Totomi

Totomi – Be the king of the jungle

If you’ve struggled with getting to grips with the food chain and how animals coexist (or not) then Totomi gives you a neat idea on life in the real world. Mice terrify elephants, hippos squish everything, beavers eat wood, crocodiles gobble up lions and foxes eat mice... which pleases the elephants and of course this brings to completion the circle of life – and it’s only a wonder why Disney never picked up on it!

Bizarrely the makers of this game have combined the wildlife food chain and the idea of making totem poles. The idea’s as simple as it gets, you stack up to three totem poles at a time and the animals appear as random squares which you get to place through using the cursor both in selecting the animal square and the totem you wish to place it in. The only fiddly bit is to work out which totem you wish to place the piece in.

As highlighted previously, sussing out where to put the piece relies on how the block will react with the other animals in the totem pole. This largely relies on common sense e.g. a fish will be eaten by a cat and a cat will fight with a dog etc.

However if this isn’t simple enough to work out, whenever you pick up a piece the totem poles will all indicate what reaction and result will be given should you place it on top. For example a love-heart will appear on top of the totem which will react positively and a dark cloud will appear should they fight. One of the most important clues as to how it will add to your score is looking out for the exclamation mark which appears at the base of a totem pole. This symbol indicates that you’ll finish the chain of animals and therefore score points for the successful completion of the chain.

In story mode your mission is simply to score points and this is largely done by achieving a number of previously outlined criteria (which is given to you at the start of each level).

Alternatively if you want a different challenge, then you can get stuck into Totem Marathon mode, which is a point-fest where you must go against the clock.

In either case, your objectives are to build a set number of layers to the totem and the other is a specific instruction, for example combine a couple of blocks and make them ‘friends’.

Overall this game offers some excellent fun for anyone who’s looking for a quick and simple round of fun. In reality, if you’re a hardened puzzle player, then this will possibly run a little short and not be as fulfilling as some others. For instance I was able to repeatedly press the select and drop key and fulfilled the level’s criteria through chance and simplicity alone. However, not every level is quite as easy – particularly if you’re trying to achieve the outlined criteria.

Rating 85%

Positives

Simple and easy to get to grips with

Entertaining and quick to play

Colourful and well detailed

Negatives

Quite repetitive

A little too simple and therefore not as satisfying as tougher puzzle games