Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams (PlayStation 2)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Ryan Davis
• Reviewed on: 10/22/2004
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 10/11/2004

Last year's Tak and the Power of Juju was a decent 3D platformer that made up for some of its technical shortcomings by providing a pleasantly surreal setting and by spiking the action with a bit of goofy humor. Thanks to these factors and, no doubt, the Nickelodeon seal of approval, Tak found an audience. Now, Avalanche is back with Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams, which earnestly tries to improve upon the first game and is somewhat successful in its efforts. There's a much greater variety to the action, but like The Power of Juju, The Staff of Dreams suffers from needlessly vague level design. The oft-confusing level designs are especially hurtful, because Tak 2 is otherwise pretty simple, straightforward, and aimed squarely at a younger audience.

Tak's back, and he's got quite a few new tricks up his sleeves.

As the game kicks off, we catch up with Tak while he's taking a serious power nap--a 16-day power nap, to be more specific. In fact, Tak's mentor, Jibolba, has been unable to rouse him from his slumber. During this deep sleep, Tak has a vision in which he is instructed to save a princess from the malevolent dream guardian. Tak has certainly borne witness to stranger things, and after some consideration and a bit of coercion, he goes with it, thereby accepting this dream quest. Eventually waking from his slumber, Tak tells Jibolba of this unusual dream, and so they set off to talk to Jibolba's brother JB (whose initials literally stand for "Jibolba's Brother"), who is well-versed in dream interpretation. But things are not quite what they seem in the dream world, and you can expect a significant, if not a predictable, twist about halfway through the game. Even still, the storytelling here feels a little halfhearted, and it feels like the plot only makes itself relevant when the game needs a good reason to transition to a new area. It does provide a few good laughs, which come mostly at the expense of the dimwitted warrior Lok (voiced expertly by the current, standing king of Don Quixote-esque wannabe heroes, Patrick Warburton), who has tagged along for the trip in hopes of getting in on some of that princess business. If nothing else, the cinematic sequences certainly lend a jovial, slightly off-kilter feel to the game.

Tak and the Power of Juju was a pretty straight-ahead platformer, and Tak 2 offers a similar experience, though it definitely shifts the focus more squarely to light puzzle-solving, combat, and platform-jumping, while also moving the gameplay away from the obsessive-compulsive item collection that bogged down Tak and the Power of Juju. The game is still littered with all manner of collectibles--like tiny critters, fruits, precious stones, and mystical scrolls, for instance--but most of this stuff is optional now and exists for the purpose of unlocking bonus goodies, like minigames, image galleries, and alternate character appearances and sound effects.

Beyond the stock platformer hero abilities--the double jumps, the basic melee attacks, and so on--Tak starts off the game with a few unusual moves, and the game makes a point of endowing him with additional abilities over the course of its storyline. Before the start of his adventure, Tak's mentor Jibolba turns himself into a flea and hitches a ride on Tak's head. Consequently, there are many puzzles where you'll have to hurl the little shape-shifting-shaman bloodsucker at out-of-reach animals so Jibolba can give them good chomps, which kicks off a Rube Goldberg-like string of events that will eventually allow you to progress. The game grants you a lengthy series of high-powered attacks, but most of the enemies you'll encounter aren't that tough, and the few, basic three-button combos you have from the start tend to be adequate enough.

Some of the abilities you're given are pretty general purpose, such as a short burst of speed when running, which is good for clearing large gaps or escaping especially tenacious threats. However, many of these abilities exist purely for the purpose of solving the game's many puzzles. Early on, you'll get a bola that can be used to flip switches from far away, ensnare enemies, or grapple onto special posts so you can pull yourself toward them. In the latter portions of the game, you'll gain the ability to transform into various animals for short periods of time, and each animal has a specific strength. As a squirrel, you can ride strong updrafts of air to glide to otherwise inaccessible locations, whereas when playing as a bear you can slide down icy chutes. As a boar, you can move quickly through mud, and you can smash through gates. Meanwhile, as a frog, you can both swim through inhospitable waters and grapple onto dragonflies.

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