Don't Let These 19 Games Coming Out This November Fly Under Your Radar

Image: Nintendo / Red Candle Games / Sony

It feels like only yesterday we were in the thick of the fall release calendar being bombarded every other day by a new blockbuster or sleeper indie hit. November is slowing things down a bit, but it’s not quite backlog month just yet. A new Mario & Luigi, Flight Simulator, and Lego game headline a month of stuff hitting just before the holiday rush.

We were originally getting Assassin’s Creed Shadows in November, one last big RPG for fans to sink into before the end-of-year slump. Instead, Ubisoft pushed that to the February gauntlet, giving Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Metaphor: Refantazio, and people who somehow still haven’t finished Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (that’s me!) a much needed reprieve.

Instead, this month is shifting gears firmly into family game mode. In addition to a light Mario Bros. adventure and Microsoft’s “sorry, dad’s in the middle of a transatlantic flight out in the garage” simulator, we’re also getting a Lego Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation and TMNT brawler just in time to occupy all those cousins after the Thanksgiving buffet. Here are 19 games we’re paying attention to this November.

Play it on: PS5, Switch, PC

Genre: Creature collector RPG

Farmagia is a monster farming action RPG revealed back during the June Nintendo showcase. It’s from the company behind Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, and other RPG sims, though this one looks more anime-flavored with Pikmin-sized armies helping you defeat bosses.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, PC

Genre: Mystery deduction

An online social deduction game that channels Death Note? Time will tell if Death Note: Killer Within can translate Among Us-like murder mystery into the mood and language of the hit anime.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Genre: Turn-based tactics

Metal Slug is back and trading its iconic side-scrolling run-and-gun action for Final Fantasy Tactics gameplay in Metal Slug Tactics. The slick pixel art is a nice sweetener on-top of a solid genre mashup.

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Genre: Construction sim

Managed roller coaster chaos is back with Planet Coaster 2. The sequel is adding new systems, including an entire water park section. The developers promise more robust tools will let you craft more complex theme parks than ever before.

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC

Genre: Action roguelike

For a time there were no Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now there’s a new one every year. Splintered Fate technically came out last year, but the Apple Arcade exclusive is just now arriving on Switch and PC in case you’ve already exhausted TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and are hungry for more Foot Clan butt kicking.

Correction 11/5/2024 2:03 p.m. ET: TMNT: Splintered fate is not coming to PlayStation and Xbox.

Play it on: PS5

Genre: Strategy role-playing game

Tactical RPG Phantom Brave began life as a PS2 game in 2004. It’s first remake was for Wii in 2009. Even more content was added in the PSP version a year later. Now it’s getting an HD remaster ahead of the full-blown sequel, The Lost Hero, due out next year.

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Genre: Animal sim

2014 is officially retro now. That year’s comedic open-world chaos simulator is now getting updated 10 year later. Goat Simulator Remastered includes updated graphics, all previous DLC, and other updates including quality-of-life improvements.

Play it on: Switch

Genre: Role-playing game

Long resigned to Nintendo’s secondary handhelds, Mario & Luigi: Brothership brings the RPG-lite formula to the company’s home console hybrid. The Switch may be almost eight years old at this point, but the Brothership glow-up is still the best this spiritual spin-off to Paper Mario has looked yet, even if early reviews are more divided on the depth and fun of the underlying gameplay.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC

Genre: Horror action-adventure

Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama has returned with a mashup of his lesser-known survival horror classic, Siren, and the breezy, colorful action game Gravity Rush. It sounds bold, if maybe a little under-polished for his new studio’s debut project.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC, mobile

Genre: Word clue adventure

The Rise of the Golden Idol takes the acclaimed first game’s devilishly clever investigative adventure game formula to the 1970s for an exploration of the criminal underworld and human depravity. I can’t wait.

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Genre: Turn-based strategy

Already out on PC, Songs of Conquest is getting a surprise console port this month. Channeling Heroes of Might and Magic, you explore an overworld like a strategy sim while unleashing your armies in turn-based combat across tile-based battlefields.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Genre: Puzzle

Tetris Forever is the latest in Digital Eclipse’s high-quality anthology of interactive documentaries. It includes the original game and several iterations of it across platforms and creators, as well as the brand-new four-player Tetris Time Warp that lets you compete across the game’s history in real-time.

Play it on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Genre: Sci-fi open world crafting sim

Astroneer: Glitchwalkers is a paid expansion, but it’s a big one. The eight-year-old planetary colony sim is getting a new map to explore, more story, and plenty of additional things to craft. Players will use new gear and tech trees to protect themselves against the titular glitched storms that threaten to hack them.

Play it on: PC

Genre: Bullet hell action-RPG roguelike

Temtem is a Pokémon style MMO, and Temtem: Swarm takes the creatures from that multiplayer RPG and turns them into fodder for a Vampire Survivors-style bullet hell adventure. I’m not sure how many more Survivors-likes we can have at this point, but Swarm sure looks pretty.

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC

Genre: Role-playing game

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake looks like the overhaul every Square Enix fan wishes their favorite old-school RPG could get. The old systems and designs remain, down to the pixel art sprites, but the rest of the world has a HD2D update that looks gorgeous. We’ll see if the rest of the decades-old game holds up.

Play it on: PS5, Switch, PC

Genre: Co-op brawler

Lego Horizon Adventures is the first Lego gaming adaptation of another video game. It’s more of a kids’ abridged version of Horizon Zero Dawn than a one-to-one, brick-by-brick remake of sci-fi dino hunting game. It does sport couch co-op and that familiar Lego charm.

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Genre: Sim

Microsoft Flight Simulator returns with a sequel four years after the current-gen reboot. It includes a ton of new missions, vehicles, and terrain details. The company has promised that almost all of the previous game’s add-ons will work with and carry over to Flight Sim 2024.

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Genre: Survival horror shooter

It’s hard to believe S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is actually coming out. The first Stalker game in 15 years, announced back in 2018 and developed through an invasion of GSC Game World’s home country of Ukraine, the survival shooter takes players back to the open-world Exclusion Zone for more harrowing ammo scavenging and surreal mysteries.

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch

Genre: Metroidvania soulslike

Red Candle Games’ horror adventure game Devotion was a 2019 GOTY contender. The studio decided to follow it up with a cute platformer that combines metroidvania exploration with punishing soulslike combat. Nine Sols came to PC in May and is tough as nails. This month, players can finally take on that challenge on console.