The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

Here's what we've been playing lately, featuring Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Still Wakes The Deep, Mullet Madjack, a little on Crow Country, and a bit on Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

The worst format in podcasting is back! For the first time since 2021, Samuel runs his pre-owned purchases past Judge Castle.This week's music is from The World Ends With You soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto.

With a hangover from 90 June livestreams, Matthew and Samuel each deliver their 10 favourites from the hype season.

Matthew gets a well-deserved week off! Samuel's former colleague, Retro Gamer editor Darran Jones, steps into the draft dojo to celebrate Sony's first gaming handheld device. You get about 30 minutes of Darran talking about his career, then an hour of background preamble on the PSP, followed by 90 minutes of draft. Apologies in advance for the length, but hopefully it's a good listen! Vote for the winner @backpagepod on Twitter.This week's music is from the LocoRoco soundtrack by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kemmei Adachi. 

US games media royalty James Mielke (EGM, 1Up, GMR) is our guest this week. Hear about James' journey from comic book artist during Marvel's bankruptcy to becoming a key editor on a host of important media outlets throughout the '00s. Bonus: this episode contains another excellent Hideo Kojima interview anecdote.

We each try and guess five mystery games based on snippets from their reviews in '00s games magazines. Feel free to play along! After that, enjoy our considered answers to a whole heap of questions, from the Nintendo Switch 2 to the ideal game based on Thunderbirds. 

Two Giant Men, 20 categories, dubious rules! Time for another draft episode, this time on the subject of video game soundtracks. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Discord.Most of the music used in the episode is credited in real-time, but the track in the break is an orchestral Phoenix Wright arrangement by Noriyuki Iwadare.Here are the categories we select from:Album Categories1. RPG2. Indie game3. Shooter (FPS or otherwise)4. Platformer5. Game soundtrack where music plays a key role in the gameplay6. Fighting game7. Bleep bloop (retro game soundtrack - 16 bit or earlier)8. '90s as fuck9. Cult favourite10. Free pickTrack Categories1. Theme tune that rips2. Battle theme that rips3. Earworm of any description4. Features lyrics5. Ambient open world or world map music6. Rhythm action favourite7. The Yoko Shimomura category for a piano absolutely popping off8. Boss theme that rips9. Free pick10. The Game Over category (this must play at your funeral)

Here's what we've been playing lately: Stellar Blade, Animal Well, Octopath Traveler 2, Dark Forces Remaster and Pepper Grinder.

Matthew speaks to one of his favourite authors, Stuart Turton. Hear about his exhausting creative process (seriously, you won't believe it), and what it takes to write a novel – including his latest, The Last Murder at the End of the World. Then, in part two, hear more about Stu's love of video games, which runs incredibly deep.Samuel is away for this one. Matthew gets the name of the podcast slightly wrong at the start, but don't hold it against him.This week's music is from the Return of the Obra Dinn soundtrack by Lucas Pope.