James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (2009)

I picked this up a few months ago as I tried to absorb every piece of Avatar lore leading up to the release of The Way of Water. I expected a thin but interesting story coupled with middling action mechanics from the early PS3 era, and received only the latter. This is really two games: you make a choice about an hour in and split off onto either the Na'Vi narrative or the RDA/human narrative. The controls are basic for each, but the Na'Vi controls are unfortunately frustrating. Armed with either a bow or melee weapons already puts you at a disadvantage to your human enemies with guns, but the slow speed of your acrobatic attacks makes things even more frustrating. Luckily your attacks are usually one-hit kills, so you still feel like a powerful alien force. The RDA guys control like a basic shooter of that era, which makes that version of the game a decent run-and-gun exercise requiring very little mental engagement.

For either narrative, the game consists of you being dropped into a large playing area with what amounts to several fetch quests. You run around the map completing them and killing everything in your way. It gets old fast. I was fortunate to play the game during a period when all I wanted was a mindless actioner, so this was perfect for my purposes, but I can see this driving most players crazy.

I have to assume anyone playing this games now is doing it for the plot. Unfortunately, that's the game's biggest weakness. The game is pitched as a prequel, but it does that annoying there where the story is effectively a retelling of the main film set years earlier. Or at least, that's the case if you choose the Na'Vi path (which is what most people will choose first), where your soldier becomes a permanent Avatar and helps prevent an RDA attack on a sacred site (the Well of Souls, rather than Eywa). Of course, having another human betray the humans for the Na'Vi completely undermines the stakes of the film, so that plotline has to be considered non-canon. Not a loss, given that there's barely a "story" here to begin with. The RDA plot can likely be considered canon and explains Quaritch's deployment to Pandora, making it weirdly the better option to play. Still, don't expect much plot here to keep you going.

Avatar is a mosly competent, mindless game with one plot that gives fans at least a handful of cool plot elements and another that lets you finally feel like a Na'Vi. Good enough for 2 stars from me. Hoping Frontiers of Pandora has more to offer.

PS- I was excited to play the game in 3D but couldn't get it to work on my set. Wonder if the game's tech is no longer compatible with the later 3D tvs that would have survived til today.

Nothing screams "guilty pleasure game" louder than a fun-to-play licensed game. James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for the Nintendo DS is a Zelda clone that straight up copies the test answers from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Ironically enough, this game hit the market at the exact same time as Phantom Hourglass's sequel The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

For those with low expectations, James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for the Nintendo DS is quite fun and an easy play. The puzzles aren't incredibly challenging but still engaging. While more complex melee combat moves are difficult to pull off by swiping the stylus, just tapping on an enemy will do the trick. It should be noted that like Phantom Hourglass, players are only able to move the main character using the stylus. The directional buttons instead function as hotkeys for menus and other functions also placed on the touch screen.

Also, while the games graphics and visuals are quite all right, the 2D sprites used for dialogue feel a little subpar. Considering that the artwork is really the only way to convey personality and emotion within the game, the lack of sprite variety and the rushed look of the artwork was a little disappointing.

For those unaware, each version of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game differs in story and gameplay. The Nintendo DS version boasts a completely original plot separate from the movie and the other games. It is an interesting enough story to ensure that the action always moves forward while still keeping the player interested.

I went a little too hard and decided to 100% the game. Finding all the "lore" proved to be a bit difficult near the end. This involved backtracking to past levels using the newly acquired tools and I ended up missing one in a remote corner. Eventually, I found a guide on GameFAQs to help me track down which one I missed as I had already gone through every level once.

Power-ups that you purchase with rupees...I mean "essence seeds"...didn't feel necessary enough to warrant purchasing them all. You can also purchase extra health, which felt like a silly waste as healing is easy enough throughout the game by slaying enemies. That is until the final boss. To achieve completion, I ended up buying all the health upgrades which kept me from near death a few times during my final fight.

Overall, to any Avatar fans (if there are any hardcore fans of the franchise out there) or, more likely, for gamers who want to play something similar to Phantom Hourglass and/or Spirit Tracks without replaying those two games, this is for you. It's also an easy romp for any gamer who just wants to fire up their Nintendo DS, and it's pretty cheap to buy from retailers and/or resellers.

Note: I almost gave this game four stars since the game is pretty darn good, but I realize that it's a four compared to my low expectations, not necessarily a four in the world of video games as a whole.