Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game Review: Bending like Never Before

Fighting games aren't exactly something rare or incredible in this day and age, but you'll mostly see these kinds of games attached to some more popular IPs. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is the next game to take a stab at making a popular IP into a fighting game.

It does a surprisingly good job, although not everything is perfect. The game keeps the characters fairly accurate to their original versions and even goes as far as to incorporate their behaviors into their fighting styles. It certainly made the game feel much more interesting as the characters filled out clear niches while maintaining their personalities.

I put about ten hours into the game, finishing the story campaign through once along with enjoying some arcade mode runs. I only got into a few online fights, along with some local battles against people and AI, and I really enjoyed what I played, although not everything is perfect.

It's actually just what it says on the tin: a fighting game using characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legends of Korra. There really isn't much more to say beyond that, since, for the most part, it comes with about what you might expect, along with a few surprising choices for playable characters.

With 12 total characters to play and a brand-new story to experience in the Avatar world, there's plenty to keep you busy for a good bit of time. You'll move through the story playing various characters as you try to piece together what exactly is going on in this topsy-turvy world.

The actual mechanics of the fighting game are a bit different, as each character has their own mechanics that govern their kit, along with the new Flow System. The Flow System works similarly to stamina in other games, where certain moves will cause it to deplete, and you can use it to dodge incoming attacks.

It can go a bit deeper than that, as each character has a unique set of Flow Moves that can often be chained into other moves, but it's not quite as interesting as the mechanics that each character has. Korra, for instance, has varying types of elemental attacks, and hitting all four elemental attacks will make the next elemental attack incredibly strong, so there is a lot of incentive to play aggressively, much like Korra herself.

Each character is unique even when they share similar abilities, such as Aang and Zaheer, or Korra and Kyoshi, which felt amazing as they all felt incredibly different. While the game does nail a lot of the character designs, it also offers a robust Training Room where expert and new players alike can see all kinds of information on different attacks and move sets.

Everyone is Here

Some of the characters are what you might expect: the original group from ATLA, then, of course, Korra, but in a very fun surprise, we have Kyoshi, Zaheer, Azula, and Ozai. I certainly wasn't expecting characters like Kyoshi and Ozai to make an appearance in the game.

They do help flesh out the roster a bit, along with Nightmare Korra and Aang, who have a different set of attacks from their other versions. What's really nice about all the characters is that they're true to the characters' source material and look great without feeling too over the top.

This can really be seen in characters like Kyoshi and Ozai, who operate as strong fighters with powerful moves, although they're both rather large and slow. They really capture the essence of the original characters, especially Kyoshi with her domineering presence.

There's plenty of space on the roster for more characters to join and hopefully expand some of what we have now. Twelve isn't exactly a staggering amount, but with the way they all play, it feels like a great starting point.

The Wacky World of Avatar

The story here isn't exactly some masterpiece of writing, and that's okay; it doesn't have to be. It does what it needs to and explains a rather funny and occasionally emotional journey of the characters as you navigate through the 27 chapters to understand what exactly caused so much trouble.

This comes with some interesting surprises, some less surprising than others, but for the most part, the characters feel accurate to themselves, rather than being simple caricatures. Zaheer, in particular, has a unique storyline that I could absolutely see happening with his character, given the circumstances.

It was a neat way to offer some interactions for the characters beyond the opening fight scenes. That being said, it really is just serviceable as a story, since the vast majority of the characters never seem to leave their idle poses during conversations.

The story won't be something that you'll be looking for much, but it is something that offers up more of what everyone is craving. It gives some unique opportunities for characters that don't usually interact to explore some intriguing dialogue even with how screwy everything is.

Avatar Fans VS Fighting Game Fans

As someone who mostly plays fighting games that entice me with the IP they usually represent, I think this game will be a pretty weird medium between two different fandoms. There's a lot for enjoyers of both Avatar and fighting games to love about the game, but I'm not sure how long that will last.

It's no secret that a lot of people around my age grew up watching Avatar the Last Airbender and later Legends of Korra, but we've still not gotten many games that were worthy of the fantastic series that everyone loves so much. This game seems to bridge that gap in a lot of ways without sacrificing too much in terms of accuracy.

Fighting games feel like a dime a dozen at this point, and more often than not they don't live up to the hype. I'll admit that I'm not some top-ranked fighter or anything even close, but even with that, the game still felt remarkably smooth. There are a lot of skill expression thanks to the Flow System and how combos work, and it seemed like even the more experienced fighters in the game found the systems engaging.

One thing that really grabbed my attention is that the game offers up a sort of easy combo button for players to use. This makes it much easier to create and break into combos based on the button pressed rather than starting a whole new combo.

To simplify it a bit, if you start with the basic combo, you can have it morph into something different by simply pushing another button instead of what comes next in the combo. You still have the choice of using the directional and button inputs to change things more intently, which was nice to see.

It makes the game a little more accessible for players who may not have the same skills as fighting game experts, while letting them enjoy their favorite characters. While that might be the biggest upside the game has, depending on who you ask, it doesn't cover up some of the issues.

What was Missing?

The build I originally received for the game did not encompass everything that will be available on day one. To the credit of the developers, I did receive a much more robust build over the weekend, which covered some of the original problems I was having.

That being said, I was unable to try or even look at any sort of Ranked Matchmaking, so I can't provide any ideas on how that will be managed, but that's not what this will be about. Even with the new stuff, I still can't say that the game has everything it needs.

What is on offer is great, but there's still room for improvement. The Arcade Mode doesn't seem to possess any alternative modes or even any greater difficulties, and there's just not really all that much outside of the Story Mode, Multiplayer Modes, and Trials to do.

That's not some crazy huge problem that will make the game feel boring or anything, but it's definitely a problem for people who may want to test their skills in some modes with significant disadvantages. It's got almost all the pieces it needs to be something truly spectacular but falls short in more than a few areas.

Those kinds of things can always change and be added in later, but for now, at least, there isn't much to challenge players beyond other players. It seems like they have things like NG+ and such coming on launch day, but I haven't gotten to experience those, so I can't offer much information beyond what was passed along to me.

There are post-launch plans with extra fighters coming in the future, and maybe they'll include some more modes or upgraded versions of the modes we have, but for now they just aren't there. It's a little disheartening given how much the game does right, but even with those things being as good as they are, it could be better.

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is a great fighting game that has something for long-time fans of the Avatar franchise and fans of more hardcore fighting games. It isn't always putting its best foot forward in some respects, but that doesn't stop the core experience from being enjoyable. The game is an incredible homage to the Avatar series with fighters that really embody the essence of the character without sacrificing too much to gameplay. That gameplay is also crisp and engaging to learn from start to finish. It's still missing some modes and difficulties, and doesn't offer too many ways to play, but that can be improved, hopefully. Whether you're a fan of the series or a fan of fighting games, you'll find something to love about Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game.