E3 2023 Revamps Website While Nintendo States Their Disinvolvement

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - But Ubisoft is there. That's one!

After I reported that IGN reported that Sony, Microsoft, AND Nintendo all wouldn't be at E3 2023 (that's the Electronic Entertainment Expo occurring in the year 2023, otherwise known as what is supposed to be the most important event in the videogame industry of the year), IGN has doubled down to state that Nintendo went and confirmed to them that Nintendo will not show up because E3 2023 didn't fit into Nintendo's plans. See, after watching the Nintendo Direct from two weeks ago, I thought Nintendo would have lots of stuff to show off at the event, both from their own developers and from third party partners. I guess not.

Even if I wanted to say that IGN made up that statement, it's hard to deny it when E3 updated their website (FINALLY) and added a media section on their website with links to articles from other media outlets. These include self-defeating headlines like:

KoopaTV's Live Reaction to the Pokémon Presents February 2023

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Snoozefest, but at least it's intentional this time.

Today is Pokémon Day, which means The Pokémon Company International is going to vomit at us whatever information they've been saving for anniversary's sake. These presentations have historically been dull for me. Maybe I'm a bad Pokémon fan (other Pokémon fans say I am) because I don't appreciate several minutes worth of useless cross-company collaborations and predatory mobile titles? Either way, you can watch the short, 26-minute presentation and read along with my live reactions. (Which will take significantly less than 26 minutes to get through, though if you care about things I don't, you'll find a lot of information missing.)

[8:37 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyfyd_t9mzs
[9:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Starting with the GENERIC YOUTUBE PREMIERE COUNTDOWN ANIMATION.
[9:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hello everyone, I'm Ishihara from the Pokémon Company, and today is Pokémon Day.
[9:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The number of Pokémon have gone from 151 to OVER NIN-... ONE THOUSAAAAAAND!
[9:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Ishihara has a freaky looking Pikachu automaton next to him.

Today Brought Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe & OCTOPATH TRAVELER II

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Good day. Good options.

Today, Nintendo Switch owners (and hopefully you, the reader, are already one of those) have some great options in two great videogame genres to buy from starting today: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe for 2D platformer, and OCTOPATH TRAVELER II for Japanese RPG. Both games have free demos available for download on the Nintendo eShop. Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe has a specially built demo experience, while OCTOPATH TRAVELER II has a three-hour demo that transfers to the full game. I haven't actually played the OCTOPATH TRAVELER II demo (yet), so apologies if you came to this article expecting commentary on that. Hopefully that'll have its own dedicated article soon.

I have, however, played the Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe demo, and it's very comforting and I got good vibes from it, similar to the Kirby Star Allies demo and less similar to the Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo. So I'll talk about that!

Hey, Gordo! Your leader, Captain Stitch, hasn't heard of Sand Kirby before!
Take this POCKET SAND and report back to him that Sand is a Copy Ability now! (Same with Mecha, but that's not in the demo.)

PlayStation State of Play February 23 2023 Live Reaction

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Did the industry villains have anything to impress me?

Yesterday, I portrayed Sony as the videogame industry's group of villains, opposing the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard King and lobbying worldwide business regulators with misleading information. And today, Sony had a State of Play that promised over fifteen minutes of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from Rocksteady Studios, five PlayStation VR2 games coming up, and “new looks at some anticipated games from our third-party partners[.]”

There's some potential in that. And because KoopaTV just live-reacted to Microsoft's Xbox Developer_Direct and the Nintendo Direct all within the past 30 days, I ought to ensure that this site is FAIR AND BALANCED by also covering Sony's direct-to-the-public presentation of game trailers and narration. It's just me live-reacting to this, so watch to the video (...if you want) and read along with my time-stamped reactions. It's... a slow start, especially considering the subject matter of the first several minutes are mediocre-looking PlayStation VR2 games.

[3:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us81cwC69fA
[4:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So the February 23, 2023 State of Play focuses on "PlayStation VR2", which I don't care about and if anything, actively would feel sick from and not appreciate.
[4:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'll try to pay attention though...

Microsoft Entering Ten-Year Agreements with Nintendo and NVIDIA for Game Access

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They're building a COALITION.

The proposed acquisition by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard King continues to face (unfair and philosophically weak) regulatory scrutiny around the world. If you read that article, you'll notice it begins with a “a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King.” That commitment has progressed to being signed:

We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms. pic.twitter.com/JmO0hzw1BO

— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 21, 2023

I don't believe you'll find many, if any, Nintendo executives discussing this contract right now because it's conditional. It is a binding, signed contract, but it only takes into effect if the acquisition happens and is completed. The whole point of this agreement is to increase the likelihood of that happening, since some regulatory bodies seem to believe Call of Duty is the only Activision Blizzard King IP of relevance. (Microsoft knows there are more than that, at least.) That said, I don't like how the tweet says they're bringing Xbox games to Nintendo's gamers, but the picture is JUST about Call of Duty. But at least it's a Call of Duty that will have “full feature and content parity” with the Xbox version, which directly addresses a regulatory concern that Microsoft would export out a purposefully inferior Call of Duty product to non-Xbox platforms.

Ah... but there's more.

Patching a Year Later: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Nice to hear from you again.

A brief history lesson: CHRONO CROSS: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION got announced at the February 2022 Nintendo Direct. I got excited about it in KoopaTV's live reaction log of that Direct.

Then the game released on modern consoles and PC on April 7, 2022, at MSRP $20. Shortly after its release, this remaster of the classic PlayStation game got a whole bunch of complaints. Some of them technically valid, like there being glitches (the non-fun kind) from the PlayStation version, the graphical update being kinda weird, and very drastic performance and frame rate issues. Other complaints were about “censorship”, and my article focused a lot on my strong disagreement with that line of thought. Thinking back, if I didn't have a passion for trashing BALAN WONDERWORLD and Yuji Naka, this article would've been nominated (but still not win) for the Best Gaming Commentary Article of 2022 award.

But I digress. I said in that article that I'd probably get the CHRONO CROSS remaster if it'd go on sale, and I wrote that such a sale would be likely to happen at least once in 2022. Well... it didn't go on sale at any point. As a result, no one's talked about CHRONO CROSS ever since, and we've moved on to talking about lots of other games, including others from SQUARE ENIX. However... someone at SQUARE ENIX didn't forget about CHRONO CROSS. Or... maybe they did and then suddenly remembered it:

Monster Hunter Stories 2 (and Rise) MSRP Reduced to $40

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Permanently! (Pending future sales.)

Good news that's article-worthy since I own the game (and purchased it at full price) and endorse it:

Ride on! Grab Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin for #NintendoSwitch and PC/Steam at a new price of $39.99.

Start your journey today with the demo and transfer your progress over to the full game. https://t.co/32g8wIYkLx pic.twitter.com/A3spkMb3OS

— Capcom USA (@CapcomUSA_) February 17, 2023

The demo convinced me to buy Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin and I don't regret it. I have 160+ hours into it (the demo plus the full game) and it's been an addictive experience. The actual story is subpar but the gameplay is basically a Pokémon RPG but better. It has a similar difficulty curve where it's easy to very easy to the difficulty spiking at the very end and especially the post-game. I still haven't been able to do any of the free DLC 8* requests, though maybe I should try those again. I did just complete this Legendary Challenger tournament today, so maybe that means I'm strong enough. (And I beat the post-game Elder's Lair a while ago for the first time. I recommend the experience.) I also was able to finally complete the Gutsy Gourmet Subquest of finding five Luminous Stomachs. The reward is pointless but at least that means the only normal Subquest left is registering every Monster in my Monsterpedia. I'm at 98% completion for that!

Wizz is just post-skip Caspar from Fire Emblem: Three Houses with a babier face.

You may be wondering why this is happening a year and a half after release. I don't have an exact answer, but perhaps it has to do with how the release of Monster Hunter Rise on non-Switch and non-Steam platforms a month ago has brought the price of the base game to $40 (with Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak, its popular paid expansion at $60) from $60. CAPCOM may have then decided to permanently lower the price of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin from $60 to $40, because it was probably seen as weird for Monster Hunter Rise to be $40 but Monster Hunter Stories 2 to be $60, especially since the former is the company's bigger focus in terms of marketing effort and game development budget. This permanent price cut is for both digital and physical versions, and the digital deluxe versions (which you probably shouldn't buy?) are also adjusted lower as well.

Miraculously, CAPCOM hasn't created a new eShop sale in the past...month, though other companies (Ubisoft) have for Valentine's Day. But this permanent price cut ought to suffice. ...Besides, I'm sure there'll be a sale within the next 30 days for the 3DS eShop closing.


Ludwig has never done any co-op in Monster Hunter Stories 2, so if that's something you're interested in, let him know in the comments section below.

The Widely Agreed Upon Travesty of White Chocolate Winning the Favorite Chocolate Splatfest

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A lot of people have a lot of problems.

Last weekend, many, many (and with over ten million copies sold, likely hundreds of thousands or millions) of Inklings and Octolings across the Splatlands portrayed in Splatoon 3 participated in a Splatfest. This Splatfest had asked, “What's your favorite chocolate?” I wrote why I supported Team Milk Chocolate. I discussed milk chocolate being a great ingredient with a good flavour profile, while dark chocolate is too bitter. White chocolate was out of the question for me, since I deemed it to be an intellectually dishonest option. Unfortunately, the Splatfest ended in an “outcome [that] was ultimately unjustifiable and horrible[.]” Team White Chocolate won in a landslide.

If there was a category, Team White Chocolate won it.

This result caused a lot of outrage and no one I talked to expected it. I'll get into why or how this result was possible (and still undeserved) at the end of the article, but until we get to the end, I actually collected a lot of... feedback on the result. In fact, Team White Chocolate winning this Splatfest stirred up the passions of so many people that I got a lot of folks who haven't done anything related to KoopaTV before to create content for the site, based on their discontent for white chocolate. Here are their stories and thoughts, presented as I received them but edited for basic grammar and spelling:

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD Hollywood Press Event

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My resistance to wanting to be excited about this is kind of sad.

My greatest interest in life is Nintendo... how can I be such a jaded person that I'm refusing to express interest in a whole Nintendo theme park? That should be such a conceptually cool slam dunk! And yet... it's not. Not for me.

Anyway, by the time you read this, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD will be officially open to the general public in Hollywood! (Ah, perhaps it's the fact it's in California, Hollywood specifically, is something that's a big damper.) And there is a press event associated with its opening by Universal Studios Hollywood. As... someone who could be misconstrued as a member of the press, I watched it:

After a countdown and a series of thank yous, they had the (press?) audience to all be Mario drones and yell LET'S A GO by raising their arm up to try to honour a mustachioed genocidal jerk. Sounds like something from another time period. SUPER NINTENDO WORLD being dedicated to Mario instead of to Nintendo as a whole is also a turn-off.

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

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Eight questions. Eight answers. Eight mini-analyses.

Cutting to the chase, Nintendo did not have a good (relative to their expectations) holiday season at the end of 2022. They blew their own forecasts and lowered them. And after announcing these dismal results, Nintendo's executives had to take questions from stock analysts. Surely, the questions ought to have an outraged tone and Nintendo's executives ought to be more humble and apologetic than usual, right? And KoopaTV is all for looking at that, since Nintendo deserves it based off their own (incorrect) forecasts. So what questions did we actually get?

Question 1: Why did software sales weaken in the Americas?

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa responded that the Americas was the sole region with year-on-year declines. (By a negative 19.5% growth.) While Splatoon 3 is disproportionately powerful in Japan (so far, about 62% of Splatoon 3's sales are from Japan, compared to Japan normally being about 23% to 25% of Nintendo's overall sales), and Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Strikers: Battle League apparently have a lot of European fans because they're idiotic soccer-loving socialists, there wasn't a big stand-out seller in North America. It didn't help that at the same time in 2021, America was buying up the likes of Metroid Dread (which hasn't behaved as an evergreen title ever since).

Cool, the Media Believes the Mario Bros. are Plumbers Again

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - But about this Brooklyn thing... and those prices.

Remember a few years back when the FAKE NEWS media was reporting that Mario (and Luigi by extension) were officially no longer plumbers? Yeah, that was a whole heap of falsehoods and absurdities. Now those same media outlets want you to forget they ever said that as they talk about how great this commercial supposedly is:

They're also going crazy over his website, which is still... under construction. I see little need to advertise the business website of this website's greatest enemy. But the testimonials on their site are quite bad, with an average 2.7 star out of 5 star review rating, including that they are “SUBPAR” and that those brothers left a couple's “house an absolute MESS!” And with their “expert white-glove service”, they are quite expensive, just as I said they were years ago.

NintendoVS's Splatoon 3 Turf War February 2023 Competition!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If you haven't had enough Turf War.

Did you play lots of Turf War over the weekend in support of the Splatfest team representing your favourite kind of chocolate? ...The outcome was ultimately unjustifiable and horrible, but I'm actually planning to make that its own, independent and separate rant / article / KoopaTV experience.

But this article is actually to let you know that Nintendo of America (as NintendoVS) and eSports platform Battlefy are once again collaborating on a new Splatoon 3 competition external from the game: The Splatoon 3 Turf War February 2023. You and three to four pals or strangers can register a team by February 18, 2023 (that's when the event is, specifically at 13:00 Eastern. It's a Saturday) to play in a ladder format (meaning, win or lose, you can keep queuing up for games on battlefy.com and be match-made) for up to four hours for the best score your team can get. Scores are calculated by set Wins minus Losses, and sets are best-of-three Turf Wars. More details below, including prizes.

That's 10:00 Pacific. Also, per usual, Splatoon 3 official art lends itself well to cool tournament banners.
It looks like they caught the hooligan from the Splatoon 3 Turf War December 2022 event that I complained about in that key art banner.

Reggie Fils-Aime vs. Masahiro Sakurai: Competing with the Past or Competing for Time?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Different perspectives.

The contents of this week's Nintendo Direct (including many remastered games and the Game Boy [Advance] emulators now available for Nintendo Switch Online [+ Expansion Pack] subscribers) might've prompted Masahiro Sakurai—a several-time director of Nintendo franchises like Kirby and Super Smash Bros.—to go and release this new video on his YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games:

Sakurai's point is that with subscription services for movies/television shows being very plentiful or even saturated at this point, new content production competes with the past. His logic is that for a movie-watcher, you'll value your time watching content made from decades ago the same as you would watching fresh content now (as long as the quality is equivalent), so subscription services making past catalogues very accessible makes it much harder for new things to stand out. Masahiro Sakurai believes that while game production is tough, movie production is even tougher—so he sees these as distinctly different industries. His reasoning is that very often, new games have far greater scope and quality than much older games. While movies are the same length, games can be much longer, or shorter games made now have better, more modern game design philosophies that allow them to pack more quality per hour.

I'm not inclined to agre with his take on this. To illustrate, let's categorise everything announced in the recent Nintendo Direct. NEW GAMES is defined as new to Nintendo consoles (some are multi-platform games that are out already, but recently):

December 31, 2022 Nintendo Quarterly Financial Update

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - See-saw projections.

Remember about three months ago (see below the article footer for a link if you don't) when Nintendo raised their financial forecast guidance because the Switch should be doing so well? And then their stock price went up. Well... they took that back... and the stock price went down.

Nintendo raised their financial forecasts on November 8, 2022...
...Only to lower them again on February 7, 2023, which was the next earliest opportunity.

For net sales, they went from 1,600,000 million yen to 1,650,000 back to 1,600,000. Operating profit is lower than the very original forecast, while ordinary profit and profit attributable to owners of parent are still a little higher. I think in terms of a “market share console wars” mindset, we care most about net sales. So how did those go between October 1 and December 31, 2023? Well, down 1.9% year over year, with Nintendo management continuing to blame semiconductor shortages for a lack of supply, with no commentary on there being a lack of demand. Additionally, hardware sales expressed as profit continue to fall, due to the Nintendo Switch (OLED model) becoming the dominantly popular Nintendo Switch SKU during the holiday season. Nintendo continues to stress that they get less profit selling the (OLED model) versus the regular Nintendo Switch, contrary to what the FAKE NEWS has reported. To be more precise, in this quarter, they sold 4.16 million Nintendo Switch (OLED model)s, 1.08 million Nintendo Switch Lites, and 2.99 million regular Nintendo Switch consoles. It's been over a year, and the other FAKE NEWS claim that Nintendo would stop manufacturing and selling regular Nintendo Switch consoles continues to be a lie. Meanwhile, Nintendo also sold 76.70 million units of software, with 27 million-seller titles in the fiscal year. 8 of those are from third-parties which Nintendo won't report on, but here are some of those top sellers below:

That “2 more” is Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Bayonetta 3.
Mario Party Superstars was a holiday hit despite the availability of Mario Party and Mario Party 2 on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

KoopaTV's LIVE Reactions to the February 8 2023 Nintendo Direct

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, this is great! I thought so, anyway.

Today, we watched a Nintendo Direct featuring information mostly focused on Nintendo Switch games launching in the first half of 2023.

Joining me for live reactions are Heavy Lobster, Witch Princess, and Kamek Koopa. Read our reactions along with watching the Direct if you haven't watched it yet! (Time stamps help you follow along.)

[4:52 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMdUSVSEp7U
[4:53 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: brb bathroom
[4:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: back
[4:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: My expected wants include Splatoon 3 update(s) and Advance Wars's new release date. My unexpected wants include anything about Ring Fit Adventure (sequel, DLC, free update) and that Nintendo will in fact be at E3 2023.
[4:58 PM] HeavyLobster: I'm here.
[4:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Howdy.
[4:59 PM] Witch Princess: Hey
[4:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hey! It's 17:00 in about 15 seconds.
[5:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...
[5:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well I counted to fifteen
[5:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: AHH
[5:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: RP - M rating.

KoopaTV Live Reactions: SOTU 2023 + Sarah Huckabee Sanders's Response

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - THE STATE OF THE UNION is allegedly STRONG!

In what is an unfortunate tradition, whenever the White House of the United States of America takes over all of the television airwaves to get people to watch the annual State of the Union, that somehow takes over KoopaTV as well. There's some cool videogame news that came out today regarding financial disclosures, but that's been bumped by President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. talking to both parts of Congress (and the Supreme Court is invited too for some reason) for over an hour about what he wants to have happen in the United States of America, as well as what has already happened.

...Pretty much everyone else on the KoopaTV staff already fell asleep anticipating Sleepy Joe before he actually began talking. True story. That was the excuse I got from Kamek and Witch Princess, at least. So you just get my FAIR AND BALANCED commentary on not only the State of the Union 2023, but ALSO on the Republican Response featuring new Arkansas governor (and former White House press secretary) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of former presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. You can scroll down to the article's bottom where her picture is if you want to read my thoughts on what she had to say, but there's basically nothing of substance to check out. (And that's her fault, not mine.)

[8:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcBTUvVp7M
[9:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I wish comments and chat weren't disabled. Oh well, people can read my thoughts throughout this log.
[9:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Starting with the fact that they're late. C'mon, man.
[9:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Oh, yay. Starting. And most importantly, with sign language girl.
[9:04 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And by "starting" I mean video feed of the chamber without the President there.
[9:04 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sign language girl is still trapped in a room.
[9:05 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Meanwhile, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has gotten out of his (bed)room to walk down the hall to give his speech and ruin our evening.
[9:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sign language girl is signing applauses.
[9:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But she's not clapping, she's more waving her hands around.
[9:07 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Being an American Sign Language interpreter must mean your hands are the most important part of you; so maybe she doesn't want to damage them by banging them together, which is what clapping really is. Perhaps those in this chamber will figure out the same lesson and we won't be here all night listening to half of the hall clapping after every sentence the President makes.

Saturday Night Live's "HBO Mario Kart Trailer" is an Improvement over "Wario"

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Some jokes are recycled, but the presentation is significantly better.

The last time KoopaTV thought Saturday Night Live was relevant enough to discuss, we reviewed the “Wario” skit featuring Elon Musk. It was dreadful in pretty much every way. A couple of years later, we've tried watching their skit again on a similar topic. This time, it's an “HBO Mario Kart Trailer” skit, which seems to parody The Last of Us (based on the videogame series) on HBO... but with Mario Kart (another videogame series) in that gritty environment. Apparently, The Last of Us is a pretty popular show—I have zero plans to subscribe to HBO and find out how good it is for myself, however. So while I can't exactly appreciate the digs on The Last of Us (at least, its TV adaption), I do know quite a bit about Mario Kart.

The trailer fills in the audience right away that the gist is that The Last of Us is a “prestige dystopian drama” and what you'll watch for the next three minutes is that concept but applied to Mario Kart, as an “iconic game”—Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch has sold at least 48.41 million copies, and that number will officially go up when Nintendo does their financial disclosure tomorrow. (KoopaTV will cover that, too.) There's a pretty good chance that's a big enough number that members of the audience will appreciate it. But did I?

Favourite Chocolate Splatfest: Milk Fans and Chocolate Lovers Alike Choose Milk Chocolate

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - KoopaTV's staff is Team Milk Chocolate.

It feels like just a month ago that we were discussing Splatoon 3 Splatfests and flavour profiles... and that's because that's the case. And here we are again with a Splatfest happening next week. You can pick your team right now. What is your favourite chocolate? Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate?

KoopaTV supported Team Sweet, and Team Sweet under Frye's leadership won over Team Spicy and Team Sour.
...But, yes, it does appear this Splatfest exists because Team Sweet won. Some other foods might be up for debate if another team won.

Clearly, KoopaTV can't support Team Sweet one month and then vote for Team Dark Chocolate the next. Dark Chocolate is not sweet. It can be so bitter that it might override your senses and poison your brain. Here's some evidence of that danger:

Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers Have Returned to the Americas in 2023!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I like the word voucher, but we've already established you're not really getting a deal here.

Remember Nintendo's Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers from three to four years ago? They're back. Here's a trailer going over the basics:

I already went over the rationale and logic about these vouchers in 2019: They're $100 (for two vouchers; you can hold up to eight) and you're supposed to use them on two $60 games (although several $50 games are available, such as LIVE A LIVE and DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age—those two in particular are better than many of the $60 games available), but you need to be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, which could cost another $20, so Nintendo still breaks even but pretends it's a good deal. You need to be a Nintendo Switch Online member both at the time of purchase AND at the time of redemption.

Pretty much every Nintendo-published Nintendo Switch game I can think of (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Ring Fit Adventure, because vouchers are for digital purchases ONLY!) is on the list of voucher-eligible games—the list has certainly been updated with the rest of the games from 2019, and then 2020, 2021, 2022, and now 2023, and will continue to be as long as the vouchers remain around. If you want third-party games not published by Nintendo, you can just wait for those games to go on actual sales because they often do, and at significantly bigger discounts than 16.67% off. (Though one such third-party sale ended mere hours ago.)

It seems like Japan and Europe have never stopped offering these vouchers, while Nintendo of America stopped at some point soon after introducing them. Why did they change their mind and got rid of them, only to now bring them back? That is not something I can meaningfully speculate on. Maybe someone from Nintendo in Japan was looking at the list of Nintendo Switch Online benefits for North Americans, saw that the vouchers were missing compared to what Japan has, and gave an order on high that they should come back. Anyway, giving you my recommendations sounds similarly... unhelpful, since that's just “What are your favourite Nintendo Switch games?” If I mention games a lot or write a lot about them on KoopaTV, they're probably good ideas to buy. Unless the article is about how much I don't like the game. (For example, don't use your voucher on ARMS.) Anything that's $50 you shouldn't use a voucher for, but if it's good, you should just purchase it directly.


If the vouchers could be transferred to other parties, Ludwig would do so, because they would be very fun and interesting rewards for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. However, you should be grateful for having the opportunity to win even a fraction of the amount implied in a voucher, and the current round (48) is offering a $10 Nintendo eShop card code.

KoopaTV's January 2023 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - KOOPATV...ENGAGE!

Did you manage to get through the first month of 2023? (And if you feel excluded from the question because you follow another calendar system...too bad.) New Years feels like a very long time ago. In that time until now, there were... twenty-two KoopaTV articles published! Maybe that's enough to make you feel like there's been a considerable distance in time and experiences.

Top Five Recommended Experiences of January 2023

Speaking of experiences, how about we go over my personal top five recommended KoopaTV experiences published last month? These are listed in chronological order:

1. Which Music Plays in Which Alterna Kettle in Splatoon 3 — Whether you're coming to the article because you want to listen to Splatoon 3's great story mode music, or you're coming to it because you want to listen to specific music in-game and you want to know which stages it plays in, this article is a fantastic resource for new Agent 3s.
2. KoopaTV's GOTY 2022 Awards! — What better article to showcase in a showcase of January 2023 articles than an article that showcases 2022...? ...Well, it's a good showcase.
3. Kirby Air Ride Game Concept, as explained by Masahiro Sakurai — After much anticipation, did Masahiro Sakurai's Kirby Air Ride Game Concepts video meet my expectations? Well... some, but not all of them. I provided my deep commentary in the article.
4. Splatoon 3's Turf War and Anarchy Modes Aren't Luck-Based in a Tournament Setting — Splatoon 3 not only has a lot to talk about for music and story, but also its gameplay, community, and the (limited) impact of its RNG in determining a given match's outcome.
5. Today, I Played GoldenEye 007 for the First Time Ever — I hope I made it pretty clear in this article that I pretty much had an existential crisis while playing GoldenEye 007, and that I saw a whole parallel universe version of me flash before my eyes where I played the game in the 1990s and how different I would end up being if I did so. It totally surpassed my expectations (I expected to trash the game instead of enjoying it).

There are several articles that didn't get to make it into that top five that could have. Every article on KoopaTV is worth experiencing, so you ought to do JUST THAT!