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IGN Review of Avatar - The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno
Nickelodeon's award-winning Avatar series returns to the DS once again courtesy of THQ and Halfbrick Studios. Avatar: The Last Airbender – Into the Inferno arrives as the third game in the series on DS, but don't expect the same experience you've gotten out of its predecessors. This game takes the Avatar license in a completely different direction.
Into the Inferno roughly follows the events of the third and final season of the immensely popular animated series. The reluctant protagonist and title character, Aang, is a 12-year old boy and the current incarnation of the Avatar. This is said to be the Earth's spirit in human form, who has the ability to bend all four elements to his will in order to bring balance to the four Earth Nations. With the help of his friends Aang has already mastered the powers of Wind, Water, and Earth. Only Fire remains. We join Aang and his friends as they travel to the hostile Fire Nation to finish his journey and bring an end to the war that has engulfed the four Nations, before it's too late.
Unfortunately, you won't learn any of this by playing the game. As developed as the Avatar story is, little effort is put into explaining it to the player. If you are new to the series, you will have no idea what's going on in this game. Little of what you're doing will make sense unless you've already experienced the show. It's true that most people interested in this title will know the story inside and out, but it is a shame a little effort wasn't put into clearing it up for those of us who may have missed a few episodes.
As soon as you start up the game you'll notice the art style has changed dramatically from past titles. This most likely came as a result of going full 3D. Characters are now super deformed, with big heads and child like features. This is based off the style used in several animated shorts that aired between special episodes of the show. Character models are decent, but we've seen much better. Cut scenes are done using the in-game engine, and even though they may not look as good as some other titles we've seen recently, the character expressions and goofy dialog give them enough charm to justify the move to 3D. It is a massive departure from the show though, so it's likely some fans won't appreciate the change.
In terms of gameplay and control, the game is extremely simple. It borrows heavily from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Almost everything is controlled with the stylus. You hold where you want your character to move, and they run in that direction. Jumping is automatic, though sometimes a bit tricky to predict. To interact or attack, you simply tap the screen. It will all seem very familiar to Zelda fans. The similarities are obvious, and most likely intentional.
You play as two characters at any given time. Switching back and forth, using each individual's power to solve simple puzzles to advance to the end of each chapter. There are a total of five playable characters, each with his or her own special elemental abilities. You can hold the left shoulder button to go into "focus mode" in order to use these powers. For example, one character can form ice over water, while others can move heavy stone pillars, create blowing cyclones, shoot fire, or throw a boomerang. All of these are done using different stylus motions.
The problem here lies in the fact that each ability really only has one use. For example, if you're playing with Aang and Toph, who use Wind and Earth powers respectively, every single puzzle will involve moving stone blocks and using cyclones to get blown across gaps. These puzzles would be great if they only showed up once or twice. Unfortunately that's not the case. Each level is stretched out 20 to 30 minutes. After the first 2 minutes, every puzzle is just repeating the same thing in slightly different ways. It's all very simple. There are no items to find, doors to unlock, or rooms to explore. You follow the winding path to get to the end of a level and do it again. It gets old quickly.
As easy as most of the game is, every once in a while you will run into a puzzle that seems out of place with its difficulty. It's odd considering this game was obviously aimed at a younger audience. It makes it seem like the developers didn't quite get a grasp on the sweet spot between accessibility and challenge for the target demographic. The game is too easy for older fans, but will occasionally get too hard for younger ones.
The combat is also extremely minimalistic. There are really only two types of normal enemies, one will hit you with melee attacks and the others stand in one spot and shoot fire balls. Later in the game, they use shields. It takes about three hits to take them down. If you want to get really tricky, you can use the character's native element against the enemies, as well. There's something strangely satisfying about using the stylus to beat someone to death with a blob of water. Encounters are fairly rare and over quickly. There are a few boss battles, but they seem to suffer from the same flip-flopping difficulty issues as the rest of the game. When it comes down to it, combat is actually a very small part of the experience.
There actually is some wireless connectivity, as well as local multiplayer through DS Download Play, but it's not what you might expect. The game includes a multiplayer-only volleyball mini-game accessible from the main menu. The control is again very basic. Holding the DS book style, you use the stylus to move a single character around the court. You collect special coins in story mode to buy new playable characters and outfits to use, which might give some small incentive to replay levels. It's a bit of an odd addition to an Avatar game, but it's better than nothing.
©2008-11-25, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Into the Inferno roughly follows the events of the third and final season of the immensely popular animated series. The reluctant protagonist and title character, Aang, is a 12-year old boy and the current incarnation of the Avatar. This is said to be the Earth's spirit in human form, who has the ability to bend all four elements to his will in order to bring balance to the four Earth Nations. With the help of his friends Aang has already mastered the powers of Wind, Water, and Earth. Only Fire remains. We join Aang and his friends as they travel to the hostile Fire Nation to finish his journey and bring an end to the war that has engulfed the four Nations, before it's too late.
Unfortunately, you won't learn any of this by playing the game. As developed as the Avatar story is, little effort is put into explaining it to the player. If you are new to the series, you will have no idea what's going on in this game. Little of what you're doing will make sense unless you've already experienced the show. It's true that most people interested in this title will know the story inside and out, but it is a shame a little effort wasn't put into clearing it up for those of us who may have missed a few episodes.
As soon as you start up the game you'll notice the art style has changed dramatically from past titles. This most likely came as a result of going full 3D. Characters are now super deformed, with big heads and child like features. This is based off the style used in several animated shorts that aired between special episodes of the show. Character models are decent, but we've seen much better. Cut scenes are done using the in-game engine, and even though they may not look as good as some other titles we've seen recently, the character expressions and goofy dialog give them enough charm to justify the move to 3D. It is a massive departure from the show though, so it's likely some fans won't appreciate the change.
In terms of gameplay and control, the game is extremely simple. It borrows heavily from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Almost everything is controlled with the stylus. You hold where you want your character to move, and they run in that direction. Jumping is automatic, though sometimes a bit tricky to predict. To interact or attack, you simply tap the screen. It will all seem very familiar to Zelda fans. The similarities are obvious, and most likely intentional.
You play as two characters at any given time. Switching back and forth, using each individual's power to solve simple puzzles to advance to the end of each chapter. There are a total of five playable characters, each with his or her own special elemental abilities. You can hold the left shoulder button to go into "focus mode" in order to use these powers. For example, one character can form ice over water, while others can move heavy stone pillars, create blowing cyclones, shoot fire, or throw a boomerang. All of these are done using different stylus motions.
The problem here lies in the fact that each ability really only has one use. For example, if you're playing with Aang and Toph, who use Wind and Earth powers respectively, every single puzzle will involve moving stone blocks and using cyclones to get blown across gaps. These puzzles would be great if they only showed up once or twice. Unfortunately that's not the case. Each level is stretched out 20 to 30 minutes. After the first 2 minutes, every puzzle is just repeating the same thing in slightly different ways. It's all very simple. There are no items to find, doors to unlock, or rooms to explore. You follow the winding path to get to the end of a level and do it again. It gets old quickly.
As easy as most of the game is, every once in a while you will run into a puzzle that seems out of place with its difficulty. It's odd considering this game was obviously aimed at a younger audience. It makes it seem like the developers didn't quite get a grasp on the sweet spot between accessibility and challenge for the target demographic. The game is too easy for older fans, but will occasionally get too hard for younger ones.
The combat is also extremely minimalistic. There are really only two types of normal enemies, one will hit you with melee attacks and the others stand in one spot and shoot fire balls. Later in the game, they use shields. It takes about three hits to take them down. If you want to get really tricky, you can use the character's native element against the enemies, as well. There's something strangely satisfying about using the stylus to beat someone to death with a blob of water. Encounters are fairly rare and over quickly. There are a few boss battles, but they seem to suffer from the same flip-flopping difficulty issues as the rest of the game. When it comes down to it, combat is actually a very small part of the experience.
There actually is some wireless connectivity, as well as local multiplayer through DS Download Play, but it's not what you might expect. The game includes a multiplayer-only volleyball mini-game accessible from the main menu. The control is again very basic. Holding the DS book style, you use the stylus to move a single character around the court. You collect special coins in story mode to buy new playable characters and outfits to use, which might give some small incentive to replay levels. It's a bit of an odd addition to an Avatar game, but it's better than nothing.
©2008-11-25, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved