Turns out James McAvoy is a big RPG fan and calls Secret of Mana his favorite video game ever

James McAvoy appeared in a recent episode of Hot Ones celebrating Speak No Evil’s release and revealed his favorite video game of all time

First We Feast

James McAvoy appeared in a recent episode of Hot Ones celebrating Speak No Evil’s release and revealed his favorite video game of all time. It’s probably not what you expected, and it certainly wasn’t what McAvoy’s Speak No Evil co-star Mackenzie Davis expected.

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It’s Secret of Mana, Square Enix’s classic RPG, widely regarded as one of the best Super Nintendo games ever on par with the likes of Final Fantasy 6.

Hot Ones is a celebrity quiz show where contestants have to eat exceptionally spicy chicken wings for every question they get wrong. Instead of a host this time, the film’s stars were quizzing each other.

“This is niche, so you might find it hard,” McAvoy said before Davis started guessing the game. He was right, though Davis gave it several good tries. She started by asking if the game had cars, guns, or both, both things that Mana definitely does not have. Then she asked about Wolfenstein 3D, which McAvoy said was actually one of his favorites as a child. Donkey Kong and Super Mario Kart – right generation, wrong game – both got passes, and then McAvoy finally gave her the answer.

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“You journey around fighting monsters and using magic and things like that,” McAvoy said when Davis asked what it was about.

“That’s nice,” she said in response, before, in keeping with Hot Ones’ rules, having to eat a particularly spicy chicken wing as a consequence of getting the wrong answer.

The Mana series might not have been niche in the ‘90s, but McAvoy’s right that it’s less well-known now. After the experimental Legend of Mana, a DS game, and a strategy spinoff, Mana went dormant for a decade until Square Enix started remaking classic games. 2018’s Secret of Mana remake lost much of the original’s magic, though 2020’s Trials of Mana – the first time that game launched outside Japan – went over rather better with fans and critics.  Square Enix also published the Collection of Mana for Nintendo Switch in 2019, which includes the original Secret of Mana and original Trials of Mana.

• Read more: The best Nintendo Switch games

Visions of Mana, a series reboot of sorts, launched in August 2024 to generally favorable reviews, though NetEase laid off most of the staff at Visions’ studio, Ouka, with plans to shut it down. The series’ future seems unclear at present, though if you’re keen to check out the latest, you can download a free Visions of Mana demo to see what it’s all about.