KUNG FU PANDA XBOX 360 REVIEW
Creating a game based on a movie has always been a struggling transition. And players have learned the hard way when their game never really turned out to be as good as the movie. So there’s a constant doubt among gamers to pass up on a game despite its movie counterpart is breaking sales record in the box office. Rest assured that this is not the case with Kung Fu Panda. In fact, you are going to be pleasantly surprised with what’s in store for you; it is fun, easy, and lots of activities to explore. The best part is that it accommodates different classes of gamers; experts will like it for its humor and occasional thrills, while the casual and young audience will enjoy its button-smashing frenzy and multiplayer goodies.
You play as Po the Kung Fu Panda, an unlikely hero who takes on the game’s villain Tai Lung and his hordes of evil minions, who are disrupting the tranquility in the Valley of Peace, as well as attempting to capture the Dragon scroll. The main aspect of gameplay is standard 3D exploration with a mixture of puzzle-solving, a familiar Shrek-style combat, and a context-sensitive testing segment. But what’s going to entice you deep into the game is the variety of unexpected challenges from one mission to the next. Kung Fu Panda mixes up the frantic side of combat with numerous exciting environmental puzzles, such as jumping across lily pads to rescue the imprisoned creatures of a village as well as trying to escape a giant crocodile while dangling onto a leg of a flying crane. You’ll even get to shoot giant crossbows in one of the game’s stages! Kung Fu Panda certainly covers a wide range of animated adventures.
What make this game such a blast to play are the easy controls. Two buttons serve as quick and strong attacks with a third button for special moves. It doesn’t take to long to learn the basics, and the game even provide occasional tips like how to execute fast attacks, juggling combos, or a number of special moves during your quest. As you progress through different levels, you should keep an eye out for hidden jade coins as well as statues that will unlock many of Kung Fu Panda’s bonus content, such as clips from the movie, multiplayer mini-games, and concept arts to name a few. As time passes, you’ll also discover new and more powerful moves such as Iron Belly, Panda Stomp, Panda Quake, Panda Stumble, and several other charged attacks. With points collected throughout your journey, you can upgrade these particular moves to various degrees, increasing their damage and area of effect.
The best part of Kung Fu Panda is that you’d never know what sort of challenge lies ahead in your next mission. One minute you’re shooting down obstacles in your path, the next minute you’re steering a boat with your weight while trying to avoid huge rocks that could banish you into the raging water! One of the game’s challenging moments includes a context-sensitive button pressing. It’s a good way of testing your reflexes in a cinematic fashion. The thrill of your adventure doesn’t stop there as Kung Fu Panda provides plenty more activities through its multiplayer components. The multiplayer segment comes with a nice collection of party-style games for up to four players, and even includes some team-based modes. They include Smash-Bros style slugfest, a shooting competition, a matching contest, and several more.
Graphically, the game looks impressive. The developers did an amazing job staying true to the movie. Po the panda is accurately captured with the right fuzziness in his pose during close-ups. The animations are very smooth and the characters move like their movie counterparts. The facial expressions on each of the main characters is unbelievable not just in cut-scenes but in real-time animation. The game flows nicely from one action sequence to the next. The environment is rendered to perfection and background effects, especially water, are amazing! You’ll hardly see any frame rate issues; everything ran very smoothly even when Po was frantically fending off multiple enemies at a time. However, there’s one quirk to the game’s visuals and it’s the camera. There will be times when it causes you to miss out on some of the “tight” actions, as it doesn’t adjust appropriately to give you the best field of vision.
In the audio department, Kung Fu Panda offers a very strong sound system that compliments many of the game’s martial arts sequences. Punches and kicks pack a lot of charge, while objects shatter with incredible degree of separation. The biggest disappointment though in the audio is the lack of original cast members for the voice-over work. Too bad, you don’t have the real voice of Jack Black, but the person who took his place reprise his role well. The voice talents of Dustin Hoffman (Master Shifu), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), and Jackie Chan (Master Monkey) are also missing in the game. The only familiar character that sounded original is James Wong, who plays as Po’s father. Nevertheless, the individuals who did the replacement voice-over work for the “Furious Five” performed a relatively good job as the film’s originals.
Kung Fu Panda is great adventure game, filled with unexpected single-player challenges that break up the repetitiveness of standard button-smashing. The gameplay is surprisingly deep, featuring incredible fighting sequence, intriguing environmental puzzles, great platforming segments, interesting context-sensitive challenges, and a robust upgrade system that allows you to power-up your Kung Fu skills to become the legendary Dragon Warrior. The graphics are bright, colorful, and full of wonders. The only downsides are dealing with some camera issues and lack of original voice-overs. Thanks to the bonus content, trying to unlock all the secret items give you even more of a reason to go through the game another round or two. And in case you might get tired of playing solo, the developers throw in a nice collection of party-style games. So is Kung Fu Panda worth buying? Yes, but only if you have a sense of humor and willing to set aside the “hardcore gamer” mentality and let your oriental instincts run wild.
