by Melissa Brinks | Jul 1, 2024 | Essays, Opinion
Grow Up is a series in which I evaluate whether games called young adult actually fit the definition and explore why that matters.
On paper, Life is Strange looks like a quintessential young adult game. It tells the story of a teenage girl, Max, who discovers she has magical powers—in this case, time travel. Depending on the player’s choices, there’s a budding romance between her and her former best friend, Chloe, or between Max and her new, goofy nerd friend Warren. Even the visuals, tinged with golden hour light and an overall Instagrammy color shift, scream youth. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Melissa Brinks | Feb 7, 2022 | Opinion, Video Games
Grow Up is a series in which I evaluate whether games called young adult actually fit the definition and explore why that matters.
“Unlikable” is a word that comes up again and again when discussing characters. It’s a fraught idea to begin with—I love a deeply flawed character myself, while others prefer a character they can look up to—but especially so in fiction for younger consumers, such as young adult and middle grade. Is there room for selfish, mean, or otherwise unlikable characters in fiction for younger audiences, or should young protagonists serve as role models? (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Melissa Brinks | Jun 18, 2019 | Features, Video Games
Around the time I was first kicking around the idea of this column, Austin Walker, in a 2018 Waypoint Radio episode, suggested that Marvel’s Spider-Man was the first real AAA example of young adult games, following on the industry’s obsession with dad games. After all, it follows a young man who must balance his heroics with real-world concerns like how he’s going to pay rent, his fraught relationship with his ex-girlfriend, and coming into his own as a real adult. He’s an earnest, unrepentant do-gooder, and as I’ve mentioned in previous entries of this series, that sense of earnestness, of doing good, is one of the main appeals of young adult fiction for me. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Melissa Brinks | Apr 22, 2019 | Essays, Opinion, Video Games
Grow Up is a series in which I evaluate whether games called young adult actually fit the definition and exploring why that matters.
Gone Home was really the inspiration for this column. It’s a critical darling—when it was released back in 2013, it was everywhere. At the time, it was like few other games out there; you didn’t play the hero, it revolved around two queer teenage girls, and it was more interested in exploration and atmosphere than traditional game mechanics. By virtue of being new and different (and kicking off the explosion of walking simulators), it was impossible not to talk about. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Melissa Brinks | Mar 26, 2019 | Features, Opinion, Video Games
I am an unabashed lover of young adult fiction. I always have been; it was there for me when I was a kid, and as an adult it’s a breezy respite from the heaviness of the mature books I also read. The same is true of games, where “young adult” is a label that doesn’t quite exist. Instead of young adult, we label games as for kids—though, for adult audiences, kids’ games are seen as somewhat more acceptable than young adult fiction, given the number of us unabashedly sinking hours into Sonic Mania—or for adults, with little room for anything else. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
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