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!
While there’s a certain old-school charm to this, the jankiness and a lack of both polish and challenge make it highly forgettable
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A somewhat unique mix of storytelling about life changes mixed with a meticulous packing simulator that will test your organizational skills sorely
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An odd choice, pairing pretty basic puzzles with a forklift, succeeding in making a game that will struggle to satisfy just about anyone
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While it has some decent voice acting, and a periodic sense of humor that comes through, old-school mechanics and a lot of wandering around hold back greater fun
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While moody, there’s no question that some of the choices it has made in terms of its controls cripple the ability to easily enjoy the experience
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This family-friendly mix of bug collecting and battling is pretty nice and cozy, but also decidedly shallow in the end
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Why did the video game chicken cross the road? One possibility is they’re trying to run away from this uninspired shovelware mess
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Mixing together the always-aggravating climber subgenre with some things to try to grab makes this at least somewhat a better option, but still annoying
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I suppose throwing some higher-end math into a puzzle platformer is interesting? But in terms of play it’s an odd choice for narrowing its potential audience most likely
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While there can be some bursts of fun in this traffic weaving racer, but an ultimate lack of pretty well any variety holds it back
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A goofy conversion of what’s obviously a VR game with controls that are a little tricky at times, but there’s at least some humor to enjoy, and it can be a little relatable
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A collection full of content and ideas, though some repeated, that are often odd and can vary in its quality and execution pretty wildly
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While it takes a moment to get acclimated to, the mix of Lovecraftian horror that feels embraced rather than exploited, and some interesting cards for your deck help make this stand apart from its peers
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While in principle it’s a pretty low-key casual puzzler, it can go from painfully quick and easy to baffling in a heartbeat due to its refusal to provide any direction
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With bafflingly-deep lore and wild backgrounds that tend to distract from (or hinder) the foreground action, Psyvariar 3 is a committed to some odd choices
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While I wouldn’t have believed it when I started playing, this faster-paced dungeon-crawler-meets-deckbuilder surpasses the great roguelike that inspired it
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While fans of the franchise or parents may find it to be a safe choice, the quality of play is lacking in some pretty fundamental areas
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Not really a game so much as a very bare bones sandbox creation tool, and the lack of direction and depth falls far short of some contemporaries
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While yet another take on the monster training subgenre, it does manage to differentiate itself, even if not clearly exceeding its peers
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While there’s a nice throwback feel to the exploration and action to a degree, fundamentals like awful aim really take away from the potential for more fun
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