Tak and the Guardians of Gross

Tak and the Guardians of Gross
Just another example of how overexposure and corporate greed can cause a franchise to go downhill just to cash in on a terrible TV show...that was based on three very good games.
Protagonist(s): Tak Genre(s): Platformer Platform(s): Wii PlayStation 2 Release Date: October 13, 2008 Developer(s): Blitz Games Publisher(s): THQ Country: United Kingdom Series: Tak and the Power of Juju Predecessor: Tak: The Great Juju Challenge (original continuity) Successor: Tak: Mojo Mistake (TV continuity)

Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a platform game developed by Blitz Games and published by THQ for the Wii and PlayStation 2. It is the final major console game in the Tak and the Power of Juju franchise, and the first game in the series to not be developed by Avalanche Software, as they were bought by Disney Interactive and couldn't make any further Tak games.

Why It's Totally Gross

1. This game has absolutely nothing to do with the previous three games, instead being a tie-in game for the TV series, which is just as bad. As a result, it lacks the charm and effort that Avalanche Software put into the previous three games.
   • False advertising: The trailer starts with a retrospective of the first three games, when in reality it isn't even connected to them.
   • None of the Jujus from the previous games, or Tlaloc, appear in this game, instead being replaced by the titular Guardians of Gross (DeBris Juju, Icky Juju, Melty Juju, and Stinky Juju) and the Big G's (Trashthulu, Slopviathan, Gorgonzilla, and Stinkolossus).
2. The game's humor isn't very funny, considering that it's primarly composed of toilet humor and fart jokes. Sure, the previous games used this humor too, but not to this extent.
3. The levels have bland and linear designs with with almost no reason to explore other than for the nunu pieces to unlock concept art. While Tak 2 was also linear, it had a sense of exploration to find the Potion Cards.
4. The in-game graphics are average-at-best for the Wii version, and are even worse for the PS2 version due to having more compressed textures and worse lighting.
   • The cinematic cutscenes' animation use the same style as the TV show, which does not mesh well with typical cinematic video game cutscenes.
5. Unlike the more interesting stories of the first three games, this one is more bland and barebones: while cleaning the Spoiled Shrine, Tak accidentally frees the Big G's when he plucks a gem from the shrine, and now must stop them by gaining magic powers from the titular Guardians of Gross.
6. The combat is fairly standard, consisting mostly of melee attacks, Juju spells themed around the Big G's, and a Nova special, and you literally can't die at all.
7. The controls are not as good as previous games, with a finicky parkour system and sub-standard combat and spellcasting controls. The Wii version also requires motion controls to play the minigames and activate machinery.
   • You can't control the camera manually in this game; instead, the dynamic camera automatically moves based on your position, which makes it hard to see what's around you.
8. The game is much shorter than the previous games and can be beaten in about four hours total.
9. The final level is anti-climactic: you would expect a grand, challenging boss battle against the combined might of the Big G's (and one Super Big G to fight), but instead, it's a J-Runner chase segment on a time limit where you have to collect all of the Big G's' slime so Tak can drink it down and belch it to dispose of them for good.
10. Overall, it was an awful way to end Tak's console career, and along with the failure of the TV show, killed the Tak franchise stone-dead.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The voice acting is passable, especially Hal Sparks as Tak and Kari Wahlgren as Jeera.
2. The soundtrack composed by Matt Black, Todd Baker, and Edward Hargrave sounds epic, especially the Trashthulu stages' music.
3. The title cards before each level and concept art are nicely-drawn, and the latter can be viewed as slide puzzles once you collect all eight nunu pieces in the levels.
4. The PS2 version doesn't require any motion controls, instead using button controls for the whole game. Similarly, the main platforming controls on the Wii version use button controls as well.
5. The minigames are decent, with a good variety in gameplay styles, and you can play them with friends in competitive multiplayer modes.
6. There were some great ideas, such as the Big G's and Guardians being based on the four classical elements (fire, water, air, and earth), but they never saw the light of day due to executive meddling from Nickelodeon.
7. Despite its flaws, the game is certainly better than the TV Show it's based on.

Reception

Tak and the Guardians of Gross received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics (the Wii version scoring 63/100 on Metacritic), but much more negative reviews from players, who consider it to be the worst game in the Tak series. The most common complaints were the easy difficulty, lack of camera control, simplistic combat, and poor graphics.

This, along with the failure of the TV series it was based on, is what killed the Tak franchise stone-dead.

Trivia

• As before stated, the Big G's and Guardians of Gross were originally intended to be based on the four classical elements of nature, but executive meddling made them switch to bizarro elements to tie in with the TV show.

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