Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends

If you love Jack Black, Kung Fu and Pandas then you are going to love Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends by Vicious Cycle Software. A game designed from a movie series is always a tough one. It’s something we’ve seen over and over again throughout time and more often than not, they often fall short of capturing the magic from whatever movie they are from. This, however, is a pleasant surprise as its actually a pretty good game; lets jump into it.

Gameplay

It’s a Super Smash Bros. clone, I’ll be straight up and honest with you about it. Now, just because it is a clone, this does not mean it is bad. The gameplay is surprisingly well designed and I had little to no trouble at all getting a hang of it. The primary objective of the game is to fight with other people, this can be from 2 to 4 players in total and it’s a simple case of ‘the last one standing wins.’ Knock your opponents out of the ring by utilising complex combos and well-timed attacks. You can pick any character from the roster of characters that were in the film and battle it out.

The most important thing for games like this is the controls and the controls in this game are brilliant. Everything is tight and handles well and it all moves together seamlessly. I was very impressed with this title. Learning all the combos can be a little tough but with practice you’ll get there. Another interesting detail is that everyone has a unique ultimate ability which really helped flavour the game.

There is barely any story to this game as it’s a simple concept of winning fight after fight. Keeps it simple and doesn’t stretch itself to try and be something its not.

Art Style

The art style of this game was yet another surprise as it all looks quite good. The maps are well designed and fit the themes perfectly as they are like snapshots of the movies. The character models are brilliantly designed and look very close to how they do in the films which is a surprising improvement from what I expected going in.

Multiplayer

The sweet spot, the most important part of games like this is its multiplayer. How well does it function and do all the moving parts compliment each other properly; in this case, they do. For the hundredth time, I was surprised again at this game and how well it puts itself together. Overcoming what was clearly a small budget to make a beat ‘em up game that was as serviceable as the more well knowns like Brawhalla or Slap City.

Pros:

• Great controls
• Looks good
• Brilliant stage design

Cons:

• Could have done with a more dedicated story mode