Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game)


 * This article is about the video game based on the animated series. For other similar uses, see The Last Airbender (disambiguation).

Avatar: The Last Airbender, known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in Europe, is a 2006 video game developed by THQ and released for Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, and Xbox. The game is loosely based on the series, with the storyline set between Book One and Book Two. Gameplay for the Microsoft Windows version consists of a series of mini games based on the events of Book One.

A sequel, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth, was released in the autumn of the following year.

Game overview
The game begins with an overview of the events preceding the game with Katara narrating. It opens in the Northern Water Tribe, where Aang excitedly talks about his plans to go penguin sledding with Katara. Once he arrives at the village, Katara tells Aang that Master Wei is looking for him. He tells Aang to investigate the disappearance of a waterbender named Hiryu.

Aang goes to a cave where he finds a waterbender's pouch, much like Katara's, and a gear near a large hole. He returns to the village and returns both to his master. Not long after that, the Fire Nation launches an attack led by Prince Zuko, who wants Aang captured unharmed. Aang goes to help Sokka, who is struggling as he is surrounded by firebenders, leaving Katara to help Master Wei keep Zuko from getting any further into the city.

During the battle, Katara is captured and Zuko retreats with her in tow in order to lure Aang out to come after him. Before Aang and Sokka leave to chase after Zuko though, they encounter a machine blocking their way to Appa. They are able to defeat it, but they discover the machine was made by the Fire Nation, which means that they are becoming more powerful and dangerous than ever.



Aang and Sokka follow Zuko's ship on Appa to a village in the Earth Kingdom, where they learn Katara is being held in prison. They steal two Fire Nation soldier's uniforms and sneak into the prison disguised. While there, they help a village struggling with poverty and a shortage of food and supplies, by locating stolen food and defeating Fire Nation soldiers.

While rescuing Katara from prison, they discover that a person called "The Maker" is being forced to create machines for the Fire Nation, and so they attempt to free her. They defeat the jailer guarding her, but they cannot find her in her cell. However, they find a clue of another supposed attack on an earthbending training camp.

Team Avatar arrives at the camp, where they find Tyro and Haru are being attacked by machines. The trio intervenes and saves the earthbenders. Tyro reveals to Aang that their own village member, Yuan, has also disappeared during the fight. Haru decides to join the team in the hopes of finding his friend. Once they reach a magical grotto, they encounter a bear-like creature and are forced to fight it. Once they defeat it, it transforms into the forest spirit, who tells them to go to Omashu and tell Bumi about the machines.

Their journey takes them to Omashu and with the help of its king, Bumi, who gives them directions to a secret hidden island. Before they leave, though, the Fire Nation attacks the city, leading to Haru leaving the group to help his fellow earthbenders defend the city.

When they finally reunite and reach a secret entrance out of the village, they are stopped by the consul, stating he will not let them go. Katara and Sokka tell him that if he lets them go, the Fire Nation will follow, but he cares little for that, telling them he is part of a plan that will ensure the safety of the Earth Kingdom and he will make sure all of them die.

They manage to defeat him and realize the machines they have encountered before Omashu are meant to replace benders. They leave the city relatively unscathed when the Fire Nation invaded. Zuko appears seconds after they exit and interrogates the consul who refuses to answer, just smiling. At that moment, the prince notices something in front of him and prepares to fight it.

While investigating the mysteries behind the secret island, the gang finally finds the Maker, Lian. She reveals her plans to use her machines to end the war, believing that Aang will not make it in time to finish his training when Sozin's Comet arrives. She offers Aang the chance to work with her and her machines, but he declines, having witnessed the damages the machines have done to the other villages. An angered Lian sends a giant machine to attack them, while she makes her escape. After defeating the machine, Aang miraculously knows where she plans to strike next leading to the team pursuing her.

They go to an inhabited caretakers' village near an air temple, where Aang goes to the air temple sanctuary while the others stay to protect the village inhabitants. Aang defeats the machines Lian sent to destroy the Avatar statues, but his friends are captured during that time. He returns to the village and follows the tunnel the Geo-Tunneler left behind to an underground village. There, he reaches a fortress where all of Lian's machines are and Aang's friends are held captive. He breaks them all out, and they explore the fortress, yet are met briefly by Zuko, who is also held captive there. Aang tries to help him escape, but Zuko attacks him leading to the pair almost falling into a stream. Even when Aang grabs Zuko to pull him up, he lets go and is washed away.



In the deepest level of the fortress, Aang faces Lian to make her stop her creations. Lian voices her contempt for benders in general, saying "thinkers should be in charge, not magicians." Believing that division of the elements is the real reason behind the war, her machines would be used to "even the playing field". Sokka, the nonbender in the group, voices his disagreement to her opinion, to which Lian calls out the missing benders, including Yuan and Hiryu, who reveal themselves apparently willing to aid her by powering the Ultimation a war machine capable of controlling fire, earth, water, sound and air.

Team Avatar's united attacks managed to put down the machine. As Aang gets distracted to help Haru, the Ultimation bursts to life and tries to attack him from behind. Katara gets in the way, trying to protect him, but doing so knocks her unconscious. Enraged, Aang enters the Avatar State and defeats the machine once and for all. Lian is killed by the machine when it falls on to her. Haru reconciles with his friend and the team leaves the place behind on Appa. Haru asks if Sokka never liked benders as he said with Lian, in which the latter commented that he finds them all right, to which Katara and Aang begin to tease him, much to his aggravation.

Meanwhile, on the bank of the stream, Zuko pulls himself out of the water. Grumbling, he exits the scene.

1. Waterbending Village
Aang is meditating on the outskirts of a waterbending village in the North Pole. He excitedly remembers that Katara had previously promised to go penguin sledding with him after training that day and hurries off with Momo to find her. He meets Katara at the entrance to the village. She tells him that Master Pakku is looking for him and he should go find out what he wants.

Master Pakku informs Aang that a waterbender named Hiryu has gone missing. Aang hurries to the ice caves to the north of the village. On the way he meets a Water Tribe citizen who needs ice crystals that Momo can find.

Aang investigates the ice caves, fighting off Arctic wolves as he does so, and finds two items next to a large hole in the ground: a waterbender pouch and a machine part. He brings the items back to Master Pakku, who tells him that he will investigate further and that Aang should see if he is needed around town.

Aang meets an old lady, Ming, who needs lamp oil and candle wick to warm her up. She sends Aang to Fisherman's Float, a location west of the village, to get the oil and gives him some copper to buy candle wick from the local merchant.

After he returns and gives the items to her, Prince Zuko and a force of firebenders arrive in a warship and attack on Zuko's orders, searching for Aang. Aang, on Master Pakku's orders, fights his way through the village to help an outnumbered Sokka on the outer wall. There, Aang sees Zuko capture Katara and retreat from the village.

Aang and Sokka race to get Appa, but a massive machine blocks their path. The machine uses firebending to attack them, but they eventually overpower it. Aang states that the machine had the most powerful firebending he had ever seen. They get on Appa and fly away.

Playable characters

 * Aang
 * Haru
 * Katara
 * Momo
 * Sokka

Other characters

 * Bumi's advisor
 * Hiryu
 * Jailer
 * Jin Wei
 * Lian
 * Ming
 * Yuan

Bosses

 * 1) Colossal Inferno
 * 2) The Jailer
 * 3) Ancestral Bear
 * 4) Earthbender Consul
 * 5) Prototype Dreadnought
 * 6) Geo-Tunneler
 * 7) Dreadnought
 * 8) Lian and the Ultimation

Chapters

 * Waterbending Village
 * Amongst the Enemy
 * The Forest
 * Omashu
 * The Hidden Island
 * The Air Temple
 * The Fortress

Secret codes
Not for DS.

The following codes have been written in Extras Menu:
 * Unlimited Copper: 23637
 * Unlimited Chi: 24463
 * Double Damage: 34743
 * All Treasure Maps: 37437
 * Neverending Stealth: 53467
 * One Hit Dishonor: 54641
 * Unlimited Health: 94677
 * Concept Character Gallery: 97831

Hints and tips

 * Equipping items in the inventory can make characters stronger:
 * Katara's waterbending abilities improve when she wears items with life.
 * Aang's airbending is more powerful when he wears items with agility.
 * Haru becomes much stronger when he wears items with focus.
 * Sokka is more powerful when he wears items with strength.
 * Items in a set appear with an orange glow. Equip them all for an extra bonus.
 * Hidden chests often contain rare items and can be found in every level.
 * Keep an eye on the minimap to see approaching enemies.

Critical reception
GameSpot gave the game an average score across all versions of 6.4 out of 10, which corresponds to "mediocre" or "merely average", saying the gameplay was too repetitive but the sound effects and music were soothing and simple. IGN gave a slightly lower average rating of 5.4 with similar reviews, as did a handful of analogous gaming sites. Nintendo Power rated the game somewhat higher, giving the GameCube version a 7 out of 10. Despite the mainly negative and mixed reviews, the game had commercial success, finishing 2006 as THQ's top-selling Nickelodeon property.

Goofs

 * In the level "The Fortress" of the PS2 version, the four nations player there awards a set item for Aang: the Four Winds Headband. However, this item can be found earlier in the game from a hidden chest, and the item is not actually given here. That level even reports set items possible to find as zero, not even reflecting this goof.
 * As noted above; the set item Soul Iron Band for Sokka cannot be found in the PS2, but is given by the old man who wanted the soap.
 * Omashu is stated to be the capital of the Earth Kingdom and is in the normal location for Ba Sing Se.

Trivia

 * In the cave where she is first confronted, The Maker refers to bending as "magic", the same way Sokka did in the "The Boy in the Iceberg".
 * In the PS2 and DS version, the waterbending master is Master Wei, but in the PSP version, the waterbending master is Pakku.
 * The game features a mini-game called Four Nations, in which items are won from villagers. It is played similar to dominoes, with the numbers replaced by the symbols of the four nations and a special Avatar tile as a wild card.
 * This game is the only Avatar game to feature Haru as a playable character, as Toph was not introduced at the time.
 * Ba Sing Se had been mentioned in "The Great Divide" as the capital, but it was never stated where it was.
 * The air temple is located at the Southern Air Temple.