The Staying In Podcast - four pals talk video games, board games, and movies

Games, games, and, uh, more games, in our landmark 250th one of these things. There’s an argument over the best Bond as we take a shot at 007 First Light from IO Interactive, which feels like a young 007 by way of Uncharted and Hitman. While on the smaller screen we’re slinging swords at decks of dastardlies in a mobile classic reinvented: Card Crawl 2 from Tinytouchtales. Then it’s off out to a t...

Is Mixtape a “real game”? Honestly, who cares; we love this coming-of-age story set in the 90s from Beethoven and Dinosaur, through Annapurna Interactive. It’s quick, it’s robust, and it’s memorable, and that’s what we’re after from narrative-focused experiences like this. Snackaroo is advanced Snap by way of Aardman, for up to 5 players, and while it’s a children’s game for sure, it’s got enough...

Hunters in a Scandinavian forest try to track the beast in, well, Beast, a hidden movement board game from Studio Midhall via Zatu, and we think you’re going to love this mighty (and huge) experience when you bring it to your tabletop. For a more chill time you’ll want to check out This Is a Gardening Show from Zach Galifianakis et al, which is, as you might expect, a gardening show… of sorts. Or...

If you’re looking for a great way to train your brain every morning, as well as understand how the devil a classic puzzle - the cryptic crossword - works, then Minute Cryptic should be on your phone. If that’s too much, but you still want something (surprisingly) cerebral then, yes, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is for you. It’s got a lot to say about the modern world for a film that, superficially, is...

Quick reviews and impressions of geek-adjacent books is the thrust of this one. There’s My First Adventure: Discovering Atlantis, which is a traditional-feeling choose-your-own-adventure book via Hachette, as well as a closer look at Dead Beard's Curse: Smart Book from Peasoup, which uses augmented reality to take “turn to page XX”-type books to another level. And the book chat goes on: if you lov...

On the tabletop we’re building up the walls with dexterity and memory game Castel Boom from Kiwizou by way of Hachette, and building up a case with MicroMacro Kids: Crazy City Park from Hard Boiled Games, also via Hachette. Away from the board games and into the realm of RPGs, we’re meeting up online with strangers and playing roleplaying game oneshots with StartPlaying (and the brilliant La Lionn...

A Staying In exclusive? Yep! We’re among the first people in the UK to play Red Notice - Le Million ou la Prison, which is a game about risking what you can on what you think you can get away with, themed on the game of cat and mouse found in works like Catch Me If You Can. It’s a stonker; you heard it here first. Of course there’s loads of other things to talk about coming out of AireCon 2026. We...

We’re getting old, so the only kind of exciting rave we’re interested in on a weekday is Arcade Archives Rave Racer from Bandai Namco, by way of Hamster Corp - a game previously trapped in the arcades of the 90s, re-released for home consoles. Then we talk about another throwback, this time to a kind of genre that was massively popular a few years ago, that is getting a new spin: the flip and draw...

It’s time to dredge up some painful memories of mid-tier Tom Clancy games with Predator: Badlands, then it’s onto cheerier topics, like a discussion on Marvel’s latest short run TV series Wonder Man and whether it might be the start of a new era for the MCU. Having already properly dated the show with a recent “holiday” we turn to Game Dev Story from Kairosoft, a fairly casual but very revealing m...

It’s time to get a grip on mobile gaming, so we go hands-on with MCON from Ohsnap, a dedicated MagSafe controller attachment for your phone that’s perfect for Android and iPhone gaming, as well as emulation and game streaming. We also throw down with the latest from Big Potato Games, the old-timey-charity-donation-by-way-of-marbles-em-up, Whirly Derby. And then there’s Duel for Cardia from Hans im...

We take a (one-eyed?) look at two weird (outsider art?) horror-adjacent video games from Critical Reflex on this episode, Mouthwashing from Wrong Organ and Arctic Eggs from The Water Museum, cockydoody, abmarnie, and Cameron Ginex. Then on the AAA side of the scale is the ridiculously slick open world assassin adventure Ghost of Yōtei from Sucker Punch. Meanwhile, on a more family-friendly board...

We take a deeper look at two extraordinary MachineGames titles, the adventure straight from the silver screen Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Wolfenstein: The New Order, which features simply some of the best writing in video games. We also turn to two puzzle platformers, the classic time-bending of Number None’s Braid, and the co-op joy of LEGO Voyagers from Light Brick Studio, the only g...

As we head into 2026, we take a look back at our favourite things from 2025. 00:00 - Auld Lang Syne 02:20 - The Murderbot Diaries 13:50 - Andor, Season 2 20:21 - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy 21:19 - Department Q 25:18 - Common Side Effects 28:39 - Last One Laughing 32:16 - Wavelength App 33:47 - Weapons 34:09 - Slay the Spire 34:31 - Hell or High Rollers 35:55 - Einstein on the Beach 36:59...

Our Christmas episode is here, so get your nog on. And why not open an entry in a very special fantasy miniatures advent calendar slash tabletop game from Oakbound Studio - Once Upon A Time In The Woods. And when we’re not unwrapping gifts, we’re talking about Ecuador, 2001, and the grip of football with despelote from Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena, and Panic, and the surreal, delicate, thoug...

After 15 long years of waiting, Skate 4 is here in the guise of Full Circle’s skate. and there are things about it we have to get out in the open. Equally long cooking in the oven is a love of wrasslin’ so of course we were going to chat about the documentary (?) WWE: Unreal at some point. And finally, there’s Gwent: The Legendary Card Game from CD Projekt and No Loading Games, which brings the di...

It’s been board games Christmas of late with this year’s Essen Spiel having just concluded, PLUS we’re joined by friend of the show and board games industry bigwig Rob Trounce, so we use this as a wonderful excuse to talk about lots and lots of board games. In particular? Well, there’s Tax the Rich by Alion, which is a trick-taking game with politics at its core, as well as Night Soil by Grail Gam...

Coming in at the top of our newly-invented genre - mobile games to play while standing in a queue - is CMYK’s Wavelength, a perfectly-pitched adaptation of the tabletop game of the same name. If that weren’t enough, Cuh-Muh-Yuh-Kuh is also putting out Magical Athlete, a game with a solid pedigree, given a fresh lick of 80s illustrated school book paint, by way of a living legend of board games. Bu...

Prepare thy brow, because it is about to be situated much higher than usual (when listening to this podcast at least). While it might not be from THAT game company, Sword of the Sea from Giant Squid continues its genetic lineage and - dare we say it? - improves upon its legacy in a multitude of ways. On the tabletop, Ravensburger’s latest spin on the modern board game classic is Horrified: Dungeon...

Feeling old? You might do after this episode. A classic old Nintendo series has had a big new twist, and it’s got us asking “is Mario Kart World made for us?”, plus heading back to the nineties with Humongous Entertainment and Mega Cat Studios and the re-release of Backyard Baseball '97. In case that weren’t enough old video games, there’s more action from Hamster’s Arcade Archives series, with a...

It’s all about games, games, games (and apples) on this episode. There’s a review of Jungo by Cocktail Games and thoughts on Agatha Christie's Death on the Cards from Modiphius, both of which got lots of outings in the most appropriate space for them: while on holiday. If you’re after a bit of virtual tourism and/or you reckon yourself handy with a DSLR then Matt Newell and Annapurna Interactive’s...

In the running for the best film of the year is Weapons from Zach Cregger and co., providing truly unsettling horror without the typically gorey schlock. Maybe not podium material, but Marvel’s latest Fantastic Four flick First Steps is feeling like a return to form, plus lovely words about the lovely Ultimatch from Fireside Games, and OK Play from Big Potato Games forces us to consider a brand ne...

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey. Plus a barrel-thumping good Nintendo game, a stupendous release from Hamster Corporation, and Osprey’s brilliant Day of the Dead-inspired competitive card-placement game. All that, and saluting the flag, on Ep229. 00:00 - A weather report and holidays with Seal(s) 10:13 - Donkey Kong Bananza 22:40 - Arcade Archives 2: Ridge Racer 42:11 - Ofren...

Straight out of Japan - specifically Hobby Japan - comes Gibberers: The Word Game of Language Invention and Civilization Development, and it’s probably one of our favourite games? Like… ever. On the big screen we’re watching a man leap a building in a single bound, as well as a lot more, in the new Superman movie from James Gunn, and on a smaller screen we’re watching something King of the Hill fa...

On the anniversary year of The Chinese Room’s BAFTA-winning Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture , Kris sits down with creative visionary Dan Pinchbeck to talk about this ground-breaking walking sim. In an interview that covers a multitude of topics - full timecodes below - the two talk about the power of agency in games relating to character development, how the team was forced to include a feature th...

We start the episode off with a Summer tradition, and - in a somewhat similar vein - we talk Hot Streak from CMYK. And we get all starry-eyed for Galileo Galilei from Capstone Games, plus take a walk through Kamurochō with SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Judgment . All that, and a strawberry sandwich, on Ep227. 00:00 - It's hot hot hot 10:17 - Judgment 27:11 - Hot Streak 42:24 - Galileo Galilei On...