Halloween is almost here and the spooky season is coming to a close. To send things off with a bang we are celebrating by having a trivia game show contest with a spooky theme! All questions will be related to horror games such as Silent Hill, Five Nights at Freddy's, old school horror games - and more! As an added twist, we select categories in the order that we think will bank us more points. Later questions are worth more points, so it's best to tackle the challenging topics first and hope for the best later. Think you've got some skills in horror game trivia? Then grab your chainsaw controller and join us, for this Spooky Game Trivia Contest!
We are halfway through the spooky season and we have another fitting episode dealing with Creepy games! For long time listeners of the show you may recall way back in 2020 when we did an episode about Scary games. So what's the difference between Scary and Creepy you ask? Well we kick the episode off with that discussion and then get into the specific Creepy games that we played such as Little Nightmares 2, Silent Hill 4, and more! We also talk about some creepy adjacent titles that we wrapped up recently like Expedition 33 and Elden Ring. And then after that as always we've got some trivia lined up that will not only test your game knowledge but also the lyrics of one Creep-y song in particular... So go ahead and get yourself settled into the dark basement or the dusty attic and join us - for this look at Creepy Games!
Spooky season is here, and to celebrate we are kicking off October with a look at one of the oldest horror themed video game franchises (that also just celebrated a 40th anniversary) - Ghosts 'n Goblins! We cover the early games on NES, Genesis, and SNES that everyone knows and loves. Wait, does everyone love them? I thought so, but maybe not... We then cover some of the spin-off games with the Gargoyle's Quest and Maximo series before getting back into the more recent traditional releases on PSP and modern consoles. And if that's not enough Ghosts 'n Goblins content for you, we dive really deep into some obscure offshoots with some True or False trivia. So grab your dagger, and your - oh shoot I accidentally grabbed my torch. No one likes the torch. Well anyway, keep playing until the dagger shows back up and then join us for this deep dive - of Ghosts 'n Goblins!
For our 5 year anniversary special we took a look at our backlogs and voted a single game for each person to finally beat and cross off the list. On this episode we see what everyone's true colors are and if they actually stood by their word to play those games. Does Brian finally beat Elden Ring? Does Darkside finally play Metal Gear Solid 4? Does Sonic Frontier have a chance of meeting Melbro's hype game expectations? Tune in to find out all that and more!But before we get into all that, we take some time to look at our fantasy bracket and how our games list of 2025 releases is doing. For some of us, it's not going too well. Who would have know The Hobbit: Tales from the Shire would be a bust? If you want to check out our Fantasy roster, please check us out by going to www.fantasycritic.games and searching for 'The Beats'.
The Beat of the Month crew is back with 8 playable characters! We go over the fighting games that we played during July - some good, some bad, some TOASTY! We are joined this episode with friend of the show Smoo who shares some of his fighting game wisdom. So get ready to spam Hadoukens and build up that Special Meter as we beat each other into submission!
Shooting, killing, mayhem - you won't find any of that here. The Beat of the Month crew decided to take it easy this month and focus on playing games that we found relaxing. We cover a variety of relaxing games such as A Short Hike, LocoRoco 2, Ori Will of the Wisps, and more! So take a break from the pressures of every day life, and come relax with us as we talk about games old and new.
E3 came and went, and the Beat of the Month crew share their opinions on all of the big showrunners. Ubisoft, Capcom, Square Enix, Microsoft, Nintendo - and more! Did everyone deliver and have us ready to empty our wallets, or are we going to save our stimulus checks for meme NFTs? Ah hell, you already know we're down for some Metroid Dread!
It’s a 2 for 1 special as the Beat of the Month crew web tackle not one, but two games this episode. That’s right - we’re taking a look at 2018’s Spider-Man and the recently released Miles Morales. We explore every inch the city has to offer from thug fights to pigeon herding. Have a listen!
The Beat of the Month crew role play their way through the Role Playing Games they played in January and cover the best RPGs of all time! Final Fantasy VII, Nier Automata, Mother 3, Xenoblade Chronicles...and more! And we've got to mention - we officially have a website - www.beatofthemonth.com! Check out the site for links on everywhere you can catch our podcast every other week, and who knows what else we might add. Check back in 2 weeks for our deep look into Slay the Spire!
The Beat of the Month Crew finally make our way into Hades and live to tell the tale! We start off with a general overview of the game, get into some of our favorite strategies, and have a somewhat heated discussion on if Hades is deserving of its Game of the Year accolades. We round things off with some Hell themed trivia as well. Whether you are excited to finally be able to play on Playstation or Xbox or you've escaped dozens of times already on Switch or PC, you'll find something to enjoy!
For this episode of Beat of the Month we're back to a traditional deep dive with a look at rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush! Some of the crew had played this before and had a good time, others had dabbled and dropped it, and the rest had never played at all. We start by taking a look at the history of Tango Gameworks, the surprise release, and then get into the gameplay, story, and of course - the music! As usual we round things off with some 'rush' related trivia at the end. If you've never played this game before then as usual be forewarned about spoilers during our deep dive episodes, although for this game there isn't too much to spoil and we tread lightly around the very end of the game. Otherwise grab your headphones, your ipod mini, and join us for this deep dive into Hi-Fi Rush!
The moment has finally arrived - our 5 year episode anniversary celebration is here! Way back between episodes 12 and 13 we snuck in a bonus episode dealing with the origins of 'The Beats'. The purpose of bringing The Beats back was to trim down our backlog of games, and the podcast just happened to come along with it. For our 5 year anniversary we found it fitting to take a look at our backlog and see if that trimming has been successful, as well as why we choose certain backlog games. We then share some games from our backlog and have the other Beats crew members decide our fate by picking a game we will play for the next month. We also have some 5 year anniversary trivia to kick things off and reminisce about all the past episodes. And if that's not enough, it's a rare full crew episode as well!Five years ago a group of 8 friends who like playing video games decided to start up a podcast, and five years later we're still doing it and having fun. We hope you have fun listening as well, and it means a lot to have people take time out of their day to listen.
For this episode the Beat of the Month crew postpone our 5 year celebration once again, this time to bring you an episode all about Boomer Shooters! What exactly is a Boomer Shooter do you ask? Well that's a good question. They're usually old, but do they have to be old? They're usually first person, but do they have to be first person? You shoot stuff...okay that point we're pretty sure on. After we get done with the definitive answer on what a Boomer Shooter is, we then get into the different Boomer Shooters we played such as Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun, Doom 64, Anger Foot, and many more! We also reminisce about our time spent at a restaurant beloved by some and indifferent from others. We then wrap things up with a round of trivia that is a boner fied headscratcher. So grab your BFG, shelter yourself from gibs, and join us for this look at Boomer Shooters!
On this episode the Beats crew takes a look at a topic we've mentioned in passing several times before but are finally giving it the attention it deserves - the world of gaming trophies and achievements! We talk about the origins of gaming achievements (which might surprise you!) as well as discussing what makes a good trophy (or a bad one) and some of our favorites to collect. We also take a look at our overall trophy stats and the rarest trophies we've got. At the end of all of our banter we cap things off with some trophy trivia. Are you someone that strives for 100% achievement completion? Do you live to hear that platinum notification? Then this is the episode for you! Don't really care about all that? Well, I think you'll still have a good time. And after all, if you want to get the achievement for listening to all of the BOTM episodes you don't really have a choice. So grab your Brasso and get ready to shine up those awards in this deep dive on gaming achievements and trophies!
It's the middle of summer and what better way to celebrate than with a bunch of games that give you those sweet summer vibes? We kick things off with the official system of the summer - the Switch 2! We talk about our experiences so far with the new console and Mario Kart World before getting into some other summer vibe games like Yakuza Infinite Wealth and Reel Fishing: Days of Summer. After that we kick things over to a deep dive with our look at the RBI Baseball series. That's right - 2 episodes for the price of one (although last time I checked the price of admission is zero dollars, so I guess the price doesn't really matter here...). And with this double header of an episode we've got a double dose of trivia - it's a jam packed episode! So grab your mitt, your sunscreen, and your headphones and join us for our look at Summer Vibe games and RBI Baseball!
Hello! Due to some scheduling conflicts we are going to combine Muff's deep dive of RBI baseball into our next episode for Summer Vibe Games. For this episode, we are going to instead look deep into the Beat of the Month archives and find clips from old shows that have never been heard before. Some may be gaming related and some may be completely random. Some may have our "passable" audio quality you've grown to expect, and some clips may sound like garbage. If this is your first time joining us, I'd recommend not listening to this at all and go to an earlier episode. We kind if meander through random topics as many of these clips were taken prior to the episodes actually starting or after they had ended. But if you're feeling adventurous for a trip into the unknown then feel free to join us as we take a look into some forgotten Beat of the Month clips!
Have you ever been so excited for a game to come out that you just couldn't stop talking about it? Have you ever played a game so good that you needed to tell everyone how great it was? Well, for Beat of the Month crew member Melbro, this happens a couple times a week. And this episode is to celebrate these games - Hype Train Games! And boy oh boy are there a lot of games to cover across all sorts of different genres.Let's see...we've got Sifu, Death's Door, Elden Ring, Split Fiction, Street Fighter 6, Inscryption, Spider Man, Blue Prince, Little Nightmares, Neon White, Balatro, Black Myth Wukong, and about a dozen more games. There's something for everyone! However, not everyone agrees with Melbro's enthusiasm for these games, so it leads to some lively conversation. So grab your ticket for this speeding locomotive and join us - for Hype Train Games!
The Nintendo Switch 2 is fast approaching, so we decided to take one last look at the original Nintendo Switch - the greatest video game of all time! OK maybe I'm going a bit overboard with that last statement, but the Switch has been wildly successful and it's life cycle coming to an end is a big event. First, we take a trip back to the launch and share our thoughts on the early lineup of games and our launch day experiences. Then we take a look at the games, the peripherals, the online service/store, and have some trivia along the way. We cap it off with games we still have in our backlog for Switch 1 while talking about our plans to pickup or pass Switch 2.So grab your joy-cons...no not that one - it's got drift. No not that one either. You know what, how about you grab the pro controller instead and join us...as we say goodbye to Nintendo Switch!
For those of you who just didn't get enough celebrating over Mother's Day Weekend, we've got something in store for you - an episode all about Mom Games! 150 episodes after our debut episode dealing with Dad Games, we finally come back around to celebrate with the moms. Yeah we missed the timing a bit for Mother's Day, but better late than never. We start off the episode talking about games we played with our moms or games that our moms like to play. Then we take a break to do a catchup with our video game Fantasy league, followed by a look at all the games with a mom theme we played this month such as Yakuza Infinite Wealth and Detroit: Become Human. We also talk a bit about some games off theme like the excellent Blue Prince. It's a pretty packed episode once again! If you didn't wish your mom a happy mother's day then you better do it right now. And when you're done, come back and join us, for this episode on Mom Games! And if you want to follow along with our video game fantasy league, come visit at fantasycritic.games and search for our league, The Beats. Enjoy the show!
For our big 150th episode celebration we have...a regular episode. Our 5 year anniversary is coming up so maybe we'll do something special for that. But for this one - we're taking a deep dive into indie darling Outer Wilds!If you've seen this game mentioned online it usually comes with a word of caution to go in as blind as possible - and we'd agree! For the most part. We start off the conversation with our experience getting into the game, what we wish we had known before we started, and how we would describe it in as spoiler free terms as possible. After that, we shift gears into heavy spoilers talking about most key areas of the game, places where we got stuck, our interpretation of the story, and then blowing the doors off with details about the very end of the journey.If you're remotely interested in playing this game I would certainly recommend hitting pause once we give the spoiler warning and give it a go! And if you're an Outer Wilds veteran, then I hope you enjoy our stories of fumbling around through space while scratching our heads. So with that, grab you space suit and get ready to explore the unknown, with our deep dive on Outer Wilds!