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!
Before I begin I'd like to thank and acknowledge all indie developers that take risks and provide us with new and unique challenges that don't fit into any traditional molds...
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One of the most challenging types of indie games I run across are the ones I really admire for being daring, combining styles of play in unanticipated ways, and being unapologetic in their approach… but it doesn’t quite all come together...
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One thing indie titles have excelled at is providing gamers with very new, and sometimes very weird, experiences… perhaps perfectly epitomized with something like Metamorphosis...
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When you think of great action RPG dungeon-crawlers a number of titles tend to come to mind, but no matter what your overall tastes are the best in the genre stand out with exciting, deep, and engaging gameplay...
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You know what genre I can't ever get quite enough of? Roguelike shooters, at least when they're as rock solid as many we've had the great fortune to enjoy on the Switch...
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While I wouldn't consider the King of Fighters series one of my favorite (if nothing else it was hard to keep up with all of them) I have always appreciated its tight play, pretty vast roster, and overall great look...
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The Samurai Shodown series has always been a bit of an outlier in the fighting game space, possessing a certain aesthetic and control style that set itself apart...
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Multiplayer games on Switch have really just about become a challenge for me to review in many regards...
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Talk about a surprise of a game I'd never heard of and that plays in a way I never would have quite expected...
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OK, so I'm a huge fan of multi-event Olympic-style titles, I have been since the classic days of the Epyx Summer Games series that spanned multiple platforms and had all sorts of funky iterations...
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While there's nothing wrong with casual games I'll concede for those that aren't fans that they can sometimes feel out of place on a dedicated gaming device...
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There was a time, long ago, when budget games with somewhat iffy gameplay could enjoy some success with people taking a chance on a bargain...
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Maybe it's just me but this just feels like the year of the skeleton game with a few that have already come out and a few more on the horizon...
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This is a title that has me a bit torn since it's just a bit of an oddball...
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There’s nothing I enjoy more with indies than games that defy expectation...
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Feeling somewhere between a racing game and an endless runner, Lost Wing is at least unique...
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It's always both fascinating and a bit head scratch-inducing for me to play titles based on existing anime properties...
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If someone to ask which genre on the Switch has been plagued with the most misfires and general mediocrity I'd unfortunately need to say it is racers...
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While one of the sequels in the series has already been released on the system (Frontiers), the OG Kingdom Rush has now arrived on the Switch...
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While the Switch has been enjoying a fair selection of quality turn-based strategy games more recently, there’s nothing out there quite like Sentinels of Freedom...
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