Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game nails the fundamentals of the genre

Published 1 minute ago

Jakejames Lugo is a writer that has been covering video games and other entertainment for many years. He has written and published reviews, guides, listicles, and other content that anyone interested in gaming would follow. A lot of his work can be found in places like IGN, Dot Esports, Red Bull Gaming, The Outerhaven, Playboy Gaming, and many other outlets.

Jakejames continues to be part of the big conversations surrounding video games and entertainment. You can always find him sharing his undying passion for games online.

Published 1 minute ago

Jakejames continues to be part of the big conversations surrounding video games and entertainment. You can always find him sharing his undying passion for games online.

The cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender is incredibly popular with people of all ages. After making a massive impact with a few seasons of television, the animated series spawned a sequel series and multiple adaptations into video games that featured many of the beloved characters and locations from the show. Fans love the concept of bending the elements into powerful attacks against enemies, while also having a deep connection to philosophical ideas from ancient times. It’s a great combination for an epic story, but is also the best mixture of ingredients for an amazing fighting game, which is what Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is set to become.

While attending a local anime and Christmas event, I got the chance to sit down and play Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game for a brief time. Unlike many other fighting games of recent years, which focused on team-based matches, this new fighter keeps things simple with 1-on-1 battles with characters from throughout the franchise. But while the number of fighters on screen is reduced, the action and beautiful animation that made the show popular is on full display, along with a focus on fighting game essentials that will really stand out to the competitive crowd. Here’s why you’re going to want to pay attention to Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, because it nails the fundamentals of the genre in all the right ways.

Systems

Released 2026

Developer(s) Gameplay Group International

Publisher(s) Gameplay Group International

Genre(s) Fighting, Action, 2D

A quick look at bending

Sampling what’s to come

The demo of the game I played was based on a recent closed alpha of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game that a small group of people got to play. It contained four playable characters, with support options for each one based on other side characters from the series. While the demo had just these four, the full roster in the final version of the game is going to have a total of 12 playable fighters from throughout the Avatar franchise. The majority of the roster has not been confirmed, but playable fighters in the demo included Aang, Zuko, Kitara, and Korra. Other characters already confirmed to be coming to the game soon include Toph, Sokka, and Azula.

The four stages that fights took place on appear to be locations pulled right out of the show, but not just from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Two of them are from Avatar: The Legend of Korra, which are the Spirit Wilds and Republic City. The other two are from Avatar: The Last Airbender, which are the Northern Water Tribe area and the Northern Air Temple (Aang’s original home). There are definitely going to be more locations that fans will recognize from both series, but what I saw already there looked fantastic with the amount of details that one could notice. There may be a lot of easter eggs hidden for die-hard fans who know these locations well.

The best part of everything I was seeing was how it all looked in motion. The animations for each character and their attacks looked smooth and mimicked what both animated series were capable of visually. Whether it was using fire bending or water bending powers, or even Aang’s trademark air bending, special attacks and movements looked incredibly good. It made me curious about how future characters that will be in the game will look with their own unique and powerful attacks.

PlayStation 5 has been the best console for fighting games

Anyone who is passionate about the fighting game genre needs to be playing games on PlayStation 5. It’s been the best console for fighters lately.

Getting the flow of things

Although I played the game briefly, I was able to watch more matches afterward to get a sense of how the game played and how each character’s individual styles of fighting mesh together. And what I found was that Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game has a very strong focus on 2D fighting game fundamentals that most other recent fighters of late have not really spotlighted. Controlling space with attacks and knowing when to pursue and retreat are the core of great fighting games, and Avatar Legends enables players to do so in creative ways. Different bending attacks look flashy and have unique hit boxes that may have surprising reach, as well as ways to set up follow-up attacks and combos.

At the heart of the combat is the Flow System, which allows fighters to move across the screen in different ways. It’s a very interesting approach to universal tools that each character can take advantage of. Using it and seeing it used by others reminded me of some of the Drive attacks from games like Guilty Gear, but with a much bigger emphasis on movement options over attacks. Getting a feel of the Flow System is going to be key for competitive play, as it allows characters to take advantage of opportunities where an opponent is open to counterattacks, even when the distance between them seems great. Things like air dashing, short hops, and evasions are all possible for each character through the Flow System, with the visuals of everything looking unique each time.

Credit: Experimental Gameplay Group

Knowing how things work with the Flow System in matches will take time, which was nowhere near enough in the brief time I played the game. Special moves and combos for characters are going to be different throughout the roster, especially with the variations of support characters that can modify how the Flow System impacts match-ups. There’s a lot more deeper elements to the Flow System that will definitely be explored when the game is finally released, but what’s already there in the short demo I played was already very engaging.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is poised to be the best fighting game of 2026

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls combines anime and western comics into a serious PS5 fighting game contender. Here’s our gameplay impressions!

Bending potential

Attracting more than just Avatar fans

What I liked most about Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is how it’s going to be something that both fans of the show and serious fighting game players will be attracted to. Although the demo version of the game I got to play didn’t have a lot of what will eventually be in the final release, the small amount already there was enough to get everyone’s attention. At the event I played the game, there was a large crowd gathering around the game being showcased on stage, and everyone wanted to play it. Even the most novice fighting game players were interested in Avatar Legends because of how much they love the animated series, which is enough to get them to play a fighting game they otherwise would never engage with.

But competitive players love experiences that have a lot of depth to them. Hardcore fighting game players enjoy going into things like Training Mode and discovering combos and techniques that can give an extra edge in match-ups, especially against others who play with the same characters. And in my short time playing Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, it feels like there’s so much that has yet to be uncovered and utilized in such a way. On its release, the game is going to have a single-player campaign with an original story based on the characters from the show, but it will also have a Training Mode for the competitive crowd to dive into for things like this.

4 of the biggest fighting games to ever be part of the EVO championships

The EVO championships are the biggest fighting game competition ever. Here are 4 of the biggest games to ever be part of the fighting game event.

The nations fighting in harmony

In my short time playing Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, I already like what I see. There’s still a lot of work to be done, with more characters to announce on the roster and other features to reveal before release. But this is going to be something that I keep an eye out for, especially if there is a playable beta online with more characters to try out. The Flow System will take time to understand and master for whoever you pick as your main character, but it looks like it’ll be fun to explore how far this Avatar game will go. While there is no exact release date set, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is planned for a Summer 2026 release.