It's been a long time coming, but the Beat of the Month crew is finally doing a deep dive for one of the most acclaimed and beloved franchises in gaming - Metal Gear Solid! We take a look at the humble beginnings on NES and our experience with those games before getting into the main course of the franchise with Metal Gear Solid on PS1 and the rest of the mainline games that followed. We also touch base on some of the side games and re-releases that have came out over the years - and there's a lot of them!

We don't dive into the plot too much for each entry but there are spoilers sprinkled through out. Come to think of it I should have used the alert sound effect for those...oh well. You have been warned! We don't spoil much from MGS4 though since that is finally getting released from PS3 prison, but MGS5 has a big spoiler that some people learned for the first time. So without further ado - grab your cardboard box and your cigarettes and join us, for this deep dive into Metal Gear Solid!

Well the groundhog saw its shadow so we have 6 more weeks of winter. Even though that rodent betrayed us once again, the Beat of the Month crew are here to get you through it - with a topic of Groundhog Day games! What is a groundhog day game you ask? You ever see that movie from the 90s with Bill Murray when he repeats the same day over and over? Well these are games that we like to play over and over again. Or is it just a game where you do the same thing over and over?

Whatever it means, we've got quite a variety of games to talk about! Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, World of Tanks, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parappa the Rapper, Fortnite - and many more! As always we've got some trivia with a 'Ground' 'Hog' theme, and we even sneak some movie discussion in there as well. So grab your headphones and your warmest sweater to ride out the rest of winter and join us for this look at Groundhog Day games!

Given the recent closures of many of their stores across the country, we have decided to dedicate an episode all about everyone's favorite and most beloved game store, GameStop. Ok so maybe it's not everyone's favorite, and maybe not quite so beloved, but hey buying physical games in a physical store is becoming a bit of a rarity!

We start off the discussion looking back at the origins of GameStop and what companies led to it's formation. Then we reminisce about our favorite (and not so favorite) memories of the workers, the trade-ins, and the store itself. We also play some rounds of trade-in value trivia as well as think about where the store is headed and what they could do to improve their fortunes. Speaking of fortunes, we of course have to touch on the GME stock drama.

Whether you love it or hate it, there's plenty to enjoy in this episode. So grab your pro-player membership card, your brand new (but opened) headphones, and join us for this episode all about GameStop!

It's a brand new year and with that comes a brand new year of gaming to look forward to! And to usher in that new year of gaming we are doing another Video Game Fantasy Draft. We explain it all in the episode, but we pick games we think will come out in 2026 and score well with critics. If the game doesn't come out, we get no points. We're hot off some controversy from last year's contest, so the stakes are high!

As expected, we've got some heavy hitters that get drafted early - Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem, and Grand Theft Auto 6,but we've also got some picks that you may not have heard of (and some games you may never hear of again in 2026). We'll provide more updates as the year goes on, but for today, just grab your headphones, your crystal ball, and join us for this video game fantasy draft!

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!