Forty quid is a lot of money. Sometimes us games journos forget that and take a slightly less stern view of games than perhaps we should. This is one such case where it would be easy for us, not really understanding the Avatar phenomenon, to say, “Well, hey, it’s a bit of a rubbish game, we don’t like it much but you might.” However, we favour the honest approach. We’ve been privy to some of the worst games around and, if we’re honest, many of them are licensed titles, and it seems particularly prevalent nowadays to turn obscure Japanese cartoons into shoddy beat-’em-ups. Naruto, Dragon Ball Z and Avatar are all proponents of this philosophy, and something has to be done.

Avatar has to be the worst of the three series mentioned above, and while we’d happily concede that there are some who may enjoy it solely for the purposes of expanding on the Avatar canon, we’d have to call them fools. The vast majority will more than likely feel a little upset at forking out 40 nicker for what is a particularly ropey title, even within the series. What it offers is little past the regulation run-aroundand- bash-until-something-dies, set in a bland, washed-out, cel-shaded world. Of course, the story makes little to no sense, but that seems commonplace in the genre, so we can hardly complain. What we can complain about, though, is the lack of anything interesting. The combat is dull and the elements thrown in to spice things up fail to add interest. There are different characters along the way, each as camp as the last, but you’re unlikely to notice much of a difference. There are some new characters to the series, but we’ve already forgotten what Zuko and Iroh added to the game.

When you look at the other formats it’s set for release on – DS, PS2 and Wii – you realise that Avatar is a dumb game for the Xbox 360, and a complete waste of your money.

Tom Leclerc