November may not have brought us as many gems as October did, but that doesn’t mean the month was completely devoid of cool games. In this very video, I will be covering six such games – all of which may have flown under your radar this past month. As usual, thanks to the publishers who sent these games to me in order to make this video possible and let’s go ahead and get started.

Bright Memory: Infinite

So this was a really impressive first-person shooter for being mostly developed by just one guy. It may be just two hours long, but it’s got some solid gameplay, solid mechanics, solid visuals, and some solid tech to back it up. I mean, this is a solo project that has ray-tracing, DLSS, a ton of different graphical settings – the full slate. It’s worth praising on that aspect alone, but even disregarding all of that, the game itself is pretty fun.

It’s a fast-paced shooter that has a decent selection of weapons to choose from, enemies to fight, and environments to fight in. One mission has you sneaking through a field dispatching enemies silently, another as you driving a weaponized vehicle around and shooting missiles out of it, and there’s even one that straight-up drops you onto the wings of a plane being sucked into a black hole. An absolute ride for the short time it lasts and one I had a great time with, worth a look even if it may be a bit rough around the edges.

Bright Memory: Infinite retails for $20 USD and is available on Steam, GOG, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

DoDonPachi Resurrection

With the recent release of Espgaluda II and now DoDonPachi Resurrection, I think it’s fair to say that I am now a Cave fan. There’s just something about these shooters. The absurd amount of bullets, the bright colors going everywhere, the super satisfying weapons and abilities, the ridiculous boss designs, the absolute bop that is the music – it all just works and although I am not the best at these types of games, I can’t help but have a blast playing them.

DoDonPachi Resurrection continus this, offering up a full suite of different game modes to tackle the arcade classic. There’s the original version, novice mode, a few different arrange modes, and the “Black Label” version of the game as well, which features crossover content from Ketsui – another shooter by Cave. Even without all the extras, this is still a very complex shooter on its own. Multiple game routes, hidden bosses, and a score system that can be optimized in all sorts of ways. I may have cleared the game in under an hour, but that didn’t stop me from then clearing it another two times immediately afterwards – it’s that fun.

DoDonPachi Resurrection retails for $20 USD and is available on Switch and Steam – although the Steam version is under a different publisher and has been out for several years, so I’m not sure if it’s the same as the Switch version I played.

Kimagure Temptation

I didn’t know what to expect going into this VN. The marketing makes it out to be some super H-heavy romance thing, but I was surprised to find that it’s actually a supernatural mystery complete with investigation elements and all. The majority of the gameplay may just be visual novel text reading, but there’s a small touch of gameplay in that you can traverse between different rooms, choose who to talk with, and even investigate the backgrounds for clues.

That and the story itself isn’t that bad either. There’s a good amount of suspense, a touch of comedy, an actually interesting mystery, and one of the most animated sprites I have ever seen in a visual novel. It’s not exactly 2D, but it’s not 3D either, it’s like some sort of pseudo-3D look and, while it did take some getting used to, I liked the sense of life that it gave to the main heroine. And yes, this highly animated look also carries over to the H-stuff, which is present and can be patched in for free if you’re running the Steam version. It’s around a 12 hour read, so not too long, but an interesting read nonetheless and worth a look for VN fans.

Kimagure Temptation retails for $20 USD and is available on Steam, itch.io, and directly through publisher Denpasoft. A free 18+ patch is available for the Steam and itch.io versions.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

Coming from someone that has never played a Frogwares game before, I went in not knowing what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to find a full-fledged, well-written detective game complete with evidence gathering, deductions, multiple routes, and all. You of course play as Sherlock Holmes, investigating his mother’s death on an exotic island within the Mediterranean. The gameplay revolves around solving different cases and each has you investigating crime scenes for clues, talking with potential witnesses, and using a “third sense” of sorts to sniff out hidden evidence.

It’s some surprisingly detailed detective gameplay and of course, only bettered by the fact that cases have different solutions depending on the clues you’ve found. The story may not be the most in-depth thing, but it’s a fairly enjoyable balance of comedy and serious detective work kinda reminiscent of an Ace Attorney game (although maybe not as bizarre). That and the game looks really good too, so I’m honestly surprised I haven’t seen much discussion on it since it released a few weeks ago. I’ve been having fun with it and would recommend it if you’re a mystery fan like myself.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One retails for $45 USD and is available on Steam, GOG, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Moncage

I love these short, relaxing indie puzzlers and Moncage is yet another example as to why. It revolves around the concept of “3D Space” and specifically, the illusions caused by looking at the cube from different angles. You’ll be connecting objects across the cube’s faces, using these connections to transport objects to and from, and solving some really creative puzzles all designed around this illusion.

It even tells a neat story along the way – one on the more emotional side, but one that I became increasingly interested in as the game progressed and I was thrown through all of these different environments trying to figure out how they related. And yes, I would be lying if I said I didn’t get stuck at least a couple times during my two hour playthrough – it’s not exactly the easiest puzzle game around. A fun time though and definitely one I would recommend.

Moncage retails for $15 USD and is available on Steam, iOS, and Android.

Gynoug

So this is a fairly obscure retro shoot ‘em up with a name that I honestly don’t know how to pronounce. The port comes from the same publisher that just did the recent Gleylancer release and, just like that one, this one offers some nice upgrades to make the game a bit more playable by modern standards. Saving and loading at any time, rewinding the game, a bit of visual customization – the basics are all there.

The game itself is a bit out there for the genre though. It’s got the staples like different power-ups, a nice collection of stages to go through, and some very high difficulty, but combines all of that with some truly bizarre enemy and boss designs and levels that go from “wow, that’s kinda nasty” to “I hope I’m not epileptic”. Otherwise, it’s fairly straightforward gameplay-wise as far as shooters go. It takes around an hour to clear one playthrough – I even managed to score the platinum in this time – but it’s worth a look if you’re into this genre or even just obscure retro games in general.

Gynoug retails for $7 USD and is available on PS4 and PS5.

So that will bring this month’s video to a close. Quite the variety this time though – big and small games, a mix of different genres, and hopefully at least one of which caught your interest – my personal favorite was DoDonPachi Resurrection. As usual, I have linked all of the games featured here (including the intro and outro ones) in the description, so check them out if you are interested and don’t forget to subscribe for more from this series. I’ll be seeing you guys next year I guess.