Preview: Avatar - The Burning Earth

OK, now I'm a huge fan of the Nickelodeon original series, Avatar The Last Airbender. It's a fun and surprisingly deep, dramatic, and dark series that at times deals with some serious and heavy themes. I'm very excited about M. Night Shyamalan directing a series of live action movies based on the show, provided he's learned some humility following Lady In The Water.




The games for the series on the other hand, well those haven't got me very excited, and it doesn't look like that's changing too much with The Burning Earth. THQ has not shown too much of the game since previewing it at San Diego Comic Con 2007, and I wonder why.

The game's graphics are cel-shaded, and judging from the screenshots it doesn't look like they do much in the way of pushing the limits of the X-BOX 360. But besides that the game allows players to play as not just the main character Aang, but also his comrades Toph, Sokka, and Katarra. It looks like there are even levels where you can fly Aang's trusted giant sky bison, Appa.

The Official X-BOX web-page promises that besides the aforementioned heroes, you can also play as Zuko and his uncle Iroh for the first time ever in a game. I wonder if the late, great Mako, the original voice actor for Iroh, did any work on the games before his passing, that'd be awesome. Since season 3 features the characters knee deep in enemy territory in the tyrannical Fire Nation, I wonder how closely the plot of the game will follow the plot of the series. Well, it is called, "The Burning Earth."