Unlocked Post: The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1986)​

Nice to get to call out Wes Fenlon’s excellent Read Only Memo and Phil Summers’ Hand Drawn Game Guides here. Not the last time Phil’s work will be mentioned at the very least.

Unlocked Post: VILE: Exhumed (Cadaver, 2025)​

You know, I really thought this game would create a bit more discussion online considering the context in which it was released, but I guess not!

From the exp. Archive: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Intelligent Systems, 2008)​

Digging this old article up made me realise I never managed to cop that fancy re-release Nintendo did of the Super Famicom original, despite really trying, and then I completely forgot to download it digitally anyway. It’s really bizarre that Nintendo took to these limited releases for Fire Emblem and that Super Mario collection. Why? I guess they did limited Mario and Kirby releases in the days of the Wii, but it just seems so weird to go “you can’t buy that now” in the digital shop of infinite shelf space.

What’s that? I’ve got a digital zine collection that I’ve only ever released temporarily? Uh… shut up.

From the exp. Archive: Hollow Knight (Team Cherry, 2017)​

The Silksong hype is real, man. This article, despite being from 2020, was just about the most read thing on the site in the wake of it being announced. And I don’t even like Hollow Knight!

exp. Capsule Review

Merge Maestro (Stingless, 2025)

Had heard rumours this was the new roguelike-like obsession of the moment, so thought I’d give it a shot–it’s not like I feel like I’m wasting my life as it is. But I bounced off this basically immediately. Of the roguelike-likes it’s most similar to Luck Be A Landlord in that it’s very simple, entirely focused on a core loop–here, playing a symbol-based Threes-like to fight a succession of waves of enemies until you either lose or win the run by beating a final boss enemy. After each wave you get to upgrade one of your symbols, each of which has a special ability, and you’re basically trying to make your deck work synergistically so that as you merge symbols you’re doing massive damage and making your board better.

If that sounds… fine, it… is. I mean it’s really quite generic feeling, probably not helped by the fact that is uses emojis for the symbols, and maybe if you really love Threes this will light your fire, but it’s got the same kind of problem that Luck Be A Landlord does, where there’s a billion symbols (here 300!) that all do different things and you can find yourself heading in the wrong direction based on your rolls or just not being able to pull anything together. You can get Balatro-esque insane numbers going, but I certainly couldn’t be bothered to try.

I don’t mean to beat up on this one too much, because it’s from a small developer, completely competent, reasonably priced and I assume for the right kind of player absolute catnip. If anything I’m surprised at how much this failed to get its hooks into me. Am I burned out on the genre, or will another game draw me back into it? You know what, I’m not in a mood to find out any time soon.

exp. Du Cinéma

​War 2 (2025) / Coolie (2025)​

Thank goodness I’m here to keep you up to date with the latest Indian cinema releases. Absolutely why you subscribe to a video game newsletter. But for real though, War 2 is a banger.

Zine News

​ZINEDUMP​

“ZINEDUMP is a new Toronto zine fair that aims to provide a venue for the open expression for independent publications, radical art and ideas. The inaugural fest will be held on Nov. 9th between 12-5pm at the Cecil Community Centre.”

Still time to get submissions in if you're quick–the deadline is August 31st.

​Amiga Addict 39​

“The new issue of AA is out, in which we look at Fast Food 2 and the history behind the Oliver Twins original!”

Incredible to think that there’s an modern Amiga magazine that’s run for 39 issues. I haven’t been able to keep up.

​How To Report ICE​

These single page, easy to print and distribute zines give information on how to report ICE for specific cities/areas in the US.

And Finally…

What’s this???

Next week on exp.: The Stampers get ripped off for the second time. Allegedly.