Avatar is often considered one of the greatest animated franchises of all time. However, in the 21 years since its release, a great video game has eluded it. That changes with Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game. Mechanically, I think Avatar Legends may have the best combat system in a fighter since 2015. It captures the look of Avatar well, does a solid job at teaching new players how to play, and has a surprisingly fun story for fans of the series. It may just have needed a little more time in the oven to cook.
Pros
The combat of Avatar Legends features a mix of modern accessibility with a throwback to the early 2010s where fighting games saw a massive comeback. Legends features fast and frenetic combat akin to games like BlazBlue or Skullgirls. Despite the game only featuring 12 playable characters, each character has so much depth and variety to how they can be played to the point where it can almost feel like each character is 3 different characters rolled into one.
This is largely due to two main systems. First, the flow system which is a universal special action for each character that has multiple functions for movement, defense and offense. For example, Aang’s flow grants him probably the best mobility in the game and also allows him to create a wind storm that can mess with the opponents own movement by forcing them to advance faster. Toph can use flow to pull opponents in, create a huge earth pillar that she can stand on or extend combos with, or slide across the ground. While universal mechanics have made things feel homogenized in some recent fighters, the way Avatar uses the flow system makes every character feel unique. Outside of defensive mechanics such as dodges and counter attacks, characters don’t interact with the system the same way. Similar to SF6 or City of the Wolves, you also have to be careful managing the flow system as it can lead to a burnt out state. You’ll lose access to flow moves in this state and you won’t be able to roll out of knock downs. It seems fairly hard to burn out however.
The second, the support system also keeps things feeling varied between characters and let’s players build their own playstyle with them. Fans of Mortal Kombat will be reminded of variations from MKX and MK11. Each support augments a different aspect of the character. For example, if Toph chooses the boulder as her support, it adds armor to her flow movement as well as enhances the combo potential off of her command throw. If she chooses the badger moles however, it gives her better combos with her pillars. Other characters such as Zuko can choose Mai to enhance his zoning ability or Jun to make his rushdown more powerful.
On top of the combat systems, every character is just such a fun take on traditional fighting game archetypes and it captures the spirit of how the characters actually fight in the series as well. Korra for example functions as the games shoto type character (basically a beginner character like Ryu from Street Fighter for those unaware). She’s an all rounder yet focuses on an aggressive fighting style much like she did on the show. I tried everyone at least once but I ended up taking a liking to Toph and Kyoshi the most. Toph is a tanky grappler who can actively change the boundaries of the stage and can pull people in along with the wall she creates. If you ask a lot of fighting game players, they’ll tell you how much they hate fighting grapplers. Just like she’d say in the show, you gotta face the rock head on. Kyoshi on the other hand commands space like no other with massive sweeping attacks. This makes sense given her status as not only one of the most powerful avatars ever but, also standing at 7ft tall, she towers over the rest of the cast.
Every character is fun to play however. Even characters I had no interest like Fire Lord Ozai proved to be very enjoyable.
On top of the gameplay, Avatar Legends does feature solid presentation. Being a 30 dollar game it’s obviously a budget title but the game does a good job at capturing the art style of the series well. Avatar is known for its beautiful animation and it’s especially fast paced and intricate fight scenes. The game’s speed matches the flow of how fights in the show would go quite well and this also extends to its music. From the more tribal sounds of The Last Airbender to the early 1900s jazzy sounds of The Legend of Korra, it sounds like it could be tracks from the show itself.
Another thing the game does well is how it helps new players. Avatar is more difficult than other FGs on the market ATM but, it has things in place that helps alleviate the steep learning curve for new players while also not sacrificing things for hardcore FG players. For starters, the game makes it harder to steamroll people since most interactions don’t grant hard knockdowns, which allows players to roll away easily. Though some long time players may not like having guaranteed oki (or wake-up offense), I personally like it as it forces people to find strong set ups that can cover multiple options and forces them to make strong reads. The game also features auto strings and doesn’t have motion inputs outside quarter circle motions which are usually the easiest for people to learn. The game also has a novel concept to help people learn combos. When doing trials, you can do a breakdown which essentially turns the combo into a rhythm game. This in my opinion is a great way to help new players understand combo timing and not just mash mindlessly.
Fighting games usually aren’t known for their single player content. While Avatar is fairly light on that, it does feature a decently fun story mode that fans of the series should have a good time with. It features a story following the harmonic convergence where the past, present and future all merge together. This creates memory loss for the main cast and causes drastic personality shifts such as Ozai being a benevolent king , Sokka being a spirit guru and Toph trying to conquer the world with Korra. The story is a lot of fan service more than anything, but I had a decent time with it.
Cons
Truthfully I’d give Avatar Legends a perfect score but the just feels like it came out a little too soon. Some features that should be there are just missing unfortunately. There’s no ranked mode and lobbies are very limited with only 2 person lobbies and no spectating either, which will make it harder to run tournaments. This is especially unfortunate since the game’s netcode is top notch and could build a very strong online scene. The lack of ranked mode means it’s harder to find people on the same skill level as I was mostly matched up with people who didn’t quite know fighting games as well. Some characters also just don’t quite feel fully done yet. Ozai is missing animations and characters like Avatar State Aang’s combos don’t feel like they were fully tested.
Final Verdict
The missing features might hurt another game much more but, Avatar Legends gameplay is so good that it still didn’t deter me from playing it a ton. Mechanically, I truly think it may be the best fighting game to come in a long time and if those issues get sorted soon, hopefully the game can see a long life cycle within the fighting game community.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game was reviewed on PS5 and is available now on PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. The Xbox Series version is planned to launch on September 6.
