"Tak brings back the fun to DS, but it's over by the time you finish spelling out Juju"

The first Tak game, Tak and the Power of Juju, was one heck of a great platform game. It distinguished itself by lush and beautiful lands, some crazy humor, and a long quest in a huge world. Then it went downhill. The nifty 3D platformer went from open-ended to linear and straightforward, and then to a puzzle oriented gameplay with little to no exploration. I stopped caring after the second game, until I got Tak 3 for DS. Although it's not as cleverly designed as the console counterparts, it has its own merits... and flaws.

There are few 3D platformers for DS, and while Tak might not be big enough of a game, it's a fun one. In The Great Juju Challenge, you control both Tak and Lok, who each have their own abilities. I'm not sure what the storyline is about exactly as I skipped most cutscenes, but you're apparently on to defeat some bad guy. Tak might be a funny game, but the texts cutscenes were too uninteresting to keep my interest. I'm sure there was enough space on that little cartridge for more fancy. Even just a few voice acting tracks would have helped. As it is, there was nothing to make me care about what was going on between the levels.

The game consists of three different worlds; Kiro Biro Forest, Parchlands, and Fowlers Murk. In each of these worlds, you'll undergo many diverse challenges. The first one is a racing mini-game in which you use the catapult as a kart. While those racing levels are decent, the controls aren't too good and it's very hard to see the path ahead, resulting in many cheap deaths. The second one is a compilation of various different mini-games that are scattered throughout the levels. Most of them use the touchscreen and stylus, which makes for some pleasant and original objectives. In one of them you'll be throwing a sheep around, in another you'll be slicing rocks, in one other you'll be blowing into the mic to fly, and so on.

The third, and this is the core of the game, is the standard 3D platforming levels. Just like the console games, the levels are linear and don't leave much place to exploring, but you'll be doing a fair mix of puzzle solving and pure platform jumping. Although the puzzles aren't as complex as in the console versions, most of them require you to look around to find torches to light up or switches to hit, others require you to find a sheep and think of what to do with it to overcome an obstacle, and others have you use a rhino or elephant to bypass a part of the level. In between all of that you'll be jumping from platform to platform is some easy platform designs and running around beating up on bad guys. Nothing too special, but it isn't bad either.

As mentioned earlier, it's possible to switch from Tak to Lok, but in the DS game it makes little sense. Tak can cross water by swimming, and Lok can climb up walls. That is all. The game forces you to switch from the two just to get past a puddle of water or a 3 feet wall. This made me question the utility of having two characters, besides the fact that they had to stay in tune with the console versions, which make better use of the two characters. The DS version makes almost no use of them. I would have been fine only controlling Tak the whole way through, as I'm sure he doesn't really need Lok just to climb a wall.

As you wander through the levels, you'll find some ingredients that can be used to buy powers from one of your Juju friends. You can assign these powers to Tak, Lok, or even the catapult. While this is a neat idea, it's pretty useless. You can only access the Juju's shop three times in the game, and can only assign the powers in-between the levels, which only happens three times. And if you're missing some ingredients, there is no way to go back to get more. Having access to the shop more often would have been better or it has no use. You don't really need those powers any ways, as I went through the game with none, but it's always silly to have a feature in a game that you can't make much use of.

As expected from a series that always boasts beautiful graphics, Tak The Great Juju Challenge doesn't disappoint graphically. It uses an impressive 3D engine and every model is textured as much as possible. It obviously doesn't live up to the console version in terms of creativity, the game looking quite bland in comparison, but for a DS game it's the best it has to offer. The sound isn't quite as good as in the other games too, although you'll recognize the trademark tribal music. It just didn't come out as good here. The tam-tam sounds and bird chirps got on my nerves quickly.

Tak 3 does a great job of providing a fun quest that goes well along with the console versions of the game, but unfortunately it's not on par. The game only offers three big levels that take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to complete, and a few mini-games. While the mini-games are nice, the game itself only takes around three hours to fully complete. I had a hard time believing the game was already over when I reached the end. It felt like a demo. The mini-games are the game's only replay value, and even them get tiresome once played a couple of times. The game offers a Hard mode to replay on, but this isn't enough to warrant a replay through the same three levels over again. It's good the first time around, but not good enough for another trek through.

The Great Juju Challenge is a great game only for a low price. Had it had a few more levels, it could have been more worthy, but as a 3-hour game, it's hard to recommend. Children will like the mini-games, but the quest isn't substantial enough for older players, even Tak fans.


Presentation 5/10
Gameplay 7/10
Graphics 8/10
Music 5/10
Replay Value 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/08

Game Release: Tak: The Great Juju Challenge (US, 09/19/05)