Explore every episode of the podcast The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Outlaws First Impressions, Gamescom 2024 and an Emergency Mailbag | 30 Aug 2024 | 02:12:31 | |
In this oddly lengthy grab bag of an episode, Matthew talks about the first few hours of Star Wars Outlaws (about 25 mins in), Samuel explains what he ate at Gamescom 2024, and both of us answer questions from the listeners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Writing the Book on Alien: Isolation (with Andy Kelly) | 23 Aug 2024 | 01:03:41 | |
With Andy Kelly's book on Alien: Isolation out this month, we grilled him on the game and his hottest Alien movie takes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 182: Games Court – Big Sammy European Extreme Edition | 21 Jun 2024 | 01:58:08 | |
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. | |||
| Episode 102: God of War Games Ranked | 04 Nov 2022 | 02:31:37 | |
Ahead of the release of Ragnarök, we rank all the God of War games from 2005's original up to the 2018 PS4 entry – minus the odd Facebook game or mobile title. Enjoy. Once the new one drops, we'll discuss where it places in a future episode. This week's music is from the God of War 2 soundtrack by Cris Velasco, Ron Fish, Gerard Marino and Mike Reagan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 101: Bayonetta 3 and the PlatinumGames Hall of Fame | 28 Oct 2022 | 01:54:25 | |
The wonderful 101st episode of The Back Page attempts to build a 5-game hall of fame from the entire PlatinumGames catalogue. Plus, Matthew has been reviewing Bayonetta 3 on Switch – hear his thoughts on the latest (but perhaps not greatest) entry in the hack-and-slash brawler series. This week's music is from the Bayonetta 2 soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Naofumi Harada, Satoshi Igarashi, Hitomi Kurokawa and Takayasu Sodeoka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 100: Clip Show | 21 Oct 2022 | 01:50:28 | |
It's a clip show. Enjoy the clips. Thanks so much for listening and supporting us. Here's to 100 more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 99: Best Visual Novels (with Lucy Blundell) | 14 Oct 2022 | 02:22:33 | |
Indie developer Lucy Blundell (One Night Stand, the upcoming VIDEOVERSE) joins us to discuss one of Matthew's favourite genres: the (usually) non-horny visual novel. This week's music is from the 428: Shibuya Scramble soundtrack by Naoki Sato and Hideki Sakamoto. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 98: From Game Informer to MinnMax (with Ben Hanson) | 07 Oct 2022 | 01:21:12 | |
We're joined by Ben Hanson of MinnMax on this episode, who shares a bunch of great stories from his many years making videos for Game Informer's elaborate cover features. Hear about the times he visited Kojima Productions and Square Enix, among other studios. This week's music is from the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 97: Games Court Returns – More Pre-Owned Purchases On Trial | 30 Sep 2022 | 01:55:42 | |
More listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial this week, from classic JRPGs to a hilariously rough PS3-era shooter – and a grim fate awaits anyone who gets on the wrong side of Judge Big Sammy. Apologies in advance if you hate Games Court. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 96: GTA Clones on Trial (with Jeremy Peel) | 23 Sep 2022 | 02:24:52 | |
From The Getaway to Sleeping Dogs, this week Judge Matthew Castle puts the open world games that followed in GTA 3's wake on trial. Jeremy Peel returns to help make the cast for Driv3r, among other games. This week's music is from the Driv3r soundtrack by Marc Canham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 95: The Lucasarts Adventure Games Hall of Fame (with Ashley Day) | 16 Sep 2022 | 02:35:42 | |
From Monkey Island to Full Throttle, we try to boil down the complete library of Lucasarts adventure games into five representative titles – building a hall of fame, the concept of which we stole from a film podcast we like. Former GamesTM editor Ashley Day joins us for this one. Note that our originally scheduled episode, GTA clones on trial, is now coming next week. This week's music is from The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land and Patrick Mundy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 94: Splatoon 3 + Nintendo's Newer Series Explained | 09 Sep 2022 | 01:44:54 | |
Matthew talks us through his many hours agonising over a Splatoon 3 review in this week's episode, which features a detailed breakdown of what's new (or not) in Nintendo's latest online shooter. Plus, we break down key examples of new Nintendo series from the past year and explain what they represent in the overall breadth of its output. This week's music is from Bayonetta 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 93: What We've Been Playing (September 2022) | 02 Sep 2022 | 02:10:18 | |
Saints Row, Arcade Paradise, Symphony of War, Ryse: Son of Rome, Splatoon 3, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Escape Academy are among the games discussed in this month's episode. Plus: we try and clear a mountain of your listener questions with increasing weariness. This week's music is from the Rogue Squadron soundtrack by Chris Hulsbeck. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 181: Top 10 Most Anticipated Games | 14 Jun 2024 | 01:29:03 | |
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. | |||
| Episode 92: The 2000-2005 PC Gaming Draft | 26 Aug 2022 | 01:58:51 | |
It's draft revenge time! Who can pick the 10 best games released during the years 2000-2005? Vote for the winner @backpagepod on Twitter. We'll update this episode description when a winner has been declared. This week's music is from the Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 soundtrack by Frank Klepacki. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 91: From Edge to Hit Points (with Nathan Brown) | 19 Aug 2022 | 01:50:23 | |
This week's guest is former Edge editor Nathan Brown, who now runs the newsletter Hit Points (support his Substack at hitpoints.substack.com). Hear what goes into an Edge [10], as well as thoughts on Destiny, E3, Street Fighter and the world of videogame consulting. This week's music is from the Destiny soundtrack by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori and the Street Fighter II soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura and Isao Abe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 90: The '90s Games Mag Quiz and Mailbag | 12 Aug 2022 | 02:13:28 | |
Samuel and Matthew ask each other to guess the game based on quotes taken from '90s games magazines – then answer a whole suite of listener questions in part two. This week's music is from Final Fantasy VIII, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 89: Steam Deck Special | 05 Aug 2022 | 01:50:24 | |
Is Valve's handheld PC all it's cracked up to be? Yes! In this episode we celebrate its strengths, highlight its limitations and discuss the games we've been playing on it. This week's music is all from our theme tune's composer, Barry Topping (@nostoppingepoch). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 88: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Verdict and a Series Retrospective | 29 Jul 2022 | 01:57:32 | |
Slightly later than usual, RockPaperShotgun EIC Katharine Castle rejoins us to discuss the Xenoblade Chronicles series in enormous detail. Hear Matthew's thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles 3 after 140 hours of playing it, and enjoy a great new quiz known as 'Xenoblade ingredient or '90s drug slang?'. This week's music is from the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 soundtrack by Kenji Hiramatsu and the Xenoblade Chronicles X soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 87: The Best Games of 2013 | 22 Jul 2022 | 02:38:35 | |
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2013, in our usual style. Don't miss our episodes on the best games of 2006-2012 if you haven't heard them already. This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson, and crikey, what a banging piece of music 'No Happy Endings' is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 86: The Nintendo Switch Games Hall of Fame Vol. 1 | 15 Jul 2022 | 01:40:14 | |
We undertake another grand project: building a library of the very best games for the Nintendo Switch, starting with 5 (technically 6) of our absolute favourites. Want to know what those are? Listen to the episode, or find the games we discussed in this episode below... Ready? Spoilers! Here we go... Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, Astral Chain, Into the Breach and Ori and the Blind Forest/Ori and the Will of the Wisps. This week's music is from the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack by Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii and Koji Kondo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 85: What We've Been Playing (July 2022) | 08 Jul 2022 | 02:01:21 | |
Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Sniper Elite 5 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge are discussed in this round-up of games we've been playing this month. Our theme tune, which plays in full this week at the very end, is from Barry Topping as ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 84: Games Court Returns! | 01 Jul 2022 | 01:50:04 | |
More listeners go on trial for bad pre-owned games purchases – this time with Judge Big Sammy making the verdicts. As ever, games court delivers zero nutritional value, but we have some laughs along the way. Our theme tune comes from the brilliant Barry Topping, composer of Paradise Killer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 83: Why Destiny is Good (with Phil Savage) | 24 Jun 2022 | 02:31:26 | |
PC Gamer's Phil Savage rejoins us for an episode all about Bungie's Destiny. Hate Destiny? Fair enough! You may still enjoy the first 24 minutes of this podcast for general games chatter. For Destiny players, prepare for two hours of chatter from a genuine expert that goes deep into the series' history – including the top 5 Destiny 2 guns, and the top 5 things to do in the game. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 180: The PlayStation Portable Draft (with Retro Gamer's Darran Jones) | 07 Jun 2024 | 03:00:11 | |
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. | |||
| Episode 82: Top 10 Most Anticipated Games (with Jeremy Peel) | 17 Jun 2022 | 01:49:18 | |
Matthew is away this week! Returning guest Jeremy Peel kindly steps in to replace him, as we count down our 10 personal most anticipated games, based on whatever E3 was this year – from Redfall to Final Fantasy 16. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 81: The '90s PC Games Draft | 10 Jun 2022 | 02:14:27 | |
Samuel and Matthew each compete to pick the 10 best PC games released in the years 1990 to 1999 – the poll is closed now but Matthew won this one. This week's music is from the Command & Conquer: Red Alert soundtrack by Frank Klepacki. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 80: Top 5 Dreamcast games (with Andy Kelly) | 03 Jun 2022 | 01:19:31 | |
Returning guest Andy Kelly joins us to discuss his love of Sega's Dreamcast, and his new Alien: Isolation book, Perfect Organism, which you can back on Unbound: https://unbound.com/books/perfect-organism/ This week's music is from the Shenmue soundtrack by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Yuzo Koshiro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 79: What We've Been Playing (May 2022) | 27 May 2022 | 01:57:37 | |
The Centennial Case, Tunic, Gears Tactics, Eternal Threads and Little Cities are among the games we discuss in this week's episode, which was painfully recorded across three evenings. This week's music is from The Centennial Case soundtrack by Yuki Hayashi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 78: From OPSM2 to PC Gamer (with Tim Clark) | 20 May 2022 | 01:44:48 | |
This week's guest is Tim Clark, brand director of PC Gamer with a long history of working on the official PlayStation magazines. Get ready for another top-drawer story about Hideo Kojima, among many other tales from games media history. This week's music is from the Killer7 soundtrack by Masafumi Takada. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 77: Best Star Wars Guilty Pleasure Games | 13 May 2022 | 01:50:25 | |
In this week's episode, Samuel catalogues the Star Wars games that exist between simple notions like light and dark – these are the 6 and 7/10 Star Wars games that are nonetheless interesting in a bunch of ways. A full best Star Wars games episode is coming later this year, so look forward to that. This week's music is from the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed soundtrack by Mark Griskey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 76: From Edge to Media Molecule (with Jen Simpkins) | 06 May 2022 | 02:16:14 | |
Former Edge editor Jen Simpkins joins us to discuss some highlights of her years working in games media, and how she ended up working with the bright minds of the Dreams community at Media Molecule. Find the Playdate drawing Jen mentioned attached to the corresponding episode post on Patreon. Looksley's Line-Up is the DSi game mentioned early in the episode. Find the GameDeveloper.com article Jen mentioned here: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/marketing/ad-infinitum-handling-community-curation-on-a-cosmic-scale-in-dreams This week's music is from the Persona 5 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 75: Oh No, Another Mailbag (And Matthew Finishes Horizon Forbidden West) | 29 Apr 2022 | 02:03:50 | |
It's another mailbag episode, with about 20 minutes of what we've been playing at the start as a chaser. It's probably too long, yet again, but it covers everything from our favourite TV genres to trends in games that we miss. Enjoy! One factual error in this episode: Sunset Overdrive was released in 2014 rather than 2015. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch on Twitter). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 74: Max Payne 1-3 Revisited | 22 Apr 2022 | 01:49:30 | |
On this week's episode, we revisit all three Max Payne games. Section 1 is about Remedy's creation of the third-person shooter series that popularised bullet time, while section 2 covers Rockstar's effort to contemporise the character in Max Payne 3. Hopefully you'll agree we do Max justice. Then, the final section has to be heard to be believed. This week's music is from the Max Payne soundtrack by Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto, and the Max Payne 3 soundtrack by HEALTH. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 73: The Indie Games Hall of Fame Vol. 2 (with Joe Skrebels) | 15 Apr 2022 | 01:59:28 | |
IGN's Joe Skrebels joins us for another round of indie game recommendations – and 20 minutes of very welcome Dragon's Dogma chat. 15 more games enter our hall of fame in this episode. Hopefully you'll hear about something you've never played before. This week's music is from the Thumper soundtrack by Brian Gibson. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 179: From EGM to BitSummit (with James Mielke) | 31 May 2024 | 01:46:52 | |
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. | |||
| Episode 72: The Best Games of 2012 | 08 Apr 2022 | 03:09:23 | |
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2012, in our usual style. Love the podcast and want more? Head to patreon.com/backpagepod to unlock two additional episodes a month. This week's music is from the Catherine soundtrack by Shoji Meguro, and the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda and Takahiro Nishi. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 71: The Best Kirby Games | 01 Apr 2022 | 01:50:25 | |
The top 5 Kirby games, and detailed thoughts on Kirby and the Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch. Enjoy! This week's music is from the Kirby and the Forgotten Land soundtrack by Yuuta Ogasawara, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa and Yuki Shimooka, and the Kirby's Epic Yarn soundtrack by Tomoya Tomita. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 70: Ghostwire: Tokyo, New Kirby, Tunic and More Games We've Been Playing | 25 Mar 2022 | 01:34:15 | |
It's a simple 'what we've been playing' episode, featuring Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Tunic, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Monster Train – not to mention a ton of listener questions about random nonsense. This week's music is from the Tunic soundtrack by Terence Lee and Janice Kwan, and our excellent theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@NoStoppingEpoch on Twitter). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 69: The PS Vita Draft | 18 Mar 2022 | 02:03:24 | |
Who can pick the 10 best PS Vita games in our latest draft episode? And who will pick the best PSone and PSP games to supplement their selections? Matthew and Samuel compete to build the best library for Sony's fan-favourite handheld device. This week's music is from Hotline Miami by Scattle, and our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 68: Bad eBay Games Court 2022 | 11 Mar 2022 | 01:51:15 | |
Judge Castle returns to decide whether 18 or so listeners must die as a result of dodgy secondhand eBay purchases. This episode is slightly too long, but hopefully you'll be amused. This week's music comes from Barry Topping, composer on the brilliant Paradise Killer — it's our brand new theme tune! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 67: Two Giant Men Play Elden Ring | 04 Mar 2022 | 01:59:27 | |
Samuel and Matthew have played Elden Ring for a combined 37 hours – here's what they think so far. This week's music is from the Elden Ring soundtrack by Yuka Kitamura. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 66: Uncharted Games (and the Mediocre Movie) | 25 Feb 2022 | 01:48:53 | |
Matthew's seen the Uncharted movie, which is a nice excuse for a deep dive into one of our favourite PlayStation series. This week's music is from the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End soundtrack by Henry Jackman, and the Uncharted 1-3 soundtracks by Greg Edmonson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 65: Xbox Through The Years (with Jon Hicks) | 18 Feb 2022 | 01:29:12 | |
Jon Hicks, formerly of Official Xbox Magazine, joins us to revisit the 360 era through his experiences of the time. This week's music is from the Halo: Reach soundtrack by Michael Salvatori and Marty O'Donnell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 64: The Game Pass Competitor Draft | 11 Feb 2022 | 01:34:47 | |
Matthew Castle Productions and Big Sammy Holdings are each taking on Game Pass. Who built the best gaming subscription service? Matthew won this one. This week's music is from the Snatcher soundtrack by Konami Kukeiha Club, The Sims 4 soundtrack by Ilan Eshkeri and the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda and Takahiro Nishi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 63: What We've Been Playing (February 2022) | 04 Feb 2022 | 01:55:21 | |
Dying Light 2, Windjammers 2, Resident Evil 4 VR, NEO: The World Ends With You and more are discussed in this episode about what we've been playing in 2022 so far. This week's music is from the Unpacking soundtrack by Jeff van Dyck and the Windjammers 2 soundtrack by Seiichi Hamada, Hiroaki Yoshida, Harumi Fujita and Sylvain Hellio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 178: The '00s Games Magazine Quiz and Mailbag | 24 May 2024 | 01:25:01 | |
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. | |||
| Episode 62: Pokémon Games (with Jay Baylis) | 28 Jan 2022 | 01:54:38 | |
Cassette Beasts co-developer Jay Baylis joins us to discuss the long history of Pokémon games, subjecting Matthew to his idea of torture. Hear about the best games in the series across different categories from a genuine expert. This week's music is from the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato and Morikazu Aoki, the Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Minako Adachi, Hideaki Kuroda and Hitomi Sato, and the Super Smash Bros Ultimate soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato, Junichi Masuda and Minako Adachi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 61: 2022 Mailbag | 21 Jan 2022 | 01:44:32 | |
Another overly long mailbag episode is here! 25 of your questions about gaming (yes, and Bath restaurants) answered. This week's music is from the TimeSplitters 2 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate and The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land and Patrick Mundy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Episode 60: The Nintendo Wii Draft | 14 Jan 2022 | 02:05:36 | |
Matthew and Samuel compete to pick the 10 best Wii games – the same game cannot be picked more than once. Samuel won this draft, by 67% to 33%. This week's music is from the Wii Sports Resort soundtrack by Ryo Nagamatsu, the Super Mario Galaxy 2 soundtrack by Mahito Yokota, Ryo Nagamatsu and Koji Kondo, and The Last Story soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||