The Last Airbender

There's no avoiding that fact that The Last Airbender is, by all accounts, a rubbish film . The source material is, however, great video game fodder – in fact, the series already appeared on the Wii long before M Night Shyamalan got in on the act. Fighting, fireballs, hokey Eastern mysticism – all good stuff. You control one of three Benders (ahem), each of whom has different powers and individual fighting styles. Gameplay takes the form of a third-person action-adventure, negotiating simple puzzles and hordes of grunts, with the odd platforming challenge thrown in for good measure. Combat is surprisingly satisfying — it's no Arkham Asylum, but stringing combos together and shaking the Wiimote when prompted to trigger special attacks is really quite fun. Meanwhile, ranged attacks can be used to break through barriers and explode conveniently-placed TNT barrels. Pacing and level design too is, on the whole, relatively accomplished and well thought-out, giving you just enough variety to keep things from getting stale. Every so often the game switches into first-person mode, as you send streams of fireballs hurtling towards hordes of onrushing enemies. It's pretty unremarkable FPS fare, but a pleasing diversion nonetheless. Graphics-wise The Last Airbender is no great shakes, even for a Wii game, thought the stylised comicbook cutscenes are very easy on the eye. The limited capabilities of Nintendo's console meant the game's designers were always facing an uphill challenge recreating the film's universe, but, with the help of some natty sound effects, they've at least made a decent stab of it. Sadly, the short length of the game critically undermines what is, on the whole, a pretty polished outing. Five to six hours to completion for a full-priced release is pretty poor value for money by anyone's standards. In-game achievements and unlockable film-related items encourage replay but, as ever, these will only interest die-hard fans. It's a real shame as The Last Airbender is solid, simple fun, especially if you're one of the handful of people that enjoyed the film. Whether the game was rushed to coincide for the film's release, or the developers spent so long giggling at its title that they didn't have time to code a few extra levels, something that can be finished in a couple of evenings is probably best avoided until it arrives in the bargain bins, no matter how diverting it is.