It's not that the previous Avatar titles have been shining examples of licensed gaming, but still, this one feels really lackluster, considering it seems like the developers wanted to give special attention to the Wii based controls in the game. And it's not quite the controls that feel bad, but more the world you're given to play around with, which feels really restricted compared to the previous titles, or at least the first 360 game that I remember the most of.

If you're not familiar with the series, but plan to be, then definitely avoid picking this up. I've actually been playing catch-up, and the point that this game picks up with (which is after the third season I believe) is about where I was at, so I didn't spoil a great deal for myself, but it'll be hard for newcomers to come into this and really figure out what's going on and who all the various characters are. If you're starting off somewhere on the 1st or 2nd season than this is going to spoil quite a bit for you, so if that bothers you then yeah, you'll want to wait to try and play this. That said if you opted out of it because of spoilers, you could really just avoid it all together, since it's entirely forgettable.

The Wii specific controls are actually pretty solid here, with distinct motions tied into whatever type of "bending" you're trying to do. The rest of your movement is controlled with the nunchuk, and then the buttons on the actual remote itself. It's not quite a mind-blowing waggle experience, but it works well enough and I never felt like the gameplay was off because of the controls.

Visually it's about what you'd expect, somewhere smack dab in that PS2 quality environment, and not quite on the level of the 360 title. It's not that ugly, but the environments themselves are lacking a lot of detail, and while it's based on a cartoon, a bit more attention could have went into bringing the world to life, or at least giving the game some style over a generic 3D animated look that we've seen in countless other licensed titles to date.

The music is ripped straight from the show, which is probably a good thing since the cartoon has a really solid soundtrack accompanying it. The voice acting is limited though, but it's hard to tell if these are the actual actors from the show contributing to the game or just voice actors doing imitations, which is probably a good thing if they are.

The challenge isn't too taxing, with a few frustrating areas due to bad level design more than anything, and while the combo system is out from previous games, you can still string together hits using the basic attacks and the different elements if you want, but it's hardly needed for most cases. All together, it's an average brawler with an above average license attached to it, that doesn't excel in any one area, and only manages to appeal to the fans of the show. However, the limited interpretation of season events doesn't add anything new to the lore, and the gameplay isn't built upon anything interesting either, coupled with a lackluster level design and some limitations in the graphic department that aren't necessarily the fault of the system hardware. I'd say you could easily avoid playing this all together, and even if you're a fan of the TV show you won't be missing anything by giving this one a pass.