I am a die hard devotee to the Super Best Friends, who run a let’s play channel on YouTube.

It’s hard to explain just how much of an impact they’ve had on my video watching habits. I mean, they’re playing on my television right now as I write.

Instead of talking about the guys themselves (you can read a post here I wrote a while back), I wanted to put together a short list of their — in my opinion — five greatest let’s plays.

A let’s play is a series of videos that show the players completing a video game from start to finish. These can be grueling affairs taking hours and hours to complete, but with the right guides it can be a great experience for player and viewer alike.

Here’s my top five playlists I hit up!

Night in the Woods — May 2017

I honestly think that Matt and Woolie could voiceover an entire video game. Night in the Woods is an adventure game with a great cast of characters. As a player, you read their dialogue, but they’re entirely voiceless. Matt and Woolie provided the voices for all of the characters in the game.

Each character they voiced had a personality of their own. Germ, who Matt voiced, was definitely my favourite character because his kooky character was matched by the kooky voice that gave to him.

Matt and Woolie’s work on this makes this one of my top five. Also, the introduction is full of references to Super Best Friends Play memes, which is fun.

Yakuza 0 — March 2017

Enthusiasm for the material, I think, is a big draw when watching a let’s play. If a person can provide the viewer with context for the game, insight into the characters, and observations of what’s going on then you get a great experience. Pat loves Yakuza and his love for the series really shines through in the knowledge he’s able to impart about the series.

On the other hand, Matt is still discovering the series as this let’s play starts out. He knows a little bit about it from doing a let’s play of Yakuza 4, but in this game he gets to see how Kazama Kiryu, the game’s protagonist, got to be an ass-kicking gangster.

There’s a delicate balance to having one person knowing everything and your foil knowing very little about the game you’re playing. Matt and Pat work together really well here in asking questions, providing answers, and being super entertaining.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow — May 2015

I love watching people effortlessly cakewalk a video game. To cakewalk means to almost effortlessly beat a game, but that doesn’t mean the game’s easy or the person has some innate skill that makes them good. Liam has obviously practiced playing this game a lot and it made for a great watch.

Matt joined him in this let’s play and asked the right questions to have Liam explain what he was doing to beat the game. They also had some great discussions about the Castlevania series, which is pretty large and convoluted.

Also Matt’s cat almost destroys the entire let’s play, which is fun.

Silent Hill 3 — November 2016

About a year before this let’s play, Matt and Pat did another of Silent Hill 2. While that’s a good one, I always seem to come back to this one instead. Silent Hill 2’s subject matter is pretty heavy in comparison to the cult-laden tale of Heather Mason.

It’s just a wacky let’s play of a really great game and this one spawned some of the most memorable moment from these let’s players. Including the clip below:

Laughter is contagious and when Matt and Pat start laughing like this you know it’s going to be a great let’s play.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream — December 2013

I’m a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy, so when Pat and Woolie decided take on Harlan Ellison‘s point and click adventure game that was pretty exciting. I really when one person knows everything about a game while the other person has to guess what’s going on. Woolie is the expert at the game and Pat is using his university degree to decipher what’s going on in the game.

Dynamics between let’s players make these kinds of videos work. Pat and Woolie had never done a let’s play together before this, so it seemed like a bit of a test for them and they came out with some great material.

This let’s play is also advertised to me all of the time on my home screen on YouTube for some reason, so it’s always there ready to be clicked and watched and loved and absorbed.

Deadly Premonition — May 2013

This is the let’s play that made me fall in love with the Super Best Friends. Deadly Premonition has long been one of my favourite video games to watch videos about and not play. When Matt and Pat decided to do this, I rejoiced cause I could be entertained twice with them and the source material.

This let’s play was also one of the big ones at the start of the YouTube channel when the group was still working with Machinima. Back in 2012, or so, Matt and Pat started working with the YouTube content hub to produce videos. During this time they also started to produce content on Matt’s old YouTube channel, which had gotten a bit of a following for some Street Fighter the TV show videos he had made.

The early let’s plays on the channel cemented the Super Best Friends as a brand that could exist on their own. Years later, they’re still trucking even without Machinima’s financial backing.

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Those are just a few of the good let’s plays the Super Best Friends have produced.

I’ve sunk more time into watching these videos into probably anything else. There’s something good about having a routine with entertainment. I know that at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. there will be something funny to watch on their channel. It’s somewhat nostalgic of when I’d get home from school and watch TV.

Anyway, do you have any favorites? Comment below and tell us why!