Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 16: Allegra vs. Titanium White, and Steely Buns

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My legs are stubs compared to these girls. (And dragons.)

First of all, I (by accident, obviously) broke the back panel of my Nintendo Switch dock in the making of this article (and playing Ring Fit Adventure), the part that enables it to be flexible and extend on the surface so the dock (with the Switch inside) can be upright. It can still be upright, but now it's not stable at all. Second of all, welcome to KoopaTV Fitness Friday!

At the end of the Week 15 Fitness Log, we cleared 4 of the courses for the subject of Week 16: World 16: The Steeliest Buns. That leaves... 12 courses to go, along with 10 requests. Yup, very long world. We can't tackle any requests yet due to not passing by the town yet, so let's do this Sunday noon workout...

...Starting with the Game Gym, Squat Goals (Novice). It's also foggy. I thought we'd get rid of the foggy variants from World 14 (which has everything in fog). It's perfectly clear here. Is it foggy just for the robots' amusement? Because this sure isn't fun for me, and it sure isn't good game design.

There's tokens on the right side of the screen that is passing by. It's hard to see it in motion, too.

I got 350 coins for it, but this is fake difficulty that discriminates against people who have problems looking at very low-contrast items. I'm dreading when (if) completing this with a perfect score ends up being a request later on. Let's hope the five-round Battle Gym (offering the Black-Currant Smoothie Recipe, as well as access to an overworld chest) is more fun. And it was, comparatively. Took 10 turns, which is fine. The Black-Currant Smoothie Recipe requires 3 Black Currants (I only have 1) and it increases Blue Fit Skill power by ↑↑. The treasure chest only had one Sapphire, which is a garbage reward.

Next up is...a MINIBOSS.

2020 Pokémon of the Year Results... and a Zarude?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - How far are we from the mainstream? ...Is that a good thing?

It feels pretty trite to talk about Pokémon Day, and even more so to cover the Pokémon Day “2020 Pokémon of the Year” (we just started 2020!) by talking about our own favourite Pokémon. But that's what people want to see coverage about, so, whatever.

I know my favourite Pokémon from each region. I know Kamek's, too. And I know the general population's (at least, the top 30). I'll just make a table of it:

Region	Ludwig's Favourite	Placing	Kamek's Favourite	Placing	World's Favourite
Kanto	Tauros	Outside of Top 30	Snorlax	11	Charizard
Johto	Miltank	Outside of Top 30	Quagsire	22	Umbreon
Hoenn	Grovyle	24	Wailmer	Outside of Top 30	Rayquaza
Sinnoh	Staraptor	16	Torterra	12	Lucario
Unova	Bouffalant	Outside of Top 30	Sawk	Outside of Top 30	Chandelure
Kalos	Hawlucha	12	Pumpkaboo	24	Greninja
Alola	Tapu Bulu	Outside of Top 30	Mudsdale	26	Mimikyu
Galar	Wooloo	9	Snom	4	Dragapult

Johto, Unova, and Kalos all are regions without one of its highest-evolution starters in the top 30 (poor Meganium, Emboar, and Chesnaught, respectively). Alola, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are the regions with the most positively-favoured highest-evolution starters (Decidueye at 3rd, Incineroar at 6th, and Primarina at 8th; Sceptile at 4th, Blaziken at 5th, and Swampert at 11th; Infernape at 5th, Empoleon at 9th, and Torterra at 12th respectively).

As for Kanto and Galar, they have Venusaur and Rillaboom barely at 28th and 29th, respectively. I get the impression that Grass is the least popular starter type. I mean, I always kind of knew that, but oh well. Grass has always been my favourite starter type. And clearly, my pro-bovine bias isn't popular among the rest of the fanbase. Greninja was the most popular overall.

While Dragapult isn't even officially announced by The Pokémon Company International, we did get an official announcement today of a new, Mythical Pokémon:

The Switch Tax Myth, and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Apples to shoes, and subjective value.

I always figured that “apples to oranges” is a stupid expression because of course you should be able to directly compare apples vs. oranges. Apples vs. shoes is more complicated.

A pervasive myth is that games are more expensive on the Nintendo Switch than other platforms—dubbed “the Switch Tax”—and gamers that favour the Switch are being punished for their choice. The Switcher site did a study of this back in 2018 and found that price variations sometimes existed, but were all over the place. On average, Switch games were slightly more expensive than their Steam counterparts... but many times, it's an apples to shoes comparison.

Here's a particularly interesting example that just released on the Nintendo Switch last week: Devil May Cry 3. Very popular, classic action game from CAPCOM. CAPCOM hyped it up for several weeks before the release, and revealed that it's not just a high-definition version of Devil May Cry 3, but it's a SPECIAL EDITION with real-time weapon change, real-time style switching, and a local co-op Bloody Palace mode that didn't exist before. This special-ness is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. Other consoles with Devil May Cry 3 also call it the SPECIAL EDITION, but they lack the features just put on the Switch. In other words, all Devil May Cry 3 remasters are special, but the Nintendo Switch Devil May Cry 3 remaster is more special than others.

Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition (Switch) is $20, and if you buy it, it also grants you codes to get Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2 for $10 each. That's $40 for that whole trilogy.

Ah, so here's where the Switch Tax accusations come in, on two fronts:

Coronavirus, You, Us, and the Gaming Industry

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We do need a coronavirus (COVID-19) article. Hopefully, we won't need another.

Joining KoopaTV's coverage of international Earth-based virus outbreaks is CORONAVIRUS. While many thought that World War III was going to dominate the early-2020 headlines, that whole thing was a media-driven scare. Meanwhile, coronavirus, while certainly also given scary characteristics by media hype, is a legitimately scary prospect with far-reaching consequences.

The entire World News page of the February 24, 2020 edition of the Wall Street Journal is just coronavirus fear.
You can see an underlined section about Nintendo contained in the bottom story. Switch production is impacted.

 
Strangely enough, despite this being all of the news, the Democrats in last week's debate didn't discuss coronavirus. If they let Tulsi Gabbard on the stage, she would've. They did discuss it in tonight's debate, though by spreading mistruths and platitudes about the quickly-spreading virus.

Other politicians aren't waiting for a debate platform to speak about it, though:

I Don't Hail From The '90s, But Super Mario Bros. 2 Does?!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - So much for being a '90s kid?

You may remember the in-game event tournament for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that included characters from the 1980s. Unfortunately, it excluded me and the other Koopalings.

The Hailing from the '90s tournament describes itself as:

“This tourney features fighters and stages that were created in the '90s!

The further you advance, the better the spirit you'll win!” 

If I didn't qualify for the 1980s, then do I qualify for the 1990s? ...Turns out...No. But you know what does qualify? The Mushroom Kingdom II stage—based on Subcon (which isn't the Mushroom Kingdom)—from Super Mario Bros. 2, otherwise known as Super Mario USA.

Super Mario Bros. 2 first released in 1988 in the United States, and then Super Mario USA appeared in Japan in 1992. It appeared obvious from the 1980s tournament that Masahiro Sakurai cared a lot about first worldwide release date (with the exception of, you know, the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1988). In fact, this isn't true.

It's just the Japanese dates. Not the first worldwide. Yes, they went by the Japanese release date for a game literally called Super Mario USA.

You know what that stands for?

(THE) UNITED STATES (OF) AMERICA.

Anyway, unlike the 1980s tournament which excluded me, I didn't boycott this one, since I didn't have expectations that I'd get in. I won it, too.

Everyone knows Jigglypuff is the most important part of the 1990s.

You didn't miss anything from not participating in this tournament, but you will miss out on a good time if you miss out on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020. It's Nintendo-sponsored, free-to-enter, and takes place online, but there are also no items, it's 1-on-1, lag is against the ruleset (though some folks might try to enter with a low-speed Internet anyway), and there's an actual legitimate prize with a monetary value. And there are no restrictions on character usage, which means yes to using the Koopalings, no matter how much Sakurai hates them (and Ludwig, specifically)!


Ludwig qualifies for the tournament between 2000 and 2009! How? What does he do? Find out...
Not many characters qualify for a tournament between 2010 and 2019. Is that a bad sign?

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 15: Here's A Quiz!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If you don't know where the bathroom is, try the river.

Welcome to yet another edition of KoopaTV Fitness Fridays, and thanks for sticking by. The whole point of this is to get fit and tell the world about it so I can stay motivated, but I gotta say, the possibility that the whole Tokyo Olympics might get cancelled due to virus outbreak is concerning and not helping the ol’ motivation. Note: This article, thanks to the nature of the world discussed in it, somewhat functions as a walkthrough. That means there's spoilers everywhere for Ring Fit Adventure.

On Sunday night (February 16), I started up Ring Fit Adventure once more, to take on World 15: Quizton. (Retaining difficulty level 29.) The gimmick of this world seems to be the population is fond of pop quizzes, which I'm not as good as anymore now that I've long since transitioned from school. (And while I was in school, pop quizzes weren't a popular tactic from teachers and professors anyway.) We go to the town to try to find a road forward, and meet the Mayor of Quizton. He agrees to help us... so long as we complete his quiz. The rest of the townspeople also ask quizzes, though they don't offer any dialogue boxes to choose among options. They just give you the answer if you press the A button after they ask the question.

I wonder what the Splatfest was that resulted in this stupid law.

Fortunately, Hubby and Honey in General Store 13 don't ask any questions to get us to buy their new outfits, which are the Burning Ant (all red) and Skip Hopper (an ugly lime-green set that also restores hearts with repeated knee lifts). Despite having no set bonus, I'll wear the Burning Ant set.

The Mayor's quiz has higher stakes than the townspeople NPCs. The town has two different paths, north and south. The correct path that will lead us further is based on the following question:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Did Animal Crossing: New Horizons take advantage of its opportunity to impress?

I believe everyone on KoopaTV's staff has owned and enjoyed an Animal Crossing game at some point in our lifetimes. Yet, there's no great Animal Crossing advocate on our staff.

Regardless, Nintendo put out a Direct, and someone's gotta get content up on KoopaTV.org. As you may have come to expect, I got the short end of the flimsy shovel, but whatever, I'll do this myself. Not at the time it actually aired (some folks have jobs that franchises like Animal Crossing seek to relax the stresses of) but hey, I came into watching the video-on-demand with no spoilers whatsoever:
 

...The question to keep in mind, though, is “Is there anything in this Direct that's worth spoiling?” Or do people simply watch it, nod, and say “Okay.” Well, find out in my live reaction log below. I have at least one good, ALL-CAPS sentence moment with it:

Nintendo brings you the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020 tournament!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Nothing should stop you!

I don't know about you, but I still consider every Nintendo-Battlefy tournament to be a big deal. They have announced the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020, taking place on either February 29 or March 1, depending on where in North America you'll be during the tournament. The fact that it transcends over two months in the calendar means that they can't name it after a month, so it's named after a whole season. Guess that implies there won't be enough until the summer, so you better make your performance count.

Spring 2020 brings a Halloween colour scheme.
Halloween sucks, but I support normalising it so people stop making a big deal out of it.

What's at stake? Well, the last three of these online-based tournaments—February 2020, November 2019, and September 2019—had a guaranteed round-trip flight, lodging, $350 visa card, and ticket to major tournaments taking place in... Detroit, Oakland, and Detroit, respectively. Those aren't places that are hospitable or nice to visit, quite frankly.

But this time, the prize is in Orlando, Florida, to be able to participate at CEO Dreamland 2020 from March 13–15. Orlando is a nice place to go, especially in March. There's a lack of hurricanes. The weather is nice. Full Sail University is there, which is a game design (and other media/entertainment) college that Nintendo used to plug often. If you're into theme parks, Orlando has them.

Also new for the upcoming tournament versus the one a month ago? Québec citizens are now allowed to participate (in Region 7), and the rules regarding the $350 visa card were changed from “$350 Visa gift card provided to winners only” to “$350 Visa gift card provided to winners only to be used for expenses”, which is a significant nerf preventing you from just pocketing the cash-equivalent.

Speaking of nerfs, I don't think there will be any changes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate within the next ten days, so it will still be on 7.0.0. It will be very interesting to see how much Byleth's play rate collapses a month and a half after his introduction compared to two weeks after his introduction. I'll certainly publish that data in March.

I have good news if you already have a Nintendo Switch, already have Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but don't have a Nintendo Switch Online membership and you already used the generous free trial: My Nintendo is offering an ADDITIONAL seven-day free trial! You can use this while you're participating in the tournament. You have until March 6 to take advantage of that, which pretty much means it exists just so everyone can enter this tournament.


On March 1, Ludwig will be writing up his progress in the comments section of this article while in the tournament. The majority of entrants will be participating in the first round of the tournament, which functions as a pools round to weed the hundreds of per-region entrants into a top 32. In this, you play in a ladder-based format, meaning you get to play as many games as you can fit in three hours, and you can keep playing even if you lose several in a row. Fun times. It's free to enter.


What were the results of the Spring 2020 tournament? Click here for the winners and the character usage stats.
The next North American Online Open... isn't for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it's for ARMS!
Alright, the real next North American Online Open for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is for May 2020... though it's really in June.

People Actually Watched the Sonic the Hedgehog 2020 Movie?!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, it's not my glass of milk.

The last time I wrote an article dedicated to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie—and understand that coverage of this movie (mostly through its protagonist design decisions and delay) makes up the majority of Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property coverage on this website (not counting things related to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which tends to omit Sonic's presence entirely)—I wrote that it won't be a great movie.

The delayed date finally passed, and the movie released over the previous weekend. Apparently, its performance during that weekend made Sonic the Hedgehog the best-performing (in terms of dollar value) videogame adaptation movie ever.

A lot of people are comparing Sonic the Hedgehog to the Detective Pikachu movie, but I've always rejected the comparison. The Detective Pikachu game is terrible with no redeeming qualities, and I'm not sure most movie-watchers knew that it was a specific game. The game only really existed to become a movie, all for a quick Communist cash grab.

For what it's worth—and it's not worth much for videogames but I don't know if that also applies to movies—the critics’ reviews see the Sonic the Hedgehog movie as mediocre. Normal people seem to like it for its feel-good qualities.

A lot of moments from the (second) trailer never actually happened in the movie, so that was fake news. I don't have data or statistics to back this up, but from my experience reading what people are saying about the movie, a plurality of the discussion is around the last two scenes of the movie. One of those scenes briefly appeared at the end of the very first trailer, so I don't consider it a spoiler:

Exclusionary Ace Attorney Ad

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I know Phoenix Wright is disbarred, but what did Miles Edgeworth do to deserve this?

If you're reading this now, that means the February 2020 CAPCOM Publisher Sale is over. Did you take advantage of it? Did you completely miss being able to purchase Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy at 50% off? If that opportunity passed you by, it sure ain't MY fault. But it could've been CAPCOM's. Observe:

Left: CAPCOM using a Facebook ad to target people interested in CAPCOM stuff, I guess.
Right: The CAPCOM Publisher Sale page on Steam that the ad leads to.

 
Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth are suspiciously missing from the Facebook ad, despite being prominently in the centre of the original artwork. (You can get a list of all of the characters in that artwork back when it was used a year ago for the CAPCOM Store.) CAPCOM's designer very consciously replaced the attorneys with GreatSword and Palico from Monster Hunter World, since I guess Rathalos in the background was going to be cut off and they needed some form of Monster Hunter representation since Monster Hunter was responsible for CAPCOM even being afloat for a while.

But there's a surplus of folks from, say, Resident Evil. Does the zombie cop really have to be there? As I mentioned in my header text, CAPCOM has every right to disassociate with disbarred, crooked Phoenix Wright. But Miles Edgeworth still has a viable career, and in multiple countries! Surely they could prevent a whole franchise from disappearing, and especially one with such an amazing discount behind it.

Can one extrapolate this purposeful Ace Attorney snuff and extrapolate that CAPCOM doesn't have any greater plans for the franchise? ...Sure. Should you? I don't think so. Though, after several years, I'm doubting that “Ace Attorney 7” ever really existed. We'll keep hoping.


The proper way to read the article title is that it is an ad that excludes ace attorneys, not that it's an ace attorney ad that excludes everyone else. It's not often that KoopaTV gets to make TWO Ace Attorney articles off of one event, especially a very limited-time sale, but KoopaTV is an Ace Attorney fan site with arguably more gusto than being a Koopa Kingdom propaganda outlet. Which permutations would you have made with CAPCOM's source image's characters to fit within the Facebook ad? Is Ludwig just trying to be an unwarranted victim? Was CAPCOM making up for Ludwig excluding everything BESIDES Ace Attorney in his promotion of the sale? Discuss in the comments section.

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 14: Ghostly Abdominals

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Don't be an ageist jerk. (Except if one is so old they're senile.)

As of when I'm starting this, Week 13 wasn't even published yet. There is a funny situation about that, and it's still not even resolved as of publishing. Either way, there's two Ring Fit Adventure fitness logs published on KoopaTV in one week, except this one is actually on Friday (hence KoopaTV Fitness Friday).

At the end of Week 13 I started World 14: Moppets Gone Missing. Here's the continuation of that story, starting on Sunday:

At the end of Week 13 I completed the first half of the map (left side).
Week 14 is dedicated to this half.
(My difficulty level in week 14 is still 29 out of 30.)

The first thing I do in World 14 second half is enter... General Store Number 12. Honey and Hubby are discussing the dangers of fog and children disappearing. They now sell Ginger as an ingredient, and the Bleached Skeleton clothing set, as well as the Blue Skeleton clothing set. The skeleton clothes are black with white/blue painted-on bones and the same power rating (more than Peacock Contender). Bleached has no set bonus, but Blue will restore your hearts if you do repeated knee lifts. That's a useless set bonus, since it's a ridiculous notion that I'll be in a heart deficit with my abundance of healing items and monstrously high defence stat.

There's a story-relevant woman in town, Martha, who is crying about her daughter (named Carrie) disappearing. Ring volunteers us to find her, though it's also noted that ALL of the children have disappeared in this unnamed land. Meanwhile, the other townspeople are speaking of an abs instructor who used to hold seminars and sing abs-related songs, but that person has disappeared. But if I score at least 1500 points in 40 seconds in Bootstrap Tower (Novice), I can get the Abs Master top clothing, which looks suspiciously similar to Abdonis's zipper-challenged jacket. You have to try to fail this challenge.

Disturbingly, it turns out that the Ab Master not only is Abdonis's jacket, but it also comes with Abdonis's hair. Does that mean that his isn't natural?

I'm not wearing this creepy thing in public, believe me. It's going right to the wardrobe and staying there.

Help Me Understand Shigeru Miyamoto's Senile Nintendo Video Content Answer

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What does this mean?

Last week, I wrote about Nintendo's nine months financial results for fiscal year ending March 2020. (Also known as the quarter ending December 31, 2019.) Shortly after, Nintendo published a question & answer summary featuring president Shuntaro Furukawa and famous Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Among other things, they believe the Nintendo Switch is “just entering the middle of its life cycle.” And then there was this strange answer, provided by Shigeru Miyamoto, on the question of... 

“The touchpoints that consumers have with Nintendo IP, especially Mario IP, are currently Nintendo Switch, smart devices, and the like. I understand this will expand to theme parks, a movie, and so on, but what lines separate these different media? I expect each medium probably has some certain set themes, not just introducing the Mario character anywhere. I would like to know what will be different about each touchpoint, and what will be the same.”

(In other words, this questioner is asking about Nintendo licensing their intellectual property across a variety of media types, and if there is a specific, thought-through strategy that differentiates each media type, or if Nintendo will just spam Mario.)

Now, the answer from Shigeru Miyamoto, which I will quote in full for your context...

CAPCOM Publisher Sale; February 2020: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch, Steam) at 50% Off!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Love yourself with Ace Attorney. Even if no one else loves you.

I have significant news for you: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (2019 edition) is at its lowest price EVER: 50% off, or $14.99, if you're buying from the Nintendo Switch or Steam. (It's currently $19.79 or $20.09 on PlayStation and Xbox respectively. Don't tell me there's a Switch tax.)

But you only have until the morning of Monday, February 17, to take advantage of this deal. That's how long the CAPCOM Publisher Sale of 2020 lasts. Well, there'll probably be multiple CAPCOM Publisher Sales of 2020. 2019 had at least two: one in May, and one in August. That August one is more important. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was 33% off at the time, and they had just released the language patch letting you play the game in French, German, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese—in addition to the base languages of English and Japanese. Personally, I just started playing the game in French in honour of Benjamin Hunter. It turns out that nearly everyone but Phoenix Wright himself (who is in the current year now a struggling crazed homeless guy) has weird names.

This is the first successful OBJECTION in the series. Something about a total contradiction of the autopsy report?
The whole French language is a mess.

 
You can switch between languages from the title screen menu, but you can't switch languages mid-play. Each language has its own set of up to 10 save slots, per Trilogy game. (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations.)

I've recently heard someone tell me that they “[n]ormally enjoy watching streams of [visual novels] as opposed to actually playing them myself.” There is a massive difference between watching someone else play Ace Attorney and actually playing it yourself, based on the principles of you having the opportunity to think the solutions out for yourself—which is significantly more fulfilling than watching someone else do it—as well as taking advantage of player agency and going through optional/incorrect dialogue at your own pace. (Ace Attorney is the kind of game where reading that is its own reward, since the dialogue is amazing. Not that I can tell in French.)

At only $15 ($5 per game... and each of these are lengthy, substantial games at a couple dozen hours each), you can easily find out for yourself the difference and you will not regret it.

Don't be like Phoenix.
Take advantage of the CAPCOM Publisher Sale before it's too late!
(That's what he's saying. That he's late. Not, uh, that he's retarded. ...You don't want to be accused of that, either, of course.)

I'm obligated to mention that if you'd rather play on the Nintendo 3DS, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy are 50%, 70%, 60%, and 60% off respectively. The 3DS also has demos.


There are also other CAPCOM games that are on sale, as well as many other games on sale from other publishers. KoopaTV only has the time to shill for Ace Attorney, however, so you'll have to discover those other games on sale for yourself. Not that they're necessary when the best franchise in videogames is on sale. Ludwig wants to complete the entire Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in French before the end of 2020, but he underestimated just how different French is from English. If you want a rebate covering 2/3 of the cost of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy on the Switch while it's on sale, go win the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program.


Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was most recently (before February) on sale one month ago in January 2020 at 33.33% off.
CAPCOM paid money to tell people about their sale... but they excluded Ace Attorney from their imagery! Why?!
Ludwig writes in more detail about the myth of the Switch tax here.
In less than 30 days, the Ace Attorney games are on sale, again.
If you want a slightly more general sale than just Ace Attorney games, CAPCOM provides that at the end of March 2020, too.
But the biggest broad sale is the CAPCOM Spring Sale of April 2020.
CAPCOM is getting slightly more creative with their sale themes in 2021, with the next February sale supposedly celebrating the Lunar New Year.
The next CAPCOM Publisher Sale is March 2021.

Some (but not all) Pokémon Leakers Found: Lousy Gaming Journalist!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Excommunication. Plus, Home.

First of all, these aren't the same group of leakers that were involved in the Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield strategy guides. That's progressing smoothly so far, with The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) getting a bunch of subpoenas served on various Internet service providers. They already got long lists of defendants' IP addresses thanks to hiring private forensic investigators. You can follow that case here.

No, before the game released, there was some source that was leaking the game contents from the game itself, not just its guidebook with its artwork. We now know where that source came from—an undisclosed reviewer at the Portuguese Nintendo-based website FNintendo. If you're familiar with popular four-letter swear words, that website name might not SOUND like a site that's on good terms with Nintendo, but they apparently were for a little over a decade. Now Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International have FNintendo on their shit-list of outlets they won't work with. 

We added FNintendo to our shit-list, too, at least until they name-drop who the reviewer is. FNintendo has provided a statement saying that they've dropped their relationship with this person and they've accepted their fate on Nintendo's shit-list, but they have not provided their identity.

Why is this important? Well, if we don't know who that person is, then they could try to join another outlet and hide their very shady past. What if this disreputable individual tried to join KoopaTV's staff (it's a really easy process, as you can find out for yourself over here) and we wouldn't be able to do a complete background check because this person is unknown?

In other news, Pokémon HOME being out in the vague “February 2020” actually means it's out now. It's already a mess, though many things are at launch. Personally, I won't invest in it...ever.

By the way, other outlets reported that Pokémon HOME would be free for the first month. If you read my article on it, you'll see that KoopaTV did not report that. Specifically, TPCi always said:

“To commemorate the release of Pokémon HOME, we will make Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter available at no cost for a one-month period after Pokémon HOME is released. ”

Keep in mind that is NOT written as “Pokémon HOME is at no cost.” Totally different product. Pay your mortgage-subscription, you sucker. Don't get into those reverse-mortgages you see advertised on TV. And don't keep giving outlets that LEAK or provide FAKE NEWS your views.


Ludwig doesn't want agreement-breaking leakers on the KoopaTV staff, or in the greater general gaming journalism business. These are very bad people who are not only untrustworthy, but also are actively trying to ruin people's gaming experiences for some short-lived attention. KoopaTV will never leak unreleased titles. (KoopaTV likely will never be in that position anyway, though.) If you're Portuguese and you're looking for a good site, KoopaTV is available. ...Just hope you can read English.


TPCi has identified and settled with the strategy guide leakers, too.

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 13: Where in El Dorago is Lord Dragaux?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - ...In the fog?

Normally, KoopaTV's Fitness Friday series are supposed to be published on... Fridays. Last Friday, we faced a difficulty with Facebook and Nintendo Switch screenshot sharing, which continues to this day. (We're working around it with Twitter.) Still, regardless of when these come out, expect in-depth coverage of my playthrough, on a week-by-week basis, of Ring Fit Adventure as I try to get in better shape for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. By the way, by necessity, KoopaTV's fitness log series totally spoils the story of Ring Fit Adventure, and may spoil gameplay too. You better be alright with that.

I had a crisis over the weekend (February 1–2). I ran out of milk. You can't expect me to FUNCTION without milk, you know. I only got 37th out of 533 in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open February 2020 due to contending with a severe milk shortage. It's more difficult than dealing with post-traumatic Pichu combos. Anyway, that's why I didn't play Ring Fit Adventure on Sunday. I will say, though, playing high-level Super Smash Bros. Ultimate works up a sweat all by itself.

But on Monday (February 3), I went to the store and bought milk. BACK IN BUSINESS. Where did we leave off from last week's (week 12's) fitness log...? Ah, World 13: El Dorago. Looks like this:

The state of World 13: El Dorago, at the start of me playing on February 3, 2020.
I'm still on difficulty level 29.

Let's try that bottom-left spot... This Dragaux Stadium is littered with squat-powered springs... and your spring-induced height gets reset if you take a breather and stop squatting. Argh, physics.

By the end of it, we encounter...

Error Codes 2801-7180 and 2801-7181: Nintendo Switch Unable to Post to Facebook

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Interrupting our regularly-scheduled programming...

You know, for the past... many weeks, KoopaTV has dedicated Friday to my fitness log series about Ring Fit Adventure. This Friday, however, I can't publish it. Why? Nintendo Switch screenshot sharing doesn't work, and I absolutely need pictures for those fitness logs or else they'll be an incredibly intimidating wall of text. Imagery helps tremendously with those.

Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch currently—and has all week—spits out error codes 2801-7180 (for a screenshot) and 2801-7171 (for a video), which states that the Nintendo Switch is unable to connect to the social network service, specifically Facebook.

I've been trying all week!

If you have trouble reading that, it says...

“You cannot post screenshots / videos to this social network right now.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Please try again later.”

If you click Details, it reads,

“The server is operating normally.

See the Nintendo Support website for information on network status and maintenance schedules.
support.nintendo.com/switch/error ”

It says about the same thing on Nintendo's Network Maintenance Information page.

If you go to the error code look-up on Nintendo's support site, there's nothing for 2801-7180 or 2801-7171 specifically, but the 2801- family deals with posting to social media. 2801-7199 is about not being able to upload a photo to Facebook. Nintendo suggests to un-link your account, re-link your account, and try again. Well, I did that. It also suggests looking at your settings on the Facebook side to see if you have the appropriate permissions. I already do. In fact, I even went into my Nintendo Switch settings and cleared my cache, which is a setting that I bet most people don't even know exists, especially since the Switch doesn't actually have an Internet browser. 

The problem still persists. There's no way to fix it. We just have to wait indefinitely.

...Which is pretty bad for this site, since we gotta keep doing what we're doing, and that sometimes necessitates screenshots.

Update end of February: It works now. On Facebook. However, if you try to post multiple screenshots simultaneously, you're told, “Simultaneously posting multiple screenshots to Facebook is not possible at this time. For now, post screenshots one by one.”


Ludwig has a Facebook account with no friends on it that exists just as a place to dump his Nintendo Switch screenshots before he downloads them to his hard-drive, and then re-uploads them to KoopaTV. He may have to do the same but on Twitter, since posting things to a public account would not only spoil KoopaTV's subject matter, but it'd bother people. He wants to know if he should blame Nintendo, or if he should blame Facebook. (He can confirm Twitter works.)


Ludwig publishes Week 13 of Ring Fit Adventure on the following Monday by using screenshots obtained by Twitter sharing.
If you'll want to post images to Facebook using the 3DS or Wii U, you won't be able to do that as of October 25, 2022.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Version 7.0.0 (February) Fighter Usage Stats!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The weekend after Byleth releases, are they the most popular choice?

I posed a prediction to the Internet in last week's article promoting the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open February 2020: 

“I predict that Joker will FINALLY no longer be the most-used character, after he has been so for all of the previous tournaments.” 

My basis for this prediction was that the version 7.0.0 balance patch nerfed Joker, introduced Byleth, and buffed several other characters, with specific notable boosts to Samus, Dark Samus, Sheik, Zelda, Dr. Mario, Young Link, Toon Link, Ryu, Ken, and Cloud. Besides Joker, Zero Suit Samus and Palutena also got nerfed. My basic hypothesis is that the player base pays attention to patch notes and changes their behaviour accordingly. The major buff recipients from 6.0.0 back in November all got usage bumps afterwards.

Was I correct in my prediction? First of all, congratulations to King Chris (Zero Suit Samus player from west Canada), Frawg (Bayonetta player from Nevada), Pelca (Snake player from New England), and Wrath (Sonic player from Georgia) for winning the tournament and getting trips to Frostbite 2020 in Detroit later this month. But thousands of other players—including me, and you can see my very detailed journey and results in last week's article's comments section—also joined the tournament, and thousands less (but still thousands—this tournament actually had the highest players-to-registrant ratio since I've been tracking them) showed up to participate. Collectively, the following usage stats are aggregated from nearly 39,000 games, and I believe it's a representative sample of the metagame that you're likely to encounter while playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online as of publishing:

December 31, 2019 Nintendo Quarterly Financial Update

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And we thought we were done writing 2019.

Quite recently, Nintendo revealed the financial results for the end of the third quarter for the fiscal year ending March 2020, or whatever their weird way of wording it is. Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo's president, had another boring investor briefing that was about the very-familiar themes about Nintendo IP access expansion through stores and theme parks you'll likely never be able to go to, the need for incentives for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers to renew, and the Nintendo Switch itself is performing great, with 52.48 million consoles sold, which is over 10 million in three months.

Here are some game unit sales in my very selective long-running chart of below-top-tier million sellers:

The chart from the September 30, 2019 article had typographical errors in it, which are now resolved!

 
Let's be honest: I just wanted to know how much Ring Fit Adventure sold, which is only 2.17 million units. I think that's a low number, compared to what other Switch games are doing. Of course, Ring Fit Adventure has the constraint of being a physical-only title with supply constraints—Furukawa notes it's sold out in Japan, and digital-version titles are increasing in their proportion. He also notes that Ring Fit Adventure is responsible for increased daily Nintendo Switch interaction, and that's true in my experience. Even if I think it's frustrating.

There's nothing else really interesting to say here, except Nintendo plans to sell more Nintendo Switch than previously projected, and less Nintendo 3DS, which is totally irrelevant by now. There also won't be a Nintendo Switch hardware revision in 2020. ...Though I'd remind you not to trust that.


Ludwig thinks you should buy Ring Fit Adventure.  He's sad that most of the games on that graph won't get any sales figures updates anytime soon, since the only reason so many games got an update is because the quarter covered the holiday season, and Nintendo only discloses numbers if a game sold at least one million units in that quarter.



For Nintendo's quarterly financial update for the quarter ending September 30, 2019, see here.
Ludwig wrote the 2018 version of this here.
What were investors asking Nintendo after this? Find out here, but note they didn't get good answers.
Here is the next update, with it ending March 2020!
And here is the 2020 version of this. Even better numbers than 2019.

KoopaTV Live Reactions: SOTU 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - State of the Union 2020.

I have a large, growing number of gaming commentary I need to provide to you. But unfortunately, President Donald John Trump has taken over the universe's airwaves to make everyone a captive audience, all to hear him applaud into his own microphone as he says tired platitudes about how the State of the Union is strong.

Despite the KoopaTV in the article headline, this is just me reacting. Fortunately, I'm able to condense over an hour and a half of lame content into a pretty short reaction log, with perceptive commentary.

For your context, the current American political landscape involves a ridiculous impeachment trial coming to an end very soon, and the Democrats’ presidential primary has been a total disaster so far, even by their standards. With all of that said, the universe—even if unwillingly—is looking at President of the United States Donald John Trump to make sense of this turbulent time and boast his accomplishments.

Plus, there's some surprising events.

KoopaTV's January 2020 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I've surprisingly been very good about writing that it's 2020.

Look at me, crowing about 2020. It's already February...3rd! (2020.) Well, it can't be a newsletter reviewing January 2020 without January 2020 actually passing by first. KoopaTV waits for things to end and then reminisces. That's why we have our Game of THAT Year Awards in January, as opposed to some other places, which pretend the year ends in November so they can reminisce in December. Nuh uh. No way. At KoopaTV, we do it correctly. That's our guarantee to you.

You can see that work ethic exhibited in our articles and content from January 2020. Just have a gander throughout this newsletter:

KoopaTV's Top Five Recommended Experiences of January 2020

KoopaTV is all about the premium (at the cost of nothing to you—no money, no personal data handed over... just your time) content, so here's five of the recommended experiences from January 2020, in chronological order. ...If something isn't here, it's still worth it.

1. Pokémon Sword/Shield Expansion Pass: GAME FREAK's Scumbaggery — Ludwig believes that the Expansion Pass for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield combines every anti-consumer practice out there for this kind of content. Read his persuasive argument!
2. Impressions on the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Announcement and Demo — But on a much more positive Pokémon note, he endorses the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX demo, and suggests you try it out.
3. Learn in 7 Seconds Why Byleth Isn't An Interesting Choice in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — Ludwig, on behalf of all of the Koopalings (and Bowser Jr.) explains why Byleth isn't interesting and is inherently contradictory. It's an issue that's very personal to him.
4. I Brought A Drednaw Plushie To My Dentist Appointment — Writing of what's personal to him, Ludwig tells the story of his dentist appointment in January, and what reactions he received to bringing a Drednaw plushie there. (Photo included.)
5. Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 11: Three Sucky Friends at the Valley of Wishes — Ludwig finds the storyline of the 11th world in Ring Fit Adventure to be fairly engaging, so he wants to share that with you in his fitness log series.