A deep dive into the year's first big game (sorry, Mario Tennis). Section one is spoiler-free, and the much shorter section two has clearly marked spoilers. But, you still might want to listen to this after you've played the game if you want to experience everything fresh.

Pretty much everything discussed in the first hour is in Capcom's marketing materials for the game.

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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:

1. First-person shooter level (singleplayer)
2. First-person shooter level (multiplayer)
3. Lightgun stage
4. Multiplayer level (can't be an fps)
5. Platforming level
6. Mission in an open world or larger game
7. Bonus level
8. Boss battle
9. Worst level and location I'd doom my worst enemy to live in
10. 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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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 backpagesgames@gmail.com.

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26 (or so) predictions about 2026, based on nothing whatsoever. Plus: our 2025 predictions revisited, and our 5 picks for this year's fantasy draft.

This week's music is from the Trauma Center: Second Opinion soundtrack by Kenichi Tsuchiya and Shingo Yasumoto.

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