Keza MacDonald

Keza MacDonald

@mackeza.bsky.social

Reviewing and reporting on video games for 20+ years; truly I have seen it all. Guardian video games editor, exhausted millennial. Author of SUPER NINTENDO and co-author of YOU DIED: The Dark Souls Companion. She/her 🏳️‍🌈 https://linktr.ee/super_nintendo

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Six months of Super Nintendo! And it's my birthday this week! This book is the culmination of 20 years' work as a games journalist - all the time I've spent interviewing Nintendo creatives and thinking deeply about games and the place they occupy in our lives. Pick up a copy linktr.ee/super_nintendo

(As Ellie points out, it truly is amazing how this character has endured and how beloved she is despite endless attempts from misguided creative execs and sexist marketers to undermine her power)

Keza MacDonald reposted

if you ever happen to see someone post a joke you don't understand or discuss a subject you aren't familiar with, you are well within your right to complain, and perhaps even scold them if necessary. you are their customer and you have rights

Keza MacDonald reposted

Switch Sports Resort has very genuinely been the gaming event of the year in my household (to be fair my kids are a bit young for GTA) - it made me feel very nostalgic, perhaps because it's got WaveRace and PilotWings DNA in there www.theguardian.com/games/2026/o...

theguardian.comNintendo Switch Sports Resort review – Wii Sports lives on in this effortlessly appealing collection of gamesBringing a holiday vibe and a generous selection of sport-themed games, this is exactly what you want from a family video game

I had the great pleasure of reading an early copy of Jordan's new book on Super Mario Galaxy - it's a delight, highly recommended Wii nostalgia

Jordan Minor@jordanwminor.bsky.social

Yesterday, we fully revealed my next book, SUPER MARIO GALAXY for @bossfightbooks.com Today, I wrote about my motivation for writing the book, and some larger thoughts on games criticism in general. The post is free for everyone! (But do consider subscribing) www.patreon.com/VGOTY/posts/...

Keza MacDonald reposted

Over at @theguardian.com I reviewed Belmont’s Curse. This was a tougher review to figure out!.Super stylish! When it sings, it really sings! But something is off.. It also puts forth a terrible first impression and takes a while to reveal the good stuff. Clever at times, frustrating in others.

theguardian.comCastlevania: Belmont’s Curse review – every fantastical vampire-hunting vision is fulfilledThere are buzzsaws and blood pits, bats burst into blood and demons burn to cinders. The series’ new emphasis on twitch-based action may annoy purists but you can’t call it dull

Keza MacDonald reposted

No joke. I think this is the most important video I have ever seen about mobile games. This guy breaks down how this game psychologically profiles you, and makes the game harder or easier in order to show you ads

Keza MacDonald reposted

10yo asked what i did at the festival and i said oh it's a book festival, so i just talked about my books, and he said "yikes" under his breath

Signing 1000 of these was a treat, lemme tell ya

Tune & Fairweather@tuneandfairweather.bsky.social

Every copy of You Died 10th Anniversary Edition features a numbered limitation label, signed by both authors. Only 1,000 copies exist and they're shipping immediately. Get yours while they last. www.tuneandfairweather.com/products/you...

Keza MacDonald reposted

Games media cuts have felt unending for a while, but the mood feels especially grim among indie outlets with the latest wave of layoffs. More than ever, if the game industry values its media, it needs to support them. Buy some advertising, sponsor content, purchase subs. It makes a big difference.

Apropos of nothing, here's the callout I wrote for Eurogamer about the glaring lack of female voices in the games media. I wrote this in *2018*. Things did seem to get better for a while but now we're backsliding again and the reasons for it haven't changed. www.eurogamer.net/why-the-game...

eurogamer.netWhy the games media has a diversity problem - this website especiallyEurogamer has far too low a proportion of articles by female writers. Keza MacDonald, the Guardian's games editor, explains why this happens and what can be don

"I'd advise editors to ask themselves: if you never get women pitching your site or applying for your jobs, why is that? Do you read female writers- and if not, why? Do you talk to women about whom they are reading, or do you only talk about work with other men? Not all of our biases are conscious."

"Influencers" really will receive a box of swag and IMMEDIATELY turn around and sell it for massive profit. Sometimes they even brag about it. It's the games press who are corrupt tho, remember

Jesse Gomez@itsjessegomez.bsky.social

Only 100 functioning Silent Hill: Townfall CRTVs were made, sent out to different influencers before the games release, and someone's already selling theirs for over $300 😬 It's a cute toy, but savage to be like "I do not need it".

Keza MacDonald reposted

I was at the Guardian part-time for years and it was one of the most reliable jobs I've ever had. I got bad carpal tunnel and was given lots of leave. I stole my vertical mouse when I left and nobody complained. Excellent place to work if you can get it!

Keza MacDonald@mackeza.bsky.social

The Guardian is doing some major hiring right now! If you have 2-3 years' experience in journalism, media and/or content creation, you can apply for the Digital Journalism Scheme - full time roles including 20% training time, £48k pa workwithus.theguardian.com/digital-jour...

Turns out we have a referral scheme for this, so if you know me personally or professionally from the games media and you're interested in applying, shoot me a message 👍

A beautiful new ultra-luxe edition of You Died to celebrate the book's 10th anniversary (and Dark Souls' 15th anniversary). LOOK AT IT!

Tune & Fairweather@tuneandfairweather.bsky.social

We’re celebrating You Died’s 10th anniversary with our most exclusive edition yet. Strictly limited to 1,000 copies, each one is individually hand-numbered and signed by both authors, @mackeza.bsky.social and Jason Killingsworth. www.tuneandfairweather.com/products/you...

Keza MacDonald reposted

(Taps mic) Testing. I've set up a Luma event for a special Alien-s chat on October 14. I'll be talking Alien games development of the 1990s and now(ish) with two special guests. Please check it out. (Ticket covers a cocktail for you, PA hire and staff wages, that's it.) luma.com/p4pjgibd

Keza MacDonald reposted

I'm not much of a Pokémon person, but my son is & trying to buy him cards at retail prices has been nigh on impossible the last couple of years, and I refuse to pay scalpers for anything. So it warms the cockles of my heart to see so many of them having a full meltdown about the recent set. Enjoy!!

Keza MacDonald reposted

Silent Hill: Townfall is good — very good, in fact. Especially the sequence in a municipal-style high rise building which plays like a slow-burn, Ballardian take on The Raid. It's a game less of psychosexual terror than psychosocial dread: I was hooked. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/s...

theguardian.comSilent Hill: Townfall review – shame and suffering on the Scottish coastTragedy, and an apocalyptic fog, befall a fishing community. It is up to outsider Simon to offer some kind of closure

For its 25th anniversary, I wrote about the GameCube - an underappreciated console that prompted unprecedented change within Nintendo. It was mocked at the time but it's remembered fondly now, an uncomplicated box of fun that appeared right when games were entering their 'performatively adult' stage

theguardian.comSmall but mighty! Remembering the GameCube, Nintendo’s purple box of delightsThe first console I ever bought, it was hyped as a threat to the PlayStation, then mocked as a flop. But now, as it marks its 25th anniversary, it’s looked back on with misty-eyed reverence

Happy 25th birthday to the Nintendo GameCube, the first games console I bought with my own money. I started saving up for it the month I bought this issue of Edge, nearly a year previously. What a cover!

I made up the balance with some vouchers that I'd gotten for the previous Christmas... turned out they had technically expired, but the cashier guy clearly felt so sorry for me that he put them through anyway. I think about him OFTEN

Watching the UK stream is honestly a Nintendo Direct hack. Everything is 5% less stupid and ALSO, they just subtitle the Japanese developers rather than overdubbing them, so you can hear eg Eiji Aonuma being adorable talking over the Zelda demo rather than a voice actor performing over him

Maxime@monogon.bsky.social

They still do, at least Nintendo of America does. If you watch a UK Nintendo Direct you'll see that they just say "game" instead of "the [game] game" like in the US. Which means that they make the narrator record two versions of the same line every time he mentions the name of a Nintendo game.

Keza MacDonald reposted