Kwanzaa is Cultural Appropriation

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Kwanzaa should bother you. Here's some food for thought.

Have you ever heard of Kwanzaa? It is a holiday that starts today. I have a lot of problems with it.

I (and the rest of the KoopaTV staff) recently came back from our quarterly meeting taking place at our Sierra Leone headquarters. If you're geography-challenged, Sierra Leone is a great, small country in West Africa.

Those two paragraphs have a lot to do with one another, so let me explain what Kwanzaa is, what I take issue with, and how my experience having our headquarters in Sierra Leone influences my perspective.

Kwanzaa Basics

Kwanzaa was started by controversial American Black Power activist Maulana Karenga, a guy who is still alive since he was born in 1941. When he was born, his name was Ronald Everett. He invented Kwanzaa as an alternative to Christmas during the Civil Rights era, in 1966. (Then he got arrested for domestic violence/torture five years later and went to prison, but hey, that's off-topic.)

Every year, Kwanzaa begins the day after Christmas on December 26, and lasts for seven days until January 2. Kwanzaa has seven different principles — Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith.

Kwanzaa days are celebrated by lighting candles on the seven-pronged Kinara. Then families discuss the day's principle in I assume is an unscripted dialogue.

Ludwig's Order of Unlocks in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Random? Not random? Let's see. Either way, marvel at me!

As much as I would've liked it, the idea that you could use amiibo to instantly unlock characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was FAKE NEWS.

Therefore, you're going to have to unlock over 60 characters legitimately through fighting them, since you begin with only Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Kirby, Link, Pikachu, Fox, and Samus. I know that my mains aren't in that batch of characters, so unlocking is very necessary for me. But how are characters unlocked in this game? It appears by completing VS. Mode matches, Classic Mode outings, playing the Spirit Board... basically doing anything where you pick one character from the selection menu and do one fight. (But not online play, or something like Squad Strike.)

From what the staff has shared amongst one another, and from what I've been reading from others, the process first appeared to be semi-random but people came up with a flowchart I haven't looked at since it makes me feel bad for writing this as content. I figure it would at least be somewhat educational and informative (and hopefully interesting) if I document my unlock order for you, and under what circumstances.

You can note the date I unlock things, and you can figure out which characters I used in my first weekend against the other staffers.

Unlocks with pictures are characters I'll play as. As of July 21, fixed incompetent list item HTML to make the list render correctly.

Holiday Season: Family or Friends? A Splatfest

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A... “Frosty Fest”? Mind if I don't refer to it as that?

We just had a Splatfest article two weeks ago, I know. Blame Nintendo for this. Don't worry, I'll make this brief.

In almost two weeks from now (the entire weekend of January 4–6, 2019... yeah, it's a 48-hour Splatfest), Inkopolis Square residents will fight about who they want to spend their holidays with. It's taking place after the holidays so people won't have to remember what they did last year — they can use very recent memory to make their decision!

“Who do you get most excited to spend the holidays with? Your family or your friends?”

This is the conversation that went on in the KoopaTV private Discord between Rawk and I when I was trying to decide which team to be on. It's a pretty good summary of the whole situation:

Giving UPS A Second Chance To Give Sennheiser Headset A Second Chance

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - As you'll read, their shipping practices may have improved, but their cardboard boxes? Dangerous.

Ever since my famous article a year ago chronicling my experience with the shipping company UPS and how they kept my amiibo hostage, I've been trying to avoid them both personally and professionally. Especially now during the November–December holiday season when they hire a bunch of clueless temporary employees—which was apparently the cause of the problem I had a year ago.

Unfortunately, bad timing struck me. I didn't mention this in another throwback to an article from a year ago, but along with my new (at the time) gaming PC, I also bought myself a Sennheiser GSP 300 gaming headset. It's served me well for the past year, with great-quality audio (and it's relatively effective in shutting off the world around me) and an okay microphone.

Well, the microphone doesn't work anymore, which just makes the headset a bulkier-than-normal set of headphones. Not great if I want to, say, record audio or voice chat with others while gaming. (And believe me, I do want to record audio. Let's just say there's a voice-acting-related project coming up for KoopaTV before 2018 ends.)

The Sennheiser GSP 300 features a 2-year warranty. I decided to use it and ship it to Sennheiser via their service portal. One slight problem: in order to ship to their Connecticut office, they provide people with a UPS shipping label. The fact that shipping will be conducted via UPS is even in their warranty conditions document. What am I going to do?

Saving the World with Kirby! - A Smash Ultimate Stream

By WENDY O. KOOPA - Lazy Streamer

So I did a stream. On Smash Ultimate. I've been thinking of doing this more regularly. I had to think about it for a while and possibly my own goals as well. Expect more stuff from me and not just streams! :D

We could assume that we're jumping right off the stage...

Watch Wendy trying to fumble her way across the World of Light x)

Overall, I had a lot of fun with the stream. I usually do these at least once on the weekends with extra streams during weekdays if I have time. I have plans to finish my offline screen but definitely expect more Smash!

In other content from me, I'm hoping to get some more entries and possibly more art. (I mean, that's what Ludwig hired me for!)

Here's where you can find me:

I stream mainly on Mixer.

But if you find that you don't like Mixer, or you prefer Twitch, don't worry I stream there too!

I also found another streaming service, called dLive! Pretty neat little (on-stream and off-stream) chat and stream all in one! I would try it out!

Don't be pressured to try all or only one. Rest assured, I will be streaming on all three at once!

Please comment as to see what you want to see next after I finish my World of Light run! Any feedback is very much appreciated!


Does this means we get to see more of Wendy in action? Stay tuned to find out!

The CAPCOM Winter Sale, 2018

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We're going to plug Ace Attorney AND something else!

We didn't even talk about Black Friday or Cyber Monday on KoopaTV this year, because of that bad publishing schedule we had in November because Ace Attorney didn't have a presence in terms of discounting.

I'm happy to announce that from a couple of days ago to pre-noon on January 2, 2019, CAPCOM is hosting their CAPCOM Winter Sale for 2018! And Ace Attorney has big discounts for three of the games on the 3DS:

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.

In terms of discounts, the deals are exactly the same as the Ace Attorney Franchise Sale back in October. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is $9.99 (50% off); Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is $11.99 (60% off), and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is $8.99 (70% off).

This time, Ōkami HD is also being discounted at 25% off, or $15 total. I highly recommend it so you can play a real The Legend of Zelda game on the Switch instead of the fake one currently there. (And I'm not even referencing Hyrule Warriors.)

There are a bunch of Monster Hunter games on sale but not Monster Hunter Stories. For that, you'll need to have your birthday in December so it can be a Just For You offer, at a 30% discount.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy on 3DS got snubbed in this CAPCOM sale. Perhaps CAPCOM doesn't want to discount it now, since the trilogy will be released on home consoles in “early 2019.” They're holding the details about that rather closely, but we'll bring you any news whenever it happens. We love Ace Attorney that much.

As for you, don't be like Franziska von Karma and dismiss what is on sale. Buy all of the Ace Attorney games you can at this amazing discount, because you never know if it'll happen again!

“Don't you Americans enjoy doing whatever you like and then simply say, 'Whatever!'?”
Be a better American than what Franziska takes you for. Alternatively, don't be an American at all.

Maybe Ludwig should actually buy some of the Mega Man Legacy Collection games, since he notably hasn't played Mega Man 8, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10; or any Mega Man X game after X3. He also hasn't bought Mega Man 11 but he has a specific reason for that. Go lobby him in the comments section.


The previous Winter Sale was in... 2016? Where'd 2017 go?
It turns out that CAPCOM would immediately discount Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy after the Winter Sale ended.
CAPCOM declares a CAPCOM Publisher Sale in May 2019.
Here's the CAPCOM Winter Sale of 2019. Ludwig has bought Mega Man 11 by then.

Mario Brutally Murders Petey Piranha (and people still play Mario Tennis Aces online)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This brutality is so shocking that even I'm stunned enough to write about it.

Originally I was going to write a light article about how Mario Tennis Aces was nice while it lasted, but now it's completely dead after the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and no one cares about the latest content patch from the end of November (version 2.1.0) — a shame because if you look at the patch notes, you'll see that the update actually overhauled the game.

However, it turns out that the game sold over two million copies, and at least some of those people are still playing it. I found matches in the online tournament mode within 1–3 minutes, including the entire new doubles class tournament from round 1 to final. (Even if it featured what appeared to be one player controlling two characters simultaneously, one per Joy-Con, and that particular player was on both sides of the bracket.)

I also found a match in the single player tournament, which enabled me to unlock Petey Piranha!

Petey Piranha is giggling now, ready to prove his worth on the tennis field in normal non-boss-fight matches.
“You can now use Petey Piranha, who was a participation bonus for the online tournament!”

 
Petey Piranha, after seeing Piranha Plant get a lot of attention in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, wanted to preempt the availability of that DLC with some tennis action. After all, Mario Tennis Aces is designed as a fighting game to help prepare Nintendo Switch players for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so Petey Piranha is appearing in Mario Tennis Aces to help prepare Nintendo Switch players for a playable Piranha Plant (with a Petey Piranha Final Smash!) in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Makes perfect sense until something truly grotesque occurred.

Discuss: A Year Since the FCC's Net Neutrality Vote

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - KoopaTV was the only site not trying to fearmonger.

I am not big into the whole anniversary thing, and I've supported an article questioning the concept of time itself. That said, a year (and a weekend) is generally enough for people to consider the consequences of an action, and know if it was good or bad, right? I know KoopaTV's audience isn't “generally” but... well, more on that shortly.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States voted a year ago on December 14 to eliminate Title II regulation of Internet Service Providers. KoopaTV supported the action and wrote a long, detailed primer as to why you should support it, too. Pretty much every other gaming site out there, along with nearly every other media outlet, was writing articles and even producing videos and comics (a bit outside my budget) about how you had to “save the Internet” by sending death threats or signing petitions against FCC chairman Ajit Pai and the other FCC members.

KoopaTV, of course, received quite a bit of ridicule from members of the general public who read that article. According to them, we were acting against our own interests. We were supporting the destruction of the Internet. We'll have to pay ISPs to play online games. (No, we're just paying the console manufacturer instead.)

My Nintendo Birthday Offer, 2018

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I didn't take advantage of previous years. How about 2018?

Hot tip: Right now, you can go, without logging into anything, to birthday.nintendo.com and download this delicious Kirby wallpaper in four different sizes, including a mobile-looking vertical one.

(There are also wallpapers for Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, and
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but this is the only one made especially for birthdays.)

 

As you should know, December is my birth month. Nintendo wants to make people feel like they care about your life, so when you register for a My Nintendo account, they take information like your birthday (which they ask for to see if you're an underaged child) and then sometimes use that information to personalise communications to you. That said, how personalised was this e-mail they sent to me?

Kirby Star Allies Review — Complete Version

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The allies may be stars, but is Kirby Star Allies a shining star of the system?

We made a fairly big deal about the release of Kirby Star Allies when it released for the Nintendo Switch back in March of this year. Since then, Kirby Star Allies has had three substantive updates, adding new game modes, experiences, and content.

I think it's now worth writing a full review of the entire Kirby Star Allies game experience, since I initially refused to write a review until the game was actually complete.

Between the game's release and now, I've accumulated over 105 hours in the game, and have 100% completed everything (100%'ed Story Mode, gone through all the characters in Guest Star mode, all the hearts in Heroes in Another Dimension, completed all of the puzzles in the gallery) with the exception of the very final difficulty mode in The Ultimate Choice. I've gotten... close! But I don't feel that finishing that would impact the rest of this review.

My review won't have spoilers in it, but I also count anything in Nintendo's marketing materials as not a spoiler. Be careful of that. 

The title screen of Kirby Star Allies on its final version: 4.0.0. I'll be reviewing this version for you.

Fast Facts

Name

Kirby Star Allies

Console

Nintendo Switch

Publisher/Developer

Published by Nintendo

Developed by HAL Laboratory

Genre

Action Platformer

Space Required

3.9 GB via game download

1.0 GB via physical game with updates

ESRB rating

E10+, featuring cartoon violence

Number of Players

Minimum of one, supports co-operative play of up to four players. Local multiplayer only

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price

59.99 USD

Demo?

Demo available on the eShop with two levels. Read a write-up of that here.