Publisher: Fervent Interactive
Developer: Fervent Interactive
System: XBLA
Genre: 3D Platformer
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ryan Asher

With the introduction of Xbox Live Community Games, independent developers now have an easy way to reach the consumer and showcase their hard work. Totem is one result of this effort – a game combining creepy, multi-colored totem faces and a style similar to Tetris.

A slew of totem faces fall inexplicably from the sky, filling up your screen, and it’s your job to wreck their junk. You must destroy three to seven totem poles during every round. Each pole starts off with a handful of blocks already in place, with more dropping from the top of the screen. You must match the color-coded blocks as they progress downward with the ones on the poles. When they meet, like-colored blocks are destroyed, and when the bottom of the pole is exposed, the base itself becomes vulnerable.

You can also rearrange the blocks between poles, allowing breathing room if one pole is growing out of control. Various tools are at your disposal to add variety and to speed up rounds. The hatchet knocks off troublesome blocks, the lightning bolt destroys all like-colored blocks and the dynamite causes all hell to break loose. You can also manually trigger the falling of blocks if victory is certain, much the same as you can in Tetris. To make things more difficult, there are various “elemental effects” that make the blocks harder to distinguish and destroy.

Totem is straightforward, and yet there was enough variety to keep me entertained through its lengthy campaign (28 levels, including four boss stages). There’s also a fun survival mode that functions much like a time attack mode, in which the rounds become progressively tougher. Be warned, however, Totem is no pushover. Sure, the difficulty levels are called easy, medium and hard, but what I think they really meant was hard, harder and “I will eat your soul and insult your manhood while doing it”, but the challenge is what makes the game so intense.

Any gripes I have against Totem are of little consequence, though some of the elemental effects can be a bit annoying. While the game never seems cheap, the graphical representations of the fire and ice blocks make identifying them too hard, and can quickly lead to frustrating defeats. You shouldn’t expect the music to spawn countless remixes (it isn’t quite as catchy as the Tetris theme). It would’ve also been nice to play against different backdrops. The map indicates I’m busting blocks in the mountains, so why are there no mountains on the screen?

For 400 MS points, Totem features solid and addictive gameplay in a package that makes the price seem like a bargain. It’s not the classic that Tetris is, but it’s an entertaining twist on a timeless game. I never would have imagined that playing with totem poles would be this much fun or any fun at all! For information on how to download Totem through the Xbox Live Dashboard, visit Fervent Interactive’s Web site.