In the days before burglar alarms and CCTV, the best way to scare people off away from your property was to install a totem pole.
If you want to draw out your tribal instincts then install Totem on your Pocket PC. The game sees you try to stack as many blocks as you can in order to build totem poles. You simple tap the screen and the block will fall from the top and land onto the existing tower. At least, that's the theory. In practice you have to be careful to time it just right so the block lands in a central position at the top of the pole. Get it wrong too many times and your totem will start to topple or, worse still, fall down.
The overall presentation of Totem is very nice, with bouncy, upbeat music and fun, colorful graphics. There are some simple tutorials which explain concisely how to play the game. The Options menu allows you to tweak things like sound volume and quality, and apply a battery meter or minigrid.
The action itself gets a bit repetitive. Well, very repetitive actually. I think the process of stacking blocks could've been made a little more exciting by having more obstacles or power-ups that vary the gameplay. That said, there is a bit of a story element within Totem to keep your attention. Build up enough points by making combos and filling your village with totems and you'll get to unlock new tribes.
Totem is a fun and well-polished game - it's just the action itself is a little wooden.
