 "Kung Fu Panda")
Based on Dreamwork’s awesome animated movie of the same name, Kung Fu Panda puts players in the furry little paws of a bumbling panda called Po who constantly dreams of becoming a great Kung Fu warrior. Unfortunately Po’s stuck making noodle soup at his dad’s restaurant… until the day he miraculously gets chosen to become the next Dragon Warrior, an honor bestowed only on the finest few. To help the clumsy and overweight Panda become a lean mean fighting machine, we have Master Shifu who, along with the Furious Five, train Po to become the most awesome warrior that ever lived.
At the same time you have Shifu’s old student Tai Lung who’s escaped his prison in search of the sacred Dragon Scroll and to seek retribution on the people who locked him up in the first place. Protecting the sacred Dragon Scroll and defeating Tai Lung and his minions – while taking care of the furry denizens of the Valley of Peace – seem to be the order of the day here.
As is evident from the description above, the game’s storyline is in tandem with the movie’s plot and developer Loxuflux have taken certain creative deviances from time to time to lengthen the entire experience. If you’re one of those unfortunate souls who haven’t seen the flick, you’ll definitely get a bit lost since the game skips from one scenario to another, never explaining how it quite got there. Still it’s Kung Fu Panda we’re talking about and not a Metal Gear Solid, so there’s no need to stress out over the storyline – the gameplay is pretty solid.
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Kung Fu Panda can be broken up into two aspects: vigorous button mashing and platforming. As and when Po engages an enemy he’ll have access to light (speedy), heavy (slow) and group attacks that when chained successfully can prove to be pretty devastating. Also, while in a forward motion Po can ‘Panda Roll’ to knock out enemies in a single shot. But the combat is pretty simple and straightforward, and can get repetitive. Then again, this is a game for kids and not for some diehard who gets his rocks off to Ninja Gaiden.
It would have been nice if Luxoflux had included a slo-mo mechanic of sorts that was used so brilliantly in the movie. You’ll occasionally get to play as Master Shifu and as members of the Furious Five (Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane, and Viper) but none of them feel quite as satisfying as Po since you can upgrade his abilities after every level, making him the awesome Kung Fu warrior he aspires to become.
Every level throws tons of enemies at you (even on the medium difficulty level) and you’ll even run into an occasional boss that can be disposed of by blocking and successfully countering his attacks. As and when you go up against the big cheese a.k.a. Tai Lung, you’ll have to constantly indulge in annoying context-sensitive actions that seem a bit daunting for the audience this game’s intended for. Once you get bored of the single player campaign, you and three of your friends can indulge in some multiplayer mini-games that can be unlocked from the single player campaign.
Visually the game looks pretty, and Luxoflux has gone all out to make sure the visuals stay as faithful to the movie as possible. There’s a bit of environmental interactivity here as well but it’s limited to breaking barrels, furniture, and the occasional pillar. What did annoy me was the dude who voiced Po – I wouldn’t have minded strangling him with my bare hands. His Jack Black imitation was downright annoying and the over-use of awesome and bodacious made me feel like throwing up. Also, while the movie was a non-stop laugh riot, none of the humor has successfully been translated into the game. Most of the jokes either fall flat or make you want to stab the scriptwriter in the face.
All said, Kung Fu Panda is still one of the better game-to-movie adaptations out there. Sure, it’s painfully short and can get very repetitive, but it’s an enjoyable, breezy action game that’s a lot (and I mean a LOT) better than most of the game-to-movie rubbish we’ve seen in recent times. I only hope developer Luxoflux will now start working on a True Crime sequel ASAP.
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