Genshin Impact Color Palette Quiz 02
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Whatcha Reading, Geekly: June 2025
June is in full swing, and it’s time for another Whatcha post. Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers will share what they read from the previous month. As always, feel free to share what you’ve been reading over the past month. You’re part of the Geekly Gang, too.
Kyra’s Reads
Kyra’s Fiction Reads
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the first part of Becky Chambers’s Monk and Robot duology, and it’s a joy. I recommend A Psalm for the Wild-Built to anyone struggling to find their place in the world. Chambers’s novella reminds us to give ourselves time to find ourselves, and how you thought your life would go might not be where your journey will take you. A Psalm for the Wild-Built offers a deep cleansing breath.
Humans have ripped away the Earth’s natural resources, but A Psalm for the Wild-Built offers an optimistic spin on this post-apocalyptic world. Robots reject their human masters. The split between the two parties is amicable, with humans sticking to cities (and their surrounding suburbs) and robots claiming the open area outside cities. Without humans mucking up most of the world, Earth has a chance to heal. Humans and robots adapt to this new reality, and the story takes flight when a tea monk leaves human territory and stumbles on a wild-built robot.
I won’t spoil any more of A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It’s a must-read solarpunk novella. If you don’t know what solarpunk is, you’re in good company. I didn’t know what solarpunk was before reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Solarpunk is a relatively new fiction subgenre that offers optimistic outlooks on dystopias. Many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films have been retroactively called solarpunk. If you like stories like Spirited Away, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (and other solarpunk fiction) might be worth a read.
I finally finished Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow. No. Robert Chambers isn’t related to Becky Chambers. I just happened to read two authors with the surname Chambers. Lol. The version of The King in Yellow I read only includes four stories: “The Repairer of Reputations,” “The Mask,” “In the Court of the Dragon,” and “The Yellow Sign.” Older editions of The King in Yellow may contain more stories, but the four in this collection are excellent.
I love “The Repairer of Reputations” use of an unreliable narrator. Hildred describes his diadem as being made of “heavy beaten gold,” and immediately after this description, his friend Louis calls it a “brass crown.” “The Repairer of Reputations” is a story of egotism. It feeds into the idea of The King in Yellow and serves as a phenomenal opening story. The titular King in Yellow is a play, and it’s not what the play has within its written pages but what those pages do to the people who read them. If this sounds like H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, it’s because The King in Yellow inspired the Cthulhu Mythos.
The other three stories in this most recent collection of The King in Yellow are stellar. “The Mask” is a trippy love triangle with a mystical element. A possessed organist chases a panicked victim in “In the Court of the Dragon.” And “The Yellow Sign” offers some great psychological horror. The King in Yellow paved the way for cosmic horror.
Kyra’s Poetry Reads
I read Ginny MacKenzie’s Skipstone a decade ago and decided to read it again this past month. I find poetry easy to reread after several years because I can find different things with each reading. MacKenzie does an excellent job of taking an object, like an artist painting the history of his house, or some other element, like a vacation in Maine, and allowing the speaker to reflect on the element until it becomes confessional. These elements are lenses with which to view life.
Skipstone, like Cat Dixon’s collection last month, What Happens in Nebraska, feature plenty of smaller, seemingly quiet moments. But these quiet moments can be loud, and moments that seem small grow to epic proportions. Some of Skipstone’s poems have tight stanzas with lengthy enjambment that move so fast one must catch their breath, while other poems stretch out with plenty of asides from the speaker that you feel like you’re in their head.
Skipstone tackles good and bad memories. Often, good and bad memories appear within the same poem. Memory works in mysterious ways. While one’s life experience may differ, Skipstone offers enough universal truths.
I read a few more books over the past month, but I may save those for the next entry in our Whatcha Reading series. Let’s see what Season and Skye have been reading.
Season’s Reads
season’s fiction reads
I haven’t gotten too far into Gu Byeong-mo’s Apartment Women, but from what I’ve read, I’m loving it. Apartment Women is set in the future on the outskirts of Seoul. There are four families living in an apartment complex, each with its own struggles. The newest resident, Yojin, must have two more kids with her husband over a decade if she wants to continue living there. The novel highlights the struggles of the women living in this apartment complex, which is interesting to me.
There’s a moment in the beginning with one of the husbands explaining his wife’s not being there because “she’s always busy.” Yojin sits on this for a minute, questioning the tone of his reply. This is the level of intimacy with the characters throughout the novel. I enjoy stories about women making the best out of their situation, and have been more interested in foreign novels lately. Geekly Gang, if any of you have recommendations, I’m always down to read something new. What’ve you been reading, Skye?
Skye’s Reads
Skye’s Nonfiction Reads
I bought 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die a while ago, but only now started reading. Since I’m always looking to expand my watch-list, I thought I could peruse 1001 Movies to get some ideas. My favorite thing about this book is the range of films it contains. Starting from the early days of film in the 1910s all the way to the present day, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has defined my watchlist for a while. I don’t plan on dying any time soon, so I should have time to catch up on all these movies. 😉
Skye’s Fiction Reads
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is a new addition; I’m excited about this one. Other books I’ve gotten into lately have been more experimental. Since I have no prior knowledge about them, I haven’t had any expectations. For this one, I’m already familiar with the author, and the fact that I found it in the “Banned Books” section of my local Barnes & Noble is enticing.
After reading the first chapter (and the Foreword by LeVar Burton), it only strengthened my resolve to keep reading. How Burton tells it, I’m in for a poignant, dark, yet heartfelt and hopeful experience. Since Butler wrote Parable of the Sower in 1993 (and the novel takes place in 2024), I have a feeling that she wrote some eerily accurate predictions about where our society was headed. Hopefully, she included an instruction manual on how to survive the next four years. Fingers crossed.
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle again. That’s all we have for our monthly reads. Make sure you let us know what you’ve been reading, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Titans Members Quiz
Good Games with Easy, Quick Platinum Trophies
Platinum trophy hunting (or if you play on X-Box or Steam, achievement hunting) doesn’t appeal to every gamer, but it does to me. My goal is to earn as many platinum PlayStation trophies as my age eventually. I have some work to do. More than I’d care to admit. Easy platinums tend to come from bad games, but some exceptions exist. That made me wonder which good video games have easy and quick platinum trophies.
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. This post has been a long time coming. A video game can’t just have an easy-to-earn platinum trophy. We want quick platinum trophies. This eliminates a heap of video games. I just finished The Survivalists, and while it has an easy-to-earn platinum trophy, it’ll take well over thirty hours. Quick feels more like less than twenty hours. This might still be too long for some, but twenty hours is a dedicated weekend of gaming. We must pick a number.
Most gamers can find twenty hours for an enjoyable experience. That leads us to defining an “easy” platinum trophy. The trophy should be attainable through a single play-through or the game should allow players to play little of a second play-through to make this list. Finally, the game needs to be “good,” but gamers desire different things. Let’s split these games into story and gameplay buckets. I’ll do my best to explain why I included each game or game series. And this leads to the final clarification. I’ll include a game series for story and gameplay and then a few single games. Without further ado, let’s jump into the games.
Game Series
Cat Quest Series
We’ll start with a game series with little story but a fun gameplay loop. Cat Quest doesn’t have much of a story. It’s an excuse to have cute kitties battling beasties in an old-fashioned beat-‘em-up video game. The game has some gameplay alternatives, especially with the sequels, but Cat Quest sticks to a simple but fun formula. Cast magic with magic points. Replenish your magic points by landing weapon attacks.
Cat Quest 2 does a great job of incorporating ranged attacks. The first Cat Quest only offered melee attack weapons. As I’m writing this post, I have yet to play Cat Quest 3. It looks as if it builds off the second game in the series. The first game took me 10 hours to earn the platinum. The second game took around 15 hours. Even if Cat Quest 3 mimics Cat Quest 2 and expands the map and side quests further, it should clock in around 20 hours for the platinum and still be worthy of a spot on this list.
Telltale Games
The Telltale Games studio features story-driven games that take around 15-20 hours to complete. Most of these games were well-received at the time of their release and worth a play if you enjoy the intellectual property the game is set. I have fond memories of 2012’s The Walking Dead. This game announced Telltale Games to the video game community. Many of The Walking Dead’s moments live rent-free in my head. “Did you lick the saltlick, Clementine?” “I don’t know.” Clementine was adorable.
The Wolf Among Us was another hit and well worth a playthrough. This title also illustrates how easy it is to obtain a platinum trophy in a Telltale Game. Most Telltale Games, like The Walking Dead or the Batman series, will grant players a platinum trophy for completing the story. Super easy! Barely an inconvenience. Thank you for that phrase, “Pitch Meeting.” The Wolf Among Us requires players to make a different choice during a chapter to get its platinum trophy, but all you need to do is reload the one chapter in question and pick a different option. Even when Telltale Games makes a platinum trophy more difficult to obtain, they don’t make it that difficult.
Most Telltale Games I’ve played are a good time. I will admit that the company became risk-averse after their hit The Walking Dead. I haven’t played too many of their most recent titles. I may log a few more soon for a platinum or two.
Single Games
Nubla
A child visits an art museum and falls into the paintings. The kid must save the residents of these paintings by solving art-themed puzzles. While dated (Nubla celebrated its tenth-anniversary last year), Nubla has a great aesthetic, above-average graphics for the time, and an intriguing premise. Nubla also happens to be the quickest platinum trophy to obtain on this list, and it’s not even that close. YouTubers have speed-run completing the platinum trophy in twenty minutes. I don’t suggest watching these videos while playing the game. The puzzles aren’t that difficult to solve. I was able to finish the game in under three hours without help. Even so, you could finish Nubla in under an hour if you load a how-to video and all you want is speed.
Nubla 2 was released in late 2022. I have yet to play it. From what I’ve heard, the original cast of characters returns and again, you must rescue citizens of paintings. This may be another game I’ll need to consider, inching me closer to my platinum trophy goal.
Life Is Strange
I like to get lost in Life Is Strange’s world and characters. Set in 1990s Oregon (in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay), Life Is Strange centers on teenagers Max Caulfield and Chloe Price. Life Is Strange has an earnest quality to it that few games have. The two main characters are teenage girls and while the story can dabble in the melodramatic, it works. The world feels lived in. Steeping Arcadia Bay in a nostalgic, autumnal lens is deliberate. Even the story’s supernatural elements are designed as a metaphor for the character’s inner conflicts and there are plenty. The DontNod (design) team consulted experts to tackle difficult subjects like teen suicide.
Like the TellTale Games above, Life Is Strange was released episodically. The story goes astray a little bit toward the end but not enough to tarnish the overall experience. Life Is Strange is worth your time. It takes around 20 hours to complete the game, and you will most likely need to replay a scene or two after you finish to get the platinum trophy, but I can’t recommend the original Life Is Strange enough. And the original Life Is Strange received a remaster a couple of years ago. Yay! I may have another game to replay.
Donut County
Donut County challenges Nubla for the shortest game on this list. Again, you can find YouTube speed-runs that last an hour or two, and again, I suggest you try it on your own first. Donut County is like Katamari Damacy. Players control a hole (or donut) in the world and try to drop things into the hole. With each object that falls inside the hole, the hole gets bigger until nothing remains. Numerous mobile games have copied Donut County after its original 2018 release. It has a fun, addictive gameplay loop, and more importantly for this list, a quick and easy-to-obtain platinum trophy.
If anything, I’m disappointed that Donut County doesn’t have a longer run-time. The trophy was great to achieve, but I wanted more Donut County to play. Perhaps indie game publisher Annapurna Interactive will release a Donut County sequel. Like I need another game to play on this list.
What Remains of Edith Finch
I’ve mentioned What Remains of Edith Finch more than once on Geekly, but until this year, I had only played the demo. What Remains of Edith Finch received a remaster a few years ago and the remastered What Remains of Edith Finch has a platinum trophy. For the most part, you only need to complete the game’s six-hour story to earn the trophy. And What Remains of Edith Finch has an amazing story. What Remains of Edith Finch even manages to weave in unique gameplay elements.
The player character takes a ferry to Orcas Island, Washington carrying the journal of Edith Finch. Edith writes about her experience when she returns to her ancestral home on the island for the first time in seven years. Edith says that she’s the last surviving member of her family. The player then takes the perspective of Edith as she reexplores her family’s home and discovers the circumstances of each relative’s death. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but What Remains of Edith Finch contains innovative gameplay that matches the stories of each Finch family member. What Remains of Edith Finch shows the depth video game storytelling can achieve.
And that’s our list. The games on this list are by no means the only good video games with quick and easy platinum trophies. Let us know which games you’d include. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Geekly News: June 8, 2025, Quick MCU Updates
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. I’m still recovering from last week’s Protospiel Twin Cities convention. Several games were played, and my wings are tired. But we have another week of Geek News. We’ll start with some quick MCU updates. Let’s get to it.
A Baby Franklin Richards Is Confirmed For Fantastic Four: First Steps
Fantastic Four: First Steps released its fourth and final teaser trailer this past week. Most of the shots are recuts of previous shots, but Marvel shared one major revelation: Franklin Richards will be in the movie. While the movie’s title, First Steps, was always meant as a nod to space exploration (one small step for man), the title was also a mention of Franklin Richards’s (a baby’s) first steps. You might be thinking, but Franklin Richards is just a baby, there’s no way he’ll factor into Fantastic Four: First Steps’ narrative in a major way. Okay. This may get into some potential spoilers. If you want to go into Fantastic Four: First Steps with little to no knowledge of the comics, you can skip past the next paragraph.
Franklin isn’t like other babies. As an infant, he was capable of manifesting adult bodies that he could control. One of those bodies was Galactus. So, Franklin might be behind Galactus in the Fantastic Four’s first MCU outing. Yikes! Fantastic Four: First Steps has already teased other Fantastic Four villains like John Malkovich, who is portraying Red Ghost (this is confirmed), and it looks like it may be all hands on deck with stopping Galactus, whether he’s connected to Franklin Richards or not. Fortunately, most of this paragraph was conjecture, so you may be okay if you didn’t head the previous spoiler warning.
No matter where Fantastic Four: First Steps takes Franklin Richards’s story, there’s no doubt he’s the most powerful character the MCU has ever introduced. He can make Wanda’s reality warping look like child’s play. In fact, Franklin Richards may be the one behind the multiverse saga’s end. He could fix all timelines if he wanted. The MCU introducing this much power into its universe is a far cry from the Russos nerfing the Hulk because they didn’t want the Hulk to be the Avengers’ “I win” card. We’ll have to see where this storyline goes.
If you haven’t yet watched Thunderbolts*, you may want to skip the next news entry.
The Ship Seen During the Thunderbolts* End Credits May Not Carry The Fantastic Four
I know. I know. The picture above clearly shows the Fantastic Four’s symbol, but the ship that bears this symbol may not contain the Fantastic Four from Fantastic Four: First Steps. The ship we’ve seen in all the Fantastic Four: First Steps trailers has three prongs, but this ship has four prongs. The ship during the Thunderbolts* end credits is a different ship from the one seen in all the Fantastic Four trailers. I mentioned a spoiler warning in the previous segment, but I’ll reiterate it here in case you want to maintain the mystery.
There are two main theories: 1) Doctor Doom may be piloting the ship; 2) the Fantastic Four are in the ship, but it’s a different Fantastic Four. The first is fun but less likely, while the second is equally as fun, and there may be some evidence suggesting that it’s true.
Theory Number 1: Since Robert Downey Jr. is portraying Doctor Doom (or at least the vision Doctor Doom wants to present), we know that Doctor Doom is aware of the Multiverse and attempting to use Tony Stark’s image to hide his true intentions. Doom could be doing the same for other universes by pretending to be the Fantastic Four. This doesn’t quite hold water because Earth-616 (the world in which the Thunderbolts* belong) doesn’t know who the Fantastic Four are. Still, Doctor Doom could be traveling from a third reality.
Theory Number 2: The Fantastic Four inside this ship are the ones from the Fox Universe. The MCU has already grandfathered in Fox’s X-Men, so they could do the same with Ioan Gruffudd’s Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba’s Invisible Woman, Chris Evans’ Human Torch, and Michael Chicklis’s Thing. The “evidence” that this could be true comes from Jessica Alba’s social media accounts. She stated this past week that she’s filming in London. Funny. Avengers: Doomsday began filming this past week…in London.
Regardless of who’s in the “Fantastic Four” ship during the Thunderbolts* end credits, it’ll be a wild ride, and the likelihood of the Fantastic Four from Fantastic Four: First Steps being in that ship is almost zero. Most viewers thought it was funny that the Fantastic Four would be in Earth-616’s reality before Fantastic Four: First Steps release. Yeah. They most likely aren’t on that ship.
More Information About Denzel Washington’s Role in Black Panther 3
We mentioned a few weeks ago that Denzel Washington will be included in Black Panther 3’s cast. We’ve received more tidbits that could suggest who Washington will be portraying. On Carmelo Anthony’s podcast, Denzel Washington said that since he’s 70 years old and only has a few movies left in him. He intends to retire soon. That makes sense, but what doesn’t make as much sense is the rumor that Denzel would portray Magneto in the upcoming Black Panther 3. Or does it make sense?
I wouldn’t rule anything out, but whoever will play Magneto in the MCU during the Mutant Saga will need to have more than a few movies left in their career. The Mutant Saga will run for almost ten years and require five or six movies from its Magneto of choice. So, if Washington were to play Magneto in Black Panther 3, he would most likely be playing an alternate reality Magneto. Denzel Washington will most likely portray a one-and-done villain like Achebe. This could still be fun. Achebe is the Joker to Black Panther’s Batman. Achebe would be a role we’ve never seen Denzel Washington play. Whoever Washington plays in the MCU will be a joy.
Ryan Gosling as Black Panther Meme
The Ryan Gosling as Black Panther meme reentered the zeitgeist. While there’s little proof to suggest that Gosling will even be in the MCU, I wouldn’t rule out anything (like Denzel Washington as Magneto). There is a precedent of sorts in the comics. Gosling could portray White Wolf, Black Panther’s adopted white brother (and frequent adversary/ally), and this White Wolf could hail from an alternate universe. I won’t spend too much time on this. It’s a meme. It’s designed to upset people. But I could see Gosling as a real White Wolf. The MCU has dropped the “White Wolf” nickname for Winter Soldier as early as the first Black Panther. Anything could happen, even something this wild. Talk about a Multiverse of Madness.
Agricola Special Edition Launches on GameFound
Uwe Rosenberg’s Agricola is a classic farming worker placement game. Originally released in 2012, Awaken Realms gives Agricola a stunning makeover. What else would you expect from Awaken Realms? This company is known for over-the-top production value. Just look at these miniatures.
And I got excited when Agricola used animeeples. Look at the details of the various farmers, the animals, and even the reeds. They’re so intricate. Awaken Realms knows how to make miniatures. Of course, these miniatures are an add-on, but the animeeples players can receive without the miniatures upgrade are also fantastic.
You won’t need the miniatures. The cow and sheep meeples, the player board, the ornate fences in the player’s color, and the detailed resource tokens. Yowza! I’ve always been dubious of Awaken Realms games. They cost a lot, and players may fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy. This game is good because I took out a second mortgage to own it. This isn’t the case for Agricola. Almost a decade and a half after its original release, it maintains a spot on Board Game Geek’s Top 100 games.
Fortunately, Awaken Realms offers the updated Agricola at different price points. Agricola Special Edition has a standard, cardboard version, which costs €79 or $90. You can upgrade to wooden bits (like the ones pictured above) by spending €109 ($124). Or you can go for every expansion ever made for the original game. That’s a lot of content, so it doesn’t come cheap. The suggested price is €164.00, which is about $186. Players can upgrade to miniatures by selecting the Sundrop option at checkout. These miniatures (the detailed ones depicted at the top of this post) cost €49 or $55. A pledge of any kind makes you eligible for all stretch goals like irrigation channels.
If you’re interested in Agricola Special Edition, check out Awaken Realms’ GameFound page.
Sunnygeeks 2.0 Modular Gaming Table on GameFound
I’ve been looking at gaming tables for a while. My favorite types of gaming tables can double as dining tables, and that’s exactly what Sunnygeeks 2.0 Modular Gaming Table does. As the name “modular” suggests, gamers can build their own table to suit their needs. Do you need extra storage for bits? Add some stackable drawers. Would you like some LED lights to set the mood? Go right ahead.
Each table comes equipped with a water-resistant dining table topper. Just slap on the table topper if you want to use the table for a meal.
I love the idea of a table topper. Sunnygeeks 2.0 also has a topper docker, which allows for easy storage. You can even store some of your unused board game supplies. But speaking of board game storage, the modular table companion is amazing and my favorite feature. Even if I don’t pick up a gaming table, I’d consider buying a couple of modular table companions.
Modular table companions come in a variety of colors. Each one has wheels, and they’re stackable, which means you can have a large tower of board games that can roll. Yes!
As you can imagine, Sunnygeeks 2.0 isn’t cheap (easily in the thousands of dollars), but this is where GameFound’s Stretch Pay makes sense. Customers can pay ten interest-free payments over ten months. I never saw the need to use Stretch Pay for board games; if you’re spending so much on a single board game that you must use a payment plan, that’s excessive. But gaming furniture is another matter. Build the gaming table of your dreams by checking out Sunnygeeks 2.0’s GameFound page.
Magic x Final Fantasy Pre-Release This Week
The Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy crossover event is scheduled to release on June 13, 2025, but gamers can get in on the fun early with pre-release events. Local board game stores across the United States (and other countries) will feature pre-release tournaments. Now may be the best time to get back into Magic if you haven’t played in several years–like me. Or if you’re a huge Final Fantasy fan, you should check out the new set.
If you’re interested in a pre-release event, here’s a brief rundown of what to expect at a tournament. Players are given a set amount of time to open (a set number of) boosters and build a limited, 40-card deck using the cards from those packs. You will then play three games against other participants in the tournament. Most tournaments use a Swiss Style match-making, which means you’ll play against other people with your record. The winner will receive a small prize like a booster pack, sleeves, or a deck box. But everyone’s a winner because you got to play the Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy crossover event early. Pre-release events can be fun because no one has had time to construct the “perfect deck.” You all received random cards.
I can’t wait to get my hands on some Magic x Final Fantasy cards. Woo hoo!
That’s all the Geek News we have for this week. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
5 Famous LGBT Characters in Video Games
Happy Pride Month, Geekly Gang! Since it’s June, we’ll be celebrating with a list of famous LGBT characters in video games. JK Geekly is about to get a lot more rainbow.
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’ll be sticking to our usual format of five items to one of these lists, but make no mistake, countless other LGBT characters from video games could’ve made this list. So let’s take a look at which LGBT video game characters made this colorful list.
5) Alexios and Kassandra (Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey)
Alexios and Kassandra are the two main protagonists of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. Alexios is male, while Kassandra is female. Both are siblings, and you can choose to play as either of them. Assassin’s Creed chose to use gender neutral terms for both characters (calling them the Greek word for mercenary), and both characters may romance any of 14 characters (male or female), but Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey goes deeper than that. Players don’t need to romance anyone. You may choose to shoot down all advances and claim that you’re aromantic or asexual, which is rare for video games that include romantic options.
Yep. We’re starting this list off strong with a seldom-represented group within the larger LGBT community. Everyone is valid.
4) Krem (Dragon Age: Inquisition)
Even though Krem was a minor character in Dragon Age: Inquisition, he received significant media coverage from gaming journalists and LGBT-centric media for his positive depiction of a transgender character in a AAA video game, and for good reason. He’s a proud member of Iron Bull’s team, named the Bull’s Chargers. Krem’s teammates accept him for who he is, and Iron Bull himself treats him like an equal.
Dragon Age creator Trick Weekes received repeated requests from fans for a respectful representation of transgender and/or genderqueer characters, without resorting to stereotypes or tokenism. Krem is the best kind of transgender representation. Honest.
3) Bloodhound (Apex Legends)
I bathe in the bloth. That’s the line Bloodhound utters every time they enter “Beast of the Hunt,” tracking down as many enemies and dispatching them as quickly as they can. Bloodhound is one of the first and few non-binary video game characters. Note: Apex Legends characters could overrun this list with Valkyrie (lesbian), Loba (bisexual), Gibraltar (gay), and Catalyst (trans woman), to name a few, so we’ll limit this list to one Apex Legends character. Apex Legends does a great job of giving its characters layers and respecting their identities.
Apex doesn’t miss a beat when referring to Bloodhound in gender neutral terms. The game normalizes it. Even when Bloodhound is young, during one of the trailers, Boone refers to them as “child.” Great representation.
2) Birdo or Birdetta (Super Mario Bros. Series)
Our penultimate entry on this list is none other than the first transgender character in video game history, Birdo. The only concrete link to Birdo’s gender comes from the original Super Mario Bros. 2 guidebook that states “he thinks he’s a girl” and “he’d rather be called ‘Birdetta'” with the implication that Birdo is a mocking term (either dead-naming her or an insult that she isn’t girly enough to pull off the name Birdetta). Let’s do this queen a solid and call her Birdetta.
As you can see, there may have been some confusion as to who Birdetta was. The characters known as Birdo and Ostro became fused into one character well after Super Mario Bros. 2’s original release. After Birdetta’s write-up in the Super Mario Bros. 2 guidebook was rediscovered, she became a trans icon. Put some respect on Birdetta’s name.
1) Ellie Williams (The Last of Us)
Ellie is synonymous with The Last of Us. Whether she’s voiced by Ashley Johnson in the video games or by Bella Ramsey in the television show, Ellie Williams exudes strength against tremendous odds. Slay, queen. Slay!
While other characters on this list may have hit the video game scene far sooner than Ellie, there’s no doubt she’s made an impact. A scene in which Ellie and Riley kiss in Left Behind (The Last of Us’ prequel) drew social commentary and was commended as a leap for LGBT representation in video games. You love to see it. Johnson’s performance in Part II was praised for her vulnerability and suffering. The same can be said of Ramsey’s portrayal in the Max television show. Ellie is a fantastic character. The community needed some great representation, and they got it with Ellie. I can wait to see which barriers this character will shatter.
That’s our list of five famous LGBT characters in video games. There are plenty more that could make their own list. Let us know some of your favorites in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Bald People
Video Game Creators Matching Quiz 01
Whatcha Playing, Geekly? June 2025
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We have a new month and a new Wednesday, so it’s time for Whatcha Playing. The Geekly writers and I will share the games (video games and tabletop games) we’ve been playing over the past month. Feel free to share which games you’ve been playing, because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang.
Kyra’s Games
As always, I won’t include any of the gacha games I typically play. If I ever stop playing Wuthering Waves or Honkai: Star Rail, I’ll let you know. I also don’t include prototypes of tabletop games I’m developing, like Rustbucket Riots, Whirligig Pets, No Jack, Weeds, or Spill the Beans. Of course, I played those. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the games.
Board Games
I finally got Sky Team to the table, and it’s excellent. This two-player only game features a fast back-and-forth between one player as the pilot and the other as the co-pilot while they attempt to land a plane. Technically, players aren’t supposed to speak during rounds, but I allow minimal communication. Sky Team is a cooperative game, after all. Players simultaneously roll dice and then place them in their designated spaces, blue for the pilot and orange for the co-pilot. Both roles have specific duties.
Naturally, I chose Skye to be part of my first play of Sky Team. You can’t have a Sky Team without Skye. We played the tutorial and narrowly lost. Skye immediately wanted to play again, and we were able to land the plane on our second try. Sky Team includes numerous scenarios, and I can’t wait to try more.
I’ve played many Button Shy Games over the last month, and the above three games are standout titles. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Tussie Mussie has a great push pull of which flower do I want to show my opponent and which to keep secret. Your opponent will choose between the two flowers: known and unknown. Jason Glover’s Stew takes a similar concept of having partial knowledge of what’s in the Stew because you know which cards you’ve played and not the ones your opponents played. If you think there are enough points in the stew, you call stew and count up points; players gain points if they guess correctly, but their opponents gain points if they guess incorrectly. And Ted Heidersdorf’s Super Slopes is a crazy game of branching slaloms down snow-capped mountains.
I’m hooked on Button Shy Games. This company packs a lot of game into a small package, a wallet to be exact. I mentioned Button Shy Games in our Stocking Stuffer Games list in December. These games are great options for that, but for $12 apiece, Button Shy Games are good any month of the year. I love their portability. I can pack twenty to thirty of these in less space than one standard board game.
Technically, I haven’t played much Cretaceous Rails over the last month; I demoed the game for countless gaming groups. Dinosaurs and trains together at last! Really? I’m surprised the combination of dinosaurs and trains hasn’t happened before Cretaceous Rails. Anyway, I’ve played plenty of this game in the past. It’s over-the-top in its production value. Who doesn’t love four different train miniatures? Seriously, the train minis aren’t just different colors, they’re different train models.
Cretaceous Rails features dinosaur miniatures. Simply put, it has table presence. You’ll hear this game roar from across the room.
Video Games
I know. I know. Ticket to Ride is another board game, but I played the version ported to the PlayStation 4, so it counts as a video game. I always loved the simplicity of Ticket to Ride. Collect enough train cards of a single color, match them to routes (between two cities), and connect cities on the ticket cards you have in your hand in a continuous route. Ticket to Ride modernized Rummy for the modern board game community. The PlayStation 4 version of Ticket to Ride is a great port of the game.
While I prefer the physical version of Ticket to Ride to a digital one, the production value is great. The base game includes the classic United States map and the Europe map. I’ve played Ticket to Ride: Europe a few times before last month, but picking up this copy (on the cheap) has led to more plays on the Europe map. I like the USA map more, but that’s because I don’t know if I quite understand how stations work. Whoops!
Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn has a silly name. Akatsuki means dawn in Japanese, so the game’s title is Dawn: Lord of the Dawn. Tee hee! Anyway, Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is an army RPG. The story didn’t hold my interest. The game mechanisms were interesting–especially Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn’s method of combining building an army and a country–but the game overstays its welcome by one island. By the time I finished the penultimate island, I had done all the game had to offer. The final island is four times the size of the previous island, and my final hour or two of gameplay was mindlessly autobattling a hundred or so territory tiles.
On a personal note, I saw a screenshot similar to the one above and thought Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn used a card-driven combat system and got excited. The bottom left-hand corner looks like it could be a hand of cards, but no, it’s a head’s up display made to look like a hand of cards. Oh, well. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn was on sale for super cheap, I picked it up, and aside from the final island, I enjoyed my time with this indie game. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn took about twenty hours to finish.
That’s what I played this past month. Let’s check in with Season and Skye.
Skye’s Games
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I haven’t played many new video games this month to report to y’all. I got super addicted to Ghost of Tsushima and ended up playing non-stop. At least I have a platinum PlayStation trophy to show for it. The good news is that I spent this past weekend at Protospiel Twin Cities.
I typically don’t play board games unless I’m with my friends or family. Honestly, it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Last weekend, I had a unique opportunity to drive up to Minneapolis with our very own Kyra Kyle and play a host of different prototype board games. Behind these games were several different and talented designers.
Protospiel was an amazing experience. Kyra Kyle has been developing games of their own (which they’ve mentioned before), and I got to play them. I love playing Rustbucket Riots and Whirligig Pets. I even got to demo these games more than once. Co-op dice placement and programming adorable robot dogs and kittens. What’s not to love?
But I also had the pleasure of playtesting countless others. Most of these games have working titles or may not be ready to advertise, so most will be unnamed. Among the board game standouts were a simple and effective airline management game, a goofy cooking show contest game, an international travel game, and Spielcraft’s upcoming Primacy (a resource management/conquest game set in a dystopian future).
One of my favorite prototype games centered on becoming the “Master of the Seasons.” I liked its straightforward gameplay, fast-paced turn system, unique artistic design, and emphasis on strategy/point cultivation. If I ever see that game in stores, you bet I’ll be picking it up.
Season’s Games
board games
Woo-hoo! I was able to get some board game time under my belt. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Finspan got review-bombed before it even hit the shelves. I enjoyed Wyrmspan and have 3D printed resources I bought from someone in my hometown. I decided I’d collect everything in the Span series. Finspan is more streamlined than Wyrmspan and features an open hand mechanic. Players dive into the water, gather resources, and complete objectives. There are a finite number of turns each round (or week), so the game doesn’t drag.
One of my favorite things about Finspan is the attention to detail. The designers tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible to the real-world fish featured in the game. There are some artistic liberties, but you can find all of the fish in Finspan in our oceans today.
Video games
My Pokémon addiction returned when I spotted Pokémon Shining Pearl at my local GameStop. I don’t always keep up with the latest Pokémon games, but I’ll play a new one (well, new to me) every few years. Pokémon Shining Pearl is similar to previous games in the Pokémon franchise, but it features a location called the Grand Underground. After players complete the main game and unlock the National Pokédex, they may access a wider variety of Pokémon. There are way more legendary Pokémon to catch in Pokémon Shining Pearl than I’m used to in previous games, so that’s been a blast.
Kyra Kyle again. That does it for this month’s Whatcha Playing. What games have you been playing? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
90s Video Game Timeline Quiz 01
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