Though Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game launches on Thursday, July 23, across all current-gen platforms, reviews from several media outlets have trended in a slightly positive direction for the upcoming title. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game includes a dozen characters from Nickelodeon’s Avatar franchise for players to pick from at launch.
The last full week of July is a busy time for fans of the Avatar series. Along with the launch of Avatar Legends, an animated movie called Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender will be released on Saturday, July 25, exclusively on Paramount+. Although the film was originally slated to arrive on October 9, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was leaked on social media. In short, Avatar Aang is set between the events of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. However, it is currently unclear if Paramount Skydance moved the movie’s debut date up in response to the leak.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is Easy to Pick Up
The review embargo for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game was lifted just one day ahead of the game’s global launch. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game scores on Metacritic have been mostly positive so far based on nine reviews as of this writing. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game has a “Generally Favorable” Metacritic score of 81, with a Strong overall score of 82 and a 64% critic recommendation rating on OpenCritic. The highest reviews so far for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game have come from outlets such as SteamDeckHQ and GamingBolt, who praised the game’s accessibility options, beginner-friendly tutorials, and hand-drawn visual style.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
SteamDeckHQ (Onat Esendağ) – Score: 10/10
Avatar Legends is a masterpiece. It takes everything that makes fighting games special and executes it at an incredibly high level, while remaining welcoming to newcomers through its outstanding tutorials and accessibility options. Combined with its breathtaking 100% hand-drawn visuals that perfectly capture the spirit of the animated series, it stands as one of the most impressive and memorable fighting games I’ve ever played.
GamingBolt (Stuart Glover) – Score: 9/10
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game overcomes its initial intimidation to reveal a fighter that’s expressive, exhilarating, and that genuinely rewards improvement.
IGN (Mitchell Saltzman) – Score: 8/10
The potential of Avatar Legends is immense. This is a gorgeous 2D fighting game that excels as both a throwback to the bygone era of sprite-based fighters and a faithful adaptation of the beloved cartoons it’s based on. It’s got some of the most satisfying movement of any 2D fighter I’ve played, combos routes that are challenging but immensely rewarding to learn, a 12 character roster that feels way bigger than it actually is thanks to the clever support system, and flexible combat that allows for a ton of creative expression. The lackluster story mode and complete absence of some basic options like difficulty settings for the CPU certainly make Avatar Legends hard to recommend to casual Avatar fans, but for fighting game fans looking for something with “the sauce,” Avatar Legends is about as saucy as it gets.
TheGamer (George Foster) – Score: 9/10
For a long time, Avatar has felt like a poisoned chalice when it comes to video games, but Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game proves that it’s been a perfect fit all along. Even with it being on the smaller side, the fantastic and very Avatar combat mechanics, gorgeous style, and love for the series make it a fighter that’s going to be very hard to top.
TechRaptor (Austin Suther) – Score: 8/10
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is not just a good, well, fighting game, it’s the best Avatar game to be released. With options for newcomers to acclimate themselves and plenty of depth for experienced players, the only significant downside is the underwhelming story mode.
However, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game also received mixed responses from other reviews. Final Weapon stated in its review that, while longtime fans of the Avatar TV show may be disappointed in what the game has to offer, it could turn some portions of the fighting game community (FGC) into fans of the Avatar franchise. A similar point was made in Hardcore Gamer’s review, which stated that Gameplay Group International succeeded in making each character feel unique in their play styles. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game will be available to play starting Thursday, July 23, at approximately 10:00 AM Eastern. The standard edition is priced at $30, while the digital deluxe edition will set players back $50.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game will include several features for players to pick from upon starting up the game. These include a Training Mode to give players a way to practice playing as their favorite fighters, an art gallery that includes never-before-seen pieces of concept art from the Avatar TV series, and game modes such as Arcade Mode, Story Mode, and Online Play. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game will include rollback netcode and crossplay across each supported platform to ensure smooth gameplay during online matches.
While it remains to be seen how well Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game will fare at launch. Gameplay Group International has already pledged support for the upcoming fighting game. Avatar Legends will launch additional DLC fighters throughout 2026 and 2027, which include Iroh, Tylee, Lin Beifong, Bolin, and the winner of a character vote between Kuvira, Tenzin, Amon, King Bumi, and Asami Sato.
- Released
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July 23, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
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Gameplay Group International
