Sunday, October 24, 2010
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Totemo Review
★★★☆☆
Follow a strange little bug-eyed, shamanic, Stargate-speaking totem through 100 stages of Buka-elimination in this pretty puzzler by Hexage. Beware the eyes, oh the insecure eyes!
Title: Totemo | Developer: Hexage, Ltd. | Genre: Brain & Puzzle |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.31 | Size: 3.7MB | Price: £1.50
Click QRC image (from phone) or scan with a barcode reader.
In Totemo, yet another fabulous offering from Hexage, you'll puzzle your way through 100 stages of icon-elimination. Mr Totem himself, in all his garbled-glory, will provide you a meaningless prelude to each level, leaving you to the mercy of your own skills at mathematics and deductive reasoning. Each stage is full of little faces, some call "Bukas" (hint: see Hexage website), which you must link together in groups of three to appease the totem-gods. As you tap each set of 3 - in either horizontal or vertical adjacent groupings - they will pop out of existence, thus making the totems happy! Your goal, with every stage, is to clear everything on the map. The grand problem is, how do you clear everything in groups of 3 so that no stragglers are left behind?
Soon, you will also be introduced to happy-stars. In the beginning, a star simply self-destructs. Later in the game, each star counts as a double-Buka - one more grants you a triad! So, linking a star with a Buka counts as a triad. Yes, it sounds odd and abstract (and it is), but the game really boils-down to this concept: clear everything off the map. You'll quickly find yourself using your amazing powers of deductive reasoning, analyzing the map for the perfect set of combos the clear the way. Or, if you're like me, you'll just keep trying different combinations until you find the right sequence.
Controls
You'll tap, tap, boom! your way to success using your favorite finger. In the case of stars, it's more a tap-boom. Never-the-less, that's the extent of the controls.
Graphics
Every set of ten stages is grouped-together with a new, pretty, atmospheric background and color-scheme. The Buka faces look around anxiously awaiting your next tap, as leaves float past the screen. This is a very pretty puzzler. Even the stage-select screens sport a nice dreary lightening storm, complete with lighting-effects.
Sound
The background music is very... background. It's soothing, surreal, and makes you want to smoke a hookah. All sounds are well-produced and work nicely together.
Options
Your only settings-options are music, sound, and vibration control. As far as game-options are concerned, this is a single-player romp... but, you are offered a stressful Survival mode, in which you try to beat the clock in eliminating Bukas over successive stages of difficulty. Yea right.
Verdict
Totemo is a well-made puzzler - another in the Hexage line. Graphics, sound, and game play are great, though I do find it lacking in options and variety. Based on the 20-some stages I passed, you continue to do the same thing - eliminate groups of Bukas - albeit, with different backgrounds. Is it worth $1.99? You bet. Especially if you're into this type of game format. The ramblings of your totem-guide are enough to keep you ambling forward.
Get Totemo on AppBrain!
Title: Totemo | Developer: Hexage, Ltd. | Genre: Brain & Puzzle |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.31 | Size: 3.7MB | Price: £1.50
In Totemo, yet another fabulous offering from Hexage, you'll puzzle your way through 100 stages of icon-elimination. Mr Totem himself, in all his garbled-glory, will provide you a meaningless prelude to each level, leaving you to the mercy of your own skills at mathematics and deductive reasoning. Each stage is full of little faces, some call "Bukas" (hint: see Hexage website), which you must link together in groups of three to appease the totem-gods. As you tap each set of 3 - in either horizontal or vertical adjacent groupings - they will pop out of existence, thus making the totems happy! Your goal, with every stage, is to clear everything on the map. The grand problem is, how do you clear everything in groups of 3 so that no stragglers are left behind?
Soon, you will also be introduced to happy-stars. In the beginning, a star simply self-destructs. Later in the game, each star counts as a double-Buka - one more grants you a triad! So, linking a star with a Buka counts as a triad. Yes, it sounds odd and abstract (and it is), but the game really boils-down to this concept: clear everything off the map. You'll quickly find yourself using your amazing powers of deductive reasoning, analyzing the map for the perfect set of combos the clear the way. Or, if you're like me, you'll just keep trying different combinations until you find the right sequence.
Controls
You'll tap, tap, boom! your way to success using your favorite finger. In the case of stars, it's more a tap-boom. Never-the-less, that's the extent of the controls.
Graphics
Every set of ten stages is grouped-together with a new, pretty, atmospheric background and color-scheme. The Buka faces look around anxiously awaiting your next tap, as leaves float past the screen. This is a very pretty puzzler. Even the stage-select screens sport a nice dreary lightening storm, complete with lighting-effects.
Sound
The background music is very... background. It's soothing, surreal, and makes you want to smoke a hookah. All sounds are well-produced and work nicely together.
Options
Your only settings-options are music, sound, and vibration control. As far as game-options are concerned, this is a single-player romp... but, you are offered a stressful Survival mode, in which you try to beat the clock in eliminating Bukas over successive stages of difficulty. Yea right.
Verdict
Totemo is a well-made puzzler - another in the Hexage line. Graphics, sound, and game play are great, though I do find it lacking in options and variety. Based on the 20-some stages I passed, you continue to do the same thing - eliminate groups of Bukas - albeit, with different backgrounds. Is it worth $1.99? You bet. Especially if you're into this type of game format. The ramblings of your totem-guide are enough to keep you ambling forward.
Get Totemo on AppBrain!
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