Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game Review – Excellent Combat, Limited Solo Content

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game pulls from a rich tapestry: a vibrant, flavorful world that is nearly limitless in its potential through the lens of the eponymous Avatar. While its hand-drawn characters shine through and combat is some of the most exciting and faithful fighting games have had this year, the lack of any significant single-player content and budget becomes apparent fairly quickly. While the fighting game player may find much to love here, the game may not hold the general audience’s attention.

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game takes the Avatar franchise’s two main series, relying heavily on mainstays from the original Avatar: The Last Airbender, and drops its most recognizable characters into a fighting game. While the game advertises a voiced story mode, it is more of an excuse for these characters to interact with one another, despite living hundreds, if not thousands, of years apart. That is not to say the story is inauthentic, as show creators DiMartino and Hedrick have provided a very goofy outline that lets characters “say the thing” and draws from what I’ll call Ascended Memes in the fandom. The story is less about what happens, and more about the journey to get there. While Avatars are able to communicate with their past selves without an event like the Harmonic Convergence, I do think fans will get a kick out of a certain Guru and a “crackship” that’s introduced among other fun fan moments. Similarly, the Arcade runs for characters almost acts as if it were a slice of life with plenty of signature Avatar humor in tow. While I was not disappointed with the stories provided, I’m probably immune to the “misunderstanding turns into a fight” narrative device that’s so common in the genre. This content does not last long, so potential players should be cautious about diving in unless they plan on actually moving beyond story and arcade modes. It is also a bit of a shame that with two new Avatar projects on the horizon, this seems to engage with neither.

Where Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game shines is in its actual fighting game design.

While it’s always hard to say if a fighting game will take off or not, the hand-drawn art makes it look like you’re watching the animated show itself, with many small details in both the background and within the characters showing a comprehensive knowledge of the franchise. Crossplay and Rollback Netcode are both included, so no one can claim Gameplay Group International did not know what audience they were targeting. While my time online was limited, I found the gameplay smooth, my inputs came out as I expected, and there was no lag that I could detect, at least.

While you may feel a roster of 12 initial fighters (with five more on the way courtesy of the Year 1 Pass) is small, Gameplay Group International did one of the smartest things possible with their roster to alleviate that. While Ozai is a tall, firebending monster, players must choose one of three support characters, which will influence their playstyle. So it isn’t just a question of whether you are facing off against Aang, but whether this Aang has better air mobility. Which Assist is Zaheer favoring? Does Azula get to start in her alternate stance? Players will have to figure out or be the victim of these choices as they duke it out. Grooves or Variations aren’t new to fighting games, but the most viral and respected fighting games often employ this system, and it could make for some very different and exciting matchups even if you are facing off against the same character.

Each character is also vastly different even outside of the Support system. Korra gets a second wind as she loses health, and can empower her next move if she hits her enemy with all four elements. Zaheer isn’t just one character, but he can call upon his Red Lotus allies to make it anything but a fair fight. Aang manipulates the wind to strengthen his movement, Sokka has a bag of tricks to pull from, and let’s just say Toph has already taken the community by storm. Characters in Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game feel like they’re the actual characters from the property, and not just functional fighting game choices. Support characters also take part in win animations and react accordingly when their respective character is successful or less than. This Support system is brilliant, as it mimics what used to be a standard in fighting games, with background characters (or teammates in the background) cursing your failures or praising your successes. A more lively stage is a welcome addition to modern fighting games.

With the more in-depth mechanics Avatar Legends has, fighting game players will find some familiar, and some taken to an extreme. Critical Hits reward the player for performing actions their character wants to pull off anyway, with some of Korra’s placed as extremely aggressive. Of course, your opponent knows you may want to do these things, which creates a mind game in itself. Flow Moves are different per character, but generally allow the character to vary their movement, evade attacks, or add more punishment during a combo. The Flow Gauge is an important resource to watch because exhausting it will leave you vulnerable without Flow Moves and also vulnerable to powerful Final Techniques, which can instantly end the round.

Special Techniques award Energy points on hit, which in turn allow players to pull off EX Special Techniques, Super Techniques, and Final Techniques. If that wasn’t enough to wrap your head around, Element Surge, Autocombos, Critical Throws, and Critical Hits bring even more to the table so that players will truly have to master the elements of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game if they want to conquer their opponents.