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Friday, October 30, 2020

An Analysis of Michael "Colin Blue Moon" Bloomberg's Presidential Failure

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - How Colin of Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising was amazing, but Mike Bloomberg of the 2019–2020 presidential primaries was a failure.

With Election Day happening early next week and the next President of the United States will either continue to be President Donald John Trump or be Democrat challenger Joe Biden, I think it's time to go back around nine months when a number of outlets were afraid (or maybe happy) that billionaire Michael Bloomberg would be the Democrat Party's presidential nominee and all of a sudden, it's time to take him seriously.

The gist would be that Mike Bloomberg, whom no one actually likes as a person, would flood the United States with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertisements for him, and in states that his opponents would be cash-strapped to actually compete in. Thus, voters would be hearing all Bloomberg, all the time. In the end, when he did drop out, half of the billion dollars in spending was done by just the Bloomberg campaign. He equaled all of the other campaigns combined. To this day, his campaign has still “out-raised” (by virtue of his own money) the presidential campaigns of the two people actually nominated by their party.

What did he get in return for that ridiculous amount of cash? He didn't get first or even second place in any state or territory besides American Samoa, which basically no one competed in. (KoopaTV darling Tulsi Gabbard got two out of its six delegates just because she was born there—those were the only delegates she got before dropping out. Mike Bloomberg got the other four.) In the end, it was a monumental waste of $500 million with perhaps the worst return on investment in history.

Why did this go so wrong? Perhaps it will be helpful to compare Bloomberg being the commander of his campaign with Colin, a commander of the Blue Moon nation in the Advance Wars series that is known for being one of the best commanding officers in the series. All of Colin's units have 10% weaker firepower compared to normal... but he more than makes up for it by being able to buy units at 80% of their regular price. It turns out that Colin Blue Moon and Mike Bloomberg have a lot in common, but also have very different strategies:

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Billy Mitchell vs. Twin Galaxies—Anti-SLAPP slapped down, moves to a trial!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'll explain what that means, of course.

You might not think this matters, but I find it fascinating and it's videogame-related, so a recap: In 2018, it was alleged that legendary eSports pioneer and all-American hot sauce mogul Billy Mitchell is a fraud and his high scores in Donkey Kong are illegitimate lies. His records were stripped from the Guinness World Records book and gaming scoreboard Twin Galaxies. Earlier in 2020, Guinness restored the records upon Billy Mitchell presenting some evidence that he's not a fraud, but Twin Galaxies stood firm. Thus, Billy Mitchell sued Twin Galaxies for defamation, and both sides went off to court.

Skip ahead to this month. Twin Galaxies has alleged that Billy Mitchell's lawsuit is a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation), which is basically saying that Billy Mitchell is using his accumulated wealth and access to lawyers to bully Twin Galaxies into doing the wrong thing (restore Billy Mitchell's allegedly fraudulent records) and ruin the free speech rights of Twin Galaxies, since Twin Galaxies lacks the financial advantages that Billy Mitchell has.

Twin Galaxies countered with an anti-SLAPP motion (or Special Motion to Strike), which tries to have the court dismiss Billy Mitchell's defamation lawsuit and end things without a trial. In order for this to succeed, Twin Galaxies had to demonstrate that Billy Mitchell has no merit to his lawsuit, that it violated Twin Galaxies constitutional rights, and the lawsuit would have no chance of winning if it did go to a trial. The free speech violated is the idea that Billy Mitchell is chilling the speech of people publicly debating videogame scores, which is taking place on a very long series of threads on multiple forums. If Billy Mitchell is able to sue you for defamation, you'll be less likely to want to investigate these things.


Billy Mitchell defeated the anti-SLAPP motion. A trial will happen... but the outcome of that is unknown. Here's what Billy Mitchell has to say, and then read on for my thoughts, backed up by actually reading what the court said:

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Delights on the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | October 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This is obviously the best one yet. (And the last one of 2020.)

Today, Nintendo put out a new Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase, denoted as October 2020. It's lengthy and filled with new information:


I can (and if I didn't have other things to publish this week and next, would) write entire articles about many individual portions of this presentation, but... I gotta condense this.

No More Heroes 3 and HD Remasters of the first two No More Heroes


After Travis Touchdown got turned into a Mii Fighter costume at the beginning of the month, things haven't been looking good for No More Heroes. There was a very expected but still sad-faced delay of No More Heroes 3 to 2021 (which didn't get a new release date, by the way, but Nintendo.com to this day claims it'll release in 2020). Quite frankly, there wasn't much information about No More Heroes 3 in this other than that it looks like a return to form (with extra story stakes), but the real news drop was that No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle—originally released on the Wii—are now available on the Nintendo Switch. Normally, they'll be $20 each, but they're temporarily 10% off! They're described as HD remasters. While I've doubted these would exist, they do, so... You should buy them if you've never played them before. I endorse them. They're much better action titles than what I'll talk about in two sections.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

What Makes One Super? The Predators and the Mario Bros.

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The definition of super... and the threat it poses.

There has been a reoccurring theme of Republican incumbent President Donald John Trump bringing up Democrat challenger Joe Biden's record on race relations and statements on black people (often overlooking Vice President Joe Biden's former boss... President Barack Hussein Obama, whom is half-black), repeatedly claiming that Joe Biden has called black people “superpredators.”

Let's get the facts straight, and then talk about how it matters and how it applies to a far more interesting topic to me (and probably to you, if you expect discussion about videogames on this website). Here's Joe Biden in 1993, warning about predators on the streets:



Meanwhile, here's President Donald John Trump's former presidential foe, Hillary Clinton, in 1996, warning about superpredators:


Joe Biden never said superpredator. He said predator. Hillary Clinton was the one who said superpredator a few years after he did. Therefore, President Donald John Trump is factually incorrect to say Joe Biden said superpredator. With all of that said, and pardon me for using another phrase from Hillary Clinton (albeit decades later), what difference, at this point, does it make? Both of them used the same “dogwhistling” language, talking about young dudes in gangs who have no “conscience” and have only antisocial behaviour that need to be brought “to heel” by more having more cops on the streets. (We know from statistics that this disproportionately ended up affecting and describing black people, and was zealously enforced in some states, like California under top cop Kamala Harris.)

But I do think there is a difference between predator and superpredator, as I alluded to in my write-up of last week's presidential debate: You can observe the difference when comparing it to the difference between the Mario Bros. and the Super Mario Bros., which I'm about to do:


Monday, October 26, 2020

$310 in (total) Prizes for Mario Tennis Aces North American Open November 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Achieving victory through tennis.

Today Nintendo and Battlefy announced the next and third edition of their Mario Tennis Aces tournament series: the Mario Tennis Aces North American Open November 2020, taking place on November 14. Register here.

Mario Tennis Aces North American Open November 2020 online tournament
I'm getting real sick of these Mario-infested logos.

The rules are the same as the September 2020 (the second one) and July 2020 (the first one): Competitors are put into a big single-elimination one-set-is-best-of-three-games, with each game being first-to-seven-points. Legal stages being all four Marina Stadiums, chosen at random. All characters allowed, with standard gameplay (with the metre mechanic) on.

What makes this tournament interesting, besides the inherent appeal of Mario Tennis Aces, is the prize structure:


Friday, October 23, 2020

2020 Presidential Debates: Trump vs. Biden, Night 2

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If only this had happened weeks ago!

A quick review: Election Day in the United States is about 10 to 11 days away. The candidates are Republican and incumbent President Donald John Trump, Democrat (and former Vice President and Senator) Joe Biden, and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen. KoopaTV endorses President Donald John Trump, but it hardly matters because tens of millions of Americans have already voted, prior to our endorsement, due to a nationwide rapid expansion of mail-in/absentee voting. Likewise, that means last night's presidential debate can't change the minds of large swathes of the electorate, since they've already voted. That's a shame, because the first presidential debate—which still happened after “early voting” began—was a disaster and a waste of time. Then there was the vice-presidential debate, which Mike Pence clearly won, although voters aren't considering the vice presidents in their decision-making process as much as they should. (By the way, the Libertarian Party was rudely not invited to any of these.)

Then the President got the Chinese Communist Party Virus, which took what would've been the second debate out of circulation until he could recover. That left last night as the second and final debate, and here it is with a full embed. Quite frankly, I'd recommend watching the whole thing, since it was the best one all year and arguably since 2016. It was entertaining, substantive, and both candidates exhibited basic standards of civilised behaviour thanks to microphone muting abilities from moderator Kristen Welker of NBC:



The debate was divided into six uneven sections, so for the rest of this article I'm going to give my thoughts on each of those sections, along with some selective fact-checking and biting commentary.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Three reasons why Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light coming to Nintendo Switch isn't great...

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And dispelling the one reason why people do think it's great.

Today, Nintendo of America had big news. In fact, it was big AND had a lot of suspense. So much mystery... they put question marks in their announcement trailer:


They had to make it a mystery, because otherwise no one would watch it if they really knew what was going on. Nintendo is bringing the original Famicom title of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light to the Nintendo Switch... in English! With all of the mystery, you'd think it'd be Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, which Americans were just begging for a month ago because Japan got it as part of their Nintendo Switch Online subscription. By the way, that game is both a remake of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light AND a sequel.

A lot of very ignorant people think this is great news, but I'm going to explain why it's not with three reasons, plus addressing one reason why people think it's good news. Speaking as a Fire Emblem long-time fan.


Why Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light isn't a good game

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Kirby Fighters 2 – Free Demo Available Now!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Oh, the full game came out a month ago.

Since I never wrote an article acknowledging the existence of Kirby Fighters 2, I've felt sort of bad. But a whole month has gone by. Fortunately, Nintendo is giving me a second chance, because today they released a demo of it. Here's a quick announcement video:


The demo locks you into using only four playable characters (Sword Kirby, Bomb Kirby, Staff Kirby, and stand-out factored Bandana Waddle Dee) but isn't shy about exposing you to the more full roster if you get the full game for $20. You can play the first chapter of the story mode (which is four fights plus a boss fight), and... you can play local multiplayer or online multiplayer (with randoms or friends in 2 vs. 2s), but not versus CPUs of your choice. Training mode is also available, but only with those four characters. Please consult training mode to learn each character's controls prior to playing multiplayer.

Kirby Fighters 2 rewards list demo Wrestler locked rank
Additional fighters are locked behind higher Fighters Ranks (same with the real game)... but the demo keeps you at Fighters Rank 1.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

The Wagadu Chronicles: Afrofantasy MMO on Kickstarter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I came for the cow-petting, but there's a very ambitious project here that deserves our attention.

There was a Kickstarter game project that opened a month ago (and has 9 to 10 days remaining... but is already fully funded): The Wagadu Chronicles, designed for PC and Mac. It's an ambitious game from founded-in-2019 German indie company Twin Drums, which describes itself as “borne out of the desire to place diversity, and especially blackness and queerness, at the center.” Those aren't words typically embraced on KoopaTV, and I personally tend to balk at the notion that diversity based on characteristics like race or sexuality inherently buffs group/company output.

The Wagadu Chronicles isn't just a normal Player vs. Environment (PvE) massively multiplayer online game—it's also a tabletop roleplaying game (or called pen and paper). (Compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.) They say it's “built exclusively for roleplayers” and the first “online game 100% tailored to role-players, from lore to mechanics” in the Dungeons and Dragons sense, not a Western RPG or Japanese RPG videogame sense, even if they're inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know if that's true, but if it is, that's quite a feat.


Instead of different Tolkien-style races, there are different human lineages based on different African areas (Africa is a very, very diverse and large continent) that are documented in a massive lore book, and Twin Drums states there will be even more lore updates to come. The tabletop experience is “interlinked” and “feeds into and supports the video game” according to the developer. That actually, and ironically, runs into some identity issues.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Splatfest Repeat: Trick or Treat? Now During Halloween!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Candy, man. Plus, a rant on the trickery of Daylight Saving Time.

I am fairly well-known for despising Halloween. Do a search on KoopaTV about that and take your pick of anti-Halloween article. But you know what I do like? Candy. So between tricking and treating on Halloween, I prefer the treats. Why go around collecting candy from other people when you can just buy your own (of your own choice) and enjoy it, without the hassle of having to handle awful candy others give? That's the subject of the Splatfest rerun that will occur during Halloween this year:

Splatoon 2 Splatfest Trick vs. Treat Splatoween Halloween rerun 2020 Pearl Marina
The dialogue (and free gear via Switch News in Inkopolis Square, which does nothing if you already have it) is a replica of 2018's.

I already wrote extensively about Trick vs. Treat back when this Splatfest happened in 2018. My views have not changed—I still support Team Treat. Team Treat won back then, by the way. While Trick had greater popularity (56.85% of Splatoon 2 players were on Team Trick), Team Treat won the two wins-based categories, though Splatfest Battle Normal was very close (Team Treat scraped by with a 50.11%–49.89% victory in that category). Call it a sugar high or whatever you want, those who treat themselves do better than those who trick.

Friday, October 16, 2020

How Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit works, and the SPYWARE threat!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - You should be scared of the world of Mario Kart racing into yours. I'm included, too...!

Remember that weird Mario Kart mixed reality experience from the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct? It was the most interesting part about it since it's new, and it's available now. So... what exactly is it? And take it from me—I, Prince Ludwig Von Koopa, am part of it, so I know everything that's going on. Listen to my explanation, and then how it's... dangerous to you.

The actual Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit box (MSRP 100 USD or 130 CAD) includes, depending on the set, a Mario figure in a red physical kart or a Luigi figure in a green physical kart, along with two arrow signboards and four cardboard gates that you'll need to assemble, as well as a Nintendo USB charging cable for the kart. There are also instructions to download the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit software from the Nintendo eShop, which is free. (There is otherwise no online component to the experience.) The placement of the gates allow you to customise the course around your physical room's structure (best on hard-wood floors, but rugs and carpets will work unless they're heavily textured...just expect a slower kart), which may also serve as natural obstacles. I wrote “physical room”, because it's not meant to be played outdoors (sunlight may interrupt the kart's camera), and your kart needs to be within 15 feet or less of the Switch. You must have a Nintendo Switch (a Lite suffices as well) to control the physical kart. If you want multiple players, you must have multiple karts and multiple Nintendo Switch systems, since there is no split-screen multiplayer. There is also no screenshot capture/video capture.

You actually set up a course by placing the four gates throughout your area, and Lakitu has you maneuver (in whichever custom way you see fit) the path connecting them. The race will work by passing all of the gates in order (they are labelled—and when I write “all”, I mean you must use all four) and then return through the first gate to complete a lap. The two arrow signboards are optional, but will appear in the game. You can print six of your own for a total of eight.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

KoopaTV's 2020 USA Presidential Endorsement

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This was more tough than I thought it would be.

I know that the timing of this should've come sooner, since a lot of you Americans are already voting thanks to early voting and mail-in ballots, phenomenons driven by both laziness and the Chinese Communist Party Virus plaguing the United States. (And I'll get into the CCP Virus more later in the article, since it's on a lot of voters’ minds.) Still, there just hasn't been good timing until now, since the presidential debate that was supposed to be tonight got cancelled, which leaves a great publishing opportunity for an endorsement article.

I'm sure you all are eagerly waiting to hear whom Koopa Kingdom wishes would become the President of the United States. The National Security and Counterintelligence Center has already said that Russia seeks the defeat of former Vice President Joe Biden, but Iran and China wish for the demise of current President Donald John Trump. They also said other foreign nations (like Koopa Kingdom) have opinions, too. It's time to just tell you outright instead of leaving you guessing. For transparency, Koopa Kingdom endorsed candidate Donald Trump in 2016, and declared that we would've shut down our site had Hillary Clinton become president.

KoopaTV 2020 presidential endorsement Koopa Kingdom United States Donald Trump Joe Biden Jo Jorgensen
Presidential candidates, left to right:
Joe Biden (Democrat Party), Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian Party), Donald Trump (Republican Party).


It should be abundantly clear that Koopa Kingdom wants Joe Biden, the Democrat, to lose. He is a policy-weak, doddering warmonger. His vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, is pretty much pure evil and has a horrible record of misdeeds. They are on the wrong side of nearly every issue, if they're willing to even state what their set of issues are.


It is far more interesting to see which of the other two major candidates we would rather actively support: President Donald John Trump of the Republican Party, or Dr. Jo Jorgensen of the Libertarian Party?

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Version 9.0.0: Minecraft and Koopaling Buffs

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I got tricked into updating my copy.

If it wasn't obvious from my live reaction to Masahiro Sakurai presenting Steve and Alex from Minecraft as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters, I've been really dreading their presence in Nintendo's flagship fighting franchise. Last night, an update was distributed to all Internet-connected Super Smash Bros. Ultimate owners, and if you want to continue accessing online play (including the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open October 2020 happening on the 24th or 31st), you'll have to get the update. Besides making the game worse by adding out-of-place Minecraft content, there are several adjustments to the fighters, as well as an adjustment to “the controls during combat in battle arenas while spectators are present” which would prompt me to update my Battle Arena etiquette guide if there was any discernible thing that changed. (You still have to leave your spot to do things like check the settings or change your character, so I don't have to rewrite it or anything...)

Click here for the fighter adjustments (but with actual numbers), and watch this for a side-by-side comparison brought to you by the Beefy Smash Doods:



There should be an obvious thing you notice looking through the changes... I'm a recipient of them! (And Little Mac isn't, per usual.)

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Amazon Prime Day 2020: Out of Season, Okay Deals?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Alright?

Usually, online retailer Amazon has their annual Prime Day sale in the middle of July. This year, it was delayed by three months to be today (October 13) and tomorrow (October 14), presumably due to the Chinese Communist Party Virus damaging people's purchasing power and making selling anything (especially in cardboard boxes) difficult. I guess this means that according to Amazon, the pandemic is all under control. I appreciate the optimism. Maybe Americans can think about that three weeks from now.

In a rare display, Nintendo has several first-party (Nintendo-published) games on sale. They really want you to know that, on Amazon and other retailers trying to have parity with Amazon, Nintendo Switch games Mario Tennis Aces, Yoshi's Crafted World, Splatoon 2, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, or Super Mario Party are all on sale for $20 less than usual.

Nintendo also has “featured deals” with Amazon with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (33% off), Fire Emblem: Three Houses (17% off), Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (26% off), and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! (17% off). If you think those last two having different discounts despite being the same game is odd, during Prime Day 2019 last year, Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! was 50% off while Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! was 25% off. In other words, these deals kinda suck. (One must wonder why Eevee is off by much less this year but Pikachu is around the same discount.)


Meanwhile, Ring Fit Adventure is in stock and at its normal price of $80!

But if you want MY number one recommendation, it's to purchase Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which is normally $30. However, and right now for six days, you can get it on the Xbox One (including the Xbox Series X/S, though not without any special optimisation... not that it needs or wants it) for 50% off at $15. It's full price on every other platform... at least as of publishing. It does tend to go on sale pretty often, though. It might change price within days!



Something big is also happening tonight in terms of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (which is NOT on sale), but Ludwig won't cover that tonight. Wait some other day. Like tomorrow.


Tomorrow is here, and the game got a big update.
The next Prime Day that Ludwig realised was happening was Prime Day 2022.

Monday, October 12, 2020

All About The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open October 2020 Tournament!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I told you this'd happen, and as your expert, I can walk you through how it works.

A mere three weeks ago, I wrote about the official Nintendo-held in-game casual-oriented Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Challenge Cup of September 2020 tournament, and put in a dedicated section in the article about how I thought those casual tournaments will co-exist with the competitive tournaments that Nintendo has been sponsoring with eSports (or esports, as they'd capitalise it) platform Battlefy. That was QUITE a statement, since those tournaments hadn't happened since June 2020. The last time they happened, Min Min wasn't out yet. Now Steve from Minecraft (along with Alex, a zombie, and an Enderman) will be appearing in under 24 hours from when this article was published.

...Well, many participants of the Nintendo-Battlefy tournaments didn't think those tournaments would continue to exist (with many folks on the Discord server—which I moderate, for full disclosure—asking why the server still was up despite there being no tournaments occurring), so here to surprise you (and click this to register)...

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open October 2020 logo purple
This is by far the best colour scheme yet. Love purple!

Besides the new colour scheme in the logo, some things have changed in the tournament since the previous one... PRIZES and RULES. Let's briefly discuss the changes to finish out the article (and actual details on the tournament itself), along with my opinions on it all:

Friday, October 9, 2020

Kamek Koopa Got Married!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - He's happy. We're happy for him, too.

Yesterday, Kamek returned from California (he was at the Cosmos Space Center for a few days) on a KoopaTV reporting assignment. Today, Kamek went and had a wedding and is now married. Sorry, other ladies.

Remember when KoopaTV reacted to Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us back in February 2019, and Kamek had a “female friend” reacting with him? That's whom he is now married to. Yeah, that reaction log was the first time any of us knew who this person was, and it turns out that you all got to sort of meet her at the same time we on staff sort of met her, too. (You're not gonna see a wedding pic in this article, for your information, but you will see other pictures.)

While I was invited to his wedding as a friend of Kamek's for almost 17 years now, I couldn't physically attend it. I did mail him a gift, however, that I think fits the circumstances of how we (his new wife and KoopaTV) got acquainted:

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Psychologist Murdered at the Cosmos Space Center, Which Launched Hope Probe Amidst HAT-1 Rocket Failure

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A murder of Metis, and a meteoric miracle of Sol Starbuck: space pioneer extraordinaire.

(LOS ANGELES, California) A KoopaTV reporter (Kamek, if you must know) was dispatched yesterday to report on the upcoming HAT-1 rocket launch scheduled for today, October 8 2020, out of the Cosmos Space Center operated by the GYAXA federal space program as part of President Donald John Trump's new Space Force. He discovered the death of resident Cosmos psychologist Dr. Metis Cykes, 33. Dr. Cykes was working on artificial intelligent projects about realistic emotion sensing and display in robots, deemed Robots with Hearts. She wrote many papers about speech and emotions, and was also a notable fan of Japanese culture.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual Destinies Photo of the Crime Simon Blackquill Cosmos Space Center Robotics Lab
KoopaTV reporter Kamek Koopa came to do a story on the HAT-1 Launch,
and took this photograph in the room across the fourth floor Robotics Lab in the Cosmos Space Center
on October 7, 2020, a bit around 2:15 PM local time.


Two police officers and a Cosmos Space Center employee came to investigate the Robotics Lab. Pictured inside the lab in KoopaTV's photograph, and holding the blood-covered katana, is rising California prosecutor Simon Blackquill, 21. He was reportedly a psychology student of Dr. Cykes, wishing to wield analytical psychology in the courtroom. He is currently being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department as a person of interest. We hear they are carefully reviewing the security system video footage.

Dr. Metis Cykes leaves behind a daughter, Athena Cykes.

However, the murder did not stop the Director of the Cosmos Space Center, Yuri Cosmos, from pressing forward with the HAT-1 Rocket launch for October 8...but strange things did happen with it.


Wednesday, October 7, 2020

2020 Vice-Presidential Debate: Mike Pence vs. Kamala Harris!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Corrupt cop Kamala vs. Choirboy Mike.

After the disaster that was last week's presidential debate between top-of-the-ticket candidates President Donald John Trump and Democrat challenger Joe Biden, we now get to watch two completely different people verbally spar against one another: Republican Vice President Mike Pence versus Democrat California Senator Kamala Harris.

Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate Spike Cohen was not invited to participate.


This debate was conducted much differently than the first one. They had Susan Page of USA Today moderating it, and the candidates stood far apart, with plexiglass between them. This follows the saga that began after the previous debate where Mike Pence's boss got the Chinese Communist Party Virus himself, which made people worry that he might die, and Joe Biden would be too mentally debilitated to complete a term in office, so the actual vote would be between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. Hence... the importance of tonight's debate. (The President is fine, by the way. ...At least, he claims to “feel great!”)

Quick reminder that we already saw Kamala Harris be destroyed in a debate as recently as the end of July 2019:




But here's what happened in tonight's debate:

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Stop spamming Legendary Pokémon as Third Game/DLC Incentives

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Devaluing your own lore.

Coming later this month is The Crown Tundra downloadable content (DLC) for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield's Expansion Passes. You'll enter the “depths” of a Pokémon den where “lots of Legendary Pokémon call the area home” where you can “obtain every Legendary Pokémon that has appeared in the main series of Pokémon games so far. Many of those Legendary Pokémon seem to dwell deep inside a special layer where Dynamax Pokémon are said to lurk, the same layer you can explore during Dynamax Adventures.” Well, gee, ain't that a swell coincidence? Check it out:



I should remind myself that The Pokémon Company International/GAME FREAK announced that The Crown Tundra will spam Legendary Pokémon all the way back in January, though it was unclear how that would manifest.

Why are all of the Legendary Pokémon in the whole world living deep under the... I assume it's either underground, or a giant cave, in/near the Galar region? (Or an underground giant cave.)

Compare to what they did with putting all of the Legendary Pokémon in last generation's Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon versions, where they also made a big deal about that. For that, they stuffed all of the Legendary Pokémon in various wormholes to different worlds many light-years away in the Ultra Space Wilds.


Monday, October 5, 2020

KoopaTV Live Reactions to Masahiro Sakurai Presenting Minecraft Steve & Alex

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A horrible character gets a demotivating presentation. Figures.

I have spared you my reaction to Steve (and Alex, and Zombie, and Enderman) being announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate last week. Well, I like that it starts with Mario getting pwned, though that's attributable to Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft Creepers instead of anything Steve does, so he gets no credit for that:


However, premiering live on SATURDAY (that's a rare one, folks—and it's to coincide with the Minecraft convention going on that day), Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series showcased, for three-quarters of an hour, almost everything we gotta know about the Minecraft additions to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.



I wrote almost, since there's an important disclaimer that what's shown above will likely be changed in some way when the DLC releases on Tuesday, October 13. Also, Steve's Classic Mode route is not shown. Here are our...well, no, it's just me. Here are my reactions to Mr. Sakurai's longer presentation:

Friday, October 2, 2020

The Deductive Thrill of Ace Attorney, Sudoku, and Picross

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - After I explain what the concepts are, I share a game idea to combine them together.

In the interest of seeking repentance and atonement (was a recent theme in my life to start this week off), I would like to apologise to the Picross community. ...I'm not sure how big that is, but maybe they're reading this. I've been saying mean things about Picross for years, mostly because I associate Picross with former KoopaTV staffer (and traitor) YoshiRider123 since he did a Let's Play of Mario's Super Picross many years ago, which I considered to be immensely boring to watch.

I also thought that I've expressed my love of Sudoku on KoopaTV before (as in, a very long time ago), but other than under two months ago, that hasn't happened. Yikes. Alright, so, I really like Sudoku. That's the game with the nine three-by-three squares (for 81 squares total) and each three-by-three square will have the numbers one through nine written once, and across the whole playing area, you'll only have one through nine written once for the nine columns and nine rows. Each puzzle is different because some of the squares at the start are already filled in, and then you have to reason what the rest must be. It's easier to explain than Picross, as I try to do a little later in the article.

But I decided to try Mario's Super Picross, since that's free as of last week for Nintendo Switch Online members. You know I'm one, and you should know that if you're not already one, you can become one with me paying for it if you win Round 34 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. Click that for details. Anyway, what'd I think of Mario's Super Picross now that I'm trying it for myself and my only experience is no longer watching a bad Let's Play from over ten years ago?


Thursday, October 1, 2020

KoopaTV's September 2020 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We're three quarters through 2020, which is somehow STILL getting worse and worse.

I think I have somewhat of a history of having the September newsletter opening paragraph talk about how summer is gone and now it's fall and maybe school is starting for you, if you're in that kind of age range (or you're going to higher education which you can do at any age after secondary school). Or maybe I do that in the August newsletter written in September. Either way, this year, concepts of seasonality and going back to anything are all screwed up, so let's just talk in terms of KoopaTV.org, alright? And we've been consistently great, with or without a Chinese Communist Party Virus plague.

KoopaTV's Top Five Recommended Experiences of September 2020


I'll prove KoopaTV's dominance as a place to have a great time (for entertainment, information, or literary worth) with our five most recommended articles from September 2020. Of course, everything on KoopaTV is worth checking out, even if it misses this chronologically ordered list:
  1. Kamala's Continuous Californian Corrupt Cop Culture — Aside from great alliterative appeal, this article goes, in detail, over Kamala Harris's record in California as a district attorney and Attorney General, including the impact that her corrupt presence had on defence attorneys like Phoenix Wright.
  2. Ever Notice How Indeedee are Similar to Teletubbies? — Ever since publishing this piece of cursed content, I think of it whenever I see an Indeedee out in the world. Which isn't too often, but often enough that I'd like to remind you that this exists. Also, the comments are fun, too.
  3. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo: Profiting off Chinese Forced Labour (Uyghur Internment!) — ...But if you're looking for serious information, this article outlines yet another despicable activity from the Chinese Communist Party: ethnic cleansing and forced human labour. Even worse, the videogame industry is profiting off it and is therefore complicit. Bad stuff, and it's documented.
  4. What happened to Shinzō Abe? Who is Yoshihide Suga? Does Cappy have to do with it? — Japan has a new prime minister. Will he be compromised by Cappy (Mario's ally) like the previous one?
  5. After TWO Years, Nintendo Switch Online is Still Unsafe and Anti-Consumer with Auto-Renewal Policies — Nintendo Switch Online has achieved a two-year anniversary in the marketplace, and it's still a scummy, dangerous, and consumer-hating ordeal. This article explains why, step-by-step.