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 was a time, long ago, when budget games with somewhat iffy gameplay could enjoy some success with people taking a chance on a bargain...
Read full review
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...
Read full review
This is a title that has me a bit torn since it's just a bit of an oddball...
Read full review
There’s nothing I enjoy more with indies than games that defy expectation...
Read full review
Feeling somewhere between a racing game and an endless runner, Lost Wing is at least unique...
Read full review
It's always both fascinating and a bit head scratch-inducing for me to play titles based on existing anime properties...
Read full review
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...
Read full review
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...
Read full review
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...
Read full review
In the last generation I’ve been surprised to see the deck-building strategy genre not only move from the fringes into the mainstream on the back of titles like Slay the Spire or the more casual SteamWorld Quest, but also continue to find ways to crank up their associated degree of challenge...
Read full review
While there are plenty of twin-stick shooters and beat-em-ups on the system I can't say that there are many that work as a sort of hybrid of the two...
Read full review
New and smart ideas on how to juice up all-to-familiar core gameplay are a mainstay of the indie gaming movement...
Read full review
Puzzle games are a dime a dozen (or perhaps even more than that) on the Switch, so it's important to offer up something distinct to bubble up when people go hunting for some fun...
Read full review
Harkening back to an earlier time, Dex is a side-scrolling cyberpunk RPG adventure that, at a minimum, feels refreshingly different on the system...
Read full review
If you're looking for something with a slower pace and a story with some somber notes and rough spots a good murder mystery may be your jam...
Read full review
This is one of those titles that screams being up my alley, featuring some relatively arcade-style shooting action and excitement...
Read full review
Games coming over from the mobile space and intended to be played on tablets with a touchscreen are often a bit hard to evaluate...
Read full review
As has been the case with several other recent mildly-interactive visual novel outings on the Switch, Jisei will probably appeal to a thin audience that is pulled in by the overall story, but most people will want to keep moving...
Read full review
There's nothing wrong with a decent and clever puzzle game that gets your mental gears working and to Colloc's credit it is at least a little bit different than any other genre game I've played on Switch...
Read full review