Last month, the latest mobile game from Angelwire Studio, run by Josiah Jones, was released. Totem Pole Takedown is a relatively simple take on the match-3 style puzzle game. It has simple and fun gameplay, but lacks a few features which would improve the playability of the game.
The concept of TPT is clear, touch totems in the pole to remove them and earn points. The more totems in a set you clear with each touch, the more points you get. So 2 matching totems will get you more points than 1 and 3 will score more points than 2 and so on.
The more sets you clear, the higher the combo meter will be. So if you can continue to clear sets, you will make more points with each one. However, when you clear only a single totem, the combo meter will decrease.
TPT has three modes, Normal, Simple and Crazy. Each has an unique way of playing the game, but the names of each mode do not really describe how they each play. Normal mode has color coded power meters that fill up as you clear sets of that color. When the meter is full, you can clear out all totems not of that color to help build up sets.
Simple mode plays the same but without the color meters.
Crazy mode is like simple but the combo meter slowly empties if you aren’t actively playing and clearing sets.
TPT itself is fairly fun to play. However, there are some things that would improve the fun of the game but it unfortunately lacks. For example, at the end of each play session, the game tells you what your final score is, but it does not tell you if you beat your high score. This simple change would make the game a lot more fun to play.
Another issue is that TPT doesn’t do a lot to reinforce to you if you are doing a good job. You get a little “wow” if you match 4 or more totems, but they are hard to see . Making those more flashy and adding additional positive reinforcement if the player makes multiple matches in a row would make the game a whole lot more fun to play.
Otherwise, TPT is completely free, with no ads, to play. It could be worth downloading and seeing if it scratches an itch you may have. But if those little changes I suggested were to be added, it would be a definite download recommendation from me.
Totem Pole Takedown is available free for Android and iPhone.
