Search KoopaTV!

Translate

Monday, January 3, 2022

KoopaTV's December 2021 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring reward results!

Last year's December 2020 review newsletter (link at the bottom of this current newsletter) suggested that since you survived 2020, you can instead die in 2021.

Yet if you're reading this now, you clearly are alive after 2021. I'm curious what you think of 2021 overall. From a videogame and KoopaTV perspective, we'll be looking into that with our Game of THAT Year awards, with nominations to be published later this week. The actual awards will be published next week. KoopaTV always waits for the year to end before talking about the whole year that ended. Super simple concept, but some outlets and media personalities don't do that.

Either way, what you're reading now is just looking at the month that just ended: December 2021. But a lot happened in that month. Plus, I have some additional announcements!


Top Five Recommended Experiences of December 2021


We can (and will) pat ourselves on the shell at whatever opportunity, but that's meaningless without good content. ...Uh... so here's me patting myself on the shell for writing these five experiences in December 2021, listed in chronological order:
  1. Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 54: Damaging My Body For Content — December (and the end of November) has a whole plotline going on about how I'm physically unwell thanks to great pain at my left hip area. But I'm making fitness-related content anyway. This particular log documents how the game is pleading with me to stop playing it while I have this condition.
  2. Is Sonic Frontiers ACTUALLY the next "Breath of the Wild"? — While it's not clear the answer to that headline is a yes or no, that's really the point. There's a big trend of everyone calling everything the next Breath of the Wild based on a gameplay-less trailer, and this article hearkens back to other deceptive Sonic trailers...
  3. Pokémon Evolutions Episodes 5–8 Impressions — I wrote intelligent-sounding reactions to the Pokémon Evolutions episodes covering select Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto lore and events.
  4. Squid Erasure in Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain Update 1.1.0 — I'm hesitant to list this here, but the notorious and controversial Squidwig hacked my KoopaTV admin account again to complain about a new update to Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain that he sees as highly unfair towards squids.
  5. Paper Mario: The Origami King Review. How does it compare to Color Splash? — After it was requested from February 2021, I finally wrote my review for Paper Mario: The Origami King, retaining the format from my previous review of Paper Mario: Color Splash. It's an in-depth review.

You'll also want to stick around for this week's Fitness Log to hear a resolution to that plotline. Also, while that Paper Mario: The Origami King review avoids spoilers, this month's Corrections Corner entry goes into some of that game's finer plot details, so be careful, I guess. Anyway, there were several good KoopaTV experiences that didn't make the above list—they're all worth reading regardless.

Best Three Comments and One Worst Comment of December 2021


I got some of the best comments all year in December... or to put it another way, you all did a fantastic job with discussions this month. It was hard to pick!
  1. “I just started replaying ultra moon & I almost for got how much I hated hau
    .. I was basically ready to go on the boat with the professor but I forgot that Hau opens his big mouth & basically forces u to go surfing to the next island - I was so annoyed I want to drown him in the water. ” — Unknown
  2. “To your question, I believe buying it will just give you the Trilogy and Chronicles, so instead of a special Turnabout Collection title screen, you'll have two separate Switch icons.

    I don't know it for a fact, but since the Turnabout Collection is a bundle of the two on Steam, the physical Turnabout Collection released in Japan had two carts, and other collections on the eShop are listed as one icon but then give you separate icons for each game, that's what I expect.” — Samantha Lienhard
  3. “How are you supposed to answer the question to the last image you showed, that being which picture fits the description of cold-blooded? How are we supposed to know whether the Inkling or Octoling or both or neither equipped clothes with the ability "cold-blooded?"

    Maybe that is why the villain of Splatoon 3 is turning octopuses into mammals to not be considered a "creepy crawlie" Watch out Squidwig! The villain considers Inklings creepy crawlies and will try to make all squids mammals too.” — ShinyGirafarig
I'm a big fan of anti-Hau commentary. While I don't know why people are playing Pokémon (Ultra) Sun or Pokémon (Ultra) Moon in December 2021, anyone who does will be met with the sheer awful character known as Hau. You think the rivals in the current crop of Pokémon titles are annoying? Nah. Hau is the worst, and combines all of the worst aspects of all other rivals but has no positive qualities. I'm especially a fan of wanting to murder him. (That's what the article that the anonymous commenter was commenting on was about.) It might send a bad message to... someone out there that one key to my heart is agreeing to my call for violent ends to people that I don't like, but so be it. People tell me to be myself, and I am! (And Hau is clearly being himself, too, which is why he needs to die soon.)

I'm generally impressed that Samantha Lienhard made that deduction, especially since it ended up being correct, per the testimony of (very smart) people (with excellent taste) who purchased Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection. As she implied, she didn't purchase the collection herself (though I know she has its components!), but good on her for being spot-on. Herlock Sholmes would be impressed.

I didn't let Squidwig retain control of my account long enough for him to address ShinyGirafarig's comment, but that's not stopping me from liking her comment so much that I'll feature it in this newsletter. According to the source video that Squidwig cited, that Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain was a “pick all of these” question, and Snail, Octopus, AND Squid were all correct answers. However, the question wasn't complete because the player did not also select one or more of Caterpillar, Pig, and Ant. (According to my research, Caterpillars and Ants are also cold-blooded, while Pigs are warm-blooded.) But, yes, the photos don't show the Inkling's or Octoling's equipment. HOWEVER, Cold-Blooded is no longer an ability, and all Cold-Blooded equipment is now considered Bomb Defense Up DX equipment. It's unknown what effect this has on the wearer's blood, but as far as I can tell, it's now impossible for Octolings to have Cold-Blooded gear. Inklings sticking to Inkopolis Plaza might still be Cold-Blooded, though. But Octolings, to Squidwig's delight (probably), aren't allowed there. As for ShinyGirafarig's second point about the plot of Splatoon 3, that is an excellent point, and unfortunately, it feeds into Squidwig's paranoia that there really is this big anti-squid conspiracy where the academy is spreading anti-squid perceptions to everyone to normalise the mammal agenda of whatever Splatoon 3's villain's plot is.

As for the worst comment... this was tough due to a general lack of trolls on the website during the month, but I chose this:
  1. “Excuse me?? How dare you make such an insinuation, this is grounds for war!

    But then again, I’m thinking of retiring in a few years, so maybe we’ll put the war on hold for now” — Captain Stitch
I commented that the Gordo can't coordinate well together because Captain Stitch, as the leader of the Gordo, refuses to use exact quotes when citing what other people say, stating that he must paraphrase what others say, because apparently that's how the Gordo show their respect. Of course, that will only result in the classic game of “telephone”, where Person A communicates to Person B, and Person B tries to relay that to Person C off their own understanding of what Person A said... but it's not a complete or accurate understanding of Person A's message, so Person C has a different meaning in mind entirely. ...It gets worse if Person C tries to tell Person D.

Incidentally, this is one way that rumours and FAKE NEWS ends up spreading, and KoopaTV is very much against that. KoopaTV is already in a war against FAKE NEWS, so bring it on.

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 41 RESULTS!


...Ah, well, if I'm gonna go to war with Captain Stitch, I probably shouldn't be giving him funds. However, all of Round 41's payouts are funded by Kamek, not myself, so I'm not giving him funds. ...Anyway, here are the top three participants in Round 41 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, all of whom are winning something!
  1. ShinyGirafarig — 97 points — $25 in Amazon money
  2. Captain Stitch — 48 points — $20 in Nintendo eShop money
  3. Lheticus Videre — 45 points — $10 in Amazon money
Congratulations to the winners! (And to Captain Stitch for making a comeback from last month to the final month.) You'll receive your prizes... soon enough.

(It turns out soon enough was nearly two weeks later, but Kamek eventually did come through!)


Raffle Drawing


The KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 41 fun doesn't end there, however! Exclusive to the November to December round is additional luck-based RAFFLE component, where all of the points you accumulated during the round are equal to one ticket. In Round 41, there were 220 total points to all participants (which is... quite a bit less than last year's number, so it's easier to win?), so if you only got one point, you'd have a 1/220 chance to win the prize: a $10 Nintendo eShop card code. So which ticket number won, per randomnumbergenerator.com?

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 41 raffle ticket 219
randomnumbergenerator.com pulled ticket number 219!
Oh, but there are 220 tickets... it must be a very late entry!


Congratulations to PROHACKER08! You probably professionally hacked this RNG, because your only winning numbers were 219 and 220. A very low chance of success, but it happened. But I can't prove that it was rigged, so I'd like to give you your prize. At this time, I don't have your contact information, so... Per the rules, if I can't establish contact with you within a week of this being published, I'll have to do another RNG draw.


Announcing KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 42!


KoopaTV is already hosting Round 42 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. This round has a much more simple structure: one prize for the one person in first place, being a $10 Nintendo eShop card code. It runs throughout January and February 2022!

KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXXIV and KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXIV Now Available!


I'm happy to report that the 34th editions for KoopaTV's Feedback Form and Quiz series are now available. I've also updated that page to provide a jump anchor link to the Quiz, because otherwise they're kind of buried beneath all of the Feedback Form archives.

A word of advice—the Quiz questions tend to be “can you name this thing that was mentioned in the two months of articles prior to this Quiz being made?” It would make sense to... refresh your memory on those things before you submit the Quiz. For example, Lheticus Videre only got 1/6 on KoopaTV Quiz Part XXXIII. If he “studied” more, he would've gotten into second place in KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 41 instead of third place. Though if Captain Stitch would've filled it (and/or the Feedback Form) out at all, he would've extended his lead!


New KoopaTV Requests Page Available!

Tomorrow's KoopaTV publication will be a brand new Requests page. The existing one has way too many comments on it, so much that it's hard to find things. In fact, it's so much that the comments section is broken. You can still comment things to it, but you can't directly link to comments made after the 200th comment. I should've made a new page several years ago.

I also plan to be more transparent within the body of the page about request status, instead of just leaving that in the comments.

January 4, 2022 update: Click here for the 2022 Requests page!


Corrections Corner; December 2021


In my Paper Mario: The Origami King review, I initially wrote that Princess Peach's Castle was “being held high afloat by five coloured streamers.” However, Lheticus Videre pointed out that the streamers didn't hold Peach's Castle afloat, but they just lifted it up and carried it up to the top of the Hotfoot Crater volcano. Then the streamers were still wrapped around the Castle, but only to serve as an obstacle to get inside, not for any structural reason. As Lheticus pointed out, if all of the streamers are torn apart, nothing changes with the Castle's position.

There are some plot holes you can think of regarding this whole scenario. I'm wondering how any of King Olly's forces could go in or out of Peach's Castle, but maybe they just didn't and it was actually empty for the vast majority of the game. Hotfoot Crater has a giant hole at the top—did Olly plan to relocate Peach's Castle there from the beginning? Did he precisely measure the size of Hotfoot Crater's hole? Because in the intro cutscene, the streamers clearly didn't grab Princess Peach's Castle in a precise manner. It was just uprooted indiscriminately and left a lot behind, but also grabbing part of the firmament. Just enough that the whole thing wouldn't fall inside Hotfoot Crater's hole?

At the end of the game when Olly folds Peach's Castle into the Origami Castle, he actually accounts for the Hotfoot Crater hole in his structural design rather than hoping for the best, by building a base platform around the solid parts of the perimeter and then the castle goes above that. Clearly he didn't trust the original set-up by his streamers to actually keep his castle there. I'm sure if enough time passed, Princess Peach's Castle would've just fallen into the volcano. Maybe if it'd erupt.

Anyway, I edited the wording of that objectionable sentence in my review.



Share KoopaTV to people you know and help the site grow in 2022! New plot lines await in this new year! ...Many of which can be influenced directly by you, so make yourself known and heard.


Last month's November 2021 newsletter is here.
Next month's January 2022 newsletter is here. ...Ooooh... 2022! Scary!
Click to read KoopaTV's December 2020 newsletter. Just for the year-to-year comparison!
How about a year-to-year for December 2022? Another year brings a new raffle drawing!

8 comments :

  1. Tch, if I had actually studied for the quiz, I totally would have got second.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Huzzah! I completely forgot about the quizzes, otherwise I would’ve done it. Thanks for my prize!

    Excuse me?? Worst comment?! This. Is. Blasphemy!
    Worst comment belongs to the trolls and/or sam. Although I suppose I can kinda see the point of your concern, I’m going to completely ignore it and charge ahead! Even better, with kameks funding, I’ll better be able to lead the war effort. By… training with war-esque Nintendo games.

    Good work fixing the requests page that old one required quite a bit of scrolling.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad my comment about cold-blooded was featured. I thought it was a good comment and was disheartened that it was not responded to in the original article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wot, would you have preferred I let Squidwig have access to my account to reply? >_>

      Delete

We embrace your comments.
Expect a reply between 1 minute to 24 hours from your comment. We advise you to receive an e-mail notification for when we do reply.
Also, see our Disclaimers.

Spamming is bad, so don't spam. Spam includes random advertisements and obviously being a robot. Our vendor may subject you to CAPTCHAs.

If you comment on an article that is older than 60 days, you will have to wait for a staffer to approve your comment. It will get approved and replied to, don't worry. Unless you're a spambot.