4cr Review – Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and Animal Crossing: City Folk all came out this past week. So naturally, when Edgar sent me a message, “How’s your free time?” I conveniently forgot that my former gaming loves were coming home, and took on the second Kung Fu Panda game, Legendary Warriors. No sweat! We’ll ignore the fact that Wrath of the Lich King arrived last week as well, and try to figure out a way to clone myself while waiting in Skywall’s server queue.

So where does Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors fit in all of this? Let’s begin by saying that I’m generally not a fan of movie games, but given that Goldeneye is one, I’m willing to give them a try. I took out Pokémon Pearl and it gleamed back at me, almost with sadness, but I promised I would be back as I reluctantly looked away, and slipped Kung Fu Panda in its place.

The screens lit up and I started a new game. I felt a lurch in my stomach as I realized that the jagged text and cut-and-paste movie graphics were supposed to take the place of a cutscene. Man oh man, what have I gotten myself into?

It’s showtime! The tale unfolds: Po the panda has a talk with his master, Shifu. There is evil lurking about, and tragedy has struck the Furious Five! Shifu then sends Po and Tigress on a mission to find and rescue the others, whom they suspect have been kidnapped. Oh noes!

So after choosing which of the two characters you’d like to play, you are then free to unleash destruction upon their respective maps. The enemies and helpless objects you defeat and will earn you more style points, which are then calculated and converted into stars when you reach the end of each level. The total pool of stars you have gathered will add up to unlock later bosses. It’s an old formula, but it works. The only problem I had with it is how the game forces you to play as both characters in order to get deeper into the game, which is a valid mechanic, but frustrating too, since Tigress and Po handle like opposites.

While Po adopts a strong and sluggish battle style, Tigress’s swift feet can help her stay in the air, endlessly kicking in baddies’ faces. These mechanics go along with the movie, but translate poorly to the game. Sometimes, Shifu’s wise and magically-appearing head will tell you to touch sparkling objects with your stylus, which feels more gimmicky than useful. Unless you’ve got a third hand, it’s hard to lift sparkling platforms while trying to run and hop on them within the short time they stay activated. Two hands aren’t enough to handle the control pad and face buttons when you’re also trying to poke at things on the screen. In this case, the touch screen functionality detracts greatly from the experience of actually playing the game.

Especially after the cutscene scare, I was glad to see that the environment was relatively decent for a DS title, up to the point of having 3D maps and sprites. It had a level of detail I really didn’t expect to see, from hanging lanterns and bamboo stalks to breakable wooden tables and statues. It really felt like I was fighting in the movie. Still, the level organization felt rushed and shoddy. More than once, I found myself mashing buttons as enemies appeared all around me, battling blindly as the foreground obstructed my view.

As with most platformer titles, there were also endless death pits to jump across, but it didn’t help that the characters would only make it halfway across with a properly-timed jump. Instead, you had to perform an awkward double-jump which felt more like a double-bunny hop. However, these pits did make it ridiculously easy to grab and throw enemies into the void instead of actually fighting them, a ‘tactic’ mentioned later in the game.

Despite these faults, I enjoyed parts of Legendary Warriors. I liked stringing combos together, some of which the game helpfully suggested. I liked the linear progression of the levels, and the hidden coin in each one, which made them fun to explore. I also liked being able to pick which level I want to play. If you manage to earn enough points, you can choose to skip the non-boss levels you don’t want to play them. Still, the experience felt average, tried and done, and for a beat-em-up action title it left much to be desired.

With this knowledge, I bit my lip and decided to dig into the Wii version of the game… and the experience was light worlds away. Immediately, I noticed the well-drawn, animated cutscenes, which added the much-needed depth and atmosphere overlooked in the DS version. The product was significantly more polished, and it felt like I was actually playing a title geared towards families than more shovelware the kids would get for Christmas and trade-in on the 26th. Surprisingly, it doesn’t play in linear progression like its portable counterpart, but it still followed the roots of the good ol’ action-platformer.

Story mode concentrates on your character, being Po, Tigress or Monkey, rescuing rabbits that were captured by the evil snow leopard Tai Lung. By means of waggle controls, mysteriously similar to those used in Okami, you can battle your way through Tai Lung’s army and defeat the hordes of minigames thrown in your path. It works pretty well except when you try to perform special ‘chi’ attacks via drawing glyphs on the screen. Unfortunately, the wiimote doesn’t register this very well, but it’s a guaranteed way to tone your arms through gaming.

By making your way through story mode, you can unlock characters and maps to use in versus mode. I didn’t get to test this out with anyone, but I did fight against the CPU. Even without a buddy to fight with, it was actually pretty fun! Every character has their own unique set of moves, but Legendary Warriors is no match for Brawl, so don’t expect much of a challenge this way.

All in all, how does this sequel fare? The DS version of Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors plays like an average platformer, but unless the young ‘un in your family is a big fan of the movie, there are other titles better worth your time and money. The Wii version, on the other hand, might be a good game to rent and play with the kids (or the pandy fan in your life) on a rainy day. The better quality of the console edition shows, and you can add a point to the score for the latter.

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