The Newton Mystery

Upon first seeing this game at the TooManyGames convention, I was immediately sold on it. I had previously played Night in the Woods, and had watched Adventure Time quite a bit before then. I can tell this game draws heavy inspiration from both, with the Night In The Woods-type gameplay and storytelling, and the Adventure Time-inspired visuals. I talked a bit with someone running the table Newton was at, which I'm assuming is one of the developers, and they initially seemed a bit shy and unsure of themselves. I'll just say, you all should be proud of yourselves and the work you've put in. Since becoming a game developer myself, I know how hard it is to make games, and I know that it's a damn miracle when one comes out, because there's so much that goes into it. I'd love to talk game dev stuff with the devs, honestly, because I really respect and enjoy their work, between this and Mason and Strings. This game is great, and if you enjoy side-scrolling adventure games, don't pass this one up. Something I would recommend is adding keybinds. I personally found the control scheme to be a bit confusing and frustrating to work through. I eventually got used to it, but it would still sometimes present problems. I think having everything mapped to a single hand, except for Tessa's shooting ability, is a bit strange.

Interesting extra card game is hidden behind frustrating collectibles in the main stages. Newton is a town in which magical creatures live. Although most appear to be normal people, each and every one possesses some form of ability. You take control of not one, but four children (plus a cat) who form a crime-solving team with headquarters in a treehouse. You can control either of them, and each has distinct powers that will help you overcome tasks. There is Tess, who can transform into a ghost to move through walls and hurl bouncing fireballs, Mac, who uses his yoyo to make trampolines and swinging points, Phil, who sprays water and can transform into a fish, Lemon, a fighter who can punch through barriers, and cat Coal, who can fit through narrow gaps. The game is divided into five stages or cases the group has to handle. You select stages from the main menu, and the next one unlocks once you complete the currently unlocked stage. Stages are rather straightforward. First, there is a town where you can wander around and talk to people. You will meet a lot of interesting-looking individuals and the developer’s effort to make them unique is shown. But although they say different things, depending on the character under your control, talking to them doesn’t do anything except give more lore to the game’s world. After completing the town's tasks, you progress to the platforming stages. You must run around the stage, sometimes with only one character, to find the essential object or things. Portals are an excellent mechanic that eliminates the need for tedious backtracking with each character individually. There are dozens of them per stage, and they do not cost anything to unlock. Death does not exist, which is an equally crucial element. If you fall into many holes throughout the stage, you will just respawn near the first portal. Both the town and the platforming stages provide some exploration, but they rarely force you to go up or down, so you are primarily limited to walking left and right. The only collectibles in the stages are cards. There are more than 100 of them, but finding them is one of the most frustrating experiences I have had in a while. The first issue is that different cards appear across the town in different stages. You may believe you have collected something, but when you return to the same location, you will find a different card. But the main issue is that you have no idea how many are hidden in a single stage. Because you can not select specific levels from the menu, missing cards will force you to restart entire chapters. To make matters worse, stages finish when you walk too far or pick up the essential item, so any exploration is abruptly stopped. Cards are used in a separate card game that can be picked in the stage menu (or in the main game when you visit the card shop), with some intriguing gameplay and rules. The goal is to place cards on one of the six spots. You take turns with the opponent, first placing and then attacking, with the goal of eliminating all six of his cards before he does the same to you. Placement is important because attacks come from the left, so you need to put a card with a lot of health first. Attacking is accomplished through a rhythm game in which you press buttons. Each card has a series of buttons, and the number of cards you place increases the length of the sequence. Each "note" you hit causes damage to the opponent's card, but you don’t have to hit every single note – just enough to remove the opponent card. Sadly, even the card game manages to have a frustrating part. Each card battle starts by picking six cards – there are no limitations, if you found it, you can use it. But finding the ones you want is a mess because you have to scroll through pages and pages. There are absolutely no quality of life features such as sorting by rarity, damage, or health points.

I'm one of the devs on this game. When you take your time to sit down, talk to the characters, and explore I think the game is really fun. It's fun to immerse yourself in the world, get to know the characters and their backstories, and see their relationships grow throughout the game. We wanted to make it feel like you're playing through a cartoon. So all that being said, if you're someone who likes games where the point is to read and explore the world like Night in the Woods, I think you'll like this game. There's also 166 collectible cards to find throughout the world, which you can use to play an in universe trading card mini game. So if you're an achievement hunter, or love collectathons, that's a pretty cool achievement to get. Generally if you don't like games with a lot of dialogue or prefer to play games with more action/straight up puzzles, you might not enjoy the game that much. But for the people out there that like this type of game, I hope you like it!!

I backed this on Kickstarter and I've enjoyed the art style, the gameplay, the the team behind this ever since I saw it. Cute little game! Highly recommend.

A fun and funny game with quirky characters. A blast to play!

Still very early but its quite fun. Played a good bit at MAGFest 2023 when they were at the booth next to me. Plays a bit like The Lost Vikings. Art is great, music is great, and the dialogue is very amusing. Looking forward to the rest.

I was a backer on kickstarter. Completely had forgotten! The steam key was a pleasant surprise! I just have finished second part of the game, and it’s pretty good! Can be challenging at times! Took me a while to figure out the manor level. Love how much thought has been put into storytelling. Every single npc you meet will have to say something very specific to them. I’m now invested in the story!

https://youtu.be/0jOcB9Plwsw?si=vsSz3GMQpJQOVlXj Set in the titular town of Newton, this visual novel / platforming-hybrid revolves around the misadventures of a ragtag group of monster hunters. Working under the alias of a “Bird Watching Club”, the five teens work to keep this small town of eccentric folk safe from ghosts, ghouls, and…gentrification. Over the span of five episodes, you’ll swap between the members of The Bird Watching Club to overcome a wide range of challenges. Each of the members has their own unique set of super skills, from Tess’ ghost form and demonic bullets to Phil’s fish form. Each character has obvious strengths and weaknesses, and using them in tandem can be a lot of fun. I would have preferred a way to swap between characters aside from a selection wheel though. By the end of the game, I was kind of annoyed with how often I had to pull up the selection wheel, only to pull it up again seconds later. An option to cycle characters via button input could be really useful here. When it came to the actual gameplay, The Newton Mystery really surprised me with how much variety it had. In addition to the various puzzles and platforming, you’ll also experience bullet hell segments, visual novel segments, and even a trading card/rhythm game. With that last bit having over 150 cards for you to find and collect during your playthrough. There’s a lot to do in The Newton Mystery, and the love and expression that was poured into this game couldn’t be more obvious. So you could imagine my surprise when I found out just how buggy this game is. We’re talking about things like dialogue with invisible characters, glitchy platforming, inconsistent performance, and countless grammatical and spelling errors. It is incredibly jarring just how low the bar for quality is here, because so much of The Newton Mystery feels inspired and full of creativity. It’s disappointing, because I do feel that proper Q&A could go a long way in improving this game. Hopefully we’ll see some patches in the future that address these issues. On a more positive note, The Newton Mystery really does evoke a sense of nostalgia when things are working as intended. While I have gripes with the overarching story, I do think this game works really well as a love letter to Saturday morning cartoons. A larger set of narratives are set up throughout the game that ultimately left me unfulfilled, but I overlook some of that when considering The Newton Mystery as a whole. There is a healthy amount of lore to unpack in the game, and it’s elevated further once you start talking with more of the magical creatures in Newton. Learning about the goblins, vampires, and other creatures that live in the town definitely helped with my enjoyment. And with plenty of parallels to real life, The Newton Mystery can feel fun and engaging without feeling too emotional or overly preachy. Not all of the dialogue landed with me, and that’s probably because I haven’t been a teenager in over ten years. But when the jokes, quips, and references land, they are genuinely witty. While the jokes don’t warrant laugh out loud reactions often, I do think The Newton Mystery carries an overall feeling of not taking things too seriously. If we don’t get a follow-up to this game, I think it would be awesome to see the series turn into an animated show. The soundtrack is great, too! Full of indie tunes from midwest emo to nightcore, The Newton Mystery’s music is an absolute treat. It captures the feelings of the small town setting while also leaving room for the game’s more exciting moments. There’s an issue with wildly inconsistent volume from song to song, and between tracks and sound effects that I should mention here. Outside of that, however, I think the game’s music selection is fantastic, and certainly one of the stand-out aspects for me. Overall, The Newton Mystery is an enjoyable, but flawed experience. If you can overlook the inconsistencies in the gameplay and dialogue, there is a charming and nostalgic adventure waiting to take you on a wholesome cruise. With witty and self-aware dialogue, a fantastic and varied soundtrack, and allusions to real life that aren’t too hamfisted, The Newton Mystery is well worth the low cost of admission. There is more than enough content to enjoy here, including an entire TCG/rhythm game that is way more fun that it has any right to be. It would be cool to see a follow-up in the future, whether that be in the form of a sequel or an animated series. The Newton Mystery has potential, and it would be amazing to see that potential actualized.

My man can turn into a fish, 10/10

Good short fun game, like the stories too https://youtu.be/JpggjvKextI?si=s7w16nDV9Exq-RWM