GameSpy: Tak: The Great Juju Challenge - Page 1
Reviews
By Dan Leahy | Sep 27, 2005
Part Banjo, part Lost Vikings, the newest installment of Tak requires teamwork to get the job done.
Good
Pros:
100 percent kid-friendly gaming, with worlds designed to elicit yelps of joy from the under-13 crowd.
Cons:
Nowhere near as advanced as Sly or some other action/platformers; a bit on the conservative side.
When taking aim at a game for kids, it's hard to bring a fresh perspective to the table. Having been through COUNTLESS mascot action/platform titles, it's easy to dismiss anything non-Mario or Sonic and move on. The problem with that is, for every Spryon, Blinx, Bubsy or Aero the Acrobat, a new and worthwhile character emerges from the rubble. Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank are two recent examples of characters who distanced themselves from the pack of also-rans. The Tak series has been gradually gaining acceptance as a success story, and Tak and the Great Ju-Ju Adventure had me playing right alongside my seven-year old. More on that later.
Tak To Basics
Despite being the third title in the series, you'll notice there's no three attached to the title. Where the first two games focused on Tak's mission to defeat the evil Tlalco, The Great JuJu Challenge is based around an annual Olympic-style event. Tak and his partner Lok hail from the Pupanunu tribe, and your goal is to have them capture as many prizes as possible. As you advance through the JuJu challenges, you'll be able to go through new checkpoints and gain time to finish other areas. The idea is to polish off each area with the most time and points in order to beat the competing tribes.
Accomplishing your objectives and achieving optimal performance is only possible when using both characters. We mentioned Lok above, and he's part of the new dual character (Banjo and Kazooie-esque) setup in Tak. Similar to the vastly underappreciated Lost Vikings titles of the early '90s, Tak and Lok have skills which complement each other when it comes to problem solving. Tak is the bomb when it comes to magic, quick dashes, swimming, etc., while Lok is physically powerful, can climb, and has a penchant for attracting fish (don't ask).
The game skillfully requires creative thinking when it comes to alternating control between each character (accomplished by a simple button press). It also works just fine either in one-player mode, or in two-player co-op mode. It's pretty cool to be going through a level with someone and realize, at certain spots, you need to rendezvous and go "wonder-twin" powers on a task. Watching Lok throw Tak to a new area of a level is funny enough, but somehow takes on an almost-Three Stooges quality when you're saying to the person next to you, "Dude, pick me up and throw me up to that cave."
Split-screen works well for the two-player action, and seamlessly goes back to full-screen action if your buddy drops out of the game. As for "extras," this isn't a Ratchet-style item-fest … there are some specialized suits that grant special abilities. The lobster suit makes underwater action possible, and even comes with its own claw snap attack. The chicken suit, introduced in previous Tak games, lets you fly to previously unseen areas of a level.