From here on out, it becomes a slow-motion battle that does not only look poor, but also plays horribly. The frame rate tends to drop exponentially the moment you are battling in an arena with more than two characters present. While the characters all look reasonably ok, their fairly choppy movement becomes clear when you start playing matches. The graphics and the consequences of the poor optimization might be the main thing that pulls this game down to the ground, and at times to its early grave. Nonetheless, if you wish to learn a bit more about the characters, you can find some solace in reading the bios of all the different characters. While a fighting game such as this one always treats its plot very lightly, it would have been nice if there was more than a minute of footage. If you were hoping for a fun conclusion at the end of the tournament, you’ll be sorely disappointed, as there is simply nothing else that could be considered story material. Other than a very short and cute introduction scene, that’s all the story value you’ll get when booting up the tournament mode. Of course Po hopes he will gain the title. This means that the story is pretty much about Po whining to get his tournament, to see who should be named the legendary kung fu master. More than 100 years ago there was an eerie unrest in the Valley of Peace (actually it was just last week), where the forces of evil battled those of good (nope, Po was just nagging), and a showdown of legendary legends was bound to happen (yup, right now, as master Shifu approved Po’s idea of a silly tournament). We weren’t that convinced that everybody loves kung fu fighting.
Whilst the console counterpart of Showdown of Legendary Legends looks like a fun ‘match’, this handheld port feels like it should compete outside the ring, rather than inside.
This title will not revolve around any spectacular story or something that could live up to the otherwise witty name, but the game ends up being a fairly cheap copy of Nintendo’s Smash Bros series.
KUNG FU PANDA XBOX 360 HOW TO GET INTO TOURNAMENT MOVIE
With a third movie of the loveable chubby panda Po planned for 2016, it was to be expected that the Kung Fu Panda name would appear on consoles and handhelds once more, sooner or later.