Shigeru Miyamoto's Created Cruel Koopa-Killing World

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Shigeru Miyamoto's doublespeak.

There was a recent and extensive interview by publication The New Yorker (not a videogame-focused publication, of course) with Nintendo Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto. Deep-dive interviews like that are relatively rare for him to do. It got a fair bit of attention from Nintendo fans and fan sites when it was published a week ago, and KoopaTV's gonna join in on that today, too!

However, the reason the interview got attention from other people was around Shigeru Miyamoto's remarks on shooting and game design (that shooting mechanics are overcentralising what's popular in games and more designers should come up with alternate ways of fun), as well as his remarks that his videogames are meant to create warm feelings among its players, as opposed to other games on the market (including many others from Nintendo-affiliated studios) putting more attention on exploring sadness, loss, and grief.

While I'm happy with folks reading things Miyamoto says and thinking he's out-of-touch and ought to retire (and for Miyamoto's part, he said Nintendo has basically transitioned a younger generation of directors to work on the games instead of him, while he goes works on theme parks and movies, which WAS something KoopaTV requested some years back), the fans (and to be fair, consistently awful media outlet Nintendo Everything consistently has misleading headlines) have a bit of trouble with reading comprehension. Which will result in said fans having trouble reading any stories with sadness, loss, or grief themes, should they ever encounter them. If they have trouble with those stories due to having trouble reading, that would defeat the point of them mocking Miyamoto's answer in a context that he never addressed, because the question was about him personally, not Nintendo as a whole.

Anyway, I want to address the bit where Shigeru Miyamoto was addressing the idea that it's not okay “to simply kill all monsters.” That's underplayed on other sites. His full quote being:

The Invitees to the "Dark Reunion" Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Event Tourney

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Yet another Christmas party I'm not invited to...

As I foreshadowed a couple of days ago with Sephiroth's release article, starting today (Christmas day) and continuing throughout the weekend is an event online tourney in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Dark Reunion. The event says.. “Muwah hah hah... This time-limited tourney exclusively features fighters who have embraced the darkness.”

Sephiroth is the main attraction and attention-grabber here.
It's never said where these dark dudes all have met before. (That's what a reunion implies.)
Not in any other game, that's for sure. Not even in a GameFAQs character battle.

The nine invited darkness-embracers are Sephiroth, Dark Samus, Dark Pit, Ridley, Ganondorf, Wolf, Bayonetta, Joker, and Meta Knight. What do all of these characters have in common? It doesn't have to do with their morality. Perhaps their edgy aesthetic? They're all affiliated with Dharkon in the World of Light mode. But... what does embracing the darkness mean? Why are a number of characters not invited that you'd think would be? Let's ponder on that together.

CD Projekt Has Possible Class Action Lawsuit Its Way For Deceiving Investors Regarding Cyberpunk 2077

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Good. Lying bastards.

I think I've established on KoopaTV that I don't like frivolous lawsuits filed against gaming companies, like complaining that your kids are addicted to Fortnite and their lives are ruined.

But today, The Rosen Law Firm has filed a lawsuit that they hope to be certified as a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors against CD Projekt, over their lies and materially false information/FAKE NEWS they've been providing to investors throughout 2020 on the progress of Cyberpunk 2077.

If you haven't heard, that game is a “virtually unplayable” buggy disaster on current-generation consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which is what millions of people are trying to play the game on. You can't buy it anymore off the PlayStation store (it's not listed), while Microsoft's has a big warning label that the game has severe performance issues, or, “Users may experience performance issues when playing this game on Xbox One consoles until this game is updated.” CD Projekt was facilitating refunds for a week, which doesn't seem like enough time.

CD Projekt would have to have known about the game's performance issues when they were getting it tested to be certified by Sony and Microsoft, and just because you test games when you develop them on consoles. However, according to the lawsuit, CD Projekt and the company leadership repeatedly made statements in investor calls and financial documents saying that any game performance issues would be minor, with major ones already fixed (they fielded the questions during the game's many delays, the frequency of which concerned investors), and there are no problems with it and nothing wrong. Nothing to worry about. The financial community believed those statements to be true, and inflated CD Projekt's stock prices based on expectations of the game's glory (which I personally never understood). Then the game came out, the problems became immediately known, and the stock collapsed. With it, investors’ fortunes.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Version 10.1 Thoughts, and Challenge Cup December 2020 Results

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm featured in the results, so of course I'll brag about those.

While Sephiroth has been available to any paying customer for several days now if they've completed the Sephiroth Challenge (and my personal best Very Hard record is 11.85 seconds with King Bowser by forward-airing Sephiroth multiple times off stage, though I'm well aware one can do it much faster with the likes of Mii Brawler, Mr. Game & Watch, and Hero), yesterday night marked the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate version 10.1.0, which made Sephiroth available to all paying customers without having to do anything for it, along with a few fighter adjustments that mostly fixed multi-hit moves (the Captain Olimar part is also a bug fix, even though it reads like a whole new move was added), an update that fixed a music selection issue that was the subject of a KoopaTV investigation (and as far as I know, we broke the news first), and a new DLC Spirit Board featuring Final Fantasy VII characters.

Moogle is a cute little White Kirby.
While Bahamut ZERO is a Giant Ridley. (As opposed to the standard TOO BIG Ridley.)

As for Sephiroth himself, he isn't for beginners to the game. Sephiroth isn't a gimmicky character like Min Min or Steve. You need to have a firm grasp of the fundamentals, which includes appropriate spacing and using safe moves, only taking calculated risks. While his Masamune sword is huge and can cover a big space and keep foes out, it's slow to swing around, and slow to do follow-up actions. Same goes with his Flare (neutral B) projectile. Sephiroth's fast moves are his jab, his neutral-air finger snap, and his down-tilt slide move. A good Sephiroth player will try to condition their opponent to making a mistake or a miscalculation, like thinking it's safe to hold down shield (such as to block a Shadow Flare) when the Sephiroth can break the shield with a Down Smash, or run in for a grab.

Eventually, people will learn whether or not it's safe to try to edge-guard Sephiroth. Blade Slash/Octaslash can take a while to charge up, but you don't want to be in a situation where you get hit by Octaslash, since it's quite damaging. (But if Sephiroth lands on the stage or against someone's shield, they're basically stuck in cooldown lag for a whole second, which is an eternity.) We'll eventually also figure out if Sephiroth's hard-to-use nature will pay big rewards, or if he's just not worth it.

Even though I'm pretty good at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (and I'm going to offer evidence of that in a moment), I find Sephiroth quite difficult to use for myself, since he's so unlike the characters I'd normally use. It took a lot more effort than I was budgeting for to get him into Elite Smash.

Simon Blackquill Convicted of Murder of Metis Cykes

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - In unrelated news, the Ace Attorney games are on sale again.

(Los Angeles, California) Rising star prosecutor Simon Blackquill, 21, found himself on the defendant's chair of a Los Angeles courtroom, accused of the October murder of psychologist and mentor Metis Cykes, who worked at the Cosmos Space Center. Mr. Blackquill pled guilty to the murder. There are still unresolved questions, like what caused the HAT-1 Rocket's problems, but those are being investigated separately. Metis's daughter, Athena Cykes, 11, pleaded with the court not to convict Mr. Blackquill, but her courtroom outbursts were disregarded in favour of photographic evidence of Mr. Blackquill's misdeeds, coupled with his confession.

The judge in the Blackquill-Cykes case.
(Courtroom illustration. His identity can't be ascertained from the picture.)

Simon Blackquill was found guilty by the presiding judge and sentenced to death. His actual execution likely won't occur for years to come given options for appeal.

The public seems to be devastated in their reactions to the conviction. Prosecutor Blackquill's conviction follows a series of other prosecutorial and law enforcement misconduct, as well as the disbarment of defence attorney Phoenix Wright earlier in 2019, along with political corruption. Trust in public institutions, especially in the criminal justice system and the legal system, are at an all-time low. It could even be characterised as a dark age of the law.

In unrelated news, over 1500 videogames are on sale on the Nintendo eShop, including CAPCOM's Ace Attorney series. These include $21 off Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies on the Nintendo 3DS, which CAPCOM created based off the real-life events depicted above. (Very quick game development from them.) There are also other games on sale based off other Los Angeles legal matters, like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that is $15 off on the Nintendo Switch. (Based on Phoenix Wright's career prior to being disbarred.)

The CAPCOM sales end on January 5, 2021, at 2:59 AM Eastern.


You should play/buy those Ace Attorney games. The KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 35 is ending soon, and soon is before the CAPCOM sale ends, so you can fund your next purchase(s) using funds from KoopaTV if you make an effort and win.


CAPCOM put their games on sale at the same discounts for winter 2019, though Ace Attorney Trilogy is $5 more off now than then.
Miss the December 2020 sale? How about the January 2021 sale?
There is another CAPCOM Holiday Sale (and eShop sale in general) for the end of December to the start of January in 2021!

Super Mario 35-Year Anniversary "Celebration", and Interview Styles of Reggie Fils-Aime vs. Doug Bowser

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The celebration line is stupid, but that's not unique to Doug Bowser's interview style.

I have been seeing a lot of (bad) comments on social media (and even on KoopaTV's comments section) about Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, and how it looks like he's been doing nothing for the company and is even a malevolent force. These folks miss the point of what presidents do (they're chosen/hired to make decisions, as opposed to being a fountain of memes) with their time. By their very nature, you don't know what they do to run the company unless you work for the company, since companies keep these things secret.

Anyway, there was a very recent Polygon interview with Doug Bowser, where they discussed a variety of topics. The one that's gotten the most attention is the question on why there are so many games and experiences that will disappear on March 31, 2021, including all versions of Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light. Doug Bowser said these are limited to create a sense of “celebration”, which everyone can recognise is a stupid answer that isn't applied to any other anniversary going on, including ones previously done by Nintendo, and parallel anniversaries like the 30th anniversary of the SaGa series with COLLECTION of SaGa FINAL FANTASY LEGEND from Square Enix. When pressed by the Polygon interviewer (and props for the follow-up question), Mr. Bowser said the decision was made and he can't speak more about it.

Now, that's different than saying he personally made the decision (he didn't), but he's just responding to the interview with the messaging that he's been given. You'd have to go to Nintendo's Japanese executives to have a chance to figure out the real reason.

However, litigating why things are disappearing on March 31, 2021 is not the real purpose of this article. (It's a dumb policy, and I'll maintain the purpose of it is to create a fear-of-missing-out effect, or you could call it a time-limited offer, that not-coincidentally ends when Nintendo's fiscal year ends, to financially soften their lack of a holiday blockbuster.) I want to combat the people (and they exist, this isn't a strawman) who are all “if former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was interviewing, or if Reggie was in charge, none of these things we don't like would happen!” Or, “at least Reggie is putting on a good public face. What has Doug Bowser done? He's so awkward.” Let's go back to some of Reggie's interviews, which I found looking through time-bound search engines for Reggie Fils-Aime interviews, without looking for any specific moment. In other words, this is randomly representative:

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to the Super Nintendo World Direct!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring tour guide Shigeru Miyamoto.

A few weeks ago, KoopaTV reported that Nintendo's theme park—built and operated by Universal Parks and Resorts—would be opening in Japan on February 4, 2021. We discussed some of the sights you'd see there, along with the precautions that the park operators and you (if you'd visit the park) would take when it comes to sight-seeing during a pandemic.

Nintendo obviously wants us to talk about this even more, so they set up a special Super Nintendo World Direct, hosted by Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo's head Creative Fellow and a man that we're not on friendly terms with). They promised no game announcements. Just the theme park. Alright, we'll do that. We'll play by those rules, and live-react to the Direct. Just a warning, though, by Nintendo, they mean one specific place. We'd want it called Super Koopa World, but some plumbers show up...

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to Mr. Sakurai Presents "Sephiroth"

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Estuans interius ira vehementi estuans interius ira vehementi... Sephiroth. Sephiroth!

There were only very few things that wasn't a snoozefest at The Game Awards 2020 last week, and Sephiroth being the next downloadable content character to be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was at the top of the list of good things. ...It's a very short list, but still, he's at the top.

One week after that, and series director Masahiro Sakurai is back in the studio and wishes to give us probably the best presentation he's ever delivered... at least for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC. Take a watch, and check out our live reactions:

Steam and GOG (Valve and CD Projekt) Are Pawns of the Chinese Communist Party

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - So are many other members of the gaming industry, by the way.

There are two main ways that multinational corporations can display their weakness and lack of meaningful values: Manufacture their goods/source their supply chain from mainland China (where enslaved ethnic minorities produce the products), and sell their goods in mainland China, subject to the censorship demands from the Chinese Communist Party. Mixed in this is working directly with Chinese companies and perhaps being bought out by them.

The videogame industry is increasingly doing all of the above (to either reduce costs or increase revenues), and it's incredibly important for gamers to oppose this growing trend and try to reverse it. While some of your idiot politicians on Earth may be distracting you by making it seem like Russia is the planet's local boogeyperson, it's really China. Only China has the unique combination of expansionist goals, a murderous ideology that they want to spread, total disregard for human rights, and other nations actually bending over backwards to accommodate them because of their fast-growing economy (fueled by the innovations of other nations that the Chinese are stealing without consequence).

Which brings us to Devotion, the horror game made by Taiwanese game developer Red Candle Games, also known for horror game Detention (also on the Switch). I'm not into horror stuff, so I can't speak to the quality of the games, but people who do like the horror genre (like Samantha Lienhard, who reviewed Detention here) think those games are great.

But you won't be able to try Devotion right now, specifically, because it was removed from Valve's Steam platform back in early 2019 over a massive outcry from upset Chinese thugs over a reference to Chinese Communist Party authoritarian Xi Jinping. Take a look at an image we won't censor, even if a mob of Chinese communists swarms KoopaTV:

Nintendo's Faux Shared Commitment to Safer Online Gaming

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm calling out some blatant falsehoods.

At the beginning of this week, Nintendo rolled out their “Shared Commitment to Safer Gaming” principles, with their press release making it seem like a big unifying moment between them and Sony and Microsoft. While I'm not too familiar with what Sony has to say, Microsoft was ahead of Nintendo by over a year and a half on this.

Reading through their statement, Nintendo is saying a lot of general, vague platitudes that aren't surprising to anyone. They are, in fact, so general and broad and company-agnostic, that when one thinks of their own Nintendo Switch experience, one will realise that Nintendo's principles aren't actually being done in practice. Specifically, their responsibility section.

In terms of the claim that Nintendo “ensure[s] that players who have been reported understand the requirements for continued engagement with our platforms”, Nintendo doesn't properly communicate to players why stuff disappears, or why Nintendo takes the moderation actions they do. And just based on Miiverse's moderation bungles (most obviously censoring discussion on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney's Turnabout Trump case, though I'd say the two bans I got weren't deserved), it's hard to say that Nintendo had “skilled human oversight” at work there. But maybe things have changed in the years following?

The biggest problem is when Nintendo repeatedly says things like, “We partner with our community to promote safe gaming behavior and encourage the use of reporting tools to call out bad actors.” and “We make it easy for players to report violations of our code of conduct[.]” It's actually really hard to report someone online for Nintendo games. While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has an in-game reporting system, Splatoon 2 does not. While you can report posts made in the square, you can't report people from there.

Can you report people from looking at their Nintendo Switch system profile, say, by finding them via Search for Users You Played With?