History YMMV / GameTheory

** His ''{{VideoGame/Cuphead}}'' theory asserts that Cuphead and Mugman are selling illegal alcohol and, thus, are no better than the literal devil. While committing something illegal is wrong, no matter the scenario, considering many people, both then and today, saw the Prohibition as a big joke (which, as [=MatPat=] himself even acknowledges, is the main reason why it was so short-lived), trying to make them morally equivalent to Satan isn't really fooling anybody.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: While his Game Theory videos have more views and are better known, many fans consider [=MatPat's=] Film Theory videos to be of better quality with better humor and research. Even when his theories are wrong, they offer insight into the deeper themes and philosophical ideas of the works that he covers, making the episodes more substantial and meaningful.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that films usually contain linear stories as opposed to the branching paths of games, so [=MatPat=] is less likely to miss out on crucial information - making for a more complete theory.

* DanBrowned: Game Theory has a poor reputation in several fan circles due to their large amounts of inaccuracies or errors despite the show's analytical and realistic focuses. The mistakes range from [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer missing various tidbits of canon information that would render their theories moot]] to [[CriticalResearchFailure basic factual errors about real-life phenomena]]. It takes [[DanBrowned/GameTheory a whole page of its own]] to list them all.

* NeverMyFault: Pretty much any time a video of his receives enough flack for him to acknowledge it, expect him to come up with any number of excuses to exempt himself from having to take responsibility. For example, while he did admit the "Sans is Ness!" theory to be far-fetched, he claims that he "obviously" never believed it himself either, despite having never given off the vibe in the original video that he thought it was dumb. There's also his ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' theory, which he claims was rushed because he was "stuck in Con Season", and claims he could have even figured out the contents of the mysterious box, had Scott just given him more time.

** During one of his live streams on GT Live, Matpat mistook ''Heartbound'' for a successor of VideoGame/{{Undertale}}, mislabeling the game, refusing to call it by name, and not even lonoing to it in any way shape or form, resulting in the developers, Pirate Software, calling out Matpat for this misinformation. This wasn't the end of the problem however; MatPat dug in his heels, refused to make any sort of appology, or corrections, and stated that the exposure alone was good enough. The backlash was bad enough to the point that Toby Fox himself called him out on how unhelpful and damaging that sort of thing is to developers trying to make a name for themselves. He has since apologized for this error, and later said in his tweet to begin revising the way his team tags[=/=]titles livestreams, along with linking the games to their download sites. This however still has the unfortunate effect of making MatPat look disingenuine, since it took the creator of Undertale calling him out for him to actually do anything about it.

** Alas, it could be argued that he is even giving [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] this treatment while going along with the StockEpilepticTrees by having written off Mario as the [[RonTheDeathEater true villain]] of their game series.

** The channel already has over seven ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' videos (without counting livestreams), even more than Mario and Zelda theories. Either you love how much attention he gives to the series and the fans or you're sick of it and hate [=MatPat=] for [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to FNAF fans so much]].

** During one of his live streams on GT Live, Matpat mistook ''Heartbound'' for a successor of VideoGame/{{Undertale}}, resulting in the developers, Pirate Software, calling out Matpat for this misinformation, along with Toby Fox. He has since apologized for this error, and later said in his tweet to begin revising the way his team tags[=/=]titles livestreams, along with linking the games to their download sites.

** During one of his live streams on GT Live, Matpat mistook ''Heartbound'' for a successor of VideoGame/{{Undertale}}, resulting in the developers, Pirate Software, calling out Matpat for this misinformation, along with Toby Fox. He has yet to apologise for this error, and is currently facing backlash for this.

* {{Squick}}: [=MatPat=] believes that both the "mental" theory and the "timeline" theory hold up; in other words, even though Jumpman is clearly stated in the latter theory to be Mario's father, Mario is [[RonTheDeathEater still a dangerous sociopath and man whore]]. What he fails to realize is this: if Jumpman is Mario's father, and Mario is potentially seeing Pauline, then...[[OedipusComplex yeah]].

* HarsherInHindsight: A straight example of the latter is his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QOpYMsFXQ theory]] that the main cast of ''Film/RogueOne'' isn't heard of or mentioned in the Original Trilogy as they've turned to the Dark Side, and he takes the time to dismiss the idea of all of them being dead by the end of the movie, because would Disney/Lucasfilms ''really'' kill off their new characters in their ''Star Wars'' spin-off? [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll Yes. Yes, they would.]]]]
** The thumbnail of the video dealing with Article 13 features a graphic of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' being ground up. Only three days after the video was uploaded, series creator Creator/StephanHillenberg died of ALS.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: While his Game Theory videos have more views and are better known, many fans consider [=MatPat's=] Film Theory videos to be of better quality with better humor and research.

* HePannedItNowHeSucks: His constant jabs at Nintendo, the Wii U, and some of their franchises (Mario in particular) is known to really rile up Nintendo fans, especially ones who outright detest the Game Theory fandom for acting like [=MatPat=]'s ''theories'' are 100% fact (when they're not supposed to be). See some of the stuff under Critical Research Failure for more on why he's often on the bad side of Nintendo fans.

* NeverLiveItDown: Many research failures are usually forgotten by the majority of the viewers but a few of them are so absurd no one can forget it. "Wario is pratically 10 feet tall" and "Sans is Ness!" are easily his most quoted mistake and are always mentioned when someone is trying to make fun of the channel.

** The ''Undertale Sequel to [=EarthBound=]'' Theory. You can read in the Critical Research Failure folder for reasons why but for a short explanation, Mat ignores the lore of both ''Undertale'' and ''[=EarthBound=]'', makes stretches far beyond logical, and he cites an old Rom Hack that Toby made during his teenage years that he considers a total OldShame.

** [=MatPat=]'s jokes about his treatment of his editor Ronnie, often comparing it to slave labor, becomes much harder to watch after Ronnie committed suicide.

* HarsherInHindsight: Mat's speech about a friend he knew back in choir who he stopped from committing suicide becomes far sadder when Ronnie committed suicide later that year, with [=MatPat=] releasing a video in late July talking about Ronnie.

** As mentioned under, OlderThanTheyThink below, Matt has received criticism in the past for not acknowledging when a theory he's stating is actually an already established fan theory, instead of one he himself made. In his theory on ''VideoGame/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', however, he specifically acknowledges and gives credit to the specific Redditors who found evidence that he himself was incapable of deciphering.

* ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars: In his ''Zootopia'' video, [=MatPat=] cautioned viewers that his Film Theory and Game Theory series are intended for introducing people to new ideas that they can then research themselves and that the videos shouldn't be taken completely at face value. Given how his ''Zootopia'' video does discuss [[FlameBait controversial real life topics like the War on Drugs and police brutality]], it's probably for the best.

** When talking about the announcement of VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight in the ''FNAF STUMPED ME'' video, MatPat remarks that it ''Might be time for Markiplier to give up his FNAF crown''. Once the game came out, Markiplier actually did eventually give up on beating 50/20 mode.

* PoisonOakEpilepticTrees: Many of his more recent theories could fit this, especially the one about Sans from ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' being Ness from ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWright Phoenix Wright]] being an AmoralAttorney, and MANY of his ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' and ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' theories.

** His second ''Petscop'' theory, not because of the theory itself, but because of the video, which exhibits intentional audio glitches, eerie edits, and an overall uneasy tone. Some praised the video to be among Game Theory's best edited, creating an atmosphere that meshes with the topic's horror and mystery elements perfectly, while others felt that it was actually too effective, to the point that it became distracting, as some were too scared to even focus on the points being made.

* DanBrowned: Game Theory has a poor reputation in several fan circles due to their large amounts of inaccuracies or errors despite the show's analytical and realistic focuses. The mistakes range from [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer missing various tidbits of canon information that would render their theories moot]] to [[CriticalResearchFailure basic factual errors about real-life phenomena]]. It takes [[DanBrowned/GameTheoryWebShow a whole page of its own]] to list them all.