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 Gs, 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 strong focus on Colossus Climb along the way. Unlike previous games, which were 3D platformers with a heavy focus on exploration and collecting items, 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:
- 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 Gs are all giant monsters who drive the conflict because Tak has to reimprison them after he accidentally sets them free to cause destruction once more.
- 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 Gs and the Gross Jujus were created for this game and do not exist in the original three games, nor did they ever appear in the TV show this game is a tie-in for.
- 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.
- Classical Elements Ensemble: The Big Gs are all supposed to represent a basic natural element, which are then exaggerated into Bizarro Elements; Trashthulu uses trash in place of earth, Slopviathan uses slime in place of water, Gorgonzilla uses cheese instead of fire, and Stinkolossus uses stench in place of air.
- Charged Attack:
- You can hold down the attack button to make Tak charge his magic staff for a few seconds and perform a Dash Attack that kills small enemies in one hit.
- The Juju Nova special attack is activated by collecting blue and red Juju orbs that fill an energy bar until it's complete and pressing a button. It kills literally every single enemy onscreen at once.
- 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. The developers even admitted that they were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus.
- Competitive Multiplayer: The second game in the franchise to have competitive multiplayer after Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams.
- Context-Sensitive Button: The new Juju powers Tak receives throughout the game are all different and specific to each level, and are activated by the same button. As you obviously start the game without these powers, the button literally does nothing during the first level.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Had Tak been more careful, the Big Gs 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 movements throughout the levels.
- Evil Laugh: Stinkolossus will laugh at you briefly if you fall from the stage.
- Eye Beams: Trashthulu shoots beams from his eyes.
- Eye Scream: The way you defeat Slopviathan is by pumping goo into his eye sockets to make them explode. The ending cutscene of the level even shows his eyes bleeding goo.
- Fixed Camera: The player has little control over the camera's angles.
- Flunky Boss: Trashthulu and Gorgonzilla both have regular enemies accompanying their boss fights.
- 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 entirety of Slopviathan's level revolves around gross-out humor.
- Le Parkour: A major gameplay mechanic involves Tak having the ability to perform parkour-like moves to climb up or run over walls, grab ledges, 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 Gs.
- 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: The game has a noticeably different gameplay style and tone from the original three games.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: In the background whenever you fight Stinkolossus' main lackeys.
- 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 Gs are sealed inside a role with a giant crystal 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 crystal, which frees their spirits and lets them assume physical form.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: The purpose of the Achievement System described above is apparently only to encourage players to test their skills in completing the challenges.
- 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.
- 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 Gs have at least one segment where you navigate inside their bodies. Gorgonzilla is the most notable example, complete with a section where you can see and get inside his pulsating heart.
