User Rating: 8.5 | Tak and the Power of Juju GC
i was very surprised by the excellence of this platformer. The control scheme doesn't have much depth to it (and they certainly didn't follow the throw in everything and the kitchen sink style of ratchet and clank or jak and daxter 2), but the level design is not only fantastically large, creative, and beautiful, it makes use of every bit of what control is there is making a very "fun to play around in" freeform game. If you enjoy actual platform jumping in your platformer games, or have any love of brilliant level design (think the original jak & daxter, spyro the dragon 2, and the myst series), this is a must-buy title. Tak and the Power of Juju is only clearly surpassed in it's genre in this generation of consoles by the near-perfect Mario Sunshine. One main caveat however, the occasional and usually brief cutscenes have that gratingly manic nickelodeon style voice acting which breaks the otherwise quite brilliantly ethereal atmosphere of the game (a blimp shaped like a chicken illuminated by the sun in the dream-like distance creates a unique mood for the shadow-speckled and hut-filled jungle paradise that acts as the hub world). A disarmingly cute female voice also pops up quite frequently to explain gameplay mechanics and offer encouragement, but this somehow fits the game perfectly. Also, though the music sets the right atmosphere, the melodies are very bland and the endless panpipes and synth pad combination can get tiring.
