Totem Ball XBLA - Now Available - General Discussion

LinkinPrime

LinkinPrime

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You've been asking...and I have finally got an answer: It's coming to the Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow (10/4)....I'll post the moment it is available for download.

NOTE: The camera is required to play this game!
[Totem Ball details on Xbox.com]
Click to expand...
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/10/03/Coming-Soon-Totem-Ball.aspx

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Features

The members of the ancient Ptolmec tribe compose striking and innovative music in TotemBall. When they simultaneously discover gunpowder and barbeque, the explosive results scatter their musical totems across the breadth of the jungle!
Now Pterry the Pturtle must roll across mountains, islands, bridges, and through giant pinball games to retrieve the lost totems and bring the groovy Ptolmec music back to the party. Using your Xbox Live® Vision camera, help Pterry recover all the musical totems while moving to the totem beat.
  • Move: Control Pterry through this musical platforming adventure using your Xbox Live Vision camera.
  • Cooperate: Join in with a friend to juggle your totem collection using the camera and a controller.
  • Roam: Use Free Play mode to practice and explore environments without affecting your progress.
  • Groove: Sway to the sounds of the music generated in-game by you!
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/totemballxboxlivearcade/
Click to expand...

Achievement list can be found here: http://xbox360achievements.org/content/view/443

Hope its free!

EDIT: Changed title, can't confirm it will be released at the usual 1am PST.
 
I hoping theres a way to get it to work with the controller. Vision cam is pretty useless.
BTW, Its about afew weeks since it was said it will be on XLBA, so, I hope it doesn't dissapoint.
 
I really hope this isn't the only XBLA game coming out tomorrow.

Is anyone else starting to get really skeptical? I swear I heard Peter Moore or someone say there would be 50 more XBLA games come out between TGS and Christmas. In order for that to be true, they would have to start dumping a few a week. Even at 20 or 30 games before christmas.

Also, just look at that video "XBLA montage". How many games did it show? Then at the end it says "and coming after Christmas" and it shows that amiga soccer game. That really makes it sound like every other game it showed in that montage should be out by Christmas.

Either Microsoft is about to dump 10 games a week here pretty soon, or they are going to have to admit they exagurated..... a lot.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I really hope this isn't the only XBLA game coming out tomorrow.

Is anyone else starting to get really skeptical? I swear I heard Peter Moore or someone say there would be 50 more XBLA games come out between TGS and Christmas. In order for that to be true, they would have to start dumping a few a week. Even at 20 or 30 games before christmas.

Also, just look at that video "XBLA montage". How many games did it show? Then at the end it says "and coming after Christmas" and it shows that amiga soccer game. That really makes it sound like every other game it showed in that montage should be out by Christmas.

Either Microsoft is about to dump 10 games a week here pretty soon, or they are going to have to admit they exagurated..... a lot.[/quote]
Yeah, I'm starting to lose a lot of the excitement I had over XBLA. I get absolutely no use out of all these lame ass, dated arcade ports. Like I said before, it's 2006, and why are people actually excited to see played out games like Galaga, Pac Man, or Time Pilot on XBLA? The trial versions of those games are good enough for me, because after playing the trial for a while, the novelty of the game weas off. Where are all the original games?
 
they seem to be wayyyy too serious about pacing titles. They're probably worried about not having any classics to milk for the 720.
 
My guess is we'll see atleast couple releases per week in November.

If they follow the same pattern, there will only be another 13 titles released before the end of the year....falling short of the 50 titles by Christmas (I think there's about 30 out right now).

Assuming Totemball and DigDug are released over the next couple of weeks, that leaves

Lumines
UMK3
Contra
Gyruss
Small Arms
Defender
Rush N Attack
Settlers of Catan
Carcassone
Alhambra
Mutant Storm Empire
Track & Field

In addition to any I forgot during the video.

I suspect what might happen is they'll release like Contra, Gyruss, and Rush N Attack during the same week and call it Konami Week. Likewise for the the Namco titles and the MGS board games.
 
[quote name='terribledeli']My guess is we'll see atleast couple releases per week in November.

If they follow the same pattern, there will only be another 13 titles released before the end of the year....falling short of the 50 titles by Christmas (I think there's about 30 out right now).

Assuming Totemball and DigDug are released over the next couple of weeks, that leaves

Lumines
UMK3
Contra
Gyruss
Small Arms
Defender
Rush N Attack
Settlers of Catan
Carcassone
Alhambra
Mutant Storm Empire
Track & Field

In addition to any I forgot during the video.

I suspect what might happen is they'll release like Contra, Gyruss, and Rush N Attack during the same week and call it Konami Week. Likewise for the the Namco titles and the MGS board games.[/QUOTE]

You forgot Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers... aren't those 2006, or are they early 2007?
 
[quote name='Roufuss']You forgot Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers... aren't those 2006, or are they early 2007?[/QUOTE]

I've heard Hominid was 2006, but I'm sure the ugly head of "There was problems with transfering it over to Live" might make an appearance.

There's still a multitude of "2006 releases" that were announced, but never resurfaced. I know Midway's president said they had four coming by Christmas (UMK3, Defender, Paperboy, and Rootbeer Tapper maybe?), but we've only really heard about the first two.

I figured the Sonic game was a shoe-in for a tie-in with the upcoming game release, but nothing since E3. I don't think they've formally delayed Roboblitz as well.

Greg Canessa should set up a blog to keep us updated on this kind of stuff. There seems to be a million new announcements about upcoming products, but then they fizzle and we're stuck with gamerpics. I mean, they didn't announce anything about SOTN during TGS huh? I would have figured that would have been all over the place.

edit: Also forgot the Chess game mentioned in the camera booklet. Lots of game announcements, but not much games. Maybe they're holding back when the VC ships in November.
 
I think DigDug will come out tomorrow. Major Nelson keeps stressing that there can be any amount of XBLA games released on the same day.
 
[quote name='Roufuss']You forgot Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers... aren't those 2006, or are they early 2007?[/QUOTE]

Pretty sure Castle is next year, not sure about Alien.

I have pried my friends that are dedicated XBLA developers about what's going on. Basically it's a number of factors.

1- Not even 2 months after the launch of XBLA, Microsoft seriously had every major publisher clamoring at Microsoft saying they wanted to create entire new developer houses dedicated to XBLA (Because the profit margin is incredible compared to retail games). Microsoft told most of them no, and that for now they wanted XBLA original games to be done by very small indy developers. (This is both good and bad)

2- My friends know personally of a handful of games that are pretty much done (The only one I can mention is RoboBlitz), but are in extended polishing stages. Microsoft is incredibly anal about some incredibly weird things, so it's constant ping pong before Microsoft says it's done. (For example, roboblitz has been in 'polishing stages' since end of August)

3- Microsoft, in a way, botched the whole thing by trying to worship the idiol of variety. Pretty much all the developers of the original XBLA games are very very small (in some cases, working out of basements of their houses). This is what microsoft wanted. For obvious reasons, these developers are SLOW. Microsoft added lots of old titles to the grind because, naturally, they can be done faster. (But make no mistake, there is far more work that goes into converting these classics than most think).

4- It is not true that Microsoft is sitting on finished games just spacing them out. They may have done so, but not more than 2 weeks. They literally throw them on live within days of being finished (Why DOOM had an update right at launch)

5- It is hoped that the whole XNA thing will help this whole situation. When any tom, dick, and harry, can create games and literally have them submitted to microsoft for nearly no cost, it's possible that many will get made into real xbla games and the pipeline will fatten up fast.
 
So.. is this free for a limited time like Texas Hold 'Em, or just free forever?

I ordered a camera a few days ago with that hot buy.com/google checkout deal. The description said "comes with 1 Month of gold, Uno, and Totemball". So I guess either way I'm getting this game for free, hopefully it's cool.
 
I cannot play this game worth a shit. It's so hard to control. Maybe I'm just too close to the camera. I can't play this standing up, I'm playing in a cramped in space on a computer desk.
 
Just played the trial level, but my initial impressions so far are "not that good".

Control in these camera games just feels so contrived. It's a game that would be much more enjoyable to me if I could just control it with the thumbsticks.
 
[quote name='terribledeli']My guess is we'll see atleast couple releases per week in November.

If they follow the same pattern, there will only be another 13 titles released before the end of the year....falling short of the 50 titles by Christmas (I think there's about 30 out right now).

Assuming Totemball and DigDug are released over the next couple of weeks, that leaves

Lumines
UMK3
Contra
Gyruss
Small Arms
Defender
Rush N Attack
Settlers of Catan
Carcassone
Alhambra
Mutant Storm Empire
Track & Field

In addition to any I forgot during the video.

I suspect what might happen is they'll release like Contra, Gyruss, and Rush N Attack during the same week and call it Konami Week. Likewise for the the Namco titles and the MGS board games.[/QUOTE]

You forgot Castlevania & Castlevania Sympothy of the night.
 
I thought that the controls weren't that responsive but my room lighting sucks. Guess I'll give it a shot with the windows open and when the sunlight is out, maybe this will help...or if I get super bright flourecent bulbs in my room. Seems like it could be fun once I get the controls right.
 
The game is terrible. It doesn't work right. My room is well lit and there's nothing moving behind me and the damn sliders in the waterfalls move like crazy by theirselves. I've tried adjusting the contrast on the camera and everything.

fuck this game. Thank god it was free.
 
my arms are very tired right now due to getting through that first level...got my acheivement though:)


the controls arent too bad once you get the hang of it...but getting the hang of it is hard
 
My only problem is that one of my posters in my room has a dark image towards the bottom and the game thinks that is where my hand is, besides that it didnt seem to handle too bad.................Definately Tiresome though, but so was the eyetoy
 
[quote name='madportagee']My only problem is that one of my posters in my room has a dark image towards the bottom and the game thinks that is where my hand is, besides that it didnt seem to handle too bad.................Definately Tiresome though, but so was the eyetoy[/QUOTE]


Shhhh..... Some out there still think the wiimote will usher in a revolution in gaming!
 
Oh man, I cracked up when I saw this pic of Cornholio. Thanks for the laugh, Brak! I was just playing Totem Ball... and yeah, that's exactly what I look like...

[quote name='Brak']
cornholio.jpg
[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='Brak']
cornholio.jpg
[/quote]

Funniest shit I've seen all day. This game blows. Plus, the achievements are WAY too hard.
 
Honestly, camera based games are pretty fucking stupid to begin with. TotemBall would be good, easy, but good, if it just used the controller.
 
Tried this afternoon while my room was bright and there was no change. The freaking logs move by themselves, its a pain in the ass to get the fucking turtle to turn left or right and I have no idea how to make it go backwards. The controls are way unresponsive, I move my hands, I don't move them, its very inconsistent...coulda been a good game. Thought it was just the lighting in my room, but since everyone is posting the same thing, I know its just a crappy game.

BTW: My gamerpic reflects the "Cornholio" as well :D I put it on last night after I was dead tired from playing the game.
 
Actually, my control works fine for the most part. Very impressed with how well it works.

But it's still not a very fun game. After 5 minutes, the novelty wore off and that was that.
 
i dl this game even though i don't have a camera, just in case i ever get one, and they start charging money for this
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']Tried this afternoon while my room was bright and there was no change. The freaking logs move by themselves, its a pain in the ass to get the fucking turtle to turn left or right and I have no idea how to make it go backwards. The controls are way unresponsive, I move my hands, I don't move them, its very inconsistent...coulda been a good game. Thought it was just the lighting in my room, but since everyone is posting the same thing, I know its just a crappy game.

BTW: My gamerpic reflects the "Cornholio" as well :D I put it on last night after I was dead tired from playing the game.[/quote]

yeah, the control was virtually impossible. I gave it a solid 45 minutes of trying though and I cleared the first 2 levels. They would have taken about a minute each if I used the controller. Also, the achievements are just crazy - complete the game without dying? If you can't control it how is that supposed to happen? 20 minutes without a break? No way. I'm highly disappointed and if this is any indication of future games featuring the camera I fear I may have wasted $60.
 
I think I'm done. I got my couple achievements and moved on. I've heard Strange Flavour was comissioned to produce atleast 3 more camera based games.
 
[quote name='elsnow77']i dl this game even though i don't have a camera, just in case i ever get one, and they start charging money for this[/quote]
Ditto.
 
I got to play this yesterday as my Buy.com order showed up. I found this game horrid, my shoulders started to hurt after a few minutes. The pinball mini-game was interesting....that's all I did though. I think I got two achievements, and then that was it. The camera is nice though....small and compact.
 
[quote name='anomynous']this game sucks.....................




A LOT[/QUOTE]

That's pretty much all I was saying as I played the game just now. Made it through 2 levels (and the "bonus" level) and I think I'm done with it. Very, very bad game.

What are the odds MS purposely released a sucky game that has you waving your arms around to discourage people from getting a certain other new console? :whistle2:\"
 
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