Gamertell Review: Kung Fu Panda for DS

Title: Kung Fu Panda
Price: $29.99
System(s): DS (Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Activision (Vicarious Visions)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for cartoon violence
Pros: Utilizes the touchscreen extremely well and maintains a fair amount of humor. Nice looking environments and smooth panda moves.
Cons: Moments of boring backtracking, overly difficult bosses (for the target audience), redundant opponents and claustrophobic rooms.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one down; 79/100; C+; * * 1/2 out of five.

Although Chinese kung fu is not necessarily related to the idea of yin and yang, both play a huge part in Kung Fu Panda for the DS.

On the sunny yang side, when the game is good, it’s surprisingly good, taking excellent advantage of the DS’s touchscreen. On the darker yin side, when the game is bad, it’s really bad and becomes unplayable especially for the young, teen audience the game is aiming for.

The Way of the Paw

The game loosely follows the film, featuring Po the Panda as a martial arts student learning carious techniques from his master, Shifu. As Po learns each skill – symbolized by shiny scrolls – he is then able to perform a new move, momentarily morphing him into one of the legendary masters: Monkey, Tigress, Viper, Mantis and Crane.

The single-player game feature 13 levels, and is essentially an action platformer. The map consists of several rooms with a marked path to adjoining rooms, some of which can only be reached with a specific move, while most are simple walk-through doorways. There are some min puzzles that often require moving an urn to a switch or simply defeating every pesky opponent in an area to unlock a door or slide a trap door open.

At the end of each major level is a boss battle which is significantly more difficult than the average, redundant regenerating opponents, due to the high number of hits required to win.

The game can be completely played using the touchscreen by dragging the stylus to move, jump and perform each move. Special moves are usually simple variations of basic movies with a slightly longer pause at the end of a stroke for an additional power boost.

Touching Is Good. Repetition, Not So Much

The game starts super weak, with a simple run-to-the-other-end-of-the-map quest. Once you get to the end of that crap, the touchscreen control scheme kicks in for first usable kung fu moves and the game’s fun quickly starts to shine through.

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