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Monday, January 6, 2020

KoopaTV's GOTY 2019 Awards!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Game of THAT Year 2019... and other categories.

You have been eagerly anticipating this all weekend, and it's finally arrived. KoopaTV's 2019 Game of THAT Year awards ceremony, mostly featuring the best KoopaTV articles from 2019! (Plus some obvious, non-surprising game categories.)

I've been anticipating our awards, too, since the KoopaTV staff used up most of our weekend time debating things. Actually, to be honest, not much happened on Saturday, more happened on Sunday, and the majority of decisions were made on Monday right before this article was published. This whole introduction is copy-pasted from last year, and that's because it's still true this year. If it were just up to me, this would be very simple. But it's up to the entire KoopaTV staff to vote based on our nominations—check out the nominations by category here because it's an important reference for the winners—so there's some give-and-take and compromising that results in KoopaTV's signature takes that seem strange and out-of-line compared to the rest of the Internet.

And just so you remember, GOTY stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch.


Videogame-related Awards for 2019

Best New Character


If you've been paying attention to KoopaTV over the past several months, you'd know that I'm becoming quite obsessed with Dragaux, the antagonist from Ring Fit Adventure. The greatest thing about Dragaux isn't just his amazing figure, but it's the fact that he's the real main character. The game is really all about Ring (your traveling companion that enables all of the game's special abilities) and Dragaux, who used to be companions. You're just there for the ride as a silent protagonist who does Ring's bidding. Ring happens to be insufferable and unlikable, which just leaves Dragaux.

Fortunately, Dragaux carries the whole game like he's Atlas carrying the weight of the world. Dragaux has an entertaining personality and dialogue, is able to make people more alluring with his dark influence, has great taste in infrastructure, has an amazing and flexible leitmotif, and is the one positive example of someone with a French name being worth it.

Dragaux is also quite efficient with his time. We all can learn from that.

Best OST


The Best OST of 2019 comes from Super Kirby Clash! What makes this particularly impressive is that the game is pretty much a Nintendo Switch version of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe for the Nintendo 3DS, but it has several newly-remixed songs. There's absolutely no reason that Super Kirby Clash had to do ANYTHING ambitious like remix the soundtrack and add even more—especially since it's a free-to-play game—but they did. Congratulations to Kiyoshi Hazemoto for composing most of the soundtrack. Here's a YouTube embed that's the whole soundtrack. If you choose to go to the video itself, you'll notice the vast majority of it are remixes of existing songs rather than new compositions, but that's fine. Judging by how many times the Kirby series wins Best OST, it's what I expect.

Game of THAT Year 2019


First, in my view, 2019 wasn't a big year for gaming. There weren't really games that were must-plays. A lot of disappointments, too.

That said, we're going to give KoopaTV's Game of THAT Year 2019 award to Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition. Yes, it's... technically not a brand-new game to 2019, but what difference does it make? It's not only one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch (certainly better than anything else from 2019, except perhaps Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, but that was only nominated as a joke/troll option since that already got an award back in 2014 on 3DS), but one of the most solid RPGs in years. Or ever. You can read my article about the Dragon Quest XI S demo and extrapolate the positive feelings to the rest of the game.

KoopaTV-related awards for 2019

Best KoopaTV Guest Article Contributor/Best Guest Commentary or Best Guest Art Article


While Dorothea didn't manage to win Best New Character of 2019, guest artwork of Dorothea created for KoopaTV's Fire Emblem: Three Houses article DID win the Best Guest Art Article. Congratulations to Summoner Sky for her excellent drawing talent, and do take a look at the Dorothea art. She's great in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, too.

Best KoopaTV Review


Based on KoopaTV's strict definition and standards for what a review is, there were only two reviews on KoopaTV in 2019. One was a review of someone else's game review. The other was a thorough review of an actual game, Subnautica. The Subnautica review takes you into the depths of Kamek's mind, as he takes you into the depths of how Subnautica operates, as that game takes you into the depths of the water. It's... deep, and has earned KoopaTV's Best KoopaTV Review award!

Best KoopaTV Reaction Log


There is a lot going on in our reaction log for Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, and we're giving it the award for Best KoopaTV Reaction Log of 2019. It even featured a one-time exclusive character, Kamek's “female friend” that sort of reacted with us, showing the power of a KoopaTV reaction log helping people bond closer together. We hope seeing our live, unfiltered reactions helps you bond closer with us, too.

We hear that Kamek actually bonded a lot with his “female friend” due to that movie experience, and he reports that “We are pretty serious now actually.”

(The movie itself is still terrible, but with the power of friendship, we can make even that an entertaining night together.) 

Best KoopaTV Artistic Corner Contribution


For the second year in a row, the Best KoopaTV Artistic Corner Contribution goes to an article that technically isn't in the Artistic Corner: KoopaTV's Crabby Six-Year Anniversary! This article has everything in it. A history lesson, plushie action, a bunch of commonalities between Koopas and crabs, a whole bit about FAKE NEWS and the Giant Enemy Crab (backed by exhaustive investigation), and finally ending in a viral video about Hungrybox and his crab attack.

It's comprehensive Koopa-crab coverage. Great stuff, and worthy of an award and being an anniversary article.

Best KoopaTV Enlightenment Movement Article


The Enlightenment Movement article category is always crucially important for KoopaTV, since it's not only a differentiator between us and other sites, but the Enlightenment Movement is core to why KoopaTV exists and the message about Mario we're tasked with spreading.

In 2019, we had an Enlightenment Movement article not only talk about Mario's evil, but also another evil that greatly affects many of you from Earth reading this: Daylight Saving Time. We'd like to present the award for Best KoopaTV Enlightenment Movement Article of 2019 to The Origins of Daylight Savings Time: Mario's Time Machine. Mario's Time Machine doesn't get much attention, but we demonstrated with ample evidence why it should, and in the process, why a site based from Koopa Kingdom spends a great deal of effort trying to spread the message to Earth, located in a whole other galaxy from us. Many times, the barriers between our world and yours are broken, and when there's interaction with the likes of Mario, Earth can be changed forever. And thus, you're stuck with awful occurrences like Daylight Saving Time.

Best KoopaTV Fitness Log


KoopaTV's fitness logs are a very recent creation, only being around for two months. It's hard to really say what makes for a good fitness log and what doesn't. Still, the staff agreed that the best one is Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 6: Darkly Influenced Four Masters, because it's the most plot-consequential of the logs, which is what we're used to and what we like. I guess there's a few details on, uh, actual fitness in there too, but I dunno what you find important. We like story and characters at KoopaTV and that's the log with the story and characters. That's all.

Best KoopaTV General Article


This was a difficult decision, but we decided on Why You, a Climate Change Striker, Would Enjoy KoopaTV. Why? Well, it was an article that was very subversive to your expectations, and surprisingly, got a lot of views due to that. It demonstrated a general truth about how folks, while seemingly very different (and DIVERSE!) at first blush, are actually more alike if you dig deeper into the details, as the article did. That's actually a sort of unifying message that we need to rally behind more often.

The article also gives a lot of insight on how KoopaTV's staff views its ideal audience and the actual narrative purpose of this website, which isn't something that you see regularly. And it would've never existed were it not for the current events of that week. That vindicates KoopaTV's editorial strategy.

Best KoopaTV Gaming Commentary Article


Continuing the theme of pro-social messages, KoopaTV's Best KoopaTV Gaming Commentary Article of 2019 award goes to Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2. Ludwig can confirm that Splatoon 2 is still a relevant game with an active player base, and it's a significantly superior experience when players follow the precepts outlined in that article and Booyah! back, for all of the reasons written in the article.

Even if you don't play Splatoon 2, there's still many life lessons you can learn from that article, since not only does it explore Inkling civilisation, but it also speaks to truths nested deep within any functional society. A truly special piece. 

Best KoopaTV Article Series


I'm not sure how I'm going to hyperlink to this, but the Best KoopaTV Article Series of 2019 goes to Ace Attorney April!

Basically, for the 15 weekdays between April 1 2019 (TAKE THAT! Phoenix Wright Revealed For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighter Pass DLC!) and April 19 2019 (Genius Prosecutor Reveals Crooked Attorney), every article had Ace Attorney references in it, or they were explicitly about Ace Attorney. This included the release of Game of THAT Year 2019 nominee, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy; and Spirit Battle concepts for Maya Fey, Franziska von Karma, and Godot. All of those Spirit Battles could've won the Best Artistic Corner Contribution of 2019 if we chose to pack the nominations with them. It was a golden age of content, and it continued past April with the lasting consequences of Phoenix Wright becoming disbarred, greatly impacting our E3 2019.

Best KoopaTV Article


All of the article winners are now competing to be crowned the Best KoopaTV Article of 2019. And the winner?

Give a round of applause for
Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2! It's as amazing a read then as it is now. A truly timeless work of art and literary genius.

These awards will conclude with the best and worst comments of the year, without further KoopaTV commentary. You guys can speak for yourselves.

Best KoopaTV Comment


“Toddlers are the real world equivalent of Klefki. My daughter would take my keys and try to open random holes she found with them sometimes making it hard for me to locate where the keys are.” — ShinyGirafarig

Worst KoopaTV Comment


“Sounds like SJW garbage to me.
Think of the children!
Muh terrorism!
Have we learned nothing?” — Anonymous

Winners Reference List of 2019

Best New Character
Dragaux from Ring Fit Adventure
Best OST
Super Kirby Clash
Game of THAT Year
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition
Best KoopaTV Guest Article Contributor/Best Guest Commentary or Best Guest Art Article
Fire Emblem: Three Houses Released; Dorothea Is Pretty Cute with art drawn by Summoner Sky
Best KoopaTV Review
A Brave New World in Subnautica
Best KoopaTV Reaction Log
Live Reactions to Watching Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us
Best KoopaTV Artistic Corner Contribution
KoopaTV's Crabby Six-Year Anniversary
Best KoopaTV Enlightenment Movement Article
The Origins of Daylight Savings Time: Mario's Time Machine
Best KoopaTV Fitness Log
Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 6: Darkly Influenced Four Masters
Best KoopaTV General Article
Why You, a Climate Change Striker, Would Enjoy KoopaTV
Best KoopaTV Gaming Commentary Article
Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2
Best KoopaTV Article Series
Ace Attorney April
Best KoopaTV Article
Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2



This article represents the best of gaming and KoopaTV (the best gaming story) in 2019. That makes this article a phenomenal source for locating and reveling in excellence, so feel free to benefit from the high concentration of awesome in this article and share it with your friends! Also, shout-out to ShinyGirafarig for winning Best Comment of the Year two years in a row. The category has only existed for two years, so that's two-for-two! Let the staff know in the comments section if you disagree or agree with the selections.


What does 2020 bring? Here are 2020's nominations.
And here are 2020's AWARDS! Better year than 2019? Uh...

4 comments :

  1. Well, I didn't expect to win either comment category, and I do readily admit S.G.'s Klefki joke is vastly worthy of such recognition. One more thing I'll surpass him on next year! :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. I genuinely thought that Ace Attorney was going to win. I have no experience with the Dragon Quest franchise, so I cannot say either way if it deserves to be on top or not. My personal game of 2019 would have to be Super Mario Maker 2 as I enjoy seeing the creativity from level creators and competing against others in the laggy yet fun versus mode. Plus, since the 100 live challenge was replaced with endless mode, this means that Mario is not able to rescue, or should I say, kidnap the princess any longer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Play the Dragon Quest XI S demo.

      There was a non-zero chance that Ace Attorney was going to win!

      Delete

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