PixlBit

I missed Metal Mondays! I'll be happy to see it back m/

This episode was so good, it made me really happy that it was full of Nightwish and Battle Beast!

Stage Select

Patrick comes out first. Since his beautiful ginger head is always in the clouds he needs to slowly descend from the rafters as this dreamy Majora's Mask song plays. I'd like to think he's dressed as Tingle and attached to a big red balloon while this happens. Come to think of it this idea may have its origins in some old fantasies I had about the pantless red-headheaded devil, but I think it'll work for a wrestling entrance all the same.

Julian comes out next and it's a bizzare pick but the title screen for Mass Effect needs to play. There's no percussion and it's very atmospheric, but just play it super loud, pan the arena with lights, run a fog machine, and it'll probably work out! There are two possible entrances I can imagine. Either Julian rides out to the ring on a parade style float shaped like the Normandy, or he gets launched into the ring human-cannonball style by a cannon shaped like a mass effect relay.

Angelo has to come out to this version of Bloody Tears and all along the entrance ramp there needs to be dozens of people dressed up like demons laying on the ground, so it's like he's walking over the corpses of his enemies. It's funny, you guys call Angelo the robot but he's the one I give the most metal and upbeat entrance, and I think it fits him! It's 2018 and I think it's safe to say Angelo's no longer the new guy! Geeze, I've been listening to this show for a long time

Stage Select

4. Naked Snake with amazing mullet and headband on

3. Lara Croft

2. Ellie from The Last of Us

1. My canon female paragon Commander Shepard

Chrono Crossing 1989

We're getting back to when I was a baby in the the early 90s and my parents bought us an NES and I came home from school to play crappy games all day without knowing better. The games from 1989 that I played the most were Drakkhen and Astyanax on NES so that shows you what kind of shitshow we're talking about. Sim City also came out and I remember in elementary school our teacher in computer class let us play Sim City one day and it was fun, so I'll pick Sim City because it's either that or Astyanax!

Stage Select

3. Star Ocean 4 The Last Hope - The story is full of annoying, angsty, melodramatic teenagers in space. But I kind of love it.

2. Metal Gear Solid series - Metal Gear is anime as fuck, and it's awesome.

1. Dark Souls - The artists and designers at From Software were immensely influenced by the Berserk manga and anime, and the Souls aesthetic and violent depressing atmosphere owe a lot to it. The amount of Berserk homages in the character designs, environment art, monsters, and even some story beats is staggering. If you're a fan of the Souls atmosphere you have to get your hands on Berserk, it's super fucking metal. There are areas and monsters in Souls games that look like they're right out of the panels, and players can straight up cosplay as their favorite Berserk characters in Dark Souls.

Chrono Crossing 1990

Super Mario Bros. 3 - This game is so good. Super Mario World is probably my favorite Mario, but SMB3 is a close second. Really awesome and timeless platformer.

Stage Select

3. This song was especially sad to me as a kid playing Majora's Mask for the first time. As the world ends the game plays this slow melancholy song. The fact that it's slow takes away any sense of urgency and instills an atmosphere of hopelessness. There's nothing left but to watch the moon come crashing down.

2. I initially made a list of three Silent Hill songs for this stage select, but it would be too easy to make this an all-Silent-Hill segment, so I wanted to limit myself to just one.

1. Have to bring back this one from the Best Village Themes stage select you did, as it fits in quite well here, too. Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl excells at being depressing.

Chrono Crossing 1991

Definitely Super Mario World. I replayed this a couple months ago and it's still a really fun platformer.

Previous stage select and chrono crossing that I missed

The character I would've put on my toilet paper would've been Jacob Taylor from Mass Effect 2. He's so boring, I just can't care.

My chrono crossing for 1992 would've been Wolfenstein 3D, hands down. One of my favorite shooters. I just replayed it recently on PC and it's still amazing. Mein Leben!

The metro series is one of my favorites of all time. I replay 2033 and Last Light at least once a year. For a Nerds Without Pants podcast segment I picked Last Light as my favorite game of 2013. I'm also trying to convince people to play both games before Metro Exodus comes out so people can be caught up on the story. The metro series has my favorite atmosphere and post-apocalypse Moscow is the most beautiful and depressing setting. I love it.

Metro is my favorite shooter franchise and Last Light was my chrono crossing 2013 pick. You need to play the previous 2 because it's a continuation of the story based on the original novels more or less and each one picks up from the previous game. Play 2033 first, then Last Light, and then Exodus when it comes out.

I'm excited for the ancient Egypt Assassin's Creed. I've been waiting for them to get to that setting for a long time. The last one I played was Black Flag. I play the AC franchise the same way I play Call of Duty by skipping most of them and hopping back in every few games when the setting and gameplay seem to come together just right. 

Stage Select

Naked Snake to Para-Medic in MGS3

Para-Medic: Snake, look at your body! 
Naked Snake: Yep... lookin' good. 
Para-Medic: Not there. 
Naked Snake: Then where? 
Para-Medic: You have leeches all over your body! 

Cave Johnson's combustible lemons rant in Portal 2

“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!” - Cave Johnson

The first line of dialogue in DOOM 2016

"They are rage: brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done."

Chrono Crossing 1993

It's Doom. Doom rules. Rip & Tear!

Legion and Fawkes are amazing, those are some of my favorite companions. I was pleasantly surprised by how great their writing was and how interesting they were. Super good characters that made me totally rethink how I viewed the races I'd been killing

Stage Select (3 favorite video game tropes)

3. Space Marines. I love the lore, atmosphere, and visual aesthetic of Warhammer 40k. The series has had a massive influence on video games as you can see in Doom Guy, Master Chief, Gears of War, and tons of military sci-fi. Covering a genetically altered solider in massive armor and dropping him or her into the middle of a horde of numerically superior enemies is awesome, even though it's been done to death. For the Emperor!

2. Every story in a Splinter Cell game being a convoluted rabbit hole down into the military industrial complex. You'll investigate a terrorist and he'll lead you to defense contractors, private military companies, a computer programmer, and eventually you'll end up in the offices of politicians and CEO's that profit off the war. Nothing supernatural, no proper Shyamalan twists, just straight up politics, espionage, and the jargon that comes with it.

1. Metal Gear in all its iterations. It isn't that practical to have a walking tank that can shoot nukes since Snake proves in each game they can be taken down somewhat easily, and nuclear submarines or ICBMs can bomb anywhere in the world in minutes anyways, but the concept of a walking nuke tank is thematically awesome and audacious, so I loved seeing it come back in every game. Metal Gear?!?!

Chrono Crossing 1994

Didn't have to deliberate at all, it's Doom 2. Whip out the super shotgun and turn all of Hell into piles of guts!