Tak: The Great Juju Challenge – NDS – Review

Tak is starting to become quite the popular
character. He has his own show on Nickelodeon, little toys are being given out
in McDonald’s happy meals and even more impressive, a new game has been
launched across several systems.  Which brings me to today’s review, Tak: The
Great JuJu Challenge.

Tak and Lok have been selected by
their village to partake in the Great JuJu Challenge. The challenge involves
competing against other tribes in order to get crowned champion and winner of
the Challenge; the problem is the story of the game is mired in confusion. It
seems that the game developers were taking for granted that anyone playing
this title would already know the extensive Tak history, which for some will
simply not be true. For instance, I know Tak is a TV character, and it appears
that those faithful to the show will understand the game’s already developed
characters (as well as those who have played previous games), but as it is I
think they failed to recognize those gamers who are new to the series and want
something new to play. But for those who are unfamiliar, and this marks the
biggest problem of the game; the storyline/presentation is not spelled out in
an easy to understand fashion. I understand that I must win each of the
challenges over the other tribes, who are decidedly more evil-looking, but
where’s the back story? Where is that gusto that makes you want to join Tak
and Lok in their adventure over evil? In the first 15 minutes of play, players
are introduced to probably 10 characters and they all seem to know each other,
but to the uninitiated, it spells out a certain level of confusion. Who’s this
gal who disappears with magic? Why does this guy have a talking face on his
belly? Why is this skeleton talking to me like I have partied with him in the
past? All of these are questions that will make you wonder what’s going on.
Again, to those who simply have no prior Tak knowledge, it will all seem very
confusing, and the game doesn’t get any less as it gets on.

The loincloth, this years answer to summer shorts.

Light and airy, yet easy to wash and incredibly durable.

OK, well since this game is aimed at ten year
olds, I guess I can forgive the loose explanations of the story and
characters. But what I cannot forgive is the game’s clunky character
enhancement screen which has you positioning gems into a rock diagram that is
supposed to represent the characters of the game. As you collect these
little magical gems, you supposedly enhance your character’s abilities. I
didn’t notice any sort of real difference. You can even add these items to
your racing vehicle (see below) in order to trick it out a bit, but again, I
couldn’t wrap my noodle around the whole enhancement schematic. The game
doesn’t provide a decent enough explanation on how it all works and trial by
error is simply inane. Simply put, the game really lacks any sort of tutorial
for the behind the scenes mechanics of character development.

The same could be said for the scenes between
action, where a character pops on screen and (badly) describes what the next
part of the challenge is going to be.  Grammar doesn’t seem to be on the menu
here and the instructions aren’t all that clear. Maybe if there was some voice
work and we heard the goofy broken English that I am assuming the characters
speak with, it might have gone over better, but since I’m not sure, the gaming
experience was made all the more frustrating.

Normally shooting chickens isn’t much sport,
but when it’s a guy dressed up as a chicken, well…

The game does have decent graphics going for it
and the game is set in a well designed 3D world where you are required to
switch back and forth between Tak and Lok as they each have their specialty
with dealing with the terrain. Since the view is from the 3rd person
perspective, you can count on having decent field of view and the trigger
buttons on the DS are always there to help take a gander around.  Levels have
good depth to them and I was more then impressed with the use of structure and
horizon to breathe life into the land. I also must note some shading going on
that made me believe that the graphics team was the hardest working group on
this project. And since the game features other modes of play like racing
carts and mini-games, the visuals of the game are by far it’s strongest point.

One of Tak’s other redeeming features is its
strong mini-game collection. This collection of around ten mini-games can be
more fun to play then the decidedly less-fun main game. Using the DSs
additional inputs you will find yourself using the microphone to blow
characters around the screen as well as using the stylus for some unrequited
fun. The multiplayer function on the other hand was not able to be tested as
this appears to be one of those DS games that requires two copies of the game
in order to play.

Some might complain that some parts of the game
seem to lead you to nothing, and it’s difficult to find out what to do next. I
can see their side, but I offer this, Tak has some genuinely interesting
puzzles and in-game play that I was impressed with how you
must figure out where to go and/or how to get there. It may be as simple as
lighting a torch, or punching a baby rhino so’s to tick him off and break down
an otherwise impassable wall.

Gameplay: 7.4

While Tak and Lok are similar in their controls
they each have innate abilities that allow them to traverse the terrain,
switching back and forth between them is as easy as touching the lower screen.

Graphics: 8.2

Nice 3D landscaping and good use of the systems
ability to pump out 60FPS graphics make this the games strongest feature. Good
use of color and shading.

Sound: 6.6

I know it’s a kids TV show, why didn’t they do
voice acting? It may have helped the game unfold in a more presentable manner.
The little soundtrack that does play does a decent job of floating along with
the in-game action.

Difficulty: Easy

The Great JuJu Challenge isn’t.

Concept: 6.1

It takes ideas from several other games and plops
them all together, the idea is not new and it certainly does not raise the
bar.

Overall: 6.3
The unfriendly bits clearly out weigh the good
ones. Which is sad because it looks like there was real potential here with
the decent graphics, too bad the overall experience left me feeling a bit
drab. The whole experience just doesn’t come together the way it should.