Poultry in Motion- newtonica2 Reviewed

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJanuary 16, 2009
41 740 1 minute read

Video games may have been born in the US, but they were definitely
raised in Japan. Now that video games are all grown up, they’ve moved
back home to America to date rich old game industry jerks. The game
industry has become so huge that now it seems Japanese and indie
developers are the only ones clinging to our roots, creating simple
games that simply rock.

newtonica2 is a Japanese game
exclusively for iPhone, perfectly suited for the device’s multi-touch
screen. It was created by the former director of Skip, the company that
brought you Chibi Robo, and is the sequel to newtonica. While newtonica seems to be a much more simple action game, newtonica2 is a physics-based action puzzle game. Forget what you know about how physics really work in space. It’s worth it.

Your
goal is to properly time tapping, and sometimes aligning, black
spheres that generate “cosmic waves” in order to save a baby bird
(wearing a space helmet!) lost floating in space and return it to its
father via swirling portals. I wouldn’t be surprised if the game was
originally set in a pond. Tapping the black spheres generates waves
that nudge the bird and fade away as the ripples spread outward. There
are also strange creatures called “Elppa” with different properties
that act a bit like bumpers on a pinball table. The game is about as
adorable as it can be and still have cool indie cred.

newtonica2
has 36 (Maybe more?) small stages and some nice replayability via
collecting doughnuts and achieving better times (an online “world
ranking” board is available). It’s an absolute steal at only 99
cents. My one complaint is a lack of a level editor. Hopefully one will
be released eventually. The stages seem to go by a bit quick at first
but there’s a good amount
of fun to be had and it gets pretty challenging. I
already want more despite not yet having beaten the game. (That’s a
good sign indeed!) To my delight, a sequel was just released called newtonica2 resort. I got it right away.

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJanuary 16, 2009
41 740 1 minute read
Photo of Robert Allen

Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

41 Comments

  3. When I first saw the images, I though you were reviewing Loco Roco 2….Are you going to get that one, Mr. TideGear?

  5. Nice review, TG! Keep ’em coming. This is one of my favorite review sites. I especially like it when there’s a new review every day.

  10. I need to buy an iPhone. They initial investment doesn’t bother me it’s the $80 a month that does.

    I wont have any money left over for the games.

  16. I hope by review iphone games, you don’t neglect the console releases. I do like the reviews here.

  21. Why are some of the faces happy and some sad? Does that indicate something? And is color important?

  24. Iphone games seem to have really good sound and great still images. Sometimes movement get a bit laggy.

    I guess that because its not a game platform.

  33. I haven’t had issues. I think it’s usually the game devs’ fault when that happens. Katamari had problems but was updated.

  35. It indicates the type of “Elppa” they are, I believe. Some can be moved, some are extra bouncey and so on.

  36. Thanks for the dialog TG; tell Desert he should do the same, or is he too busy reviewing all the games?

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