Justin Nation Avatar Image

Justin Nation

Windsor, PA
The Nindersect
Nindersect

Favorite Games:
  • Rocket League
  • Neon Abyss
  • Wreckfest

4488 games reviewed
70.8 average score
71 median score
43.6% of games recommended

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!
Sep 19, 2021

With the general lack of options for sporting experiences on the Switch, it’s always great to see a new contender enter the ring...

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8 / 10.0 - Squabble
Sep 18, 2021

I’ve stated before that when it comes to local multiplayer games my family has become pretty jaded over time, too often having been burned by all-too-familiar mechanics or just bland play that gets repetitive far too quickly...

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9 / 10.0 - Tails of Iron
Sep 17, 2021

This is a title that hit me a bit out of nowhere, took my lunch money, and is now making me earn it back one challenging battle at a time… and for the most part you can count me impressed...

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8.5 / 10.0 - TOEM
Sep 17, 2021

I don’t know whether it was triggered by a pandemic that had everyone stuck in their houses and wishing for a chance to appreciate the world around us but this year has produced a string of pretty amazing exploratory adventures, with TOEM being the latest to join the club...

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8 / 10.0 - Dojoran
Sep 17, 2021

It’s always great to run into humble and inexpensive indies on the eShop, and if you’re into precision platforming that’s handled surprisingly well for being a budget title Dojoran is an unexpected treat...

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7 / 10.0 - Nexomon
Sep 17, 2021

While there have been a few stabs at taking on Game Freak and the Big N's mega-franchise they've tended to be at the higher-dollar level with other big companies trying to jumpstart their own franchises-to-be with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads...

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6.6 / 10.0 - Love Colors
Sep 17, 2021

When it comes to the Switch, I'm not sure I've played a title on the console more thoroughly casual than Love Colors...

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9 / 10.0 - Eastward
Sep 16, 2021

When it comes to pixel art action-adventures the normal standard that is compared against would be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past...

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8 / 10.0 - Metallic Child
Sep 16, 2021

OK, so to start I’ll admit that just on paper I was already rooting for Metallic Child a bit...

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Sep 16, 2021

Some credit to the people behind this hidden object adventure of sorts, they're at least trying to throw some variety into the mix...

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6.3 / 10.0 - SkateBIRD
Sep 16, 2021

With the exception of the Tony Hawk redux that came to the system earlier this year, the skating scene on Switch has been on the slim side...

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Sep 15, 2021

There’s something to be said for games that know what they want to be, even if not necessarily revolutionary in any particular way, and are then executed with a high degree of care and quality...

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Sep 15, 2021

I will admit that I have been pretty impressed by this series of titles as they do reasonably approximate the sorts of eclectic challenges you'll typically find in a real escape room... it's just missing the social component of noisy and dumb people taking you down rabbit holes...

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8.8 / 10.0 - Cruis'n Blast
Sep 14, 2021

When it comes to over-the-top, crazy, and almost excessively arcade-style racing I'm not sure anything out there can quite match the classic Cruis'n series...

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9 / 10.0 - Lost in Random
Sep 10, 2021

Full disclosure, up front I’ll admit that I’ve always tended to be fond of games from the Zoink crew, in particular finding their off-beat sense of humor to be great fun...

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7.6 / 10.0 - Knights & Guns
Sep 10, 2021

Back in the arcades, Pang (or Buster Bros) was one of the more interesting shooters out there that did things its own way and layered puzzling sensibilities into the mix...

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5.8 / 10.0 - LoveChoice
Sep 10, 2021

I'm typically pretty indifferent to lightly interactive visual novels but there's definitely a divide between those that make an honest effort to build a rich and robust narrative and those that don't...

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7.5 / 10.0 - Ultra Age
Sep 9, 2021

Especially given the continued “unknown date” status of Bayonetta 3, Switch fans looking to beat or slash things up with some intense combat may be feeling a little twitchy...

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Sep 9, 2021

Having roughly followed the long and usually pretty torturous movie and gaming "career" of this leather-clad vamp I'll admit I was intrigued to see if she could finally turn things around this time...

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6.4 / 10.0 - Dice Legacy
Sep 9, 2021

One problem many solid PC strategy games have had on the Switch has been trying to take what are often intuitive controls and screens from the mouse and keyboard world and trying to map them to a controller...

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