Tak and the Guardians of Gross
NOTE: The YouTube version has been edited due to copyright. Please watch the archive.org version for full experience.
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Player's Review
Developed by Blitz Games and published by THQ, this game adaptation is based on the TV show 'Tak and the Power of Juju' from Nickelodeon. It was released as the final game iteration in the Tak franchise.
The plot starts off with Tak who, after being tasked with cleaning the Spoiled Shrine, he accidentally awakens the four Big G's and with that, they start to wreak havoc on the world. Jibolba tells him that he needs to visit each of the four Jujus in order to know how to defeat each Big G and slowly restore peace.
The gameplay mechanics are pretty simple: B button is used to attack with your staff, A button lets you jump (press it twice for a double jump), Down button on Wii Remote's D-Pad activates Juju Nova which gets rid of all enemies around you as long as the blue bar at the top is full, Z button is used to run through walls without falling and also to rotate winches in conjunction with Nunchuk rotation and remote shaking lets Tak pull levers in order to access new sections. It seems there is no lives system which means you can repeat any section as many times as you want without worrying about starting all over again.
Starting from Trashthulu, Tak is able to cast a special ability given by the respective area's Juju (using C button), this ability lets him get rid of any obstacles such as rocks, cheese barriers, wall of thorns among others. This magic is also required at some sections during the fight against the area's Big G, though once Tak defeats it, he is given another magic spell which replaces the previous one. I should mention every time you visit any of the Jujus, they challenge you on a mini-game where you have to score higher than them so they can reward you with their respective spell.
Upon completion of a stage, you are awarded with medals depending on your performance and whether you've collected all Nunu Pieces, getting every medal for all levels does not unlock anything though the Nunu Piece quest does, that is why I made a conscious effort to collect them all. Each Nunu Piece represents a piece for the Concept Art puzzle, where your only reward is a full picture of the artwork. In case these puzzles look difficult to you, there is a button that lets the AI do the movements for you, which is what I did because these types of puzzles are not my cup of tea. At the end I also show trailers for a DVD release containing select episodes from the TV show and a sample episode from that DVD, the YT version does not include these for copyright reasons.
0:00:00 - Start
0:00:59 - Prologue
0:02:41 - The Spoiled Shrine
0:21:33 - Stinky Escape
0:27:44 - Mini-game 1: Tiki Shoot
0:31:32 - Swollen River Ruins
0:42:12 - Trashthulu
0:52:25 - Boss: Trashthulu
0:55:33 - Mini-game 2: Goo Gunked
0:59:29 - Slopviathan
1:21:55 - Boss: Slopviathan
1:25:23 - Mini-game 3: Fondue Fort
1:29:35 - Gorgonzilla
1:49:46 - Boss: Gorgonzilla
1:54:31 - Mini-game 4: Skunk Slider
2:00:10 - Rancid Rapids
2:09:07 - Stinkolossus
2:21:18 - Boss: Stinkolossus
2:30:47 - Chug-A-Mug
2:34:32 - Ending & Credits
2:40:36 - Concept Art Puzzle
2:46:27 - Trailer (not on YT)
2:47:02 - Big Boss Brawl (TV episode, not on YT)
The plot starts off with Tak who, after being tasked with cleaning the Spoiled Shrine, he accidentally awakens the four Big G's and with that, they start to wreak havoc on the world. Jibolba tells him that he needs to visit each of the four Jujus in order to know how to defeat each Big G and slowly restore peace.
The gameplay mechanics are pretty simple: B button is used to attack with your staff, A button lets you jump (press it twice for a double jump), Down button on Wii Remote's D-Pad activates Juju Nova which gets rid of all enemies around you as long as the blue bar at the top is full, Z button is used to run through walls without falling and also to rotate winches in conjunction with Nunchuk rotation and remote shaking lets Tak pull levers in order to access new sections. It seems there is no lives system which means you can repeat any section as many times as you want without worrying about starting all over again.
Starting from Trashthulu, Tak is able to cast a special ability given by the respective area's Juju (using C button), this ability lets him get rid of any obstacles such as rocks, cheese barriers, wall of thorns among others. This magic is also required at some sections during the fight against the area's Big G, though once Tak defeats it, he is given another magic spell which replaces the previous one. I should mention every time you visit any of the Jujus, they challenge you on a mini-game where you have to score higher than them so they can reward you with their respective spell.
Upon completion of a stage, you are awarded with medals depending on your performance and whether you've collected all Nunu Pieces, getting every medal for all levels does not unlock anything though the Nunu Piece quest does, that is why I made a conscious effort to collect them all. Each Nunu Piece represents a piece for the Concept Art puzzle, where your only reward is a full picture of the artwork. In case these puzzles look difficult to you, there is a button that lets the AI do the movements for you, which is what I did because these types of puzzles are not my cup of tea. At the end I also show trailers for a DVD release containing select episodes from the TV show and a sample episode from that DVD, the YT version does not include these for copyright reasons.
0:00:00 - Start
0:00:59 - Prologue
0:02:41 - The Spoiled Shrine
0:21:33 - Stinky Escape
0:27:44 - Mini-game 1: Tiki Shoot
0:31:32 - Swollen River Ruins
0:42:12 - Trashthulu
0:52:25 - Boss: Trashthulu
0:55:33 - Mini-game 2: Goo Gunked
0:59:29 - Slopviathan
1:21:55 - Boss: Slopviathan
1:25:23 - Mini-game 3: Fondue Fort
1:29:35 - Gorgonzilla
1:49:46 - Boss: Gorgonzilla
1:54:31 - Mini-game 4: Skunk Slider
2:00:10 - Rancid Rapids
2:09:07 - Stinkolossus
2:21:18 - Boss: Stinkolossus
2:30:47 - Chug-A-Mug
2:34:32 - Ending & Credits
2:40:36 - Concept Art Puzzle
2:46:27 - Trailer (not on YT)
2:47:02 - Big Boss Brawl (TV episode, not on YT)
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