Long time Avatar series fan, been here since the series originally launched and I'm still here. Also a long time fighter player, my earliest memories are playing Tekken 3 on PS1 with my folks.
As an Avatar fan, this is some of the best Avatar gameplay we've had in a while. This is the first game to me that really captured the fun and power behind the bending (and non-bending!) combat that I love from this series. It does a great job of capturing the animation as well, with so many little subtle movements that feels in character for everyone. The way every character's animation and fighting style really fits with the character and within the show is a clear labor of love. The team behind this wanted to make an Avatar game that didn't just look like Avatar but also really FEELS like Avatar.
The music and voice-acting is not bad! I know you can't get the original show cast for projects like this but the cast does a pretty good job capturing the characters.
If you're an Avatar fan, definitely consider picking this up.
As a fighter however, this game definitely feels like it needs more polish.
It's certainly not unplayable in fact this is one of the better fighters I've played at or near it's launch. I've only played offline so far so I can't speak on how well online handles, but it does otherwise play very precisely and is a ton of fun to get the grasp of movement, combos into combos, and picking up each character's gimmick. I mean this as a huge compliment, this game feels like a more polished fan project Flash fighting game. If you aren't too spoiled by the more AAA 2D fighters out there and/or you're someone like me that loves the feeling of kinda scuffed games and media then you'll still find a lot of enjoyment playing this. This game especially surprised me with what characters I thought I'd want to play versus what characters I actually ended up playing the most. Definitely worth trying out the whole roster just to see who you click with better.
But if you're not a fan of that flavor of game quality, and prefer something more akin to bigger and more recent AAA fighters you might struggle to enjoy this game unless you're a REALLY big fan of the Avatar series. Simplified combos and auto combos are a contentious point with a lot of fighting game fans today, and this game is effectively built on top of that system. There are combos you can make but the majority of your time will be spent auto combo-ing and canceling out of getting auto combo-ed. The bot intelligence in this game is also pretty brutal, always coming in hard and quick the frame a match starts, which is where my personal gripe for auto combos comes in. The game does have good features for breaking out of auto combo hell so I do give it props for that, and I also liked how some character's gimmicks deter auto combos!
If you're a casual fighting gamer or maybe someone not super experienced with fighting games, this would be a really fun game to pick up for yourself! If you're a more serious, experienced, or ranked focused fighter gamer, I've definitely seen some crazy clips online but it might only be worth it to pick up if you're also a fan of the series.
Overall, this game isn't perfect, it's got some scuff about it, but it feels like a well loved fan project and has plenty to enjoy within it!
