Share
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast
The Sub-80 Metacritic Games Draft
•
Each host must pick the best 10 games that have a score of 79 or less on Metacritic! But who will win out with that tricky criteria in mind? And what gold (if any) lies within the amber ranks of the reviews aggregator? Vote for the winning selection in the Discord announcements channel for the next week.
Some rules that might be handy to know:
- A game needs to have scored below 80 on at least one of its original launch formats to be eligible (so if it got 79 on Xbox 360 but 80 on PS3, it would count)
- But, it can't be more than 10 points lower – this is to avoid shitty ports getting in the mix (Bayonetta on PS3 versus 360, for example, or Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 versus PC)
- No remasters or remakes can be selected
Enjoy! This week's music is from The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story by Yûki Hayashi and Shogo Yamashiro.
More episodes
View all episodes
Top 5 Metroid Games (with Jay Baylis)
01:59:36|Cassette Beasts developer and all-round great video game thinker Jay Baylis joins us once again! In time for the release of Metroid Prime 4, Matthew and Jay each share their top 5 games in Nintendo's series.This is the Critical Hit article Jay mentioned on Metroid's possible influences. This week's music is from the Metroid: Zero Mission soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano.The Back Page Episode + ARC Raiders (with Phil Savage)
02:02:05|The podcast eats itself! The Back Page finally dedicates a whole episode to its namesake. How do back page jokes go wrong? And what about the less frequent times when they go well? Returning guest Phil Savage, Global Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer, helps us examine the creation of these gags. There's also a 20-minute bit on ARC Raiders near the start if that's your sort of thing.This week's music is from the Yakuza 0 soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji.The 16-bit Games Mega Draft (with Ashley Day and Dave Scarborough)
02:51:18|The drafts return! Four giant men compete to pick the best games on the Mega Drive (or Genesis, if you're American), SNES and Neo Geo across 8 categories – plus a 9th bonus category specifically for the Amiga.This week's music is from the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro and the Chrono Trigger soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda (not Rick Astley).The Oral Histories of Video Games (with Matt Leone)
01:12:49|This week's guest is Matt Leone, former Special Projects Editor at Polygon. Hear all about his new website Design Room, and his work on the oral history of Final Fantasy VII and and Shadow of the Colossus.Two Giant Men Play Super Mario Galaxy
02:01:31|A deep dive into an all-time classic on Wii. We'll do this again on Monday for Super Mario Galaxy 2, exclusively for Patreon XL Tier members!This week's music is from the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack by Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota.What We've Been Playing (Dispatch, Absolum, The Séance of Blake Manor, Ninja Gaiden 4), Mailbag + The Worst Zelda Quiz Ever
01:50:40|Games discussed: Dispatch, Absolum, The Séance of Blake Manor, Ninja Gaiden 4, Hell is Us.Then, Samuel butchering a bunch of Zelda quiz questions. It has to be heard to be believed.Episode 250: 10 Games We Enjoyed During Steam Next Fest – Plus a Handful of Duds
01:58:28|A deep dive on the demos we tried during Steam Next Fest, hopefully giving you a few things for your wishlist consideration.Samuel's games: Reanimal, Birdcage, Lumines Arise, The Killing Stone, Evil Egg, Skate Story, Ambrosia Sky, Cairn.Matthew's games: CiniCross, No More Work For Ito, Opus: Prism Peak, The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time, The Seance of Blake Manor.We won't list the duds, but one was Bubsy 4D.The 'Games Set in Japan' Hall of Fame (plus Absolum and Ball X Pit)
01:39:36|Following our moderately good episode about games set in Britain earlier this year, we assemble a list of the 10 key games set in Japan. Did we get it wrong? Probably. Plus: a mini 'What We've Been Playing' episode about two recent download games we've been digging!This week's music is from the Persona 4 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.What We've Been Playing (Ghost of Yotei, Silent Hill f, Baby Steps, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Revisited)
01:41:41|Matthew has Covid! Poor chap. At least he got through all six seasons of Justified while recovering. Here are the games discussed this week: Silent Hill f, Ghost of Yotei, Baby Steps, No, I am not a human, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the latest Golden Idol DLC.