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!
At the very beginning I'll admit my excitement was pretty high for this twin-stick shooter...
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With the lack of sports titles on the Switch you may have seen this game's name and felt your pulse race a little bit...
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Wow, OK, this is one of those titles where, being honest, it pained me to try to play it...
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Budget platformers have become somewhat a dime a dozen out there on the Switch, but when you're in a pinch and looking for some time they aren't always a bad option...
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Lumini is one of those titles that's a bit like a roller coaster ride to play...
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As a huge fan of Civilization, and 4X strategy games like it, I'm always intrigued by new titles being released in that general vein...
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As a child of the 70s and 80s who spent an enormous amount of time in the arcades there’s no doubt 198X was made for me...
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The arcade ninja classic is back! Shinobi is a title I spent a fair amount of time playing at the arcades back in the day and, in general, it's just as tough as I remembered it...
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Do you ever walk through life feeling like it's mostly full of mundane repetition and tasks that lack in fulfillment? In Mosaic your main character is trapped in such a situation, moving through his day surrounded by grey blandness...
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The Oddworld series has finally managed to come to Switch! Well, sort of, since this FPS-like offshoot from the main series is quite a different animal...
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On paper I think the idea behind the mechanics for Space Wolf could be interesting...
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This is one of those popular indie titles that seemed like a natural fit for the Switch so it's odd that it took so long to get here but I'm glad it has arrived...
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There's no doubt the Switch has become the ideal platform for retro and throwback titles of all kinds...
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Over the past few years in particular there has been a movement towards using games as a vehicle for telling semi-interactive stories as opposed to using more traditional forms of media...
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With a visual pixel art style that does have a creep factor but has elements reminiscent of the developer's previous release, My Big Sister, I found it hard not to have a bit of deja vu playing this title...
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Early in the Switch lifespan, when the pickings were sometimes a bit more thin, there were some core Nindie titles that helped occupy my time...
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Though it may look pretty simplistic, and is in terms of mechanics, there's something deceptive about the light action in Witch & Hero 2...
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Though I’m old enough to recall, with some fondness even, the days of playing purely text-based adventure games the likes of Zork and others I can’t say I was initially thrilled at the prospect of returning to that style of play...
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It's always interesting to see games used as a medium for storytelling and in the case of Self rather than working through a pre-destined story to reach a static conclusion you'll find that it has many branching paths to encourage replay to discover its different outcomes...
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