What I Played in November 2025

Posted on 2026.02.28

It’s time for another month-in-review! Now you may be wondering, “why are you posting the November recap in February?”, and the answer to that is that I spent all my time, energy and passion at the end of the year for the Playtest post. I quite literally did not have enough time to do both that and the November recap at the end of the year. Then the end of January approached, but I still felt exhausted from writing——I really went all out. The following few posts may not be as detailed due to it being so long and me forgetting stuff and just lacking writing energy in general, but I’ll try my best to catch up. Anyway, without further ado, here are the games I played in November 2025, in no particular order.

Kirby Air Riders

Best thing that happened this month? KIRBY AAAAAIR RIIIDERSSSSSSS!!!!! I’m not even a big Kirby fan but this game is one of the best games I’ve played this year. It was such a breath of fresh air to have a feature-complete game that’s not only brimming with content but it’s super duper fun to play.

Air Ride feels really good to play. I had played the original GameCube game for a bit and I did not enjoy this mode, but the extra care put into this version makes a world of difference– stuff like the star slide mechanic, even though it’s just drafting from many racing games (and well, the real world), makes the racing flow sooo much better. Top Ride is now pretty fun; course layouts are better and simply being able to choose your rider/vehicle combo like usual makes the difference. Then there’s City Trial. I don’t even know where to begin–so I won’t! It was the best mode in the original and this sequel launches it into the stratosphere, it’s the best. I’ve had lots and lots of great moments, but I think my favorite one is when I took a Mega Cannon and destroyed every machine in the parking lot. Road Trip is pretty fun, albeit long and slow at the start. The story is simple yet engaging, I enjoyed it.

Aside from all the game modes, there’s a bunch of fun side stuff. The My Machine system is genius: it’s simple enough to pick up but robust enough that clever players can come up with some cool designs. Being able to share them is just BEAUTIFUL! I’ve had so much fun looking at and collecting other people’s designs. Also I haven’t even mentioned the godlike music. And the gorgeous visuals and menu + UI design. Man. There’s a lot of good things to talk about this game, I’m so happy it exists. If it wasn’t for the Playtest this might’ve been game of the year for me. Also Rick is my new best friend, I’ve never played a game with him before but I love him very much.

Tomodachi Life

Last time I talked about the story that led to me replaying Tomodachi Life by playing in group sessions with friends. Since then, a lot of chaotic stuff has happened in our island, too much to cover in one post. But I do want to share one storyline in particular, one that’s probably the funniest arc that has happened so far.

For context, the lookalike of our shared island is Beef Boss, the iconic hamburger Mii. At one point we decided we needed a main villain to rival the star of our island, so we made a brand new Mii OC to be the hamburger’s arch-nemesis: a grilled cheese Mii nicknamed Melt Man. Melt Man has been in many antics already, but this is the story of Melt Man’s biggest scheme:

Melt Man set up two other villain Miis with each other for a date, Queen from Deltarune and Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog. They hit it off and become sweethearts.
A few days later Melt Man develops romantic feelings of his own. For who? QUEEN.
Melt Man shoots his shot, but gets rejected. Obviously. But this dude doesn’t give up.
He tries again, this time offering a steak dinner as a present for dating him. And guess what? QUEEN ACCEPTS!!
Consequently, Eggman gets depressed. Taking a look at his thoughts reveals the life he and Queen had, which dropped a bombshell revelation: Eggman had given a steak dinner to Queen, but she completely dismissed him. What a hypocrite.
And none of this mattered in the end because later Melt Man dumped Queen for Hatsune Miku. And they eventually married. I hope Queen is happy now.

Splatoon 3

More Splat. More ‘Toon. What else is there to say?

Luigi’s Mansion

I played this game for the first time and it’s such a neat little game!! I see why people revisit this game so often; it’s short and sweet and it has that sauce that makes you wanna replay it to improve your previous run. Now I’m curious about that hidden PAL mansion people keep talking about…

Also I need to mention that I’m a big fan of the jingle when you grab a key. Peak sound design.

Kirby Planet Robobot

My friends are really trying to get me into Kirby but, like Forgotten Land, this game is struggling to hold my attention. Sorry Kirby fans.

Tetris Effect: Connected

More of the same. Still good.