Oh, Forget Halloween.

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm not gonna try to scare you this year...

I never was a big Halloween guy. If I were to just walk around humans not wearing any costume, I'll end up terrifying you weak people.

King Dad terrifying this French couple. ...Then again, they're French.

I don't have any ulterior motive for saying, "Don't bother with Halloween." KoopaTV won't have anything new coming out October 31 this year since it's a weekend, so I don't really care about the traffic loss (though keep traffic of a different kind in mind). The KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program is having a gap day on Halloween anyway so we can calculate the scores and determine the winner. I'm sayin', I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart!

...Ahahahah! Ahem. So 'cause I ain't big on Halloween, you shouldn't be either. And here's why!

Trick or Treat Splatfest — Splatoon and Halloween

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My decision may surprise you. Or it might not. How well you do know me?

I do not like Halloween. I have written why I do not like Halloween in an article three years ago. That disliking for Halloween will colour my comments in today's article about Halloween, which is over two weeks away from Halloween.

Anyway, there is another Splatfest in Splatoon 2 this weekend! Yes, not even a month has passed since the previous Splatfest, and we already have another one. That's okay. I want another chance to understand the new Splatfest scoring system as of Version 4 — I was going to write an article about it after the September Splatfest, but it turns out I didn't understand it enough to write something coherent.

The theme? You've been discussing it for years... you just didn't know it. But enough talk. You must finally pick one by this FRIDAY October 19 at 6 PM:

“It's time to decide. Are you Team Trick or Team Treat?”

Trick or Treat? ...Really. That's the Splatfest theme. Well, if it's going to be a question asked millions of times every year, and it's an either-or situation, then sure, I guess Inkopolis needs a Splatfest to legally decide what's better.

Splatfest Repeat: Trick or Treat? Now During Halloween!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Candy, man. Plus, a rant on the trickery of Daylight Saving Time.

I am fairly well-known for despising Halloween. Do a search on KoopaTV about that and take your pick of anti-Halloween article. But you know what I do like? Candy. So between tricking and treating on Halloween, I prefer the treats. Why go around collecting candy from other people when you can just buy your own (of your own choice) and enjoy it, without the hassle of having to handle awful candy others give? That's the subject of the Splatfest rerun that will occur during Halloween this year:

The dialogue (and free gear via Switch News in Inkopolis Square, which does nothing if you already have it) is a replica of 2018's.

I already wrote extensively about Trick vs. Treat back when this Splatfest happened in 2018. My views have not changed—I still support Team Treat. Team Treat won back then, by the way. While Trick had greater popularity (56.85% of Splatoon 2 players were on Team Trick), Team Treat won the two wins-based categories, though Splatfest Battle Normal was very close (Team Treat scraped by with a 50.11%–49.89% victory in that category). Call it a sugar high or whatever you want, those who treat themselves do better than those who trick.

The Gordo Halloween '22 PSA

By CAPTAIN STITCH - Essential Gordo info for the complete experience.

Halloween is the second most wonderful time of the year. Putting aside the risks of drug-laced candy, it gives our youth a chance to reenact the motions of the heroes (and villains) from yesteryear. Truly, it does bring a tear to one's eye, at the joy the children often have for the most vile and repulsive caricatures. A different tear is brought to the eye of the parents who bear witness to this event. Pirates, Vikings, Demons, and the very worst offenders, video game characters.

Ghost Gordos,
very spooky, a perfect costume choice.

This Halloween I must implore all of you reading this message to put an end to this annual circus of debauchery the only way I know how. By insisting the next generation dons the appearance of the Gordo this upcoming Halloween. It is the only way to keep the pure and innocent minds of our youth pure and innocent, whilst also enabling them to grow up through the reenactment of moral historical figures. Now some of you may say that what I've just said speaks to a lot of cognitive dissonance, and that Gordos are video game characters as well. To that I say, did you know that the Gordo hasn’t just appeared in the Kirby franchise, but also have cameos in Super Mario Land, Link's Awakening, and multiple Super Smash Bros. games. That’s right, we got a cameo before it was cool for everyone to do it ala Spirits. You may also have qualms about our actual morality but I can assure you the Gordo are patron saints.

Luigi's Mansion 3 and Halloween 2019

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The best candy from the best source of entertainment.

After ignoring fellow Nintendo Switch titles Astral Chain and DAEMON X MACHINA, perhaps I should at least give Luigi's Mansion 3 a release day article. Not that I care about it—and I don't understand why anyone who wasn't a Day 1 GameCube owner would—but Luigi is a very relevant topic for KoopaTV, so here we are. Luigi's Mansion 3 features Luigi, his ghost-dog Polterpup, Mario, Princess Peach, and some dumb escort Toads going to a haunted hotel. Mario and Peach (and the Toads but no one cares about them) disappear and Luigi has to rescue them and not get pwned by King Boo.

There must be a lot of Day 1 Luigi's Mansion fans from 2001 on GameFAQs, because Luigi's Mansion 3 is the most-anticipated game of October 2019 over here:

Luigi's Mansion 3 with 36.36% of the vote.
Personally, I voted for Ring Fit Adventure, though that got the least number of votes.
Clearly, that's not reflected in Ring Fit Adventure being out-of-stock from many retailers. (I'd know. I tried and failed to get it.)

To my surprise (but still not to my interest), Luigi's Mansion 3 is getting a lot of well-rated reviews from most outlets, with the exception of the FAKE NEWS Washington Post. This time, they're fake news because the top of their review page portrays Luigi's Mansion 3 as looking like this:

The Supposedly Spooky Capcom Halloween Sale of 2022

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It seems the same as any other sale.

Tonight, we're talking about CAPCOM, a company that will put anything on sale for any reason. Check out the latest Nintendo eShop sale:

“Capcom Halloween Sale
10/19 at 9:00 a.m. PT to 11/1 at 11:59 p.m. PT

Capcom is offering a handful of classic titles at a spooky price! Be sure to check out the Capcom Halloween Sale line-up and grab Capcom Fighting Collection, Devil May Cry and more! Up to 67% off for Switch games and 83% off for 3DS games!”

Are those classic titles truly at a spooky price? Well, that 83% off 3DS games means the three Ace Attorney titles on 3DS for $5 each, which has been the standard discount rate for a while now. Plus classic sales like The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for a mere $25, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for $15, and the two of those bundled together in Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection for $35. (The only spooky thing here is NOT getting the entire mainline Ace Attorney series plus two spin-offs—for a grand total of eight amazing adventure games that'll collectively last you over 200 hours—for 50 USD.)

Other very familiar discounts include the Resident Evil games at 50% off, Devil May Cry at 50% off (and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition at 40% off). That's all the same discounts as before. Even Capcom Fighting Collection at 25% off matches the previous sale, as well as 50% off Monster Hunter Stories 2. Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak is being sold for $50 instead of $70, which also ties the last sale from last month.

So... are these prices really spooky? (Are these games actually classic?) ...No, that's nonsense. But regardless of the irrelevant seasonal tie-ins (and I believe this is the first time they've made a sale specifically for Halloween), you should look to take advantage of them. Any opportunity you can get for LOWER PRICES in this economy is an opportunity you ought to take time into looking into, even if there's nothing new about these lower prices.

I guess they put some effort into the font for HALLOWEEN SALE.
Even if non-spooky games are also on sale.

These CAPCOM sales are also available in the United Kingdom, though the sales there last until November 16, 2022. Get The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles at 38% off for 20.45 GBP! Or other parts of Europe, still 38% off and sale still ends November 16, just in Euros.


There were two purposes to this article. One, to mock Halloween tie-ins. Two, to promote purchases of the Ace Attorney franchise, even if it's not one that's visually called out as spooky in CAPCOM's banner.


The last CAPCOM-involved sale was in the middle of September to celebrate Tokyo Game Show.
Predictably, Ace Attorney games are also on sale in November 2022.

Mitt “Mario” Romney's Dog is Yoshi, not Bowser

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Also, it's fairly awful that the senator is (kind of) dressed up as THAT PLUMBER.

In an unfortunate (and arguably fitting) turn of events, Senator (and former Republican presidential candidate of 2012) Mitt Romney of Utah sort-of dressed up as “It's a-me, Mario!” for the weekend immediately preceding Halloween, and got some of his grandchildren into it too. There's Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toad, and Toadette.

It’s a-me, Mario! Enjoyed dressing up with some of the grandkids this weekend. Happy Halloween 🎃 pic.twitter.com/wVDE5nZT6D

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 31, 2022

I'm not a fan of Mitt Romney's record as a governor, as a presidential candidate (I supported the anti-Romney slate, going from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich to Ron Paul... and then he totally choked in the general election against President Barack Hussein Obama), and now as a Senator. But the above photo is perhaps the worst thing he's ever done in his life. Dressing up as Mario as Halloween? And he says he ENJOYED it? (Well, zoom in on his face... it doesn't REALLY look like he's having a good time, but I'll take his word for it.)

This is unconscionable. Even worse, he didn't just do it himself. He brought part of his family into it, steering them into a very bad direction. And if it was his grandkids’ idea to begin with, he should know better than to normalise the Mario Brothers. People are getting upset about posing as the likes of Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, or as any black person for Halloween, but Mario is the absolute worst. A genocidal monster on an unheard of scale. And Mr. Romney wasn't doing it to mock the devious red-hatted plumber with overalls (though Mr. Romney omitted the overalls for the photo... and perhaps for the entire day). He “enjoyed” it, and even said, “It’s a-me, Mario!”, clearly tying his personal reputation to Mario's, becoming one and the same. And he also described the occasion as “Happy” as opposed to somber or anything, for the lives of the millions of Goombas and Koopas murdered by him.

But beyond that, there is an even deeper question that people are asking from the photo above:

Mario Kart Tour and Koopalings as Gacha Incentive

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I hate this BECAUSE I love myself.

I would like to open this article with a snarky paragraph about how Mario Kart Tour is a desperate failure, but that wouldn't be accurate with KoopaTV's Truth mantra. In fact, Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's most successful mobile game launch—by far. There's over 90 million downloads of it. Probably over 100 million by now.

I wish Mario Kart Tour was treated like Fallout 76 by the general population, but I guess not.

To capitalise on this success, Nintendo is doing some kind of Halloween-themed thing that finally brings Luigi (who apparently lost his keys... just like I did) and Waluigi (and Baby Luigi, and King Boo, and King Boo Luigi's Mansion-style, and Rosalina in a Halloween outfit) to Mario Kart Tour.

Meh, who cares.

Well, remember in my one-and-only Mario Kart Tour article a month ago I wrote this bit to describe myself and my as-of-then non-appearance?

“Neither am I [in the game], though I was in the game's beta version. Guess I'll be a future release to try to keep people playing.

Personally, I don't want to be used as a gacha incentive.”  

Well, I'm going to be in as a gacha incentive. I get several seconds to myself in this new trailer:

The Retail amiibo Shelf and National StreetPass Weekend

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring: The day after Halloween.

A day in the life of Ludwig: Well, a special day. After spending Halloween playing Splatoon to support the victorious Team Pirates in Splatfest, I needed to obtain the $10 eShop gift card that was the prize of Round 4 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. You know, for our lustrous winner ShinyGirafarig. I also wanted to finally get Yoshi's Woolly World after having such a warm, snuggly article for its launch.

So it sounds like what I needed to do was go to a videogame store. Well, let's go to my reoccurring local Best Buy!

This time we have a ton of Captain Olimar & Pikmin amiibo.

Yoshi's Woolly World with the included yarn Yoshi amiibo ($60 bundle) wasn't on the shelf, so I had to ask for it from the back-room. And it was there! But while I was waiting for the Best Buy rep, I was wondering around the store.

I figured out that promising a $10 Xbox Live code or a $10 PlayStation Store code could be... bad ideas, as I teased yesterday. There was no $10 Xbox Live code in the store. The lowest denomination was $25. There were $10 PlayStation Store codes, but they were in a set of 3 that were $30 total. There was also, like, 1 of them at the front of the store instead of near all the PlayStation stuff. Not very reliable. Meanwhile, Nintendo's eShop cards had plenty of $10 denominations in both weird AR card forms I don't trust, and just the code.

I also found something else...

Vampires vs. Werewolves?! Splatoon 2 Halloween Splatfest!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Civilised bloodsuckers vs. unsightly monsters.

After what feels like a while, we finally have another Splatoon 2 Splatfest to talk about! This will be the last Splatfest before that idiotic, useless day at the end of this month, so Nintendo figured to make this Splatfest a choice between two scary things that could kill you. (But then again, what can't kill you flimsy humans?)

It's Vampires vs. Werewolves, this Saturday! (October 14 to October 15.)
The vampire boy has a cool cape, while the werewolf boy is some loser in a fursuit and four eyes.

Am I on Team Vampire or Team Werewolf? Which should you be, as a Koopa-loving minion-to-be? Well, there's Koopa-related history with both vampires and werewolves... at the same time:

It Would Be SCARY To Have Hillary Clinton Be President

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Did anyone dress up as Hillary for Halloween, or is that redundant with dressing up as a witch?

Today was one of the worst days of the year, Halloween. Yippee. Everyone is celebrating the scary & spooky. But I think that we should avoid that kind of thing, not champion it. Keep it under the bed... and out of the White House.

What makes Hillary Clinton such a scary proposition? Besides being wrong on just about every policy front, she's particularly wrong about foreign policy. And, in terms of changing the hearts and minds of Hillary supporters (though, many are just doing it because “FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OMG!”), I think the best point to use is that foreign policy. 

Particularly the certainty that she will be the catalyst for World War III.

KoopaTV's November 2022 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Ew, we're in December.

I am not a big fan of the month of December, so before I have to fully commit to thinking about that, let's review November 2022. That's what this newsletter is dedicated to! Except the very last section of it. That one is looking forward.

November was great. Here's some evidence:

Top Five Recommended Experiences of November 2022

Here are my personal top five recommended KoopaTV experiences listed in chronological order, published in November 2022:

1. HARVESTELLA: From a Farm Sim Fan's Perspective — Witch Princess is finally back to penning articles and wrote about the HARVESTELLA demo from her perspective. She isn't on-board with it.
2. Team Grass-type in the Pokémon Partner Splatfest — Why KoopaTV was on Team Grass in the recent November Splatfest.
3. My Panda Cup Online Qualifiers 2022 Experience — Ludwig played in four Panda Cup Online Qualifiers and the regional qualifier finale. How well did he represent KoopaTV in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?
4. Farm Sim Mechanics (and Gender) Degraded HARVESTELLA — Ludwig joined in to write KoopaTV's third article with impressions from the HARVESTELLA demo. He was quite critical of its mechanics.
5. Disgraced Game Developer Yuji Naka Arrested for Suspicions of Insider Trading — Yuji Naka is not only a bad guy, but also dumb, and got arrested for insider trading. Ludwig makes fun of him.

Well... it might be unpopular to talk about the Panda Cup at the moment given recent controversy, but it was still a really good article. Pretty much every other article on KoopaTV is also worth experiencing, even if it didn't make this list! Tough list, too.

Nintendo brings you the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020 tournament!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Nothing should stop you!

I don't know about you, but I still consider every Nintendo-Battlefy tournament to be a big deal. They have announced the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020, taking place on either February 29 or March 1, depending on where in North America you'll be during the tournament. The fact that it transcends over two months in the calendar means that they can't name it after a month, so it's named after a whole season. Guess that implies there won't be enough until the summer, so you better make your performance count.

Spring 2020 brings a Halloween colour scheme.
Halloween sucks, but I support normalising it so people stop making a big deal out of it.

What's at stake? Well, the last three of these online-based tournaments—February 2020, November 2019, and September 2019—had a guaranteed round-trip flight, lodging, $350 visa card, and ticket to major tournaments taking place in... Detroit, Oakland, and Detroit, respectively. Those aren't places that are hospitable or nice to visit, quite frankly.

But this time, the prize is in Orlando, Florida, to be able to participate at CEO Dreamland 2020 from March 13–15. Orlando is a nice place to go, especially in March. There's a lack of hurricanes. The weather is nice. Full Sail University is there, which is a game design (and other media/entertainment) college that Nintendo used to plug often. If you're into theme parks, Orlando has them.

Also new for the upcoming tournament versus the one a month ago? Québec citizens are now allowed to participate (in Region 7), and the rules regarding the $350 visa card were changed from “$350 Visa gift card provided to winners only” to “$350 Visa gift card provided to winners only to be used for expenses”, which is a significant nerf preventing you from just pocketing the cash-equivalent.

Speaking of nerfs, I don't think there will be any changes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate within the next ten days, so it will still be on 7.0.0. It will be very interesting to see how much Byleth's play rate collapses a month and a half after his introduction compared to two weeks after his introduction. I'll certainly publish that data in March.

I have good news if you already have a Nintendo Switch, already have Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but don't have a Nintendo Switch Online membership and you already used the generous free trial: My Nintendo is offering an ADDITIONAL seven-day free trial! You can use this while you're participating in the tournament. You have until March 6 to take advantage of that, which pretty much means it exists just so everyone can enter this tournament.


On March 1, Ludwig will be writing up his progress in the comments section of this article while in the tournament. The majority of entrants will be participating in the first round of the tournament, which functions as a pools round to weed the hundreds of per-region entrants into a top 32. In this, you play in a ladder-based format, meaning you get to play as many games as you can fit in three hours, and you can keep playing even if you lose several in a row. Fun times. It's free to enter.


What were the results of the Spring 2020 tournament? Click here for the winners and the character usage stats.
The next North American Online Open... isn't for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it's for ARMS!
Alright, the real next North American Online Open for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is for May 2020... though it's really in June.

KoopaTV's October 2019 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The October newsletter isn't one to fear!

Welcome to the latest edition of KoopaTV's newsletter! October 2019 sure feels like it went by quickly, yet it feels like I haven't written a newsletter in a while. (But I did, and you'll see it in the related articles at the bottom below the footer.)

October 2019 continued KoopaTV's string of solid months, though it was the first month in what's felt like a very long time without an Ace Attorney article during the month or an Enlightenment Movement article. Doesn't mean October was uninspired or not focused on developing KoopaTV canon. In fact, it focused plenty on that. Here's some EVIDENCE:

KoopaTV's Top Five Experiences of October 2019

Actually, there's a lot of articles that I thought were even written in October, so maybe it was longer than I thought. That actually makes limiting this to a top five fairly challenging and I had to spend a lot of time coming up with this chronologically-ordered list. Read these articles if you haven't already... and read everything from this month (and on KoopaTV in general) after that. Well, finish the rest of this newsletter first, because there's some stuff you'll be happy to see announced:

1. A Brave New World in Subnautica  — Kamek writes KoopaTV's second review of 2019, and it's about the indie open world experience Subnautica, which it turns out he's quite fond of.
2. October 15 2019 Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 4 ANALYSIS! — I usually (purposefully) avoid the politics-focused articles in the newsletters, but I think I did a pretty good job with this one in that it's issues-focused and not candidate-focused. You'll learn a lot about your choices here.
3. I'm Extremely Impressed With The Dragon Quest XI S Demo — Dragon Quest XI S is Ludwig's first Dragon Quest game, though for this article, his impressions are just based on the demo. ...Though he did buy the game after writing it! Features cows.
4. Yes In My Backyard: Dilapidated Houses in the City Trial — Ludwig tackles the issue of affordable housing while also going into a failed government programme instituted by King Dedede.
5. Luigi's Mansion 3 and Halloween 2019 — A wide-ranging article continuing this site's distaste for Halloween, plumbers, and the FAKE NEWS media, but also the taste for delicious candy.

Past Due on Bamboo: The TRUTH About “Tikiz”

By RAWKHAWK2010 - Tikiz. I hate these guys.

Some would say we're bad people for not taking threats to the world more seriously. They think that while everyone else is carrying out their humanitarian duties to help save society, we're somehow fine with all the impending doom...or given how we're often characterized, may even be the ones entirely behind it! That, my friends, is simply not true. (Besides, pray me tell, where was Barack ‘So Vain’ Obama during the events of Hurricane Katrina? Yeah, checkmate.)

Indeed, KoopaTV was pretty much the only news outlet on the planet who didn't report at all on that scary rally everyone was talking about. Possibly because we were currently on the verge of NUCLEAR WAR by Cappy and his pawns or something. Regardless, we saw what happened to President Trump when he arrived at the scene a day late, so we decided we'd just wait until a new season. And like literally everything else that ever happens, KoopaTV apparently didn't see what everyone else saw. They witnessed humans, we witnessed monsters. Maybe we're crazy, or maybe we're the only ones willing to see these foul beasts for what they truly are.

Name: The Tikiz.
(If they weren't so scary, I'd tell Aisha Tyler to come back and change it to #GirlWood.)

KoopaTV's 2019 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

These were decided and talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server. Behold!
 
The déjà vu from years past is intentional. (To be eligible, those running have to start their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.)

And just so you remember, that stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause we're art to be recognised and applauded, too. Just to make it clear, we have an “each KoopaTV article may only be nominated once, total.” rule that obviously doesn't apply to the gaming half.

This article is such a rehash of the 2018 one that I just erased part of the 8 to make it a 9!

KoopaTV's 2022 GOTY Nominations!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - And other categories.

The following nominations weren't decided or talked about in our Koopa Keep Discord server, but maybe the actual award winners will be. Behold! (See the bottom of this article for the link to the actual AWARDS once it's late-night Monday, January 9, 2023.)

To be eligible, those running had to have started their existence in the United States of America from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

And just so you remember, GOTY stands for “Game of THAT Year”. That's the KoopaTV touch. Speaking of which, there is a brand-new category time in the gaming awards section. It's the second one.

But yeah, this isn't just about gaming, but also ourselves. ‘cause KoopaTV is art to be recognised and applauded, too. The Best Interview award came back, because there was enough of those published in 2022 to make a category of them again.

This article is such a rehash of the 2021 one
that I just took the first 20, and copy-pasted the first 2 twice to make a 2022!

Videogame-related Awards for 2022

Best New Character

• Mio (Xenoblade Chronicles 3)
• Clawroline (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
• The cat (Stray)
• Frye (Splatoon 3)
• Lionel Khapita (Triangle Strategy)
• Larry (Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet)
• Lamb (Cult of the Lamb)

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 52: Fighting Super Pet Contest Rejects

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If I actually played every week consecutively, I'd be doing a one-year anniversary now.

Welcome to the 52nd KoopaTV Fitness Friday! (I suppose to be fair, not every Fitness Friday ended up being published on Friday, but I'll call it that anyway.) Being at good fitness and wellness is important to general life happiness, which is why I want to reiterate this week's earlier bemoaning of Daylight Saving Time and clock-switching. That puts your body in a funk. It's not good for your health. It turns out I have other problems going on as well...

This week I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure's World 52: Extra Fitness Lv. 301 on the max difficulty of 30. This world is based on World 29: Extra Fitness Lv. 195, and it's supposed to be a miniboss rush of the Four Masters’ pets. In the normal story, we'd see all four of the Four Masters as they introduce their pets and themselves. Last week, we only saw one of the Four Masters, Armando... since we had to fight the guy. I'm very interested in what twists, if any, World 52 will bring. ...And having no story or characterisation whatsoever isn't the kind of twist I want to see.

Fortunately, all four of the Four Masters were in World 52's dialogue intro. Allegra didn't think I'd show up, though she didn't give an explanation as to why she thinks that. Abdonis knew I'd come. Armando said it'll only get harder from here, so I better be prepared. Lastly, Guru Andma likes the opportunity for us to train together... provided we clear the miniboss rush of everyone's pets.

There's been a Pokémon Super Pet Contest held. None of the miniboss pets here got to become a finalist.
(Though none of the pets that I advocated for did, either. Will they become monsters, too?)

KoopaTV's November 2021 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I don't like this coming month, you know.

The next of these newsletters I publish, it'll be 2022. That's WEIRD. I don't like it.

Anyway, this newsletter is all about making sure you're caught up with what happened with KoopaTV (your favourite website, surely?) during the month that just passed—November 2021! We'll cover the top articles, the top reader commentary, a leaderboard notice to the current KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program round, and our Corrections Corner that (unfortunately) isn't empty this time.

Top Five Recommended Experiences of November 2021

In chronological order...

1. The Evolution of the Fire Emblem Soldier — This is a rather in-depth article examining the humble (and disrespected) beginnings of the Soldier class in Fire Emblem... and how they've achieved parity and even equality with other classes in the latest games.
2. Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 52: Fighting Super Pet Contest Rejects — This is my compromise for excluding the actual Super Pet Contest article from this top five, but this really is the best Fitness Log of Fitness Master mode so far because it's brimming with actually interesting game info, fitness info, and... some aspects of my personal life.
3. Yeah, Activision is Dumb for Having In-Office Alcoholic Drinks — While this isn't the... typical take people and companies are having from what's going on with Activision Blizzard, it's a topic I feel rather strongly about and I've yet to hear any justification for it.
4. Riot Expands League of Legends Lore with Indie-Developed Spin-offs — I may not be a fan of League of Legends (and that's an understatement), but I very much respect the Riot Forge initiative and think it's a model for other publishers to follow.
5. Habit-Forming Game Comparison: Ring Fit Adventure vs. Pokémon Smile — I've been vocal in my support for Ring Fit Adventure on KoopaTV for the past couple of years, and I've also done things with Pokémon Smile. Using a framework from an author specialising in how industry hooks customers on developing habits, I evaluated and compared the designs for those two games.

There are several articles I ended up snubbing in this top five (including those with interesting gimmicks to them that I would really like everyone to see), so what you should REALLY do is consider every KoopaTV article worth reading... and then go check them out.

Fatal Frame on Wii U's Digital Only Debacle (Updated 10/22/2015)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Circumstances of a guaranteed disaster more horrific than the game contents.

Now, I don't know anything about the Fatal Frame franchise, but according to my source (Wikipedia, if you must know), it's a series also known as Project Zero in Europe and it's a horror game from Koei Tecmo and published by Nintendo as of recently. You use the "Camera Obscura" to scare ghosts with photographs, including the titular "Fatal Frame" which I assume is really painful. I wouldn't want my ethereal picture taken either, but I guess it's better than being sucked up by a vacuum.

The latest game (number five) is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. It's coming out in North America/Europe/Oceania this October (between this week and Halloween) but in a limited release, because I guess this series is super-niche and sells horribly. It was announced back in the April 1st Nintendo Direct, if you remember its one line of coverage. But it's been out in Japan since last year.

Freaky diehard fans had this whole "Operation Rainfall" and "Operation Zero" (latter is Fatal Frame specific) campaign to get it localised. One of these freaks actually guest-posted on KoopaTV to drum up support and won a prize for it in our pre-Loyalty Program days. Shows that we value writing ability over if we agree with you.

I guess they did end up succeeding, in... some capacity. Check out Nintendo of America's trailer below. Also, warning: This is "extremely spoopy" and rated M. I'll meet you after the page-break.