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5 Famous LGBT Characters in Video Games

Published on June 7, 2025April 27, 2025 by KyraLeave a comment

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.

Honorable Mention 1: Palicos (Monster Hunter Series)

I never know if palicos count as pets or not; I love them as characters, but they may be less pets and more of a species of humanoids. The Monster Hunter series muddies the waters with palicos. Some palicos are your faithful servants and present little more than their servitude to the player character. Other palicos have jobs (like the Meowscular Chef in Monster Hunter World, he must have a wife and kids at home to support) and the Monster Hunter Stories series shows palicos as having a culture separate from humans. Many people still classify palicos as pets, but their ambiguity makes them just miss this list.

Honorable Mention 2: Pokémon (Pokémon Series)

Pokémon, like horses and dogs, can fill a list by themselves. And which Pokémon should I pick? Pikachu is the obvious representative Pokémon. He has his own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. But that’s reductive. I’ll include Pokémon as a video game pet type, but these critters deserve a list for themselves. Maybe even a Top 10 Iconic Pokémon list.

With Pokémon, horses, and palicos eliminated (and dogs for the most part excluded), how many video game pets are we left with? A lot. So many that I could make a Top 10 if I wanted, but these are the ones that made the Top 5.

**5: Rammy (Castle Crashers)**

Cheater! I can hear some of you Castle Crashers players now, you’re a cheater if you use Rammy. I say, you still have to unlock him after the bear boss. And he’s a cute orb-shaped ram. And who doesn’t like a ram charging through a side-scroller beat ‘em up game, knocking down every monster they meet? If Rammy is cheating, then I don’t want to play honorably. Charge away, Rammy. Charge away.

**4: Munchie (Dragon Quest VIII)**

This one is esoteric. It took me a while to think of Munchie from Dragon Quest VIII. I vaguely recalled a pet mouse who rode in the main character’s coat pocket, and the only thing I could remember was that Munchie had a mohawk and liked to eat cheese and certain cheeses gave him special abilities. All of that is true (to be precise, Munchie is a pig rat), but Munchie was central to advancing Dragon Quest VIII’s plot. The game has several moments where the player controls Munchie as he conducts reconnaissance.

Munchie often procured keys to enter or exit rooms, gathered intelligence to better interact with NPCs, and even scouted ahead before major battles. Munchie may also be a little of a cheat for this list. While he spends most of the game as your pig rat pet, he’s much more than that. I won’t spoil any of the story here—Dragon Quest VIII is well worth the play and it’s available on plenty of platforms—but there’s a lot more to Munchie.

**3: Blob (A Boy and His Blob)**

A Boy and His Blob uses a common 1980s movie trope of a boy befriending an alien (like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Last Starfighter), but that doesn’t discount the titular blob as a pet. And it’s one heck of a pet. I’m sensing a theme here with these video game pets: they’re useful. Rammy helps you cheat and Munchie progresses Dragon Quest VIII’s story. The Blob from A Boy and His Blob can transform into various objects (to help the player solve puzzles) by eating different flavored jellybeans.

The original A Boy and His Blob is at best unbalanced, but the concept is neat. I like the idea of a blob morphing into a ladder if fed a licorice jellybean or a parachute if it eats a pear jellybean. The other combinations are fun: tangerine (trampoline), berry (balloon), and punch (hole). But my favorite had to be apple and jack. I see what you did there, A Boy and His Blob. And of course, coconut transforms the blob into a coconut. Were you expecting anything else?

A Boy and His Blob got a sequel in 2009, but I wouldn’t mind some more time with this property. Not going to lie, I ate more jellybeans after playing this game. What would a Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly turn me into?

**2: Rush (Mega Man Series)**

Rush from the Mega Man Series is our one dog-like pet on this list. I could’ve gone a different direction here, but I don’t think Rush gets enough love. So, what if Rush makes another list in the future? He’ll make a future Top 5 video game dogs list. He’s Mega Man’s best buddy.

Rush continues our trend of pets who have multiple uses. Throughout the Mega Man Series, Rush has been a coil (trampoline), a jet to cross long pits, a submarine, a spaceship, a flashlight of sorts (with its “Search” function in Mega Man 7), and a motorbike to name a few. Mega Man’s Rush bridges the gap between a pet that can help in a fight or solve a puzzle and one that aids with pushing the story further. The first two Mega Man games are two of my favorite games from that era of video games, but those two games have a lack of Rush.

1: Yoshi (Nintendo)

Could it be anyone else? Even if I included Pokémon, horses, and all video game dogs, Yoshi from the Super Mario Bros. series would still take the top spot. Heck, I named my dog after Yoshi the dinosaur. And who wouldn’t want a dinosaur as a pet?

Yoshi may be the one character on this list who doesn’t need an introduction. Most people know them and their abilities. Like Rush, Yoshi has done it all. They’re even one of the few characters on this list that have had their own video game series. They’ve had more than one.

You’re probably wondering why I keep referring to Yoshi as they; Yoshi is a sapient species of dinosaur-like creatures. They can lay eggs, which suggests that they’re female, but most people refer to the Yoshi one finds in Super Mario World as he. Yoshis (or Yoshisaurs) blur the line between male and female. They can be both or neither.

I also loved playing as Yoshi in the original Super Mario Kart. I got pretty good at managing their fast acceleration and the fact that they couldn’t take too much damage without getting knocked off course. Yoshis come in different colors. Some of these colors depict different abilities, but usually, these colors are cosmetic. Whatever their color, Yoshi rules.

Which Yoshi is your favorite? Did we miss any video game pets that aren’t dogs, horses, or Pokémon? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

My Favorite Game Mechanism: Super Mario Bros.

Published on January 10, 2019September 8, 2024 by KyraLeave a comment

I’ve talked about this before years ago, but one of my favorite game designs is the first Super Mario Bros., specifically the game’s first stage World 1-1. It’s an example of flawless game design that has inspired many game designers since. It’s a wonderful use of intuitive game design.

Mario begins on the screen’s far left. The player could try and move farther left, but the game won’t allow the player to do so. It’s showing the player that Mario must go right. Sure, the buttons are limited, but Mario can only move and jump, and the controls are easy to understand without ever reading the game’s manual. Soon, Mario encounters a Goomba (a mushroom-shaped enemy). Since Mario can only jump and the player gets caught in a corridor where they must interact with the Goomba, they find that Goombas can be defeated by jumping on them. This informs the player of Mario’s skillset and his enemies’ weakness.

A question mark box flashes ahead, begging to be pressed. When pressed, a mushroom emerges. New players won’t know if the mushroom’s good or bad, but the game’s design makes it almost impossible to miss it. The mushroom turns out to be a powerup.

There’s even a moment where a seemingly random jump would result in finding a hidden 1UP mushroom (or extra life mushroom) and since it looks like the previous powerup mushroom, players are informed to grab it. A field study showed that most people who had never played Super Mario Bros. before found the 1UP mushroom. That’s because of its placement in the world; the first 1UP mushroom’s placement is just before a hole in the floor that players must jump over. It takes a little intuition to learn this game.

Speaking of jumping over something, the first occurrence of a piranha plant, a polka-dot Venus flytrap enemy, is also strategically placed. With its mouth and fangs pointed up, players are informed to avoid them, but if a plant like that can go up a pipe, Mario can go down a pipe and that’s exactly what Mario can do there. It’s an excellent way of revealing a game’s secrets.

The rest of the level continues in a similar fashion, non-verbally teaching the game. When gamers say that they want intuitive game design or controls, they want something like Super Mario Bros. World 1-1. It’s still one of the best game designs.

Don’t believe me? When Hirokazu Yasuhara designed 1991’s Sonic the Hedgehog, he stated that he tried to recreate Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 with every level. That’s high praise from Nintendo’s greatest competitor at the time. What are your favorite elements of classic or modern video games? If you disagree with my choice in World 1-1, feel free to jump on my Goomba head. That might hurt. Instead, leave me an angry comment.

3 Lists of 3 Video Game Enemies Made of Weak Sauce

Published on October 15, 2018September 8, 2024 by KyraLeave a comment

Video game villains or enemies can’t all be made of the finer things like Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka, Shadow of the Colossus’ Dormin or even Bowser. This week your uncle Geekly’s three list of three will cover the video game enemies who bleed weak sauce.

These are the guys you can bludgeon with one strike of your foam hammer, and they’ll pass out. We’ll start with ones you can find in many different video game franchises.

Pathetic Generic Enemies

Rats

Why does it always have to be rats? These little rodents don’t put up much of a fight unless they swarm the field. To be fair, that’s what a lot of games do with rats to make them more of a menace, but rats still don’t strike fear in the hearts of virtual heroes. My eyes get wide when I see them in an Elder Scrolls game. Heck, I picked the Fighter’s Guild quest line first in Morrowind, because of the rats.

A couple of well-placed swings will send the hoards to rat heaven where the streets are made of Cheez-Its, and it rains cheese fondue.

Skeletons

While you’ll see another undead come up next, skeletons are a classic video game enemy. I’m not exactly sure what holds them together, especially since they can’t take a licking. Super Mario Bros’ Dry Bones fall apart and somehow get back together after taking a couple of breaths(?).

Skeletons aren’t that sneaky either because you can hear their bones rattling across an empty tomb, and that’s where one would normally find one. At least the player has to look down at their feet—or non-existent feet if you’re playing Elder Scrolls—to see a rat after hearing it squeak.

There’s a reason why Undertale’s Sans came out of nowhere: skeletons aren’t supposed to be tough.

Zombies

Zombies are the undead version of rats. A single zombie doesn’t scare the typical gamer, one shot to the head usually does the trick, but that’s not what makes zombies formidable. It’s the throng of zombies—or is it the herd or hoard?—that makes people drop soft serve in their Underoos.

Still, zombies are overdone. They may be more overdone than rats and skeletons at this point, especially since many video games change what they call zombies. Draugr. Feral ghouls. Clickers. Infected. They’re still zombies.

Pitiful Unique Enemies

Slimes (Dragon Quest)

Slimes are one of the first things fans of Dragon Quest think of. They’re iconic. They also consist of nothing but weak sauce in the shape of a poop emoji. There’s a reason slimes are often your first enemy when starting a Dragon Quest game. They’re easy.

Keep smiling though. You’re the poop.

Goombas (Super Mario Brothers)

Yep. The mushroom shaped goombas are another example of an iconic video game enemy that’s too easy to kill. All Mario has to do is jump on them, and that’s a good thing because that’s all Mario can do at the beginning of most Super Mario Brothers games. One word: squish.

Mudcrabs (Elder Scrolls)

If an Elder Scrolls entry doesn’t start a player with rats, it’ll start them with mudcrabs. Let’s mix it up and start the player character in a half-flooded dungeon and pit them against half rats and half mudcrabs.

Mudcrabs are just crabs who live in mud. Despite their shell, they’re easy to defeat. The only thing that would scare me is if my character somehow contracted mudcrabs. That would scare me a lot more than Ataxia.

Ridiculously Easy Boss Enemies

Alduin (Elder Scrolls)

Man, I’m beating up on Elder Scrolls with these lists. I’m sorry, Bethesda. I promise that I like your games. I’m a huge Bethesda fanboy, but they’ve made some stinker enemies. The build-up to Alduin in Skyrim was fantastic, but Alduin himself must’ve read the word of weakness right before the main storyline’s final battle.

I’ve had tougher battles getting rid of mudcrabs.

Human Reaper Larva (Mass Effect 2)

Mass Effect is another series I love, but it’s another case of the final villain of the game (Mass Effect 2 to be specific) not living up to its billing. Cast as the most powerful and terrifying race, the vision gamers built of reapers in the minds was shattered when fighting this simplistic enemy. It wasn’t terrifying. It took no time at all to beat. I’m thinking human DNA wasn’t the best one to choose from. Countless hours of making reapers sound awesome wasted.

343 Guilty Spark (Halo 3)

He’s a tiny AI that’s cast as comic relief in the final installment of the Halo trilogy. This game is what the entire series built up toward, and guess who the ultimate boss turned out to be? The tiny AI that was supposed to be comic relief and takes three hits to take out. His name is even 343 Guilty Spark. Bungie is guilty of making a lame villain.

There’s plenty of weak sauce to go around. I spread a little on my hot dogs every game night. Which villains do you think are weak sauce? Let us know in comments, and if you like more daily, weak write-ups, subscribe for updates.

Tag: super mario bros