There have been plenty of video game adaptations of multimedia franchise Avatar: The Last Airbender, but Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is the first to show any genuine promise.

Designed by Mike Zaimont of Skullgirls fame, this is a hand animated Street Fighter-esque one-on-one fighter with a more technical gameplay loop than you may be expecting.

Tutorials are weak so I had to spend a lot of time figuring out the basics, but effectively each of the title’s 12 included characters come with “Flow” abilities which determine how they play.

Some, like Katara, can zip around the stage on ice – closing distances and evading attacks at will. Others, like series protagonist Aang, can soar around the screen.

This all works in tandem with traditional fighting game combos, and it makes for a quite complex set of systems with a ton of potential.

You’ll be able to explore some of that in the character trials, where the game uses a DDR-style minigame to help you to get to grips with all of the different button inputs.

The game is quite innovative in this regard, but it feels half-baked – while it wants to show you the potential of each of the characters, it doesn’t really teach you the basics.

Also, there are no difficulty tiers at all.

This can make getting through the single player campaign – a canon visual novel interspersed with combat sequences – a drag during difficulty spikes. I also had some trouble with the traditional arcade mode at times, too.

Online also lacks a ranked mode, meaning you’re pretty much at the mercy of matchmaking and are likely to get pummeled by some you play against. The netcode seems fine to me, but I’m not sure I really have the wherewithal to really master the mechanics here.

I do think the game looks and feels great, though: the animations are outstanding, and even the backgrounds are beautifully brought to life with lots of little details.

Paramount Games is selling this game for less than you’d probably expect ($29.99/£24.99), and so it’s easier to forgive some of its barebones aspects. The dev has also promised ongoing support and improvements.

But unless you’re really committed to mastering all of the mechanics here, it feels difficult to fully recommend in its current state – not because it’s a bad game, but it just lacks the polish and features you’d expect from a more fleshed out product.

First and foremost, I’d like to see difficulty modes added to the single player and a ranked mode added to online.

Then we can start to talk about some better tutorials and quality of life improvements. Until then, this feels like one intended for the most hardcore of fans for now.