The political season is heating up and the Beat of the Month Crew are getting in on the action! We've got a double dose of political antics this episode with a look at games with a political theme. We play a bit fast and loose with the theme as usual, but we played some Ghost of Tsushima, Super Mario Odyssey, Cult of the Lamb, and a little Disco Elysium (and by a little, I mean a little). We've also got some odds and ends in there like Nintendo World Championship and Mr. Gimmick.

We also fill our ballots and cast our votes for the perfect video game character election featuring the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and more - it's a packed episode! And join us next episode for a deep dive on Papers, Please where we keep the political theme going.

For this episode's deep dive we have not one but two games to cover - Not just a single game but not quite a trilogy, it's the duology of Hotline Miami 1 & 2! If you like retro games but want them with more eye gouging, head smashing, and blood splatters, then this is for you. We cover our favorite weapons, levels, and characters (and oh boy are there a lot of characters). We also try to unravel the story of both games, which is more complicated than you would think. The end rounds out as usual with some trivia - 'Hot' 'Line' style.

As is the case with these deep dives, some of us were hotter on this game than others, but we did our best to keep the naysayers in line (yes I just did that). So grab your rooster mask and join us for... actually can you leave the mask? It's a little creepy. But we still hope you join us for this deep dive on Hotline Miami 1 & 2!

With the last of the big USA based gaming magazines coming to an end, we decided it was a perfect time to look back at all the fond memories of not only Game Informer, but of all video game magazines. OK maybe not all (there were a lot!) but we do cover the heavy hitters - Gamepro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and of course, Nintendo Power.

We also get into some lesser known magazines like Next Generation and Ultra Game Players, as well as some of the magazines centered around walkthroughs like Tips & Tricks or Expert Gamer. Then you've got the console specific magazines that came with demo discs, and more - there is a ton to talk about!

We've got a bookend of trivia for this episode as well - can you name the top 20 SNES games from March 1995? It's not that easy! So get out your reading glasses to read the fine print on that ProTip, and join us for this look back on video game magazines. We'll miss you Game Informer!

It's the middle of summer and we've seen a lot of games announced, so The Beats Crew decided to take some time away from talking about games we've played, and focus on some games we want to play! We talk about Summer Games Fest as well as the latest State of Play, Xbox Showcase, and Nintendo Direct. From there - it's anything goes. We talk about getting sad from finishing a game, a gaming delivery gone wrong, some Muff focused trivia - and more! So turn the lights down, think about your favorite cosplayer (a Muff trivia question by the way...) and join us for a slightly unstructured episode!

Before the Elden Ring DLC commands all of our time, we decided to take a look at a smaller game with an even smaller protagonist - Stray! It's got scratching, it's got meowing, it's got...robots? It wasn't a long game but this cat led adventure game made a lasting impression with our crew. And with the recent announcement that Stray is coming to switch it'll soon be able to be enjoyed by everyone! But be forewarned - we've got a lot of spoilers throughout. We've also got a double dose of cat trivia at the end. Even if you're a dog person we invite you to grab your headphones and join us for our deep dive of Stray!

Way back on episode 26 we had a topic of disappointing games. Those were games that we thought were going to be really good but ended up just being OK or kinda bad. A little over 100 shows later and we are revisiting that topic, but this time around just focusing on flat out bad games. We never intended any of these games to be good, and in most cases they were not!

To add to the fun, we also did a little Secret Santa type swap where we chose crappy games for each other to play. Some people got lucky with a decent game and others were stuck playing Lizard Lady vs The Cats. We also chose to play some terrible games by choice such as classic bad game Shaq Fu and more modern games like Control. Wait, Control is a bad game? Well to some of the less cultured members of the podcast...

To balance things out, we did get some great game discussion mixed in with - new indie game hotness Animal Well, FromSoft classic Sekiro, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, and more! Oh and if you stick around to the end...my apologies.

The Beat of the Month crew are back and this time we're doing another game show episode - Family Feud style! Step aside Steve Harvey because Melbro is at the helm. Having surveyed 1000s of individuals, he's equipped us with 12 rounds of questions for an epic showdown between Rochelle Guys and OG3. Can you name the top 5 ways that you can tell you're about to fight a boss? Who will claim victory? Tune in to find out!