TakTik by Kickoo,
$12.50
Reviewed September 2003 by Eric Falk
Strategy, memory, and a good poker face
are what you'll need to master TakTik. Blend this with beautifully
rendered graphics and you have an addictive strategy game
that will keep you entertained for a long time. With a great
attention to detail, TakTik is the kind of high quality game
I would expect from Kickoo.
Set in a cartoon rendered medieval theme,
each new game begins by placing 18 game pieces on the board.
The object of the game is simple, either capture your opponent’s
princess or move your princess across the board to the far
end of your opponent’s side. Sounds easy, but it's
not! What makes TakTik challenging is that you are only able
to see the placement of your opponents’ game pieces,
leaving the value of their pieces a mystery. However, during
a "fight" you are able to view your opponents'
game piece, having this knowledge can give you an edge in
the game. After playing the game several times you’ll
begin to develop your own strategy, you are even given the
option to save your game formation to load for future games.
You may also visit the "graveyard" at any point
during the game; this is where you may view your and your
opponents’ dead game pieces such as magicians, thieves,
and knights. Playing the computer on medium difficulty my
success rate was only about 40%. But you should not give
up. Even when you've lost many pieces in battle and your
chance at victory seems bleak there is still hope. I've come
back from what appeared to be a certain loss several times.
This makes each game worth playing to the end. After the
game is finished you can view your win/lose statistics.
Game pieces are moved using the stylus,
this is an extremely easy task and you have plenty of time
to make a decision, as TakTik is not a fast paced game. There
are numerous options available to customize game play to
your liking. TakTik also offers a very thorough tutorial
that is launched the first time you play the game. You can
play against the computer, another player sharing the same
PDA, or against another player via IR or Bluetooth. TakTik
is just as fun to play against a friend as it is against
the computer. There are three levels of difficulty to choose
from, making the computer a very challenging opponent and
providing hours of entertainment.
Upon launching TakTik, I was immediately
in awe of its nicely rendered title screen and graphics.
The medieval theme that is carried throughout the game is
a very nice touch, I often find myself studying the various
characters as they each have their own unique appearance.
TakTik has some interesting sounds,
but nothing too fancy here. I would have loved it if the
developers included one or two words of voice over for
each character. It will make the game more fun to play.
TakTik is a very addictive strategy game, and an excellent
value for the money. |
