Russ Frushtick, Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy
500 episodes listed below
Four co-hosts rank and dissect new video game releases, from Marathon to Metroid Prime 4.
The Besties treats video game reviews like a group argument among friends who know the medium well. New releases, nostalgia plays, and oddball indies all get tested through sharp comparisons, loose riffs, and surprisingly careful criticism.
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The Besties is a weekly panel-format show built around four recurring co-hosts — Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Chris Plante, and Russ Frushtick — who discuss and rank video games. Most episodes focus on a single newly released title, walking through its mechanics, story, and development background before reaching a group verdict, as in the sampled coverage of Pragmata, Marathon, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, Re-Animal, and Scott Pilgrim EX. A recurring news segment covers the broader industry: Nintendo Switch 2 hardware and first-party lineup, PlayStation State of Play reveals, and business stories such as Sony's acquisition of Bungie or Konami franchise revivals. The hosts regularly place new releases against established franchises and genres — Dead Space, Destiny, Little Nightmares, metroidvania conventions — to give the discussion context. Conversations sometimes extend past games themselves into adjacent media, such as the Super Mario Galaxy movie press tour or the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World animated continuation. Occasional guests from other gaming outlets, such as Andy Cortez of Kind of Funny Games Daily, join individual panels. The tone mixes detailed critique with joke-driven banter, interruptions, and personal tangents rather than a formal review script. Episodes are live-feeling group conversations, not narrated or narrative pieces, and typically run under an hour. The show assumes listener familiarity with genre terms, franchise history, and current release-cycle titles. It suits listeners who want both a critical read on game design choices and a casual, humor-forward format rather than a straight, single-voice review. Across the sampled episodes there is no documentary or investigative material — the format is consistently panel discussion plus news roundup.
Made for: Video game enthusiasts who follow current release-cycle titles and want critical, humor-driven panel discussion over solo review content.
What sets it apart: Unlike single-host review podcasts, The Besties uses a four-person recurring panel that pairs structured game critique with improvisational comedic banter and a regular industry-news roundup.
It's Game of the Year meets King of the Hill as four of Earth's best friends – Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Chris Plante, and Russ Frushtick – rank and review their favorite video games. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Besties makes game design legible through informed disagreement, close attention to mechanics, and jokes that reveal how its hosts think.
The Besties turns game criticism into a four-way conversation where Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Chris Plante, and Russ Frushtick test enthusiasm against one another.
A bronzed host trophy is only the warm-up before you must choose between Hades 2 and Silksong.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose Besties roundtable on Pragmata, Capcom's hot streak, and the game's fun action but shaky writing.
Pragmata gives this Besties bonus episode its center: a new AAA-style Capcom game that the crew seems pleased to see existing at all, especially because it is not another sequel.
A loose Mario-movie hangout that turns press-tour oddities into sharp, goofy Besties chemistry.
Super Mario Galaxy The Movie is mostly an excuse for The Besties and Get Played to hang out in the margins. The episode opens on a very L.A. California Pizza Kitchen bit, then slides into Mario press-tour chatter: Donald Glover getting written up as "silly again," Charlie Day…
A loose, funny case for cheap oddball games that scratch a guilty-pleasure itch without turning predatory.
This Besties episode is pitched around Creature Kitchen and cheaper alternatives to expensive gaming, but its best energy comes from the detours: scratch-off games, quarter-drop arcade loops, Cloverpit, Ratcoin, and the uneasy appeal of games that dress themselves in gambling…
A funny, anxious look at Marathon as an extraction shooter built around ambushes, support classes, and lingering Destiny brain.
The Besties frame Marathon as a tense, goofy, frequently mean little pressure cooker. The episode opens with a deep-cut Destiny riff about Peter Dinklage's old Ghost performance, Nolan North, and the fantasy of a tiny healing companion, which tells you pretty quickly where the…
A funny Besties entry on Scott Pilgrim nostalgia, beat-em-up affection, and Pokemon evolution anxiety.
The Besties finds the sharper angle in a Scott Pilgrim game chat: what happens when a thing built out of old video game references becomes the nostalgia object itself.
A funny, fast Besties roundtable where Reanimal's horror weirdness rolls into a packed State of Play catch-up.
The Besties use Reanimal as a springboard for the kind of loose, ridiculous games talk they do best. The opening bit about Tarsier Studios monster names turns a horror-game detail into a full comic argument, with the hosts picking apart whether something called "the Sniffer" can…
A loose, funny bracket episode where The Besties let great games and dumb bits fight for space.
The Besties treat their 2025 bracket like both a bit factory and a real argument, which is about right for this crew. The episode opens on a dream about giving studios bronzed versions of the hosts, then eventually gets down to the business of moving games through the board.
A loose but pointed Besties matchup uses Metroid Prime 4 and Ooo to take the Switch 2's temperature.
The Besties set Metroid Prime 4 beside Ooo as a search action matchup, and the most interesting stretch is not a verdict so much as a contrast: one game sounds technically solid but dragged down by some baffling design choices, while the other gives the conversation a better…
Nilay Patel presses tech and media CEOs on how they actually run their companies.
Physician Shoshana Ungerleider pairs TED talks with interviews on aging, drug prices, and menopause.
The Besties episode on Pragmata frames the game as “Dead Space” with a brighter tone, calling it “a little bit more humanist, a little more anti-AI, and a little more Mega Man.” Andy Cortez joins the panel and describes Pragmata as a third-person action shooter from Capcom, with a space-station setting, 3D-printed enemies, and a Pipe Dream-style hacking grid.
California Pizza Kitchen starts the whole thing.
Movie quotes barge in first.
Marathon needed a floating Dinklage.
A humorous anecdote about a British child's pretentious response to seeing a hummingbird at breakfast, used to mock British children in a comedic rant.
This comedic podcast episode imagines a post-apocalyptic scenario where Pokémon characters like Pikachu and Wobbuffet take on absurd roles in society, blending gaming satire with humorous commentary.
Pom-Bon has them nervous.
This episode discusses the appropriateness of Leon's humorous quips in Resident Evil games, particularly when they occur during tragic or violent scenes involving other characters.
Monster naming gets weird fast.
The hosts humorously discuss the challenge of pronouncing a video game title starting with 'M' and introduce themselves, with a guest host filling in for an absent member.
Four friends banter about video game tropes like crystals and orbs, then discuss Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Four friends humorously discuss their experience playing the video game Cairn, focusing on the messy chalk mechanic and climbing gameplay.
Four friends engage in humorous off-topic banter about bidets and cold opens before discussing video games.
The hosts engage in humorous banter, with one claiming to be a liquid metal cyborg from the future sent to ensure the podcast's existence.
The hosts discuss an embarrassing mistake where they asked Patreon members about anticipated games for 2025 instead of 2026, leading to subscriber losses and humorous banter about their gaming predictions.
This is a free bonus bracket episode gifted by Patreon members to the broader Besties community, featuring a humorous and engaging discussion about a bathroom game battle.
The hosts humorously discuss personal health issues and ergonomic setups while introducing their bracket competition to determine the best game of 2025.
A dream about bronzed bodies turns into award housekeeping.
California weather fumbles the opening.
Four friends discuss video games, review new releases, and rank their favorites in a humorous roundtable format.
Four friends banter about video games and promote a Patreon discount before starting their show.
The hosts introduce their podcast The Besties, where they discuss the year in gaming and share personal stories before ranking the best games of the year.
Four friends engage in humorous banter about singing in the shower and a song filter.
Four friends banter and review video games, starting with a humorous cold open about Clock Tower and Scissorman.
The hosts discuss their Halloween costume plans for their kids and themselves, with humorous anecdotes and banter.
Four friends humorously debate the appeal of space exploration in video games, specifically Starfield, and joke about ignoring quests once you get a spaceship.
The hosts discuss their preferences for navigation apps, with a humorous tangent about Sonic the Hedgehog voice navigation.
Four friends discuss video games and engage in humorous banter, including a tangent about an egg shortage.
Four friends banter and review video games, with a humorous tone and inside jokes.
The hosts discuss upcoming video game news, including the Nintendo Switch 2 and a game called Blueprints, with humorous banter.
The hosts engage in a humorous hypothetical scenario about snoring in a movie theater, leading to playful banter.
The hosts discuss their friend Griffin's long-standing dislike of recent Assassin's Creed games in a humorous roundtable format.
The hosts engage in a humorous conversation about a potential scam involving a warehouse full of Big Mouth Billy Bass and a past Furby scam.
Four friends discuss a new handheld gaming device and their travel plans, blending game reviews with humorous personal anecdotes.
The hosts banter about niche interests and Linux tinkering, worrying they've lost their audience, while discussing video game honorable mentions.