It's a great time to be a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In addition to the upcoming shows, video games, and films, Square Enix's mobile RPG Avatar: Generations offers a new way for both passionate fans and franchise newcomers to immerse themselves in the Four Nations. Avatar: Generations was recently soft-launched in Sweden, Denmark, Canada, and South Africa, allowing a small number of fans to download and test the game. This game has its flaws, but it's just the right app to hype fans up about everything yet to come in the Avatar-verse.
Square Enix has said that while this first chapter will offer players familiar faces, including Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, and even Momo and Appa, future expansions will explore the tales of Avatar Kyoshi, Korra, Roku, and more. Judging by Avatar: Generations' telling of Aang's journey, the stories themselves will be heavily abridged and, at some points, slightly rewritten. So don't expect an in-depth recap of Nickelodeon's beloved series or the many novels and comics that have expanded that world over the years. Think of Avatar: Generations as a love letter of sorts to The Last Airbender rather than a proper game adaptation.
This soft launch of Avatar: Generations means that the game is still working through several bugs and glitches at the time of review. The app loses connection a lot, and there can often be long delays when a button is pressed. Error boxes pop up faster than players can tap an exit button, but these are to be expected with early access and do not necessarily reflect what players will experience upon launch.
After players get through the errors and loading screens, it'll be time to fight the game's first bending battle. Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka are up against a troop of Fire Nation soldiers. There are quite a few little icons around the edge of the screen, so the interface might feel somewhat overwhelming in the beginning. The tutorial does a solid job of getting through the basics -- enough that players who are familiar with mobile games will understand what it's trying to do. As a big plus, small and large animations bring the game to life, and new dialogue and lines give backtracking and grinding a unique feel.
The fighting gameplay of Avatar: Generations is simple enough, with turn-based combat and rock-paper-scissors elements to make each battle somewhat of a challenge. It might turn off some players since it's not going to be as fast-paced and action-packed as the battles in the show, but those who grew up playing some of Nickelodeon's web-based The Last Airbender games online might feel right at home. Unfortunately, while there is enough for some resemblance to the show, the combat doesn't always present players with the martial arts-inspired moves that helped define the series and its spirit. Instead, some moves appear more generic in style, which might take fans out of the game.
Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn't all about fighting, and neither is Generations. There are numerous travel sections to get through as the game dives into Aang's story. The loading time makes all the travel feel longer than it might have for even Aang, Katara, and Sokka in the show, and there is a lot of loading. Another major negative is that, as with most mobile games, there are a ton of seemingly random items and rewards, and it isn't immediately clear what the benefits of any of them are. What players will eventually discover is that these rewards help unlock some of the show's most beloved characters, including Aang (though you'll get him for free) or everyone's favorite Earthbender, Toph Beifong, which are requirements for progressing through the story.
What might drive players to keep pushing forward through Avatar: Generations in its current state is the fact that it is a gorgeous game. Players will see right away that a lot of effort went into developing this game. The 2.5D loading screen and beautifully animated intro pull players right in. The animation style, designs, and world maps all perfectly capture the anime style and world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Different sections of gameplay are perfectly fit -- the fights look dynamic and dramatic, and the calm travel sections are just as beautiful, but with cute avatars for the player (think baby Jin Wei and Wei Jin in "The Great Divide").
The writing on Avatar: Generations might be comparable to some of the weaker episodes and is definitely lacking in spots. That is especially true in the beginning. For a lot of fans, it might be clear the game trying to emulate the characters of the TV show but doesn't quite capture them. Instead, it tries too hard to push Sokka's jokes or Katara's motherly nature. It's largely forgivable, and players shouldn't expect anything like the script of the Ember Island Players' The Boy in the Iceberg. The dialogue is generally not voiced. When it is, it's a far cry from the emotion and charisma that went into the animated series, but it's decent enough for a mobile game.
When it comes to the story, the game goes through the basics of Avatar: The Last Airbender and doesn't necessarily line up with the events of the show. If there's a chance to make the gameplay more interesting, that's the direction it'll go. Players will find Aang has firebending abilities much sooner than he does in the TV show.
Hopefully, by the time the game is launched worldwide, the development team will have fixed the bugs and maybe rewritten a few things. For a mobile game, Avatar: Generations has a lot of potential and would be a great companion to the growing world of the Four Nations and everything Avatar Studios has in store in the coming years.
Avatar:Generations
Avatar: Generations was a mobile game that took place in the world of Avatar Legends.
- Franchise
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Platform(s)
- iOS , Android
- Released
- August 11, 2022
- Developer
- Navigator Games, Square Enix London Mobile
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Square Enix's Avatar: Generations is currently available for download on the Google Play store in select countries. No worldwide release date has yet been announced.