Avatar: The Last Airbender
Score: 95% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: THQ Developer: THQ Studios Australia Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ RPG
Graphics & Sound: Avatar: The Last Airbender is a game based on the universe created by Nick's cartoon series of the same name. And even though you are playing through an original adventure (not a rehash of episodes from the show), the game seems to have pretty much anything an Avatar fan could want. When I played Avatar for the PS2, I thought the graphics were pretty solid. Everything seemed to either be pulled from the show or greatly inspired by it. The models were nice and the environments felt good. I was expecting basically the same thing on the Wii, especially since the system doesn't have nearly the graphical power as the other next-gen systems. Instead I found that the game looked significantly better. Though the models aren't as smooth as the could be on the 360 or PS3, they is a noticeable improvement over the PS2 version. Audio wise, the Wii version is just like the PS2 one. Voice actors are either the same as their TV counterparts, or good enough impersonators that it sounds like them. The game's background music has an Asian feel to it that really helps to set the mood. While in villages and not near enemies, the music is low and relaxing, but when you approach a bad guy, it ramps up and gets you into a fighting mood.
Gameplay: Fans of the series will recognize the opening scene of Avatar: The Last Airbender as the Northern Water Tribe where Aang and Katara are practicing and mastering their waterbending. But where the TV series continues from their to Aang's studies of earthbending under the Blind Bandit Toph, the game plays through an all new adventure that is kicked off by Katara being captured by a strange machine. The game is broken up into six chapters. Each chapter is a location that we have either seen before (Omashu) or is new to the Avatar universe (The Lost Island). Each location is open ended and lets you roam all over the place. As you meet people, you will be asked to perform quests that could be finding a certain number of crystals or flowers or tomatoes or other similar items. Other missions might be to restore an old sanctuary or help a person create a damn before the rainy season starts. Each location has a main mission that is really the only thing you need to complete in order to advance the story, but if you want to collect all of the special equipment or other goodies, you should strive to get 100% in all chapters. Avatar is a fairly solid Action/RPG. Your party starts off with just Aang and his airbending abilities, but before long Sokka and his club join the fight. Eventually Katara and her waterbending/healing abilities joins your party and you meet up with an earthbender named Haru. Each character has a skill tree that, as you level up, lets you master various abilities. These abilities can be offensive, defensive or specific to the character. For instance, Aang has several air attacks, air shields and distraction moves, while Katara can use her water as a shield, weapon or for healing. The only character that doesn't have a special category is Haru, but his defensive and offensive abilities more than make up for it. Since I just got done playing the PS2 version of Avatar, I couldn't help but notice a somewhat lack of replay value this time around. The joy of exploration and trying to figure out where the next mission would lead me was gone when playing through the Wii version. I found myself thinking, "Okay, when I finish here, I need to move to the North East part of the map to the hidden cave," instead of having to find out exactly where a trail of stolen food would lead me. Now, this might not have been a problem if I hadn't played it through right away and waited a few weeks or months before starting a new game. We shall see when I decide to play through it yet again.
Difficulty: Avatar: The Last Airbender is a pretty well balanced game. As my characters leveled up in a particular location, the enemies from that chapter were noticeably easier to take down, but the bad guys from the next were still a challenge. Boss battles seem to be where the difficulty got a little off kilter. Since I primarily used attacks, with the exception of Katara's healing, as my characters leveled up, I assigned their points to their offensive abilities. Consequentially about halfway through the game, I had unlocked several of the most powerful attacks. This means that where the boss at the end of the Fire Nation Prison was really hard (the second chapter), the big bad machine enemy at the end of the game required little effort because I just had to use Aang's hurricane attack a few times. Consequentially, towards the end, the boss battles just felt a bit anti-climactic.
Game Mechanics: For the PS2 version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I focused on two aspects of the game, the leveling up system (which I went over in GamePlay) and the equipment system that allows you to modify many different character attributes based on the clothes and accessories your characters are wearing. While those add a lot of weight to the game's feel, the Wii version's use of the remote outweighs these mechanics and that's what I want to talk about here. For a more detailed description of how these other aspects work, please refer to the PS2 review here. The Wii-mote has two major functions in this game. The first, and most frequently used, is using it to activate your various skills. In the PS2 version, you would hold down a button and tap a face button that corresponds to the move's assigned position. Here, you hold down the (B) and flick the Wii-mote up, down, left or right (depending on the position you have your skill assigned to). I found that, once I got used to it, I was able to follow up my attacks more quickly. Though, there were also plenty of times when I would accidentally execute the same move twice in a row for no apparent reason. Maybe I flicked the remote twice in the same direction without realizing it, but I'm not sure. The other major use for the Wii-mote is when your characters have to "focus" and use their skills outside of combat. This is typically used to reveal hidden chests and a few key mission points. This focus move comes in the form of a drawing mini-game. When you encounter a place where your character needs to focus, the screen turns into a piece of paper and a symbol is drawn on it. You then use the Wii-mote to retrace the symbol in the same order it was drawn by the computer. When you are done drawing, you are given a score. If you get a high enough score, you have completed the move. If you don't, then you are allowed to try again. I have been really pleased with the Avatar game all around and as a fan of the series, I like the direction the game took. Having played both versions, I have to say that I like the Wii one better, just because using the Wii-mote allowed the game to break away from the standard Action/RPG mold a little bit. If you have a choice between the two versions, then definitely pick up this one.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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