The Legend of Korra is a popular action-adventure cartoon on Nickelodeon. The animated series is a follow-up to the equally popular Avatar: The Last Airbender show on Nick.  The Legend of Korra takes place many years after the original series and stars a young woman who has elemental-bending powers just like the original hero.  Now you can join in the adventures with Korra in a game that takes place between the second and third seasons of the show.  It’s available to download for many of today’s consoles, but reviewed on Xbox 360 here.

The Legend of Korra is a 3-D action brawler, and it’s made by Platinum Games. So if you’re familiar with some of their titles, you can probably guess what this game is like.  Korra can punch and kick bad guys, as well as use combos to strong along attacks.  At the beginning of the game, Korra’s elemental bending powers are blocked, so she can only use martial arts blows.  But as you play, she’ll regain her powers over water, earth, fire, and air, and you can switch out the elements for more powerful and cooler attacks.  Korra can also dodge and counter, and when you do so, sometimes quick-time events occur and if you perform them correctly, you can avoid attacks completely and repel with your own.

As you tromp through the 3-D stages, breaking pots and other objects as well as defeating enemies and finding hidden artifacts can earn you Spirit Energy. Use this to buy items in the shop between levels, like health items to use during the game or upgrades to Korra’s attacks.  Make sure to equip these items before diving into the next stage.  Sometimes Korra will ride a giant polar bear dog thing in levels that are similar to continuously running games on phones.  And when you beat the game, you can play in Pro Bending Tournaments, a sport that Korra competes in on the cartoon show.

Even though the game is made by the famous Platinum Games, it has some problems that keep it from being truly great. The character graphics look just like the cartoon show, but the backgrounds look like something out of the PS2 era.  Some may find the game a little short, but it’s only a downloadable title so that didn’t pose a problem for me.  Really the thing that bothered me most was the high difficulty level.  Even on the Casual difficulty setting, I found the game a little too hard.  Plus I have never watched the Korra cartoon so I had no idea what was going on in the story.  I think only die-hard Legend of Korra fans who are very good at action brawlers will fully enjoy this one.

Kid Factor:

The Legend of Korra is rated T for Teen with an ESRB descriptor of Cartoon Violence. Korra punches and kicks bad guys, but defeated characters just fall over or fly off the screen.  In the animated cutscenes, some show Korra getting needled with poison darts.  But if you’re OK with your kids watching the cartoon show, they’ll be OK with the game.  Reading skill is needed for some of the text and menus.  But really the best reason why this game is best for older players is the high difficulty level.

Tags: Game Reviews, Television