Justin Nation's Reviews
What I love about indie games is their ability to make sometimes relatively small tweaks on or hybrids of well-known game styles to make something new and compelling...
When it comes to things like business sims there’s a tendency, once you’ve played enough, for them to feel a bit indistinct from one another...
While the emphasis in platformers in the past generation, especially when they’ve been 2D, has more often than not been on difficulty it’s nice to see a game like Sockventure throw itself into the ring...
If you're a fan of challenging platformers this generation has been a particularly good one thanks to games coming from the indie space...
While I haven't really played any hockey games in probably at least 20 years, back in the day I had a great time with some classics including the old-school EA Sports NHL series and going back even further to the terrific Blades of Steel...
When I typically think of Metroidvanias I've been conditioned a bit to the point that I assume the balance is usually more on the Castlevania influences in terms of style of play...
While a great deal of my time playing games on the Switch has been focused on action, excitement, and general craziness of some kind I've come to appreciate the games in its library that go in precisely the opposite direction...
This is one of those games that's a struggle to review because it shines brightly in some areas but then struggles mightily in others...
Ah, the classic arcade light gun genre, remembered fondly for how bonkers it could be and a bit less positively for how quickly it could drain your supply of quarters...
Doing a fantastic job of mixing classic tower defense with satisfying beat-em-up action and plenty of furry friends that will allow you to play through stages whichever way you’d like, The Last Friend absolutely deserves some love to be heaped on it...
There's nothing like a relaxing puzzle game to take a break from the stresses of more action-based and intense games... but if you're looking for that sort of experience Kombinera likely isn't going to make you happy since it generally works in the opposite direction...
The world's greatest detective (or, at least the most well-known overall) is back on the Switch for another dose of sleuthing, and that's generally a good thing...
There's no doubt a great deal of nostalgia in the arcade racing community for the late 80s and early 90s games like OutRun, Daytona USA, the Cruis'n series, and some others as well...
Having had our share of classically-styled adventures on the Switch that have veered more in the direction of classic LucasArts games with their sense of humor, it's always nice to hit one that takes things a bit more seriously...
Alright, so the action gameplay type where you carefully try to reveal the majority of a closed space while avoiding various enemies goes waaay back to the likes of Qix in the arcade...
When it comes to weird games I have a tendency to give them some latitude to take a big swing in hopes that they'll connect...
Having always been a big fan of the LEGO series, mainly because they've always made for terrific experiences to share with my more gaming-challenged wife, there's always a crackle of excitement in the air when a new one is around the corner...
When it comes to adjectives I like to see associated with games, weird and funny are pretty high on my list, though I’ll concede that that doesn’t always make for a top-notch play experience necessarily...
It's always cool to see new ideas emerge in the indie space, and Flat Kingdom delivers that both visually and in general terms of gameplay with its papercraft looks and shape-shifting main character...
While I’ve been able to be objective about survival games in order to attempt to give them an appropriately fair shake reviewing them I’ll freely admit that in general I’m typically not a fan of them...