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!
A stylish and pretty well-balanced title that may borrow a little obviously from Metroid in many areas, but still works as something distinctly its own
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While it’s a pretty decent arcade shooter with a fair degree of challenge, there’s a lot of competition out there so in the end it comes across as merely middling
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While there’s no question that its story and characters are oozing with charm, and there’s a great deal of warmth to it all around, the rules of the puzzles can be aggravating to get fully acclimated to
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Undeniably inspired by the general format of Balatro, but trading playing cards for dice, there’s still plenty of addictive fun in store here
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Taking the challenging, and deliberately frustrating, precision tower climber subgenre to a more playable place
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With a mix of fun characters, and engaging story, an interesting take on combat, and some modern flourishes this feels like a classic given proper update treatment
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While it has the essential elements of the Castlevania series, and a great mix of weapons and exploration, its tuning and Switch performance could have used more refinement
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I suppose there’s an odd concept here, and you can continue to get new gear and explore, but it feels like a thin concept stretched too far
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After an annoyingly picky and needlessly tough opening level it becomes a normal, and possibly utterly dull, platformer
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It does manage to build up some tension and get modest payoffs, though in an extremely forced way, making it a better-than-average horror game in this vein
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While the single-player campaign is somewhat goofy and can be fun, a lack of direction, the very close camera, and confusion reign in multiplayer
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While demonstrating quite a lot of creativity and having its own unique visual style, bugs and general execution issues hold it back
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While its insistence on using somewhat vague pastels muddies what could sometimes have been more straightforward puzzle solving, this unique adventure still has charm
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Works both as an homage to horror classics and in its own right, even if it can be uneven at times
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While its Tetris-ish approach to battles is smart, and manages to give the experience its own flavor, enough other areas are bland enough to hold it back from greater heights
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While it has an odd early stumble, its time loop and warping mechanics do bring unique challenges to the Metroidvania space
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Brings a new and distinctive feel to the eShop, blending what would normally feel like an adventure game with horror to create a satisfying and creepy experience
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While its appeal will likely be pretty narrow, either for younger girls or simply people who want an accessible game with horses, it’s surprisingly engaging
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While I applaud the developers once again going for a modern game with clear classic Resident Evil influences, to a degree some elements blow up in their faces
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While it looks pretty great, its exploration is unique, and it has a fascinating story, its very erratic jumps in difficulty can make it an uneven experience
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