This one is certainly going to impress some hardcore Avatar fans out there.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game from developer Gameplay Group is a love letter to Avatar fans seeking a fighting game that best represents the intellectual property it draws from. Hand-drawn and voice-acted, the fighting game does enough to make it fun and challenging. Its representation of the series and its characters, with their own story, is certainly going to garner the attention of those needing an Avatar fix in fighting form. While it won’t replace Street Fighter in terms of balance and impact, it’s a fun game to play, especially at the price point it’s listed at ($29.99).
So, with that said, let’s get into it.
Story
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game starts with a story mode at the tip-top of its playlist. This is a multi-chapter mode in which Aang suddenly finds himself in a world where no one knows who he is, and few are friendly to his mere presence. He ends up having to fight his way back into everyone’s lives, as well as help uncover the mystery behind his forgetful friends.
While the story is mildly interesting, it’s truly a vessel that delivers players a chance to try out a good chunk of the Avatar series characters. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a solid story that does enough to entertain, but its purpose is just to provide good fan service to those dedicated to the series, and it’s not tough to see this.
Most of the content in the chapters is based around fights, which means once every 2-3 fights wrap, the chapter the player is on wraps as well. The chapters are quick-hitters, with some serving as bridges to the next part of a chapter (that means no fighting), but together they are interesting, as they push a good narrative. At the very least, it’s a good mystery that takes double-digit chapters to complete, which makes the game feel like it has a bit more substance than just people punching each other.
Rest of the modes
The other modes featured are what you would expect from a fighting game of this type. There are local, online, and arcade modes. The first two are self-explanatory, with the first being the most entertaining, especially if you’re looking just to have a fun fight with friends in the living room. The online mode is a hardcore, unforgiving good time, mainly geared towards the dedicated. Don’t worry, most fighting games with online components run the same way.
As for the final mode of gameplay, arcade, it’s tough as nails. I found out how unequipped I was to play this mode when I played as Aang and kept getting my ass handed to me. The computer is one unforgiving son-of-a-gun when you’re not fully prepared to take them on. With Aang, I tried every move in the book, which led me from standard mid-hits with the square button to other charged moves that are gorgeous to pull off, but when off the mark, quite useless. Anyway, my first opponent was Korra, who had a better set of skills than my performance with Aang, and who impeded my progression to round two. Not once. Not twice. Not three times. FOUR times.
In a way, this is some proof that the fighters may be a bit unbalanced, which is a bit of a bruise for any fighting game. The less balance with characters, the more unfair advantage players have even before they show off their skills. In my case, Aang just felt a bit more performative than useful in a fight. The moves he pulled off, how he did it with style, and even his specials were gorgeous to see in motion. But, compared to other characters on the list, he was a lot clunkier than most. That imbalance just makes for a tough time, especially if you’re a fan wanting to play as air-bending Aang. Of course, that imbalance does provide some great fighting moments.
Not wanting to be a sore loser and failure as Aang, I shifted to Korra in my next go-around with the arcade mode. Korra was highly skilled throughout my journey and basically let me pull off combos, wonderful specials, and everything in between. Korra was so good that I didn’t lose a match. Not one match. While the imbalance is obvious here, two big positives come out of it.
The first is that the game will become a blast once you find the character that dominates and lays out a potential blueprint for using other characters. Korra did this for me, as it gave me more motivation to jump back into the game and try another character. Since there are locked characters in arcade mode, this just doubled my motivation to try and beat the game with others. It was a Street Fighter-esque delight.
The second positive with the imbalance is that this game is incredibly easy to pick up on without much fuss. Sure, Aang was not a good example of that, but Korra showed me that the controls were meant to be easy and for all ages, not just for hardcore fighting fans. Using Korra helped me figure out the controls and enjoy the game’s progression a lot more. It was very clear that the game didn’t want its players to get frustrated by the imbalance, but rather to enjoy the pick-up-and-go process. Again, I think making a fighting game for all types of gamers and all ages is ideal, and this is a very accessible fighting game for people who don’t worship or play fighting games competitively/professionally.
At the end of the day, the gameplay brings exactly what fans would want. It’s a cast of cool characters from a great IP that work well within a fighting environment. Again, it’s not going to overtake Street Fighter or Tekken anytime soon, but its easy-to-get-into gameplay should satisfy a broader audience with less hardcore intent. It’s good gameplay that will be fun to revisit now and again.
Those sweet visuals
Beyond the gameplay, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game features some of the most visually stunning graphics, matching the show(s). The animation looks hand-drawn, represents the IP amazingly well, and feels ripped straight from the media it came from. Fans of the series will be tickled to play as their favorite characters from the show(s) and see how much the developers put into the process of making it show-accurate. It’s great to look at and see in motion.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game from developer Gameplay Group is an impressive fighting game that has been visually translated from the show in a 1:1 manner. The visuals are stunning enough, as are the easy-to-pick-up-and-go controls, to help mask the minor imbalances in the fighting game. It’s a fun game that will please fans of the IP.
