‘Juju’ Review (PC)
Platform games can be simple and are an easy way to ease children into the world of gaming. Giving the character the ability to jump and dispose of their opponents by landing on their heads is a simple gaming dynamic that all gamers seem to easily pick up, is seems everybody has played Mario in some form. Juju is a new platform game that focuses on a young audience but adds some co-op play so that they can have help on their journey, which features a tale of a character looking to save its family.
The game starts out with Juju and his friend Peyo witnessing the defeat of his father Jambee by an evil spirit. Taking his father’s mask Juju takes the role of a Shaman who must travel four worlds collecting mystical keys and magic ambers on her journey to save her father and the world from the evil spirit.
Everything about the world of Juju is cute and obviously aimed at the younger gamer. This includes the initial difficulty level. This doesn’t mean the more seasoned gamer can’t play it, but really it’s not till later on that things get a little more complicated. This has the downside though that the younger audience may get a little lost in getting past the levels, which is probably where the multiplayer element can be used. Peyo can be brought into the game at any time to offer a hand to the main player who will definitely need help at times.
Controlling Juju is easy to do, the main mechanic of jumping and landing on the enemies head is something that is easy to do. Sometimes the bad guys need a little more to defeat them and this is where chanting comes in. Juju can enchant the enemies with his chanting which distracts them and allows him to dispose of them. Each world also has two boss fights where the player must work out the enemies attack pattern and use that to defeat them. This is very reminiscent of games like Rayman (and Mario of course) and it is a tried and trusted style of gameplay that has always worked, and works with Juju very well.
If there is one criticism of Juju that can be made it is that the character doesn’t have much of a story other than what we see in the initial introduction, but this is typical of platform games of this style. The focus in the game is definitely about having fun and about everything being cute. The colours are bright, and the world look interesting and this keeps the player interested in what they are seeing. While the gameplay may be slightly repetitive at times the worlds themselves are vibrant and there is enough change to make sure that the game doesn’t become boring.
Juju is a charming little game that is fun for people of all ages, though it is designed with a focus on the younger audience. I’m sure there are plenty of older people out there who like platform games though and will be interested in the look of the game, and they should be happy to find that this is a solid platformer that is worth a look. Very cute and very charming, Juju is an innocent little game that has a focus very much on fun, and it definitely delivers in that department.
**** 4/5
Juju is available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 now.
