Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance had a great prospect, but it’s likely going to disappoint the longtime Avatar fans.
The Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender is widely considered to be one of the best shows ever made and with good reason. Avatar: The Last Airbender tells a deeply enriching story with many themes surrounding real-world issues like war and its effects on different nations.
With its expert story-telling, cast of lovable characters, and deep world-building, it is no wonder Avatar: The Last Airbender was such a massive hit for Nickelodeon. To this day, many Avatar: The Last Airbender projects are in the works. Unfortunately, one of those projects is Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance.
My enthusiasm was understandably high for Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance. This was to be the first major console release for the franchise since Avatar: The Last Airbender – Into The Inferno, released way back in 2008 for Wii, Nintendo DS, and the PlayStation 2.
Trouble quickly found itself in paradise with the reveal trailer, released just two months before the official launch of the game. Characters looked lifeless, the animations were stiff, and the puzzles looked uninspired. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that the game was published by GameMill Entertainment, who aren’t known for releasing quality titles.
GameMill Entertainment is known for distributing half-baked licensed games such as Nickelodeon Kart Racers and Nerf Legends. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance was developed by Bamtang Games, who also developed the Nickelodeon Kart Racer series and the abysmal Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle. Given the history of both companies, there wasn’t much I was expecting from the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance. You may ask, did Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance do anything right? Honestly, the answer is barely.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance follows the story of the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon from the beginning of Book One: Water to the end of Book Three: Fire. It is narrated by the members of the White Lotus. Certain details from throughout the show are briefly shown in animated cutscenes before you play the events yourself.
From the moment I began to move around as Aang, I had a feeling my play-through was going to be a slog. Before I even touched upon combat, just traversing around the world was unsatisfying. Poor Aang walks around like he is desperately looking for a bathroom, and that goes for any of the playable characters from here on out.
After finishing the initial tutorial, you immediately follow up by engaging in the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender in chronological order. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance provides an extremely abridged retelling of events and expects you to know all the details of the original series.
This can alienate some players, especially any newcomers hoping to get the full story from the game. Once you have played the first mission, you have played them all because every level plays exactly the same. Hit some valves, complete a fetch quest or two beat some goons, rinse, repeat ad nauseam.
Along the way, you will collect coins from various breakable objects and from treasure chests sprinkled around the world. You can use coins to purchase items at the merchant, such as scrolls for learning new bending techniques or consumables to boost defense, speed, or health recovery. Barring the purchase of scrolls, you will not find yourself longing for a merchant for consumables.
You are given so many through completing challenges or finding them around in chests that your coins are practically useless. Pai Sho tiles are what you are truly after. As you progress through Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance, you will unlock more skills for your given character’s skills tree.
These are your standard Action RPG fair. You can unlock skills such as improved damage, healing capabilities, and improved abilities for your respective character. Katara is a healer, so prioritizing her healing abilities on the skills tree should be a priority. Beyond that, there is not much more depth to the gameplay.
Think of the Lego series of video games from the past fifteen years or so, only less fun to play. That does mean Coop gameplay is available as well. The camera is so awful, though, that playing coop with a buddy was a nightmare. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance is best played single-player, at least, that way, you can keep track of what’s going on with your party much easier.
The boss fights featured in Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance are laughably bad. Bosses will either be stationary as you attack from a distance, or they perform the same combination of projectile and dash attack every few moments. Princess Azula was a massive threat to Team Avatar in the original cartoon.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance, she is reduced to a series of these repetitive attacks that can be easily dodged, even with the limited dash mechanic you are given. It is always readily apparent what you must do for you to knock out their invincibility and attack. In certain encounters, you will be able to defeat bosses either with three hits or much more, and it is never apparent why that is the case.
You will be frequently swapping between characters to complete a series of uninspired puzzles throughout your play sessions. Whenever I would run into a puzzle section, I couldn’t help but let out a collective sigh, as the puzzles are not at all fun to complete. Get used to it, because it makes up a majority of the gameplay in Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance.
At the end of each stage, you will encounter one of many of Guru Pathik’s challenges. These challenges are just more puzzles, but usually with a new ability for you to test out. Normally, I am all for a challenge testing out a new ability in an action RPG, but not in this case. You will learn how to make ice slopes and ice structures to jump onto or possess the ability to stop flowing beams of water, fire, or air.
The music for these challenges was pleasant enough as they took place in peaceful garden areas, but it got old really fast. The soundtrack as a whole is nothing to write home about and acts as pure background noise. At least the scenery could be somewhat decent at times. Ba Sing Se was a treat to look at in the original series and is no different here.
The reflections in the water at the Beifong residence, with the beams of sunlight permeating through the foliage, were standout eye candy. Most of the environments were hit or miss, but for a budget title based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, I will give it a pass. The aurora borealis at the North Pole was also quite a sight to behold, as it should be.
Though there is much to be upset about, with Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance, there are a few silver linings. The cabbage merchant can be found on most levels and was a nice nod to longtime fans of the franchise, as he is a recurring joke in most episodes of the original cartoon. If you decide to ruin his famed cabbage cart, you will be treated to coins, so there is always a reason to break his cart. If you manage to break enough, you will receive an achievement or trophy, depending on which console you are playing for. Thankfully, there are a hefty number of playable characters.
After completing each mission, you are able to go back to any mission and play as any character you’d like, which is a nice touch. If you want to play as Prince Zuko and his alias, Blue Spirit, at the same time, go right ahead. There are a total of nine playable characters: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Blue Spirit, Toph, Prince Zuko, Uncle Iroh, and King Bumi.
If only the combat had more depth to it, the prospect of playing as all these classic characters would be made so much better. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance does feature decent CGI cutscenes, but are over before they begin, lasting only about thirty seconds apiece. The voice acting is give or take. Most characters sound as close as possible to their original voice from the cartoon.
The essence of Princess Azula’s voice was captured as closely to her original voice actress, Grey Griffin, as possible, so kudos to that department. Overall, the bad outweighs the good by a considerable margin. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance is yet another licensed cash grab hoping to bank on the name and nothing more.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a franchise worthy of a high-caliber release, akin to what Batman: Arkham Asylum did for the Batman franchise. The asking price is the worst offender. At $49.99, you are not getting your money’s worth, and it is way overpriced for the content offered. When the world needed a truly great Avatar: The Last Airbender game, it vanished.
