Tak and the Power of Juju

"Tak and the power of Juju ? Where's the juju then ?"

After trying the Gamecube version of TaK, I decided to try out the Gameboy Advance version. It was quite disappointing because of many different reasons. The first one being that it is a very ordinary and basic sidecrolling platformer, with nothing special or new to it while the Gamecube/PS2 version has a completely different style of gameplay. There's nothing in the GBA version that reminds me of the GC/PS2 version and that's a big fault since there were some interesting puzzle elements in those versions...

Gameplay 5/10

Tak starts off as a very difficult platformer, with many enemies to hit, many obstacles to avoid and that from the first few levels. You also starts off with just a little life force and you can't even kill the enemies. Then, it becomes easier as you gain more life force and get the second weapon which allows to kill the enemies. From that point it becomes more enjoyable. But there's a few things that make that platformer not a must-have at all. First unlike the GC/PS2 versions, there's no puzzles and I think it would have add to the gameplay. You simply starts from a point in the level and go to the end, killing some enemies along the way and avoiding some out-of-place obstacles. Tak doesn't have anything to distinguish it from the other sidecrolling platformers. It simply reutilize the same things all other platformers used before it, making it a very basic sidescroller. Sure, it's fun, it's simple, not too hard nor too easy, but there's nothing that make it exciting or anything.

There are some little things added to the gameplay as you advance further, as a chicken suit that lets you fly and a fish suit to swim underwater. But is that enough? You have 2 weapons, a blowgun and a staff. The blowgun is later use to hit faraway objects to open doors and such but that's all. There are some animals involved with the gameplay too, but the rhino only lets you ride him and the goat can break rocks. Most of the time, all you'll do is jump over thorn bushes and climbing up ropes. The last thing are the sheep, there is a certain number to find in every levels but it seems like it doesn't do anything to collect them... talk about useless stuff to collect, why putting it there if it doesn't do anything? There are bosses also but they are very easy and are most of the time just some mini-games. Also you have to collect things for the shaman so he can do his stuff. Tak for GBA isn't even half the quality of the other versions and I think they could have done more with the GBA version. There even isn't any Jujus in that game, so people who haven't played the GC/PS2 version won't even know what a Juju is...

Graphic/Sound 7/10

Very nice.. in the first levels. I don't know what happened, but the first levels are really good graphically and the rest is just too ordinary. In the first levels, you can see a jungle in the background with a lot of nice details and everything else looks great like the little huts in the trees and such. But then the other levels are simply like any other game. No more nice backgrounds and very few details. It's like they put all the nice stuff into the first levels and then didn't care about the rest. This must be why there were so many jungle levels... The music is nice, it's very jungle-ish. It changes in every levels so you won't get sick of it, it's good.

Replay Value 4/10

Replay Value? Not in this game. It makes you collect sheep in every levels but even if you collect them all, no bonus nor anything. And you can't even revisit older levels to collect all the sheep. You have to restart the game if you want them all. Maybe you'll replay the game some day, it's fun and not so long.

Overall 6/10

A good buy if you like sidescrolling platformers. If you're looking for something different and fresh, then don't buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/04, Updated 01/03/05