Gay for Play: A Video Game Podcast

It's Pride month once again, and what better way to kick off the celebrations than by diving paraglider-first into a hearty discussion on one of the biggest and best games of the year. It's Zelda time!!! Our favorite androgynous femmeboy girltwink swordsman is back and this time? He has a sexy goat-man's arm grafted onto him. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been one of...

Hi divas! (May we call you divas?) It’s an exciting week here at Gay For Play. We recorded this episode mere days before the release The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, an event bound to dominate gaming culture for the foreseeable future.  Plus we're joined by iconic oomfie and CenCal legend Bijou Bentley to help us catch up on as much culture as possible before Zelda consumes our live...

(*Well, Catholic-coded at least...) An episode a long time in the making in a galaxy right, right here: this week, we're finally discussing STAR WARS! Our friend Jake Carlin joins us to talk all about the supermassive media franchise born from a humble little space-fantasy flick in 1977, which still manages to capture our hearts and imaginations to this day. (thanks in part to some pretty gre...

Mushroom Kingdom, heeere we come! Today we're joined by a bestie of the pod, our theme song composer Connor Marsh, to discuss the long-awaited Super Mario Bros. Movie!   And speaking of long-awaited Nintendo things: mere hours before we recorded this episode, the final pre-release trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropped, so we get into that first! We were arguably more e...

"Joel is sooo babygirl-coded." This week we're joined by our friend Becca Rowland, who first guested on our original The Last of Us episode, to discuss the stellar HBO adaptation of Naughty Dog's beloved 2013 video game. We knew that we would probably want to discuss this season of television, compare it to our thoughts the game, and talk about how much we are head-over-heels,...

We're gathered here today to mourn & celebrate the life of a video game console, Nintendo's last handheld-only device, the small but mighty Nintendo 3DS. As of March 27th, 2023, the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS and Wii U will be officially shut down, meaning 866 Wii U games and 1547 3DS games will no longer be available to purchase. We've already dedicated an episode in the past t...

It's Awards Season, and you know what that means: it's time for us to once again honor the best and the gayest in gaming, pop culture, and beyond with the second annual VGPCBAs! Spanning 27 prestigious categories, Eric and Laurence present the awards and dish out legendary trophies for the best (and worst) people, games, and culture that the last year had to offer. Plus this year, extra...

We are back! After a quick hiatus, Eric & Laurence are back to chat all about their trip to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood, which they visited back in January 2023 during its technical previews. Now, while this ep. may have been recorded a few weeks back, our takes are still hot n' fresh like a plate of Spicy Spaghetti from Toadstool Café! What did we think of the lan...

~She's bulletproof, nothing to lose... Fire away, fire away~ On this week's episode we discuss the film M3GAN! Returning guest Sara Brown (from our Persona 5 and Catherine: Full Body episodes) joins us to talk about the little murderous doll who has captivated audiences nationwide and immediately become a new gay horror icon. We talk about how she joins a lineage of haunted little dolls...

There's a mystery afoot! And that mystery, dear listener, is the question: is Glass Onion a worthy follow up to its 2019 predecessor Knives Out? Is there more queer stuff here that warrants a whole episode-length discussion of one of the best new detective film series of the 21st century? How good at Among Us was Stephen Sondheim, actually?  Ok, so there's way more than just one mystery,...

Brand new year, same fabulous us! Laurence and Eric welcome in 2023 with a fun little check-in ep. to start off an exciting year of queer games culture and more! We give an update on the highly anticipated and long awaited Video Games, Pop Culture, and Beyond Awards, Eric's work-related adventures with some Celebrity Gay Icons of NoteTM, how old Drag Race makes us feel, exciting new releases...

Another year in the books, another Game of the Year list to make! We, as gay people, love to craft our little lists at the end of every year, so this week we’re having a good ol’ fashioned Game of the Year episode as we each share our individual top 5 favorite games of 2022, alongside a pretty substantial list of our honorable mentions! Which games scored 10s across the board and snatched a covete...

In our last regular episode of the year, we're discussing two huge games from November that we've gotten into over the past month-- Sonic Frontiers and God of War: Ragnarok . One is one of the most narratively compelling games of the year and one is, well, some good honest fun let's just say that! Eric and Laurence also discuss their Spotify Wrappeds (Spotifies Wrapped?), End of the...

This week, our friend & fellow queer gaming podcaster Travis Ryans (they/he) from the Rainbow Road Podcast ,  returns to the show to discuss Pokémon Scarlet & Violet! The 9th Generation of mainline Pokémon games recently released for Nintendo Switch. Since its launch, the game has gone viral for its myriad technical issues, bugs, and poor performance, but is there still a worthwhile Pokémo...

It's Halloween time once again, and we are celebrating with an iconically spooky game! Well, first we're doing our civil duty as gay podcasters & sharing our love for Carly Rae Jepsen's The Loneliest Time, as well as briefly going over all the drama surrounding Bayonetta 3   on the internet this past week, but after that we're talking ALL about THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA&a...

This week, Eric and Laurence are joined by Brian Moreno (he/him), the president of the Los Angeles Gayming Society, to discuss Blizzard's mega-popular hero shooter OVERWATCH (2)! Initially released in 2016, Overwatch is a multiplayer competitive shooter featuring a roster over over 40 playable characters with unique abilities and diverse, international backgrounds. The game garnered massive p...

The boys are back from a nice little vacay to discuss their recent trips to the famous Disneyland Resort and Disney California Adventure theme parks! We went in the same week but on different days from each other, and we review our experiences, ruminate on whether Disney is in its flop era, talk about childhood joy, Disney adults, Star Wars slaying, Marvel's Flop Avengers Campus, and the over...

This week, Laurence and Eric meet up for a more casual eppy to discuss this week's Nintendo Direct, Sony State of Play, Tokyo Game Show announcements, and more gaming news*! (*and by "more gaming news" we mean a long tangent about astrology and how 6 planets are in retrograde right now which is really harshing our vibe.) But hey! The sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild...

After a couple months of having lovely guests on the pod, this week Eric and Laurence sit down one-on-one for a classic catch up on the truly wild amount of culture that's been happening. From the "Don't Worry Darling" drama, to Lea Michele debuting in Funny Girl, to Queen Liz 2 kicking the bucket and reincarnating as Trisha Paytas's baby— there's a LOT to discuss. Pl...

"Category: Pink Round Puff he's the BALL... Alien SUPAstar!" Today we are talking about beloved Nintendo icon Kirby!!! Created by then-19-year-old Masahiro Sakurai (who later went on to create the Super Smash Bros. series), Kirby first hit the scene in 1992 with Kirby's Dream Land for the Nintendo Game Boy.  Kirby was designed to be approachable to new and younger players unfam...

This week, we're joined by indie game developer, artist, founder of Sipsong Studios , and creator of the new mobile title THE KWANSTONE PROJECT, TinTin V! (he/him) We interview TinTin about his experience of becoming a self-taught game developer over the pandemic & how his Lao-heritage and queer identity/community inspired and shaped the creation of his game. We also take some tangents to...

This week we are thrilled to be joined by our *EXTRA* special guest, Travis Ryans!! Travis (they/he) is one of the hosts Rainbow Road: A Gay Gaming Podcast , our fellow queer gaming podcast sibling to the north. They join us to discuss PREY, the 2017 FPS/immersive sim from Arkane Studios and Bethesda about a space station overrun by a hostile spooky alien force known as the Typhon. We dive into th...

With the recent tragic passing of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" series creator, Kazuki Takahashi,  this week we reflect on the legacy of his iconic franchise, from its manga origins to what is now one of the most popular trading card games & multimedia franchises on the planet. "Yu-Gi-Oh!" tells the story of Yugi Motoh, a timid, kind, young gamer with an iconic spiky hairdo who becomes posse...

Well gamers, Pride month has officially ended, and with it, the first half of 2022!   We'll be honest, given the current events unfolding on the national stage, Pride month was a little rough on us this year, and we weren't quite in the right headspace to record episodes throughout the month. But we have mustered our strength & gathered once again, coming to the mic as we are, to dis...

Welcome to Gay For Play! A podcast where we take a look at the world of gaming through a queer lens.   This week, the CATEGORY IS: Summer Gaming Announcements! E3 may be six feet under girl, but in its wake we've still gotten a *lot* of cool announcements this month, with various publishers & gaming companies big & small holding virtual press conferences to show off new and upcoming g...