🏳️‍⚧️ "Critical Kate” Willært
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katewillaert.bsky.social
🏳️‍⚧️ "Critical Kate” Willært
@katewillaert.bsky.social
(WILL-ert) | Investigating forgotten gaming history | Creator of the greatest Metroid video on Youtube | Asexual, autistic, artistic, 🏳️‍⚧️(she/her) | Linktree: https://katewillaert.com/link-tree
i can’t believe I’d never heard The Devil Inside (2000). Written and directed by the writer of Alone In The Dark, you play as reality TV action hero Dave, who can transform into a sexy witch named Deva by activating pentagrams found throughout the levels? How is this real? How is it so obscure?
November 28, 2025 at 4:01 AM
This line from Video Games (Apr 83) was too prescient. One of the more frustrating things to me about the state of video game preservation is what feels like a general lack of interest in pre-'80s games; I will never stop banging the drum about the importance of '70s games (especially Death Race).
November 27, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Yoji Shinkawa was reading WildC.A.T.s and Sin City and other imported US comics, I’m not at all surprised he was also reading Hellboy.

(Interview from the Metal Gear Solid “Official Mission Handbook” US strategy guide.)
November 27, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I was asked recently who is the first on-screen human male video game player character with a name who is original to video games (so not Fonz or Susuke) since I worked out the first female example, and I think the first male example might actually be Mr. Jack from Nintendo’s Sheriff?
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Okay, but when are the cowards going to drop this crop top?
November 24, 2025 at 7:55 PM
To raise awareness that today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which closes out Transgender Awareness Week, I present to you a thought:

If Birdo doesn't lay eggs and is canonically trans, and Yoshi does lay eggs, have we considered that Yoshi is also trans?
November 20, 2025 at 4:59 PM
November 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
And this was the final image in the series:
November 18, 2025 at 12:04 AM
And more...

Starting in April it seemed like flipped between painted and line drawing every other month.
November 17, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Kazuyuki Takimoto was comfortable working in a variety of styles. The only reason I know these are all him is that several of them credit him explicitly. Others, signed "TERRA," match his various styles, so I believe are also him (I think you'd been wondering about this @vgdensetsu.bsky.social?)
November 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM
They continued the campaign for one year. Sometimes the ads were surreal, sometimes whimsical, always eye-catching. And rarely had anything to do with any of the games they were publishing.
November 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
In the Feb 1985 issues of LOGiN, game publisher Bothtec tried something unusual. Instead of a typical ad that looked like a spread from a catalog, they just printed an uncolored illustration (by in-house artist Kauyuki Takimoto), a list of their current and upcoming games, and their contact info.
November 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
What I love about this ad is that it's like a gender-flipped equivalent to the classic Maxell ad.
November 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
What people think making a video essay is like:
November 17, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Business Tour (1984) - Bothtec
November 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM
The rollercoaster ride this block of text just took me on.
November 15, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Adding this to my Video Dames list.
November 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I may have made a tiny change to my hair in the last week.
November 10, 2025 at 10:21 PM
November 9, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The funniest detail in this cover:
November 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The Nintendo VS System was two styles of arcade cabinets that each had two screens. Now that we know they internally pronounced it "V-S" rather than "versus," I wonder if Nintendo DS was a callback...?
November 7, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Who’s going to be the first to create a Starter Pack of quality rude people?
November 6, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Sighs for hopefully obvious, admittedly complicated reasons.
November 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM
The Simpsons have apparently broken all of Epic's servers.

Homer: "BAAAART!"
November 2, 2025 at 12:35 AM
November 1, 2025 at 10:04 PM