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.
Also reviewed: Wake Up Dead Man (2025) / The Ballad of Wallace Island (2025)
exp. Capsule Review
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)
Zine News
Zines get covered in The Guardian. We've made it, lads!
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!)
Speaking of prolific, it's incredible that after appearing from nowhere there's already four issues of this Playdate focused zine. I can't keep up!
"A 20-page zine about notable books I read in 2025 (short description, thoughts, feelings, grudges held)."
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.)
Mutual Aid
"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 Genocide last 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.