Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ang may be the Avatar, but with these controls he’s left powerless.
Tags: Avatar: The Last Airbender Categories: Reviews, Wii Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Jan 30th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Avatar: The Last Airbender (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
 |
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a runaway hit among kids and adults alike when it debuted on Nickelodeon. An American take on Anime epics, it blended eastern mythology with western storytelling. So from the source material I was expecting no less than an epic adaption of the series on any console. However what THQ has delivered was a pale imitation of Activision’s Marvel adaptations. The Wii incarnation is almost an exact copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The controls are an exact map, and the game plays the same. Even down to the inconsistent voices for NPCs.
 |
Graphically the game looks exactly like it’s counterparts on the last-gen systems, and even for a PS2/Cube game they’re weak. The in-game graphics are on par with the isometric perspective. What was really irritating is that the cinematics use larger versions of the sprites, and it ends up looking like the whole story was done by a kid with some Colorforms. What’s really frustrating is that all of the elements of an epic are here. They could have made a game that covers much of the same material of the show, but allows you to interact with it. This is a new trend with the adaptations, and while it may be a stylistic decision, that doesn’t make it good. If you’re going to make barely animated 2-D movies, just use the comic book angle, and it won’t look so hokey.
 |
The gameplay is a complete mess. Mimicking the awful system from Marvel Ultimate Alliance. While the Wii allows for some amazing things with motion sensing, using it for button mapping isn’t one of them. Basically just like Marvel:UA you use special attacks by holding a button and waving the remote in a direction. The attacks need to be used in a specific location when fighting an enemy, and it is never clearly explained how. Even once you figure out how they work, they still work intermittently. You will not really need them, however, as you’ll spend most of your time wailing on the A button. While every dungeon crawler back to Gauntlet has this basic control, the on-screen characters usually do more than one or two attacks. It is a staple of the genre, but if there was more of an engaging story it wouldn’t matter as much. Same with the items, it ends up being more of a chore than customization.
 |
The whole game is plodding and repetitive, and it doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. Not every game can be a home run, but Avatar isn’t even a base hit. While the source could have delivered a solid game, but THQ didn’t use any of it. Even if this was just a bad game it would earn a better score, the worst part is that every single game concept is lifted from Marvel: UA on the Wii. THQ may have made some stinkers in their time, but stealing from a mediocre game to make this stinking pile is nearly inexcusable.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| Fans of the show will like the voice acting, but would be better off buying a DVD. | 0.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
Controls are nearly unusable A very shallow game Is bad enough to put you off playing video games for a few days |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A mess of a game that would be better off left unpurchased even in the bargain bin. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Jan 30th, 2007 and is filed under Reviews, Wii Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
