This week, we’ve got Super Mario RPG and Godzilla on the brain.
We’re halfway through November, which means that it’s about time we started catching up on our backlog of unfinished games before the year ends. The Game Awards 2023 just unveiled its list of nominations, and just look at how packed that list is! Have you played all of the games nominated for Game of the Year? Kudos to you if you have.
What we’re playing this week
If you’re catching up on games you haven’t played this year like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty or Final Fantasy 16, you might be missing out on a few great-looking titles coming out this week. The big ticket item here is Super Mario RPG on November 17, a legendary entry in the Mario franchise with a much bigger focus on its characters and writing than the 2D platformers you might be accustomed to. This remake brings the Super NES game to the Nintendo Switch with updated visuals and a re-recorded soundtrack by Yoko Shimamura. If you’ve ever wondered what Super Mario would look like in a Final Fantasy game, you should check it out.
Ubisoft is also releasing Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR for the Meta Quest on November 16 and honestly, it looks pretty wild. This game lets you parkour through ancient civilisations and stealth-kill enemies in typical Assassin’s Creed fashion - but all in first-person VR, so hopefully you don’t get vertigo too easily. The tactics-based Persona 5 spin-off Persona Tactica also launches the next day on November 17, throwing chibi versions of the Persona 5 party into strategic combat scenarios.
What are we watching?
This week, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hit theatres, bringing us all back to a bygone era of YA-packed cinema. Book readers will know that the story is more complicated than it seems on the surface, however, and the Hunger Games stories have always been about morally grey individuals fighting on both sides of an elitist regime. I’m crossing my fingers for this one, because the book actually made a solid case for itself.
If you’re into monarch-centered entertainment, there’s a lot of TV out this week catering to your very specific tastes. First, Part 1 of The Crown Season 6 hits Netflix on November 16, diving into the tragic end of Princess Diana and the fallout of her demise on the British royal family. Personally, I’m much more excited for the return of my personal favourite monarch: the King of the Monsters, Godzilla himself in Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Nov 17). This big-budget series follows the origins of the secretive kaiju-investigating organisation Monarch over many decades, with Kurt Russell and son Wyatt Russell both playing young and old versions of the same character. It’s a solid gimmick, but you had me at Godzilla.
Also on November 17, Scott Pilgrim returns! The entire cast of the absolutely fantastic Edgar Wright movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World returns for this animated series on Netflix, which aims to adapt the original graphic novel more closely.
