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!
Titles that don’t just tap heavily into nostalgia but fully embrace it are always a risky proposition...
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Ever since the days of the classic Wing Commander series I've been a huge fan of space dogfighting mixed with a bit of operatic drama...
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Among the genres that are the toughest to evaluate in gaming and may be the most divisive are those that are "walking simulators" at their core...
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Remasters of games that are getting pretty old, especially when they're from the earlier days of 3D adventures, are tough to evaluate...
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While I've played quite a number of cooking games over the years ranging from the likes of Cooking Mama to mobile games to Overcooked I can't say I've played anything quite like Cooking Simulator...
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Given the general lack of racers on the Switch with every release of a title in the genre there are sure to be people who are curious about it...
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Getting right down to it there’s just something about the Super Mega Baseball series that taps into what love and nostalgia I have for baseball as a sport, particularly in video game form...
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As a fan of old school shooters and beat-em-ups of all persuasions perhaps it was inevitable I’d be a Huntdown fan...
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With so many high-quality shooters of all types and styles it takes some effort to put something new on the table, particularly something that stands apart from the rest with its own style...
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OK, so perhaps I'm a bit of a broken record, but if you're a fan of Picross but wish it would throw a greater degree of challenge at you this is really the series you should be checking out...
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With a comic book-inspired look, a pretty wide array of over-the-top weapons, and challenges aplenty Fury Unleashed is a roguelike platform shooter with plenty of personality...
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The Trials series has always stood out to me as a smart and creative alternate take on a racing game, moving the focus on turns and managing speed more to technique and managing your angles of attack...
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Since there are quite a lot of local multiplayer titles on the Switch in all honesty from my perspective the majority of them have begun to blend together into a blob of generic play and mediocrity...
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New iterations of existing games, especially when they come out with shorter proximity to one another, can be weird sometimes...
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When I run into games like Stone I'm never quite sure what to think...
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Featured in one of the Indie World Directs, Supermash seemed like one of those titles that could go either way...
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If there was a major genre on Switch to argue may be the worst represented, whether AAA titles or indies, it could be sports...
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While I’ve seen a few titles try to step up to the plate to establish a solid roguelike FPS to date nobody has really nailed the entire formula...
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There's no doubt a good reason for people to debate whether games like Fledgling Heroes "need" to be on Switch...
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With the abundance of twin-stick roguelike shooters on the Switch it makes for tough competition if you want to make a big splash in the space with a new title...
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