James Cameron's Avatar for DS Review

James Cameron is the director who has reached such high fame for the movie Titanic which broke records for box office profits. His latest movie, Avatar was a spectacular movie as well and with a great movie comes a great number of video game counterparts. Avatar the game for the DS is of course a long way from the graphics splendor of Avatar the film, but it still comes from the same writer and director. How does the game relate to the film and is it worth taking a look at?

Story

The story of the game does not follow the movie, but is instead a sort of prequel starring Nok, a young Na'vi chosen by the goddess Eywa. In the game, Nok experiences the new "sky people," fights monsters native to his planet of Pandora, and meets the first avatars (human/Na'vi hybrids). The main villain of the story is Dr. Ossman, a typical human interested in Pandora for personal gain. Because the game has no characters from the film, it does not shed any special light onto things for fans. However, it does take place on Pandora and may give die hard fans something to think about when it comes the Na'vi. Within the game, information about creatures on Pandora can be unlocked by the collection of special tokens called Lore Coins. This little bonus may be enough to get fans excited about playing.

Graphics

The DS features the weakest graphics of any system of the latest generation. This really shows with this game. Perhaps because of the contrast with the amazing graphics of the actual film, this game's animation is disappointingly underwhelming. The same graphics could have been found on a game made ten years ago. It is in 3-D, but like many other DS games, the areas seem sloped. You play on the bottom screen while the top shows a map.

Gameplay

Levels in the game quickly become boring because of their predictable style. The game includes many of the same tasks over and over. You jump to get a special keycard to unlock a door only to do again a few moments later. Luckily the fighting in the game is the only thing that can save it. The fighting is fun and interesting and incorporates some fun upgrades. You use three different staff attacks, controlled with your stylus on the touch screen. The screen also helps you to move Nok around. Along with the staff attacks, there are also items that you can use as weapons, much like the Legend of Zelda series. The game is one of the first to also incorporate a small DSi touch; in one part of the game, you can point your DSi camera at certain colors to get attack and defensive upgrades.

The game is a decent length for title that wasn't promising much and the fighting makes it an enjoyable experience overall. Reviewers have given it around a 6/10.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron%27s_Avatar:_The_Game