Nintendo Switch Sports—Now With Golf! (And Sanitary Celebration)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Golfer Gramps raisin' the rascals right.

As Nintendo promised in the most recent Nintendo Direct, they have added Golf to Nintendo Switch Sports, bringing the sport count to seven. Here's an important trailer/commercial:

There are online and offline modes, including the online-only Survival Golf (where up to eight golfers play at once and those with the most strokes are eliminated). 21 holes from Wii Sports are included, and the press release seems to portray those 21 holes as all of the holes, meaning there are no new holes after 16 years. That seems disappointing. So let's get off-topic from the actual golf and go into the advertisement. Behold the reason I'm writing about this at all:

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Direct November 2022 Trailer | KoopaTV's Live Reactions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'd classify this as yikes.

For whatever reason, people are super-hyped about The Super Mario Bros. Movie, so it's a major event when Nintendo is showing the second-ever trailer of it (embedded below). For the record, I wasn't a big fan of the first-ever trailer.

Join myself, Kamek, and Witch Princess as we share our reactions to this very quick trailer and opening and ending scenes featuring the ever-deranged Shigeru Miyamoto. It's also important to watch this in the context of Shigeru Miyamoto's stated goal of The Super Mario Bros. Movie brainwashing the general population in order to enhance Nintendo's power.

[4:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohJrpHUoZ10
[4:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Watch the latest Nintendo Direct presentation to see the world premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s second trailer! No game information will be included in this Nintendo Direct."

Join the Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdowns (Dec 2022 and Jan 2023)!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - First NoA-sponsored non-invitational Splatoon 3 competitive event!

As 2022 is ending and 2023 will begin, I'm happy to discuss the newest collaboration between Nintendo of America and eSports platform Battlefy: the Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdown! It'll happen on December 2–3, 2022 for Event 1, and then there is Event 2 on January 13–14, 2023. It takes place online. The events have the same ruleset and prizes, so you should see there being two events as two opportunities to win. (One Grand Prize per person.)

Official NintendoVS banners for the two Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdowns.

What can be won this time? Well, the Grand Prize (given to first and second place) involves a Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdown Trophy, 10,000 My Nintendo Gold Points, a Splatoon 3 jacket, a Splatoon 3 backpack, a Splatoon 3 pin set, and Splatoon 3 tech decals. The First Prize (AKA third/fourth place) is the same, sans trophy and only 7,500 My Nintendo Gold Points, while Second Prize (AKA fifth/sixth/seventh/eighth place) gets First Prize but 5,000 My Nintendo Gold Points.

But I didn't mention Grand Prize's real gift, which skyrockets the ARV (approximate retail value) for the whole tournament into the tens of thousands of dollars: Each member of the Grand Prize-winning teams get one round-trip airline ticket to Boston, Massachusetts... or two tickets, if the winner is a minor and needs their legal parent or guardian to accompany them. They (and if a minor, their legal parent or guardian) also get three nights lodging in Boston at a nearby hotel.

Masahiro Sakurai's Super Smash Bros. Melee Game Concepts Video Was Disappointing

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Especially when compared to his Super Smash Bros. Game Concepts video.

Even a short-term KoopaTV reader can remember me asking at the start of September (over two months ago) asking if I should write articles about the concepts discussed on Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games. You said yes. And then I never followed up (even though I've watched every video on his channel, and he's talked about many interesting topics thus far). ...Until now!

My issue was that after that first video about Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, I had high expectations for the discussion topics that Masahiro Sakurai would bring for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Of course, the Super Smash Bros. video is twice as long as the Super Smash Bros. Melee video, so just by how short the Melee video is, there's bound to be disappointment. It turns out the video wasn't just being very to-the-point, but it omitted a lot of information.

Let me explain why!

Disgraced Game Developer Yuji Naka Arrested for Suspicions of Insider Trading

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Two other guys, too, but no one cares about them.

One of the best videogame industry stories of the whole year broke while I was out of the office last week! Imagine my shock when I heard that Yuji Naka, director of BALAN WONDERWORLD and leader of a cult of disturbed losers, got arrested for insider trading. ...Actually, my first thought was that it wasn't Yuji Naka but Yuji Horii, creator of the Dragon Quest series. That's because the insider trading related to the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact, and it'd make more sense. (Fortunately, Yuji Horii doesn't appear stupid enough to do that, so Yuji Naka it is.) But even if SQUARE ENIX wants the public to forget that they ever made the massive mistake of hiring Yuji Naka and giving him a chance, it's a fact that Yuji Naka also worked at SQUARE ENIX for years to make BALAN WONDERWORLD an unfortunate and awful reality.

Here's the story, as reported by the media. Back around November 2019, it became known within SQUARE ENIX that they were working on Dragon Quest Tact, a mobile gacha game, to be released July 2020. But SQUARE ENIX would have a partner in this: Aiming Inc., which has a history of developing mobile games operated by other Japanese developers that seem successful enough. This partnership was likely to be a slam-dunk. Both SQUARE ENIX and Aiming are publicly traded companies, so a now-former SQUARE ENIX employee, Taisuke Sazaki, is accused of purchasing about 72,000 shares of Aiming Inc. between December 2019 and February 2020, as did his buddy, Fumiaki Suzuki (who bought 90,000 shares). The game was announced to the public (Aiming's involvement as well) on February 2020, meaning that stock trades made before February 2020 based on predicting the success of Dragon Quest Tact would be insider trading, since only SQUARE ENIX and Aiming would know about it. Yuji Naka, while still employed at SQUARE ENIX during January 2020, allegedly became aware of news going on in his company and also allegedly purchased 10,000 shares of Aiming. Here is an illustration of Aiming's stock price during the relevant time periods:

Maybe I Shouldn't Dismiss Fire Emblem Engage So Fast!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, the gameplay looks interesting as usual.

The very first thing that Nintendo showcased in their September 2022 Nintendo Direct was Fire Emblem Engage. My live reaction to that was that it features “a weirdo with weird blue and red hair.” (Still true.) But also the (non-compliment) “This looks like something from Xenoblade than Fire Emblem.” I even questioned the game's legitimacy as a mainline Fire Emblem game, asking, “...is this a mainline FE or some kind of FE Heroes-esque get-together gimmick?” By the very end of the log, I was asking myself, “I still think the weirdest thing is that Fire Emblem Engage. I might have to go back to being an anti-Fire Emblem person?” And then I haven't made any public statements about Fire Emblem Engage ever since.

That was two months ago. Fire Emblem Engage releases two months from now. There have been several tidbits of information slowly being revealed on Nintendo's social media accounts that I don't care to go into, mainly since I haven't really followed it. I have, however, watched these two recent trailers. The first is based on story, and the second is gameplay:

Nintendo eShop Black Friday 2022 Deals (featuring Ace Attorney and Danganronpa)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Sell me on the sale.

Perhaps I should publish this article on Friday, but if videogame companies are going to be putting games on a Black Friday sale starting on a non-Friday day of the week, why should I wait to tell you about that?

Did you know that the Ace Attorney series is on sale, again, on the 3DS and Switch? Well, there are over 2,500 games on sale on the Nintendo eShop right now, of course Ace Attorney will be involved—just like it was on sale last month, too. I'll especially plug the Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection at 41% off (35 USD), which includes five games, including Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (three games) and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (two games).

But right now I'm looking at another trilogy that is on sale on the Switch for the lowest amount they've ever been. And I think they're on sale starting today (and ending on December 4—same end-date for those Ace Attorney games), because someone I know bought one of these yesterday at full price on the Switch:

Farm Sim Mechanics (and Gender) Degraded HARVESTELLA

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - All I've played of HARVESTELLA is its demo, but at least I finished it!

I'm back, folks. Apparently, y'all were worried about me because, even though articles were getting published to the site (because I wrote and scheduled them!), since I wasn't responding to comments, I must've been ill or something. Well, no. In fact, if you looked at the text blurb next to the comments form, I anticipated my lack of responsiveness during my unannounced vacation, and wrote, “Expect a reply between 1 minute to 24 hours starting November 20, 2022.” For a lot of that time, I thought about HARVESTELLA, the life simulation RPG from SQUARE ENIX.

With a big harvest festival coming up in the United States of America (you people call it Thanksgiving), I decided that I'd write about my experience with HARVESTELLA. Sure, Lheticus Videre and Witch Princess have both shared their HARVESTELLA thoughts already, but I feel inspired to provide my own thoughts. For one, unlike them, I actually finished the demo before writing about it. And for two, I have a very clear point of view on it. This heading should summarise it:

How Farming Mechanics Make HARVESTELLA Worse

HARVESTELLA gives you a whole plot of land and expects you to farm for income and items. As far as I could experience in the demo, farming involves growing crops and will also include raising animals (which provide other kinds of items), which are standard activities in other farm simulation games. How do the farming mechanics fit into the RPG part of HARVESTELLA? What are the gameplay implications? I believe it profoundly affects HARVESTELLA, and for the worse.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Released, Featuring Message-Tested Open Borders

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Lemme know how you like it if you're into that.

Despite keeping up with and writing about all of the official updates from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International with regards to Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, I'm still not interested in ever getting it. At this point, now that it's released. I never will be. My opinion is the same as it was from the middle of the year: I don't like open-borders (open world) gameplay, and I especially think it's silly for a JRPG to have that.

It seems like Nintendo thought that lots of other people were also skeptical of the open-borders promise, so they sent a message-testing survey out to their e-mail list back at the end of September 2022. It's all about asking how you feel about large open worlds, and provides certain marketing elevator phrases and asks you if you find them compelling or not. They also really want to know how much of a Pokémon fan you are, presumably so they can filter the responses by non-Pokémon fans and Pokémon fans. Maybe long-time Pokémon fans are more hesitant on open borders versus people who aren't (yet) Pokémon fans. You might lose some and then gain more.

Shout-out to Nintendo properly calling Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl a remaster.
On the right picture, they gave those three descriptions and asked me to rate them, and then choose my favourite. I picked the one without open world.

Let's get these three options in text form:

Tomato Adventure — The best game you've never heard of

By CAPTAIN STITCH - Remember those weird tomato spirits in Smash? That’s this game!

Tomatoes! Do you like them? I'm not a fan personally. Tomato Adventure is a Japanese-exclusive RPG for the Game Boy Advance released in 2002 by AlphaDream. It’s been 20 years and counting since its original release so what better way to celebrate that, than to play it in English for the first time ever! In fact the English translation was first attempted by Clyde Mandelin of Mother 3 translation fame, but eventually completed (July 2021) by…some anonymous individual. Thank you anonymous individual!

Seeing as there really aren’t too many reviews on this Tomato Temerit Themed Tirade, I figured I'd let the people of the world know that despite some quirks, this game is worth a playthrough. Its battle system alone is something that begs to be looked at. Instead of pressing A to attack, the player will use a variety of combinations of the A and B buttons and the D-pad, which allow for a varied and intricate battle system that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Unless of course, you regularly abuse save states, but surely nobody does that. Either way, when's the last time you saw a game with a plot centered on Tomatoes?

Nintendo's Six-Month Financial Results Q&A Briefing for Fiscal Year Ending March 2023

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Also known as the Question and Answer session for the Corporate Management Policy Briefing for Fiscal Year Ending March 2023.

Following the financial disclosure and corporate management policy briefing marking the halfway point of Nintendo's fiscal year ending March 2023, they took questions. According to the translated Q&A Summary document, there were seven questions and answers, and parts of it “have been edited or revised to improve readability.” We hope that's not trying to hide anything. (It...wouldn't make sense if it WAS trying to be nefarious!)

Let's go through each of those questions for this article, then! If you want to go right to why this article is categorised as Enlightenment Movement, go to Question 6.

Question 1: With the Switch going on its seventh year next year, what is Nintendo planning next?

First of all, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa is focusing on the immediate holiday season ahead of Nintendo. Once that is successful, the Switch's seventh year will be about continued momentum, and trying to sell one Nintendo Switch console to every member of a household. Nintendo's fundamental strategy won't be different than the current one, but the games will be different (such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—personally, I'm still used to seeing “the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”) and there'll be things like The Super Mario Bros. Movie that will actually be released and not just hyped up.

Question 2: How will you keep boosting Nintendo Switch Online's value so more people subscribe?

Furukawa notes that while some people aren't renewing their Nintendo Switch Online subscription (but he didn't give an actual churn metric), more people are subscribing than are cancelling or falling off. While over 36 million people are involved in Nintendo Switch Online, Furukawa wouldn't note how many are part of Expansion Pack. Furukawa connected the Nintendo Account and Nintendo Switch Online as tools to keep people playing their Nintendo Switch “for many years to come.” (I suppose that means its lifecycle will continue beyond the seventh year, too!)

Microsoft Embraces Mobile; Embracer Group Soft on Mobile

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Mobile gaming sucks anyway. But I do like that Sudoku...

Two stories with very different outcomes but similar beginnings. One is that Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard King for the opportunity to penetrate the mobile market. The other is that the Embracer Group, after acquiring Square Enix Montréal earlier this year and renamed it Onoma, has already disbanded the group and is transferring some of their staff to Eidos and Crystal Dynamics to make console and PC games—Square Enix Montréal was notable for developing mobile games like Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go, and Deus Ex Go. Embracer sees greater growth opportunities there.

How can two big gaming companies that love to acquire things have two very different viewpoints? From the very beginning, Microsoft executive leadership was particularly excited about mobile (the King side of Activision Blizzard King... and presumably not just for King's Diversity Space Tool), due to Microsoft's historically poor presence in the mobile market. As you may know, no one owned a Windows Phone. Phil Spencer definitely wants Xbox Game Pass to be on mobile devices, but getting/porting good games onto mobile devices is quite a challenge. Microsoft sees Activision Blizzard King as much better at that than Microsoft is. Besides King's crap, Call of Duty: Mobile is somehow wildly successful. (While I don't understand how you can play a competitive multiplayer first-person shooter on a smartphone and have it not be a disaster, millions of other people somehow have figured it out or have low standards.)

Nintendo and DeNA Form "Nintendo Systems Co., Ltd." to Make Nintendo Account Worthwhile

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A joint venture for the Nintendo Account.

At first, Nintendo Co., Ltd. and DeNA Co., Ltd. formed a business alliance in 2015, exchanging capital ownership. DeNA is a Japanese company that, among many other things, has helped developed several Nintendo mobile titles and has also assisted with Nintendo's mobile and network infrastructure, including Nintendo Accounts and the My Nintendo program. In a recent (half a year ago) question and answer session with Nintendo, an analyst or investor asked about the current state of the DeNA partnership, given DeNA's announcement that they'd sell their Nintendo shares. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa responded that the partnership is not only still on-going, but will be strengthened.

It turns out that answer was based on reality, as opposed to vapid corporate empty promises. Nintendo and DeNA have announced a joint venture to be called Nintendo Systems Co. Ltd., as a subsidiary of Nintendo. Per the announcement, “the objective [of this joint venture will be] to strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo's business, the joint venture company will research and develop, as well as create value-added services to further reinforce Nintendo's relationship with consumers.” It's scheduled to begin its existence on April 3, 2023, and Nintendo will own 80% of it while DeNA will have 20%.

It's not clear what will be possible as a result of this joint venture or special subsidiary that was not possible with Nintendo and DeNA's previous business (strategic) alliance, but joint ventures are seen in business as a much closer relationship than an alliance, given that Nintendo and DeNA are now creating a whole new, formal legal entity to enshrine their partnership that didn't exist before. In terms of impact on the output (say, how Nintendo customers will benefit), that's indeterminable at this time.

Pay attention to the objective: it's platform-agnostic. While DeNA has been one of Nintendo's main partners in co-developing mobile games (Niantic is another partner) with titles like Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, researching and developing Nintendo Account-related stuff and customer relationship touch points can happen on your console, your mobile device, or many other opportunities. This joint venture isn't doubling down on mobile app development per se.

Gimmighoul, the Tricky Devil, Tricks People Into Thinking It's Pokémon's First Mimic

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't like anything about Gimmighoul.

In a reveal quite reminiscent of Meltan's, Professor Willow (from Pokémon GO) and... Mr. Jacq (a Paldean biology teacher; not even a professor) had a recorded call together to discuss the common Gimmighoul (Chest Form) and the very rare and elusive Roaming Form Gimmighoul. It's so elusive it's never been caught before, and the Roaming Form's type, height, weight, and ability are listed as unknown question marks. Here's another video:

What is known about Gimmighoul is its Chest Form, where it hides inside a treasure chest and somehow uses “ghost energy to control its [ambush[ ] target, forcing them [person or Pokémon] to collect coins.” Because Greavard isn't enough of a Ghost-type menace. Its Chest Form is apparently infamous for being mistaken for a treasure chest full of actual valuables, as opposed to a housing for this tricky devil and its coin collection. And I do say tricky devil as a specific reference to the first boss of Dragon Quest XI: Tricky Devil. Check this out:

September 30, 2022 Nintendo Quarterly Financial Update

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Semiconductors! Depreciation! Europe!

Our parasocial friends over at Nintendo have released two big things in the past couple of days: their 2nd Quarter of Fiscal Year Ending March 2023 (AKA FY23) Financial Results Explanatory Material, and their Corporate Management Policy Briefing for Fiscal Year Ending March 2023 annotated by Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.

Investors don't seem to care that the Switch has now sold 114.33 million units and Switch software has sold 917.59 million units. They are more looking at the revised consolidated earnings forecast of how Nintendo expects to have sold 19 million Switch consoles (down from an expectation of 21 million) between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023. Nintendo, while expecting to sell less Switch consoles, still expects to sell 210 million units of software, and they INCREASED their net profit projection from 340 billion yen to 400 billion yen. (So far, they sold 54 million software in the second quarter, and 3.25 million hardware in the second quarter—for a total of 95.41 million software and 6.68 million hardware in the first half of the year.)

They have stressed that the reduction in Switch expectations is due to semiconductors causing supply shortages, not because of noticeable decrease in customer demand. Nintendo also claimed that semiconductor availability is gradually improving. Another common theme was because of the depreciation of the Japanese yen, Nintendo got to claim foreign currency exchange gains, including the value of the hardware they did manage to sell. However, the depreciation of the yen also made activities by Nintendo's overseas subsidiaries more expensive, such as advertising. I'll get to overseas subsidiaries in just a moment! But first, everyone's favourite unreadable chart:

My Panda Cup Online Qualifiers 2022 Experience

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And what made it different than the NintendoVS North American Online Opens.

As of Sunday, the full set of Panda Cup (2022) Online Qualifiers are done! This was one part of the larger Panda Cup circuit ran by eSports Panda Global, officially licensed by Nintendo That's not a sponsorship—Nintendo isn't providing the $100,000 prize pool. But they are providing “logistical support, some production support, along with general support for some of the events that have been part of Panda Cup.”

What being a circuit means is that there are a whole bunch of independent (physically held) tournaments for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate throughout the latter half of 2022 that allowed winners. Panda also administered a whole set of online-specific qualifiers just for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is more inclusive of those that can't make it out to the unevenly distributed locations of the qualifying physical tournaments, or are like me and really shouldn't be showing their face in a human event on Earth. While the independent tournaments have their own entrance fees and prizes (money/trophies/medals) besides the qualifying spot, the online qualifiers are exclusively to qualify for the Panda Cup Finale in December. They're also free.

There were four qualifiers in each region of North America (divided into eight regions) and a final regional qualifier made up of the 32 best-performing people in the four qualifiers. The one winner of that final regional qualifier would be the one who qualifies for the Panda Cup Finale—and no one else. I'll let you know how I did, but first, you might wonder how the qualifiers were overall compared to other Super Smash Bros. Ultimate events I've wrote about in the past.

United States of America: Vote in Election Day 2022!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - KoopaTV's endorsements!

Last month, I wrote very in-depth write-ups of two United States Senate debates, the only debate of their kind in that race: Raphael Warnock the Warlock versus Herschel Walker for Georgia Senate, and John Omega Fetterman versus Professor Mehmet Oz for Pennsylvania Senate.

Today, November 8, 2022, you get to vote for those candidates... or an entirely different set of candidates (or questions/ballot initiatives/propositions) if you're in other states. Usually, my perspective on United States elections is supporting whomever the peace/anti-war party/candidates are, on the basis that Koopa Kingdom really doesn't want Earth's nations to interfere in our affairs.

It's a fact that, in 2022, the Democrat Party is the pro-war party. Even the supposedly peaceful progressive faction had to apologise for wanting advocate a policy of peaceful negotiation. Unfortunately, the Republican Party isn't the peace party in 2022, either. Perhaps the... less-war party? They're quite interested in “showing strength” to who they perceive as dictators, whatever that means. Certainly not something I'd want them to do with King Bowser Koopa.

My ideal scenario would be for the Republicans to take control of both the House and the Senate... while Raphael Warnock the Warlock wins in Georgia. That'd require Professor Oz to win in Pennsylvania and for the Republicans to pick up a Senate seat from an incumbent Democrat somewhere else, such as if Adam Laxalt defeats incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. Republicans should be voted on for governor everywhere except maybe in Pennsylvania. I think it's really funny for me to support Raphael Warnock the Warlock and Brian Kemp in Georgia while supporting Prof. Oz and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. Though it's hard to support the latter with a straight face because Josh Shapiro has very few appealing policies. Josh Shapiro also refused to have a debate with Republican Doug Mastriano, which I don't look favourably at. However, you can also read that story as Mastriano refusing to have a debate with Shapiro because he thinks the moderators are biased. Doug Mastriano is a bit of an off-putting nutjob, so I won't judge you for not wanting to vote for him.

Don't vote if you haven't looked into candidates or ballot questions before going to the voting booth, though. Uneducated voters are a scourge on voting, and it's a big reason why we don't do elections in Koopa Kingdom.


Do Republicans actually have plans to tackle problems like crime, inflation, and a looming recession? Most don't, or don't have plans that make sense. That's still better than what the other party brings, though!


For a list of reasons to vote and what politics affects, read KoopaTV's Election Day 2020 article.
Ludwig doesn't want Herschel Walker to win so much that he wrote an article just about the Georgia US Senate run-off election.

Daylight Saving Time is Over in 2022. Why Scientists Hate It (you should too!)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Normally I don't demand you trust the science, but this is intuitive.

Hey, Americans: How did you wake up this morning? Was it nice to rise with the sunlight instead of in the darkness? Did you feel more refreshed versus a week ago? While a good morning's wake won't replace the value of how you get a good night's sleep, it is the last step before getting up, and it's commonly overlooked.

When the awful Daylight Saving Time first began in 2022, I wrote an article advocating for year-round Standard Time. Immediately after that, the United States Senate passed a bill—without any debate and seemingly by accident—to make Daylight Saving Time year-round and permanent nation-wide.

Fortunately, the House of Representatives hasn't done the same thing, so the bill is stuck in limbo and will expire at the end of the legislative session at the end of the year. People reflexively dislike lobbyists and the thought of lobbyists doing their job, but it's thanks to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine lobbying the House and actually sharing facts on the dangers of Daylight Saving Time and the superiority of Standard Time that America isn't in a worse time right now (or would be next year). Lobbyists aren't inherently bad—though there are some business interests who ARE on the pro-permanent-DST side, and they're much better-funded than scientists. With that written, check out this video from the Save Standard Time advocacy group:

(The video promises it's one of a series, but the rest of the series doesn't seem to have been uploaded yet.)

It turns out when you there is more daylight in the morning hours and when kids get on the school bus and are able to see in front of them, things are better off. The key is that Daylight Saving Time is a government-invented concept to try to time travel and shift the fabric of society away from the natural circadian rhythm of your body in accordance to when the sun actually goes up. The body is affected by that (and can't adapt to it), and the disparity causes a number of health issues.

Once upon a time, in 2019, Europe voted to ditch Daylight Saving Time to go into effect in 2021. That still has not happened. That's because they're working on allegedly more important things, like dealing with war on their continent and Brexit. Perhaps they would have more time to deal with issues if they stopped “springing forward” with Daylight Saving Time. As for the United States, states already can live in Standard Time without federal approval... so more states should do so. Here's some draft legislative language to help make that happen on the state level.


Your life should feel better under Standard Time. Some things will change besides the clock and your sleep, however, including that Splatoon 3's two-hour rotations will also occur on a different hour. Whether you like that or not is a matter of preference, but in terms of the science, there's a clear winner.


Here is KoopaTV's post-DST-ending article in 2021.
The Sunshine Protection Act of 2022 went nowhere, but the Save Standard Time video series has gone up to nine videos by Daylight Saving Time beginning again in 2023.

Team Grass-type in the Pokémon Partner Splatfest

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Utility and cuteness.

Let's be up-front: I've already written on KoopaTV that of Grass, Fire, and Water-types in the Pokémon series, “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.” I literally have a byline and author avatar called “TURTWIG VON KOOPA”. And I've always thought it's a biased travesty that Squirtle plus Greninja and Charizard plus Incineroar are playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate... while Ivysaur is the only Grass type. (Rillaboom when?)

So when Splatoon 3's Splatfest happening next week (with voting opened now) between November 11 and November 13 asks...

...It's pretty obvious I'd choose Grass-type.

This IS an obvious tie-in to Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet releasing a week after this Splatfest happens, BUT the prompt isn't limited to just Sprigatito, Fuecoco, or Quaxly. If it was, I think I've also made it clear I'd pick Quaxly. But this is asking holistically. See Shiver's follow-up clarification, because Frye and Big Man didn't seem to get it.

HARVESTELLA: From a Farm Sim Fan's Perspective

By WITCH PRINCESS - Hey, I'm back.

It's been a while since I wrote on this site. From medical to personal problems, I've just been busy. Ludwig encouraged me to return to try to cheer me up. In the end, I hope everyone here (if you remember me) can forgive my chronic absence from creating content.

I'm here to share my thoughts on the HARVESTELLA farming simulation demo from Square Enix.

If you don't know, I come from Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons). That's a huge farm simulation series that has a fantasy spinoff known as Rune Factory. Published by Marvelous and localized in America by Xseed Games, there are two titles on the Nintendo Switch: Friends of Mineral Town and Pioneers of Olive Town. The GameCube classic A Wonderful Life will release on the Switch too!

Of course, I'm a huge casual gamer and a huge life/farming sim fan. HARVESTELLA should be perfect for me, right?

Mitt “Mario” Romney's Dog is Yoshi, not Bowser

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Also, it's fairly awful that the senator is (kind of) dressed up as THAT PLUMBER.

In an unfortunate (and arguably fitting) turn of events, Senator (and former Republican presidential candidate of 2012) Mitt Romney of Utah sort-of dressed up as “It's a-me, Mario!” for the weekend immediately preceding Halloween, and got some of his grandchildren into it too. There's Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toad, and Toadette.

It’s a-me, Mario! Enjoyed dressing up with some of the grandkids this weekend. Happy Halloween 🎃 pic.twitter.com/wVDE5nZT6D

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 31, 2022

I'm not a fan of Mitt Romney's record as a governor, as a presidential candidate (I supported the anti-Romney slate, going from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich to Ron Paul... and then he totally choked in the general election against President Barack Hussein Obama), and now as a Senator. But the above photo is perhaps the worst thing he's ever done in his life. Dressing up as Mario as Halloween? And he says he ENJOYED it? (Well, zoom in on his face... it doesn't REALLY look like he's having a good time, but I'll take his word for it.)

This is unconscionable. Even worse, he didn't just do it himself. He brought part of his family into it, steering them into a very bad direction. And if it was his grandkids’ idea to begin with, he should know better than to normalise the Mario Brothers. People are getting upset about posing as the likes of Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, or as any black person for Halloween, but Mario is the absolute worst. A genocidal monster on an unheard of scale. And Mr. Romney wasn't doing it to mock the devious red-hatted plumber with overalls (though Mr. Romney omitted the overalls for the photo... and perhaps for the entire day). He “enjoyed” it, and even said, “It’s a-me, Mario!”, clearly tying his personal reputation to Mario's, becoming one and the same. And he also described the occasion as “Happy” as opposed to somber or anything, for the lives of the millions of Goombas and Koopas murdered by him.

But beyond that, there is an even deeper question that people are asking from the photo above:

KoopaTV's October 2022 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - An epic battle to be in the family. What will the holiday round look like?

I think October 2022 was a great month on KoopaTV. A great month for the world. The universe. ...Far from a perfect month, of course. Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope came out. That makes me feel angry inside and out, and I purposefully never wrote about it in the month so I can not get an aneurysm. Maybe I should get one of those in November instead.

In terms of KoopaTV's contribution to October, let's see what went on at this website during October 2022:

Top Five Recommended Experiences of October 2022

KoopaTV had strong and engaging content published during October 2022. Here's me trying to narrow that down to just five articles, listed in chronological order (I might have some recency bias in these):

1. Sukkot-Celebrating Sirfetch'd Secured Four Species — Did you ever associate the Pokémon Sirfetch'd with the Jewish religion? After reading this article, you'll learn something new about Jewish lore and how Sirfetch'd follows it. (Features an illustration by ShinyGirafarig.)
2. Hellena Taylor Wants You to Boycott Bayonetta 3 Because of her Personal Problem — Hellena Taylor sure was a hot topic in October, and KoopaTV was ahead of the curve on not trusting what she had to say.
3. Why People Don't Like Fandom Wikis — The Fandom corporation is trying to take over everything (except KoopaTV... so far). This article goes into detail on why that's a bad thing.
4. HARVESTELLA Demo First Impressions — Long-time commenter and first-time guest author Lheticus Videre wrote his first impressions on the HARVESTELLA demo here! They're nicely written.
5. Mehmet Oz vs. John Fetterman: October 25, 2022 Debate Write-up — Prof. Oz and Omega Fetterman verbally duke it out in their only debate for the sake of a Pennsylvanian United States Senate seat...and I was shocked at how it went. Very important if you're in Pennsylvania.

Every experience on KoopaTV is worth experiencing. ...Yeah, that's redundant. Every experience on KoopaTV is worth your attention! Not just the five in the list above. I'd give examples, but that's cheating. Two of the articles on the list have an in-month sequel or an in-month prequel that are also important to read.