Avatar: Into The Inferno - 6/10
Avatar: Into The Inferno
Best Avatar game, coolest Avatar title, but is that enough?
Avatar, the kids show that's probably watched by more adults than kids (mainly because Nickelodeon had little to do with the show) ran for three seasons, following the adventures of Aang, -the conduit between the living and spirit worlds- who can bend all of the four elements. This game focuses on the third and final "book" of the series, where Aang learns how to bend fire and his ultimate final battle with the evil (Read: Eeeeeevvvviiillll) fire lord.
The first thing to notice about this game is unless you're a fan of the show or have played the first two games, you really won't know what's going on story-wise. The game starts with a very short introduction and is mainly aimed at fans of the show.
Gameplay/Controls:
It always interests me how game developers take advantage of the wii-mote. Some thought obviously went into this game as there's a lot of improvement over Burning Earth, however it still didn't feel as intuitive as it could have been.
You'll get clued in on what parts of the environment you can manupulate as the symbol for that particular element will appear when you move the wii-mote over it. For example to earthbend a ledge from a cliff you would aim the wii-mote, press the interact button and then pull the wii-mote towards you. That's one of the more intuitive examples, most of them don't seem relevant to what you're trying to accomplish.
Fighting and bending in battle is also not what I expected. I found there are limited combo-moves available when battling an enemy and the bending attacks seem very weak. In fact as much as I love the concept of bending, I ended up using Sokka most of the time as his sword was a better weapon than the bending. This combination of limited fighting/bending moves and the time it takes to dispatch an enemy can make the player bored pretty quickly.
The other thing that bugged me about the gameplay (although not really important) is that in previous games, your "buddy" for that level would be at your side, whereas in this game there's only the one character on screen and you switch between them. Not a big deal, but the suspension of disbelief disappears when those two characters are having a conversation in game.
Graphics:
The graphics are very solid and do a good job representing the same style of the cartoon. The characters in the game and in cutscenes are very faithful. Unfortunately it's the camera that seems to let everything down, it's sometimes hard to see what you're meant to be doing, who you're fighting or getting an entire puzzle to appear on screen.
Audio:
The audio tracks are mostly lifted straight from the show and are great at setting the mood of the level. Plus any game based on a movie or tv show gets bonus points from me when they use the original voice actors.
Bonus:
Bonus material consists of character bios and some limited upgrades for your character's skills. There's also a mini game involving Aang flying on his glider. I didn't play this much as the controls were pretty ordinary, not a good thing considering I only played the mini game as I was bored with the main game.
While this by all appearances is a negative review, fans of the series who were disappointed by the last two games will probably get a kick out of this.
Gameplay: 5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Replay value: Little
Recommendation: Hire it first
Overall: 6/10
Submitted by Sagerian
23/01/2009
70
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More Info:
Avatar - The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno
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