If you have seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, then you know you were watching arguably the best action cartoon for kids going. Where other action cartoons rely on giant robots and explosions, Avatar is more like a Jackie Chan movie with some super powers thrown in. The hero, Aang, is destined to be the the one who will unite the four powers of the world: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, oh, and save the world while doing it. Too bad the members of the Fire Nation are poised to take over the world into their iron grip. The series is full of mystical martial-arts action, crazy chase scenes and all sorts of wild acrobatic action. It was Nickelodeon's highest rated new program when it debuted and quite frankly, a win for the network.

But like any good license, the Avatar license has not yet garnered the kind of gameplay befitting a title like this one. Meaning, THQ has yet to make a game that matches the insane combat and over-the-top action scenes captured in the show. Last years Avatar title was a bit better at explaining the ins and outs of the Avatar story; this title in fact, does not. So let me start off by saying that if you do not know your Avatar history, then you will be pretty lost as to what the devil is going on.

"I told you not to eat so much chili!"

In the game, you pick things up as Aang and his friends have finally decided to accept Aang's fate and start whoopin' up on the Fire Nation. In fact, the game picks up with Aang waking up on a Fire Nation boat and has to unleash his bag of tricks to get out of it. The game is really unfriendly to control, you see each character has specific abilities to use on enemies and other inanimate objects, this is done by driving the targeting reticule with the right thumbstick and moving around with the left. Too bad the right stick moves the reticule very, very slowly, and this, my friends, is a big problem.

Since the villains move in to get you from different directions, the combat function is woefully underprepared to deal with the action required of you to dispatch your foes. I suspect that the game would work better on the Wii since I believe the game was originally designed for the Wii and ported over to the PS2. Whatever the case, the gameplay for action is not very effective; when you do manage to get your character dialed in correctly to do some damage, then you are good to go, the problem is "getting there".

I would have liked how the game looks, had they spruced things up a bit more. I am spoiled by games on the PS3 and 360, so I need to be nicer to the older systems, but if I am being fair, then I must acknowledge that there are several shortcomings in the game's visuals. Bland-looking colors mar the landscape as do character sprites that don't do the source material justice. Since there are ice- and fire-wielding characters I was hoping for a bit more pop in the lighting department. Alas, they do stand out from the rest of the game's visuals, but simply do not stand out enough to make you want more.

Unfortunately there are too few canned phrases for both the good and bad guys. I can't quite tell if the original voices were used, they did not sound right, and a quick trip to IMDB proved my hunch right, the original voice actors apparently were not asked to help out with this title. Action sounds and other sound effects also fail to spark any real interest from my surround sound system. In addition, sometimes the audio just cuts out completely.

Unlike my other review about a kids action cartoon, in this game you can multiplayer it up by playing the game as two of the characters in the series. This is an Ok way to engage in some multiplayer action, but again, the frustrations of using the targeting system to attack is still feeble and slow, it simply does nothing to add value to the game. 

No, the game does not capture any of the high octane action of the TV show, but what's worse is that the game also fails to draw on the strong story lines the show has established. Many of the things that occur in the game are direct results of things that have happened in the show, including some serious sibling rivalry. But here again, the game misses the boat completely, which is too bad because this is easily one of the shows strongest points. 

Gameplay: 4.7
With a ridiculously underpowered targeting system, getting anything done is far more difficult than it should be. You can play, but it requires a sort of patience normally reserved for saints.

Graphics: 5.0
Another shot to the gut, a woefully weak sprite system, poor character models and even some disappointingly designed locations. Every once in a while the game switches to a flying mode or other off-the-beaten-path type thing, but then only does it improve slightly.

 Sound: 4.0
It actually cuts out during play.

 Difficulty: Hard
Only because the combat system is completely off kilter.

 Concept: 5.0
A great license left painfully under-realized.

Multiplayer: 4.5
I give props cause you can play as different characters, but then the same horrible gameplay issues rear their ugly heads.

Overall: 4.9
"Sigh" The game missed so many opportunities, I think the Wii version is the way to go, but only if you are a die-hard fan.