Tak and the Power of JuJu (Game Boy Advance) Review

The game is slightly odd in the respect that it is being released BEFORE the TV series of the same plot. Usually a TV series is released first to establish the franchise then a game comes after as a money making spin off, not this time though. Not that it really matters as it is quite clear it was rushed out to make money, rather than provide gaming entertainment for hardcore gamers. This is to be expected though, and doesn't make it a bad game by any means. Just be aware that the target audience is quite young therefore certain elements are going to be a certain way, as you can imagine. We will go into these in more detail later on. One other thing that needs mentioning is the fact there is a 3D iteration of the game on both PS2 and GameCube already, which got average and above reviews from the general gaming community.

Let's get the simple things out of the way first shall we? Starting off there is the storyline, well there nearly is. It, as you can imagine from a 2D platformer aimed at kids isn't very impressive. The basic gist of it revolves around a prophecy made many years ago by the Pupununu tribe, which foretells that in the future a great evil will awake, and begin to cause havoc here, there and everywhere. To stop this from happening the prophecy was passed down the generations so that the tribe were always ready to fight the evil with a mighty warrior of their own. However all does not go to plan, as when the time does come the hero gets transformed into a sheep and is unable to for fill his duty. Enter Tak, the replacement, and so the adventure begins...

The first things you are going to notice once you start playing are the crsip and rather beautiful graphics. Although there is nothing here to make you go 'wow', it's all very easy on the eye, and a pleasure to behold at all times. The various worlds (of which there are eight) are all surprisingly varied, meaning you never get stuck looking at the same scenery for very long. Of course none of these are especially original; you have the usual forest levels, lava levels, big scary-end-of-game castle levels, etc. Scrolling backgrounds and well animated enemy sprites as well as other inanimate objects are nice touches, and show that developers have put some effort into the game, it just makes you think why they couldn't of done that the whole way through though. However all of these visual details add to the overall feel of the title, which in essence is a rather cutesy affair, no doubt aimed at younger gamers, who haven't been playing this kind of thing since the dawn of time.

Moving onto how the game plays, there also very few surprises here, you have your basic run and jump formula. Avoiding spiky thorn bushes (which may we add, are often so well camouflaged with the background, you're likely to walk straight into them not knowing until it's too late and you've lost a 'feather'. This in case you were wondering is just the games ingenious replacement of the common heart system from every other platformer on the planet. Despite these awkward moments, it is in fact rather difficult to die, seeing as developers have placed health replenishing feathers so frequently in almost all levels, the moment you loose health you're going to get it straight back again. On top of this building up a stock of lives is just far too easy, you won't even notice it happening, then all of a sudden you'll loose one, look at how many are left, and see the number into double figures. Gaining new lives is achieved either by picking up an extra life icon in a level, or collecting a hundred glowing 'yorbels'. Think along the lines of Sonic and you will be on the right track, in fact you won't just be on the right track, you will be exactly right.

So what have we got so far? Some nice looking visuals, some pretty average gameplay mechanics, and a storyline that may as well not be there. Doesn't really sound all the appealing, but there is more to it than that, honestly. For starters the musical soundtrack is quite nice, it's all very rhythm and beat type tunes to fit in with the tribal, 'caveman' feel of the game. Still nothing to particularly write home about, surely there's more to the game then just what has been mentioned? Well yes actually there is. There are some other features that help make the game at least a little bit more exciting throughout. Mainly the two-weapon system, you start the game off with a rather useless blowgun, which can't actually kill enemies, but can stun them temporarily. Luckily later on you get access to the more powerful club type object, which has magic powers too. Unfortunately developers have poorly designed this game, thus ensuing that you will rarely want to use the weaker blow gun, yet alone need to use it, once you have the club. This kind of ruins the whole idea of having two weapons in the first place, and once you've got the upgrade to charge the club up, your never going to want the blow gun at all. Fact. A real shame, seeing as this could have been a feature to be exploited to add some originality to the game.