After not being able to get into the others, I’m glad I was able to play the beta for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game. What I experienced shows promise to be the best fighting game in the post 2015 era, and it achieves that by being a throwback of sorts. Avatar is an anime fighter at its core but rather than playing like current ones like Guilty Gear Strive, it plays like an early 2010s fighter like BlazBlue or Persona 4 Arena.
I was surprised by just how much creativity is put into how each character fights and even more so by how high the execution in the game can get. Avatar is a simple game on its surface, only having 3 primary attack buttons, one for flow moves – which is the game’s universal system used for movement, one for offense and defense and featuring only quarter circle motions for specials. It does, however, features tight windows for a lot of combo routes and a great deal of experimentation.
For example, I spent most of the beta playing Toph and she has the ability to adjust the stage barrier by creating a wall. She’s not the first character with this ability as it was pioneered by Aganos in Killer Instinct and Crusader in DNF Duel also had it. Toph however is the first character to be able to manually move the position of the wall and she’s also the first grappler with this ability.
The creativity doesn’t just extend to Toph however. Azula is one of the best takes on a stance character I’ve seen as her stance can essentially change based on how well you’re playing. Her focused stance is what happens as you maintain control and while she’s harder to play, she’s more precise, harder to punish and has better damage routes. However, if she’s down a round, she becomes Fire Lord Azula who becomes easier and more of a berserker type character.
Every character has a wide array of options to experiment with and the game has everything from easier and more straightforward characters like Korra to characters like Aang who felt highly technical. This is further expanded on by the support system. The support system sees you choose a character and they will buff a certain aspect of another character – such as giving Toph armor during her flow movement or Aang better flight capabilities.
I don’t want to go too in depth as the game is coming out in only a short couple weeks but my first impression of Avatar Legends is, it’s a fighting game that will be in the top of its class. However I will say this, there are things that may be a bit difficult for casuals to grasp, the game moves at a breakneck pace and there are some pretty hefty execution requirements. If you’re an Avatar fan just wanting to try the game out, just take it slow, learn the basics and have fun.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game will see it’s full release on July 23rd 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series platforms. A Switch and Switch 2 release will happen at a later date.
