Capcom Showcase 2022 Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Announcement of an announcement of an announcement... the showcase!

For what I'm pretty sure is the last of our recent rash of reaction logs, it's time for CAPCOM to go up!

I'm the only KoopaTV staffer that showed up, specifically because I didn't beg the other staffers to show up and react with me. I didn't think they'd be as interested and committed as I am to this information. I'm right, of course. But let's see if YOU are. ...Ah, well, save that for the comments section. Immediately below is how interested I ended up being. Check out my reactions:

[5:50 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enX2Ysw1GHE
CAPCOM in ten minutes.
[6:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: COUNTDOWN
[6:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: YOO PHOENIX WRIGHT SHADOW
[6:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (That'll probably it)

Spoiler alert: This is the only Ace Attorney content in the whole showcase.
Oh well, I guess it wasn't sustainable after E3 2021 was almost all dedicated to it.

Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 Live Reactions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Hey, it's the closest thing to regular E3 order.

Even though E3 2022 doesn't exist this year (and the illegitimate hodge-podge of events under Geoff Keighley doesn't count), one of the mainstay sponsors of it, Microsoft, still did a digital event of game announcements on the second Sunday of June at 13:00 Eastern, JUST like they did at E3 2021. So they're ready either way.

In terms of KoopaTV staff readiness to react to the 90+ minutes of presentation material, we have myself and occasionally Heavy Lobster reacting in text below this embed of the event.

[12:39 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.twitch.tv/xbox

~22 minutes until the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022!
[12:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: 5 minutes!
[12:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (I dunno why they're starting at 13:02 and not 13:00.)
[1:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Crud I spilled my milk.

SLEEP 2022: The Most Important Conference This Week!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Let's see what we can learn from what's out there with these ten highlighted studies.

From June 4 to June 8 this year was SLEEP 2022, which is an annual meeting that was in Charlotte North Carolina with the Associated Professional Sleep Societies; the plural societies consisting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. (SLEEP doesn't appear to be an acronym for anything, despite being in all-capital letters.) This conference is where thousands of “sleep professionals” from around the world go and share their research in presentations or on posters in the poster hall. There was also a PJ5K where scientists wear family-appropriate pajamas in a 5K run where proceeds go to the aforementioned societies. Here's an example of a poster from the poster hall:

Umm! Hands down my fave poster at #SLEEP2022. More of dis plz! pic.twitter.com/NVtgsSVVac

— Kat Kennedy (@sphynxkennedy) June 6, 2022

I am an honourary member and fan of Team Sleep—I went all the way to Europe to talk about the Eating vs. Sleeping Splatfest in the first Splatoon just to promote the virtues and benefits of sleeping. (Unfortunately, European gamers strongly favoured eating by popularity, though sleepers had a better performance in matches. Apparently, there is an EAT Forum, but I won't talk about them.) However, this is a conference of slumber-focused researchers and medical professionals... not just casual sleep enjoyers. If you (assuming you're KoopaTV's usual audience, which I believe does not involve anyone in the sleep field—hey, maybe I should ask about sleep in the next KoopaTV Feedback Form and/or Quiz; and maybe you reading this can fill out the current one) wanted to register, it'd cost you hundreds of dollars and you'd be really out of place.

Therefore, I didn't actually attend any sessions. There is this 409-page PDF of 864 research abstracts. According to this, there were 196 orally presented abstracts (at least one of them discussed how “sleep is a social justice issue.”, while at least another reiterated the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's support for permanent standard time, as opposed to the permanent daylight saving time Sunshine Protection Act that passed the Senate three months ago), and therefore 668 posters like the above (as well as topics like “Leadership and Compensation Disparity For Women in Sleep Medicine”... though that's not in the list of 864 abstracts—the icebreakers one was abstract #0157). HOWEVER, there were several (ten!) news items published by SLEEP 2022 that each represented a study at the event. I'll discuss those for the rest of this article to pass on some of what transpired at the conference and increase YOUR knowledge around sleeping.

Devolver Direct 2022 | KoopaTV's Reactions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Videogame Singularity.

We didn't expect to do this, which is why these aren't really “live” reactions. 'cause we missed it happening altogether. Honestly, I didn't know that Devolver Digital was doing a thing this year due to the lack of E3, and me being tuned out by the major fake E3 replacement.

But, sure, after last year's Devolver Digital presentation where I rated their presentation above trash tier compared to other companies, I'd be delighted to watch what they're doing again! So I coordinated with fellow KoopaTV staffer Kamek on an even time (one that ended in :00 to make it easier for you guys to follow along our time-stamps with where in the video we are) to watch the video-on-demand replay of what Devolver Digital had to show. And... um... it was quite interesting. ...Though I ought to tell you that it immediately starts off in a vulgar way.

Anyway, follow along with our reactions below:

Xenoblade Chronicles Fans Broke the Nintendo Store?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I didn't think they had it in them.

I still think of the Xenoblade Chronicles fanbase as small but very vocal, since their games are relatively poor selling for what the Nintendo Switch is capable of. (They won't like that I said that.) Regardless, Nintendo branches across the world have this Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition up for pre-order. Here's how it started.

Take a look at the #XenobladeChronicles3 Special Edition, which will launch exclusively on the My Nintendo Store!

Stay tuned for more info on when pre-orders will open. pic.twitter.com/BJ8uIo19vI

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 19, 2022

Staying tuned for more info brings us to this week in June and today. Pre-orders are now live! Two per user, exclusively on store.nintendo.com.

Pre-purchase for the #XenobladeChronicles3 Special Edition is now live! Use the link below to pre-order at My Nintendo Store.https://t.co/yJhNq6BN9p https://t.co/G0hsOolc9i

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 8, 2022

Oh, well, yikes.

Right now the Nintendo Store is broken for everyone, even if you try to go to something non-Xenoblade Chronicles-related.

So... y'all broke it for everyone. And apparently you might all break it later? Hmph. Where did you all multiply from?

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 releases July 29.

Pre-purchase of the Special Edition will be made available again at a later date. An update will be provided once that timing is determined.

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 9, 2022

Weirdos. ...Ludwig was supposed to write another article earlier about how this My Nintendo Store is actually new and discuss notable things about it. Hasn't happened yet.


A couple of weeks later, Nintendo actually gave information on Xenoblade Chronicles 3 with a Direct.

Alright, maybe Sonic Frontiers IS the next "Breath of the Wild"?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, so far it looks even more boring and worse in every way!

Today, SEGA. had a “Sonic Central” presentation that... isn't worth your while. At the end, they said to head to IGN if you want information on Sonic Frontiers, which is the game that many people think is trying to be like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild... I've said that, at the time of about half a year ago, it was too early to know what was going on with it.

Well, IGN has a trio (so far—they promise Sonic Frontiers content all month) of Sonic Frontiers videos so far. There is seven minutes of “World Premiere Gameplay” that involves Sonic aimlessly traversing a massive but quite empty field, six and a half minutes of “Combat Gameplay” which is as thrilling as Sonic spamming special attacks in a Super Smash Bros. game (not fun at all), and then eight minutes of semi-editorialised “The First Hands-On Impressions” that also includes quotes from the developers. For example, from Takashi Iizuka (Creative Officer at Sonic Team):

“Open world games like Zelda or other AAA games fundamentally have RPG or adventure worlds, for Sonic, the core here is a 3D action game. Our basic idea was to have that take place in an open space. What sets Sonic Frontiers apart is this different approach to an open game world.”

They really want to make a difference between “open world” and “open zone”, making the open zone more of a playground to interact with... empty space, and randomly placed unnatural objects like springs and grind-rails. I don't know how this is different than normal open world stuff, but I guess basic movement seems faster (and the world has to be bigger to accommodate how much faster you can travel through the space).

An Overwhelming Mario Strikers: Battle League First Kick Experience

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - There's a lot of real-time micro-management I don't think I can handle.

Over the weekend, Nintendo really wanted you to try out the Mario Strikers: Battle League First Kick demo—even offering an additional one-week free trial of Nintendo Switch Online (beyond the standard one-week free trial). So I did. And lots of other people.

First, I went through the trainings/tutorials, because with the First Kick demo, the actual playing the game part is locked to online multiplayer, and that was only at a few, specific one-hour time slots throughout the weekend. The tutorials are structured in a way where a tutorial robot named Fútbot with the Galactic Strikers Federation (I suppose it's a galaxy-based sport because Rosalina is present?) teaches you the controls to an input or several inputs, and you practice doing that. Then you have to practice those inputs in a limited-time “match” three times each. I managed to do this except for the advanced techniques involving “perfect” versions of all of the inputs that was the second-to-last tutorial. Being able to do all of those inputs in three minutes is pretty much a luck-based mission, and after two tries, I said screw it. The fact these timed inputs exist in the game seems superfluous and makes it more complicated than it should be.

But that brings me to how I feel overall: The game is very complicated. If Mario Tennis Aces is a fighting game, then Mario Strikers: Battle League is basically a real-time strategy game. You have to control the movements of four people on the field simultaneously, keep track of your opponents’ positioning, and make intelligent usage of items you pick up, too. Mario Strikers: Battle League is unlike most other Mario sports titles (maybe except Mario Hoops 3-on-3?) where you really need to control several players at once to do well, and constantly be switching between them. You can toggle between Auto and Manual switching; Auto also lets you manually switch with a button press, but smartly gives control to other members on your team depending on what's going on. Manual doesn't do this. Auto is much easier to play with.

Is it a Yoshi egg?
No, it's Toad banging his head against the ground.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are Open Borders... AND Multiplayer?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I conceptually like almost everything but the actual gameplay style they're going for.

On Wednesday, The Pokémon Company International announced the following trailer of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet—the second one we've seen (the first from the end of February). They also announced that Junichi Masuda will be leaving GAME FREAK and will be the Chief Creative Fellow of the Pokémon Company, which is the same rank that Shigeru Miyamoto has at Nintendo. I'd say this strengthens my comparison between Masuda and Miyamoto. (I'm not a fan of either man.)

This change means that Masuda will have creative control/heavy influence over Pokémon as a whole multimedia franchise, as opposed to just game development. It's pretty likely that his influence over the development of Scarlet and Violet is already complete, and it's also somewhat likely that whomever will be producing Pokémon games at GAME FREAK instead of him may share many of his philosophies, so not much may change.

Anyway, speaking of change, here's this second trailer:

PlayStation State of Play June 2, 2022 Live Reactions

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Some unexpected appearances, but mostly animal pictures.

Today, June 2, 2022, KoopaTV staffers (myself, Heavy Lobster, and Witch Princess) live-reacted to Sony's State of Play. This showcased games coming out for the PlayStation 5, the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation VR2, and in one instance, the PC.

Check out our reactions to our collectively least favourite console manufacturer, along with the embedded ~28-minute production below:

[5:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.twitch.tv/playstation

OR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr4PGa1sHFQ
[5:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (I'm picking Twitch, just turn off chat)
[5:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I don't even have milk. I have cold water mixed with apple juice. ...Which is really just diluted apple juice.
[5:59 PM] HeavyLobster: I'm here
[5:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The apple juice is kind of the colour of your, uh... metal?

KoopaTV's May 2022 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Reviewing May so we can generate the power to survive June.

Thank you for being here for KoopaTV's newsletter reviewing May 2022. I think it was a good month, looking back. Do you feel the same way?

Historically around this point in the year, we are supposed to be hyping ourselves up for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which often supplies us with many things to talk about that lasts us for the rest of the year. But... E3 2022 won't be a thing this year, even if the official E3 website still claims it will.

I vow to boycott Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. I don't consider the upcoming events by two of the console publishers to be part of that, but rather Geoff Keighley is trying to absorb something they'd do anyway into his umbrella to make himself look more important. So we'll cover those. And if there is something noteworthy or important that comes out of the Summer Game Fest... we can cover that individual item separately.

Top Five Recommended Experiences of May 2022

KoopaTV's published articles are core to your experience here, and there were many fantastic experiences published during May 2022. Here are just five of them, presented in chronological order. Even if an article isn't listed here, it's worth reading.

1. The 2021 and 2022 20th Anniversary Ace Attorney Orchestra Concert Differences — There are two separate concerts taking place during two separate years that can credibly claim to be 20th anniversary orchestral concerts for the Ace Attorney series—this article has a table and associated analysis of the different songs played between them.
2. KoopaTV's Nine-Year Anniversary, and a Free Speech Commitment — KoopaTV turned nine during May 2022, and wrote about how the number nine is associated with free speech, and how free speech is very much tied to KoopaTV's core philosophies.
3. About Authority in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and why Micaiah should've gotten Authority Stars — An in-depth view at the Authority Star mechanic in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and how it ties gameplay and story together... except for the miss of not giving any Authority Stars to the (arguably) main character.
4. What Got the Maddest Turtle of All Time so Mad — KoopaTV's World Turtle Day 2022 article features a viral video of a tortoise headbutting a human leather shoe. We theorise on why that tortoise did so, and it aligns nicely with several key themes we've been communicating to you for years.
5. Mario Got Smashed in the Face by a Strike Ball — What initially appears to be satisfying gratification of a Strike Ball landing on Mario's face in a Mario Strikers: Battle League commercial reveals a key insight into the relationship between Mario and Princess Peach.

By the way, when that Authority Stars article was originally published, I mentioned that I was working on publishing a video featuring Skrimir (who has two Authority Stars) and his green unit forces clear the prologue map of the third part all by themselves, without assistance from the player's forces, the Greil Mercenaries. I've now updated that article with the link to that video.