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!
This is just one of those titles where I'm not certain what to say in many regards...
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When it comes to shooters minimalist looks can work nicely, but with quite a number of budget shooters already in that vein on Switch it can be hard to make an impression...
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Minimalist platformers can be fun on a budget, no doubt, but their wide availability on the Switch as well as down to even mobile devices makes them a challenge to get attention with...
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When it comes to budget games that have come to Switch there has been a really mixed bag of decent games down to pretty horrible ones...
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As an old school arcade gamer I'm actually an enormous fan of the classic top-down racer...
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This new entry in the budget-friendly puzzle series is the first to feature the seemingly simple but sometimes maddening line mechanic...
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When it comes to games packing in some weirdness on the Switch I'm typically a big fan...
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Aside from some AA and AAA conversions, the first-person shooting genre hasn't seen a tremendous amount of representation on the Switch to date...
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If you say the words "roguelike shooter" you can assume my ears will perk up and I'm down to party...
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As a huge fan of shooters, the twin-stick variety in particular, XenoRaptor on paper is absolutely up my alley...
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Of course, if you’re a bit younger it all may feel a bit dated or some people may prefer not to turn the clock back quite so far...
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Dungeon-crawling RPGs are very much just their own thing, and they're not for everyone, but for a budget title Drawngeon takes a fair stab at providing a decent experience...
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Mixing together gameplay from a few distinct action puzzle styles Funny Bunny Adventures manages to be unique on Switch but that that doesn't make for a ringing endorsement either...
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Pinball is absolutely a cornerstone of retro gaming so I'm always excited to see what people come up with to celebrate it...
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With adventure game series like this it is somewhat difficult to think of them or review them as stand-alones when, in order to really appreciate them, they're meant to be played as a series...
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If you're a big fan of the bygone heyday of the point and click adventure games the Deponia trilogy is well worth checking out...
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Try to imagine what two hippos racing each other on only two legs would look like... it likely wouldn't be pretty...
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Conceptually Regions of Ruin has the elements of what could be a rewarding and deep mix of RPG and city building mechanics...
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Are elements like artistic flair, heavy metal bombast, and solid narration enough to buoy humdrum gameplay and somewhat clunky mechanics? That's unfortunately a question to struggle with while playing Down to Hell...
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At this point in not only the Switch's lifespan, let alone taking into consideration the whole of modern gaming, a game like Mushroom Quest begs the question "Do we really need another box pushing puzzle game?" There's a nice retro pixel art vibe, mechanically what little there is to the game works well, and the puzzles offer up a reasonable enough challenge...
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