Following the success of Tak & The Power of Juju, THQ quickly began work on a sequel. Now, Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams has arrived with still no Nickelodeon animated series in sight (the whole idea was to develop a game and then turn it into a show). The game has a strong narrative quality and an enticing visual style, though the gameplay presents few surprises for fans of the 3D platforming genre.

Tak is a caveman shaman with limited magical powers and a big staff for whacking enemies on the head. The character is not particularly notable, but a hilarious supporting cast make Tak 2’s cut-scenes memorable. The dialogue is snappy and quite funny, approximately in the vein of a Pixar movie’s script. Tak is accompanied on his adventure by Jibolba, his teacher and the great shaman of the Pupanunu tribe. Eventually you’ll meet Jibolba’s brother, JB, which stands for “Jibolba’s Brother” because their mother was too lazy to think of a second name. That’s the kind of humor you can expect from the game. Also tagging along, though usually a few steps behind, is the “great warrior” Lok. He’s basically an imbecile who thinks he is the real hero of the story, even though he always (unwittingly) gets in the way of Tak’s real quest. Then there are the Jujus, summoned spirits who show up in each stage and grant powers or access to a new area to Tak. Some of the Jujus are strikingly designed, such as the tall blue guy who slobbers and mumbles like a baby…until he starts talking out of his other mouth, a giant pair of lips on his belly which are manipulated, Jim Carrey-style, by his hands. The story only kicks in between levels, but the cut-scenes are always funny and not to be tuned out.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is not as interesting as the game’s story. Tak 2 is a straightforward 3D platforming game which borrows heavily from Mario, Banjo, and countless other games in the same vein. There are few original ideas in the game, though when the action focuses on actual platforming, it’s usually engaging and fun. There are also a number of environmental puzzles in the game, some of which are quite clever. Most of the early puzzles involve using nearby animals. For instance, if a bear plants himself under a dripping beehive, you can bounce on his belly to reach high ledges. But the beehive may be dormant, so you have to lead a swarm of bees to it from another, more active hive. And even this task may be complicated by a pesky frog along the path, who will eat all the bees unless distracted. The second half of the game concentrates more on puzzles that must be solved with mechanical assistance (plasma cannons in JB’s planetarium…this guy seems to be ahead of the caveman curve) or one of Tak’s animal transformations.

The combat is dry and repetitive, as you’ve come to expect from this kind of game. Tak eventually learns several magical spells, which are mostly new attacks, but he also learns some transformations. The latter, found only late in the game, let Tak change into four animals: flying squirrel, bear, wild boar, and frog. The transformations are somewhat limited by requiring a totem to activate and using up magic power, but they last long enough to cover some serious ground and take each animal’s powers out into the level at will. Sadly, each animal only has one or at most two moves, and they control quite poorly. The frog in particular has major targeting problems when latching onto insects with his tongue, which is really the only useful move he offers. Tak’s other platforming tool is the bola, which works as a second projectile attack and a grappling hook, and is rarely useful in either capacity. Finally, Tak can go into first-person view and launch Jibolba (who usually masquerades as a tiny insect) at far-off animals. Jibolba can either put the animal to sleep or bite it, and both abilities have their uses in the game’s puzzles. Later on, Jibolba can also be charged with mana to act as a manually aimed projectile attack. This attack is also required for some puzzles late in the game.

The standard platforming levels are broken up by a number of different mini-game levels (some deceptively long) to bring more variety to the game. The quality varies wildly. Crash Bandicoot-style chase levels are fast and hectic and are over before they get too annoying. The catapult siege level seems really cool at first (you’re driving a freaking catapult), but it’s full of unwieldy ramp jumps and drags on for far too long. Then there are the exciting river rapids levels, which look fantastic and move very quickly. No matter the style of gameplay, you’re going to die frequently. The game is unforgiving to say the least, as demanding platform elements clash with the sloppy controls. The developers at Avalanche wisely keep the game from being too frustrating by planting respawn points every few yards in the levels and by giving you infinite lives, which you’ll need in excess.

However, even infinite lives can’t save you from the game-crippling bugs in Tak 2. There are multiple places in the game where scripted events may fail to trigger properly, leaving you stuck with no way to proceed through the linear levels. The only way to proceed is to keep resetting the system and replaying that section until the bug fails to repeat, which in my case was three times and could a dozen tries or more. I verified these bugs with numerous other people playing through the game. It’s astonishing that no one caught and fixed this kind of game-killer before the game shipped out. If you plan to buy the game, I recommend waiting a while…hopefully the bugs will be ironed out for later shipments.

On the positive side of things, Tak 2 is an eye-catching game for its use of vibrant colored lighting and a twisted art style, especially in the dream world. The particle effects and animations are quite impressive as well. A handful of CG movies help to advance the story and look equally great. The game’s best sights are in its river levels, with rushing water and a killer sense of speed. Late in the game, there’s even a dream world variant of the river levels which looks like a tripped-out F-Zero GX track suspended in (pulsating pink and purple) space.

Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams is an average platformer fancied up with nice graphics and an endearing story. If you love 3D platforming games and are used to the staleness currently weighing down the genre, Tak 2 will provide you with plenty to see and do. It’s an able ambassador of the “throw-in-a-bit-of-everything” philosophy these games have fostered for the past few years. If you’re only looking for the top one or two platforming games this year, Tak 2 ain’t one of them, but it’s worth a rental if you’re interested in a funny story and have plenty of patience.