Justin Nation Avatar Image

Justin Nation

Windsor, PA
The Nindersect
Nindersect

Favorite Games:
  • Rocket League
  • Neon Abyss
  • Wreckfest

4398 games reviewed
70.7 average score
71 median score
43.4% of games recommended

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!
6.6 / 10.0 - Double Dragon Neon
Dec 21, 2020

The Double Dragon name is revered for good reason since the series has been around since the early days and has also had some great conversions onto many home systems over the years...

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6.5 / 10.0 - Killer Chambers
Dec 21, 2020

There's definitely something a certain segment of the gaming public digs about challenging games...

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Dec 21, 2020

Overall, this seems like a title extremely well-suited to family play in particular...

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7 / 10.0 - Freddy Spaghetti
Dec 18, 2020

OK, so just the game's title made me curious enough to take a nibble, and while I wouldn't consider Freddy a satisfying meal of a game it's at least a strange appetizer...

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7.5 / 10.0 - Touhou Luna Nights
Dec 17, 2020

Leave it to indie games to keep finding ways to push the “generic” genre experience of something so well-known as the Metroidvania in at least slightly new directions...

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6.8 / 10.0 - Unto the End
Dec 17, 2020

Mixing together the general feel of grand retro action adventures along the lines of Prince of Persia or Out of This World with some more modern touches, Unto the End has the bones of a solid, if aggravating experience...

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6.5 / 10.0 - Body of Evidence
Dec 17, 2020

Somehow games involving the disposal of bodies and clean-up of crime scenes has become a niche genre, and though it certainly makes for morbid play it is at least pretty different conceptually...

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Dec 17, 2020

When you're an old fogey like me you've seen a whole lot of games over time, including those that push into the more inappropriate realms in various ways...

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8 / 10.0 - InkyPen
Dec 17, 2020

I’d say mechanically everything the app does on Switch makes sense and that performance is surprisingly crisp as you flip through pages, zoom in to see the details more clearly, and search through the available books...

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7.2 / 10.0 - Synthetik: Ultimate
Dec 16, 2020

It's sometimes tricky to write reviews when it comes to scoring games that show a ton of promise and are engaging but then have a critical flaw or two you can't ignore...

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9 / 10.0 - Dicey Dungeons
Dec 15, 2020

OK, so perhaps at this point the concept of a deck-building strategy roguelike has been played out a bit… but what if you added an additional layer of RNG madness with dice just to spice things up?

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9.5 / 10.0 - Grindstone
Dec 15, 2020

There’s nothing I like more than a surprise game that shows up, slaps you around a bit, and leaves you thirsting for more...

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Dec 15, 2020

Retro remix collections tend to be a mixed bag, but for fans of arcade classics even though not every title in Forever is equally compelling it still delivers the goods...

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Dec 15, 2020

With a unique hand-drawn art style and some unusually inventive point-and-click puzzles When the Past was Around definitely stands out from the crowd...

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7.2 / 10.0 - Shakes on a Plane
Dec 15, 2020

Ever since the likes of Diner Dash (and some others) were a big hit in the casual space the time management action game genre has slowly evolved but kept the basics intact, mostly just throwing additional complexity into the mix...

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6.2 / 10.0 - Calico
Dec 15, 2020

I can respect games that aren't made for the adrenaline junkie set, whose goal is to proceed at a slower pace and enjoy taking everything in...

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6.3 / 10.0 - Autumn's Journey
Dec 11, 2020

If you've seen my reviews of visual novels before you'll know that in a general sense I'm rarely a fan...

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6.3 / 10.0 - Splashy Cube
Dec 11, 2020

In the budget casual game arena there are some titles that embrace less complex controls, some only featuring one button even, and surprisingly deliver compelling gameplay...

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Dec 11, 2020

There have been a variety of dogfighting sims on the Switch, with time frames ranging from the earliest instances of aerial combat on through the future in space...

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9 / 10.0 - Shady Part of Me
Dec 10, 2020

There’s something pretty delightful when you encounter games that you’ve never previously heard of that, once you begin playing them, grab you and demand your attention until they’re completed...

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