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Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth (GBA)

• Developer:
• Publisher: THQ
• Genre: Action
• Official Website: http://www.thq.com
• Score: 4 of 5: Niche

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth follows Aang, the titular Airbender, through the events of the second season of the Avatar television show, and it's made expressly for the fans. Those of us unfamiliar with Aang and his story will have a hard time figuring out what's going on, who all these people are, what they're doing, and why. Regardless of whether you follow the show, however, Avatar is pretty, features clever puzzles, delivers a solid action-platform adventure.

The Burning Earth is criminally short, and in order to end on a positive note it ends before the final act of the second season is over. For a game following the show's plot verbatim this is a big let-down. Combat is a little tedious, but to make up for it the puzzles are clever. Solving them will require using both characters available to the player and each character's unique talents. There are very few "pick up key A to unlock door B" puzzles here, and the game is better for it. In between the excellent puzzles there are long bouts of well-controlled combat. It's not enough to wipe out two waves of soldiers, though. Another two are right behind them, and all their moves are the same. It's more a test of endurance than a heated battle.

The Burning Earth is beautiful. This is what GBA games are supposed to look like. Sprites are large and detailed. Environments look nice, and players will feel like they're playing an episode of the show. Everybody looks as much like their television counterparts as can be expected from the GBA.

In a technological step backwards, however, The Burning Earth uses a password system instead of an in-cartridge save system. First generation GBA games managed to save to the slot. We haven't needed passwords since the NES, and there's no reason for them to be present here. They should've put a small battery in the cartridge and given us real save capabilities.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth will satisfy fans of the show and those folks that enjoy a good action puzzler. It's not long, but not many GBA games based on children's television are. Intelligent puzzles and beautiful sprite work are enough to warrant a purchase for fans of Aang and his airbending antics.

Jan 10, 2008 | 0 comments
Justin Last