THQ recently sent us a preview build of its upcoming title, Tak: The Great JuJu Challenge. Developed by Avalanche, it once again stars the small yet fiercely competitive member of the Pupanunu tribe except this time he's got some company in the form of Lok, his new muscle-bound wise-cracking side kick. Together they must battle great adversity, collect lots of cool stuff, and leave their enemies in the dust, all for the sake of some friendly competition.

In this latest adventure, Tak and his buddy have entered the famous JuJu Challenge, a sporting event of sorts that draws participants from several tribes. The goal is to complete various objectives before time runs out and earn a higher point total than the competition, the grand prize being the beautiful Moon JuJu's protection over a 60 year period. It turns out that four tribes are in the running, and it doesn't take long for Lok to fall madly in love with the female participants. However, that doesn't appear to affect his focus, at least not in the very beginning of the game, though he's certainly spellbound whenever he and the ladies cross paths.

If you recall, the previous Tak games are predominantly single player affairs but the developers have put an interesting spin on this latest entry in the series. For the first time, Lok will be a playable character throughout the adventure, and you can switch between him and Tak on the fly. Each character features special skills and weapons (Lok carries a gigantic club, for example), and for the most part deciding which one to use is really a style preference, so if you'd prefer to move quickly you should select Tak, but if you could use a little more muscle Lok is your man.

Because both characters have different attributes you can play off their strengths to complete various obstacles. Able to switch between them by pressing R2, you can, for example, take control of Lok, pick up Tak with Circle, then toss him up high with Triangle, this enabling you to reach certain areas. You can also instruct your partner to stay or follow by pressing L2, and this comes in very handy whenever you find stone tablets on the ground that depress when stepped on. More than likely they're the mechanism for a door or platform, so you can place Lok on one of those, tell him to stay put, then use Tak to collect all of the goodies.

Lok may look fearless but he's actually afraid of water, or rather the things that are swimming in the water. Because of this, he'll never follow Tak when he dives into the drink, so you'll have to swim across a body of water and activate some switch that causes a bunch of platforms to rise, allowing our burly hero to join his comrade.

What's especially cool about the cooperative gameplay is anyone can pick up a second controller and hop into the action. When this happens the screen will instantly split into two equal pieces, a necessary action because both characters are allowed to move a great distance away from one another, a fact that winds up being somewhat of a single player nuisance. Since the AI controls the character that you're not using (and for the most part it does a great job), there are times when it has trouble keeping up. It's therefore necessary to make sure that you know where Tak or Lok is at all times, especially since the missions are timed. You should also be mindful of which commands you give to them, because if you tell them to stay, they won't move (makes sense actually).

In addition to the cooperative stuff there's a host of cool things to do such as gliding through the air, sliding along vines, beating up rock monsters with a small selection of simple combo maneuvers, firing canons, and riding atop various animals. In one of the earlier stages (Silver Stone Coast), the friends happen upon a thick collection of thorn bushes, the only way to smash through them being with the help of a sleeping rhino. Well, she won't be sleeping once Tak or Lok picks up her baby and runs around with it. Wide awake and very angry, she'll charge at our heroes, but some quick side stepping enables you to move out of harms way. From there, simply hop onto the rhino to take control of her to barrel through the obstacles.

Another neat feature is the ability to create magic spells using stuff collected in the various worlds. Throughout your adventure you'll pick up bugs, fruits, and crystals, and after amassing a certain amount of ingredients you'll be able to create powerful magic. Recipe Cards are quite handy because you'll know what goes with what, but the game also allows you to experiment and mix all sorts of stuff together, so you'll definitely uncover some surprises.

The previous Tak games are quite pretty and JuJu Challenge is no exception. It doesn't appear to have been upgraded over its predecessors, but what's here is pleasing to look at. A collection of jungles, mystical and Greek inspired fantasy realms, a desert, a temple, and a tropical paradise, among other vacation-y locales keep things varied and therefore interesting. Character models are equally impressive, and they're enhanced by the quality voice acting. There's plenty of humor in this game, not necessarily funny enough to get you laughing uncontrollably, but what's here is chuckle worthy.

The Great JuJu Challenge is a quality platform game chock full of challenging puzzles, plenty of stages, and lots of action. I did notice some camera hiccups, but with a little less than a month to go before the game's September 19 release there's still some time to fix it. All I know is there aren't as many platform games coming out this holiday season than in previous years, so if you're looking for one of the best, Tak's latest adventure will probably satisfy.