On your mark. Get set. Juju.
- NA release: 19th September 2005
- EU release: 19th September 2005
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Avalanche Software
- Publisher: THQ
- NGC Magazine Score: N/A
- Mods Used: Widescreen Code
While the gameplay or the previous Tak games was middling, they stood out due to some lovely cutscenes with animation that would have been good enough for a feature film. So it’s quite a disappointment when this game starts and the cutscenes use the in-game models, which aren’t capable of the expressions the old cutscenes had.
The gameplay is also very different. The previous game was all about manipulating animals to help you along to the next section and all that is gone, focusing on more basic platforms and dull combat. There is one big new addition to: coop. The doofus Lok now joins Tak, with basic abilities split between them. Tak can swim while Lok can climb and throw. This means when you play as yourself, you’ll have to swap between them, sometimes redoing parts of levels as the CPU controlled character can’t manage it. With another player, you’ll have plenty of time standing in switches and waiting around.
Every level is also a time trial, with faster times earning points as you try to win the Great JuJu Challenge. Which means constantly rushing straight forward instead of looking around (not that there’s much to look for). I wasn’t even a big fan of the previous games and this was quite a disappointment.
Poor
Despite its occasional cute moments and the compelling aspects of the cooperative mode, Tak 3 is more frustrating than anything else. The gameplay seems unfocused and doesn’t work optimally for either single players or pairs. We even encountered a couple of level-stopping bugs during our play-through of the game. Tak 3: The Great Juju Challenge has a few worthwhile features, but overall, the risk is much greater than the reward. This is the go-to platformer for co-op, but there are plenty of other platformers that are go-to for fun.
Carrie Gouskos, GameSpot
Remake or remaster?
A collection of all the games would be good.
Official Ways to get the game
There’s no official way to buy Tak: The Great Juju Challenge.
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