Tak 2 Staff of Dreams
Posted December 1, 2004
Following up on the heels of Tak and the Power of JuJu comes the colorful Tak 2: Staff of Dreams. Like the predecessor, in Tak 2 you assume the role of Tak a small yet powerful shaman warrior who is tasked with (of all things) saving a princess in the real world, and defeating a nightmare king in the dream world.
Gameplay:
The dual world aspect allowed the developer to add some slight changes to the gameplay and most importantly break of the visual aspect of the game. The real world is a bright and well detailed platformer heaven, with a lot of jumping, zip line traversing, and enemy bashing to keep you busy, while the dream world is an often bright and colorful, yet sometimes quite dark and sinister place that odd weapons and enemies lurk in.
While Tak is sleeping, he enters the dream world where the Nightmare King has taken control of the staff of dreams, which Tak must rescue. The world is presented in a very cool way, the edges of the screen shimmer and swirl like tendrils from some unseen sinister being. This adds a nice dimension of distinguishing the dream state from the real world.
Throughout both worlds you’ll encounter many enemies which you can take out with your selected weapon, or by using a combination of JuJu and your weapon. Later in the game you learn more specific spells that can directly attack an enemy such as a lightening attack. Eventually you can gain the JuJu power which enables you to transform into the form of an animal which lets you perform other specific feats to help you pass your quest and also to help break up some monotony of straight forward platform action.
The gameplay breaks down to be a series of fetch quests for one of the JuJus (genie type characters) or simply from getting from one point to another while navigating moving platforms and beating on simplistic enemies. In the real world, the variety of enemies encountered is VERY limited and very little skill is needed beating the waves of baddies that come at you, which considering this is a game for children, is a good thing.
One thing about the gameplay that really stands out as extremely well done is the few levels which have you racing down a torrential river in a barrel or other small vessel. These sections are so well done that you’ll easily forget that the previous hour was spent doing the same thing over and over. These sections were very well placed in the game to help change the pace and break up the standard levels.
Along the way through the levels, you’ll encounter some puzzles involving animals from the world such as bees, frogs, bears and skunks. In a simple way these puzzles work very well, bears can be used as either trampolines or as a method to cross big gaps, however you have to somehow get them to the beehive to eat the honey, and what do bears not like? That’s right, the smell of skunk. Other great methods are using a swarm of bees to distract alligators in a swamp so you can run past them without being eaten.
Yes, this is a game for children, easily distinguished by the Nickelodeon tag on the game, but even as an adult it had moments that I really enjoyed. The writers for the game made surprising humorous cut scenes involving Tak, Jibolba(the head shaman) and Lok the esteem challenged warrior (voiced by Patrick Warburton).
Graphics:
While on the topic of cut scenes and their humor, it is well worth pointing out that the graphic rendering for these cut scenes is outstanding. Tak 2 features more interludes than the predecessor and they are longer as well. Some last a couple minutes, and feel like they are right out of a cartoon that should be on TV, which is fitting because I have heard plans that a Tak series is in the works. If they can keep the humor at the game level, and if the art is as nice as it is in the game, I could see it appealing to the pre-teen crowd quite nicely.
As mentioned, the dream world has a mix of extremely colorful zones, but the influence of the Nightmare King brings vile creatures and changes the landscape. The environments are very well drawn to keep with the cartoon-esque look. I didn’t notice much if any pop up in any of the levels, most of which were very expansive environments with a lot to see.
Audio:
To go along with the great looking cut scenes we also get some fantastically acted voices here too, and thankfully the “human” character voices are carried through the rest of the gameplay as well. Without the actors doing their share, the audio grade would be much lower, as the rest of the soundtrack is quite forgettable with no real standout tracks to get you hooked into the game, and the sound effects for other actions, such as bashing enemies and jumping are quite weak as well. But overall the audio is fitting for game of this nature.
Conclusion:
Replay value can vary wildly with this. The single player game is a linear platformer with some nice methods of breaking up the otherwise monotonous gameplay, but there is a smaller multiplayer aspect that might appeal to some called Dinky Games (one of the JuJus is named Dinky, and yes he’s quite small). Initially only a couple Dinky Games are unlocked, but as you progress through the single player campaign, you collect crystals and bugs which allow you to create your own JuJu potions, which can in turn unlock new mini games, like the river race and other multi-player games.
As an adult gamer, surprisingly this game offered a slight challenge, yet not enough of the overall fun factor to warrant a recommend from me. But if you’ve got younger children in the house, I know for a fact they’d get a kick out of watching someone play it, mostly for the humor that is included, and some with the manual dexterity to play platformers will also enjoy the challenge and slight thinking required to pass certain puzzles. It is worth a rental for most gamers, but if you don’t expect a top notch platform game you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and for the younger set, this would tide them over for quite a while.
Gameplay:
The dual world aspect allowed the developer to add some slight changes to the gameplay and most importantly break of the visual aspect of the game. The real world is a bright and well detailed platformer heaven, with a lot of jumping, zip line traversing, and enemy bashing to keep you busy, while the dream world is an often bright and colorful, yet sometimes quite dark and sinister place that odd weapons and enemies lurk in.
While Tak is sleeping, he enters the dream world where the Nightmare King has taken control of the staff of dreams, which Tak must rescue. The world is presented in a very cool way, the edges of the screen shimmer and swirl like tendrils from some unseen sinister being. This adds a nice dimension of distinguishing the dream state from the real world.
Throughout both worlds you’ll encounter many enemies which you can take out with your selected weapon, or by using a combination of JuJu and your weapon. Later in the game you learn more specific spells that can directly attack an enemy such as a lightening attack. Eventually you can gain the JuJu power which enables you to transform into the form of an animal which lets you perform other specific feats to help you pass your quest and also to help break up some monotony of straight forward platform action.
The gameplay breaks down to be a series of fetch quests for one of the JuJus (genie type characters) or simply from getting from one point to another while navigating moving platforms and beating on simplistic enemies. In the real world, the variety of enemies encountered is VERY limited and very little skill is needed beating the waves of baddies that come at you, which considering this is a game for children, is a good thing.
One thing about the gameplay that really stands out as extremely well done is the few levels which have you racing down a torrential river in a barrel or other small vessel. These sections are so well done that you’ll easily forget that the previous hour was spent doing the same thing over and over. These sections were very well placed in the game to help change the pace and break up the standard levels.
Along the way through the levels, you’ll encounter some puzzles involving animals from the world such as bees, frogs, bears and skunks. In a simple way these puzzles work very well, bears can be used as either trampolines or as a method to cross big gaps, however you have to somehow get them to the beehive to eat the honey, and what do bears not like? That’s right, the smell of skunk. Other great methods are using a swarm of bees to distract alligators in a swamp so you can run past them without being eaten.
Yes, this is a game for children, easily distinguished by the Nickelodeon tag on the game, but even as an adult it had moments that I really enjoyed. The writers for the game made surprising humorous cut scenes involving Tak, Jibolba(the head shaman) and Lok the esteem challenged warrior (voiced by Patrick Warburton).
Graphics:
While on the topic of cut scenes and their humor, it is well worth pointing out that the graphic rendering for these cut scenes is outstanding. Tak 2 features more interludes than the predecessor and they are longer as well. Some last a couple minutes, and feel like they are right out of a cartoon that should be on TV, which is fitting because I have heard plans that a Tak series is in the works. If they can keep the humor at the game level, and if the art is as nice as it is in the game, I could see it appealing to the pre-teen crowd quite nicely.
As mentioned, the dream world has a mix of extremely colorful zones, but the influence of the Nightmare King brings vile creatures and changes the landscape. The environments are very well drawn to keep with the cartoon-esque look. I didn’t notice much if any pop up in any of the levels, most of which were very expansive environments with a lot to see.
Audio:
To go along with the great looking cut scenes we also get some fantastically acted voices here too, and thankfully the “human” character voices are carried through the rest of the gameplay as well. Without the actors doing their share, the audio grade would be much lower, as the rest of the soundtrack is quite forgettable with no real standout tracks to get you hooked into the game, and the sound effects for other actions, such as bashing enemies and jumping are quite weak as well. But overall the audio is fitting for game of this nature.
Conclusion:
Replay value can vary wildly with this. The single player game is a linear platformer with some nice methods of breaking up the otherwise monotonous gameplay, but there is a smaller multiplayer aspect that might appeal to some called Dinky Games (one of the JuJus is named Dinky, and yes he’s quite small). Initially only a couple Dinky Games are unlocked, but as you progress through the single player campaign, you collect crystals and bugs which allow you to create your own JuJu potions, which can in turn unlock new mini games, like the river race and other multi-player games.
As an adult gamer, surprisingly this game offered a slight challenge, yet not enough of the overall fun factor to warrant a recommend from me. But if you’ve got younger children in the house, I know for a fact they’d get a kick out of watching someone play it, mostly for the humor that is included, and some with the manual dexterity to play platformers will also enjoy the challenge and slight thinking required to pass certain puzzles. It is worth a rental for most gamers, but if you don’t expect a top notch platform game you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and for the younger set, this would tide them over for quite a while.