Avatar: The Last Airbender has a new fighting game releasing just in time for the film sequel on Paramount+. Featuring characters from both Aang and Korra’s stories, you can choose up to twelve characters at launch, with more available via downloadable content. The game features an original story that brings the main canon and different Avatar eras together in an alternate universe altered by a rift.

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is a 2026 fighting game developed by Maxium Games (formerly), Gameplay Group International (finished ), and published by Paramount Games. It is available on PC, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and Xbox Series X|S.

Editor’s Note: A Playstation 5 review copy was provided by Paramount Games in support of this review. Minor spoilers for the game’s story and overall Avatar mythos may be present.

Two worlds collide in Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has been struggling in the world of video games. Every time one gets announced to raise fans’ hopes, it quickly gets shut down after being revealed as another shovelware title with not even remotely close to the budget a video game adaptation deserves. Paramount Games has been looking to fix that not just with Avatar, but with a number of their products suffering from the same issue. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is a first in what looks to be a long step in proper video game adaptations of the franchise.

Characters from the movie are in the game.

THE GOOD: The story begins with Aang being sent to an alternate universe that has combined different eras of time into one world. Seemingly the only one to awaken in the universe with his memories intact, he traverses it looking for his friends to figure out what happened. He soon finds Kyoshi, Katara, and Toph, who have all either had their memories wiped or their personalities shifted. Multiple figures from past and present find their way into coexisting within the same realm. After interacting with them, Aang helps trigger their memories back to where they were in their original timelines. He and the group encounter Zarheer, whose personality has been shifted, desiring to be a pro bender.

After battling back and forth, Zaheer helps the Avatar discover that Vaatu has returned, now fused with a time-traveling spirit and possessing the Cabbage Man. He tricked and altered the memories of the others, pitting them against one another to change history. When their memories return, Aang and Korra, who later becomes possessed by Vaatu, battle to save the timeline and return everyone to their original era.

Many characters have unique abilities and styles that go beyond element bending.

Avatar Legends is the new media branch for the Avatar franchise, expanding the series into different media such as novels, films, and now more proper video game adaptations. If you haven’t been following the tie-in media side of things for Avatar, I wouldn’t be shocked if you had no idea the series was dry of decently budgeted games. It got so bad that there was a fan-made game being developed on the Dreams engine. Most of the games within the last decade or so have ultimately been limited to thinly budgeted shovelware with just as much effort put into the final product. Since a bit of a resurgence in popularity after The Last Airbender & Legend of Korra hit streaming, Paramount has vowed to take that renewed interest seriously, including with video games. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is the first experiment to look into viable options for what a video game adaptation of Avatar can be, and it’s a good springboard.

At the start, the game features twelve characters from the original series and Korra, as well as an evil version of Korra in the Avatar State and Aang in the Avatar State, which are unlocked later. Additionally, the roster will grow with DLC featuring more characters from the shows and the new movie. As of this writing, only a year one season pass has been announced, focused on The Legend of Korra, including a fan vote character.  I’m hoping Paramount Games gives the title a little bit of dedication until the next video game in the franchise is revealed. Mainly due to this being a fighting game that will live or die by its roster diversity more than anything else.

The story is fine, mainly just a fan service what-if story that you can complete in a few hours. Core gameplay is where Avatar Legends shines. As a fan of the franchise, I really appreciated how dedicated the team was to making the characters feel unmistakable from their series counterparts with their movesets. Aang and Korra can activate the Avatar State, Azula can use lightning bending, and Zuko can reverse it; he can also unlock his Blue Spirit persona mid-battle. Everyone has their own unique style of play, with an avoidance of clone fighters or movesets being too similar. There’s also a support system giving even further character-specific unique abilities.

The animation and art for the game were hand-drawn to match that of the series.

THE BAD: Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game at its worst is a bit barren on the content side. While entertaining, the campaign isn’t extensive enough to ignore the drought of content. You can complete it to the point of even buying every support character in about three or four hours. Otherwise, there’s the obvious multiplayer mode to play with friends and randoms, and the Arcade mode.

The roster will be expanded with DLC.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is an excellent budget fighter that’s mostly held back by a lack of content. With Paramount having intentions to continue the franchise with more media, properly invested video games will only help improve the up-and-down morale of the fans. The efforts in presenting it in a similar art direction to the original series and The Legend of Korra, as well as some planned DLC for additional fighters, will give it some much-needed longevity until the developers decide on how to keep it around with future updates. But as it stands, this is a good test run for a future, much more serious look into bigger-budgeted Avatar games being realistically viable.