Crispy Gamer News

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno has shipped to retail outlets in North America. Based on the popular animated Nickelodeon television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender (which recently enjoyed its final episode), takes players into the Fire Nation on a journey to face the Fire Lord and end a 100 year war.

Playing as one of their favorite characters from the show, players will perform martial arts moves, as well as bend all four elements - Earth, Fire, Water and Air - to help them in their journey. Cinematic air battles will take place as players soar through the sky on gliders in new flying levels. The Nintendo DS version of the game will also introduce a brand new and unique “bobble head” style of animation previously seen in Nickelodeon’s special Avatar series of animated shorts.

Look for it in stores beginning today.

Why Nickelodeon, why? As someone who has watched every last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, today’s announcement that the company is working on a watered down MMO combat game is a bit disconcerting. Why? Because talk in my circles about an Avatar MMO have been frequent and stimulating. But instead of getting the robust MMO experience I’d imagined from such a game, it looks like fans of the show will get a watered down arena combat game. Here’s some free advice for developers making games for kids: they can handle decent, deep and engaging gameplay.

The game, Avatar: Legends of the Arena, will serve as a prequel story to the events in the series, letting players create their own Avatar character and test their skills against players from around the world in 3D online arenas. Each game level will introduce new content, challenges, custom character outfits and powers on an ongoing basis. A beta version of the game is being unveiled today at Comic-Con in San Diego.

The game will be rolled out in 81 markets in ten languages, including the United States, United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, Southeast Asia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Korea, Japan, Israel, Holland, Northern Belgium, Germany, Brazil, and Portugal. A total of 77 countries will launch the game on Sept. 15, with the remaining markets launching shortly thereafter.

The game is part of an initiative to promote the continuing re-runs of the series on Nicktoons Network, the July 29th release of the Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 3: Fire - Volume 4 DVD and the upcoming Avatar live action film being handled by M. Night Shyamalan, and the Avatar The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno video game from THQ.