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Nate Kiernan

Knoxville, TN
MrNinjaSquirrel
A_Different_Nate
MrNinjaSquirrel
MrNinjaSquirrel

Favorite Games:
  • Pathologic 2
  • Anodyne 2
  • Wandersong

122 games reviewed
54.0 average score
50 median score
63.1% of games recommended

Nate Kiernan's Reviews

I write about games and feelings and sometimes both at the same time
9 / 10 - INK
Mar 15, 2016

INK is brilliant and brutal paint flinging fun that flies by even as you struggle to catch your breath trying to keep up.

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Tahira rehumanizes the tactics genre.

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8 / 10 - JumpJet Rex
Aug 11, 2016

A lousy conclusion can't do much to make a dinosaur in space anything less than cool.

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Dec 17, 2016

The first question with a sequel like Dimensions Evolved is not "what's changed" but "did they ruin it?"

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Jun 22, 2016

Octodad is the sort of game that is going to sell itself on absurdity alone. But by reducing it to just a joke, we miss what makes it so special

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6 / 10 - Titan Souls
Mar 25, 2016

Titan Souls is antagonistic and alienating, but if you are masochistic enough to put up with it, there's a smart and original game underneath.

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6 / 10 - Firewatch
Mar 4, 2016

Firewatch succeeds on the strengths of its narrative, but struggles to reconcile its storytelling with inconsistent world building and awkward mechanical conceits.

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Jan 4, 2017

Absolute Drift may see drifting as an elevated form of racing, but there is a reason the sport has only ever garnered a niche audience.

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4 / 10 - Ronin
Jun 8, 2016

Ronin spends more time convincing you of what it's not than it does showing you why you should care about what it is.

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4 / 10 - Traverser
Aug 7, 2016

Traverser tries to differentiate itself from the swathes of steampunk media being released, but ultimately its problems lie mostly in an inability to do so.

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May 30, 2016

Human Resource Machine's attempts at accessibility are lost as its aggressive cynicism refuses to offer any support.

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Mar 10, 2016

Aaru's Awakening employs difficulty in ways unconsidered and illsuited to its design, leading to a game which does little but frustrate at every step.

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Oceanhorn never escapes its identity as a Zelda impersonator, and an exceptionally dull and uninspired one at that.

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3 / 10 - Fran Bow
Jul 20, 2016

Fran Bow sends you down a rabbit hole to nowhere.

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3 / 10 - Reigns
Nov 30, 2016

Reigns posits a view of politics divorced from context or meaning, where the wants and needs of the public are both all that matters and entirely dismissible.

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Unscored - Thoth
Aug 21, 2018

THOTH is neither bloated nor even comfortably full. It is an exercise in restraint in every possible way, from its visual design to its length of less than a movie, to its soundtrack which dips in and out as if just checking in on how you’re doing. What THOTH is not is hollow.

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Unscored - Pathologic 2
Jan 18, 2020

Pathologic 2 deconstructs the player/game dichotomy even as it celebrates how affecting that relationship can be. It is rich and dense and uncompromising. That it exists at all is an anomaly, but one I can only hope doesn’t stay that way.

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Unscored - Wandersong
Mar 4, 2020

Wandersong is a game of cosmic circumstances on a humble scale. It deals with questions of archetypes, destiny, an understanding of the self, and how our actions shape the world around us. It is a game that begs to be read as analogous to the hopeless pessimism that permeates modern life as well as a commentary on the tropes games so consistently employ, using our familiarity with both these elements to subvert the traditional hero’s journey.

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Recommended - Unravel
Jun 4, 2017

Unravel may stumble on its way towards saying something meaningful, it never wavers on what it wants you to hear. That while the past is not a place to escape into, it is worth holding onto. Maybe only in bits and pieces, but held onto all the same.

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Recommended - Overcooked
Jun 20, 2017

Overcooked wants to show you the wacky fun of cooking with friends, but I should have guessed by the time it sent us to hell’s literal kitchen that we as a culture need to reassess exactly what that fun looks like.

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