KoopaTV's Nintendo Direct January 14, 2015 Live Reactions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We rated it Splatoon/10.

It is the first Nintendo Direct of 2015, and also the first KoopaTV Reaction Log of 2015, as well. For those who haven't joined us for one of these before, KoopaTV periodically live-reacts to important events within our [Koopa Keep] AIM Blast chat room, such as every Nintendo Direct. You are invited to watch the event and read our comments as the event happens! (Time-stamps are provided to assist you, of course.)

I'm Nintendork 13 13, by the way. Rawk is himself. That's all you get.

There is also this Bandai Namco dude who wears sunglasses indoors. Guess it is pretty bright outside.

Nintendo Sponsors APEX 2015; Becomes Largest Melee and Smash 4 Tournament Ever

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - So about Super Smash Bros. Melee dying...

According to the APEX 2015 registration website, the registered member totals are as follows (as of publishing):

Super Smash Bros. Melee 1v1 Total: 1025
Super Smash Bros. Brawl 1v1 Total: 174
Super Smash Bros. 4 1v1 Total: 828
Super Smash Bros. 64 1v1 Total: 188
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire VGC total: 83
Ultra Street Fighter IV 1v1 Total: 101
Guilty Gear Xrd 1v1 Total: 50
Killer Instinct 1v1 Total: 24
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 1v1 Total: 39

For those who don't know what the APEX tournament is, it started as a dedicated Super Smash Bros. tournament that expanded to include other games. Obviously from what you can see from those numbers, it still has a very strong Smash Bros. bent. As you can imagine, those are huge numbers. You can thank some of those numbers, no doubt, to the high pot bonuses. You can also thank Nintendo for officially sponsoring it.

This is, of course, after Nintendo sponsored another fighting game tournament, EVO 2014. This is continuing Nintendo's stance of approving of the competitive Super Smash Bros. community.

So is all swell in the world of competitive players?

2015 Starts Dim for the 'Zim

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Welcome to ZimmermanTV, home of Zimmerman Kart.

It's a new year, and George Zimmerman is still here. The last time we saw him and didn't just make a passing reference, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS just came out and George Zimmerman's civil rights lawsuit was called off by the Justice Department. Well, I guess that might be inaccurate information, or perhaps it doesn't even matter.

What difference, at this point, does it make?

George Zimmerman got arrested. ...Again. On aggravated assault for throwing a wine bottle at a girlfriend. ...A different girlfriend. Who is different from his ex-wife. His lawyer, Don West (the same Don West from his trial), said,

"It's clear he hasn't been very lucky with the ladies the last few months."

To be fair, the dude is able to get girlfriends. That's a lot more than some of us can claim. If you're a woman and you're reading this, would you want to date Zimmerman? (Ignore that he's 31 now if that's too old for you.) Stick with nice guys! (Which also wouldn't include us, I guess.)

Zimmerman was in court on January 10, and the wine bottle-throwing incident happened on January 5th. The unidentified girlfriend told the police about it when she was undergoing a traffic stop. Perhaps she made up the story so she wouldn't get a traffic ticket?

George Zimmerman entering passenger-side into the Zimmobile. Different than the car used in his road rage incident.

Rush Limbaugh: Videogamers Are the Least Successful Among Us

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Can't agree with you on everything, buddy.

Rush Limbaugh is a cool guy. He's totally a blowhard and the definitive right-wing radio talkshow host. According to Al Sharpton, he's the leader of the Republican Party. If that's the case, then we might run into some issues. 

Oh, full disclosure: The only radio host I listen to regularly is Herman Cain. However, just for this article, which I wrote back in early 2014, I've listened to almost 6 months worth of Rush Limbaugh's 3-hour program at 12 PM EST every day. I wanted to make sure I was educated on what I was writing about before I published it. It turns out Mr. Limbaugh has the same "you have to read several articles/tune into the show many times before you get it" type thing KoopaTV does! Did you know he has children's books?

"Some people don't play video games. [...] Those people get ahead of the others." - Rush Limbaugh in January, 2014

Puzzle & Dragons on Nintendo: Quite Puzzling Indeed

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What is this game doing here?

Have you ever played Puzzle & Dragons on a mobile device before? If the answer is no, or you're like us and have never heard of this game before, it's apparently super-popular in Japan. As in, 40 million downloads worldwide with most of them being in Japan, thanks to its free-to-play set-up (the money comes from micro-transactions). It's some sort of puzzler (Bejeweled) RPG from GungHo Online Interactive that is pretty much exclusive to smartphones, but there was a 3DS spin-off called Puzzle & Dragons Z that is priced like normal games are. Apparently that game is stuck in Japan though, with people crying out for it to be localised like people do with Mother 3 or Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Still, the mobile version is available in America, although it's apparently not able to catch the same popularity as the Japanese version.

Why do we care about this at all? Well, today there is an announcement that they're teaming up with Nintendo to release Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition for April 29, 2015 in Japan. Now before we freak out about that plumber deceptively trying to lure you into free-to-play, it appears as if it will cost money up-front.

This says the price is 4,000 yen for both physical and download, excluding tax.

Koopasentai

By RAWKHAWK2010 - Also, I'm back.

KoopaTV finally has its own advertisement video. Watch it below.

As the video implies, I'm back as a full-time staff member of KoopaTV! I would like to take the Best Non-Ludwig KoopaTV Poster award for myself, now.

Koopasentai!

Update 11/29/2016: The video content for this article has been mysteriously deleted and thus appropriately substituted. Please understand.
Update 7/14/2017:  Koopasentai is BACK! Now literally completely different, with actual aesthetic flair and no regard for chronologics.

That "Future KoopaTV Staff Member" could be you. Check out the KoopaTV Jobs page for more information.

KoopaTV needed a new video, especially since Koopasentai is filled with that .blogspot.com stuff. So we made one. And it's much more listenable.

Rawk leaves again.
Rawk made another -sentai video, this time featuring five Toads that look a lot like our staff...
Rawk rage-deleted his YouTube in November 2016 and Koopasentai 1.0 was one of the few vids not backed up.
The NEW Koopasentai takes inspiration from KoopaTV Adventures.

Choice Texas: Now Fully Playable!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It actually came out in one piece.

For all of the times I declared Choice: Texas to be aborted and their Indiegogo campaign contributors screwed, they came through right before 2014 ended and released the entire game. That's all five women's stories! But not just the women... but also the stories of the babies they are pregnant with, and sometimes the fathers of those babies, and even their families.

Five stories all with several different endings!

You can now play all five in any order.

For those of you who don't know about Choice: Texas (which was nominated for Best PC Game of 2014) and haven't followed the four articles I've written about it (which were nominated for best article series of 2014), you can... read the description on their site (also replicated in the screenshot above). That's also where you can play, of course.

But in my own words, it's a series of narrative trees about amalgamations of Texas women having kids that they did not plan for. You get to choose what the women do (assuming the option was written for it) and they all have varying circumstances to make things interesting.

KoopaTV 2014 GOTY Awards!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Game of THAT Year for 2014... and other awards!

On Friday, KoopaTV laid out our nominations for the 2014 Game of THAT Year award, along with other categories like Best KoopaTV Article, Best OST, and Worst KoopaTV Comment.

Over the weekend, our staff had intense debates on who should win, with some categories getting much more intense than others. And we couldn't "SETTLE IT IN SMASH" either. ...Well, I guess if we did, that would just mean everything I personally wanted to win would win. It's no secret I'm the best on the staff at Super Smash Bros., after all.

Speaking of which, did Super Smash Bros. For 3DS or Super Smash Bros. For Wii U win anything? You'll have to read on and find out, because you may be surprised.

KoopaTV's 2014 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

These were decided and talked about in our [Koopa Keep] AOL Instant Messenger Blast. Behold!

...Yeah, sorry for the déjà vu from last year. This time, we have different categories since, you know, the year is different than 2013! It's 2014! (To be eligible, these have to be a thing from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014.)

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

You might think the last category, "Worst KoopaTV Comment"  is really "Best KoopaTV Comment" if the goal is to make you laugh hysterically...

A picture to make this sharable. Our articles haven't had pictures in 'em for a few days...

KoopaTV's December 2014 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Solving problems with just one word.

Now with the word "review" in the title, people won't be confused as to the nature of this series of articles, right? ...Or should it be "Newsletter Review"? Well, I'm not reviewing newsletters here, I'm writing one!

While this newsletter may not be jam-packed, KoopaTV's December 2014 sure was! As promised or implied, it was one article after another of amazing stuff. You know, like last year.

And even if you just read KoopaTV for the amusing behind-the-scenes goings-on between our staff, there was stuff for you this month, with more than one staff shake-up!

So as usual, here are my top five recommended articles from that month, in chronological order. One of them shouldn't surprise you:

1. Taking Down Sarkeesian's Victim Culture Once And For All!
2. Microsoft and Sony's Racial Obsessions
3. Madden Curse Movie: CANCELED!?
4. North Korean antics leave Sony out in the cold this Christmas
5. Play DEFEND ANITA SARKEESIAN right here!

As usual, we got more and more great stuff comin' up in the pipeline, or at least in my head. But first, we got Game of THAT Year to take care of, startin' tomorrow. So be around for that, okay?

By the way, every article on the site is worth reading. All nearly 450 of 'em. This being the first for 2015!

I sort of doubt that Defend Anita Sarkeesian will take up as much resources to promote and be a big thing like Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, since Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! was considered critical to the KoopaTV message and Defend Anita Sarkeesian isn't. (After all, it wasn't even our idea.)

We don't have any ideas for 2015's KoopaTV game... although you wouldn't see it until after the second half of 2015, right?


KoopaTV thrives only when you help share it around, so do your part!


For last month's review, click here.
For next month's review, and the first one of 2015, click here.
For the review of December 2013, click here.
How about the last of 2015, December? Click here.