A Pokémon-Sponsored Splatfest: Pokémon RED vs. BLUE

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Obviously, Pokémon Blue is better.

I never wanted Splatoon's Splatfests to come to this. Ever since Autobots vs. Decepticons, we knew sponsored Splatfests were possible. (Well, ever since Japan's Red Fox vs. Green Tanuki Splatfests, which were their second Splatfest, but no one knows what the hell those are, much less that they're noodles brands.) I just never thought Nintendo would be so self-serving as to advertise themselves.

Even more unheard of, is that it'd be The Pokémon Company behind it — and they're isolationists!

Pokémon presents...
A Splatfest that will finally settle an old score!

That's right. Pokémon presents. As in, about to show something. You're not getting any presents from these people. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow coming out on the Virtual Console isn't a present. You gotta pay for it this February 27th. Or later if it's not a day one purchase for you.

Anyway, this Splatfest tasks North America and Europe (and Oceania) to choose between Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. For Japan, it's between Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, so they have a different graphic.

The goal of this article is to convince you to give Marie another try: Support Team Pokémon Blue version!

Yahoo! eSports! No More Gym Class!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - If you so choose.

So remember when I said ESPN now has an eSports section? Yahoo! is getting one too, soon. With dedicated staff. Now, it is as if you DON'T have an eSports section on your website, it's a competitive disadvantage.

KoopaTV will not be having an eSports section anytime soon. An article every so often is more than enough.

I guess there will now be an E section. Or maybe it'll be a lowercase e.
By the way, their Games section is much like ours, except they have garbage instead of greatness.

In other news, apparently I'm supposed to be spelling it as “esports”, according to Super Smash Bros. Melee player MacD. He didn't respond to my question, and if you notice, every source cited in this article spells it as eSports.

@SPY_MacD Is that a fact or your opinion? We have a style guide to manage here and JUST published an article on esports spelling it eSports.

— KoopaTV (@TheREALKoopaTV) January 25, 2016

If you have any insights as to what's correct, let me know. We'll update everything on the site.

But you know what else is being updated? (Or downgraded, depending on your viewpoint?)

Consider Enrolling in the Big Brain Academy!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Tuition-free, so it satisfies Bernie Sanders. There's a mandatory student activities fee of $6.99, though.

Today's Wii U Virtual Console releases include the Nintendo DS Touch Generations title Big Brain Academy. Not everyone is enthusiastic about it.

...In fact, only one guy is. (No, it wasn't free in Europe.)

People point to other countries' Virtual Console services. Yes, Europe just got Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team on the Wii U Virtual Console this week. Amazing games — the first ones in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series — and if you live in Europe, own a Wii U, and have never played either before, you really need to pick one of them up.

However, Big Brain Academy is still pretty good, and a lot better than some of what the DS Virtual Console has gotten before. I know. I own it on the DS. It's really fun. The title music even got remixed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and brought back for Super Smash Bros. For Wii U.

IS Defense: Machine Gunning ISIS Invaders to Europe

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It might come to a PC near you.

While KoopaTV would've loved to have made a videogame based on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, we chose to focus our 2015 efforts on another endeavour. Fortunately for the gaming world, Hatred developer Destructive Creations is filling the void with IS Defense. It's on Steam Greenlight right now, as of Tuesday! The basis is that it's 2020, and the Islamic State went way past just Iraq and Syria and established a caliphate on the whole of Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Now they're gunning for Europe. And hopefully you'll outgun these Jihadists, because you're playing as a NATO machine gunner whose task is to kill as many as these radical Islamic terrorists as you can before you die. NATO exists to support you, though in a somewhat limited capacity of airstrikes and other things. The game also includes ranking up and skill-trees, with dynamic difficulty. Here's the trailer:

It's not really my type of game in terms of gameplay, but I'd like for it to pass the Greenlight process. I do believe it's sort of generic (though apparently fans of the turret-shooting genre say there's not enough games in it) but is getting attention thanks to its focus on the Islamic State (you can bet that's the only reason I'm writing about it)

There's some interesting assumed mythos involved here, coinciding with breaking news from today!

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.

Were We Right About the Miiverse Summer Redesign?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I wrote what the ramifications would be. Did those play out over time?

On July 29th, 2015, I published Ramifications of Miiverse Redesign Summer 2015. It was a great, detailed article outlining each of the changes that happened with Nintendo's summer 2015 Miiverse redesign that dramatically affected Miiverse, and presented my thoughts about how each of those changes would change Miiverse usage and activity. It was published the day the redesign took into effect.

It's been over half a year since the redesign, although the banner proclaiming that the redesign occurred remained at the top of several Miiverse pages for months after the redesign. (It's finally gone.) It's time to see if I was right, and if there were any other smaller updates since the major redesign. (Spoilers: There were. Several. They fixed things.)

Cybersecurity Concerns: Paranoia or Serious Threat?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I want to just withdraw in my shell and stay there.

Recently, I was almost a victim of a malicious malware attack attempt because of my position as the owner of KoopaTV. Or maybe I actually am a victim of it and I lead my self into a false sense of security.

This kind of thing is extremely common on the Internet. The Internet is crawling with bad stuff that can do real harm to your computer and your life. Viruses, malware, spyware, phishing, worms, bots, injection attacks, a long list of funky sounding names. You think Zika virus is bad? You kind of have to be in a crappy area and doing some funky things to get it. You can be browsing an innocent website and suddenly bad things will just happen automatically without your input or knowledge.

Websites can suffer this even without the owners knowing, so for all I know, KoopaTV is getting lower views than usual because people are being redirected to some weird bad site because of a security exploit. Hope not.

Humourously, this has been happening to one of the worst Nintendo forums in the world, NSider2, for years now. From what I can tell, it's STILL happening, probably because its head admin is a guy who only cares about himself and has no regard for other people. And I might've just screwed myself by checking.

Bayonetta Helping Her Sales

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Makes sense to me.

Yesterday, you could begin playing as Bayonetta and Corrin in Super Smash Bros. 4. We all know that Corrin literally exists to promote Fire Emblem: Fates, coming out this February 19 in North America in multiple versions like a Pokémon game. While Bayonetta is in because people voted for her (pushed mostly by Europe), don't think for a moment that Nintendo ain't taking advantage of her existence for advertisement!

'cause, you know what also is coming out February 19? Bayonetta 2! Re-released.

All by itself.

 
Remember that before, in North America, Bayonetta 2 was only released as a bundle with Bayonetta the first. Presumably because the first Bayonetta was never released on a Nintendo system, and they didn't want people to be left out since Bayonetta 2 is a sequel.

Give a Warm Welcome to Bayonetta! (Oh, there's some Corrin kid too)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, Bayonetta deserves a HAWT welcome. Which she is able to give herself by virtue of her very presence.

In the middle of December, Masahiro Sakurai told us who the last DLC characters would be. We have Smash Ballot winner (though, it was through more dubious means than Hillary Clinton getting more votes than Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Caucus) Bayonetta from the critically-acclaimed Bayonetta, and some advertisement Fire Emblem crap named Corrin. Sakurai mentioned that they're targeting February 2016 for both Bayonetta and Corrin.

Well, it's now February 2016, and it so happens that Sakurai met his target at the BEGINNING of the month, rather than the end of it. This is much more timely than saying Super Smash Bros. For 3DS would come out in the summer and having it come out in October and pretending he didn't miss his own deadline or anything. He must be really eager to work on whatever it is he actually wants to work on.

Bayonetta and Corrin should be available for purchase from the Nintendo eShop for both Super Smash Bros. For 3DS and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U as of when you read this, on a worldwide basis.

Bayonetta is so welcoming!

 

I'll let you know my full thoughts on Bayonetta and Corrin's inclusions in a later article, along with the other DLC characters. Because a request told me to, and I rather like that request. I just need time. In the meantime, let me give a quick thought or two.

Some February 2, 2016 Nintendo Financials

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - We don't have anything else to talk about the day before Super Smash Bros. 4 DLC.

The big news, of course, were the results of the Iowa Caucus. But I think I promised as late as yesterday night that KoopaTV would cool on the obviously politically-oriented articles, so what is there to talk about in the videogame world?

Oh, looks like Nintendo released some financial statements about what happened between April and December 2015 today. Here are the CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS. Plus, SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. I love supplements. ...Though I'm using a different meaning of the word in a context that only I and a few other dozen people get, and none of those other people read KoopaTV.

The first thing I try to pay special attention to when Nintendo reveals the best-selling Wii U software is to check if they have Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the list. You need to be a million-seller to get on the list! And... is it there? ...Nope.

Where is the justice in a world where Mario Party 10 makes the list but Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze doesn't?

That list is almost like the list of Republican candidates by vote-count in the Iowa Caucus... Erm... sorry. No more politics tangents for the rest of the article until the footer. I promise.