SideQuest Enthusiast

Lady Pelvic is the force behind Pelvic Gaming, a YouTube channel featuring gaming reviews, Top 5s, and more. She’s been at it for several years now, and one thing rings true throughout her work: she’s a huge Zelda fan.

With the 35th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series coming this month (February 2021), Lady Pelvic pays the Land of Enthusia a visit to talk with Kyle about why Majora’s Mask is the best Zelda game while still deliberating on the magic of the other entries like Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, and Breath of the Wild. She also lets us know about her YouTube channel, why she got into reviewing games, and what makes her stand out in a saturated community.

Follow Lady Pelvic on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitch. Watch her on YouTube, too!

Kiesha Richardson is the founder of Ge’NeL Magazine, a woman-centric video game and geek culture website that cares deeply about normalizing minority groups in geek and gaming spaces. In this episode, she sits down with Kyle to talk about what it was like starting an online mag and why it’s important to carve spaces especially for Black women in nerd culture. She gushes about how she first fell in love with story in games with World of Warcraft and how there’s still hope for single-player campaigns and more great stories in video games—it’s not all just about Fortnite (phew!).

Gaming has been her saving grace, and so was writing. She reminisces about how her grandmom was her biggest cheerleader before segueing into powerful anecdotes of her time serving as an army contractor in Kuwait and Iraq. The time there helped define her relationship with her mother who was also deployed in 2003, how gaming built community for her in Iraq, and how brushes with death shifted her life forever.

She also crafts a crazy-enlightening metaphor around Magneto from X-Men, racism, and personal growth.

Follow Kiesha on Twitter and Instagram @onefildflowerz. Catch up on Ge’NeL Magazine at genelmag.com, Twitter, and Instagram @genelmag.

Shout-outs to Black Girl Gamers, too!

Content Warnings: Depression, wartime experiences, drugs, some use of the N-word.

Welcome to 2021, the year where almost every franchise is celebrating a major anniversary! Kyle talks about how Pokemon and Zelda should have big celebrations this year and makes a few predictions about what's to come this year from Nintendo. There's also Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury hype. To conclude, there are reflections on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, what it means to be part of the social change needed in America, and why Black and Brown people in gaming spaces are vital.

On this episode of SQE, Knuckles (actually, it’s Kyle)  and Mina reminisce about old school consoles that they wish they had or could revisit again before talking about how gatekeeping and money kept them from really diving into games when they were younger. Then, (16:37) it’s all about the Game Awards. What did we like? What did we play? Why are the same five games nominated for every category? Why is Tom Nook such a bad role model for the kids? The big question is, though, how do we play video games? (25:38) The accessibility award has us asking what it actually means to “play” games, especially as they look into The Last of Us Part II’s deep accessibility options. And if you’re curious, we close out with our Game of the Year picks! (40:16).

On the first episode of Sidequest Enthusiast, Kyle, Mina, and Anairis talk about fond memories of getting new consoles. They also consider the next generation with the release of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and what a new era means for players and developers of color. What kinds of games do we want with characters and stories that are diverse? There's also talk of Monster Prom, Fire Emblem, and how simping ain't easy.