Hi Mattroidvania! I am wondering if you have ever tried any of the Ys series games because I know you are a fan of Zelda. Ys is very similar but has better combat and story while still having a killer rock and metal soundtrack. Ys X Nordics is about to come out on PS5 and it has a free 10 hour demo. Ys VII Lacrimasa of Dana, Ys IX Monstrum Nox, Ys Origins, and Ys IV Celcetta are all excellent games and relatively new releasing on the ps4 and/or ps5. YS VII Lacrimasa tends to be the most popular one for good reason. If you have not played them I double dog dare to check them out and tell us what you think of them!

I would highly recommend playing UFO50 if you get the chance. It's a collection of 50 different games by 6 indie developers and it has a lot of variety. It's one of my favorite games to come out this year.

Hi Mattroidvania! I am wondering if you have ever tried any of the Ys series games because I know you are a fan of Zelda. Ys is very similar but has better combat and story while still having a killer rock and metal soundtrack. Ys X Nordics is about to come out on PS5 and it has a free 10 hour demo. Ys VII Lacrimasa of Dana, Ys IX Monstrum Nox, Ys Origins, and Ys IV Celcetta are all excellent games and relatively new releasing on the ps4 and/or ps5. YS VII Lacrimasa tends to be the most popular one for good reason. If you have not played them I double dog dare to check them out and tell us what you think of them!

Thanks for the detailed answer with the ps5 pro question. Also I look forward to the top Dreamcast game list.

I'm looking forward to Lunar & Legacy of Kain. The Evercade has Legacy of Kain Blood Omen & Soul Reaver on its console.

In Magic the Gathering the rapper Post Malone has a 2 million dollar card from the Lord of the Rings set.

GBC Donkey Kong is a new game compared to NES version. What NES game would you guys like to be remastered with better graphics? I would like to see Legend of Zelda with the switch's legend of Zelda : Link's awakening graphics.

About a week ago it was the 25th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast. What were some of your favorite games to come out on the console? I never played on a actual Dreamcast but my favorite ports of Dreamcast games are Sonic Adventure 1 and Jet Set Radio.

I have a question for Monster since he seems to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to tech. Sony recently revealed the PS5 Pro so I have to and to be honest I don't really understand the differences they were talking about. Is it really worth the price they are asking or not?

I also like Complex villians and stories but sometimes black and white stories and villians are refreshing too..Hey Mattroidvania!! below are the links to two awesome kickstarter Metroidvanias that opened a couple days ago and were funded in less than a day. For $20 you can back and support their development along with getting a copy of the games and all dlcs that are made for them. The games are Altered Alma ( Cyberpunk Metroidvania with Persona like Character and NPC development) and Fallen Tear the Ascension ( The Elden Ring size Metroidvania).

Hey Mattroidvania!! below are the links to two awesome kickstarter Metroidvanias that opened a couple days ago and were funded in less than a day. For $20 you can back and support their development along with getting a copy of the games and all dlcs that are made for them.

Awesome Metroidvanias that you played. I will defintely check out "The Last Faith" eventually. As you await Hollow Knight Silksong have you tried the best substitute for it.... Nine Sols yet!? Also I highly reccomend picking up Castlevania Dominus Collection for $25 that includes the 3 newest 2d Castlevania games.

I'll give you my top 5 for Game Boy / Color / Advance. GB = 1. Legend of Zelda: Links awakening 2. Metroid 2 return of Samus 3. Dr Franken 4. Wario Land, super mario land 3 5. TMNT fall of the footclan GBC = 1. Legend of Zelda: Oracle of series 2. Donkey Kong 3. Super Mario Bros Deluxe 4. Kirby's dream land 2 5. Castlevania Legends GBA = 1. Metriod Fusion 2. Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap 3. Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros 3 4. Mario vs Donkey Kong 5. Mario Kart Super Circuit

Really good video nice job editing in the gameplay clips of the games who were talking about. I didn't play that much of the SNES library but I have played a lot of Kirby games. Super star is easily one of the best Kirby game and it has a really good remake on the DS.

Oh Crud, I forgot Super Mario Rpg and so did Matt!!

Guys this is your best video yet. However, it brings to mind a challenge for someone who sadly did not have a SNES growing up and missed out on many of the best games ever made. Jim I challenge you to playtghrough my top ten SNES games that you have not played 1. Final Fantasy 6 2. Chrono Trigger 3. Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past 4. Super Metroid 5. Final Fantasy 4 6. Secret of Mana ( 2 player coop with Matt) 7.Donkey Kong Country 2 8. Lufia 2 9. Super Mario World 2 Yoshis Island 10. Earthbound Runner ups: Breath of Fire 1 and Kirby Super Star

you two should do Game Boy / color / advance top 10

When it comes to limited time content I think it's cool when games do cool crossover and stuff for limited time events. But it does suck when new player come to the game and can't gear the limited gear. Do you guys consider preorder exclusive bonuses limited time events?

The only time I watch credits in a video game is when they have a minigame to play during them. One of my favorites was smash bros melee that was an on rail shooter where you had to blast all the names in the credits.

Omg I would love to play Godhand and Castlevania Curse of Darkness as I am a huge Castlevania fan. Sadly neither game is accessible on modern consoles. Maybe one day.....Awesome picks Matt!

Also when it comes to third person action games some of my favorites are Devil may cry 3 and 5, Bayonetta, and metal gear solid revengeance.

When it comes to early access it's kind of a mixed bag. Funny enough I have been playing a lot of Hades 2 early access that released earlier last week and I would say it's a good example of early access. I feel some benefits of early access is that it gives developers some extra funds while going through the development process. Also another benefit is it allows for the developer to see and get data from players playing the game while it's in development so they can fine tune gameplay mechanic for a 1.0 launch. But that being said when purchasing a early access game it's not a full product and there is no guarantee it will ever be finished and that's the risk of early access. But some of the best example of early access game that went on to be successful are Hades, Vampire Survivors and Baldur's gate 3.

Greatest third person action game of all time is God of War Ragnarok or Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. If your talking third person shooter specifically its Resident Evil 4 Remake or Last of Us 2. Some would say its Elden Ring but in my opinion there is soo much more to Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and God of War Ragnarok then Elden Ring. The variety of gameplay elements, the more meaningful stories especally God of War Ragnarok and the more deep and challenging gameplay. With Zelda its the super deep and rewarding sense of exploration in 3 massive open worlds with a plethora of well developed dungeouns, shrines, caverns, and awesome physics based puzzles along with the best gameplay in the series and God of War Ragnarok if you play it on Give me God of War Mode the combat is more exciting, deep and satisfying then pretty much any game ever made.

Hey guys! I love the responses to my comments about the hall of shame even if we dont agree on most of it.

walow,,,

Also Dark Souls or Bloodbourne deserves to be here far more than Last of Us. Big one for Matt as well. Where is Super Metroid and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. All of the games in this paragraph started entire genres and are still some of the best games in those genres after decades. This is not a hall of fame! It is a HALL OF SHAME!!!!

Matt, the highest rated game of all time at a 99/100 on Metacritic is.... It also had the most dungeouns of any zelda game, some of the best music ever produced in a video game and pioneered as the first truly good 3d action adventure game. So yes it is more deserving to be on this list than many of these games. As for Last of Us I might agree with you even though it is a great game I fail to see what makes it a hall of fame game when uncharted 2 was way more innovative for being a cinematic action game. But dude of course the highest rate game of all time should be in the hall of fame. I do want blood for whoever created this list and did not put Dragon Quest 1, God of War 1, God of War 2018, Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger in the hall of fame.

When I am at work I listen to podcast and audiobooks. One audiobook I just finished was Console Wars by Blake J. Harris and it goes into detail about the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo in the 90s. It was interesting hearing about everything going on between the companies but all this stuff happened before I was even born. By the time I got around to playing games on my GameCube Sega was already third party. So my question is what was it like to witness the rivalry between the two companies and where u guys into Sega or Nintendo more?

My favorite fighting game super is Dizzy's instant kill from Guilty gear Xrd it's pretty funny imo.

To be honest I haven't played many SNK fighting games but I feel like that is going to change when city of the wolves comes out. It looks really good I love the comic book art style they have going for the game. I am looking forward to 2025 it's going to be a good year for fighting games with this and the League of legends fighting game coming out.

Dragonball has been apart of my life since I was in elementary school I remember one of my favorite game growing up was Dragonball Z Budokai on gamecube. I thought gohan was the greatest going up because he started out a kid just like me when I was watching the series for the first time. Seeing Gohan go super sayian 2 for the first time and beating cell was my favorite moment in the series. Thank you Toriyama.

Akira Toriyama was legendary. So much of what I love about gaming artwork comes from him Dragonquest and Chrono Trigger and I have seen every episode of Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball Super multiple times. I also plan to pick up his latest work being converted to a videogame. (Sand Land).

Thanks for the shoutout in the episode this week. I heard monster talk about fighting games in a couple of episodes. So I have a question relating to fighting games. What is your favorite super move from a fighting game?

When it comes to the perfect game length I prefer my games to be under 20 hours. I play a lot of indie games and most of them don't last too long and I really appreciate that. I don't really like games with a long runtime I usually don't finish them not because they are bad but I usually lose interest and new games come out.

Now that we are beginning the new year. I was wondering are there any games coming out in 2024 that you guys are looking forward too. I am looking forward to the persona 3 remake since I never played the original and I recently beat persona 5 and persona 4.

Now that sega is willing to bring back some of there older IPs what is the game that you guys want from them the most? Me I want them to bring back Ristar I really loved playing that game on the Genesis Collection on 360. Also I don't see this happening because the game isn't very good but if they brought back Billy Hatcher I would be so hyped it was a game I played a lot of in my childhood.

It was very cool move for game maker to go free for non commercial games and switch back to a one time purchase instead of the subscription service. I find it to be a pretty cool game engine so this change will give more people the chance to try it out.

I am thankful for the content that you guys put out. It is always nice to have some good entertainment from people who care about games.

One genre I hated as a kid was visual novels or anything with a lot of reading. But this year I finished the Ace Attorney trilogy and the Danganronpa trilogy and now I can say I am a fan of visual novels games.

I don't play many scary games but a creepy moment I remember from a non-horror game is from a game called A hat in Time. In the third chapter of the game there is a level called Queen Vanessa's Manor it goes from a fun 3d platformer to a horror game and they disable a lot of the player's ability to make it more intense.

I grew up with a GameCube so I consider that console to be retro. My favorite game was smash bros melee it introduced me to a lot of characters such as Marth and Ness. Playing it with my sibling and cousins at family gatherings was always fun.

Question: what genra of games did you not want to play when you were young but now you love to play? For example I hated Sim games when I was young now I love them.

A good retro games service on Xbox is Antstream Arcade.

Open World games should have smaller maps with more meaningful and varied things to do like Yakuza. They should also have very fun traversal like swinging around in spiderman, the bike in days gone, or flying in Gravity Rush. Those 3 have the best traversal I have seen in any open world games.

Lies of P is my favorite soulsbourne now. Better than Bloodbourne in every way! BTW I beat the first boss parade master on my first try after already beating the demo. I'm on chapter 5 several bosses down and I have not parried once.

I got the price percentage increase on the essential tier wrong. The price increase is 33% - Monster

When it comes to mini maps I love them. They are always convenient to have in most game because it saves time not having to open to a separate menu to see the map. Also I am not sure if you guys consider this a mini map but do you remember when some games on the ds would use the bottom screen to show the map those were the best imo.

Backtracking is kind of a mixed bag for me it depends on how it's used. In metroidvanias backtracking is the norm but in those games you usually are rewarded with new powerups and new pathways that you couldn't reach on your first visit so that's cool. Another example of backtracking I enjoy is when a pervious area has changed it makes backtracking not too tedious. Good example of this comes from hollow knight when forgotten crossroads changes later in the game and makes it a harder area. But if a game has me backtracking without any new abilities or changes in the area I find it kinda lame imo.

I guess I had a lot say about backtracking.