Justin Nation Avatar Image

Justin Nation

Windsor, PA
The Nindersect
Nindersect

Favorite Games:
  • Rocket League
  • Neon Abyss
  • Wreckfest

4467 games reviewed
70.7 average score
71 median score
43.5% 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!
5.6 / 10.0 - Football Cup 2021
Feb 4, 2021

Sports titles in general have been criminally under-represented on the Switch, and budget games within the space are next to unheard of...

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Feb 2, 2021

There's nothing quite like the monster truck game to change up the general play style of the typical racer...

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If you're in the mood for something different, often surprising, and at first a bit baffling, you may enjoy this card-based roguelike...

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7.8 / 10.0 - Glyph
Feb 1, 2021

I'm a fan of games that combine elements from multiple titles to make for a new experience so Glyph, featuring a mix of 3D platforming ala Mario and others with a healthy dose of Marble Madness (or Monkey Ball for younger gamers) mechanics firmly checks the box for unexpected...

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8.5 / 10.0 - Bonkies
Jan 29, 2021

While my family and I have become quite jaded with multiplayer titles, since so many of them fall into pretty predictable gameplay, there are sometimes games that do something new that are worth getting excited for...

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7.1 / 10.0 - Silver Chains
Jan 29, 2021

Horror adventure / walking simulators are always a bit of a mixed bag, and many have unfortunately gone down the rabbit hole of featuring too many objects you can pick up and move around to look at fruitlessly, which is annoying...

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Jan 29, 2021

If you're low on funds and are looking for nothing but intense shooting action, while they aren't deep, arena shooters can be momentary fun in bursts...

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6.7 / 10.0 - Turrican Flashback
Jan 29, 2021

I have no doubt that fans of the classic Turrican franchise will be thrilled with the opportunity to play all 4 of the original titles on their Switch...

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Jan 29, 2021

As a relative fan of the first game in the Vera Blanc series I was eager to check out this new entry...

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8 / 10.0 - Olija
Jan 28, 2021

With it’s very retro pixelated look you could walk into Olija expecting a similarly old-school experience, but you’d be wrong...

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8 / 10.0 - TOHU
Jan 28, 2021

Right out of the gate I was honestly a bit nervous with the look and feel of TOHU, concerned that it would go firmly down the cute and quirky road but come up short in terms of variety and challenge...

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7.5 / 10.0 - Disjunction
Jan 28, 2021

Both stealth games and cyberpunk theming have been pretty popular in more recent years, and Disjunction does an admirable job of bringing together these two great tastes to make something pretty appealing, even if its stealth segments can’t quite stay fresh over its handful of hours...

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7 / 10.0 - Gods Will Fall
Jan 28, 2021

I always get a bit nervous when anything, whether in its own marketing or by players, gets described as Souls-like since for me that generally points to a measure of tedium and some frustration...

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Jan 28, 2021

With the rise of popularity and quality in roguelikes across the board in the past year or two the bar has been raised with expectations and unfortunately I consider Sword of the Necromancer a casualty of that shift...

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6.4 / 10.0 - Golden Force
Jan 28, 2021

Harkening back to the classic 16-bit days there's a familiar flair to Golden Force that works pretty well...

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6.2 / 10.0 - Heaven's Vault
Jan 28, 2021

Regardless of how I feel about the game's overall funky mechanics and technical quirks at times, Heaven's Vault deserves credit for putting effort into building a bit of a different world that you'll need to endeavor to explore and understand...

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Jan 27, 2021

While most people first think of LucasArts classics when waxing nostalgic over the days of point-and-click adventures past, the foundations of the genre were typically focused more on fantasy and adventure than plentiful silliness...

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Jan 27, 2021

In the follow-up to Chains of Satinav the Dark Eye series takes a bit of a different path, or in this case multiple paths, when it comes to the story being told...

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6.3 / 10.0 - Ziggy the Chaser
Jan 26, 2021

There's not necessarily anything wrong with more casual and newbie-friendly games that are lacking in complexity...

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Jan 23, 2021

Looking and often feeling like a game made in an earlier and simpler era, The Unexpected Quest would best be characterized as a very simple and watered-down RTS title...

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