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 there is to find and the quantity:
Relics- these increase the length of your life bar
Totems- these boost you Way of the Hunter points which give you extra moves and power
Eywa Spirit –these enable you to buy weapon upgrades.
As you move through the game it is easy to see the Eywa Spirits as they are sparkling areas of white/blue but I did find it harder to see the totems and the relics. If you are injured by enemy attack then there are plants around you that release pollen that help you recover, if you lose all of your life then you have to start the section again.
Progressing further into the game produces enemies that are more difficult to overcome. To help you tackle the metal birds (some sort of helicopter thing!) you are able to ride on the back of a banshee. You can use the balance board here to control the banshee whilst using your remote to attack although is is probably easier managed with using the nunchuck instead. It was also at this point in the game that you will realised how useful it is that another player can “jump in” to help. The other person just presses A on a remote and they immediately appear by your side to help you, their instructions appear on the screen in orange whereas the primary players instructions are in blue. Once they have had enough of playing it is easy for them to “jump out” too.
Altogether the game has 13 levels. Some of the later levels are much trickier and are quite hard to get past without the use of two players. Playing on Easy took about 18 hours to finish the game, there did not seem to be a major end-point, the game just sort of ended. I used to like playing Tombraider and I always liked the big enemy at the end so I was surprised at this ending. If you have not collected everything than you can replay the levelds with your enhanced weapons and powers that you have earned in the game.
The main disadvantage to this game is the lack of ability to save a game. The game is saved at various points in a level but you are not informed where and then again at the end. The other disadvantage is that this is still a battle game but at least there is not excessive violence compared to other games I have seen and this is only rated as a 12.
The graphics and sound are excellent and really let you become engrossed in the gameplay. The controls are easy to master and the levels are not too long. This is an ideal game for a young teen but an experienced gamer may find it too simple to be interesting or challenging.