Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a 2008 video game stand-alone sequel to Tak and the Power of Juju, Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams and Tak: The Great Juju Challenge made by THQ and Nickelodeon for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii. It shows that Tak has accidentally released four giant monsters known as The Big G's, each one based on some sort of grotesque element: Trashthulu (made out of trash and stones), Slopviathan (made out of slime), Gorgonzilla (made out of cheese) and Stinkolossus (a giant head that creates stinky tornados). He now has to defeat them before anyone notices, with a stong focus on Colossus Climb along the way. Unlike previous games, which were 3D platformers with a heavy focus on exploration and collecting itens, this is a much more linear and simplistic platformer with a clear point A to point B structure and fixed camera angles. It was also made as a direct tie-in to the TV show based on the previous games.
Tropes include:
- Absentee Actor: None of the Jujus from the previous games appear here.
- Achievement System: There's one in the extras menu that keeps track of various emblems that you earn at the end of every level for completing certain tasks such as beating it as fast as possible, beating it while defeating every single enemy or beating it without taking any damage. They don't actually do anything though.
- Big-Bad Ensemble: The Big G's.
- Big "NO!": Tak occasionaly does this after falling into a pit.
- Blow You Away: One of Tak's new Juju powers in this game, which can be used to spin propellers and remove walls of thorns.
- Canon Foreigner: The Big G's and the Gross Jujus.
- Canon Immigrant: Jeera, Keeko, Zaria (in the Wii version) and The Chief are all characters in this game after being introduced in the TV show.
- Colossus Climb: This game's main selling point are the levels where you have to climb across the body of each Big G, reach their heads and engage in a Boss Battle.
- Competitive Multiplayer: The second game in the franchise to have competitive multiplayer after Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Had Tak been more careful, the Big G's wouldn't be summoned in the first place.
- Demoted to Extra: Lok went from being a playable character in the previous game to just an NPC in the first level, and even then he only appears in the Wii version,
not on PS2. - Easter Egg: If you input "UNICORN" in the cheat codes screen, a rainbow trail will follow behind Tak's moviments throught the levels.
- Evil Laugh: Stinkolossus will laugh at you briefly if you fall from the stage.
- Eye Beams: Trashthulu has these.
- Fixed Camera
- Flunky Boss: Trashthulu and Gorgonzilla.
- The Ghost: On the PS2 version, Lok and Zaria's NPC cameos were completely removed... and yet their names and voice actors are still listed in the credits.
- Gross-Out Show: The inteirity of Slopviathan's level.
- Le Parkour: A major gameplay mechanic involves Tak having the ability to perform parkour-like moves to climb up or run over walls, grab legdes, confuse enemies and skip over small obstacles, with much of the level design incentivising the use of these moves. Good luck trying to make it work though.
- Nausea Fuel: The In-Universe reaction Tak has to Slopviathan.Tak: "Slopviathan, You Make Me Sick!"
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Tak's lazy method to clean the shrine is what frees the Big G's.
- No Fair Cheating: You can actually input a cheat code to unlock all of the achievements at once, however they are never saved and are erased once you shut down the console thus making this cheat completely pointless.
- NOT!: There's two instances of this.Tak: "(At the start of Swollen River Ruins) This place has kind of an old world charm. NOT!"Tak: "(At the start of Rancid Rapids) What a lovely gentle breeze. NOT!"
- Oddball in the Series
- Ominous Latin Chanting: In the background whenever you fight Stinkolossus' main lakeys.
- Orchestral Bombing: The Trashthulu and Stinkolossus boss themes.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The level Swollen River Ruins starts with Tak dropping from a portal into a random temple for no apparent reason.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Tak pointing his magic staff on the cover art.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The spirits of the Big G's are sealed inside a role with a giant cristal blocking it in a place called The Spoiled Shrine, which Tak is tasked to clean. He then tries clean it the easy way (as in throw the mess in the role) and accidentally breaks the cristal, which frees their spirits and let's them assume fisical form.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: The purpose of the Achievement System described above.
- Shout-Out: Gorgonzilla is named after Godzilla.
- Trashthulu's level seems to be heavily inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, which is fitting given this game's focus on
Colossus Climb.
- Trashthulu's level seems to be heavily inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, which is fitting given this game's focus on
- Something Completely Different / Unexpected Gameplay Change: To the point of almost becoming a Gameplay Roulette.
- The second level, Stinky Escape, in a Rail Shooter where you control Tak's magic staff.
- Slopviathan's level starts with an on-rails section of Tak surfing through a slime river.
- Gorgonzilla also starts with an on-rails section.
- The mini-games also count as they are spread across the game.
- The final level is a Racing Minigame with a time limit.
- Timed Mission: Some tasks require activating a number of switches and buttons in a time limit.
- Also the final level is this.
- Variable Mix: Most levels has two variations of its music: a normal theme for when exploring the level and a battle theme for when you come in contact with an enemy.
- Womb Level: With the exception of Stinkolossus, all the Big G's have at least one segment where you navigate inside their bodies. Gorgonzilla is the most notable exemple, complete with a section where you can see and get inside his pulsating heart.
