John Hansen

I am a dedicated writer who loves to cover video games and anything nerdy. I've been writing professionally since 2018, with work published for both small and large websites including Minecraft's support site, Gamepur, Push Square, and Game Sandwich, an indie media site I have been building up on the side.

Game Sandwich •

Super Mario 64 Memories That Live with Me Today

In 1997, I was five-years-old and I was over at my cousin’s place, a common occurrence in the early years of my life. Hanging around in his basement, he introduced me to the Nintendo 64, a game console that my mom would buy for me later and started me down a long path of exasperating her with how much I loved video games. A big reason for all of this is that Super Mario 64 was so damn good.Is it normal for people who play video games to remember their first exposure to games? I’m not talking abo...
Game Sandwich •

Forza Motorsport May Be No More as Former Turn 10 Studios Employee Says the Team is Only Supporting Forza Horizon Now

According to Fred Russell, a former content coordinator for Turn 10 Studios, the Forza Motorsport series may be done for good following the massive Microsoft layoffs that saw half of Turn 10’s employees let go. Supposedly, the team will only be used for support on the Forza Horizon games, a series that is mainly handled by Playground Games. He took to Facebook to say, “Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more.  A very sad day for one of the best car racing...
Game Sandwich •

Gex Trilogy Review (Xbox): Can't Slime its Way Out of the 90s

As someone who was born in 1992 and has a deep love for the Nintendo 64, I always get happy when I see games from that era make a return. That’s how I feel about the Gex Trilogy, even though I didn’t have much experience with it at all outside of short spans where I rented Gex: Enter the Gecko from Blockbuster. Now that the whole series is back and playable on modern consoles, I can enjoy the highs but I can’t help but acknowledge the lows. All three of the games in this package are a product of...
Game Sandwich •

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Invalidates its World to Put a Spotlight on Lesser Characters

Warning: Major story spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ahead. Make sure you’ve played through the story before reading this article.Like so many others, I found myself lost in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 after its release. Typically, I’m rather hit-or-miss on turn-based RPGs, but the characters and world really sucked me in from the word go. The feeling of helplessness that everyone in Lumiere feels in those opening moments really grabbed my attention. Gustave grappling with what he could...
Game Sandwich •

South of Midnight Review (Xbox): Traumatic Beauty

Sometimes, there is media that comes out that is so focused on the darker side of life. Whether it’s a movie, book, or video game, sometimes it’s really nice to witness a story where everything is bad and somehow, there is still a light at the end of the tunnel. In the case of South of Midnight, I feel that is a strong case for why I enjoyed this game as much as I did. This game is filled with tragedy. Whether that is directly tied to Hazel and her family, or her learning about awful events that...
Game Sandwich •

Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Made Me Question the Value of Completing Games

In 2024, I personally found a lot of the new games released to be quite underwhelming and uninteresting. To pass the time, I spent a lot of the year clearing games from my backlog and going back to some of my favorite titles I had played in my lifetime in pursuit of 100% completion. In the fall, I decided to revisit the Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 compilation and set myself the task of platinuming the collection since some of my favorite games of all time are included in there. If you are unaware, th...
Game Sandwich •

Inscryption Has Dealt Its Way Into My Mind Like No Other Card Game

In today’s gaming landscape, everyone always wants to play the game that is the talk of the town at that moment. While yes, there is value and fun to being part of the conversation when it’s happening, there are times I love playing popular games much later on when the noise has quieted down some. The current case of that happening for me is Inscryption. Three years after its initial release, Inscryption hit Game Pass, and I finally decided to give it a chance. While I had heard people call the...