Kung Fu Panda 2

Platform: Wii, Also on 3DS, PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: Action, Adventure
Developer: THQ
Publisher: THQ

Last year, THQ released the uDraw tablet, a Wii-specific peripheral that would allow for precise drawing and other types of gameplay not possible with the Wii remote. Since then it seems like THQ has been trying to force games to use the peripheral, rather than design interesting games with the peripheral as the showcase. This is the case with Kung Fu Panda 2.

Kung Fu Panda 2's story is set after that of the film. Po and the rest of the Furious Five find themselves troubled by wolves, gorillas, and komodo dragons. With the help of the Kung Fu masters, Po has to uncover the plot behind this siege and put a stop to it. The story is just OK, but it does fit nicely into the larger Kung Fu Panda universe, with the characters behaving true to their big screen counterparts.

The gameplay in Kung Fu Panda 2 is pretty standard for a third-person action game. Playing as Po, you have a light and strong attack, as well as three special attacks that you learn as you progress through the game. In addition you can toss enemies into the air and slam your own butt into the ground to knock them off their feet. There are also dodging and countering elements, and you can summon one of the Furious Five to deliver a quick below once a meter is filled.

There's nothing wrong with this gameplay in theory, but it's ruined by a crazy control scheme. You essentially have to play without a controller. You move by tracing around the tablet and attack by quickly swiping the pen in different directions. It's hard for me to believe that a control scheme like this still makes its way to release when countless DS games have already tried and failed at it. A stylus is simply inferior to buttons when it comes to action gameplay. It was madly frustrating trying to turn Po in the right direction to grab ahold of something or plan out attacks. I quickly learned that the best way to handle combat was to madly swipe the pen in any direction rather than try to apply any sort of strategy.

The most baffling thing to me though, is why the entire game had to use the uDraw. There are coloring pages and a mini-game included that make sense for the tablet. Why not just use the peripheral for those two elements and use a traditional button-based control scheme for the action parts?

Story mode aside, the other elements are pretty weak as well. There are plenty of drawings you can color, and these drawings pop up around the environments in the story, which is pretty cool, but the other mini-game is not. It's basically a pet simulation where you have the chance to play with a baby Po and customize his environment. There's not much meat to it, and it feels like something that was tossed in as an afterthought.

Source: IGN