Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Burning Earth (Nintendo DS) - Review by Jeremy

Introduction

Avatar: The Legend of Aang - The Burning Earth (known as Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth outside Europe) is a sequel to the first Avatar game, and tracks the second season of the popular Nickelodeon animated TV series. As soon as you saw the Nickelodeon logo on the box, you probably worked that out, and if your tenth birthday was in the distant past, the very same logo probably made you pass on to the next game. But hold your horses - even if you have no idea who Aang is, you might still find it fun to be him for a while in this simple role play fighting game from TOSE software.

Gameplay

'Save the Earth Kingdom!' says the box, and before you sigh and then complain that everybody keeps saying that at the moment, be relieved that in this game saving the Earth will probably only take you a few hours. This is a story-based game, closely following the epic struggles of Aang and his friends from the Nickelodeon cartoon series. The story unfolds in little captions spoken by the characters in between fighting scenes, and basically all you have to do is stop an invasion by the pesky 'Fire Nation' bad guys who are everywhere. And you get all sorts of special powers that can bend the elements and kill people really easily.

You can play as one of several characters from the series, each with their own 'bending' ability, and you always fight with a partner which makes it much more friendly, and if you're a bit rubbish at fighting (like me), you can rely on your fighting buddy to win most of the time. As you advance through the game, you build up bending points which can be used to fire up your special powers (above and beyond your regular fighting abilities), as well as picking up useful bits and pieces such as food, keys, healing and swamp octopi (they're cute and purple). There is a lot of fuss about Aang's ability to enter the 'Avatar State', in which he goes berserk and kills everything much more easily, and this adds an exciting and mysterious element to the story. Along the way are some fun mini-games too.

If you are familiar with the cartoon series, you'll enjoy role playing in this DS version of it, but even if you've never seen the show, it's still a fun little story with some great scenarios and unique, imaginative fighting abilities. There's an element of discovery as you progress through Aang's little world, and it's always fun to discover what he's up against next.

Controls

It's a fairly straightforward button masher when it comes to fighting, but navigating around the scenes is enjoyable and there is enough variation in fighting abilities to keep you interested. Because it's a story, there's no need to make the fights a dexterity challenge, and this means that even old guys like me can actually win, which feels good. The stylus tags along as an awkward guest, only being used to select who you want to be, what bending moves you want and for giving out bits and pieces to the characters to keep them in good shape.

Graphics

The graphics of the original animated series are exceptional, presenting a challenge for the game developers. But they have risen to the challenge well on the DS, with excellent detailing in the environments, and realistic body movements - even down to moving mouths and facial expressions that are so small you can hardly see them.

Sound

The music is one of the high points of this game. It's grandiose, epic movie style, with an oriental twang reminiscent of martial arts movies, gives the game that 'hero on a quest to save the world' feeling. The music adds tension to the story, and only when you get stuck somewhere does it get repetitive. The usual fighting sound effects are thrown in for good measure, along with some original ones for the slightly stranger bending moves.

Dual screen

I found the DS dual screen is useful in this game, mainly because the lower screen displayed a map so I knew where the heck I was going in the top screen. That screen is also useful for keeping tabs on your energy levels and bending powers in the midst of fights.

Final comments

Avatar: The Legend of Aang - The Burning Earth is not a hard game by any stretch of the imagination. Most gamers would probably complete it in a day of gaming even if they stopped for a leisurely lunch half way through. But hey, length and challenge aren't everything. This game scores in the way it feels; it has a similar attraction to the type of animated series it's based on - heroes with special powers (preferably mysterious martial-arty type special powers) save the world by ridding it of evildoers - it's a familiar plot, but deep down we all love it. Players who like to watch that kind of TV will surely like this kind of game. It's probably even better if you know the TV series, but I don't think you need to have seen it to get a kick out of saving the Earth.

Pro: Atmospheric, heroic music.
Con: Too easy, so story is short.
Final score: 7.5

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