From great Metroidvanias to an impromptu Cheese Draft, it's time for another mailbag episode.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Whoever wins, you lose! Vote for the winner in the Back Page Announcements channel. This week's music is from the Bayonetta soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

With a hangover from 90 June livestreams, Matthew and Samuel each deliver their 10 favourites from the hype season. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

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 Categories 1. RPG 2. Indie game 3. Shooter (FPS or otherwise) 4. Platformer 5. Game soundtrack where music plays a key role in the gameplay 6. Fighting game 7. Bleep bloop (retro game soundtrack - 16 bit ..read more

Here's what we've been playing lately: Stellar Blade, Animal Well, Octopath Traveler 2, Dark Forces Remaster and Pepper Grinder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more