TotemBall bouncing onto Xbox Live

Some of the first Xbox Live Vision camera customers noticed something peculiar when they opened up the peripheral's packaging: the complete absence of the Xbox Live Arcade game TotemBall that Microsoft said would be included in the package. However, while the publisher didn't get the game in the box at retail, those who purchased the camera will soon be able to download it for free.

Microsoft today announced that it will release TotemBall on the Xbox Live Marketplace a few hours from now, at 1 a.m. PT on October 4. While it will be free for all users to download, it won't do much good for those without the Vision peripheral, as the game requires the camera attachment.

In TotemBall, players will use gestures read by the camera to control characters and help protagonist Pterry the Pturtle collect a number of lost musical totems and return them to his tribe. TotemBall is rated E for Everyone and was developed by British studio Strange Flavour. It is published by New York-based Freeverse Software.