If you were asked to name a legendary computer game character, chances are it would be Mario, Sonic or maybe even Crash Bandicoot (Lara Croft doesn't count here, otherwise it would nullify my thesis, so shut up all you Croftites!). These characters paved the way in gaming, and established themselves as household names along the way. All of them came from platform games.

But gone are the days when just a few games were released per month and every other one seemed to be a gem. Nowadays every development company has their own Mario or Sonic on the release schedule, usually offering very little new to the genre except for a gimmick of some sort. Most see your character run, jump, collect, solve simple puzzles and occasionally hit things a bit… So why bother with Tak then?

   

Tak offers the same things that we'd all expect from a platformer, but the trick is in the presentation of the game. Co-developed by the people at Nickelodeon studios, you can see from the get-go that it's loaded with cartoon style. The characters are bright and caricatured, with large heads and bulging white eyes, clearly made for comedy, which also shows in the rather silly plot: An evil shaman called Tlaloc has stolen the moon stones from the Pupununu tribe (the source of their power) and turned most of the tribe into sheep, including the tribe's mighty warrior, Lok. Luckily the tribe's head shaman (Jibolba) and the village half-pint (Tak) survive the ritual, and playing as Tak, your job is to now sort out and de-sheepify Lok, and get him ready to fight Tlaloc. Got that?

Now this does mean going to collect certain things, but it is not as linear and simple as your average platformer, having tasks to do in each section of Tak's world, and with one of the Moon spirit's protectors (Flora) following you about and giving you advice, it's quite easy to stay on track of what you're doing. Most missions involve the collection of a certain number of items, the main one being the collection of 100 magic Yorbels in order to bring Lok back to life from the spirit realm. But there are also other things to do, like collecting items like the Spirit Rattle, or fighting magic plants, and then nicking part of them. The only thing that remains the same throughout the game is the collection of magic feathers, which open up an original aspect of the game-the juju powers. After finding a juju spirit and its temple, the spirit will be summoned, and either unlock a new area for you, or give you a new ability or power, such as the ability to suck the soul out of enemies to gain health, but it costs a certain amount of magic feathers to summon these abilities, and that's where your feathers come in.

   

As well as the cool juju spirits, the game also lets you interact with animals in order to get further in the game. This includes being able to ride a Rhino in order to bash down some stuff in the way (very reminiscent of good old Donkey Kong Country this), letting an Orang-utan fling you across the level on a bent palm tree or using your fellow tribesmen/sheep as a decoy for a randy ram or as a disguise by flinging them onto your back and staggering across the level, overloaded but undetected.

Tak's camera, of major importance in a platformer, although "free", seems to get caught when you get too close to the scenery, and when you try to manually swing it around, gets caught again. Naturally this seems to happen at the most inopportune moments, like in the middle of a fight, or just before a jump, which leads to some leaps of faith, and untimely deaths, which leads to another problem…

   

I guess the best original part of Tak is the humour. A lot of attention has been paid to not only the gags in the cut scenes, and the humorous characters, but also the small things that make you smile, be you a young whipper-snapper or an old fogie - firing an acorn at a monkey's behind, and then watching him go nuts and kill your enemies is just one of many examples of the humour which is part and parcel of the gameplay.

… Being developed in tandem with Nickelodeon, you can tell that it has been designed primarily for the little'uns, and although the content and style of the game can suit either taste, the gameplay seems to have been made a little too easy for the veteran gamer - the same enemies attack in the same way, with plenty of convenient health pickups when you need them, and when you can't find one, or you fail a leap of faith, you spawn back at the nearest checkpoint, with an encouraging word from Flora, and repeat, and repeat....they give you virtually infinite continues, so you (or your sprog) can battle away at that hard boss, or long jump until you succeed, or get bored.

   

Although the levels themselves are very large, varied, and quite non-linear, this is more of a problem than a benefit, as with very few signposts (especially as to the location of Jibolba's hut), you can frequently end up lost, running around the same area again and again, swearing that the thing you were looking for is right where you're looking, and not knowing why you can't find it.

Tak and the Power of Juju puts up a good fight against the big bosses of the platform world, with plenty of humour and style to keep you entertained. All in all, Tak is simple good fun for all age groups, and strangely addictive in an undemanding "you don't really have to do that bit if you don't want to" kind of way. With its humorous characters, tidy graphics and easygoing style, you could do a lot worse if you're looking for a platform adventure.