days on the free trial is good customer service, right?

Still, that doesn't erase how I described the 7-day free trial in my article about how to stick it to Nintendo if you dislike Nintendo Switch Online.

“That's... really slimy and scummy of Nintendo if it's correct that the 7-day free trial will automatically convert to a $4 1-month subscription unless you go out of your way to opt-out.”

KoopaTV's September 2018 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A month of wonder... and fun!

Welcome to KoopaTV's newsletter for September 2018. Whether you're new to the site or a multi-year veteran, this newsletter is for you to catch up on everything important that happened with KoopaTV from the previous month, right from the webmaster. It's called a review newsletter because... it's... reviewing the activities of the past thirty days. And sometimes there's forward-looking news as well. (Not this time, though, but don't let that stop you from reading this.)

Welcome Witch Princess to KoopaTV's Staff!

In the month of September, and I think this deserves to be at the top of the newsletter, we welcomed Witch Princess to the ranks of KoopaTV's staff members! If you haven't welcomed her yet, you should. We have high hopes for her.

If she could join KoopaTV's staff (and nothing against her, as you'll see momentarily in this newsletter), then you probably can, too. Learn more about that by reading this for how to apply!