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!
Starting out you’ll get to choose from a relatively small pool of robots to make up your initial part of three...
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While thankfully if you’re short of the full 4 people that help keep the intensity high and the fun chaotic the AI does a fine (perhaps even too good) job of filling in, this is a game that works best with other people, optimally filling all slots...
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With a story I don’t even know if I can adequately explain the emphasis here is squarely on throwing crazy challenges at you that will demand you nail the timing and execution to get through them...
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What makes Drowning notable is the subject matter, which is depression...
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In the game you’ll first choose your ship, and there is at least a marginal level of importance in this decision, though most of the difference comes down to cosmetics and the behavior of your specials and at their core they all play roughly the same...
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Starting out as the title Sphinx you’ll be charged with obtaining the Blade of Osiris, trying to avoid the attention of beam-firing evil castle that is feeling very Eye of Sauron...
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In this pulled out 3D action adventure you’ll play as Zia, a young girl who finds one day that she’s a mage when she accidentally sets her house on fire...
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Working from the baseline in the game you’ll be on a quest where you’ll be able to move between controlling either the Warrior brother Zoel or his spellcasting sister Elia...
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Most likely you’ve seen this sort of game before if you’re into puzzle titles...
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I’ll admit that particularly in docked mode I initially struggled to figure out what precisely I was supposed to be doing since there’s really no tutorial or explanations, but once I understood the use of ZL for managing anything consuming gold and ZR for anything consuming mana it clicked...
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What’s somewhat odd to me is that there’s obviously some ambition at play here...
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Overall there’s not too much to know, though granted that’s typical of the genre in general...
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Somewhat like another earlier title, Puzzle Wall, this challenges you to contort into a pose to pass through a specifically-shaped hole in a wall...
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After watching his woman Nara get abducted by the evil Korg, Jack will need to brave some tough opposition to save her...
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Starting with what works each of your squad members has a general role based on their weapons and abilities...
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I would imagine initially most people will have the same approach I did, just trying out what can be interacted with and what happens when you do...
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If you’re interested to know anything at all about the story in the game you can check out the video, but as a whole I’d say if you’re thinking of getting it you’ll want to see and know as little as possible...
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Overall, this is yet another great visually-impressive puzzle adventure to add to the Switch library...
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You’ll play the game as Don Ramiro, a knight on a quest to save his land from an invasion of all sorts of evil creatures...
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While the system has a number of bridge building physics games, this one takes that general premise and does some new things with it...
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