For those who, like me, are a fan of Avatar: The Final Airbender, the promise of enjoying by means of its implausible story your self is an attractive idea that, shockingly, has but to be actually delivered on within the 18 years for the reason that animated present premiered on Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Final Airbender – Quest for Stability got down to change that: lastly you and a co-op accomplice will be capable to relive iconic Avatar moments, like that point Aang needed to save a village from an offended monster by fixing a sliding block puzzle, or that different time he needed to enter the Spirit World to… resolve a sliding block puzzle. Quest for Stability is definitely the worst adaptation of the collection since M. Night time Shyamalan’s abysmal live-action film. It picks baffling moments from the story to focus on, fills them with terrible fight and bottom-of-the-barrel quests, and tops itself off with a wholesome coating of jank that leaves followers nonetheless ready for an honest Avatar sport to emerge from the ice.
Quest for Stability splits Avatar’s three-season story into 18 chapters, every loosely retelling an episode or portion of the cartoon. The phrase “loosely” is doing a variety of heavy lifting there, too, because the occasions of every chapter continuously give attention to probably the most mundane elements of Aang’s extremely wealthy journey whereas breezing over lots of the thrilling bits in textual content transitions between scenes or 2D animatics that separate ranges. For instance, the primary stage has Katara and Aang exploring the slightly ugly wreckage of a Fireplace Nation ship the place nothing of observe occurs till a textual content field on the finish of the stage explains that they set off a lure, noticed the Fireplace Nation attacking Katara’s dwelling, and needed to rush again… by doing an extremely bland Temple Run knockoff the place you gather cash whereas sliding on an otter penguin.
It’s not an issue for an adaptation to make modifications to its supply materials in an effort to higher match its new medium, however the scattershot means it’s been achieved right here leaves the story utterly unintelligible for newcomers and completely unsatisfactory for longtime followers. Big sections of the present are decreased to half-hearted “after which this occurred” exposition periods whereas Quest for Stability asks you to finish thrilling missions like delivering fruit tarts or punching faceless bandits for a meager reward as an alternative. Some moments are even instructed incorrectly or out of order, and they’re continuously warped into unusually anticlimactic variations of themselves. Nearly an identical fights in opposition to Prince Zuko are the boss encounters for 3 of the primary 4 chapters, whereas the battle in opposition to the fierce panda spirit Hei Bai is actually a sliding block puzzle. Sure, one other one.
The battle in opposition to the fierce panda spirit Hei Bai is actually a sliding block puzzle. Sure, one other one.
Reusing the identical mediocre actions is certainly one of Quest for Stability’s favourite methods, with a number of Temple Run-style sections (none of them enjoyable), a number of recycled enemies and fights, and such numerous decent-but-thematically-irrelevant block puzzles that it virtually looks like this began as a totally totally different sport that was then retrofit with an Avatar theme. A downright ludicrous quantity of its puzzles are based mostly round the concept that no one, together with the literal Avatar, can leap whereas holding a torch. To its credit score, there’s a respectable quantity to do total; it took me about 9 hours to finish all 18 chapters, you’re allowed to revisit them with all of your characters and upgrades for 100% completion after the very fact, and there are even 19 bonus trials to finish. The difficulty is that piling on extra low-quality content material doesn’t enhance a sport that wasn’t enjoyable to start with.
Squandering the flashy bending powers that scream for a superb preventing system, fight is a clunky, button-mashing mess. It’s solely ever extremely simple to spam by means of waves of bandits and evil benders, or irritating because the sheer amount of them and their wildly inaccurate hitboxes causes you to get locked into fixed knockdown animations. Maybe one of the best instance of how laughably inaccurate Quest for Stability has made itself is that Sokka is by far probably the most highly effective fighter the entire means by means of, capable of spam equally robust assaults quicker than any bender, and with a capability in his ability tree that finally makes him completely resistant to knockdowns. I did have to often be considerate with my dodge (whereas not utilizing Sokka), give attention to enemies that put shields on others, or use particular skills that supplied some crowd-controlling stuns, however the fights are such a one-note jumble the whole time that any subtlety will get waterbended away.
Sokka is by far probably the most highly effective fighter the entire means by means of.
The ability timber for every of the 9 playable characters are literally a small vibrant spot, if a really dim one, letting you employ Pai Sho items collected from quests to enhance stats and talents – typically with boring statistical bumps, however different occasions in additional noticeable methods (like that Sokka capability). It’s really a properly tuned development system, making me take into account which character to spend that restricted useful resource on as I went… or it will have if any of it mattered even barely within the precise fight, the place swinging wildly and sometimes utilizing a therapeutic merchandise was all that mattered.
(The primary playthrough additionally has a number of lure characters – it allows you to dump factors into ability timber of individuals like Suki or the Blue Spirit, who present up briefly solely to mainly not be related once more till the tip of the marketing campaign.)
The way in which during which Quest for Stability can also be basically janky can’t be overstated. It’s not probably the most buggy sport I’ve performed in recent times, however to say its edges are tough can be to overstate how a lot they’ve been sharpened into edges in any respect. The controls are an unsatisfying mess, and it’s not unusual to get caught on geometry or for its inflexible digital camera to utterly minimize off elements of the motion. It’s additionally damaged in some hilarious methods: most notably, therapeutic gadgets promote for greater than they price at retailers, letting you get infinite cash any time you need and rendering practically all of Quest for Stability’s breakable objects and hidden treasure chests pointless within the course of. It’s a kind of “How did this make it out of testing?” type of flubs.
The way in which during which Quest for Stability is basically janky can’t be overstated.
What’s notably disappointing is how simple it’s to see the bones of what this sport might have been beneath all that grime. It in all probability wouldn’t ever have been nice, however not all of its concepts are ill-conceived. Whereas the 3D animations are just about horrible all through, the 2D animatic cutscenes are literally fairly cute. The entire thing is framed as a number of members of the White Lotus recounting the Avatar’s tales, chiming in to offer all these unexpectedly glossed-over particulars as they do – and whereas lots of the voices appear to be soundalikes, the handful of moments the place conversations are voiced actually aren’t unhealthy.
If that’d been paired with a sport the place the aspect actions had been really entertaining as an alternative of pointless fetch quests, the place switching between your teammates supplied fascinating bending playstyles as an alternative of various flavors of the identical button mashing, and the place this legendary story was retold in a means that revered the supply materials slightly than utilizing it to shoehorn in overused and solely loosely associated minigames, Quest for Stability may’ve really fulfilled its promise. It’s not unthinkable that with a bit extra time (in all probability much more) the enjoyable might have been discovered right here, however what we bought as an alternative feels just like the naked minimal required to appear like it is perhaps alright and get it out the door in order that Quest for Stability might reside as one more lure on retailer cabinets, laying in await well-meaning dad and mom who don’t know any higher.
“However It’s a Youngsters’ Sport”
Each time we give a sport a baby might theoretically get pleasure from a harsh assessment, one kind of remark inevitably exhibits up: “Properly, this sport is supposed for youths, they don’t care if it’s easy/has ugly graphics/controls badly/and so forth. You possibly can’t maintain it to the identical customary as grown-up video games!” That argument can kind of appear affordable at first look, however it’s not one thing that makes a lot sense while you actually get all the way down to it.
First off, we reside in an period when it looks like 1,000,000 new video games come out every day and Nintendo alone makes kid-friendly bangers a number of occasions a 12 months. Why ought to anybody accept some overpriced and underdeveloped licensed tie-in sport when there’s such a wealth of implausible choices out there? Why ought to a foul youngsters’ sport get a move on evident points that no gamer with any expertise ought to tolerate? Isn’t that simply making the most of youngsters?
On high of that, the truth that younger youngsters won’t but recognize the distinction between an excellent sport and a foul one simply means they’re nonetheless studying. Because the dad and mom of budding avid gamers, it’s our job to information them to high-quality video games in order that they know what they need to anticipate after they begin spending their very own cash on them – to not point out the irritating and inconsistent nature of this one isn’t notably “child pleasant” anyway. Give your youngsters good video games!
In addition to, what else is made for youths however was created with such a excessive stage of sophistication, artistry, and clear ardour that it may be appreciated by adults and children alike? Avatar: The Final Airbender.
We haven’t fairly been ready 100 years for an Avatar sport that lives as much as the potential of the present, however it’s actually starting to really feel that means after enjoying Avatar: The Final Airbender – Quest for Stability. This half-baked and wildly inconsistent retelling of the wonderful TV collection exhibits the promise of what an Avatar sport might perhaps be, however a baffling selection of which scenes to focus on, a clunky digital camera and fight, hilarious steadiness issues, and an overreliance on middling block puzzles and boring fetch quests leaves our seek for the actual Avatar nonetheless desperately out of luck. With extra Avatar exhibits and films on the best way, it’s simply downright odd how Quest for Stability has managed to reach at this cut-off date as each an unsatisfying entry level for newcomers and a poor technique to revisit it for devoted followers.