Nickelodeon's Disappointing Avatar Video Games - The Golden Bolt

I just want one good one without an asterisk. Just one. Shoutout to editor Chris MykonosFan for apparently having a deep memory for iCarly YT poops. I'd shout his channel out but I have more financial incentive to shout out our podcast youtube.com/@CrubOfficial instead. So take that. And a special thanks to to my buddy Jon from youtube.com/@GVG for having a good name and definitely being Australian.

Let me tell you a story about the first GBA game from Halfbrick. The project was of course under a tight schedule and budget, and the team was working hard to get it done. The game was tested throughout development. The boss level with the drill machine in its original incarnation made a 10 year old tester cry with its difficulty. The designer was directed to write the child an apology and make the level easier. Source: I worked at Halfbrick and am good friends with that designer

1:02:50 Korra episodes were being worked on up to the day they aired? Wow, it really is anime

Anyone else want to see a Lego Avatar game? I don't know how possible that is, but there have been Lego sets made of the Avatar show (to be fair, Avatar is one of if not THE smallest Lego licensed theme ever), and given how many Avatar games seem to be trying to be Lego games, it feels like a good fit.

Avatar as a franchise deserves so much better than the games it has gotten up to this point. I'm still holding out hope given Viacom still being willing to hand out the license even today, but it just feels so unlikely there will ever be a truly great Avatar game.

That John Cartwright is so humble even though he made a zelda clone at the age of 6 while never setting foot in the studio's home country, inspirational beyond comprehension 😂

Get that bag, but I'm not one for the sponsor. Gambling can be a touchy subject. Comfy video otherwise, though.

To be fair to the Kyoshi story you talk about near the end, that is exactly how the novels start. Kyoshi is an orphan taken in by the people responsible for the Avatar, who is presumed to be Yun because of the cultural Avatar tests (which failed, woo). Yun and Kyoshi are good friends despite the circumstances, so the first act actually has some personal stakes for when Yun is discovered to not be the Avatar, since he will be summarily discarded and Kyoshi will likely never see him again.

@1:19:06 Okay. I have to jump in here as someone who has read both the Kyoshi novels. Those books kick serious ass. But it sounds like the Gatcha game doesn’t even get beyond the set up chapters because once Kyoshi discovers she’s the Avatar and goes over her revenge mission, I was hooked. I don’t want to spoil for people how cool parts of it are. It really needs a good adaptation.

Finally some appreciation for the Platinum Korra game. That always got such an unfair treatment, as if a budget priced cartoon tie-in game was ever meant to be a follow-up to Bayonetta in the first place. But for what it is, it's a solid fun game that delivers on making elemental combat feel great. Had no idea about that first GBA game. I might actually try that one out some time.

It's really funny seeing Nick intentionally trying to sabotage Korra, and getting progressively more pissed it was succeding regardless despite them trying to set it up to fail lmao.

There is something unintentionally perfect about the game incentivizing you to endlessly beat up the cabbage merchant's cart.

De-listed games like the Legend of Korra 2014 game are cases where I think flying the Black Flag is completely justified since for those cases, it's impossible to buy the game anymore

I legit think of Guru Pathik at least once a month. He's very memorable for being a one-off character (two-off if you count him showing up in Aang's anxiety dream near the end of the show)

You know, the cabbage sales man VA being the villian would work if the game was set in Korra's era and thus the fine details were specifically wonky because, twist among twists, it's actually a play or Mover or something. That's something you could work with, I feel.

I bought the Platinum Legend of Korra game on steam when it was 15 bucks, and I was super impressed at the time how good it was. I think I had just finished playing Wonderful 101 on Wii U at the time, and I was happy to see Platinum's general gameplay design made it way into such a budget game. I remember buying it for a few friends after that, and they all hated it, and refused to see it as more than just a budget cash grab. I remember after I finished the game I went back and beat every difficulty of the pro bending minigame, I honestly wish we just got a full fledged competitive pro bending game with online multiplayer.

I think the best route for an Avatar game is to either feature a new Avatar (or other character) or use one that we don't know much about. That way, they don't run into the issue of trying to awkwardly adapt seasons of television episodes and they can pace you learning the elements to whatever works best for the game.

About the Kyoshi novels, what you describes from Avatar Generations, is basically, how she starts out, basically the traditional way to find an earth Avatar fails, and as such, the friends of the late Avatar Kuruk, who had died young, try some despaired techniques and misidentify the avatar as a boy named Yun, meanwhile one of them adopts Kyoshi, a homeless girl, which leads to this situation. To note here is, this is only the status quo for the first few chapters, once it becomes apparent, that Kyoshi is the real avatar, she basically goes rogue and starts becoming the badass, we know. Btw, “the Rise of Kyoshi“ is probably the best to come from the avatar universe since at the very least TLOK Book 3, if not ATLA. Really a recommended read for any fan of the shows.

Man, this series always felt like it could have made for such great video games. Unfortunately, Avatar never really got the chance to be the broader franchise it could have been, really just being two TV series with some tie-in media. Also the Wii version of the first game (which I played as a kid) does fix the issue of not indicating which direction switches to each character. It's very subtle and easily missed, but they do fix that issue.

Shame about the Korra 3DS game. I feel like a Fire Emblem clone is actually a pretty fitting idea for the Avatar universe.