Eiji Aonuma Versus Developer Ideologies

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - But I LIKE using games for propaganda!

KoopaTV sometimes pretends that The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma doesn't exist. If you search him up, we basically never mention him. His only real reference was with regards to his video message that The Legend of Zelda on Wii U would be delayed. He's probably the most low-key guy at Nintendo in proportion to his influence and position.

In an interview with Aonuma and the British gaming magazine GamesMaster, Aonuma stated,

“I haven’t and won’t be trying to put any message or meaning into the [Zelda] games. [...] Occasionally I receive messages from fans telling me how playing Zelda games has changed their lives. While of course this makes me incredibly happy to hear, I feel a great sense of responsibility as well, so part of me feels that developers putting their own ideologies in games is kind of scary.”

Of course, developers put their own ideologies into games all the time. It's become the norm at this point. Whether it be the ideology that abortion clinics should be plentiful and easy-to-access, the ideology that gun ownership among females should go up, or the ideology that Ron Paul is awesome, there is literally an entire sub-industry within gaming (“serious games”) that tries to persuade people of whatever message the developer/developer's client is pushing.

About Eiji Aonuma's Gameplay Demonstration of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I see lots of people are excited, but I know for a fact I wouldn't like it if I bought it.

Today, Nintendo released an over 13-minute video of The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom while commentating. It's not unedited gameplay for sure, but carefully selected and choreographed gameplay clips stitched together to showcase shiny gameplay mechanics. There are no story spoilers. (There's little evidence that there is even much of a story to spoil if The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is anything to go by.) At the beginning, Eiji Aonuma states the game has completed development, which it better, since it's coming out quite soon.

In addition, Nintendo announced a The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom-themed Nintendo Switch (OLED model). The game releases on May 12 for 70 USD ($10 more than the MSRP for a standard Nintendo Switch game), while the themed console releases on April 28 for 360 USD ($10 more than the MSRP for a standard Nintendo Switch (OLED model)). There will also be a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to release on May 12 for 75 USD (only $5 more than the MSRP for a standard Nintendo Switch Pro Controller... a suspiciously smaller mark-up!).

As for the rest of the article, I'm going to share my thoughts on what was shown. If you're looking for a super deep breakdown of the gameplay demonstration with fan theories, you won't find that here, especially because I'm not interested enough to do that since I disliked The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

KoopaTV's Live Reaction to Nintendo Treehouse: Live's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Gameplay

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This counts as our launch coverage, right?

Given their upcoming non-presence at E3 2023 (since E3 2023 won't exist), Nintendo of America apparently still wants their Treehouse division to be streaming gameplay footage of their most important game(s) of the year. For 2023, that's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

It's unclear what I'll be doing during E3 2023 week, but since I was prepared to watch streams of Nintendo Treehouse: Live during then, I might as well as prepared to do that a month sooner than expected with this stream. And, hey, MAYBE it'll get me to change my mind and want to buy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! ...I doubt it. But I'll give it a chance. The rest of this article will be my live (textual) reactions to Treehouse's stream, with occasional screenshots.

Zelda Wii U Delayed... so what?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Did anyone expect it to come out in 2015?

Last week, the world of The Legend of Zelda fans exploded: The long-awaited Nintendo Wii U iteration of the franchise (Wind Waker HD not counting) was DELAYED. Or, at least, no longer locked into a 2015 time-table. (In layman's terms, that means it's coming out after 2015.) Apparently, it was announced to come out in 2015 during The Game Awards and we didn't remember it from that event, but The Game Awards 2014 was a horrible waste of time anyway (to the point where I put the KoopaTV staff member whose idea it was to watch it on indefinite unpaid leave).

For more information, here is Eiji Aonuma, The Legend of Zelda producer.

So... He is basically allowing feature/scope-creep to direct the project, rather than sticking to the budget and time-table. On one hand, you can cheer to be able to eventually play "the ultimate Zelda game", but on the other hand, as the producer, it was Aonuma's job to NOT have this scope-creep be a thing.

For a reminder of what the producer is supposed to do, take another look at Masahiro Sakurai's New Years Resolution for 2014. (That he succeeded at.) 

"Key phrase: Completion
Resolution: I resolve to complete development on Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and release it in 2014."

KoopaTV Live Reacts To Hyrule Warriors Direct!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Sakurai influences? Hope that last part of the Direct influenced him.

Welcome to the first KoopaTV live reaction log since E3 a month and a half ago! Miss us? I'm Nintendork 13 13 in this log and RawkHawk2010 is back from San Francisco. We talk in our AIM Blast [Koopa Keep], and yesterday night there was a Hyrule Warriors Nintendo Direct. You can watch it here and read our thoughts as the video goes along!

Nintendo Treehouse Live E3 2016: Day 1 — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild all day.

You've been waiting for this moment forever: The Legend of Zelda on Wii U (and NX) is now The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And we're watching footage of it. A lot of footage of it. And commenting. ...A LOT of footage. Over four hours worth. Including new news about the game's antagonist and amiibo.

I'm Nintendork 13 13, Rawk is him, and Vortexica is breezinabout. We have quite a lot of content to share with you, so get ready:

KoopaTV's Nintendo E3 2014 LIVE REACTIONS!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - No Mother 3. Too bad. But everything else...!!

Here we go. It's finally here. Nintendo has their event. However, Nintendo is showing new stuff ALL DAY. This goes basically to the end of the... LADY PALUTENA trainer. I'm Nintendork 13 13. Rawk is himself. Kamek is Ultralink1. Koopa Keep has a friend, Ryudragon29, who we also know as Mariosun90.

Us.

KoopaTV's Nintendo Spotlight E3 2017 Live Reactions! + Super Mario Odyssey Treehouse Live

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The (hopefully better) half of E3 2017 begins.

You should clearly be able to see from the E3 Weeks 2017 Schedule this pattern: Saturday to Monday is... the whole gaming industry but Nintendo. Tuesday to Thursday is Nintendo.

It doesn't take a genius that a site named KoopaTV cares more about Nintendo's stuff than the other companies, and it all begins right here, right now, with the Nintendo Spotlight. It's a 25-minute presentation supposedly sticking to a discussion on Nintendo Switch games set for holiday 2017.

What will we think of it, and will it convince the rest of the staffers to step up our efforts to acquire the supply-shortened Switch? I'm here, Rawk is here, Vortexica is here. ARE YOU HERE? ...Even if you're not, you can still read our live reactions on-demand, right below: 

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to The Game Awards 2017

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I still hate these people. I guess, to be fair, it was the best The Game Awards ever.

Continuing KoopaTV's staff's self-hatred, we are live-reacting to yet another year of Geoff Keighley's awful game industry production, The Game Awards! Now in 2017.

Joining me tonight is RawkHawk2010 (this is literally all his idea), Kamek, and Wendy O. Koopa! ...Vortex decided to sleep. Good for him. We'll task him with reading this entire log when he gets up.

This article finally has all of the screenshots in it!


As is customary for The Game Awards, viewer discretion is advised, since it's truly awful. That goes for our own readership base as well. Reader discretion is advised. Believe me.

“The following program may contain content that some viewers find offensive.
Viewer discretion is advised.”

We actually have an embed of the show here so you can torture yourselves ON-DEMAND:

KoopaTV's Exhaustive Thoughts On #GamerGate

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - One article dedicated to #GamerGate. No more than that.

Though it may not look like it, KoopaTV has tried to follow the #GamerGate drama from our private AOL Instant Messenger Blast chat. That hasn't translated to KoopaTV articles. Until now. But only now, because there is a reason why we have not covered #GamerGate even though it should be up our alley. After all, KoopaTV cares about videogame journalism! And we definitely care about biases, social justice warriors, and basically everything #GamerGate encompasses. So... what is wrong with us?

To those who have no idea what #GamerGate, here is the Wikipedia article. (It has its own Wikipedia article!) Uh, BASICALLY it's a movement by people who call themselves gamers to put into question journalistic integrity within the videogame industry, because journalists don't have a sense of ethics. ...And for some reason there is a lot of talk about sexism and women involved. It's why we subtly inserted that line about journalistic integrity in our Affiliates and Recommended Sources page. It was timely! And according to #GamerGate advocates, this article is timely too because #GamerGate has staying power. You know, like the Tea Party. ...Except the comparisons end there. Unless you're against #GamerGate.

I challenged these clueless folk if they knew what the Tea Party was even about. No response.

Fortunately, I got a lot more comparisons to make. If we're taking the above picture's representation of #GamerGate as the truth (since, in terms of its representation of the Tea Party, it's a total falsehood) then the movement is closer to Occupy Wall Street. Like Nintendo Redirect was. Boy, that was a fun article.

But for this article, we have things against #GamerGate here at KoopaTV that makes us incompatible with 'em. And of course, we are also incompatible with #GamerGate's opponents. By no means is KoopaTV taking a wimpy centrist "we don't like either party" stance! I'll tell you why throughout this article.

About the Final Pre-Launch Trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And a month before release, I feel... no hype whatsoever.

Not only did Nintendo publish “the final pre-launch trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, coming May 12th, only on Nintendo Switch.”, but they went and said it's the final trailer, and they said ahead of time that today would be that trailer's publish date. They certainly suddenly decided they want every announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to have its own announcement.

As I tell you what I thought of the trailer, keep in mind that I'm on record as recently as that 13-minute gameplay-focused Eiji Aonuma video from a few weeks ago that I'm not buying the game. My reactions are gonna be quite... muted.

Vortexica's "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses - Master Quest" Experience

By VORTEXICA - TL;DR: It's good. Go see it if you get the chance.

In a previous article, I talked about how important music is to the Legend of Zelda series, and mentioned that it even has its own concert tour known as Symphony of the Goddesses. Well, talking about all that in such detail put me in exactly the right mood for a big ol' Zelda gaming binge. So much so in fact that I also went right out (13 days later...) and snapped up a ticket for my closest performance.
 

Enter 'HeyListen' at checkout to get 10% off UK @ZeldaSymphony tickets! #Zelda https://t.co/dZaCLxOBrF pic.twitter.com/hUM1P6diVP

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) August 17, 2016

If I'd waited a bit longer, I could've saved some cash too! Stupid fairy...

Anyway, a few days ago was the date in question. Let me tell you all about it...

KoopaTV's LIVE Reactions to the February 17 2021 Nintendo Direct

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - ...You could skip to the end for the “one last thing”, or you could participate in the journey along the way!

Many Nintendo fans have proclaimed the DEATH of the Nintendo Direct. After all, the last one called NINTENDO DIRECT was in September 2019, and to these people (I'm not included), Nintendo presentations like the Nintendo Direct Mini and the many Partner Showcases throughout 2020 just don't count.

But today, an indisputably direct and grandiose in scale Nintendo Direct has arrived, and KoopaTV's entire five-member staff reacted to it. Follow along with the embedded Direct with our live commentary immediately below:

[4:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Five minutes until the Nintendo Direct of February 2021 begins...!
[4:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Either I got something broken, or there's no waiting room audio from the Nintendo Direct stream.
[4:57 PM] HeavyLobster: I'm here.
[4:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Do you hear any audio?
[4:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's eerie.
[4:58 PM] HeavyLobster: no
[4:58 PM] HeavyLobster: Let's hope this is a good one.
[4:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They usually have waiting room audio, don't they?
I guess it's been a long time so maybe I don't remember.
[4:59 PM] Witch Princess: hiya
[4:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Witchy! You're...alive!
[4:59 PM] Witch Princess: yeah I survived that blizzard
[5:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: RATING PENDING TO MATURE 17+
[5:00 PM] HeavyLobster: Let's Go!

Nintendo to Release the NX this March 2017

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Plus, other interesting information from their investor relations releases today.

We last got to hear some Nintendo-related consolidated financials back at the start of February, and I was pretty disgruntled back then. Now Nintendo's fiscal year is over, and we're on a new one. That means we get some more information about hopefully-interesting things. Since February, Mario Party 10 has managed to outsell The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD in total sales! ...Whatever.

We also found out very key information, such as:

“For our dedicated video game platform business, Nintendo is currently developing a gaming platform codenamed “NX” with a brand-new concept. NX will be launched in March 2017 globally.”

That's sooner than I expected, as I'll mention at the end of the article. And might be later than YOU expected.

Nintendo also projects to get 500 billion yen in revenue over the next year, which is actually less than what they've gotten over the past year. Impressively enough, their cost of goods sold is proportionately less than before. What that basically means is that as Nintendo keeps selling things digitally and more and more customers buy less games physically, Nintendo gets to keep more money. That's as you would expect, and it's why Nintendo is doing all of these digital purchasing initiatives and My Nintendo. Since they won't lower the MSRP of the games, they can afford (well, in light of these results, not really) to pass along the cost-savings in the form of loyalty coupons.

Committing to DLC in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Value is subjective, so if you think differently...

Honestly, I didn't expect that Nintendo would actually put non-amiibo downloadable content (DLC) into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. No other The Legend of Zelda game (besides Hyrule Warriors, but that doesn't have The Legend of Zelda in the title for a reason) has paid-for DLC. This is a series that has prided itself on releasing complete, high-quality games while blazing its own trail, not following someone else's. It's an exemplary flagship series of a company that used to pride itself on releasing complete, high-quality games while blazing its own trail.

Now none of that is true anymore, and let's even pretend that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn't derivative of Skyrim.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a predatory “Expansion Pass”, as explained by producer Eiji Aonuma in video immediately below and in text here if you click (just remember to come back to KoopaTV).

$20 for two content packs (available for both Wii U and Nintendo Switch versions — more on which to get here) that you may not purchase individually. To clarify, that means the only thing up for sale is the Expansion Pass, which pre-purchases DLC Pack 1 and DLC Pack 2, and also gives you immediate bonuses. Let's examine their contents in detail.

Toxic "No Music" Philosophies

By VORTEXICA - Ditching Zelda traditions? Not like THIS!

As you may have seen in KoopaTV's hysterical reaction log, Paper Mario: Color Splash has surprised us greatly with its pivot back towards a more story-driven experience, even if that experience is still lacking in RPG elements and has gameplay suffering from the dreaded Sticker Star syndrome.

But I'm not here to talk about that, merely to offer this observation: What kind of wormhole have we fallen through when we find ourselves in a situation after this E3 where the latest Paper Mario game might actually possess something approaching a story, whilst The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been robbed of that most basic but crucially important thing... MUSIC.

Skull Kid steals Link's ocarina. It's symbolic, yo.

Before I start, let me just say, as you also may've read, we here at KoopaTV have been reasonably pleased with what we've seen from Breath of the Wild, for the most part. It was so over-exposed at E3 that we couldn't log (or even stay awake through) all of it, but, to varying degrees it must be said, we all think the game's shaping up well, apart from this glaring misstep: The overworld of this open-world game appears to possess absolutely no true background music whatsoever!

What'll come out first? Metroid Prime 4, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, or the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Three delays... little answers!

Let's play a game in the comments section. What will be the relative release order of these three cursed Nintendo Switch titles? All of which were mentioned or shown at Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct.

1. Metroid Prime 4, which never had a release date (it's still “TBA” in Nintendo's financial documents). In January 2019, it was announced that its original team was off the project and Retro Studios would be on the assignment. It never received a release date or details. At E3 2021, it was described as being worked on hard, but they quickly changed topics to reveal Metroid Dread
2. At E3 2021, Nintendo announced Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp for a December 3, 2021 release date. Then in October 2021 it was announced that Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp got delayed to be... a higher-quality product to release in the spring of 2022. In the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, they announced the new release date to be April 8, 2022. And then earlier this month, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, which is presumably now a finished product, was delayed indefinitely to a To Be Determined date thanks to “recent world events”... Unlike the other two games on this list, at least Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp has a Nintendo.com listing. While pre-orders were once available, they have now been cancelled and disabled.
3. They first announced the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a cryptic way at E3 2019 without a release date (another “TBA”). Then more footage appeared at E3 2021, with a release year of... 2022. But today, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got a video similar to what Metroid Prime 4's got:
   
   

KoopaTV's Nintendo E3 2015 Conference Live Reactions

By VORTEXICA - We're down to two dudes!

Welcome to KoopaTV's live reactions to the Nintendo E3 2015 Digital Event, perhaps the most KoopaTV-appropriate event of the E3 week.

In a departure from standard live reaction procedure, Ludwig has taken to boycotting the Nintendo log over the Deluxe Digital Promotion debacle. As you might expect, without him everything went to pieces, with muggins here left to get this log sorted. And since I'm the one doing it for once, no, I'm not this "breezinabout"! I'm Vortex in the AIM log. Rawk as usual is himself, and joins me for commentary. You may also notice that the timestamps are on the opposite side of the names than usual... and are off by five hours. Look, just roll with it.

Let's dive right in, shall we?

Nintendo Treehouse Live E3 2016: Day 1 Begins — Pokémon Sun and Moon

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Our Nintendo coverage begins.

The time has come for Nintendo's E3 festivities to begin! KoopaTV will be covering Nintendo Treehouse Live. There's no digital event or anything this year, so this is all we got.

We're starting with Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, but first, a message from Reggie Fils-Aime! ...With a title announcement drop: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!

I'm Nintendork 13 13, Rawk is Rawk, Vortexica is breezinabout. Let's go. 

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to The Game Awards 2016!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Spoilers: It's terrible, and we're asleep at the end.

Every year in early December, that thug Geoff Keighley hosts some kind of award show for the videogame industry, and the major gaming companies always sponsor it. It's always awful. Yet, without fail, KoopaTV has been live reacting to it since our own inception. Why? WHY DO WE KEEP DOING THIS TO OURSELVES?

The following program DID contain content that some viewers found offensive.
Viewer discretion is highly recommended, and I wish we had some.

This year, the only two staffers masochistic enough to sit around for it were myself, in this live reaction log as Nintendork 13 13, and RawkHawk2010, in this live reaction log as RawkHawk2010. Well, here we go, I guess. Read our reactions below: