Tak and the Great Juju Challenge for the Nintendo DS sounded like one of those games that my 10 year old son would play and I’d totally not understand his interest in it. Well, I was only half right. I picked up the game one day just to see what he’s been so interested in, and was hooked.
This game reminded me of those games that, 20 years ago, would eat up my allowance in quarters at the arcade, but with the addition of a bit of a storyline running through it. The story itself is simple. You are team Pupanunu (both members, in this case). You alternate between playing as Tak or Lok depending on what is needed. Tak is like the magician who can’t stand up against an ant when it comes to fighting melee style, but has great moves to get past obstacles. Lok is the tank of the team, and will roll over anything and everything in his path … So long as the “anything” isn’t a fish, that is. He’s got a major fish-phobia that keeps him out of the water at all times. Your team is competing against three others in the Great Juju Challenge. What’s fun about the story are the little scenes between each challenge. The dialogue is often witty and left me chuckling out loud. And the gameplay itself isn’t as incredibly difficult as I usually find in these sorts of games.
The touch pad is used just to change between Tak and Lok. Otherwise, the commands for the game all use the control pad arrows and the buttons. There are times when hitting the “Jump” button fast enough to pass over a particular ridge, or combine moves fast enough to get Lok to pull off a fancy move, takes some practice. But more often than not I found myself repeating levels because I needed to figure out the puzzle, not get my fingers to move fast enough. It is admittedly a combination of both. In the first challenge, for example, you have to race the other teams along a curvy, twisty track, accelerating your car fast enough to stay in at least 3rd place, but not going so fast that you miss a turn or fly off the track. I must have run that race 10 times before I had memorized it enough to learn how to speed up and slow down at just the right moments. But the challenge was a fun one, and when I finally came in second place, I felt like a heroe, just like Tak and Lok did. Best of all, as you complete a certain part of the challenge, you unlock the mini game and can play it later. And it is in the mini-games that the technology of the DS with the touchpad really is used. There’s just something special about using a little stylus to play a game rather than always pushing buttons.
I have played this game for hours, simply because it is so addicting to want to get just a little bit further. There are things to collect on each level that will increase Tak and Lok’s abilities. Blessing Gems are made from fun ingredients like Juju Fruit and Woo Woo Crystals. You then place them in sockets in your shaman jewelry, for example. Or unlock new clothing and weapons. Or defeat Rokkers to collect Rokker Crystals and learn new special combo moves.
My son likes how much like a console game this is. The fast-paced action holds his attention well, and he doesn’t see the game as a puzzle to solve, as I do. He plays the game to compete against the computer, while I play it to compete against myself. Of course, there’s a little competition between one another, which leads me to the one disappointing difference between Tak for the console (PS2) and Tak for the DS. There is no multiplayer option with the DS version. It would have been fun to be able to link DSs together and play, either cooperatively or against one another.
Overall Tak and the Great Juju Challenge is a fun, easily portable diversion for kids of all ages, even ones that are called “adults.” I find the cartoon humor and ease of gameplay make it fun, and the challenge of figuring out how to best pass each part of the race highly addicting. I’m glad we picked up Tak and the Great Juju Challenge, and I think you will be too.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
