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Message: [QUOTE="Jediuser, post: 166170, member: 338790"] [ATTACH type="full" width="1182px" size="686x386"]55273[/ATTACH] [I]Avatar: The Last Airbender[/I] is perhaps Nickelodeon's most beloved property, and it's easy to see why. In an era where most children's entertainment consists of lighthearted, comedic slice-of-life shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Avatar did something daring by actually giving us an ambitious serialized story rich with lore and character development. Needless to say, the risk paid off. With how beloved the property was, it was only a matter of time before video games hit the market. The series certainly seems perfect for one, with an aerokinetic main character who can fly, create tornados, and just jump around and kick ass. Can the first video game do it justice, or is it just hot air? If you've seen the cartoon, you know the basic story. The world is split into four nations that correspond to an element they 'bend' - Fire, Water, Earth, Air - and the main protagonist, Aang, is the Avatar, the hero tasked with mastering all four elements and saving the world from the threat of the Fire Nation, which wiped out his people one hundred years prior and is now waging war on the remaining two nations. But the plot of this particular game doesn't directly follow the events of the show and is actually an original story set between the first and second seasons. In this game, Aang now has to combat a group of machines that have been wreaking havoc in an effort to take down the Fire Nation and help Aang put an end to the war. I don't know why Aang feels the need to stop the mastermind behind the attacks when they clearly have the same end goal in mind, but as a filler side-story, it does its job well enough. At the very least, the show's humor and characterizations are readily apparent, though the writing isn't as strong. [ATTACH type="full" width="824px" size="1280x720"]55271[/ATTACH] Avatar's gameplay is a 3D action-RPG in the vein of games like [I]Baldur's Gate[/I], complete with character upgrades and equippable items. You have four characters to choose from- Aang, the Avatar who can bend air, Katara, the group's water bender and healer, Sokka, an oafish non-bender who wields a boomerang, and Haru, an earth bender who was a one-off character in the show but was made a part of the group here, presumably to have a playable earth bender in the game (this started development well before Toph was introduced). Sadly, aside from Katara's ability to heal, they all feel roughly the same, so once you find a favorite character, there's not much incentive to switch. The only time you'll actually need to make use of the unique abilities of a particular character is when you come across parts of the environment where one of them will make use of his abilities to either unveil a hidden item or open a path using their particular bending, leading to their 'focus move,' a button pressing minigame. It's tolerable enough the first few times you do it, but you'll have no doubt grown weary of it by game's end. Oh, and there's also some rudimentary stealth, where characters can hide using a button to become invisible for a short period of time (yeah, as far as I know, no one can do this in the show). For most of the game, you're wandering around a centralized hub world either completing story-related quests or accepting tasks from the NPCs scattered around town. The tasks you undertake are of the typical 'find x number of items' or 'defeat x number of enemies' or the much less mundane 'go to this point, find something, then bring it back here.' Even the story-related quests tend to follow a fairly predictable pattern of fetching items and bringing them back to the quest-giver. So, whether you decide to follow the main story or deviate from the beaten path, much of the game will be spent running back and forth doing menial tasks. It's not like the rewards for taking the time to complete the optional quests make a huge difference, anyway. Usually, you'll be given either currency or material to make items, but since you'll probably come across plenty of these anyway, you'll find that these monotonous tasks simply aren't worth your time. If you simply rush through without completing these quests, you can complete the story in under six hours, although even if you do complete them, it'll probably hit the eight-to-ten hour mark at best, which still isn't great for an action-RPG. [ATTACH type="full" size="750x422"]55275[/ATTACH] With the quests being as mundane as they are, it's up to the combat to maintain players' interest, and unfortunately, it doesn't do much to pick up the slack. This is due mostly to its mind-numbing repetition. In each chapter, you'll spend most of your time fighting the same enemies over and over again, and seeing as there's only one button for basic attacks, most combat encounters will be spent mashing the attack button. The three computer-controlled characters won't offer much assistance, simply using special moves over and over, and enemies will simply lunge at you, or shoot projectiles a few times before stopping so you can get your hits in. Combat is simply a matter of rushing in and taking your shots before running back out to regenerate health, as well as chi, which is essentially the energy required to use special moves. Not helping is the shoddy hit detection that saps away most of the satisfaction of slapping enemies. It's a crapshoot whether or not attacks will connect at all, and when they do it rarely feels like you've dealt your enemies a major blow. Boss fights sadly don't do much to break up the monotony. All of them follow a simplistic formula of dodging attacks until the painfully obvious weak point arrives. What's really baffling is the lack of any sort of co-op, especially considering you've got three allies at your side most of the time. As we've seen in countless brawlers, even the most basic fighting is a bit more fun when you're fighting alongside friends. To the game's credit, though, there's actually a fairly intuitive upgrade system in place. As you level up, you learn new bending moves, and earn points for upgrading your basic attacks and special moves. The game allocates these upgrades automatically, but you can set it to be controlled manually if you like, and these special moves are the game's saving grace, adding an element of flexibility the combat otherwise lacks. They range from basic super attacks, like a blast of air that sends opponents flying, to more tactical moves built around immobilizing and disorienting opponents. There's actually a fair bit of strategizing deciding which moves you want to take in to battle, and which ones you want to upgrade the fastest. Not to mention, they actually have a fair bit more impact than your standard attacks, which makes them feel more satisfying to use. The downside is that it takes only a few levels before all four moves are unlocked. Once you find your favorite move, you'll likely use it over and over every time you fight. [ATTACH type="full"]55274[/ATTACH] Visually, Avatar is also fairly unimpressive. The game makes use of cel-shading to better resemble its animated counterparts, which looks fine during gameplay, but not so much for cutscenes, which suffer from some truly janky facial animations that make them hard to look at. The environments are decently varied, with the bustling city of Omashu serving as a highlight, but for every visually appealing area, there's another one that looks bland and empty, with jagged geometry and a lack of activity. Animations during combat are usually okay, but aside from a nice slow motion effect that occasionally triggers when you complete a combo, you'll be looking at the same few canned animations each time you fight. Sound-wise, the quality also varies. As mentioned, the series' voice actors reprise their roles, and while the dialogue isn't as well written as in the show, they do a more than capable job, though hearing them spout the same lines over and over when getting hit is bound to get on your nerves. The music is also taken from the show, although there's a strange mixing issue where it sometimes sounds like it's coming from a radio. Otherwise, it generally stays in the background and adds to the ambience, although it's not especially memorable. [I] Avatar[/I] is one of the better Nicktoon-based games out there, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't disappointing. It's a shame, since the framework for a really good action-RPG set in the Avatar universe is certainly there. But the game simply doesn't capitalize on its potential, instead settling for being a merely average, somewhat dull brawler attached to a great license. At the very least, it adapts its source material well enough that fans won't regret spending a few hours with it, and hopefully later games can improve upon the solid foundation laid by this one. [ATTACH type="full" width="1014px" size="616x347"]55276[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]

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