It's our end of year celebration and this time we've got a massive show! First, we kick things off with a trivia segment that has some big stakes. Then we get into our annual awards show with a variety of topics including what was the most shameful thing The Beats Crew has done in 2025.
After that, we get into individual picks for our top 5 games of the year, followed by a dive into the stats of all the games we played as shared by Sony (what gives Microsoft and Nintendo - no year in review?) and also stats that we logged ourselves. As if that weren't enough, we also cover the results of our Fantasy Critic video game fantasy draft league and announce the big winner for 2025. Wait, still more?? Lastly we choose the 10 games that define The Beat of the Month podcast for a nice bookend down memory lane. Wow - it's a lot of content!
It's been a fun 2025 and we are looking forward to more episodes in 2026. Stay tuned for our 2026 fantasy draft where we'll be taking a look at all the games coming out next year and picking our roster that we think will review well (and hopefully keep on track for release!). If YOU have any ideas for a topic we should tackle for 2026, please send us an email at beatofthemonth@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Every year we celebrate spooky season, but we haven't really had an episode dedicated to Christmas - until now! That's right this episode we are taking a look at Holiday Games! We talk about some modern classics like Spider-Man Miles Morales, some old classics like Snatcher, and then...well...I don't think any one is calling 'Games Advent Calendar 2024' a classic, but it is a holiday game! We also take time to play the new hotness Lumines Arise, which does have some holiday-ish levels tucked away.
On top of games, we also talk about some holiday traditions that we have such as black Friday shopping or getting Popeye's chicken. And then as usual we've got some trivia at the end with a game of 20 questions. Brian couldn't make it in time for that but he would have gotten it way earlier than those fools. Anyway, grab your wrapping paper and your scotch tape and do some multi-tasking while listening to our latest episode on Holiday Games!
The 2025 Game Awards have just wrapped up and The Beats crew watched for the entire 3 and a half hour stretch! We recorded our reactions to the show and are bringing them to you raw and unedited (except for a large chunk of time where we didn't say a whole lot - we'll spare you hearing Muff eat chips and use his printer for an hour). See any games announced that you're excited for? Any games that you think got robbed (no Lumines nomination for best music??) Let us know by sending a note to beatofthemonth@gmail.com. And stay tuned for our next episode with our Beat of the Year celebration!
For this episode we have another one of our deep dives, although this time we are taking a look at not 1, not 2, but 25 individual games! UFO 50 is a compilation of 50 individual retro style games that released in 2024 and more recently this year on Switch, and has been on the Beats crew radar for awhile. But wait, there are 50 games and we're only talking about 25? What gives? Yeah, it turns out that playing 50 games takes a long time, and so does talking about 50 games. So we decided to split things in the middle and call it at the halfway point.
For a sampling of what to expect from the first half of this collection, you've got a car racing game with a Splatoon paint mechanic, a golf ball RPG, a house party deck builder, a platformer with controls unlike anything we've ever played, and a ton more! It's a fun and varied collection of games with something for everyone. So settle in, grab your retro style controller of choice, and join us for this deep dive of UFO 50!
Apologies for the delay with this episode, but it was a rough work week. Well while we're on the subject, let's go ahead and talk about some games featuring the Beats Crew's favorite past time - work! We talk about Yakuza Infinite Wealth where you get occupation based job classes, Once Upon a Katamari where your dad gives you work all day long, and more! But it's not all just about fun and games - we talk about our real life work experiences at Walmart, Gamestop, and other places that kept us gainfully (painfully?) employed in our youth. And to wrap things up have a double dose of work based trivia at the end to put your brain to work as well. So get ready to punch in, zone out until break time, and join us for this look at working games!
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.
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!