Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends Review (PlayStation 4)

good
key review info
  • Game: Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends
  • Platform: Playstation 4
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Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends battle

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends can be a chaotic experience, the kind of video game that can overwhelm the human mind and brain, with the action on the screen devolving into a set of funny yet violent interactions between only vaguely recognizable characters.

The inspiration for the game is Super Smash Bros. and the shift of those core mechanics to the world of Bo and his companions is largely successful, with relatively quick-to-understand powers for each character and moments when the chaos of a four-way battle can be seen as a violent yet graceful dance.

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends might be lacking when it comes to originality, but it compensates by staying relatively close to the successful series of movies from Dreamworks, finding solid ways to give each of the featured fighters attacks and special powers that feel fun and adequate for their personalities.

The game is created by Vicious Cycle and published by Little Orbit and can be played on the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft, the Nintendo made Wii U, the PC, older home consoles and the 3DS handheld.

Story

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends is not a story-driven game and has no connection with the most recent movie in the series, but it still features solid amounts of lore for those who simply need to have a clear backstory for all the animated anthropomorphized animals that are trying to beat each other senseless.

There are 20 characters in the core release, covering everyone from Po, the mentors he learns from, the Furious Five, and the various villains they have to battle to restore order and more, with downloadable content packs opening up access to even more.

The game features 12 stages to do battle in, all of them based on locations from the movies and filled with interesting and small details that will appeal to fans.

Unfortunately, the story setup is just a short sequence that features some very typical daydreaming from Po and a quick return to the reality that a major martial arts tournaments is taking place, with limited space for the motivations or attitudes of the other characters.

The single-player experience, which sees players battle CPU-controlled characters over ten rounds with very different win conditions, has some interesting and innovative ideas, and it’s always a pleasure to take part in the four-player match-ups, which are both frantic and often unpredictable.

The most frustrating thing is that there’s no ending screen that offers details about the fates of the various combatants when the Tournament mode is completed, a shame given the extensive lore potential of the Kung Fu Panda universe.

Gameplay

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends is a brawler that uses the template established by Super Smash Bros., giving gamers a range of attacks and abilities that they can then mix and match based on their strategy and the way their opponents approach the engagement.

Gamers can use a standard and a special strike, which can be used on their own or as combos or combined with stick directions, and there's also a button for grapple, a defensive stance that absorbs enemy strikes, and two evasive maneuvers.

Players do not need to destroy opponents by taking their health down to zero and instead focus on lowering their defenses to make them more vulnerable to being defeated by getting thrown out of the stage or into the sky.

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends also features assist characters, who can deal damage when deployed during a level, weapons that can add some punch at range and other items that can be used to limit enemy power.

Battles can feature two to four characters, and the stages themselves have a lot of personality and even hazards that need to be taken into account by the player who aims for victory.

It's relatively easy to win a battle or two by simply moving round and mashing buttons, but the game rewards players who have a clear understanding of the abilities of their chosen characters and then know exactly when to pummel him with attacks and when to switch to grappling in order to get him out of bounds.

The four-way battles are the most interesting moments of the Kung Fu Panda game, even if it is too easy to forgo any semblance of strategy in the middle of the developing chaos, but computer-controlled enemies have a tendency to create little coalitions against the human that sometimes feel unfair.

The various top-level Awesome Powers for some characters also fail to have as big an impact as their name would imply.

Graphics and audio

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends is a solid-looking game that manages to use the style of the movies it is based on for both locations and characters, making it easy for any fans to become acquainted with the fighters and the structure of the environments.

For a tie-in, the quality is solid, but there's nothing impressive in the design of the various locations or the look of the characters, with the development team preferring to play it safe and to simply try to stay as close as possible to the source material.

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends Awesome power
Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends Awesome power

Some of the animations can be a little clunky, but the biggest problem with the presentation of Showdown of Legendary Legends is the fact that character status during combat is hard to read, which can be a problem in the middle of a heated battle.

The sound design of the Kung Fu Panda movie is less impressive, mainly because the characters only have a limited stock of catchphrases (Jack Black is not voicing PO directly) that quickly become annoying and because the combat effects and music cues are not at all interesting or surprising.

Multiplayer

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends is relatively fun against computer-controlled opponents, but the game, like many others in the same genre, really shines when other humans are involved.

The best way to experience the brawler is by getting four friends to sit in front of the television, each using the character from the movies they like best, and allowing them to express their feelings towards each other using punches, dodges, and special attacks.

The game can be imbalanced, and there are moments when three-against-one situations feel unfair enough to convince a player to quit, but it's still fun to use these animated martial arts masters to decide who's the best virtual fighter of the bunch.

Kung Fu Panda also features online action, for those who are unable to find players to join them on the couch, but something is lost when the gamer is unable to interact with opponents, watch their faces or trash talk if the situation requires it.


The Good

  • Solid brawler mechanics
  • Characters and stages based on the movies

The Bad

  • Limited battle variety
  • No storyline to speak of

Conclusion

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends is a good brawler, but it's a shame that the development team at Vicious Cycle has only sought to draw inspiration from the leader in the genre and failed to introduce any truly innovative feature.

Playing with friends that sit close on the couch, trying out new moves and laughing at the absurdity of some of the assists or simply going through the characters to see their unique moves can be a lot of fun.

The biggest problem for the Kung Fu Panda title is that it does not have any long-term gameplay hooks for those who are not already massive fans of the movies and never offers even a bit of new narrative to keep them engaged.

Po and the rest of the cast might be interesting initially, but those who love the genre in itself probably already have access to a Wii U and Super Smash Bros, with its larger cast and more polished core mechanics.

story 5
gameplay 7
concept 8
graphics 8
audio 7
multiplayer 8
final rating 7.5
Editor's review
good
 

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends Images (20 Images)

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends battleKung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends narrativeKung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends stageKung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends specialKung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends combat moves
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