Pantaloon’s Partner Games for December…
DECEMBER! PANTALOON! CRITICAL REFLEX! YES.
We're seeing out 2025 with a partnership we've had our eye on since this newsletter began. All the coy smiles and eye-lid fluttering has paid off.
For December we're partnering with the kings and queens of the unhinged, Critical Reflex, to bring you not one, not two (don't even talk to me about three) but FOUR games: Mouthwashing, Arctic Eggs, THRESHOLD and Buckshot Roulette. Re-bloody-joice.
Which of the four will you get? Well. If you can solve this month's puzzle, which will go live on December 11th, you'll be able to choose. As will our Primo subscribers. Otherwise Lady Luck will do her thing.
The bit where we tell you more about the games
Here's a little look at the four games at the heart of this month's partnership, then.
If you're a subscriber to this newsletter, you're probably keenly aware of Mouthwashing already. Perhaps you've even played it. For those that haven't, hoo boy you're in for a treat. A marooned ship in the far reaches of space. A dying crew. A fucked up horse mascot thing. A very unforgettable descent into a madness.
Arctic Eggs was featured in one of our very fist Bold and Bizarre Game Bulletins - a game with an instantly compelling hook: a physics based cooking simulator that is the antithesis of all other cooking games. Cooking Mama this is not. Arctic Eggs has you frying eggs and sautéing cigarettes for the denizens of a bleak and frozen settlement. I'll say no more and leave you to uncover its truths.
Then we have THRESHOLD from Julien Eveillé; a psychological horror putting you in the bocky PSOne-rendered shoes of a government worker stationed on a high and lonely mountain. With your trusty whistle, you'll manage a passing train’s speed while rationing oxygen in the thin air. Do your job, but DON'T LOOK IN THE TRAIN.
The game that put Critical Reflex on the map, setting the precedent for the publisher's now distinct flavour. Russian Roulette was already a pretty bleak concept, but Buckshot Roulette takes that to new depths, turning survival into a particularly bleak puzzle of sorts, as you try to avoid a probability-based bullet to the skull. Good luck.
Key Dates for December
Mark your calendars.
👁️ Dec 11th - ???? / Puzzle
👁️ Dec 18th - Bulletin
👁️ Dec 25th - Turkey and that (the day we'd normally deliver keys)
👁️Dec 29th - Primo Key Drop
👁️Dec 30th - Key Drop
So that's how we're seeing out 2025 - riding the train of surrealism and depravity into the cold mists of 2026.
We've got some cool stuff to come. Keep an eye on that inbox.
pantaloon.