Players of Kung Fu Panda are looking to become the Dragon Warrior and vanquish Po’s immortal foe, Tai Lung, and have to do so through becoming familiar with Po’s style, along with different moves from Crane, Mantis, Monkey, Tigress, and Viper.
The multiplayer options on this game are perhaps the strongest feature; up to four players can either enter into a game as allies, defeating horde after horde of baddies, or as enemies, beating the stuffing out of each other. In either single or multiplayer mode, pklayers will be placed in a number of environments that individuals will remember from the film, be it the Wudang Mountains, the Training Dojo, or even the Jade Palace itself. The graphics do a double duty in the sense that they perfectly capture the cartoony nature of the film, as well as being at a level that players expect from the Xbox 360. The game play itself is solid, allowing individuals to creae a nice string of attacks even if they have not been acculturated to fighting types of games in the past; individuals even as young as single digits should be able to unleash the “Panda Quakeâ€, which is a devastating splash that will make short work of anyone on the other side of it.
The only thing that I could think would be any better about the Xbox 360 version of Kung Fu Panda would the creation of a live, multiplayer version of the game. While the game as it exists now allows up to four players in a battle, the inclusion of live functionality would push the game into the “9†range. Where a number of games that have been developed off of a film have been utter drek (one need only thing back to either Kazaam or Street Fighter: The Movie), Activision has made a game that individuals will actually want to play regardless of whether that have seen or even like Kung Fu Panda in the first place. With the game appealing to individuals of all ages, interest levels, and experiences, Kung Fu Panda is the action game of the summer. In a period where most fighting in games is limited to rapidly aging franchises like Super Smash Brothers, Kung Fu Panda is a breath of fresh air and a new party game all in one. Make sure to pick up a copy of this, for whichever console (consoles) one has.
Rating: 9.0/10
Kung Fu Panda (Xbox 360) / 2008 Activision / http://www.activision.com / http://www.kungfupandagame.com /