"Far from legendary"

Being based off a cartoon show is certainly going to garner some attention. Fans of the cartoon would love to see some of their favorite characters do battle in a fighting game. Sometimes you make a wish that you regret. This is one of those situations. Fans of the cartoon will probably not find any quality in here that resembles what they enjoyed about the show. There are absolutely no redeeming factors to improve the situation. First, it doesn't do the show justice; it hardly resembles anything that you'd enjoy from the show. Secondly, as a fighting game, Legend of the Dragon has hardly anything of note. In essence, it's a failure from both ends. The developer basically tacked on some controls that are unique to the Wii to a cartoon show in hopes of wooing some of the younger players out there. It might have worked, but for those of us who enjoy games for what it is, we will find Legend of the Dragon to be a complete and utterly miserable experience.

The main characters featured are Ang and Ling. The two are twins and rivals. The game's environment and focus is around China and its martial arts. Even though fighting games aren't known for their epic storylines, a cartoon based fighting game that could have utilized this aspect of a game would have done a great service for the fans. And because the story isn't anything that will contain any twist or turns, fans of the cartoon should find themselves extremely disappointing. The game practically fails on all fronts. The story and character aspects are poorly done, and on top of that, the game play mechanics is shoddy at best.

The developer tried to take advantage of the system's controller by developing its fighting system around the Wiimote and Nunchuk. You use the nunchuk's analog stick for controlling the character's movement. On the nunchuck, you can also use the C and Z buttons to side step your opponents. The Wiimote acts as the central piece to attacking your opponent. Using 2 central buttons on the Wiimote to attack severely limits the combo system – if you can even call it that. The A and B button are used for kicks and punches. By pressing different corresponding directions, it will allow the player to perform different punches and kicks.

The simplicity of the combat system is really just that. Other than a throw and a type of reversal found in this game, it's really as simple and generic as I described above. Combos are rarely performed and even when they are, it's a simple mash of buttons that try to make the game feel complicated, when it's far from that. Another addition to the fighting system is the ability to run and perform an attack. Aside from that, jump attacks are also included. Blocking is usually a key aspect in a lot of fighting games, but I found in Legend of the Dragon that the best course of action is to just perform a fury of attacks as much as possible. This thus negates the ability to block. The computer A.I usually tries to be overly aggressive as well, which makes it easy to counter attack.

The controls for the most part aren't very responsive as well. In many situations, I found it difficult to perform a move that I wanted. But then again, I found myself mashing buttons rather than performing timely combos. The game's lack of a strong combo system and poor enemy A.I is a reflection of why button mashing is the way to be successful in this game. And although there are numerous single player modes, each of them really offer nothing that would significantly differentiate itself and provide incentive to the gamer to play. To make matters worst, each character is a carbon copy of each other. Every character has pretty much a same set of moves. In different fighting series, there are different techniques and combos to perform that differentiate them, but here it is non-existent. With the limited levels and the repetitive game play, the game doesn't provide gamers with any incentive to play this game for too long.

Each character has a guardian transformation mode, which like you would guess by know plays almost exactly as the regular form. After filling up your meter bar to a certain level, the transformation to this mode is possible. In this mode, the normal attacks are still the same, but you get three additional special attacks. These special attacks try to add some flare to the game, but in actuality it just adds more unnecessary filler that loads the game with extra content that is unwarranted. Instead of focusing on what matters the most in the fighting game, the extra filler try to act as a distortion to hide the poor game play.

There are a few levels with some destructible environment. Each level is very poorly designed. In fact, aside from the different setting, it actually feels the same. A lot of the times, you can knock your opponent out of the ring with ease. This in a way nullifies any possibility of having an intense battle. The problem (even at a minimal) – even when you are finally locked in a competitive match, or when you're losing, the high occurrence of knocking people out of the ring nullifies the competitiveness. This works both ways as well. When you are dominating and you get knocked out, it feels like lucky rather than skillful – in this case, it was just poor design.

The real reason I decided to give this game a try was the commercial that I saw. From the looks of it, the cel-shaded graphics were tempting. But after playing through the game, the graphics felt bland. The cel-shaded graphics were deceptive at first, but upon closer look, the details behind the characters were poorly done. Aside from that, the background environment weren't any better. Animation was also poorly done, with a lot of the moves that felt botched.

Misery knows no boundaries

There are few reasons to own Legend of the Dragon. Whether you are a gamer wanting a good fighting game or you are a fan of the cartoon, you won't likely find any satisfaction with Legend of the Dragon. It's poorly designed. The developers seemed like they were going for a quick cash in with a cartoon licensed. The shallow combat system, poor animation, and the high occurrence of knocking people out of the ring, it makes it very difficult to even suggesting a rental for anybody. I decided to Gamefly the game because I thought it looked interesting despite the poor reviews. This is one of those few times; I wished I had listened to reviews. The Wii has a Dragon Ball Z and Mortal Kombat game for fighting fans to try first before diving into this disaster. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/07