I think we’re settling into a monthly dispatch after all; it seems like the correct frequency, for my own sanity at least…
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Dang, big month for subs! Öoo will unlock in a week, as is the tradition for the monthly posts, but the other two will remain locked up ~forever~. The Plug & Play and KIDS article is a minor bonus to follow up on my Time Flies write up, but Bug Hunter is proof that I’ve committed to the UFO 50 project enough to write a second one at least.
Particularly proud of the Defender Of The Crown article. I’ve been concentrating more on “modern” games recently, and look forward to digging into more “retro” soon, but even saying that Fortune-499 was from eight years ago, I’m hardly sticking to the cutting edge as it is.
With a lot of subscriber exclusives this month, I’ve not exactly kept up the pace with archive posts only managing six. Here’s four of them, but if you ever want to make sure you see when I share them, you can follow me on backloggd (or bluesky, but you’re more likely to miss it there.)
exp. Du Cinéma
It has not been a great month for movies up here in exp. Towers. I put the blame at the feet of The Fantastic 4: First Steps, which really did basically put me off movies. And then I went through the doldrums of Marty Supreme and Weapons. Thank goodness I went and saw… a movie I haven’t posted about yet. Something to look forward to, then.
“Pixels and Polygons Quarterly is a self-published magazine about retro games…The games covered inside this new issue are: Ehrgeiz, Secret of Mana, and Parasite Eve”
“In this supersized 20-page zine, you’ll see a collection of essays, reviews and art all centered around horror movies. Handmade in the Twin Cities metro, this special edition covers the occupation of Minnesota and a celebration of horror cinema by black and latine creators, Minnesota-based scary movies, and thoughts on joy and art as a resistance.”
“I created a free Palestine zine I could hand out at events, here’s a downloadable version so you can print your own!”
And Finally…
This 1964 theatrical 35mm advert was posted in a new restored version from Kineko Video last year (and has been kicking about online unrestored for a long time) but it’s so beautiful in 4K that I just have to share it. That cinema texture!!!
Oof, haven’t done one of these for a month. Well, let’s get to it.
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Thirty Flights Of Loving continues my slow Blendo Games retrospective (see Gravity Bone, Flotilla) but I’m pleased to finally start doing something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, which is work through UFO 50 (similarly slowly). I’m always looking for reasons to make my subscription seem worth it, so these are going to be subscriber exclusive. Well, it is just $1, you know…
I supposed I also unlocked A Computer Christmas (Sierra, 1986), but I dunno if you want to be reading about Christmas at the end of January [only 326 shopping days left! etc.]
I’m speeding up my updating of the exp. Archive a bit because I’d like to catch up a bit faster–closer to a couple of archive posts a week, so I’ll probably not include them all here now, it’ll get unwieldy. Nice to see that my Attack of the Friday Monsters! post picked up a mild bit of traction over on Bluesky–there’s something quite ironic about the fact that in the article, from 2014, I complain about the inaccessibility of certain games, and now you can’t play Attack Of The Friday Monsters! officially either.
As much as you might not want to read about Christmas, do you want to be reading about Avatar: Fire And Ash at the end of January either? But we’re in the real January doldrums and to be honest I just couldn’t be arsed to go and see Marty Supreme just to keep up or whatever.
Couldn’t resist this based on the graphics, a short, simple platformer that initially appears to be about quick escape, but reveals itself to be a bit more of a puzzle if you’re willing to give it another go (I won’t spoil the trick–what have to do initially is simple enough, but the “a ha” moment is rewarding anyway. Although I suppose the trailer spoils it, so just… don’t watch that first then.) Does that thing I really don’t love where a lot of jumps are designed to be either just out of reach or just in reach (be more obvious/have more leeway, please) and the graphics don’t always make it clear what you can collide with, but this is a nice way to spend ten minutes or so.
“A fun new, 44-page, full-colour A5 music fanzine, featuring brand new interviews/features and lots of indie-pop silliness. #2 is dedicated to everybody’s favourite indie-pop band… Heavenly.”
“Before there was Battle Bots, there was the Critter Crunch. Read the story of the world’s first robot death match at the 1989 Denver MileHiCon. Trying out a different format—an online version of an 8-page zine.”
“Between the Scanlines is a fanzine launched in October 2023. Inspired by 90s anime and video game fanzines, we hope to capture their spirit and passion for video games and media history with our own. There are typically fourteen A5 pages in each issue.”
exp. was on Aftermath! Well, sort of. I talked to Luke Plunkett, as did a group of other writers and game developers, about not going to GDC this year because of [gestures at everything].
Next week on exp.: it’s hard to predict what’s in the cards…
A dispatch a little earlier than has become usual, but it’s the last newsletter of the year and feels like I should get it in before Christmas happens and we end up in that weird no-man’s land between it and the New Year.
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Going with A Computer Christmas as my last pre-Christmas new article is going for a kind of sophisticated, adult Christmas shindig vibe; Christmas Crackers is more that last day at primary school when you’re allowed to bring in any toys you like and the teacher lets you play games on the computer. Of course, if they’d booted up Christmas Crackers you might prefer to wait your turn to see if you could get a game of Crossbows and Catapults with the older kid that brought it in, because it looks amazing (you won’t, and you never will, so you’ll just have to imagine how amazing it is… hang on, they made a new version in 2024??? Finally I can stop imagini… oh it’s $90.)
If you follow me on Bluesky you’re probably sick of me posting about my Horses essay, but I’m just so dang proud of it/it just took a long time ok? Better for me to make a bigger point of drawing the first map for Jingle Bells that exists online, an experience more enjoyable and festive than close reading Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom, let me tell you.
A subscriber exclusive in the archive as well! It’s nice to be able to offer a few of these at certain times in the year to say thanks to those who support my writing.
Definitely didn’t originally plan on writing this up as extensively as I did, but sometimes inspiration just takes you. Wish it had for Wright and company.
Yes, I’ve been playing Christmas games chronologically (more or less) but when I saw this pop up in my feed I felt I had to play it, as I love unique customs!!! And Mari Lywd is… a pretty unique custom.
Mari Lwyd’s Pantri Panic was made by Rhys Wynne for the Pico-8 Advent Calendar Jam 2025 (of which there are a huge selection of Christmassy games to play, but this is the one I played.) As admitted by Wynne, it’s a version of the Blokus/Tetris mash-up game design where you place shapes on a grid until they can’t fit, but rather than be a series of grid-filling puzzles, each time you make a line it disappears, opening up space so you can hopefully keep going.
I’ll be honest—I don’t entirely gel with this game design; I find it slightly uneasy to be playing Tetris on four sides with a wider range of block shapes. And it’s a shame Mari Lywd is just window dressing (there’s probably an interesting idea in a game where you have to keep thinking up new songs to stop a horse skull getting into your house, but I think that’s somewhat out of scope here.)
That said, this is a pleasant diversion, and another great example of the pick-up-and-play Pico-8 puzzler. It particularly gains serious points for including a different Christmas song (Nadolig Llawen i chi gyd) rather than Jingle Bells again.
Festive Vibes Ranking: HIGH (if you’re Welsh) MEDIUM (if you’re not)
Darren Hupke has always been very kind about exp. and he’s been a shockingly prolific zinester, putting out quality zines on a monthly basis, but he’s sensibly decided to slow a little to provide more coverage in a less logistically challenging fashion with a new quarterly zine. You can back the new Kickstarter now.
(And if you missed the 2025 zines, you can pre-order the annual now too!)
JP Coovert takes you through how to print up an A5/half-letter zine at home in a quick little video, so you’ve got no excuse. He’s talking about TTRPG zines—I’ve often wondered how zine oldheads feel about how much “zine” has become synonymous with self-published TTRPGs in some circles—but it works for any kind of zine you’d like to make.
(If you don’t want to watch a video, or use a computer to make your zine, check out this neat guide from Julia Gfrörer.)
“There but for the grace of god, go I” goes the saying, and as someone also struggling with unemployment in the games industry (and who expects to see games industry people in need like this a lot more) I want to share Andrew Elmore’s fundraiser to help support him as he tries to keep him and his family going after being laid off by Bungie in 2023. It hurts to read and recognise in myself the words “there is so much—SO MUCH—work that I can do!! But nobody wants any of it anymore, I guess!?” It’s tough out there, but maybe we can get through it if we help each other when we’re able.
And Finally…
I shared No Games For Genocidelast Dispatch in the And Finally… spot (which is actually supposed to be something funny/nice, but never mind) but I’d like to highlight People Make Games’ superb video on the movement. For what it’s worth: I’ve signed the pledge and exp. won’t be covering Xbox-published games. Please consider signing too.
Next week on exp.: I spend the week eating chocolate and watching the old films that they always put on the telly (maybe this is the year I finally watch The Railway Children.) When I return: Quentin Tarantino’s favourite arcade game.
As has become traditional, in the month of December I try and make sure I write up as many Christmas games as I can manage. This year I’m going to try and keep to my intent to write up new (preferrably 2025) games when I can, so it’s (sadly) not going to be all Christmas, all the time, but it’s good to start the month off with one, and I’ve already got some subscriber-exclusive Christmas essays brewing, so if you want to make sure you’re as full of Christmas cheer as possible and haven’t already joined the Patreon…
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Uh, that looks like four articles but it’s actually three. This is the first time I’ve broken the format to talk about two games at once, but I think it was necessary, and I don’t think it’s going to be the last time.
I’m jumping forward in the archive a bit so I can further juice the Chrimbofication of exp. this month to include a chunk of the Christmas essays I’ve written across the years (although I only started doing it in 2021.)
I didn’t expect to post my article on The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp to the main site—I expected it would be short enough that I’d be happy to just leave it on Letterboxd—but it took more paragraphs, and more redrafting, than I expected (this is actually the second version of the essay I wrote.) It was only when I read the Criterion essay that I accepted that the movie was difficult enough to get a handle on that I felt satisfied that my perspective was worth sharing—and if so, why not do it properly. I think maybe I’m being a bit too precious about how long and detailed an article has to be to get upgraded to a “real” post; several of the essays below (notably Predator: Badlands and Sentimental Value) probably deserved it.
Friend-of-exp. Jim McGinley shared this example of a lost art—the Flash game—and I had, I guess, missed it completely, so it’s possible you did too. Winner of the Jayisgames 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition” and playable on archive.org, it’s a short platformer where you jump around, gradually revealing beautiful pixel-art scenes that express a kind of melancholy. One section (you’ll know the one) veers slightly into annoying if you don’t nail certain jumps, but this feels the way snow globes look in whimsical, heartfelt movies, and not the way they are in real life, which is nothing. Well worth your time.
“Here’s a taste of what’s inside: A retrospective of Auf Wiedersehen Monty from Gremlin Graphics. An exclusive interview with Gremlin’s graphics developer, Terry Lloyd … And yes—a special centrefold map to enjoy.”
I haven’t had a chance to play (watch?) Blippo+ yet, but when they announced this they described it as a zine, so I’m more interested than I was already (which was interested).
“From the author of Sarah Records’ These Things Happen, comes a new 40-page, full-colour music fanzine. Feat. Blueboy, Josie, Beth Arzy, Swansea Sound.”
And Finally…
“SIGN OUR BOYCOTT XBOX PLEDGE: We are asking gamers, game workers, streamers & journalists to join us in boycotting & divesting from Xbox, to force Microsoft to end its complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. We’ve provided concrete actions everyone can take. Sign here: nogamesforgenocide.com.”
Next week on exp.: When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he’s being surrounded by…
Everyone who ordered exp. 2602 (or the value bundle!) before mid-Oct should have (or soon be receiving if they’re far-flung) their physical copies! Digital copies were also sent out this week—check your spam if you don’t see them, and get in touch if you still don’t.
I’ve been gladdened by the images people have shared with me of their copies (our header image here via Chris Baker) and if you’ve enjoyed the issues, please do share on social media. I don’t want to moan too much, but I’ve been turned down for every zine fair I’ve applied to since I launched exp. 26021 so I do, unusually, have a bit of stock to shift (I ordered more than usual due to strong pre-orders and because I was, it turns out, a bit hopeful the invites would flood in.) Let me know if you know any zine stockists who’d be interested, or outlets who might spread the word—I’m already eager to start the next!
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Although my last block of articles was intentionally Halloween-themed, I’d have to argue this last month really represents what I’m trying to do with exp. We have an honest look at a recent indie, articles that dig into the history of less-known video games while also offering critique, and a reappraisal of a better known title with modern eyes but still historical context. All from my very specific, personal lens—openly subjective, but hopefully enjoyable and illuminating. These articles only ever seem to take more and more time, but I’m really happy with this and I hope you are too.
Meanwhile, you can really see how much patchier my articles were in the first year of taking exp. online—there are some ones which I think really hold up (most notably Papers Please)—and then a lot of things which are more just “here’s some quick thoughts on what I just played.” Which is fine! In some respects, I always imagined this as roleplay as a game reviewer for a 80s or 90s game magazine in its pomp—lots of games to review, you don’t know what you’re going to get and have no specialisation, and you can write whatever you like. Which I suppose it still is, but now I do a bit more than open Wikipedia to pull up dates. [“Not much more…”—Ed.]
This feels like it was forever ago, I should endeavour to get the newsletter out a bit more often, eh? Been a fallow month for my writing on cinema (though I did make a point of promoting Harvest Brood as a top-tier Halloween viewing.)
Puzzmo has been kicking around for a year now, offering an alternative to the New York Times’ stranglehold on digital newspaper games. I kicked Wordle a long time ago because I just don’t think you can ethically engage with the NYT now, and I think that Puzzmo offers an ethical alternative (though Hearst Newspapers is involved?)
I haven’t really engaged with Puzzmo since launch because I’ve tried to avoid filling my time with this kind of thing post-Wordle/post-stupid Marvel Snap addiction, but in October they (I think specifically Puzzle Editor Brooke Husic) put together a nice run of thirty mini crosswords that attempted to help build a budding crossword player’s abilities. I’ve been more interested in crosswords since discussing them with Chris Remo/discovering Stephen Sondheim was a fan, and while I didn’t remember to do the mini crossword every day, the ones I did I enjoyed, felt I learned something from, and didn’t take an annoying amount of time out of my day.
The good news is that Puzzmo is continuing the minis, and so am I! While they aren’t specifically teaching you how to do them now, I think they’re still worth a shot for the crossword curious (you can reveal characters if you’re completely stuck, for example.) The only issue I really have is that they have so many settings to make input suit you, but when you’re “fixing” an answer it doesn’t work the way I’d imagine—if you have a letter in a space but start typing in the space before that, it doesn’t overwrite that space but jump over it. It’s led to a lot of garbled answers, but I suspect the way they do it is intended for crossword masters playing for speed. Maybe I’ll get there.
Alright this is one of the zine fairs I was turned down for but I’m not salty. Even if you’re reading this on Sunday there’s still time! Get down to Cecil Community Center before 5 p.m.! I’m so not salty that I dropped off five copies of exp. 2600 for the community zine table that you can pick up for a bargain price if you’re quick.
“This book is intended to serve as your companion through your own personal journey into fighting games … only this book will help you navigate the process of becoming a fighting game player.”
Alright, not a zine, exactly, but Patrick Miller has just released a sequel to his original From Masher To Master book (“No, you do not need to have read the first book to get the most out of this one. I highly recommend starting with this one first.”) it’s PWYC and if you have any interest in fighting games there’s no one I would trust more to guide you. And it’s reminded me that I should probably stick at least the digital version of Every Game I’ve Finished 14>24 on itch.io…
…and actually, maybe the zines too? I don’t know how I’ve overlooked how thriving the zine/book space is on itch.io, and I also can’t get over the labour of love that is BreakSpace, a Speccy mag with tons of content that’s completely free!
“Thrills! Chills! Evil computers! Eldritch horrors! Ghouls! Goblins! Even penguins! Folks if this one doesn’t make your hair stand on end you may already be a corpse.”
Funland really out here putting the rest of us zinesters to shame with their consistency, and if you’ve been looking for a bargain, their Halloween issue has a demonic discount and is just $6.66.
And Finally…
I’ve been under a lot of stress the last month or so, and one thing I’ve been slightly embarrassed about is that I’ve given into nostalgia the disease, turning to playing Youtube videos of old Amstrad CPC games in the background as a soothing balm even if—to be honest—the videos aren’t often very good. Just as I thought I was kicking the habit, here’s ChinnyVision with the best video of the lot and he didn’t even script it. A lovely personal trip through a selection of Amstrad CPC games that matter to him that, surprisingly, picks a lot of the games that mattered to me. Particular shout-outs to Trap Door, the (in my memory) superb port of Paperboy as well as some of the more well-remembered games like Sorcery+ (which terrified me) Chase HQ and Head Over Heels.
As I suspect you have no connection to the Amstrad CPC, it might be worth a watch if you’d like to know more. One day I’m sure I’m going to be digging into the CPC’s bounty here, so you might as well do a bit of homework first.
Next week on exp.: A game makes me ugly cry.
For what it’s worth: It’s still great there’s been so many to apply to, and that the competition is so fierce. I’ll get ’em next time. ↩︎
They’re here, and they’re gorgeous. Apologies to everyone who has been waiting for a dispatch notification for exp. 2602 or the reprints, but due to a Canada Post strike I’ve been unable to send them out. It’s been unfortunate timing, but I support the strikes—the workers are standing up to a predatory capitalist political class undermining an essential public good. Issues will begin being dispatched next week, though delivery may be slow due to the continuing rotating strike. The PDF/ePub editions will be sent out at the same time (though those will be instant, obviously.) Thank you so much to everyone for their patience on this.
If you haven’t ordered yet, now is the perfect time! Pick up exp. 2602 or the full set over at the shop in the next couple of days and they’ll be included in the first batch of orders sent out.
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Decided I wanted to celebrate the Halloween season the same way I celebrate the Christmas season: by adding yet more fucking obscure games to my backlog and then writing way too much about them.
My Halloween theming began with Castlevania, though Pipistrello is a bit of a edge case (there’s a curse, and you play a bat?) Worth mentioning that as I write this Elechead is 50% off on Steam and well worth it.
Quite a grab-bag here again, with the Wipeout 2048 article that was at one point the most popular article I’d written for exp., a look at a game I wished was a Roguelike-like before we all got tired of everything being a Roguelike-like, and then that weekend where I played both Castle of Illusion games and thought they were… fine.
I was invited on to the Still Loading Podcast to talk about the Fast & Furious franchise (specifically the currently final film), and the host Josh let me share it with my own Patreon patrons as well. So if you’ve got a hankering to listen to me waffle for nearly three hours, go wild!
“A zine of three recipes, developed over the last eight months, for a breakfast, dinner, and dessert cooked exclusively in an 8-inch cast iron skillet.”
As a vegetarian I can’t recommend all of these recipes, but I can recommend skipping the meat or subbing in your favourite alternative. Plus there’s a pretty neat tofu dessert here.
Mutual Aid
Legendary game developer Rebecca Heineman, whose work includes The Bard’s Tale (which I only wrote about recently) but honestly just so many things, has been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and is facing huge bills for her treatment, because… America. Support if you can.
And Finally…
A couple of things this week. First up I’ve been obsessed with with the big strong boys of Haha, You Clowns since I discovered it, and with a HBO Max show hitting next week, the best time to get caught up on creator Joe Cappa’s original shorts is now. It would be easy to say “the joke is that there is no joke” but what makes the shorts so captivating is how they explore just how strange it is to try and act normally while living with grief, and it ends up very, very funny as a result. I love it.
Secondly, I adored Majuular’s ridiculously long retrospective on Ultima VII: The Black Gate, and he just put out a video on the sequel, Serpent Isle. I have a tremendous warmth to these two Ultima games in particular, and I think Majuular explains very well why they’re so unique and special, so I loved getting to spend another 6-odd hours(!) in the world with a fella who seemed to love them as much as I did.
Next week on exp.: The scariest thing of all… more of my voice.
This was a really difficult one to write about, and while I really hesitate to bang on about how exp. needs your support to continue at this level, well, it does, so please consider supporting us on Patreon (preferrably), ko-fi, or pick up a zine or the book. Here, I chose to dig into a banned game with heavy themes that reflect the current moment of moral panic, but which I found… inconclusive. Would love to hear what others thought of it, or what I wrote about it.
Speaking of people getting in touch to say what they thought of a game, I’m still surprised by just how many people have popped up to say they love this one. I hadn’t heard of it before!
Wrote about this one all the way back in 2014 and was surprised to look Signal Studios up and discover that they’d quietly gone out of business in at some point in 2023, their last release a HD remaster of the original Toy Soldiers that no one liked. One of the only things I was able to dig up about the closure actually was a tweet from the official Toy Soldiers account: “TSHD was not handled well by the publisher or me—limited resource, tons of delayed/bad dev caused by idiotic public policy and other unexpected events—deals fell through—over time—resources gone—the rest is history.”
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exp. Capsule Reviews
Mindset GO! (Magicave, 2025)
Spent some of the last few weeks playing this mobile and web puzzler, and as it’s been made by friend-of-exp Ste Curran I can’t in good conscience give it a “proper review” but I do want to recommend it anyway. In fact I’ll go ahead and explain that I’ve already recommended it to other people as an antidote to a few things–engaging with anything from the New York Times, a propaganda company with a games arm (or vice versa) or playing any of those fucking terrible games that show up when you use any mobile app with ads (more on that on a bit though.)
Mindset GO! is the kind of design where when you play it you think “wait, how have I never seen this before?” as it features an incredibly simple design: you’re just sorting shapes based on one or more feature that they have. If they’re a triangle, or yellow, that sort of thing. You put them into circles, which might intersect as a Venn diagram does–meaning you need to put yellow triangles there, but can put just yellow, or just triangles, elsewhere–and you don’t necessarily know what all the features required are.
This starts embarrassingly easy, but quickly gets… difficult. The Venn diagrams become more complex, and then suddenly you’re sorting (say) wee cat faces instead of big simple shapes. The thing I most appreciated about this game is that you can feel your brain expanding as you work out systems and techniques to beat harder and harder levels. Almost subconsciously you find yourself pre-sorting shapes, or able to keep two concepts in your mind at once that you couldn’t before. It’s deeply, deeply satisfying, and it’s all wrapped up in a terrifically thoughtful UI.
As highly as I recommend it, this is a free-to-play mobile game, and you therefore have to engage with that whole… thing. Meaning mobile ads rear their ugly head here if you don’t quickly stump up the no-ads tax, and if you’re determined to stick to free-to-play while you’re feeling the game out, every single part of this carefully curated puzzling experience is smashed to bits when what feels like out of nowhere you get an ugly, often broken slop advert for whatever the algorithm has decided you would like best (it’s certain I’m a woman in her mid-50s, obsessed with her dying plants but unable to get up from her chair to do any exercise.) This really means that you basically have to spend the $3.99 to enjoy this on mobile really before you get to the point where it gets its hooks into you. As a result, you may wish to play the web version at first, then make up an account to save your progress?
Weirdly, one of the main reasons to play this now is to play and enjoy the real thing before you start seeing its clones advertised in its own ad slots. Some weird AI voice saying how playing “Shape Sorter” will stop you getting Alzheimer’s, or maybe an entire fucking streamed version of “Venn Diagram Royale” you have to play through where you have to shuffle a bunch of diamonds into a circle to stop a king being squashed by, I don’t know, a big Monty Python foot or something. Why the fuck are we supposed to be saving a fucking king anyway? If god chose him god can bloody well save him from rising sand or being dropped in some lava, the sponging prick.
“For the first time in 35 years, COMPUTE!’s Gazette returns to serve the vibrant retro computing community. This premiere relaunch issue is packed with exclusive news, in-depth articles, community stories, and classic type-in programs that celebrate the golden age of computing.”
“I’m launching a weekly newsletter that brings together all my writings, podcasts, videos, and creative endeavours in one place for your unmeasurable pleasure. If you like what I do, you must subscribe. Your life depends on it.”
(Ok, that last one isn’t a zine, but Justin Decloux is one of my favourite people and he does so much incredible stuff, you’re going to want to keep up. I mean you already subscribe to this rubbish, don’t you?)
And Finally…
This article, The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con is, I think, the most important, insightful thing you can read about the AI mania full stop. It’s from a few years ago, but if anything more important to read and understand as AI tries to create a stranglehold over the mainstream. Share it with anyone who might be buying the hype but considers themselves rational. It gets to something really key about AI: it’s not “just” a scam: it’s an illusion that preys on our urge to fool ourselves.
The triumphant return of the Dispatch after a week off because I was too busy. Sorry! Still, it means a bumper crop of article and zine links.
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Watching this in the theatre, I was struck by just how sad it was that it felt so unusual to be watching a broad comedy with an audience. You could almost feel everyone tense up initially when the movie started being intentionally illogical: “can they do that? I’m only used to nominally funny things occurring between CGI action sequences.”
Once everyone was able to relax, this was incredibly funny, managing—for a while, at least—a return to the rapid-fire nonsense of the great spoofs with a similar hit-rate (not every one a winner, but the next one is quick enough that it doesn’t matter.)
There are a couple of all-timer sequences in this, and my critique is going to feels harsh because I think we’re all so willing for this to succeed and for movies like this be allowed to exist again, but The Naked Gun’s problem is that it simply runs out of steam. There’s an incredible peak that it can’t seem to follow, and while it’s not like I’d want the movie to be longer (85 minutes? *chef kiss*) the jokes suddenly get a bit weaker, more sparse, and the narrative feels not so much underbaked—which would be fine, it’s a spoof—but missing entire ingredients. The climax is so limp, in fact, that I have to question if it’s what was originally intended, and it (sadly) had me thinking a bit too long about the film in general: “you know, they could have gone harder on that joke… they should have built on that gag more… there was a good chance for a callback there.. man, Paul Walter Hauser went underused…”
It’s not the end of the world that they didn’t completely nail it, and I still think everyone should go and see this and let some joy into their life in this sick, sad world. And if you didn’t go and see Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, go twice to make up for that.
“ON is the ultimate celebration of gaming’s past, present and future. We give the very best writers in the industry freedom to write their dream feature and combine those words with bold and experimental design in a luxury journal.”
“This is a slightly-updated reprint of a small zine I created for the Librarians and Archivists With Palestine Box Set that was compiled for Booklyn back in 2014. Previously it was unavailable outside of this exclusive box set. The zine itself is a compilation of 29 photos of cartoonist Naji al-Ali’s Handala character painted, pasted, stenciled, and screenprinted around the Palestinian Occupied Territories.” (via Tiny Cartridge)
And Finally…
There’s been a lot of debate over what this year’s “song of the summer” is, but I’ve got no idea why, Neil Cicierega has got it completely sewn up. Sing it with me, everyone! Blankets… blankets… blankets…
Two subscriber articles this week, and a surprisingly successful trip to the archive.
Hey, do you hate in-line advertising? We do too! We’re only ever going to do it here at the start of our newsletter posts because we want you to get these missives in your inbox a day early. Sorry!
This post has some urgency, as Wheels of Aurelia will be delisted on iOS on the 25th, so rather than make this the regular weekly post I thought I’d make it a bonus post so it can be unlocked a day before it’s delisted (though you can pay just $1 to support and read it now.) I suppose unless Apple decide to not delist it (they won’t) and if you don’t want to pay anything, you can just download the game now for free, skip reading my thoughts on it and just get stuck in. That’s valid!
Thanks to a wee repost from Sasha’s Retrobytes, this one got some traction on Bluesky, with lots of people sharing their own bitter disappointment in Fable III. Including someone saying their brother almost “puked from rage” at the ending, which is like… steady on!
exp. Du Cinéma
Detour (1945)
A beautiful example of what you can do if all you’ve got is a couple of sets, a rear-projection screen, a fog machine, and Ann Savage. Admittedly that last one is really important.
Feels like it ends too early, but there’s also something really funny about our down-on-his-luck shmoe main character going “alright, I’m beat” and walking out of the movie.
I wrote this short, quippy review of Detour (1945) on Letterboxd this week because I went to see it as part of the “Important Cinema Club Classics” series at the Fox Theatre in Toronto, and that gives me the opportunity to recommend listening to the Important Cinema Club, the best cinema podcast you can listen to, hosted by my friend Justin Decloux, and Will Sloan, who is also a person I know.
“The thirteen titles chosen for our project are periodicals with multiple authors. Most can be loosely classified as self-published, small print-run fanzines or zines within the science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction genres … published in Canada featuring predominantly Canadian authors.”
“The Ipoh International Zine Festival takes place in #poh, Malaysia from 25 – 27 July, 2025. Location: Aras B, Pasar Besar Ipoh, time: 12 pm – 6 pm. Includes: Zine bazaar, Workshops, Zine launches, DIY craft tables, Panel discussions, Exhibitions.”
And Finally…
Obviously normally I want to end the newsletter on something funny or cute, but I think it’s important to, at least briefly, discuss the recent controversy over Modretro releasing Wayforward’s licensed Sabrina game for GameBoy Color. I’ve been posting a thread over on Bluesky about it, where I note–accurately–that Modretro is arms-dealing zionist Palmer Luckey’s gamewashing arm. Wayforward first openly publicised the release, then deleted everything because it was bad PR, and then had to make a statement to Time Extension probably because they got told off by ModRetro. But it’s clear now that they were deeply and happily involved in this whether or not they see any money from it, so fuck Wayforward. Do better.
Next week on exp.: The sixth game in a franchise you’ve never heard of.
I don’t do these that often, but when I feel like I know the developer really well–maybe too well to honestly critique their work–I cadge an interview with them. Here it’s a really deep design interview with Brandon Sheffield that’s probably obsolete because it’s so specific to the PS Vita(!) version of Gunhouse. Looking forward to another round when Demon School comes out (wishlist now, etc.)
Hey, do you hate in-line advertising? We do too! We’re only ever going to do it here at the start of our newsletter posts because we want you to get these missives in your inbox a day early. Sorry!
exp. Du Cinéma
Thunderbolts* (2025)
The main issue with Thunderbolts* isn’t really the film’s fault: it is, of course, the MCU’s. Because—and I think this is borne out in how fatigued and almost indifferent the positive reactions to this movie are—if the MCU is a banquet you can never leave, Thunderbolts* is like receiving a perfectly delicious hotdog after being forced to down a cup of cold sick. It’s a good hotdog! But you still sort of wish you were anywhere else.
You can feel the weight of the MCU machine—gotta advertise those future movies—but they actually work to get you on side rather than relying on that alone. That they were able to immediately and unceremoniously kill a character no one likes? Unbelievably funny, gives you just enough to make you go “oh, maybe this was made people who actually like movies.”
Not only that, that they might actually want the images you see on screen to be cool and enjoyable? The action is clear (they do a fun riff on some iconic Terminator imagery) and it even hits the comedy beats well enough that I actually laughed out loud at points. There are even… themes! And it manages to tell a complete story!!!
Christ, that kind of praise really is grim, isn’t it? But I suppose that’s where we are. Ultimately, I liked it! But I kept thinking “please don’t make me drink any more sick.”
“Our scorching Summer issue features 38 reviews of new ZX Spectrum games, Type-ins, interviews and loads more.”
And Finally…
Mikolai over at Forgotten Worlds wrote a cute blog about their experience of publishing zines using the JRPG as a metaphor, er, a few months ago. But it came up in my feed recently and is an interesting manifesto/guide if you’ve ever considered it yourself. Give it a read!
Next week on exp.: “You don’t have to put on the red light.”
