Avatar Generations

Since its debut back in 2005, this franchise has grown from a cult classic cartoon into a full-fledged phenomenon. Avatar Generations gives both longtime fans and newcomers to the series a chance to relive the odyssey of the Avatars' adventures from the beginning. The Adventure mode is set up as a sort of comprehensive history of the franchise, starting with Aang's debut in The Last Airbender. It does a great job of recreating key moments from the series in a game form. But it lacks a lot of the exposition and development that fills the spaces in-between. Sure, it hits all the main bullet points of the overall plot, but the abridged story beats make it feel more like the Cliff's Notes version of an Avatar highlight reel.

The mechanics of Avatar Generation's turn-based combat seem simple at first. Each character has a passive skill and a couple of different special moves that can be leveled up. There's a lot more nuance though, as players start to balance out elemental advantages, character positioning, etc. The tutorial does a good job of covering the basics, but players will have to experiment if they expect to get the hang of more advanced combat techniques. Diehard fans likely won't mind this as much, as it gives them a chance to play "What if?" by creating dream teams made up of iconic and obscure characters pulled from the every corner of the Avatar Universe. While many of these team-ups make absolutely no sense in terms of following the story, it's can be fun to see how certain characters' synergies play off of each other. For those less familiar with the franchise though, all the callbacks, cameos, and other lore will likely be lost on them as they busy themselves simply learning to micromanage their way through the overabundance of characters, items, equipment, and the like.