July 31 2019 Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 2, Night 2 ANALYSIS!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm just surprised that July has 31 days.

Welcome to KoopaTV's coverage of the second 2020 Democrat presidential primary debate... night two! Unlike night one (and night two) of the first debate, we'll try to have our analysis published on the very same night, made possible by the 8 PM Eastern starting time. (As opposed to the 9 PM Eastern starting time.) That still only gives me about twelve minutes maximum per candidate to publish the article in the same day, so let's introduce tonight's heavy hitters: Michael Bennett, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julián Castro, Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, John Inslee, and Bill de Blasio.

(If you need an explanation about these debates or who the candidates are, check out the page-level pinned 2020 Presidential Debate Coverage Index.)

This debate and night one hosted yesterday is hosted by FAKE NEWS CNN. Here is their ruleset:

• The candidates will be aware, via colour-coded lights, how much time they have left
• Other candidates want to be attacked so they get 30 seconds of speaking time. They have to be attacked, not just merely name-dropped
• Candidates who consistently interrupt will get less attention from the moderators/“time reduced”
• The viewers will see the questions asked on the bottom of the screen, so we can remember what the question is when the candidate pivots to another topic
• No one-word-answer questions like the first debate

We'll see if CNN follows it, because they didn't exactly follow the point about no interruptions. Here's NPR's talking times:

July 30 2019 Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 2, Night 1 ANALYSIS!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This is the one with the least people I care about.

Welcome to KoopaTV's coverage of the second 2020 Democrat presidential primary debate... night one! Unlike night one of the first debate, we'll try to have our analysis published on the very same night, made possible by the 8 PM Eastern starting time. (As opposed to the 9 PM Eastern starting time.) Night 1's cast is Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, and Steve Bullock.

(If you need an explanation about these debates or who the candidates are, check out the page-level pinned 2020 Presidential Debate Coverage Index.)

This debate and night two hosted tomorrow is hosted by FAKE NEWS CNN. Here is their ruleset:

• The candidates will be aware, via colour-coded lights, how much time they have left
• Other candidates want to be attacked so they get 30 seconds of speaking time. They have to be attacked, not just merely name-dropped
• Candidates who consistently interrupt will get less attention from the moderators/“time reduced”
• The viewers will see the questions asked on the bottom of the screen, so we can remember what the question is when the candidate pivots to another topic
• No one-word-answer questions like the first debate

We'll see if CNN follows it, but here are the talking times for each candidate, courtesy of NPR:

BethesdaNet on DOOM Switch... And Its Quick Doom

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - What's the lesson here?

While everyone with a Nintendo Switch was, in one way or another, examining Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Friday, Bethesda spawned DOOM, DOOM II, and DOOM 3 on the same day on the same system. It also came out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. July 26 happened to be during QuakeCon, which was DOOM-themed. In fact, it was called QuakeCon: Year of DOOM. (Though Bethesda's E3 2019 conference said it'd be called DoomCon.) Apparently it was DOOM's 25th anniversary. Feels like it was around longer.

Play the games that started it all. DOOM, DOOM II, and DOOM 3 are all available now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4. #DOOM25 #QuakeCon pic.twitter.com/aZwEfnJaP0

— DOOM (@DOOM) July 26, 2019

My first question is that I don't know why they dropped the Roman numerals with DOOM 3. I know Roman numerals can be and are a pain—they're in use for the fun KoopaTV Feedback Form and Quiz series, now at Part XX—but id Software also has Quake III (which came before DOOM 3), so it's not that scary for them.

But what is scary is this screen:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Released; Dorothea Is Pretty Cute

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Convince me to buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

There are people out there who, having never really played a Fire Emblem game before, are looking at the just-released-today Fire Emblem: Three Houses for Nintendo Switch and are asking if they should buy the game.

I'm in another house. I've played several Fire Emblem games, but I'm still asking the same question: should I buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

I'm a total elitist for the two Tellius games, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I adore their collective story (plot-line and themes, which I still reference at least as of two weeks ago), lore, characters, deep gameplay, great music, and even replay value. Within the past month, I just played through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for at least the 8th time, and I'm suddenly eager to replay Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn as well. (For the fourth and a half time.)

Alternatively, I could just go and buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses. But I'm concerned. I loathe Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates. When people tell me that they saved the franchise and I should be grateful for that, I think that's a stupid thing to say because the franchise would be better off dead than with those games in it, and there hasn't been anything in the series worth the life support. Could Fire Emblem: Three Houses reverse that?

I'm on record saying things like, “Speaking of no buy, here's Fire Emblem: Three Houses.” As well as “Every new news about the Fire Emblem series makes me believe that the Fire Emblem game on the Switch, which will be the first new Fire Emblem game to be on a home console in a decade, will be more like Fire Emblem Awakening (but in high-definition!) than the grandiose and actually amazing Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.” You can't forget “I've left the Fire Emblem series for dead, so screw Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It's UGLY.”

But you know what or who isn't ugly? Dorothea. She's one of the students in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, specifically in the Black Eagle house. In fact, she's pretty. And cute. And I requested fan-art of her. ...And my request was granted. Take a look:

Labo's Toy-Cons Trolling Star World

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - In the physical Earth world!

Since January 2019, a game called Fishing Star World Tour developed and published by WFS—a Japanese company that appears to be fully named Wright Flyer Studios (not related to Phoenix Wright... or is it?)—has allowed fishing fans to... fish, on the Nintendo Switch for $30. It's one of the pricier fishing games on the Switch.

While I initially thought that the game's title was meant to be read that it was a fishing tour of Star World (which is the planet I'm from with many locales like Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom), it's actually a world tour undertaken by a fishing star. That makes it substantially less interesting, though the trailer is... unique.

 

*No shit.
(So this is Enguarde's new gig after he got laid off from the Donkey Kong Country games?)

Fishing Star World Tour will be releasing in physical game form thanks to Aksys Games (speaking of game studios named for Wright, why doesn't a relevant game like the Ace Attorney series get that anymore?) at the end of September 2019.

Here's why this matters: This game advertises Toy-Con support. Specifically, the Toy-Con Fishing Rod in a “trolling mini-game.” While I think of trolling as a disingenuous Internet interaction, trolling is a legitimate fishing activity that I can't describe in my own words.

But Toy-Con minigames aren't legitimate activities. That's why the kid has to pretend to look like he's having fun (much like with everything else in that trailer).

Splatfests Are Over. Here's Ludwig's Splatoon 2 Splatfest Record

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Was sticking by KoopaTV's team choices a good idea?

Well then, that's it. I'm pretty much done writing about Splatoon 2 at least once every month. The last Splatfest is over, and if the first Splatoon is any indication, that probably means I'm going to stop playing the game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is going to finally overtake it as my most played Nintendo Switch game. Fun fact... I've played Splatoon 2 almost triple the amount of hours I've played Splatoon on the Wii U. (217 hours for Splatoon vs. 585+ hours for Splatoon 2.)

Most of those hours on the Switch version were probably from playing Salmon Run, but playing Splatfests contributed a fair amount as well. I got to King in all of them! And as Nintendo would like to remind us in their Splatfest tribute video's description, Salmon Run shifts are still going to be a thing. 
 

There were 27 Splatfests in Splatoon 2 (in the North America region), counting the demo Splatfest. I wrote articles about all of them. Here's a table summarising all of my picks:

How The Media Botched The Bocchi Bullying Debacle

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Or, why you shouldn't go repeating that the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community chased a 15-year old girl away.

Since the beginning of July (or before), you may have read this on places outside of KoopaTV: The collective Super Smash Bros. competitive community is horrible. They're bringing stench. They're bringing crabs. They're rapists. And some, we assume, are good people. But as a whole, at least half are deplorables. They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic... you name it.

In our evidence-based quest for promoting individualism, we've avoided such ghastly generalisations on KoopaTV. But they're unavoidable if you venture outside of here, and they're driven by lazy media narratives and the lowest-of-effort identity politics.

In this article, I'm going to discuss how the media treated the Super Smash Bros. community with the story of Bocchi, who appears to be a sweet 15-year old Isabelle player who beat one of the most established Super Smash Bros. players, Ally. I'll direct most of my judgment and criticism towards the media instead of the minor (though if the media is being contributed to by minors, then so be it). ...But not all.

Warning: This article contains uncensored slurs. ...From the 15-year old.

The Bocchi vs. Ally Battle

The story begins in mid-June, at a reoccurring New York local.
 

Nintendo Deletes Hungrybox Crab and Many Others From Smash Bros. Shared Content

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Speaking truth to power.

You hopefully remember KoopaTV's crabby six-year anniversary article. If you don't, I suggest you read it before I personally exhibit from crab characteristics on your face. (They aren't good at applying make-up.) At the end of the article, I had a call-to-action: Go to the Shared Content section of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Online mode, and give a Yeah! to fellow KoopaTV staffer RawkHawk's Hungrybox Crab video (embedded from YouTube in the article) to make it go from seventh place to sixth place (for six years) in the Video section's By Popularity sorting.

...Well, after that article, it fell from seventh place to tenth place, and then off the top twelve videos. But it was at least always around. Until around five days ago. Then Rawk received this e-mail from Nintendo: 

“Thank you for using Nintendo Switch.

Content you posted in-game has been deleted because it violates the Nintendo Account User Agreement, including the Nintendo Code of Conduct.

Title: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Content: Video
Date/time posted: 04/22/2019 01:58 PM (UTC-04:00)

Violation:
Inappropriate and/or Harmful Content


This is Nintendo's final decision.” 

That date/time posted corresponds to the Hungrybox Crab video, and lo and behold, it no longer exists:

ID: QT0QK5KS? No content found.

Exactly what was inappropriate and/or harmful? Fun fact, the Nintendo Code of Conduct doesn't state the word inappropriate, and the content isn't harmful to Hungrybox. Hungrybox himself believed the video belongs in a museum and found it highly amusing. It's harmful to the extent that any video based on a fighting game is harmful.

Hungrybox laughing at the Hungrybox Crab video on his own stream.
But, no, it's inappropriate and harmful, says Nintendo.

The fact that there is no way to appeal the decision and your first contact from Nintendo is also your last one is ridiculous and corrupt. Even Miiverse lets you appeal, even if it's a joke.

But that's not all that got deleted.

Mega Man 11 Instrumental Tracks ARE A Free Download; CAPCOM Summer Sale 2019

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Why wasn't there an announcement...?

Once upon a time, I wrote an article about CAPCOM's Mega Man 11 entitled, CAPCOM, Don't Keep The Superior Mega Man 11 Soundtrack Hostage. That was about the instrumental soundtrack that was a pre-order bonus for Mega Man 11 that is significantly superior to the in-game soundtrack. At the end of the article I concluded,

“I will not buy the game until CAPCOM gives me the ability to pay them additional money to get access to what they were giving away as a free pre-release bonus. (...Or they could provide it for free.)”

After that... well, we haven't heard anything from CAPCOM. 

However, at the beginning of April of this year (about three and a half months ago), CAPCOM silently made the instrumental soundtrack freely available as individual DLC, on all the consoles. 

Silence and soundtracks don't really go together, but you can download the soundtrack even without owning the game. (You can't use it... but it is free.)
 

Impressions of the Yoku's Island Express Demo; 50% Off

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The 50% off is news. The demo is not, but I finally played it.

I hope you remember Yoku's Island Express. It's the fairly well-received 2D pinball-platformer adventure game developed by Villa Gorilla and published by Team 17 that released last year in May. It stars the post-beetle (a beetle that delivers packages) Yoku, who won KoopaTV's Best New Character of 2018 award against staunch competition. He's super-cute.

His game is also 50% off until July 24. That was the same scenario at the end of March 2019, which I called out because the sale advertised indie games up to 30% off, yet here was Yoku's Island Express at only $10 instead of $20. But at the time, I let it pass by and I took no action.

But unlike the United States Postal Service and the Mokumana Island postal express, and like the Paratroopas that run our kingdom's mail service, I won't be lazy this time. I've learned (almost a year later) that Yoku's Island Express has a demo, and so I played through it. Behold my thoughts... and by the end, read if I've bought the game. (You may or may not care about the same things I do, so you may or may not also buy the game based on what I write and show.)

The former island express postmaster, Posterodactyl, is a lazy loser who flies away and doesn't want to stick around for a big job.