by Dawn Ilsley

Created on: February 21, 2010   Last Updated: February 22, 2010

James Cameron's Avatar is a hugely succesful movie and the game was an obvious side-line.  The basis of the game is that you are a member of the indigenous Na’vi and you will be using your skills as a hunter to win the battle against the Humans who are encroaching on your native planet, Pandora. The game does not follow the film storyline, instead it is set in the same place with the similar struggle.

On starting the game you have the opportunity to open one of four profiles.  You are then shown Pandora and you begin your game, once you have completed a level you are able to return to any completed level from this screen should you wish to play it again.  Before you play the level you can select the difficulty level as Easy, Normal or Hard. 

You are playing as Rai’uk of the Anurai.  The game would benefit from being able to select your character as the primary character is male but if anyone joins you in the game they are Kyuna who is female; it would be nice if you could select which you preferred. 

You immediately find yourself on the beautiful, lush world of Pandora.  The only weapon you have at the beginning is your staff.  You are guided through the basic moves of the game in this first level which acts partly as a tutorial.  It is remarkably easy to control the character, movement is controlled with the nunchuck and jumping, rolling and attacking is controlled with the remote.  The controls felt quite instinctive and were not too complicated.  It seemed very straightforward to work out which way you had to go but if you got stuck then you press the C button and you can use your Na’vi Sense to be shown how to proceed.  It is very easy to become absorbed into the surroundings as you play and the game does feel quite exciting. As you only have a staff in the first level you have to use an ambush technique to overcome your enemies, this is achieved with a rapid downswing of the remote.  This may seem quite aggressive but unlike many games there is no blood or gore, as soon as you defeat your enemy they just disappear.  When you come across your enemy they have an icon above their head which changes colour to indicate how aware they are of your presence.  Finishing the first level leads you to finding a bow which then becomes available as your weapon as well as the staff for the rest of the game.

As you start each level you are given a rundown of what

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>