Legends of Avatar: The Fighting Game Review: Bending Like Never Before

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Fighting games are not rare or incredible in this day and age, but you will see these types of games attached to some of the more popular IPs. Legends of Avatar: The Fighting Game the next stab at turning 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 so far as to incorporate their behavior into their fighting styles. It certainly made the game feel more interesting as the characters filled the vivid spaces while maintaining their individuality.

I put about ten hours into the game, completing the story campaign and enjoying the arcade mode. I got into a few online-only battles, as well as some local battles against humans and AI, and I really enjoyed what I played, although not everything was flawless.

What is Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game?

It’s basically what it says on the tin: a fighting game that uses characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legends of Korra. There’s not much to say beyond that, because, for the most part, it comes with what you might expect, along with a few surprising choices of playable characters.

With 12 characters to play and a new story to experience in the world of Avatar, there’s plenty to keep you busy for a while. You’ll travel through the story playing various characters as you try to piece together what’s really going on in this topsy-turvy world.

The actual mechanics of the fighting game are a little different, as each character has their own machine that controls their kit, and the new Flow System. The Flow System works similar to stamina in other games, where certain moves will cause it to expire, and you can use it to dodge incoming attacks.

It can go a little deeper than that, as each character has a different set of Flow Moves that are often tied to other moves, but it’s not as interesting as the mechanics each character has. Korra, for example, has different types of basic attacks, and hitting all four basic attacks will make the next attack incredibly strong, so there’s a lot of incentive to play aggressively, like Korra herself.

Each character is different even if they share the same abilities, like Aang and Zaheer, or Korra and Kyoshi, who felt amazing as they all felt incredibly different. While the game fleshes out many character designs, it also offers a robust Training Room where experts and new players alike can see all kinds of knowledge in different attacks and move sets.

Everyone is here

Some of the characters are what you might expect: the original team from ATLA, then, of course, Korra, but in a pleasant surprise, we have Kyoshi, Zaheer, Azula, and Ozai. I really didn’t expect characters like Kyoshi and Ozai to appear in the game.

They help round out the list a bit, along with Nightmare Korra and Aang, who have a different set of attacks from their other versions. The best thing about all the characters is that they are true to the source characters and look great without feeling too over the top.

This can really be seen in characters like Kyoshi and Ozai, who act as tough fighters with powerful moves, even though they are both big and slow. They really capture the essence of the original characters, especially Kyoshi with his powerful presence.

There is plenty of room on the roster for more actors to join and we hope to expand on what we have now. Twelve isn’t an amazing number, but with the way they’re all playing, it feels like a good start.

The Wacky World of Avatar

The story here isn’t exactly a masterpiece, and that’s okay; it doesn’t have to be like that. It does what it needs to and describes the funny and at times emotional journey of the characters as you navigate through 27 chapters to understand what really caused such a big problem.

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

It was a neat way to provide character interaction beyond the opening scenes. That said, it’s really serviceable as a story, as most of the characters don’t seem to leave their passive stances during conversations.

The story won’t be something you’ll be looking for the most, but something that offers more of what everyone craves. It offers some unique opportunities for characters who don’t usually work together to explore interesting dialogue no matter how murky everything is.

Avatar Fans VS Fighting Game Fans

As someone who plays a lot of fighting games I’m attracted to the IP they often represent, I think this game will be a weird cross between two different fandoms. There’s a lot for fans of both Avatar and fighting games to love about this 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 Legend of Korra, but we still haven’t found many games that were worthy of the great series that everyone loves. This game looks to bridge that gap in a lot of ways without really sacrificing too much.

Fighting games feel like a dime a dozen at this point, and often don’t live up to the hype. I’ll admit I’m not a great fighter or even close, but even so, the game still feels incredibly smooth. There’s a lot of display of skill thanks to the Flow System and the way combos work, and it seems that even the most experienced fighters in the game have found the systems engaging.

Each character is different even if they share the same abilities, like Aang and Zaheer, or Korra and Kyoshi, who felt amazing as they all felt incredibly different.

One thing that caught my attention is that the game offers a simple combo button for players to use. This makes it much easier to build and break into combos based on button presses instead of starting a new combo.

To make it a little easier, if you start with a basic combo, you can morph it into something different just by pressing another button instead of the next one in the combo. You still have the option to use directional inputs and buttons to change things carefully, which was nice to see.

It makes the game a little more accessible to players who may not have the same skills as fighting game pros, while allowing them to enjoy their favorite characters. While that may be the biggest compliment the game has, depending on who you ask, it doesn’t excuse some of the issues.

What was missing?

The build I got at the start of the game didn’t include everything that would be available on day one. Thanks to the developer’s reputation, I got a very solid build over the weekend, which fixed some of the initial problems I had.

That said, I haven’t been able to try or even look at any sort of Limited Rating, so I can’t offer any ideas on how that will be handled, but that’s not what it will be. Even with the new stuff, I can’t say that the game has all the necessary stuff.

The offer is very good, but there is still room for improvement. Arcade Mode doesn’t seem to have any other modes or any major difficulty, and there isn’t much else besides Story Mode, Multiplayer Modes, and Trials to do.

That’s not a crazy big problem that will make the game feel boring or anything, but it’s a problem for people who might want to test their skills in other ways that have a significant downside. It has almost all the pieces it needs to be truly amazing but falls short in a few areas.

Arcade Mode doesn’t seem to have any other modes or any major difficulty, and there isn’t much else besides Story Mode, Multiplayer Modes, and Trials to do.

Those kinds of things can always change and be added later, but for now, at least, there isn’t much that challenges players more than other players. It looks like they have things like NG+ and such coming on launch day, but I haven’t received those, so I can’t provide much information beyond what was relayed to me.

There are post-launch plans for additional fighters coming in the future, and maybe they will include other modes or improved versions of the modes we have, but right now they just aren’t there. It’s a little disappointing given how well the game does, but even if those things are as good as they are, they could be better.

Legends of Avatar: The Fighting Game is a great fighting game that has something for long-time fans of the Avatar franchise and die-hard fighting game fans. It doesn’t always put its best foot forward in some ways, but that doesn’t stop the core experience from being enjoyable. The game is a wonderful homage to the Avatar series with fighters that really embody the essence of the character without sacrificing too much in the gameplay. That gameplay is fun and engaging to learn from start to finish. It still lacks some modes and difficulty, and doesn’t offer 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 Legends of Avatar: The Fighting Game.