Avatar: The Legend of Aang PS2 Review

Licensed kids games are so very easy to make. Just craft a conventional platformer or fighting game, with all the usual trappings of the genre, and then slap an attractive licence on it. Regardless of quality, sales are guaranteed to go through the roof. THQ’s Avatar: The Legend of Aang does offer something a little different from the norm, though.

Avatar: The Legend of Aang is an action RPG, and it’s a traditional one at that, but it’s still a refreshing change from your usual kids game. Experience points are earned when enemies are defeated, items can be found, purchased or sold and stats and skills can be tweaked.

Being an action RPG, the emphasis is firmly on the action and this is displayed no better than in the all important combat. Fighting is simplistic and sadly not terribly exciting. The lack of feedback upon striking an enemy or being hit yourself certainly doesn’t help matters, and, due to this, on many occasions you’ll be confused as to who’s bashing who.

Whilst you begin the game with only Aang, you’ll eventually have up to three other members at your disposal, all of which can be switched between with a simple tap of the d-pad. The AI of your team is sadly of little real help during battle, happy just to constantly fire off special attacks, whilst doing little else of note.

Occasionally, one of your team members must use their powers to reveal hidden chests or solve puzzles. This brings forth a simplistic mini game, which tasks you with pressing the corresponding buttons as they pass by on the screen.

Considering it’s an RPG, the game is brief, and forgoing all the side diversions, results in only around six hours of gameplay. Playing all of the side quests can push this up to around the ten hour mark, although it’s still a paltry length for an RPG and likely to be disappointing for fans of the genre.

THQ deserve commended for developing a licensed kids game that is something other than a platformer or a fighting game. However, this doesn’t change the fact that Avatar: The Legend of Aang is a rather average title that can only really be recommended to young fans of the Nickelodeon show.

5/10