The "Retro Game Reviews" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
This thread has been linked to the game 'James Cameron's Avatar: The Game'.
iPhone games, they're all about pointing, touching and tilting aren’t they? Tower Defence, Puzzles all that sort of thing. Which is why Avatar surprised me.
Feeling blue?
Avatar is based on the film of the same name, you know, the one famous for big blue people and 3D being all the rage at the moment. You’d think, therefore, that the iPhone was the last place a game based on a film all about looks would turn up. But it has.
However, just as surprising as the film, the game shows what can actually be done on the phone and the results are pretty impressive for the platform.
3D Na’vi
While it’s not 3D in the cinema sense, Avatar is a full 3D world in the game. It’s not quite a sandbox game, your character follows a set path through the first half of the game and it’s not until later on that you’re given more of a free reign to carry on. But the world is something that wouldn’t look out of place on the Playstion or PSP and that in itself is a feat.
As the guinea pig for the Avatar programme, you play Corporal Ryan Lorenz, the first person to become a Na’vi Avatar and go exploring in their homeland outside of the base restrictions.
Ce Na’vi.
Once you’ve got over the usual training ground area, which shows you the ropes of jumping, firing etc then you get to explore Pandora. The world of Pandora is full of things to do. You’ll get to slide down trees, climb vines and bounce off large mushroom things while avoiding those strange disappearing flowers and marking the route for the army to gain the Unobtainium they need. Creatures can be shot easily with your gun, a jump technique will spread your fire and avoid them easily at first but they soon gain in sufficient numbers to cause you problems.
The scenery is very well put together, though you get the feeling that much of it is there to keep you moving in one direction in the first few levels of Pandora’s forests.
The story, although set a long time before the movie, is very similar. You won’t be surprised to find that your character starts becoming sympathetic to the Na’vi and realises what the army is up to. It’s nothing original (and some may argue that neither is the film storyline) but it’s pretty fleshed out for an iPhone game.
Na’vi Moves
The issue here is that after a few levels you might despair a little at the game getting a bit samey. You have a limited number of moves and I soon found that actually staying back a little and firing at enemies, while not being very exciting, is the easiest way to continue. But fear not, once you get to the open world environment you’ll start to get some tasks which make the game more interesting and having this open world itself is like a breath of fresh Pandora air.
The 3D camera, however, isn’t so friendly. As with many games like this on many systems it’s the one thing that lets the side down a bit. Luckily the frequent level saves and most of the level design don’t make this too much of a problem but when you’ve missed a ledge for the second time and end up right back at the bottom of a cliff it can be frustrating.
Controls are pretty good too, though it’s all still a virtual joystick I found them to be more responsive than other games I’d played with the same control set up. There is a single button for fire independent of weapon and another for jump, it’s all pretty straight forward. Of course virtual joysticks are no match for real ones but that’s just an inherent issue with this type of game on the platform.
Na’vi gonna give you up
As a total package Avatar works well despite its faults because it’s just so well put together. As a fan of the movie I enjoyed a little bit of a back story, albeit one that felt slightly recycled, and the game itself is fun to play.
The price has recently gone down to £3.99 too, which I think is a far more suitable price (and the reason why I was tempted to get it).
7/10
Feeling blue?
Avatar is based on the film of the same name, you know, the one famous for big blue people and 3D being all the rage at the moment. You’d think, therefore, that the iPhone was the last place a game based on a film all about looks would turn up. But it has.
However, just as surprising as the film, the game shows what can actually be done on the phone and the results are pretty impressive for the platform.
3D Na’vi
While it’s not 3D in the cinema sense, Avatar is a full 3D world in the game. It’s not quite a sandbox game, your character follows a set path through the first half of the game and it’s not until later on that you’re given more of a free reign to carry on. But the world is something that wouldn’t look out of place on the Playstion or PSP and that in itself is a feat.
As the guinea pig for the Avatar programme, you play Corporal Ryan Lorenz, the first person to become a Na’vi Avatar and go exploring in their homeland outside of the base restrictions.
Ce Na’vi.
Once you’ve got over the usual training ground area, which shows you the ropes of jumping, firing etc then you get to explore Pandora. The world of Pandora is full of things to do. You’ll get to slide down trees, climb vines and bounce off large mushroom things while avoiding those strange disappearing flowers and marking the route for the army to gain the Unobtainium they need. Creatures can be shot easily with your gun, a jump technique will spread your fire and avoid them easily at first but they soon gain in sufficient numbers to cause you problems.
The scenery is very well put together, though you get the feeling that much of it is there to keep you moving in one direction in the first few levels of Pandora’s forests.
The story, although set a long time before the movie, is very similar. You won’t be surprised to find that your character starts becoming sympathetic to the Na’vi and realises what the army is up to. It’s nothing original (and some may argue that neither is the film storyline) but it’s pretty fleshed out for an iPhone game.
Na’vi Moves
The issue here is that after a few levels you might despair a little at the game getting a bit samey. You have a limited number of moves and I soon found that actually staying back a little and firing at enemies, while not being very exciting, is the easiest way to continue. But fear not, once you get to the open world environment you’ll start to get some tasks which make the game more interesting and having this open world itself is like a breath of fresh Pandora air.
The 3D camera, however, isn’t so friendly. As with many games like this on many systems it’s the one thing that lets the side down a bit. Luckily the frequent level saves and most of the level design don’t make this too much of a problem but when you’ve missed a ledge for the second time and end up right back at the bottom of a cliff it can be frustrating.
Controls are pretty good too, though it’s all still a virtual joystick I found them to be more responsive than other games I’d played with the same control set up. There is a single button for fire independent of weapon and another for jump, it’s all pretty straight forward. Of course virtual joysticks are no match for real ones but that’s just an inherent issue with this type of game on the platform.
Na’vi gonna give you up
As a total package Avatar works well despite its faults because it’s just so well put together. As a fan of the movie I enjoyed a little bit of a back story, albeit one that felt slightly recycled, and the game itself is fun to play.
The price has recently gone down to £3.99 too, which I think is a far more suitable price (and the reason why I was tempted to get it).
7/10
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
iPhone games, they're all about pointing, touching and tilting aren’t they? Tower Defence, Puzzles all that sort of thing. Which is why Avatar surprised me.
Feeling blue?
Avatar is based on the film of the same name, you know, the one famous for big blue people and 3D being all the rage at the moment. You’d think, therefore, that the iPhone was the last place a game based on a film all about looks would turn up. But it has.
However, just as surprising as the film, the game shows what can actually be done on the phone and the results are pretty impressive for the platform.
3D Na’vi
While it’s not 3D in the cinema sense, Avatar is a full 3D world in the game. It’s not quite a sandbox game, your character follows a set path through the first half of the game and it’s not until later on that you’re given more of a free reign to carry on. But the world is something that wouldn’t look out of place on the Playstion or PSP and that in itself is a feat.
As the guinea pig for the Avatar programme, you play Corporal Ryan Lorenz, the first person to become a Na’vi Avatar and go exploring in their homeland outside of the base restrictions.
Ce Na’vi.
Once you’ve got over the usual training ground area, which shows you the ropes of jumping, firing etc then you get to explore Pandora. The world of Pandora is full of things to do. You’ll get to slide down trees, climb vines and bounce off large mushroom things while avoiding those strange disappearing flowers and marking the route for the army to gain the Unobtainium they need. Creatures can be shot easily with your gun, a jump technique will spread your fire and avoid them easily at first but they soon gain in sufficient numbers to cause you problems.
The scenery is very well put together, though you get the feeling that much of it is there to keep you moving in one direction in the first few levels of Pandora’s forests.
The story, although set a long time before the movie, is very similar. You won’t be surprised to find that your character starts becoming sympathetic to the Na’vi and realises what the army is up to. It’s nothing original (and some may argue that neither is the film storyline) but it’s pretty fleshed out for an iPhone game.
Na’vi Moves
The issue here is that after a few levels you might despair a little at the game getting a bit samey. You have a limited number of moves and I soon found that actually staying back a little and firing at enemies, while not being very exciting, is the easiest way to continue. But fear not, once you get to the open world environment you’ll start to get some tasks which make the game more interesting and having this open world itself is like a breath of fresh Pandora air.
The 3D camera, however, isn’t so friendly. As with many games like this on many systems it’s the one thing that lets the side down a bit. Luckily the frequent level saves and most of the level design don’t make this too much of a problem but when you’ve missed a ledge for the second time and end up right back at the bottom of a cliff it can be frustrating.
Controls are pretty good too, though it’s all still a virtual joystick I found them to be more responsive than other games I’d played with the same control set up. There is a single button for fire independent of weapon and another for jump, it’s all pretty straight forward. Of course virtual joysticks are no match for real ones but that’s just an inherent issue with this type of game on the platform.
Na’vi gonna give you up
As a total package Avatar works well despite its faults because it’s just so well put together. As a fan of the movie I enjoyed a little bit of a back story, albeit one that felt slightly recycled, and the game itself is fun to play.
The price has recently gone down to £3.99 too, which I think is a far more suitable price (and the reason why I was tempted to get it).
7/10
Feeling blue?
Avatar is based on the film of the same name, you know, the one famous for big blue people and 3D being all the rage at the moment. You’d think, therefore, that the iPhone was the last place a game based on a film all about looks would turn up. But it has.
However, just as surprising as the film, the game shows what can actually be done on the phone and the results are pretty impressive for the platform.
3D Na’vi
While it’s not 3D in the cinema sense, Avatar is a full 3D world in the game. It’s not quite a sandbox game, your character follows a set path through the first half of the game and it’s not until later on that you’re given more of a free reign to carry on. But the world is something that wouldn’t look out of place on the Playstion or PSP and that in itself is a feat.
As the guinea pig for the Avatar programme, you play Corporal Ryan Lorenz, the first person to become a Na’vi Avatar and go exploring in their homeland outside of the base restrictions.
Ce Na’vi.
Once you’ve got over the usual training ground area, which shows you the ropes of jumping, firing etc then you get to explore Pandora. The world of Pandora is full of things to do. You’ll get to slide down trees, climb vines and bounce off large mushroom things while avoiding those strange disappearing flowers and marking the route for the army to gain the Unobtainium they need. Creatures can be shot easily with your gun, a jump technique will spread your fire and avoid them easily at first but they soon gain in sufficient numbers to cause you problems.
The scenery is very well put together, though you get the feeling that much of it is there to keep you moving in one direction in the first few levels of Pandora’s forests.
The story, although set a long time before the movie, is very similar. You won’t be surprised to find that your character starts becoming sympathetic to the Na’vi and realises what the army is up to. It’s nothing original (and some may argue that neither is the film storyline) but it’s pretty fleshed out for an iPhone game.
Na’vi Moves
The issue here is that after a few levels you might despair a little at the game getting a bit samey. You have a limited number of moves and I soon found that actually staying back a little and firing at enemies, while not being very exciting, is the easiest way to continue. But fear not, once you get to the open world environment you’ll start to get some tasks which make the game more interesting and having this open world itself is like a breath of fresh Pandora air.
The 3D camera, however, isn’t so friendly. As with many games like this on many systems it’s the one thing that lets the side down a bit. Luckily the frequent level saves and most of the level design don’t make this too much of a problem but when you’ve missed a ledge for the second time and end up right back at the bottom of a cliff it can be frustrating.
Controls are pretty good too, though it’s all still a virtual joystick I found them to be more responsive than other games I’d played with the same control set up. There is a single button for fire independent of weapon and another for jump, it’s all pretty straight forward. Of course virtual joysticks are no match for real ones but that’s just an inherent issue with this type of game on the platform.
Na’vi gonna give you up
As a total package Avatar works well despite its faults because it’s just so well put together. As a fan of the movie I enjoyed a little bit of a back story, albeit one that felt slightly recycled, and the game itself is fun to play.
The price has recently gone down to £3.99 too, which I think is a far more suitable price (and the reason why I was tempted to get it).
7/10