Happy Pride! As part of our celebration, I’ll be highlighting a few games every week of June to help deliver attention to some of the best LGBTQIA+ representation in our medium.

Just like people in the real world, some of the games I’ll be sharing this month aren’t entirely about sexuality or gender identity. Sometimes, it’s more than enough to just have strong, explicitly queer characters in a story about something else entirely.

My goal here is to provide a variety of high-quality options, and that includes some titles that might not be obvious on the surface. So without further ado, let’s tackle this week’s picks.

‘Bugsnax’

The bulk of this hilarious action-adventure game revolves around finding and capturing food-bug hybrids called bugsnax to help you and other not-Muppets survive and escape the challenging environment of Snaktooth Island. The critters are cool, and the puzzles are enjoyable, but it’s the characters that kept me playing.

Hands-down, the best off-brand Muppets are Chandlo Funkbun (a buff frat bro), and Snorpy Fizzlebean (a super nerd). They’re in a relationship together, and it is maybe my favorite gay romance in all of video games. I still think about these two fictional characters, and hope they’re doing well. Please, please stay strong, fellas.

Of course, there is another noteworthy same-sex relationship among the Grumpuses, but I don’t feel nearly as positively about the other one. It’s vitally important to the lore, but I much prefer the joyous himbo-nerd pairing. Chandlo/Snorpy forever!

“Bugsnax” is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and iOS.

‘Thirsty Suitors’

What a game! I missed out on it when it first launched because I was busy playing the much-anticipated “Alan Wake II,” so I did end up having it sitting on my PS5’s main drive for much too long. When I finally got around to playing it, I wanted to kick myself for putting off such a superb indie title.

From a story perspective, “Thirsty Suitors” is concerned with the intersection of identities. Jala, the main character, is a queer woman from a diverse South Asian family living in the United States. She pissed off pretty much every single person from her home town, and now she’s back to mend relationships with her family and a small army of ex-lovers.

The developers made the very smart choice to make Jala’s family totally accepting of her identity, but the story doesn’t pretend that bigotry doesn’t exist. One plot point hinges on an ex-girlfriend who was disowned by her family, and Jala’s own Dad confesses to initially shunning his lesbian sister only to fix his heart years later.

In terms of gameplay, there’s a shocking amount of variety crammed into about eight hours. There’s some “Super Mario RPG” combat, some trick-based skateboarding, and a whole lot of cooking QTEs. And if you’re having trouble with any one aspect, there are plenty of assists available in the menus.

Whatever it takes, I beg you to check out this incredible indie title.

“Thirsty Suitors” is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.

‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’

BioWare has, to varying degrees of success, endeavored to provide LGBTQIA+ representation in their games for decades now. They’ve really whiffed it on occasion, but they’ve broadly been willing to listen and improve.

With 2024’s “The Veilguard,” they’ve made what I believe to be the very first AAA game in which two explicitly non-binary main characters can fall in love with each other. Of course, that does require the player character to make those choices, but it’s very neat nonetheless.

In fact, I didn’t even intend to romance Taash ( the NB dragon hunter) in my first playthrough. But when they confronted me about exclusivity, I couldn’t bring myself to say “No.” They’re just too alluring.

All of the romance options are bi or pan, and that has been a bit divisive among fans, but it does mean that more queer romances are on the table this time around. If that matters to you, I think you’ll be quite pleased with the relationships — platonic or otherwise.

“Dragon Age: The Veilguard” is available now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Image Credit: “Thirsty Suitors,” Outerloop Games