• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Masala Games
• Publisher: RAINYFROG
• Release Date: October 30, 2025

A review code was kindly provided by PR Hound on behalf of Masala Games and RAINYFROG. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

It’s always neat to see how a developer’s country of origin affects their perspective when creating their game. I really enjoy playing games made in other countries, and it’s even better when they’re set in that country as well. Indian developer Masala Games makes their debut on Switch with Detective Dotson, a mystery adventure game set in modern India.

Dotson’s father died under mysterious circumstances; while Dotson once worked as an actor, he now works as detective – perhaps inspired by his father’s death. Over the course of the game you will explore the city, get to know the characters, and enlist their aid to solve 4 different cases.

The first 3 cases deal with more minor issues, with the first case asking you to investigate who dyed a poor doggy pink! 😱 To gather clues you’ll have to trade people the items they want; in exchange they’ll either give you a clue or an item someone else wants. People may want food or other small items, or they may request money.

The items you trade and the information you pay for all cost money, so you’ll have to earn some by playing mini games such as finding hidden objects or participating in Bollywood dance-offs. I thought the hidden objects mini game was the easiest option, but the Bollywood dance-offs were probably my favorite. The dance animations were cute, and I liked the music.

It’s always nice to save as much of the mini game money as you can. That’s where the bargaining system comes in. When you go to a shop/stall you can make up to 3 offers to try and bargain with the seller. There don’t appear to be any consequences for failing, and you can just try again. You can also bargain with people when you’re the one selling things.

I thought that the trading and bargaining systems were a fun way to obtain clues. You can also hide behind things to eavesdrop on people’s conversations and obtain information. There are some places you can’t get into without wearing a disguise, and once you get in you can sneakily gather more clues.

Besides the disguises used for gathering clues, there are many other options for changing Detective Dotson’s appearance. You can change his hairstyle and facial hair as well as his clothing. I did wish that we had more story-related reasons for wearing disguises; one disguise has a useful ability that could’ve been fun to use more.

I liked a lot of the mechanics in Detective Dotson – I just thought they could have taken advantage of some of them a bit more. The story felt like the weakest part of the game to me, though.

Once you’ve gathered all of the clues you have to place them on the right square on the case board. This wasn’t that difficult, but if you have trouble you can use hints obtained by picking up garbage and throwing it away. I like how the game tells you if all the clues you’ve placed are correct, and if any are in the wrong place.

In my opinion the cases weren’t very cohesive; I had a hard time seeing how everything was connected. The first 3 cases seemed more like vehicles to introduce the characters before the bigger case at the end. Solving most of the cases was anticlimactic because there weren’t any confrontations to bring each case to an end.

It took me about 5-6 hours to complete the game, and I do think it has quite a few positive aspects. I loved the graphics, with elements of Indian culture represented by the architecture, clothing, and food around town. The voiced chatter and sounds of traffic in the background helped make the town seem more “alive,” as did the characters running around throwing colorful powders/water at each other for Holi.

They could make improvements here and there – particularly with the clarity and cohesiveness of the writing – but I like where they were going with everything. In the end I am interested to see where they’ll take Detective Dotson next, as they say a second chapter is coming soon.