Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Review (no fat)

Game Description

Tak is back with his third adventure along with his tribe of the Pupanunu people. In Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, the plot revolves around the famous sorcerer’s adventure. Refreshingly, the tribe’s main enemy, Tlaloc, is not the center of the events. Instead the tribe is taking part in a famous Juju tournament in which all the famous tribes take part.

Tak is not alone though, much to everyone’s surprise Lok will also take part in the challenge in order to assist Tak in completing the tasks. Although quite different, both characters are likeable, and they bring together a fun and amusing experience for the gamers.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Gameplay

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge is a mixture of different genres of the gaming world. It consists of a bunch of mini games, a racing game and, of course, a platform game. Avalanche studios did a great job of diversify the gameplay. Although Tlaloc was entertaining they did the right thing by removing him from the game and bringing a change to the storyline. Even though this game may be targeted for younger players it certainly has the ability to entertain older gamers as well.

There are 4 worlds in the game including 15 levels of exotic locales, through which Tak and Lok assist each other. There is a mixture of all types of comical and yet interesting levels that can be platform style or puzzle solving.

One of the many advantages of the quest mode is that you can play and unlock the 10 mini games. The variety is great and they do justice to the capabilities of the Nintendo DS system. There is also a race that comes at the end of every world meaning that the next world is about to start.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge – Team Work

During any of the platform levels you can switch from Tak to Lok and vice versa at the touch of a button. Both characters have their unique abilities. Tak can swim in shallow water and use his magic to kill enemies from a distance. While Lok can climb walls with vines on them and wear his lobster costume and walk on the seabed. You can also play with a split screen with the second player at any point of the game at the touch of a button.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Upgrades

As Tak and Lok gain in experience, they can upgrade their magical, and other, abilities. The upgrades are achieved by collecting blessing gems purchased from settlers between levels. The upgrades include spells, attack powers and health incentives.

The system of purchasing upgrades also lends some extra playing time to this game. The relatively easy puzzles can be a run through but collecting the fruits to buy upgrades means that you have to spend time exploring levels in order to enhance your purchasing power.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Graphics

The graphics are just great, everything looks beautiful and flawless. The trees are just as you would expect them to be. The characters make you feel that every little detail has been covered.

The locales are similarly candy-shop material; waterfalls, rivers and lakes. If you can get to a high enough place you can see in the distance of a large part of the level.

The sole problem arises from the camera angle. Even though the camera remains consistent for the most part, it does tend to get stuck behind objects at times. The camera is also an issue in the go cart mode. However, such minor glitches can be ignored if the rest of the package puts up a good show.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Sound

The cut scenes and dialogues are text-only, which is a great let down for DS owners…especially now that we know what the system capable of. In any case, the text dialogues take the away the bite from the humorous dialogues and situations so fans of the series will know what they are missing.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Summing Up

The racing levels are spoiled by the camera glitches, and even for a DS title, the actual story mode is too short. Conversely, if there was ever a perfect title for a video game for the younger gamers this would be it.

There is a great split screen mode, the graphics are excellent and the mini games give it a good replay value. Tak: The Great Juju Challenge is geared up to bag more fans with this outing.

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge Cost

The game retails for $19.99US, at the time of writing.