KoopaTV's 2022 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

The following nominations weren't decided or talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server, but maybe the actual award winners will be. Behold! (See the bottom of this article for the link to the actual AWARDS once it's late-night Monday, January 9, 2023.)

To be eligible, those running had to have started their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

And just so you remember, GOTY stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch. Speaking of which, there is a brand-new category time in the gaming awards section. It's the second one.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause KoopaTV is art to be recognised and applauded, too. The Best Interview award came back, because there was enough of those published in 2022 to make a category of them again.

This article is such a rehash of the 2021 one
that I just took the first 20, and copy-pasted the first 2 twice to make a 2022!

Videogame-related Awards for 2022

Best New Character

• Mio (Xenoblade Chronicles 3)
• Clawroline (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
• The cat (Stray)
• Frye (Splatoon 3)
• Lionel Khapita (Triangle Strategy)
• Larry (Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet)
• Lamb (Cult of the Lamb)

KoopaTV's November 2022 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Ew, we're in December.

I am not a big fan of the month of December, so before I have to fully commit to thinking about that, let's review November 2022. That's what this newsletter is dedicated to! Except the very last section of it. That one is looking forward.

November was great. Here's some evidence:

Top Five Recommended Experiences of November 2022

Here are my personal top five recommended KoopaTV experiences listed in chronological order, published in November 2022:

1. HARVESTELLA: From a Farm Sim Fan's Perspective — Witch Princess is finally back to penning articles and wrote about the HARVESTELLA demo from her perspective. She isn't on-board with it.
2. Team Grass-type in the Pokémon Partner Splatfest — Why KoopaTV was on Team Grass in the recent November Splatfest.
3. My Panda Cup Online Qualifiers 2022 Experience — Ludwig played in four Panda Cup Online Qualifiers and the regional qualifier finale. How well did he represent KoopaTV in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?
4. Farm Sim Mechanics (and Gender) Degraded HARVESTELLA — Ludwig joined in to write KoopaTV's third article with impressions from the HARVESTELLA demo. He was quite critical of its mechanics.
5. Disgraced Game Developer Yuji Naka Arrested for Suspicions of Insider Trading — Yuji Naka is not only a bad guy, but also dumb, and got arrested for insider trading. Ludwig makes fun of him.

Well... it might be unpopular to talk about the Panda Cup at the moment given recent controversy, but it was still a really good article. Pretty much every other article on KoopaTV is also worth experiencing, even if it didn't make this list! Tough list, too.

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:

The Gordo Halloween '22 PSA

By CAPTAIN STITCH - Essential Gordo info for the complete experience.

Halloween is the second most wonderful time of the year. Putting aside the risks of drug-laced candy, it gives our youth a chance to reenact the motions of the heroes (and villains) from yesteryear. Truly, it does bring a tear to one's eye, at the joy the children often have for the most vile and repulsive caricatures. A different tear is brought to the eye of the parents who bear witness to this event. Pirates, Vikings, Demons, and the very worst offenders, video game characters.

Ghost Gordos,
very spooky, a perfect costume choice.

This Halloween I must implore all of you reading this message to put an end to this annual circus of debauchery the only way I know how. By insisting the next generation dons the appearance of the Gordo this upcoming Halloween. It is the only way to keep the pure and innocent minds of our youth pure and innocent, whilst also enabling them to grow up through the reenactment of moral historical figures. Now some of you may say that what I've just said speaks to a lot of cognitive dissonance, and that Gordos are video game characters as well. To that I say, did you know that the Gordo hasn’t just appeared in the Kirby franchise, but also have cameos in Super Mario Land, Link's Awakening, and multiple Super Smash Bros. games. That’s right, we got a cameo before it was cool for everyone to do it ala Spirits. You may also have qualms about our actual morality but I can assure you the Gordo are patron saints.

The Supposedly Spooky Capcom Halloween Sale of 2022

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It seems the same as any other sale.

Tonight, we're talking about CAPCOM, a company that will put anything on sale for any reason. Check out the latest Nintendo eShop sale:

“Capcom Halloween Sale
10/19 at 9:00 a.m. PT to 11/1 at 11:59 p.m. PT

Capcom is offering a handful of classic titles at a spooky price! Be sure to check out the Capcom Halloween Sale line-up and grab Capcom Fighting Collection, Devil May Cry and more! Up to 67% off for Switch games and 83% off for 3DS games!”

Are those classic titles truly at a spooky price? Well, that 83% off 3DS games means the three Ace Attorney titles on 3DS for $5 each, which has been the standard discount rate for a while now. Plus classic sales like The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for a mere $25, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for $15, and the two of those bundled together in Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection for $35. (The only spooky thing here is NOT getting the entire mainline Ace Attorney series plus two spin-offs—for a grand total of eight amazing adventure games that'll collectively last you over 200 hours—for 50 USD.)

Other very familiar discounts include the Resident Evil games at 50% off, Devil May Cry at 50% off (and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition at 40% off). That's all the same discounts as before. Even Capcom Fighting Collection at 25% off matches the previous sale, as well as 50% off Monster Hunter Stories 2. Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak is being sold for $50 instead of $70, which also ties the last sale from last month.

So... are these prices really spooky? (Are these games actually classic?) ...No, that's nonsense. But regardless of the irrelevant seasonal tie-ins (and I believe this is the first time they've made a sale specifically for Halloween), you should look to take advantage of them. Any opportunity you can get for LOWER PRICES in this economy is an opportunity you ought to take time into looking into, even if there's nothing new about these lower prices.

I guess they put some effort into the font for HALLOWEEN SALE.
Even if non-spooky games are also on sale.

These CAPCOM sales are also available in the United Kingdom, though the sales there last until November 16, 2022. Get The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles at 38% off for 20.45 GBP! Or other parts of Europe, still 38% off and sale still ends November 16, just in Euros.


There were two purposes to this article. One, to mock Halloween tie-ins. Two, to promote purchases of the Ace Attorney franchise, even if it's not one that's visually called out as spooky in CAPCOM's banner.


The last CAPCOM-involved sale was in the middle of September to celebrate Tokyo Game Show.
Predictably, Ace Attorney games are also on sale in November 2022.

KoopaTV's GOTY 2021 Awards!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Game of THAT Year 2021... and other categories.

After a weekend has passed since we published our Game of THAT Year 2021 nominations, plus other categories, KoopaTV's staff have decided on our Game of THAT Year 2021 winners. ...And I may or may not have ignored their choices in favour of pushing my own agenda. I won't tell you those details of how this got made, but you can feel free to take your best guesses.

While 2020 sucked, 2021 wasn't much better! So let's get right into the awards and not dwell on the year as a whole, since it's better to just forget it overall. At least the following all represent highlight(s)!

Videogame-related Awards for 2021

Best New Character

The winner of KoopaTV's 2021 Best New Character award goes to Magnus McGilded, of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Magnus McGilded is a spectacular character that should be a role model.

I can see Magnus McGilded as a PragerU speaker or something.
This is also a lesson that today's capitalists ought to consider.

Magnus McGilded is a London philanthropist who has made his fortune through honest and morally righteous means. Unfortunately, just like with today's wealthy and upstanding upper class, a lot of lower people are jealous cretins and want to besmirch Mr. McGilded's name. Those include the game's new prosecutor, Barok van Zieks, whose first introduction to the player, as Ryunosuke Naruhodo, was prosecuting Mr. McGilded for murder. Yet Mr. McGilded proved himself to be the most capable defendant in Ace Attorney history, and he actually made van Zieks out to be quite incompetent. That's an amazing feat, especially considering that Barok is actually a top-tier prosecutor when compared to other Ace Attorney prosecutors. Mr. McGilded actually did research and helpfully contributed in advancing the NOT GUILTY goal. He also didn't sabotage his own case, unlike many other defendants throughout the franchise (and in other cases in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles).

I don't want to spoil the case or the game, but as long as you remember that Magnus McGilded did nothing wrong, you too should find him worthy of Best New Character of 2021.

KoopaTV's 2021 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

The following nominations were decided and talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server. Behold! (See the bottom of this article for the link to the actual AWARDS.)

The déjà vu from years past is intentional. (To be eligible, those running have to start their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.)

And just so you remember, GOTY stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause KoopaTV is art to be recognised and applauded, too.

This article is such a rehash of the 2019 one
that I just took the first 20, and copy-pasted it to make a second 20!

Videogame-related Awards for 2021

Best New Character

• Ayumi Tachibana (Famicom Detective Club)
• Magnus McGilded (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles)
• Raven Beak (Metroid Dread)
• FU (No More Heroes 3)
• Cutie The Elephant (It Takes Two)
• Kazuma Asogi (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles)

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 55: The S.W.O.L.E. System

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - F.L.E.X. is retired, but I'm back!

Hooboy, it's KoopaTV Fitness Friday again! And I think I have some explaining to do before we get to the Ring Fit Adventure content.

I published the previous Fitness Log two weeks ago: Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 54: Damaging My Body For Content. The title of that is pretty clear: I've been... injured for several weeks, and by the end of the log, identified my issue as bursitis at my left hip area. As of writing this... that still hasn't gone away. It's lessened, but not totally gone. Still, I don't physically feel great lying around and not doing exercise. So I'm trying this week to see what happens if I play Ring Fit Adventure's World 55: Fitness Master Lv. 313. Besides, it's based off of World 32: Extra Fitness Lv. 207, a world devoted to working out your arms. How much of a pain can it be? ...Well... scrolling to the bottom of that fitness log... there's... actually a lot of distance traveled... like... substantially more than World 54's that focused on the abs. I need working hips to run. ...This may be an issue.

Why do they call it beefiness, anyway...?

Ring said some stuff about how Dragaux and Armando didn't become beefy overnight but through hard work, and it's off to the mines for me. ...Well, the No-Brakes Mine, to be exact. (Before going there, I bought out all of the Onyx-requiring outfits from the General Store Number 49 since I won't be getting more Onyx in the playthrough, probably. Managed to do so with three Onyx stones to spare. Yay.) Between the Overhead Side Bend trolley, using Overhead Press against the Red Belldog enemy, and using the Overhead Pull pulley... lots of lifting the Ring-Con above my head. Deep in the mine was a Treasure Chest with Pomegranate Tea (excellent drink that increases Arms Fit Skill power by ↑↑ and changes all Fit Skills to red-coloured).

KoopaTV's November 2021 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't like this coming month, you know.

The next of these newsletters I publish, it'll be 2022. That's WEIRD. I don't like it.

Anyway, this newsletter is all about making sure you're caught up with what happened with KoopaTV (your favourite website, surely?) during the month that just passed—November 2021! We'll cover the top articles, the top reader commentary, a leaderboard notice to the current KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program round, and our Corrections Corner that (unfortunately) isn't empty this time.

Top Five Recommended Experiences of November 2021

In chronological order...

1. The Evolution of the Fire Emblem Soldier — This is a rather in-depth article examining the humble (and disrespected) beginnings of the Soldier class in Fire Emblem... and how they've achieved parity and even equality with other classes in the latest games.
2. Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 52: Fighting Super Pet Contest Rejects — This is my compromise for excluding the actual Super Pet Contest article from this top five, but this really is the best Fitness Log of Fitness Master mode so far because it's brimming with actually interesting game info, fitness info, and... some aspects of my personal life.
3. Yeah, Activision is Dumb for Having In-Office Alcoholic Drinks — While this isn't the... typical take people and companies are having from what's going on with Activision Blizzard, it's a topic I feel rather strongly about and I've yet to hear any justification for it.
4. Riot Expands League of Legends Lore with Indie-Developed Spin-offs — I may not be a fan of League of Legends (and that's an understatement), but I very much respect the Riot Forge initiative and think it's a model for other publishers to follow.
5. Habit-Forming Game Comparison: Ring Fit Adventure vs. Pokémon Smile — I've been vocal in my support for Ring Fit Adventure on KoopaTV for the past couple of years, and I've also done things with Pokémon Smile. Using a framework from an author specialising in how industry hooks customers on developing habits, I evaluated and compared the designs for those two games.

There are several articles I ended up snubbing in this top five (including those with interesting gimmicks to them that I would really like everyone to see), so what you should REALLY do is consider every KoopaTV article worth reading... and then go check them out.

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 52: Fighting Super Pet Contest Rejects

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If I actually played every week consecutively, I'd be doing a one-year anniversary now.

Welcome to the 52nd KoopaTV Fitness Friday! (I suppose to be fair, not every Fitness Friday ended up being published on Friday, but I'll call it that anyway.) Being at good fitness and wellness is important to general life happiness, which is why I want to reiterate this week's earlier bemoaning of Daylight Saving Time and clock-switching. That puts your body in a funk. It's not good for your health. It turns out I have other problems going on as well...

This week I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure's World 52: Extra Fitness Lv. 301 on the max difficulty of 30. This world is based on World 29: Extra Fitness Lv. 195, and it's supposed to be a miniboss rush of the Four Masters’ pets. In the normal story, we'd see all four of the Four Masters as they introduce their pets and themselves. Last week, we only saw one of the Four Masters, Armando... since we had to fight the guy. I'm very interested in what twists, if any, World 52 will bring. ...And having no story or characterisation whatsoever isn't the kind of twist I want to see.

Fortunately, all four of the Four Masters were in World 52's dialogue intro. Allegra didn't think I'd show up, though she didn't give an explanation as to why she thinks that. Abdonis knew I'd come. Armando said it'll only get harder from here, so I better be prepared. Lastly, Guru Andma likes the opportunity for us to train together... provided we clear the miniboss rush of everyone's pets.

There's been a Pokémon Super Pet Contest held. None of the miniboss pets here got to become a finalist.
(Though none of the pets that I advocated for did, either. Will they become monsters, too?)

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 51: Ring Ringsplains Dragaux

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Armando takes the stage.

Welcome to another KoopaTV Fitness Friday featuring Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch! I've been playing through this game for a long time now, and this is the 51st week—that's enough to be on my third playthrough of the game, which is officially known as “Fitness Master” mode. Unfortunately, Nintendo's designers have put in very little effort so far, resulting in my pretty short Week 50 log about how bored I was because of the lack of in-game dialogue and events.

For this week, I'm playing World 51: Fitness Master Lv. 298, which is based off World 28: Extra Fitness Lv. 192. That Fitness Log was very notable because this world features all four of the Four Masters in some capacity at various points in the world, plus a Dragaux boss fight. You can look at the length of that article and see that... it's quite long. It's because it featured so many important characters who had dialogue and interesting things happen. That means I'm... really interested to see if Fitness Master just sucks all of that away or if some of it is retained so I can not only be personally interested in this game, but I can write interesting things for you to read.

At least the world opened up on Sunday by saying that Armando really wants to help train us, and I better head to the Arms-Race Gym for that. Ring was fired up about it. First, we crossed Exertion River, which reintroduced the Naughtylus enemy type. I could ORKO it by hitting it super-effectively with a super-effective one-range Fit Skill with reps to spare. But a Mountain Climber (five-range Fit Skill) barely didn't have the needed power. More level ups needed. Or a smoothie. Or an attack-boosting outfit. And I don't mean a Strength Drink, which was in a Treasure Chest in the level. Because that only increased my Attack stat by one point... up to 1905 points.

Ring is all fired up. You can see it in his eyes.

After the river, I headed to Fitness Master's first Fitness Gym: the Leg Set. If I get an A rank (above 90 points), I'll clear it and get a Citrine (which I'll sell for money). The difficulty of the Leg Set is directly connected to my chosen difficulty level being 30 (the max). This involves:

Post-Sora October 2021 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Online Fighter Usage Stats

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Did Sora clinch it?

Just two weeks ago, KoopaTV published the very last possible look at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's online metagame BEFORE the last downloadable content character, Sora, was added. Sora, with his... unique playstyle (along with version 13.0.0's other balance changes), would no doubt change the metagame and which characters people would use.

But how can that change be measured? Well, Nintendo provided the opportunity: their NintendoVS US Fall Open 2021 tournament was divided into two events: one on October 15–16 right before Sora released, and the second on October 29–30 right after Sora released. By comparing the character usage stats collected from the tournament before and after, we could gauge the effect that Sora—and the other balance patch changes—had on the metagame.

By the way, the finals were streamed. No one used Sora in those, though there were plenty of other DLC characters:

While all eight of the players featured on that stream are getting some kind of prize, congratulations are in order for the four GRAND PRIZE winners: Jake (Enderman / Mario) of Region 8, Xerzal of Region 6 (Min Min), MarkSDKing (R.O.B.) of Region 1, and Avarice (Ridley) of Region 3. Nintendo promises to mail out your prizes within sixteen weeks.

As a result of the thousands of games and hundreds of players for the tournament, I have aggregated the fighter usage stats for Event 2 of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate NintendoVS US Fall Open 2021. Below is a chart, along with a text-based list and my commentary—commentary on both the stats and the tournament itself (which is also commentary on the flaws of the data):

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:

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.

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

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Nothing should stop you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

KoopaTV's 2019 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

These were decided and talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server. Behold!
 
The déjà vu from years past is intentional. (To be eligible, those running have to start their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.)

And just so you remember, that stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause we're art to be recognised and applauded, too. Just to make it clear, we have an “each KoopaTV article may only be nominated once, total.” rule that obviously doesn't apply to the gaming half.

This article is such a rehash of the 2018 one that I just erased part of the 8 to make it a 9!

KoopaTV's October 2019 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The October newsletter isn't one to fear!

Welcome to the latest edition of KoopaTV's newsletter! October 2019 sure feels like it went by quickly, yet it feels like I haven't written a newsletter in a while. (But I did, and you'll see it in the related articles at the bottom below the footer.)

October 2019 continued KoopaTV's string of solid months, though it was the first month in what's felt like a very long time without an Ace Attorney article during the month or an Enlightenment Movement article. Doesn't mean October was uninspired or not focused on developing KoopaTV canon. In fact, it focused plenty on that. Here's some EVIDENCE:

KoopaTV's Top Five Experiences of October 2019

Actually, there's a lot of articles that I thought were even written in October, so maybe it was longer than I thought. That actually makes limiting this to a top five fairly challenging and I had to spend a lot of time coming up with this chronologically-ordered list. Read these articles if you haven't already... and read everything from this month (and on KoopaTV in general) after that. Well, finish the rest of this newsletter first, because there's some stuff you'll be happy to see announced:

1. A Brave New World in Subnautica  — Kamek writes KoopaTV's second review of 2019, and it's about the indie open world experience Subnautica, which it turns out he's quite fond of.
2. October 15 2019 Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 4 ANALYSIS! — I usually (purposefully) avoid the politics-focused articles in the newsletters, but I think I did a pretty good job with this one in that it's issues-focused and not candidate-focused. You'll learn a lot about your choices here.
3. I'm Extremely Impressed With The Dragon Quest XI S Demo — Dragon Quest XI S is Ludwig's first Dragon Quest game, though for this article, his impressions are just based on the demo. ...Though he did buy the game after writing it! Features cows.
4. Yes In My Backyard: Dilapidated Houses in the City Trial — Ludwig tackles the issue of affordable housing while also going into a failed government programme instituted by King Dedede.
5. Luigi's Mansion 3 and Halloween 2019 — A wide-ranging article continuing this site's distaste for Halloween, plumbers, and the FAKE NEWS media, but also the taste for delicious candy.

Luigi's Mansion 3 and Halloween 2019

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The best candy from the best source of entertainment.

After ignoring fellow Nintendo Switch titles Astral Chain and DAEMON X MACHINA, perhaps I should at least give Luigi's Mansion 3 a release day article. Not that I care about it—and I don't understand why anyone who wasn't a Day 1 GameCube owner would—but Luigi is a very relevant topic for KoopaTV, so here we are. Luigi's Mansion 3 features Luigi, his ghost-dog Polterpup, Mario, Princess Peach, and some dumb escort Toads going to a haunted hotel. Mario and Peach (and the Toads but no one cares about them) disappear and Luigi has to rescue them and not get pwned by King Boo.

There must be a lot of Day 1 Luigi's Mansion fans from 2001 on GameFAQs, because Luigi's Mansion 3 is the most-anticipated game of October 2019 over here:

Luigi's Mansion 3 with 36.36% of the vote.
Personally, I voted for Ring Fit Adventure, though that got the least number of votes.
Clearly, that's not reflected in Ring Fit Adventure being out-of-stock from many retailers. (I'd know. I tried and failed to get it.)

To my surprise (but still not to my interest), Luigi's Mansion 3 is getting a lot of well-rated reviews from most outlets, with the exception of the FAKE NEWS Washington Post. This time, they're fake news because the top of their review page portrays Luigi's Mansion 3 as looking like this:

Mario Kart Tour and Koopalings as Gacha Incentive

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I hate this BECAUSE I love myself.

I would like to open this article with a snarky paragraph about how Mario Kart Tour is a desperate failure, but that wouldn't be accurate with KoopaTV's Truth mantra. In fact, Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's most successful mobile game launch—by far. There's over 90 million downloads of it. Probably over 100 million by now.

I wish Mario Kart Tour was treated like Fallout 76 by the general population, but I guess not.

To capitalise on this success, Nintendo is doing some kind of Halloween-themed thing that finally brings Luigi (who apparently lost his keys... just like I did) and Waluigi (and Baby Luigi, and King Boo, and King Boo Luigi's Mansion-style, and Rosalina in a Halloween outfit) to Mario Kart Tour.

Meh, who cares.

Well, remember in my one-and-only Mario Kart Tour article a month ago I wrote this bit to describe myself and my as-of-then non-appearance?

“Neither am I [in the game], though I was in the game's beta version. Guess I'll be a future release to try to keep people playing.

Personally, I don't want to be used as a gacha incentive.”  

Well, I'm going to be in as a gacha incentive. I get several seconds to myself in this new trailer:

Frozen II Review: The First Cold Open

By EGYPTIAN KOOPA - I'm not surprised that this exists and neither should you.

Too many people review trailers by watching them again and again. However, many people only see a trailer a few times, and the most lasting impression one leaves on a viewer is from the first time it is seen. As such, I will not review this trailer in the 'normal' way. I'm going to pause after every scene transition and write my feelings on the matter.

With that said...

I have seen Frozen before. It was certainly not as appealing to me as it was to the majority of squealing girls who dressed up as their favorite wintery princess and/or queen that Halloween. Six years later, the trailer for its sequel has arrived, and I have arrived to watch it!

KoopaTV's October 2018 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The biggest site announcement in years. That, and more!

You all want to know winners and rewards and whatever, but I have far more important KoopaTV news to share. So without further self-promotion and filler, here's this header to chomp on:

KoopaTV Is Changing Our Publishing Format and Focus

We have been listening. Not just to you (though that's important), but to one another, and to the Internet as a whole. Demographics are changing. Trends are changing. Our own lives are changing. Sometimes too fast. KoopaTV has strayed quite a bit from its original intention, and I think it's finally time to change course again to get closer to both that intention, and to a product that people might expect from a gaming commentary story like KoopaTV.

Effective Monday November 12, KoopaTV will be changing our publishing schedule. Now it will be appointment reading:

• Monday — Kamek
• Tuesday — RawkHawk2010
• Wednesday — Wendy O. Koopa
• Thursday — Ludwig Von Koopa (me!)
• Friday — Witch Princess

We are also changing our focus in the content formats of our articles. You may have noticed lately that KoopaTV has been promoting streaming gameplay content more. Those aren't random acts on our part. We recognise the variety of ways that Internet people are consuming content — younger generations are afraid of reading words, for example — so our publishing philosophy is now this: if a staffer enjoys making content a certain way, go for it. Don't want to write a blog article but you'd rather stream instead? Go ahead. ...Just write something on KoopaTV to let people know to watch the stream, and put the videos on demand here so people who miss it can still enjoy it.

KoopaTV exists to spread truth & levity about the things we care about. We have a narrative, a story we want to tell, that permeates all site activities. That's not tied to just one particular format.

To make it clear what is what, we'll be introducing a new category to the site — Game Streams, and we'll be retroactively updating previous articles with this new category.

Here's another thing that's changing: If a staffer misses their day and nothing is published on KoopaTV that day... then oh well! It'll just be empty then. Of course, we'd like to have content every weekday, but you know, sometimes things happen. At least you'll know which staffer to track down and yell at.

Some weeks, the schedule might be broken if there is a particularly time-sensitive event, such as something we need a Reaction Log for.

It's a big change, but we want to showcase our other staffers’ diverse talents more. Please understand. ...And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments section. Now, then, onto the next header (which also includes more information about the change!):