Nickelodeon created a cartoon based around the Asian-influenced martial arts background and added in their view of elemental magic on top of it. Debuting in early 2005, Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a successful show for Nickelodeon on all merits. The ratings are high, it reaches outside of its demographic of young teens and captures the delight of many adults, and merchandise on the franchise has flown off the shelves. There will be a third season in 2007, so Nickelodeon must be doing something right with the franchise.

Does all that success translate into a worthy video game? THQ has often worked with Nickelodeon on their franchises with several meeting the expectations when turned into a video game. Avatar unfortunately follows the path of many games that are all talk and no game. Avatar: The Last Airbender was developed by THQ Australia, also known as Studio OZ, which formerly worked on Spongebob Squarepants: Lights, Camera, PANTS!  I had high hopes for this youthful and energizing cartoon when it was announced it would be receiving a video game. It just seemed to be that everything that could have gone wrong did, in fact, go awry.

The storyline pits human civilization into four divided nations: the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, the Water Tribes, and the Fire Nation. Tied to those nations are individuals that are called “Benders” that can manipulate their element to its full use. There is one Bender that is capable of controlling all elements and bending them to his or her ability – this special Bender is called the Avatar. This leads us to our hero of the game, Aang, the 12-year-old Airbender that is actually the Avatar of the world.

As for the villains of the series, that would be the Fire Nation (of course, fire equates to death usually, so it’s typical to assume they would be the villains right from the start). The Fire Nation continues to move along borders of its rivals conquering them as it rampages across the land. One of the Fire Nation’s first steps in its path of war was to eliminate the Airbenders. The Air Temples were attacked and destroyed leaving Aang to be the last known Airbender that is still alive. This is where the title of the game originates from.

Included in Aang’s circle of friends are: Katara, a young girl that knows the way of Waterbending and Sakka, the brother of Katara that isn’t able to bend any element. Nickelodeon created an entertaining show and it’s bound to receive a great video game in the future, but this one is not it.

Unlike the television show, Avatar: The Last Airbender on the Xbox is aimed solely at a younger audience. Even worse, it’s a simple button-masher that has no depth to it whatsoever. If you are die-hard fan, you’ll notice the differences right away. The television show is colorful while the video game is drab. The television show is witty while the video game is monotonous. The comparison can go on for days, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead.

Control of Aang is done with the left thumbstick as you move around the 3D environments. Even for as simple as it is, THQ Australia added in a few elements to give the illusion that it is an RPG. You’ll unlock new moves as you progress throughout the game. The moves aren’t as intuitive as they could be, but the matter of the fact is that THQ Australia at least implemented them into the game.

Outside of controlling Aang, you’ll have the chance to control Katara and Sokka at particular points along your quest. If those don’t delight the hardcore fans, well then maybe control over Haru or Momo will bring smiles to their faces. If you don’t know who these two characters are, here is some insight. Momo is a winged-lemur that is the last of his kind. Haru is an Earthbender that had seen his village fall to the savage attacks of the Fire Nation. Selecting these characters is all controlled through the D-Pad as you cycle between who you want to control. Each character has their powers that will assist you along the way to fend off the Fire Nation.

For most of the game, Avatar doesn’t achieve the similar mood the cartoon displays. The cartoon’s action scenes are brilliantly laid out while the video game is all hack'n'slash. When you are fighting, the action never picks up nor does it feel as if you are controlling a real element bender. Fighting against the Fire Nation, the animations don’t fully connect and the collision detection is horrible. 

Is this a smart purchase for your children? Yes, kids that enjoy the show and don’t care about the death-defying details of keeping true to the source material should be able to enjoy the game. Is this right for anyone above the age of 12? Most likely not, there isn’t enough here to immerse yourself into Avatar’s popular universe.

Gameplay: 6.0
The game caters to young children. It’s a simple beat 'em-up that needs a lot of work to keep a hardcore fan like myself interested.

Graphics: 5.5
Compared to next-gen, this is light years behind. Compared to the current generation of video games (which will come to a close when the PS3 / Wii release in a few weeks), Avatar is still visually lacking.

Sound: 6.0
THQ Australia didn’t ‘bend’ their back to make Avatar as authentic as they could. Provided, they did have a few select locations from the television show. This isn’t the best visualization of a virtual world to run around in.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Like I mentioned earlier, this is geared towards children. Adults will be able to pick up and play this with ease. Children will have a few troubles, but it won’t stop them from playing the game.

Concept: 6.0
I love the television show, but they could have done so much better. They could have made an RPG out of it or an action game with depth, but instead they focused on a button smasher that anyone can play with their eyes closed.

Overall: 6.1
I had high hopes, but I was let down. It wasn’t the first time, Samurai Jack’s own video game failed to live up to expectations also. Video game developers need to realize there is a ton of potential here and that more time invested in research of what the fans would want is needed.