Tak and the Power of Juju

"If you want a game where you jump around half naked in the jungle, go play Tarzan."

Introduction

Tak and The Power of Juju is an excellent example of a half-assed game: it gets as little done as it can while making sure it fills its quota so it can be out the door for the day. For example, the graphics and game play could have used improvement. I'll go more in-depth later in the review.

Game Play 4.5/10

The Game Play is pretty simple. It's just a classic side scrolling platform game. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of strategy involved. You chose from a blowgun and a leaf fan during the entire course of the game; blowgun being your long range weapon and the leaf fan being your up close weapon. Besides jumping and ducking there isn't much else. The enemy A.I is also pretty bad, you might find yourself bored with this game in a matter of minutes.

Difficulty: Easy

Any experienced gamers should have very little trouble getting through this game. As long as you know how to jump, climb and shoot, you should be fine.

Graphics 4/10

The graphics are somewhat good for a side scrolling platform game, but the level designs tend to be overused. Most of the time everything will just look the same. It becomes challenging just to figure out what level you are on. In short, the graphics were disappointing.

Story 5/10

This was also a disappointment. It's pretty much a run-of-the-mill Story. The main quest is to turn the sheep back into villagers after the evil shaman Tlaloc used his black voodoo magic on their candy asses. You have to fight the same bosses over and over again (Pins and Needles). Very boring…

Sound 7.5/10

Shock upon shock! It was one thing to be entertaining, but to say it had good sound was out of the question. Or so I thought. The music is very fitting to the mood. This could be the first game that makes younger gamers realize how important music is to gaming, and how good it can be when done right.

Concept 4/10

It's not the most original idea, but the game is light hearted and provides a lot of unorthodox ideas that players normally wouldn't see in any other side scrolling platform game, but that still wasn't enough to save this game.

Overall: 4/10(non-cumulative)
Tak and the Power of Juju will give younger players a lot of replay time, but it is not a title for older gamers. If you have kids who love this genre of games, I suggest picking it up. Other than that, this makes for a mediocre weekend rental.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/04, Updated 08/05/04