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!
With so many shooters of all kinds on the Switch it takes some effort to set yourself apart...
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While bludgeoning or blowing away bad guys can always be good fun, everyone should have some time in their lives to slow things down...
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There are absolutely some amazing party games out there on the Switch to enjoy with friends, but if you're on a tight budget perhaps the general need to buy them in bigger, and thus more expensive, packs makes them feel like a risk...
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I like it when games manage to surprise me a little bit, especially when they’re in genres where I feel like I’ve seen just about everything...
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Ah, gotta love those niche specialty titles from overseas that bring a little flavor to the eShop...
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As a fan of literary classics I must say that seeing the names...
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Breathedge is one of those titles where I'm not quite sure how to feel about it...
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The Switch, now that it has been thoroughly established, has really become a sort of window into the state of games from previous generations, having the advantage of being able to play them on the go...
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There's nothing wrong with an old-school shooter, where your goal is simple to run, gun, and make a bloody mess out of your enemies along the way...
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Oh how perilous the eShop is in the budget category, filled with games that look like they could be promising but with many letting you down...
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The roguelike deck-builder has certainly seemed to be en vogue for the past few years but at least we've gotten some well-conceived and executed games out of the trend...
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It's always a bit of a challenge for me to review games that really aren't games, whether interactive novels or in this case semi-interactive and fixed narrative experiences of a sort...
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With an old school cinematic action adventure feel and dripping with neon-lit nostalgic ooze I have no doubt that Narita Boy is targeted squarely at people like me who practically grew up in the arcades...
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Multiplayer games looking to pull in gamers of all ages and skill levels have a tough challenge...
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While back in the day I was never much of a fan of the FMV game fad that accompanied the explosion of access to CD drives back in the day I've actually been a moderate fan of the recent resurgence of the genre in this generation...
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OK, so The Game of Life… you know, that board game probably everyone has played a bunch...
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Budget games are always a bit of a gamble, as there are definitely titles that surpass expectations and then there also are those that you wonder whether they were ready for prime time in the first place...
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It's best to open with honesty, and in this case I'll admit that to this point the Monster Hunter series has always intimidated me...
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While the general premise is that you'll eventually play as each of a crew of 3 criminals who got busted trying to bring in their big score all you really need to know is that this is a pretty decent puzzle platformer on a budget...
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While side-scrolling slashers have been around for quite some time, and tend to show up in some abundance, I’ve more often than not been disappointed by them historically...
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