The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

Been quite a while since we did a 'games journalism craft' episode – this is one of those, as we're joined by former music journalist and Vice senior editor Mike Diver for a lively chat. Hear about the time Mike met Paul McCartney! Sadly, it wasn't about his terrible Destiny song that Matthew rather likes.

Mike's book, Aliens: The Video Games, is available now.
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Emergency Nintendo Direct chatter, powered by the reveal of sequels to two of our favourite Switch games (Metroid Dread and Kirby and the Forgotten Land), then another pile of games from the September 2026 mountain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The September release schedule avalanche begins. Games discussed: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton and Super Mario Sunshine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From outlawing the L3 and R3 buttons to combat-oriented games with bad platforming sections, our listeners have submitted 12 more possible game design crimes for Room 101...sorry, Room 64 (double copyright infringement!). Our returning guest, actual game designer Jamie Smith, helps us judge the innocent and guilty.

Want to submit a game design crime for a future episode? Head here to the relevant Discord channel, or ping us at backpagegames@gmail.com.
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Four giant men select their favourite DS and 3DS games in our latest 3-hour draft episode. We hope you enjoy this deep dive into both consoles. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of our Discord server.

These are the categories:

Game featuring Mario
Game featuring Link
90+ on Metacritic
Game with novel touchscreen controls
Game made in Japan
Game made outside Japan
Port or re-release
Wild card (has to be below 80 on Metacritic)
Free pick
Was advertised on the telly by a celebrity

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