1st Impressions: Totemball makes use of the Xbox Live Vision Camera, but the overall gameplay is lacking the wow factor
The Bad: It's pretty hard to control, it's not very interesting, graphics and sound are pretty poor.
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When the Xbox Live Vision Camera came out in October of 2006, the first game to come with it was Totemball. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready for the camera's launch, so Microsoft desided to do the right thing and make Totemball free when it finally was done. It was the right thing to do, because I seriously doubt this game is worth paying even 400 M$ points. Totemball is a music-making, arm waving adventure where you control the rotating ball on your screen with your arms, thanks to the camera. It may sound like a way to give your arms a nice workout while still playing a game, which it is, but the game isn't interesting enough to make you want to go through the pain of waving your arms around. First, the controls are tough. You have to lower one arm and raise the other to turn, have both arms up to go forward and both arms back to go backwards. This can get tricky, and your arms will hurt after a while. If when you did all of this, it went where you wanted it too, this wouldn't be half bad, but when it doesn't and ends up costing you a life, that stinks big time. Totemball basically has you moving your ball around an island collecting totems who play music, hence the reason there is no in-game soundtrack when you start the game. You also can collect "shiny things" and bonuses to up your score and get you closer to gaining some more precious achievements. These are actually harder than they seem. For instance, there is an achievement for playing the game for 20 minutes in a row without pausing or resting. This should be able to be achieved by finding a nice, secure corner and going backwards into it for 20 minutes. This can get very boring, but you have to hold that position or risk killing yourself and having to start the whole thing over again. It's harder than it sounds.
The visuals of Totemball are pretty bad for a 360 game. The graphics even glitch when you stay in once place for a long time. The sound and music isn't much better. If you are looking for a true next-gen arcade game, this isn't it.
Overall, Totemball is worth downloading for free, just because it's free and it can be fun, but don't expect to want to play this long after the joy of getting a Vision Camera dissappears.
Gameplay: It's somewhat athletic, but the tough controls and lackluster gameplay make this hard to love.
Graphics: It looks worse than several of the Xbox's launch titles did, which just isn't acceptable for a next gen game.
Sound: No soundtrack unless you make it consept is unique, but also get's old really fast.
Value: It's free, you can't beat free...
Final Thoughts: My arms fell off...