As an avid fighting game and Avatar fan, this is a dream come true, and it’s only a preview.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is the first Avatar game I’ve played and it was a very welcome surprise as the other games with the IP aren’t fighters. The Avatar games out now mainly beat-em-ups and sidescrollers. Fun fact: there is a fighting game based on Avatar: The Last Airbender but it was only a web-based, and not too many people talk about it as its niche.
Avatar Legends, in its current state, feels polished in more ways than one, taking plenty of mechanics from other successful fighting games and creating original ones as well.
The build I played at Day of the Devs: San Francisco Edition and The Mix’s and Kinda Funny’s Spring Game Showcase featured five playable characters–Aang, Katara, Korra, Toph, and Zuko, each with their own unique fighting styles that countered each other despite the limited roster selection. Each character is given three support types to choose from that affects them in a different way. For example, Zuko has a support called Faster Ground Movement and as it’s titled, increases Zuko’s ground movement.
Four characters, including Avatar Korra, were available to try at Day of the Devs.
I tried each character, and I was most attracted to Zuko as he had a very interesting kit. The previously mentioned Faster Ground Movement allows him to perform combos that weren’t possible before. This also allows his trajectory in the air to be farther for running air attacks, this matters because it gives Zuko more pressure tools and mixups making him extremely scary. Compared to Aang who is more passive with long reach attacks, but can very quickly turn into an aggressive character, capable of punishing effectively to continue pressure.
Let’s take a look at another character matchup, Toph against Zuko. Toph is extremely tough to take on even as Zuko because she has super armor, a mechanic that allows her to withstand a few light attacks without being interrupted. This instantly makes her a threat against Zuko as his whole type is fast-based attacks with projectiles, especially when Zuko has the Faster Ground Movement Support. Needless to say, each character will have strengths and weaknesses, making character combat expressions strong.
In this preview build, color schemes were recently added to give more options for player expression. The potential for additional skins taken from not just The Last Airbender, but The Legend of Korra give this game a huge leg up. For instance, imagine an Aang skin with his glowing aura or Zuko in a more ceremonial outfit.
At The Mix Spring Showcase, Toph was added as a playable character to try in the build.
As for the game’s art style, it is immaculate as it looks like it was ripped straight from the show. This extends to the menus, letter fonts, icons, and stages. The shading and texturing used allows the colors to really pop creating a vividly pleasant visual. This extends to the stages as well, being a mix of 3D environments and 2D NPCs, which created a nice blend that was environmentally pleasing yet not out of place.
The build had a total of four stages each with different environments, a city, ruins, a fire nation temple, and an icy lake all looking like they were drawn by hand. Looking at the Fire Nation Temple for instance, the temple has dim lighting as the environment is lit by torches, then the city with natural lighting from the sun. This showcases that the atmosphere has taken more priority without having it be distracting during matches.
The is feeling like a more than solid 2D fighter with plenty of mechanics reminiscent of fast yet steady fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Guilty Gear. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is set to launch in summer of 2026 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2. The team currently plans to launch 12 characters, cross-platform support, and a story mode.
Avatar Legends, in its current state, feels polished in more ways than one, taking plenty of mechanics from other successful fighting games and creating original ones as well.
As an avid fighting game and Avatar fan, this is a dream come true, and it’s only a preview.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is the first Avatar game I’ve played and it was a very welcome surprise as the other games with the IP aren’t fighters. The Avatar games out now mainly beat-em-ups and sidescrollers. Fun fact: there is a fighting game based on Avatar: The Last Airbender but it was only a web-based, and not too many people talk about it as its niche.
Avatar Legends, in its current state, feels polished in more ways than one, taking plenty of mechanics from other successful fighting games and creating original ones as well.
The build I played at Day of the Devs: San Francisco Edition and The Mix’s and Kinda Funny’s Spring Game Showcase featured five playable characters–Aang, Katara, Korra, Toph, and Zuko, each with their own unique fighting styles that countered each other despite the limited roster selection. Each character is given three support types to choose from that affects them in a different way. For example, Zuko has a support called Faster Ground Movement and as it’s titled, increases Zuko’s ground movement.
Four characters, including Avatar Korra, were available to try at Day of the Devs.
I tried each character, and I was most attracted to Zuko as he had a very interesting kit. The previously mentioned Faster Ground Movement allows him to perform combos that weren’t possible before. This also allows his trajectory in the air to be farther for running air attacks, this matters because it gives Zuko more pressure tools and mixups making him extremely scary. Compared to Aang who is more passive with long reach attacks, but can very quickly turn into an aggressive character, capable of punishing effectively to continue pressure.
Let’s take a look at another character matchup, Toph against Zuko. Toph is extremely tough to take on even as Zuko because she has super armor, a mechanic that allows her to withstand a few light attacks without being interrupted. This instantly makes her a threat against Zuko as his whole type is fast-based attacks with projectiles, especially when Zuko has the Faster Ground Movement Support. Needless to say, each character will have strengths and weaknesses, making character combat expressions strong.
In this preview build, color schemes were recently added to give more options for player expression. The potential for additional skins taken from not just The Last Airbender, but The Legend of Korra give this game a huge leg up. For instance, imagine an Aang skin with his glowing aura or Zuko in a more ceremonial outfit.
At The Mix Spring Showcase, Toph was added as a playable character to try in the build.
As for the game’s art style, it is immaculate as it looks like it was ripped straight from the show. This extends to the menus, letter fonts, icons, and stages. The shading and texturing used allows the colors to really pop creating a vividly pleasant visual. This extends to the stages as well, being a mix of 3D environments and 2D NPCs, which created a nice blend that was environmentally pleasing yet not out of place.
The build had a total of four stages each with different environments, a city, ruins, a fire nation temple, and an icy lake all looking like they were drawn by hand. Looking at the Fire Nation Temple for instance, the temple has dim lighting as the environment is lit by torches, then the city with natural lighting from the sun. This showcases that the atmosphere has taken more priority without having it be distracting during matches.
The is feeling like a more than solid 2D fighter with plenty of mechanics reminiscent of fast yet steady fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Guilty Gear. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is set to launch in summer of 2026 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2. The team currently plans to launch 12 characters, cross-platform support, and a story mode.
by Michael Shaheen
