Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender started airing on the 22nd of February and is yet another attempt at rebooting a live-action adaptation of the popular television series from 2005. In the first few days since its release so far, the show has garnered decently good reviews.
The Netflix adaptation isn’t branded as being perfect but is rated rather high for its action with average ratings for narrative and special effects. Not too long ago, there was a movie adaptation that received highly negative reviews. A video game adaptation from last year, however, made those negative reviews sound far better after getting even more battered in the reviews.
Netflix Adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender Comparable to this 2023 Game
One of the newest series on Netflix this year, a live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender has received highly disappointing ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. In comparison, it’s still rated a lot better when compared to the 2010 movie adaptation had a much worse review leading to the planned sequel being dropped as well.
While the adaptation effort is mostly considered an admirable attempt, the live-action series has received a lot of flak for its shaky special effects that lacked the magnitude that fans have come to know from the original animated series.
Comparing the same aspects of last year’s game from the same universe, Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest For Balance was said to have pretty much the same misses. A review of the game was posted on Reddit a while back and the user had downright called it “pretty disappointing“.
The graphics weren’t highly criticized but also weren’t rated as highly as expected as the user mentioned they “don’t quite match with the character models.” The post also mentioned the unnatural movement of characters in the game adding to stiff combat style that combined to give the game a much worse experience than expected.
Room for Improvement for Both the Series and the Game
One of the major points mentioned in the review for the game on the Reddit post was the amount of content that was skipped in comparison to the original animated series and the older gaming adaptations. The reviews for the live-action series also stated the short, eight-episode long series ended up not capturing “the magic of its predecessors” but was a step in the right direction with lots of room to grow.
Fans commented on the Reddit post listing down several ideas that could have improved the game by a lot. This user, for example, mentioned the sequel could work either way as a brand-new sequel or a prequel. A lot of the other users agreed with the idea of an RPG or a Real-Time Strategy title for a sequel.
Developers Bamtang Games haven’t yet revealed any plans for a sequel to the title and the same goes for the live-action series on Netflix. With improvements and a polished edition for the sequel, there is still hope for long-time Avatar fans to have a much better experience.
What would you like to see in the next The Last Airbender title by Bamtang Games? Let us know in the comments.
