EDITOR'S NOTE: At the time of writing, this US game is not currently scheduled for release in Europe.

Nickelodeon's hottest new property is the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animé-influenced cartoon TV series set in an Asian-themed fantasy world that follows a young airbender and long lost Avatar named Aang, as he and his friends battle against the war-mongering Fire Nation to keep peace amongst the Four Nations. Based on the show's premise, THQ, with their latest Nickelodeon licensed casual kids game, have brought the cartoon universe to the gaming world across all the current-gen consoles and handhelds (with a Wii version set as a launch title for the console next month) and the results are quite solid.

Although set in the TV show's universe, the Avatar videogame tells an original new story that chronicles the adventures of Aang, Katara, Sokka and Haru as they fight the threat of the Fire Nation's attacks and battle against a new army of machines that have begun to invade the lands. This journey takes you through seven villages across all the Great Nations of the Avatar world in an entertaining tale that blends high-flying martial arts action, likeable characters and plenty of humor, just like the show. Adding authenticity to the experience, the cartoon's cast have reprised their roles for the game and do a splendid job performing voiceovers for each of the characters, while an appealing cel-shaded art style has been used in fluidly rendering the characters and creatures in what are unfortunately rather basic 3D environments. The tribal-themed score and immersing ambient sound effects also play as nice aural backdrops to the gameplay, while funny one-liners keep the atmosphere light and foreground particle effects like rain, snow and falling leaves bring a little visual zip to the blandly textured and modeled game environments.

To no considerable surprise, the gameplay in Avatar keeps things basic as to appeal to the game and TV show's young target audience. If you've played games like X-Men Legends or Champions of Norrath then you'll have a clear understanding of what this game plays like (only it's much less complex). In a nutshell, Avatar is a straightforward hack-n-slash action-RPG that sees you controlling Aang and his three other friends as a party of four, bashing through hordes of creatures, exploring indoor and outdoor environments, chatting with NPCs, hunting treasure, collecting and outfitting with new equipment, completing fetch quests, gaining experience and leveling up.

The combat is button-mashing-shallow most of the time, as the game never gets tough enough to significantly challenge more advanced gamers, however there are a few nifty features that flesh things out nicely. Most important of all is the character-switching mechanic that lets you change between each of your four party members on the fly in real-time. This feature gets a lot of play too, because each character has an arsenal of unique powers to develop as they level up that must be used at one time or another to aid the party or solve puzzles.

As the team's Earthbender, Haru handles most of the environmental puzzles, using his powers to manipulate the earth to pick up fallen statues and clear obstacles. Katara, on the other hand, uses her Waterbending techniques to heal injured allies or freeze objects or enemies. In solving environmental puzzles, Focus Move mini-games are also presented, requiring that you time button presses as they fly through target rings surrounding your character - perform the series correctly and the puzzle is solved. These mini-games aren't ever that difficult and by the end of the game their frequent appearance does grow tiresome, but for the most part they are a welcomed change of pace.

With the four-character party system in place, THQ had a perfect opportunity to implement a four-player co-op component, but inexplicably there is no multiplayer support whatsoever - this is a single-player only adventure. The absent multiplayer is also sad because it would've made up for some of the spotty AI and path finding your computer-controlled allies suffer from on occasion.

Older, more competently skilled gamers aren't likely to find enough depth or challenge here to interest them for very long and the lack of multiplayer in any capacity is a tremendous disappointment. However, for the game's younger target audience there is a fun, easy going action-RPG and light-hearted storyline waiting to be discovered in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and one that lasts at least a good six to eight hours with plenty of optional side quests, mini-games and unlockable content.

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).