Review Nobody_Important 3/5 · Dec 20, 2024
God of Panda
Premise
Kung Fu Panda the game is another of those licensed games, a beat em up/hack and slash that greatly expands the plot of the movie, using the deleted material and early scrips to tell the story.
Skeedosh
-
The plot of the movie is greatly expanded here, I would say it is even superior to the original movie in some …
Premise
Kung Fu Panda the game is another of those licensed games, a beat em up/hack and slash that greatly expands the plot of the movie, using the deleted material and early scrips to tell the story.
Skeedosh
-
The plot of the movie is greatly expanded here, I would say it is even superior to the original movie in some degree. You get a story that goes more in-depth with Po's journey into becoming a master, the true dragon warrior.
-
The game has a subtle and great sense of progression, at the start Po can't combo at all but as the game goes on, he starts improving and finally learns to fight properly. Fights that used to take a while, now take mere instants thanks to Po's increased ability and agility.
-
Po's moveset is simple but it's perfect. You can switch from the fast to the heavy combo quickly, use a charged attack to daze opponents, counter enemy attacks, an attack where he rolls into a ball and you have a belly flop attack that's your area of effect attack.
-
The graphics look quite decent. The lightning and the water effects are quite impressive, especially the water, it has actual physics and reacts to things being thrown at it; no idea why they programmed that but it's a nice addition.
-
It has a multiplayer mode with different minigames, like Mahjong, fishing, a smash bros clone, etc. You can unlock it by beating the story or collecting jade coins/minifigures of the characters.
-
None of the actors of the movie came back to reprise their roles, but everyone here does a great job.
Ow
-
The upgrade system is poorly balanced. You can grind way too fast way too quickly, this causes the game's difficulty to plummet on the spot, because Po will end up one punching almost everyone way too early into the game; even in the highest difficulty, a maxed out Po is an absolute beast that is impossible to take down.
-
Po's platforming controls aren't well made. He will slip and fall to his death a lot, miss a jump due to his low jump height, or he won't swing correctly and fall. Shifu doesn't have this problem nor Monkey for some reason.
-
Despite what the game advertises, you only play as Crane twice, Monkey once, Shifu twice and Tigress once. Vipress and Mantis are not playable, unless you count that quick time event where they fight Tai Lung.
Overall
Despite a poorly balanced upgrade system that trivializes the difficulty and frustrating platforming controls, the game is solid. Kung Fu Panda offers a good experience for fans of the franchise or beat em up fans.
Note: Don't play the Wii nor PS2 versions, they look ugly and has a missing level where you play as crane, which gets skipped to the section where you play as Po.
