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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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:

1. Game featuring Mario
2. Game featuring Link
3. 90+ on Metacritic
4. Game with novel touchscreen controls
5. Game made in Japan
6. Game made outside Japan
7. Port or re-release
8. Wild card (has to be below 80 on Metacritic)
9. Free pick
10. Was advertised on the telly by a celebrity

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More of the games we've been playing recently, before the September avalanche of big titles crashes into Back Page headquarters.

Samuel's games: Denshattack!, The Incident at Galley House, Big Walk, Motorslice (a tiny bit)

Matthew's games: Splatoon Raiders, The Message from Deep Space, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

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Some thoughts on the Halo remake, then almost an hour of total nonsense that we will never, ever speak of again.

This week's music is from the Halo: Combat Evolved by Michael Salvatori and Martin O'Donnell.

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How many ideas get saved from the original game when you're making a sequel? Does it cost more money to make a follow-up? How do you make sure an indie sequel doesn't vanish without a trace?

Our returning guest Jay Baylis answers these questions while discussing his next game with Bytten Studio, Cassette Beasts 2002.

This week's music is from the Cassette Beasts soundtrack by Joel Baylis.

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