Hollow Knight Jumping The Digital–Physical Gap

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Early next year.

Ever since its during-E3 2018 release on Nintendo Switch and an impressive showing the next day during its Nintendo Treehouse Live segment (even if we at KoopaTV didn't say much in our reaction log about it), we've been giving some attention to Hollow Knight. The game's Australian developer. Team Cherry, has since announced wonderful sales numbers for the game on both Nintendo Switch and its earlier (2017) PC iteration, and has therefore partnered with Skybound Games to announce a physical, definitive edition of the game for “early next year,” as well as releases on the other mainline consoles.

Not to be outdone, Shovel Knight is also getting an early 2019 physical release. And amiibo. And some fighting game. Either way, Shovel is the irrelevant knight.

I could have gotten Hollow Knight at 33% off ($10 instead of $15), but at the same time that Team Cherry announced the sale, they had announced the physical edition. As someone that wants to buy physical editions whenever I can, of course I'm going to wait to buy that instead of get a cheaper digital version.

Just going to wait on this bench...
(Screenshot courtesy of Team Cherry's press kit for Hollow Knight, which they really need to go ahead and update.)

And, you know, it's interesting that Team Cherry announced these at the same time, because in their announcement, they said...

Dragalia Lost Mobile Direct Live Reactions!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Yet another waifu-filled free-to-play mobile game with micro-transactions.

Last night, Nintendo aired a Dragalia Lost Direct that, based on the timing, was probably focused on the audiences in Asia where they really want to make the most money. We at KoopaTV preferred to sleep, so we barely woke up this morning to react on what we missed. After all, Dragalia Lost is important enough to Nintendo to be announced at a Nintendo investor event. And the investors liked what they saw. (That should give you reason to pause.)

Dragalia Lost is an action-RPG coming out next month in America and some Asian countries, developed in partnership with Nintendo and Cygames.

If you want to watch the Direct with us (myself and Rawk), then here's the embed. Below that are our unfiltered, unedited reactions to Dragalia Lost! The first substantive look at it!

Great Courses to Take if You Want to Be a Game Developer

By CASSIE - Want to be a game developer? Read this.

A game developer is a person who creates and develops code for video games. Their job can involve every aspect of video game creation, from developing a storyline, drawing up the game, animation, as well as designing and programming different elements. For creative types and those who love the challenge of video games, it can be a fulfilling and exciting career choice. If you’re still in the stages of deciding whether to pursue game development, there are some great courses that can help build your foundational knowledge. Here are great courses to take if you want to be a game developer.

Maths

While an understanding of maths isn’t all you need to be a great game developer, having mathematical knowledge can help you when it comes to learning the ins and outs of coding. In its essence, coding involves coming up with equations that will allow a computer to function in a certain way or perform a certain task. It is about knowing which equation is best and being able to use equations to direct action. For this reason, those who have an advanced understanding of mathematics are more likely to excel when it comes to being a game developer. As well as this, the skills you gain from studying maths, such as logic and problem-solving, are important skills to have as a game developer. A math background means overcoming obstacles in game design will be less challenging for you and you will have learnt strategies for solving any errors or mistakes that might come up.

You Should've Been Able To Use Amiibo To Unlock Smash Bros. Characters The Whole Time

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What's wrong with it?

An interesting discovery happened over the weekend: people reportedly saw that, on the Canadian Best Buy website for the Wolf, Inkling, and Ridley amiibo, it said that if you tap the amiibo while playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it will instantly unlock that character. These descriptions are immortalised in this GameXplain video, but if you go to the website now, it was rewritten to remove the word “unlock” and replace with the wording “enjoy fun in-game extra features in compatible games”. Cover-up? Correcting a mistake? Who knows, but I want to discuss the idea of it, not whether or not it's actually true.

First of all, in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, if you ever tried to use an amiibo for a character you haven't unlocked yet, you would be able to fight that character as a Figure Player, but it wouldn't unlock the character for your own use. Same with one of the DLC characters if you've kept your game version up-to-date. That means if bought a Cloud amiibo but haven't bought the Cloud DLC, you can fight your Cloud amiibo but you can't play as Cloud. Keep in mind the amiibo costs several times more than the DLC.

Why shouldn't you get the DLC with the amiibo? Why not be able to unlock a normal character with their amiibo, in a game where unlocking characters is already super-easy? It's also great for tournament organisers who can have a giant amiibo collection and then unlock all the characters for all of the game set-ups across the tournament. It's a lot more scalable than the alternative.

(And here is a group photo of my amiibo collection, which isn't giant, but...)

Let's Hope There's No Madden Movie About The Jacksonville Shooting

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Let's also hope there's not another Jacksonville shooting that happens in the future that makes this article title ambiguous.

You probably have heard through any news outlet out there that there was a Madden NFL 19 tournament last weekend that got interrupted by an idiot competitor who shot the place, killing two people and himself, after losing in the winners and losers brackets. It was the Southeastern Qualifier for the Madden NFL 19 Classic tournament taking place at the GLHF Game Bar in Jacksonville, Florida — the winner of this 100+-man tournament would get $250 and qualify for the finals taking place in Las Vegas in October, for a prize pool of $165,000. The winner would get $25,000. Big stuff.

The competitor-turned-murderer, entered in the tournament as david_katz, competed against other names such as Young_Kiv (who we saw on-stage at the Electronic Arts E3 2018 press conference, as the winner of the Madden NFL 18 tournament), and the two deceased victims of the shooting, Trueboy and spotmeplzzz. (There is a gofundme for the victims here you can donate to.) A few handfuls of other people were wounded but are expected to recover.

After losing, he went outside, got his semiautomatic gun, came back to the tournament venue, and started shooting at people. Not necessarily at the people who beat him.

While I said david_katz lost the tournament, Florida investigators don't have a motive yet. The investigation is on-going. As such, KoopaTV will not ascribe a motive to the shooter's actions. Speculation here is dangerous. So let me talk about how this affects you.

It Begins: No Pro Controller for Super Mario Party

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Joy-Con only.

I warned about this. It hasn't even been a year since I wrote the article, “Will Developers Maintain Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Support?” The message was clear: The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is my preferred way to play games, and accommodating diverse ways to play (“play the games you love, however you like.” is one line that Nintendo uses to market the Nintendo Switch) is what the Nintendo Switch is all about.

According to the Spain Nintendo site NextN (they seem like a decent set of folks, not that I can read Spanish), Nintendo confirmed to them that Super Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch will only be controllable via the Joy-Con controllers. You can play with the Joy-Con on their side so every Nintendo Switch owner will be able to play with at least them and one other person in local multiplayer, but note the word “only” in that. No Pro Controller.

The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is designed to be able to do almost everything a Joy-Con can do. (Infrared camera, no, but since you can play with either Joy-Con (the left Joy-Con lacks an infrared camera), that's not the issue here.) Of course, I'm sure there is a reason somewhere for why it's Joy-Con only, some niche use that ruins the experience for everyone.

You can do the game's high-five gestures or whatever with a Pro Controller. Sure, it's less intuitive, but that's my choice.
Is the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller banned because it doesn't have a wrist-strap? Is there no personal responsibility?

Fixed One-Time Cost vs. Microtransactions/Loot Boxes vs. Subscription Fee

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Shigeru Miyamoto has his opinions. I have mine. How do they compare?

Right now, the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference 2018, a Japanese version of the Game Developers Conference hosted by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (they also host the Tokyo Game Show), is concluding. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was a prominent speaker. You can read a write-up of his speech as reported here by Bloomberg, but I'll summarise the relevant points that I want to commentate on for this article.

• One-time fee games: Like Super Mario Run and the majority of Nintendo's games to-date. You pay one cost up-front, and you get the whole game and you're happy with it. Miyamoto is a fan of this, since it's the most friendly for game developers
• Free-to-play games with micro-transactions and loot boxes: You get the game for free, and then continue to pay small costs as you continue to play the game in order to access the rest of the content. Miyamoto isn't a fan and thinks this isn't sustainable (and it's akin to gambling). Examples include Nintendo Badge Arcade, Swapdoodle, and Pokémon Shuffle
• Subscription: You pay a fixed fee every time period (month, year, whatever). Miyamoto thinks that there should be more of this in the gaming industry because it creates a relationship between developer and player where you keep them engaged, but he simultaneously in his speech said that he doesn't want to develop an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), which is where subscriptions are more prevalent. An example will include Nintendo Switch Online, but software examples include the MMORPG World of Warcraft

Miyamoto's views on this are interesting, because, in a way, subscription is the middle-ground between micro-transactions and a fixed-fee cost model. While free-to-play games often extract money from players based on value-destroying techniques (waiting to play, stopping you with paywalls, etc.), and the one-time up-front fee lets you never have to worry about pleasing your customer post-sale, subscription means you need to keep providing your customer with value every year or they won't renew it.

The Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot Used For Ultimate Character Selections — But It Was RIGGED, Remember?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Not only was the winner rigged, but so was the whole process.

Remember the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot? Announced April 1, 2015. Ended October 2015 — but let's face it, Masahiro Sakurai's team didn't wait until the ballot actually ended to start developing Bayonetta. The Fighter Ballot was a marketing gimmick designed for Super Smash Bros. 4, where people could write-in the character they want the most as downloadable content.

According to Masahiro Sakurai's Famitsu magazine column (as translated by the decent folks at Source Gaming), while the Smash Ballot was useless for the game it was advertised for, it had a lot of influence on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:

“I referred to the Smash Ballot when selecting characters this time, and King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series was one who received a ton of votes.”

Let's put aside the fact that the ballot was rigged in terms of the winner. The whole process was rigged. Because it was intended for Super Smash Bros. 4, that means that people weren't going to waste their one vote on the myriad of characters that were Assist Trophies in Super Smash Bros. 4, since logically a character can't both be an Assist Trophy and a playable character at the same time.

That's not a problem if you're like me and voted for Phoenix Wright, but using the Ballot based on the circumstances of Super Smash Bros. 4 for character selection in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate disenfranchises fans of characters who were Assist Trophies in Super Smash Bros 4. Characters like Waluigi (already confirmed to be an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), Ashley (whose status as an Assist Trophy is murky), Lyn (also confirmed to be an Assist Trophy again), Knuckle Joe (same deal), and... dare I bring him up, Takamaru. (He's also an Assist Trophy in both games, and Takamaru barely deserves to even be that.)

Dark Samus and Little Mac got promoted.
But most Assist Trophies have not been, and the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot hurt them even more.

With all of this systemic bias against Assist Trophies becoming playable characters in future titles, it's a miracle that Little Mac managed to make the jump! ...And, as of publishing, he and Dark Samus are the only ones who have in the history of Super Smash Bros.


When Sakurai asks for feedback, you shouldn't trust that it'll be used properly. KoopaTV's Feedback Forms, on the other hand, are actually unbiased and honest attempts to try to make KoopaTV a better website. Fill out the KoopaTV Feedback Forms!


The actual winner, revealed in 2021, of the Super Smash Fighter Ballot was Sora. Would he have won it if it wasn't rigged?

Kim Hunter, Huh? FIFA 19: The Journey: Champions... Journey Finale!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I care about Alex Hunter's journey.

Alex Hunter has been doing great things in his association football (soccer) career lately since FIFA 17 and then FIFA 18. He recently transferred to the Real Madrid team (as opposed to that awful Fake Madrid team across the street that he was dealing with before). He also discovered he has a white-looking half-sister named Kim.

Anyway, check out this trailer that released today for FIFA 19, featuring Alex Hunter. It already has over half a million views on YouTube alone:

You get to play as Alex Hunter, and Kim Hunter, and Danny Williams — all established characters in Alex Hunter's saga. As noted by Electronic Arts, FIFA 19 will feature the very last part of Alex Hunter's Journey trilogy that started in FIFA 17. But you also get to experience the journeys of the other characters, and they're going through their own stories. Kim, for example, is playing for the United States Women's Soccer team. It's unlikely that Alex's and Kim's stories will intersect on the soccer field (Alex's and Danny's probably will!) but The Journey features extensive off-field story interaction as well.

Which utensil is more useful? Fork VS. Spoon Splatfest!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - There is only one objective answer.

We support proper utensil usage at KoopaTV, and utensil usage to begin with. There are many articles on this site about the virtues of using a stylus instead of your fingers when operating a touch screen. The same principle applies to your food.

Given that fact, one may ask, “Which is the more useful utensil?” But you wouldn't think that would be something written about on KoopaTV, a videogame commentary story.

Never doubt what is and what is not off-topic on KoopaTV, especially given the existence of a more-or-less monthly Splatoon 2 Splatfest! Yes, behold this upcoming Saturday's North American Splatfest theme...

TEAM FORK vs. TEAM SPOON! Which utensil is more useful?

KoopaTV is the sole website on the Internet that will write a detailed opinion article on the usefulness of forks versus spoons for the Splatoon 2 Splatfest. KoopaTV also happens to be the most qualified website on the Internet to write that article. We present...