KoopaTV on TV Tropes!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We're a CRT, and they're an HDTV. Combined, we can cover all your needs.

I would like to announce to the world a new KoopaTV initiative: We have partnered with TV Tropes to bring you the KoopaTV TV Tropes page!

Wendy was supposed to make this, but she... didn't, so I made this in about a minute.

...And that's all we really have to say.

Oh, right. We want you to contribute to the page! Stay tuned for Monday's Newsletter so you can learn how we will bribe incentivise you to do that. We'll have a tab on our site that will lead right to our TV Tropes page so it'll never be far from you.

We hope that our partnership with TV Tropes will allow our readers to learn more about KoopaTV in a fun, new way. Y'know, besides just reading every article on the site. Which is still recommended for the full experience. And WE add value to the folks over at TV Tropes by exposing them to an awesome website they might have never seen before. So as you can see, everyone's lives are enriched.

TV Tropes is a natural choice for being KoopaTV's partner because they also exemplify the same values of Truth & Levity that we stress so much. And KoopaTV actually does use a lot of tropes. We consider our whole website to be a work of art, which is such a fundamentally different approach than the other videogame websites you may read or come across.

Oh yeah, you have like, a few minutes as of publishing to redeem any Club Nintendo codes you may have. Go do that. Just to add to the TVs, look how my Golden Sun code ended!

GOLDEN SUN WII U - CLUB NINTENDO
  A080-66KP-27VC-70TV

KoopaTV, TV Tropes, 70TV... We're in good hands. Hopefully there's the right channel for you somewhere there!
 

Ludwig doesn't actually watch TV shows anymore besides The Greg Gutfeld Show on Sunday nights at 10 PM Eastern. Anyway, he's an avid reader of TV Tropes, and how he's happy to self-servedly contribute to it. You should be happy to contribute to KoopaTV the website, and you can do so by commenting or submitting other content such as guest art/posts! And you might get a Nintendo eShop code for doing so.

King K. Rool, The Black Knight, Lloyd — Wave 3 Mii Fighter Costumes!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Super Smash Bros. 4 version 1.1.0.

Tonight, in Japan and soon elsewhere, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U (and For 3DS) got a new update, granting the updates-in-the-future Sakurai described the Sunday morning of E3 week for the "New Content Approaching" presentation. That includes tournaments and YouTube.

It also means a new round of Mii Fighters.

Left-to-right from top left: Hoodies, Flying Man, Bears, a loser, King K. Rool, Lloyd Irving, Samus, and the Black Knight.

The trailer for 'em is pretty cool. It's embedded below the page-break. We'll discuss it.

Ramifications of Miiverse Redesign Summer 2015

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This doesn't seem to be going in the right direction.

Today I woke up wondering one thing: What the hell is Nintendo's Miiverse going to look like today?

I was going to write about the new Miiverse redesign when it was first announced at the beginning of the month. But I decided that since the details were pending and you can never trust a preview, that it would just be better to wait. I still took screenshots of all the parts of the announcement.

Nintendo Tom looks really happy. Should we?

And somehow, just somehow, it was worse than I imagined it would be. And since it's pretty close to, if not worse than what the original redesign notice promised, we'll use that as a guide for our discussion.

Dragon Quest X and XI: First Games on Nintendo NX?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What if "NX" is really Roman lettering, too?

It looks like Square Enix is on a roll: After decidedly winning E3, they still have more to announce little over a month later. Their E3 conference left a little sour jab at Nintendo with their now-famous quote that they have diverse offerings for "every viable platform" yet not a single game announced was on a Nintendo platform. That changes now, because Square Enix reportedly announced Dragon Quest XI is coming to the 3DS (well, pretty much all of the games in the main series are playable on Nintendo portables) and also to the Nintendo NX, along with the porting of Dragon Quest X. (Then they tried to mask their announcement by saying it was merely "under consideration".)

Remember: The Nintendo NX isn't even officially announced yet, making these Dragon Quest games the first ones that have been confirmed to appear. Or even the first to be considered, since it's only speculation from fans that The Legend of Zelda on Wii U will appear on it ala Twilight Princess appearing on both GameCube and Wii.

Isn't it interesting that Square Enix is the very first company to do this? Is it a sign of strong third-party support for the Nintendo NX? And is it confirmed to be on the console side of things, rather than the portable? After all, Dragon Quest XI could've been for the "Wii U and NX".

Speaking of the NX and Dragon Quest XI, notice something... weird now?

Pixels: The 8-Bit Disaster

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Hollywood doesn't understand gaming culture.

I don't understand why Sony (or their movie division) decided to release Pixels in theatres. Or anywhere. Why does it exist? Obviously they saw the success of Wreck-It Ralph a few years ago and wanted to replicate it... except live-action and with Adam Sandler (acting and producing). I can't give a detailed analysis about the differences between Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels and why the first was critically acclaimed and well-liked by moviegoers and gamers alike, and why Pixels is just garbage. I'm a videogame blogger, not a movie analyst.

I do know this, though: Damn, Pixels really sucks. Not that I've watched it, mind you. But I don't think this is a case of "you can't trust the reviewers."

I like that it's a critic consensus that, apparently, Pac-Man is one of the worst arcade games.
These critics should go into gaming.

Nintendo Teaming With Facebook...Super Mario Maker?!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - You may be surprised at my reaction. Or you might not be now that I said to expect a surprise.

Even though no one turned out to actually want to play Super Mario Maker when Nintendo made it available across America during E3 at hundreds of select Best Buys, Nintendo has not given up on promoting the game. And they shouldn't.

You could see them at San Diego Comic-Con, The Food Network, and now at the office of... Facebook?

Nintendo press release: 

"Nintendo is hosting a special "hackathon" event at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park on July 28 and July 29. [...] The Super Mario Maker hackathon is exclusively for Facebook employees to design a special level in the game. [...] The event will culminate with designers presenting their creations to a panel of judges from Nintendo and Facebook. The winning individual or team has the opportunity to make the level available for Super Mario Maker owners to play after the game’s launch."

Of course, with the power of Super Mario Maker, Facebook's employees could also just buy the game after release and create as many levels as they want available for Super Mario Maker owners to play. But the press release continues saying that Nintendo will selectively release filmed parts of the "hackathon" on their social media levels, so this Facebook-branded level may get as much notoriety as the Super Mario Maker levels from the Nintendo World Championships! So notorious that they also are going to be in the final release. Who will design the better level: Facebook or Nintendo Treehouse?

But... let's talk about the implications of this event. And what it really is.

Arkham Origins Review

By SUPERDEKU - Batman: Arkham Origins: The Review.

Batman: Arkham Origins is the third installment in the Batman: Arkham series and is the first game in the Arkham series timeline. The game wasn't made by the previous developers for Arkham City and Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady Studios. It was instead developed by Warner Brothers Games.

The box art for the game on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.

Arkham Origins follows Batman (Bruce Wayne) a few years before the Arkham Asylum incident. You play as  a slightly inexperienced Batman, and younger, too. Bruce Wayne has gone under the guise of Batman for at least two years prior to Arkham Origins. He just became widely popular after and during the events of Arkham Origins.

Yosuke Matsuda's Law of Third Titles

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Let's come up with examples. And counter-examples.

Remember "Project SETSUNA" from Square Enix's E3 2015 presentation? It got a line in our log, and another line in our total E3 2015 recap. It's being developed by Square's new subsidiary, Tokyo RPG Factory. And we know nothing about it.

Anyway, Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, was referencing this "Project SETSUNA" when he said (according to Kotaku's translation):

"I believe that it is very difficult to immediately build up a big IP. Looking retrospectively at the gaming industry, many games take off or get their big break at their third title. [...] I call this my “Law of Third Titles” That’s why for the first and second games, you experiment to a degree where you can still be flexible, and if the series has grown enough to be able to expect a big hit for the third game, you expand the scale. If the third title is successful then all is well."

Now, it's impossible to make one rule that fits everything in the videogame industry, but this IS something that I've noticed in the past.

How the hell did this happen if not for the Law of Third Titles?

Donald Trump doxxed Lindsey Graham!?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Where I come from, that's unacceptable.

Obviously, us politically-minded folks at KoopaTV haven't ignored Donald Trump's skyrocketing in the polls.

Look how many columns that table has!

The only thing rising faster than Trump's poll numbers (and the number of Republican Party candidates running for president) is Donald Trump's... total lack of control. Alternatively, it's completely deliberate. I mean, we're writing about him right now! (Rand Paul attributes that attention as the reason why Trump is rising in the polls. Well, do I have to endorse Rand Paul again?)

It's been internally noted (and I'm sure also noted on the KoopaTV fan discussion forums across the Internet) that Donald Trump appears to be the personification of KoopaTV. The man speaks the truth. The guy presents it with tremendous levity. Seriously, he's speaking what people are thinking but he's doing it hilariously. Exactly like KoopaTV.

But there's a difference between Donald Trump and KoopaTV, besides the whole he's-a-person and we-are-a-website thing:

New GRAPHIC DESIGNER: The Princess Wendy!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My own very talented sister joins our staff.

You may have been wondering what happened to Ludwig Painting since I advertised it three months ago. The truth is, is that there is so much business flowing in I cannot do it myself. So I asked my dear sister, Princess Wendy O. Koopa, for help.

There's a reason our Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U is the magical paintbrush: We all got aptitude for this. 

Well, she's been doing a phenomenal job, and I asked her to help me out with my other enterprise that obviously y'all are a lot more familiar with: KoopaTV! And... she said yes! See, the new KoopaTV.org is going places!

Her 65x65 avatar.

If we're looking for talent, then why not take the most nepotistic (or, "nepotastic", as I prefer) option and just hire my sister? She's guaranteed to be amazing and perfect, with all of the awesomeness you should expect from a Royal Koopa Family member.

The Royal Koopa Family KoopaTV staff members, from left to right: Kamek, Wendy, and Ludwig.

Rawk objected because he didn't want the low-class non-Koopa misfits (he and the Transformer) to be outnumbered. I overruled him, obviously. Either way, expect Wendy to occasionally (because she's a very busy princess and basically is doing the majority of the work for Ludwig Painting) contribute great-quality visual assets to KoopaTV articles and other KoopaTV projects. Just another thing that makes us a step above all those other websites you might otherwise go to. (Or... just something that makes us tie with their higher standards. Either way.)

Oh, don't expect Wendy to ever write anything. She's the "Digital Graphics Producer", not another "Content Writer". Of course, if she ever wants to, then she can. (And believe me, if she ever does, prepare for a wrath never-seen-before on KoopaTV. We'll give a content warning ahead of time!) You may also find her in Live Reaction logs in the future!


The "Digital Graphics Producer" position isn't totally strikethroughed in the Jobs page, so that probably means KoopaTV is willing to accept more artistic types. Why not you? Unless you're talent-less. Then stay away. Either way, welcome Wendy O. Koopa to KoopaTV!


Ludwig is worried about the lack of output from Wendy.