Justin Nation's Reviews
Strangely enough this isn't my first rodeo, back in the day I wrote for the N64HQ as well as a few other outlets on freelance gigs but then when the HQ closed I decided to step it up and started The 64 Source. As the first word of a follow-up system to the N64 began to swirl I then decided to venture out into completely new territory and started OperatioN2000, where I had very little regular reputable news to share. With no other options I decided create my own content focused on profiling key developers and their current relationship with Nintendo or "dream games" where I saw opportunities for Nintendo to dust off classics or recently-made games and do something new with them on improved hardware.
This was all going pretty well until my wife and I decided to have our first child and I then decided that it was time to hang it up and focus on my family. As I closed down both sites I did decide to partner with Billy Berghammer, another former N64HQ writer, who had created his own site, PlanetN2000. We agreed to move over the relevant content from the older sites to his and on top of that I had taken a grad school class in programming in ColdFusion and decided to offer to code the front-end and back-end for a new version of his site. Through these efforts the newer and more complete Planet GameCube was born! While I would occasionally contribute to that site, helping do things like working out Louie the Cat doing rumors and other odd things, I eventually decided to stop as my family obligations grew.
While I had continued to follow Nintendo through both the Wii and Wii U eras my TV time was limited enough that I began playing more PC games again. It is in the PC space that I began to play a number of independent games and they started to be the games I enjoyed the most. Between their lower price, their often less traditional gameplay and approach, and their great variety I was hooked!
With the launch of the Nintendo Switch I was already excited by the possibilities. The portability factor alone meant that I would have far more options and places I could play away from the TV, and games like Breath of the Wild looked impressive. With my oldest daughter poised to start her senior year in high school and my youngest finishing out junior high I started to see an opportunity to get back into amateur games journalism once again with what is now Nintendo World Report as well but I'd initially just thought about writing some editorials periodically. Then, right before the launch of the system, Nintendo had their Nindie-focused presentation and I saw my two most beloved gaming worlds colliding. The games I had been playing on my PC could now be played in a portable way and on Nintendo hardware! Being the type who tends to work against the normal current the concept behind Nindie Spotlight was born!
There are many games I'm nostalgic for from the early days of arcades and then others that I acknowledge but, for whatever reason, never really appealed to me much...
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While it was a very early arcade-style game, and thus had a relatively simple premise, Lunar Lander at the time was pretty challenging and interesting...
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Building on the core gameplay of the first Terra Lander, the sequel tries to up the ante by adding some new elements...
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Casual games that have come over from the mobile space are always a bit of a mixed bag...
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If you like your older-school arcade shooting challenging, a bit on the cute side, and with an undeniable weird streak this refresh may catch your eye...
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This is a title I find quite difficult to describe in traditional terms since I've played few games like it...
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This is one of those titles where I feel a bit torn on where I land with it...
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The quality and ease-of-use of a game's controls is one of those things you tend to take for granted...
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As much as I've tended to see people bemoan the "kiddie" nature of Nintendo systems over the years, it can actually be a challenge to find games on Switch that are easy to recommend for green, younger gamers who may not have their coordination together yet...
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With a preponderance of twin-stick shooters out there, even ones that are budget-friendly, breaking in with a hit is a tough ask on the Switch eShop...
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This retro adventure is a bit of an oddity, on the one hand seemingly wanting to evoke a feeling of of the likes of the classics Prince of Persia and company but on the other trying to produce a more complex combat system to spice things up...
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Oh, how the Nintendo eShop gamescape has changed over the years...
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This is one of those titles where I end up having mixed feelings but unfortunately most of it trends towards the negative in this case...
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Taking familiar gameplay and changing things up to take some risks has always been a core component of my love for indie titles...
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Going old school has definitely been a thing in the indie space in the last generation or two, and a return to earlier visual styles and classic play can be both nostalgic and sometimes revelatory when everything comes together...
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I've typically been pretty tough on visual novels but my struggle is with them being released on dedicated gaming hardware more than for whether they have a place in gaming in general...
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With indie titles I’m always tickled when I encounter something just a bit different that feels fresh and challenging, and for me Boomerang X (though perhaps a bit on the short side overall) fits nicely into that groove...
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While hardly a top-tier racing game this stunt racer, though sharing perhaps a bit too much in common with its predecessor, somehow managed to grab me longer than I would have expected...
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When you think of the classic point-and-click adventure title visions of classics from LucasArts with their signature sense of humor and weirdness tend to be the first to come to mind...
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