One Year Later: Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The gaming world took by punch.

Did you know that this week was the one-year anniversary of Punch-Out!! Week? One of the best weeks in KoopaTV history from a content perspective. Every article that week was about the Punch-Out!! series or incorporated it in some way. 

It all ended with KoopaTV's pride and joy, Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!! Play it for free exclusively at KoopaTV!


So as a really bad tribute to Punch-Out!! Week, I've forcefully inserted references to Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! in the other four articles from this week. Did you notice?

In case you forgot, this DID win PC Game of THAT Year 2013.

We've covered a tremendous amount of Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! here. We've produced not only the game, but an advertisement video, strategy guides, and even a behind-the-scenes perspective on the origins of the game, which also included an analysis of some of the controversial themes in it. Later up in this article, we'll present yet more coverage of the game, so keep reading. (I'm not reproducing links to those things because they are all in the main Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! page.)

Smash Ain't No Joke — But Little Mac Became One

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - There's more to Little Mac than being a For Glory meme.

It breaks my heart that Little Mac, a character that I was more hyped for to finally join Super Smash Bros. 4 than even myself, has had a net drop in reputation since he got in.

Don't get me wrong: I still love Little Mac (...not romantically, o-of course!). But I get the feeling he's widely disrespected by most other people, especially if they know him from Super Smash Bros. 4. 

Little Mac was very polarising when Super Smash Bros. For 3DS came out. To most players (who play casually), he's overpowered. To people who know what they're doing, Little Mac was pretty bad. This became more apparent in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U when folks could play with real controllers. There's also the fact that he got nerfed early on: His forward-tilt range got reduced, as did how far Jolt Haymaker went in the air, which stunted his recovery.

Now, he's recognised as a terrible character by the majority of people. Casuals believe all Little Mac does is Jolt Haymaker off the ledge, and competitive experts put Mac as one of the worst characters in the game.

The first tier list, pre-Bayonetta & Corrin.
Little Mac is very low, though the absolutely lowest non-Jigglypuff characters got buffed in 1.1.5.

It's a shame. It shouldn't be this way. A lot of people consider Cloud to be Little Mac done right — with Little Mac fallen to the wayside. I'd argue... we shouldn't treat Little Mac this way. Here's why.

Come PLAY Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! *Updated With Strategy Guides*

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Click "read more" if you're not directly in this article.

I'd like to start off by saying that Punch-Out!! week has been a fun experience. Some of you may be wondering why this week happened. Well, it was for this: KoopaTV has just finished developing a Punch-Out!!-styled videogame that's absolutely free. (If it wasn't we'd be sued.) I wrote about the gameplay of Punch-Out!!, the characters of Punch-Out!!, the cultural aspect of Punch-Out!!, and the business side of Punch-Out!!. But to truly appreciate the game, you really need to play Punch-Out!!. So we made a game that you wouldn't have to pay for, if you missed Nintendo's generous 30 cent offer. And even if you didn't and just want some more action... it's here!

Jareditton presents: Let's Play Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A champion Let's Play for a champion game.

KoopaTV has been asking for a while, and we've finally gotten it: The PC Game of the Year 2013 has a Let's Play on YouTube! It's Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, playable here right on KoopaTV in your browser for free! 

Presented by a YouTuber named Jareditton. Maybe subscribe to him, because based off what KoopaTV watched of his channel (only the Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! stuff), the kid actually is a master artist. On our level. The best way to see why is to watch his Let's Play of Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, embedded across three videos below!

They're hilarious not only because of the source material, but because of him. See below the page-break for the videos! (Putting a page-break here so cleaner loading of the main page!)

Race-Baiting Infiltrating The Industry

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This isn't an issue stuck just in the political realm.

Many years ago, when Resident Evil 5 from Capcom was first announced and revealed with a trailer, most people noticed how awesome the game looked. But some people chose to view the game differently... looking at it superficially. But not just "wow the game has sexy graphics it must be amazing" type of superficial... but by the colour of people's skins.

So as a result of black zombies in Africa (which is populated by a strong majority of black people), Resident Evil 5 is decried as racist by race-baiters across the Internet. These are punks looking to get hits on their websites and make a name for themselves. That concept may seem familiar to you, the reader, and that's probably why you're here. Well here's the difference between those people (dun dun dun) and me.

Boxing Day And A Boxing Match

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Between a promise and a pun.

Some of you may recall that back in the Nintendo Direct in August, it was announced that Super Mario Bros. 3 would be coming on the Wii U Virtual Console by the end of 2013. We didn't really care much about it in our live reactions log, but it's the end of 2013 now and there is no Super Mario Bros. 3. Instead... we get a boxing game for Boxing Day: Super Punch-Out!!.

It's three against one here, apparently.

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S PUNCH-OUT!!??

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! brought to life. Spoiler alert, by the way.

Okay, KoopaTV really did it this time. This isn't a game announcement. This is real life. The last and only time KoopaTV cited anything from TMZ, it was from an article heavily talking about Mike Tyson. TMZ returns again for Punch-Out!! shenanigans.

"Now's your chance to kick George Zimmerman's ass with zero legal repercussions -- he just agreed to a celebrity boxing match ... and he says he'll fight ANYONE. [...]
Lately George has been more interested in boxing than guns ... regularly training in the ring. [...]
As for George's cut from the fight, we're told he's donating the money to charity.
If you'd like to throw your hat in the ring for the March 1 match, email fightgeorge@hotmail.com."

We tried to interview George Zimmerman about his inspiration, but he declined to accept it. Fair enough. However, it's pretty obvious that he must've played Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! and was frustrated that he was only an NPC. Feeling that he would never be able to have the same kind of success Little Mac had in the virtual world (for a comparison of Little Mac and George Zimmerman, click here), Zimmerman decided to do this in real life.

Currently, ex-gang member "The Game" wishes to destroy Zimmerman. While the fact that Zimmerman was inspired by a videogame to do this and then the name of his opponent being "Game" is certainly interesting, KoopaTV wants Zimmerman to fight someone else.

The Crimes of Mike Tyson

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The criminal history of the for-glory superstar.

With boxing still fresh on everyone's mind lately (the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match brought out a lot of closet boxing fans), we'd like to note KoopaTV's special relationship with the Punch-Out!! series. We dedicated a full week of articles towards it and topped that off with the release of a whole videogame, Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, playable here. You can also watch a Let's Play of it here.

With those advertisements and that prefacing out of the way, we haven't talked a whole lot about the man who helped the game sell so well in America and gave it its unique fanbase: Mike Tyson himself. Mike Tyson was the famous heavyweight boxer who got into a ton of controversy because of his personal choices both in and out of the ring. A lot of that controversy came from his nature to commit acts of bad behaviour. While the Tyson star power helped sell Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and made Nintendo millions of bucks, there was and still is an inherent ethical problem in branding it with the Mike Tyson name that will forever leave a very dark mark on Nintendo's history.

Darker than the black eye this dude got from Tyson.

Let's talk about it! 

KoopaTV's 2013 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

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

(Boss 4) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Now republished and rewritten.

It's part of Punch-Out!! culture to sit around on the playground exchanging tips to progress further in the game. Because I'm the kid everyone on the playground wants to be around, I'm taking it upon myself to be the definitive source for all things Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. So there are five bosses in the game, and I'm going to tell you all how to succeed against them. I'll only detail their moves — I don't want to spoil the entire experience for you! And note, that this article DOES spoil the game.

Localisation Is Not Censorship

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Localisation and censorship are actually mutually exclusive.

There is a lot of controversy lately that Nintendo is engaged in outright censorship of games coming from Japan to North America. KoopaTV is an anti-censorship bastion of freedom fries, so it makes sense that we should join in the pile demonising Nintendo, right? ...But, alas, these cries of censorship come only from people who... have no idea what they're talking about.

Over the course of this article, I will illustrate the difference between what people think Nintendo is doing — censorship — and what they and other companies actually do: localisation. Or localization for you z-diehards out there who are going to search engine that way.

What do people consider censorship nowadays? Maybe the lewd outfits in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water that got replaced with Nintendo lady costumes instead. I've heard complaints about the "boob slider" in Xenoblade Chronicles X that I didn't even know existed got taken out of the localised version of the game. There is a rumour that in Bravely Second, Nintendo (the outside-Japan publisher) changed the Tomahawk (class in Japan) class to the Cowboy class (class outside Japan). Though the "Cowboy" name is what people are calling it, not what the game would call it.

None of that is censorship. 

Cold Feet: Zimmerman's Escapades Canceled

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - He wasn't punched out — he didn't even get to enter.

Back in January KoopaTV left you with a very exciting prospect: the famous George Zimmerman was directly inspired by Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! and decided to reenact it in real life. KoopaTV decided to try to draft the Reverend Al Sharpton as Zimmerman's opponent for reasons explained previously. We sent Al Sharpton and his National Action Network e-mails. The fight was to be scheduled for March 1: So what happened?

KoopaTV 2013 GOTY Awards!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Game of THAT Year and other awards here!

To know what the nominations were, click here. We had our KoopaTV roundtable in our AIM Blast, and we decided the winners of all the categories. So... read more to find out what they are! These are all over 2013.

ADVERTISEMENT VIDEO: Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Just like Nintendo, we're late on our advertising.

Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! came out four months ago. And we're finally prepared to give an advertisement video for it. Over those months we've done a lot of things like a series of free strategy guides. With Super Punch-Out!! now on the Wii U VC, it's about time we finalize our advertising for this game and move onto our next project. Behold.

The only thing left now is a Let's Play. I'm waiting for someone to do that...

Oh, and that thumbnail is wonderfully inflammatory. Also the video features this tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/TrayvonTyson. That just goes to the Trayvon Tyson tab that you've seen the whole time.

Ludwig is the main programmer of Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, which you'd know if you ever got to the credits. And you should, it's a great experience.


The Let's Play did happen after all.

Crabrawler's Punch-Out!!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - No, this isn't KoopaTV's 2016 videogame, but that'd be cool DLC, wouldn't it?

You know, I remember at the end of the Team Skull article eight days ago, I wrote, 

“That's about all the info worth commenting on. What do YOU think? We'd love to hear YOUR comments in the designated comments section. Talk to you guys next Pokémon news release! ...Just kidding, I'll actually talk to you tomorrow on www.KoopaTV.org. (Unless those are the same day, with how frequent these releases are getting.)”

So, like, that was totally a joke and not something serious, but it turns out my levity had some truth to it. Yesterday I wrote about Turtonator being discovered in Alola and he's great. And now today? I'm writing about four new Pokémon also discovered that you can use for the first time this November in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Take it away, The Pokémon Company International:

KoopaTV's September 2015 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The start of the anti-summer brings some bad news. And some decent consistencies.

Even though school is reportedly ruining everyone's browsing lives (and I will write an article sometime in the future about how that's a myth), KoopaTV's September was pretty much the same as its August, in terms of viewing activity. And in terms of reader interaction, it was a lot better than August, at least according to a count of point distribution in the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, our on-going contest to give our best/most loyal reader (or "player") a PRIZE. Round 4's (September-October) prize is your choice of $10 in Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft digital storefront spending money. 

Let's look at our standings for the Loyalty Rewards Program. Remember, we're only halfway through Round 4, but our performers definitely weren't optimal for the amount of points you can get in a half of a round. You can swoop in and get some sweet code!

1. ShinyGirafarig — 44 points
2. Samantha Lienhard — 38 points
3. Marmar Omgcheez — 7 points

Based on the previous time we had a two-month round (Round 3), folks at the top can get very... complacent in the second half of the round. Be weary of that, folks.

Before we get to the top five recommended articles from September 2015, we have important news regarding one of KoopaTV's previous articles that is also directly related to KoopaTV's flagship videogame, Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! (playable here on your browser for free).

KoopaTV has a strategy guide covering the five bosses in the game. The guide for the fourth boss has mysteriously disappeared, and we're investigating why. This has caused a gap in our stellar record of having an article every day. That said, KoopaTV does have the article backed up, so we can just republish it. We'd rather figure out why it was taken down, first.

There is no (Boss 4) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

...By the way, reminder: All of our +1s disappeared when we switched domain names. So if you want to help us out, +1 a bunch of KoopaTV stuff on your Google account.

Okay, top five recommended article time! Here is a list of five of the KoopaTV articles from September 2015 that you really have to read if you just lived in a cave (or schoolhouse detention) for the past month. In chronological order.

1. Corporate America: A Minion's Training Ground
2. Elect Ledge Trump for President 2016!
3. Shigeru Miyamoto is NOT Bowser Jr.'s Mother!
4. Ace Attorney: Anime, New Live-Action, and TGS Live Stream Details on Ace Attorney 6!
5. Sleeping vs. Eating: A Problem With Gamer Culture

I asked the other staff members to provide me what their list of five would be, and the one I would give is almost totally different than their lists. That speaks to the quality of articles from September. So that's a real treat to y'all.
 
Also, just to cheat as the "sixth" article that you have to read... We have a staff shake-up, with RawkHawk2010 leaving KoopaTV's staff a third time. His absences before have been about a month-long each, so he should be coming back. Really soon. I hope. I miss him.

With him gone, our staff shortage is all the more apparent. Please consider joining KoopaTV's staff for one of the many possible positions we have! If you got any talent or even no talent, we have something for you to do to help our cause of spreading Truth and Levity in the videogame industry!

No talent? That's right, we just posted a new job position, the "Data Entry Minion"! The name for that is inspired from the first in our list of top five recommended articles, so really go read that one. You don't need any skills besides being able to copy-paste things, really.

...So that disqualifies mobile-only people. We'll keep discriminating against y'all.


Even if KoopaTV discriminates against you, you should still help promote KoopaTV. Maybe if you buy some KoopaTV merchandise, the proceeds can go to accommodating your awful Internet-browsing devices? But if you can't do that, then sharing KoopaTV around is totally free! Share to your friends! Your enemies! Random people! And you can get points in the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program for referring people, don't forget.


KoopaTV's staff met for our quarterly meeting and took a photo of it. That's gotta mean good things.
See last month's newsletter for... whatever we mentioned last month.
Next month's article has headers again. That's gotta be worth looking at.
Last year's September newsletter has us inching closer to our modern name scheme for these articles.
Next year's September newsletter in 2016 has less information than this one, but that's not bad, is it?

(Boss 5-Final) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - IT'S THE FINAL BOSS.

It's part of Punch-Out!! culture to sit around on the playground exchanging tips to progress further in the game. Because I'm the kid everyone on the playground wants to be around, I'm taking it upon myself to be the definitive source for all things Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. So there are five bosses in the game, and I'm going to tell you all how to succeed against them. I'll only detail their moves — I don't want to spoil the entire experience for you! 

This article contains massive spoilers.

World Health Organisation To Make Code For “Gaming Disorder”

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - On the way for gaming addicts to get the treatment they need.

The dark underbelly of the videogame industry that I've been talking about for years is finally getting some top-level medical recognition. I'm talking about gaming addiction. 

In Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!, we portrayed Chad Joseph as a gaming addict. Years later, I was at risk of lapsing into addiction because of Nintendo's free-to-play games. By the end of 2015, we saw what a full-on addicted guy looks like when he sued Bethesda for his addiction to Fallout 4, which basically ruined his life. (No one seems to have followed the story for what happened to that guy. I'd contact the Russians on it, but I only can voice-act Russian from a script like in Soviet Missile Run, KoopaTV's new videogame.)

So, gaming addiction recognition. The World Health Organisation (WHO)'s publication, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), will include the condition “gaming disorder” for its 11th edition due this year. To qualify for the condition, it appears that you will have to be gaming so much that you put gaming over other life pursuits, despite negative consequences. You also won't be able to control how much you game.

A lot of other media sources stop the story there, but we'll keep going and explain what that actually all means. 

(Boss 2) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Chad Joseph just sucker punched your trainer. What a threat.

It's part of Punch-Out!! culture to sit around on the playground exchanging tips to progress further in the game. Because I'm the kid everyone on the playground wants to be around, I'm taking it upon myself to be the definitive source for all things Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. So there are five bosses in the game, and I'm going to tell you all how to succeed against them. I'll only detail their moves — I don't want to spoil the entire experience for you!

Super Smash Bros. 4 Newcomers and their Trailers Tier List *Updated 11/15/14*

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A tier list of... the trailers and hype, not based off peak competitive metagame potential.

We now have seen the trailers for every new character in Super Smash Bros. 4, and even a trailer of a returning character. It is time to... grade them! And give my thoughts on them all! Based on the following criteria:

Relevant KoopaTV article(s):
Thoughts on the character before reveal:
Thoughts on the trailer:
Thoughts on the character based on trailer:
Thoughts on the character after the game came out:

That enough boldness for you? Let's go! (Hah, like you thought I could resist internal linking.)