The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

Our first draft episode of the year is here! Who can pick the best levels out of Samuel, Matthew, Dave and Ash? You decide. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Discord.

This week's music is from the Sonic 2 soundtrack by Masato Nakamura, the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson, the Super Mario 64 soundtrack by Koji Kondo and the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa.

These are the categories if you need a refresh:

First-person shooter level (singleplayer)
First-person shooter level (multiplayer)
Lightgun stage
Multiplayer level (can't be an fps)
Platforming level
Mission in an open world or larger game
Bonus level
Boss battle
Worst level and location I'd doom my worst enemy to live in
Free pick

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Five years later, The Guardian's Keza MacDonald returns to the podcast to talk about her new book, Super Nintendo (UK link here, US link here). We then close out with Keza's quickfire list of the 10 most underrated Nintendo games.

This week's music is from the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack by David Wise.
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Having conquered GTA III (kind of), Vice City and San Andreas (plus Bully, which is sort of a GTA), it's time for the definitive Back Page podcast on 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. Joining us to dissect the first HD GTA is beloved third host and freelance writer extraordinaire Jeremy Peel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A mop up of some neat games we missed from 2025, plus Matthew's thoughts on the newest game from Inkle.

Games discussed: TR-49, Skate Story, POPUCOM, Wheel World, Earthion, Routine, The Séance of Blake Manor, Demonschool and The Berlin Apartment.
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What makes a 9/10 game not a 10/10 game? Why do video games end up bad? Which NPC would you least like to be stuck in a lift with? What food do they serve at the hypothetical Matthew Castle-themed cafe in Shibuya? These are some of the questions tackled in our first mailbag episode of 2026.

Feel free to submit future mailbag questions in the Discord, or to [email protected].
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