My husband played the game with my 7 year old son, and these are his thoughts.
First, this game is not worth 40 bucks.?? If you want a really good 40 dollar game, ANY other movie/tv tie-in game would be better: Barnyard, Open Season, Cars especially.
I felt this game was just thrown together for the sake of having a game.?? And only a month before the more advanced PS3 comes out.?? Why didn't THQ just wait and make a game for the more advanced systems??? While this game is a great role-playing game for 6-11 year olds to get them started in the role-playing genre, it does have some major faults.?? The reason I think this game was just thrown together is three-fold.?? First, there is very little spoken dialogue.?? VERY little.?? And some of it is hardly original!?? Aang says frequently, "All in a day's work for the Avatar", which is a line from the show.?? Second, the graphics could have been much, much better.?? Lastly, there are very few things to do in the game.?? You fight animals, mostly, later replace by bandits at Omashu and firebenders.?? There are no mimi-games to unlock.?? The "Extras" you unlock have more to do with the series and not the game.?? You have four characters to play with, yet it is a one-player game.?? There was very little creativity put into this.?? As I said, the Barnyard, Open Season, and Cars games are much, much, better.
On the upside, it was a simple enough game for my 7 year-old to figure out.?? The best moment in the game involves the poor cabbage vendor at Omashu.?? When character levels up, all of them level up at the same pace (again, a simple RPG).?? If it allowed for more than one player, the characters would likely advance at their own pace.
Other things I disliked about the game: Zuko makes only brief appearances, and no Uncle Iroh whatsoever. Plus, there is a nitpick.?? The kids start out at the North Pole, AFTER Zhao's invasion.?? As anyone like us can remember, they leave and immediately go the Earthbending General on the coast, then to the Cave of Two Lovers, then to Omashu to find the Fire Nation with Azula has conquered the city.?? In this game, the kids leave the North Pole, and eventually wind up in Omashu.?? But King Bumi is there walking free and the Fire Nation hasn't invaded yet!?? So there is a hole in the plot versus the plot of the show.??
Another thing I disliked about the game play is that once you leave one major playing area after a "boss fight" (for newbies, a "boss fight" is when you try to defeat the hardest portion of one level to advance in the game), you cannot return?? to anything you've played previously to advance levels or finish any tasks.?? As I said, there is very little freedom in the game.
If anyone from Nick and/or THQ reads this, PLEASE have more in any PS3/XBOX 360/WII game that you create.?? More dialogue, more action, more critters, more mini-games to unlock.?? Please look at the other three games I mentioned and make them more akin to them.?? I would also suggest make an Avatar game with more advanced RPG stuff for adults to play, yet keep it rated E so kids can at least watch them play.
This game is worth $30, MAYBE.?? It should have retailed for $20.?? For a simple game for kids, it's great.?? My expectations were smashed and I was horrified that the Avatar creators would allow such a terrible product on the market.??
It was no wonder, unfortunately, that I could only find this game at my local gaming store and not at Best Buy, Target, or even Wal-Mart.?? And, unfortunately, the marketers of the game will see that it sold horribly and will decide not to make a second game.
Horrible, horrible, horrible.
