The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

A new Nintendo console is here. Matthew is truly submerged in the Switch 2 experience, while Samuel has merely dipped a toe in the water. Here's how we're finding it so far.This week's music is from the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa.

It's Matthew hosting the pod solo this week, and his guest is Geraint Evans, formerly of N64 magazine, NGC and Gamesmaster. These days, he's working at the publisher PQube.This week's music is from the Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 + 2 soundtracks by Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani. 

Matthew has almost finished the new Doom game, while Samuel has done about half of it – so that's the focus of this week's episode. Matthew also explains his appreciation of the new MercurySteam game, Blades of Fire, and digs deep into his never-ending playthrough of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy on Switch.This week's music is from The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda.

57 minutes and 13 seconds – that's the timestamp you want for all the game chatter, including two top 10 lists of the best games of 2005. Skip all the bullshit!For everyone else? Enjoy tales of college woes and secret freezer politics. Nonsense podcasting awaits.This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Our guest cancelled! Gah. Well, here's an episode we airlifted out of our collective asses. Hopefully it's not too bad with two days' notice to plan it.

20ish listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial before Judge Castle, as Games Court returns!We also talk about this week's GTA 6 trailer, with a brief section on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, too. Do get in touch if you have any future Games Court entries, and we'll keep making them.This week's music is from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Lorien Testard.

It's time for another round of listener questions as we each recover from the 50 hours of games we played for last week's episode.Did anyone need 100 minutes of mailbag questions? Probably not, but as ever: it happened.Note: we recorded this week's episode before the Polygon and Giant Bomb layoffs if the tone around the games media chatter seems off.

It's catch-up time, as a spring wave of fantastic games hit at once! All of the above, plus Bionic Bay and some Metroid series chatter. 

Much to the chagrin of Matthew, who had to edit it, the four-person draft is back! This time, Samuel, Matthew, Ashley Day and Dave Scarborough are fighting over the best games on Xbox 360 (note: some of them may not be the best, but that's for you to decide).This week's music is from the Fable 2 soundtrack by Danny Elfman and Russell Shaw, plus the the Bayonetta soundtrack by Helena Noguerra, Bart Howard, as well as Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka.