In the TV show Xiaolin (pronounced Sh-yow-lynn) Showdown four young kung-fu students come together in order to find magical items called "Shen Gong Wu" and prevent them from falling into the hands of the various bad guys, thereby causing the Earth to fall into 10,000 years of darkness (no pressure). The kids are dispatched by the wise Master Fung and led to the Shen Gong Wu by the comical and perpetual coward, Dojo (a flying magical dragon the grows big and small). The show is a exciting mixture of high-octane martial arts action and witty writing balanced by the classic elements of good vs. evil and uncompromising friendship. The show works on so many different levels as there is a diverse mixture of cultures and ideas and, of course, over-the-top villains who command a seemingly endless array of robots and thugs.

In today's review, players choose from one of the four main characters (Omi, Kimiko, Clay or Raimundo) and run around various levels via fixed 3/4-view camera trying to find the Shen Gong Wu. Along the way, you battle robots or bad guys using a combination of kicks, punches, throws and jumps. When your chi meter fills from successfully blocking and attacking these enemies, you can unleash magical attacks that each character has, having selected a Shen Gong Wu at the beginning of each level. Think of it this way, you are trying to find the lost Shen Gong Wu and in order to help you in your quest, you can bring another Shen Gong Wu from your school with you in order to complete your task.

The Shen Gong Wu are magical weapons and items that, when used, will enable the user to unleash powerful magic. For example, the "Two Ton Tunic" is a super heavy piece of armor that, when used, protects the user from harm via it's magical properties. And the Mantis Flip Coin increases a person's agility with higher leaps and stronger flying attacks. The game kind of allows for some exploration on a minimal scale. As there is an arrow constantly telling you which way to go, you can run off to unseen corners of rooms and find vases, statues and other things to destroy as there are goodies found in many of them, most importantly is the health and blessing tokens. Collecting enough tokens allows you to purchase more attacks and fighting techniques between levels.  And if that's not enough, there are even mystical portals that whisk you away to mini games and other such goodies.

The controls on the game are surprisingly involved. There are kick and punch combos, throws (including picking up objects and throwing them as well), pull one trigger to block, pull the other in unison with a specific button and unleash magic attacks, jump around dodging enemies and traps. Whew! It's a surprisingly involved combination of moves and magic. Nothing overwhelming mind you, but more concentrated then I would have initially guessed. Still, the controls do flow nicely and with minimal amount of practice you will be smacking baddies around and jumping around like a cricket in no time.

The graphics do a good job of evoking the look and feel of the cartoon show, door frames bend oddly, robots look menacing in a goofy way and the colors seen everywhere give an aura of animation other games wish they could produce. The angle of the game doesn't allow you to see as much at one time as I would have liked, but you can mentally piece it all together and it comes together nicely. A little more control with the camera would have improved things, but as it is, it works. Characters, while easily identifiable, could benefit from a little more visual love to make things look a bit better. 

The game's strongest point is its spot-on audio. All the voice actors from the show are included and bring the same spirit and energy to the delivery of the lines as they do in the television show. Oftentimes, it seems to me that the voice actors don't put the same oommmpff into their work when reading for the game, but not in this case. The always-reliable Grey Delisle and cartoon veteran Tara Strong anchor a good cast. The action music is the same as the show as well with a high-tempo eastern-flavored groove going for it. The game sounds great.

The multiplayer options are two faceted; you can play with one game and download mini-games to another's DS like Wind Hockey, Fire Bowling, Boulder Basho or Water Warriors. My favorite is the fire bowling game in which you play against your buddies and see who can get the higher score; there isn't anything really off the wall in it other than you can bowl against monsters, but the setup and control of the game is just pure cheesy fun. And you can play with someone who has a copy as well, but I was unable to test this form of multiplayer because I only have one copy and do not know anybody with a second.

Gameplay: 7.0
It does take a little bit to get used to the controls as you do use several different multi-button combinations, but things become more flowing as you play along.

Graphics: 6.8
The game really pulls its visuals from the TV show, and it looks fairly good. The camera angle could benefit from a little control from the player, whether it's being allowed to spin it or zoom in and pull out. Either way, it is lacking something. I wish the developers could have made the characters look a bit more solid; and while I said above the baddies look menacing in a goofy way, they too could have used some stronger-looking definition to help enhance their appearance.

Sound: 7.8
The game's defining feature is it's strong voice acting and cool eastern music.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
There is a moderate amount of challenge in this title; a couple of areas may cause some frustration but only for a minute or two.

Concept: 6.8
It's a fairly tried-and-true formula with the fight/explore/fight premise. I like the show, and the characters are interesting enough.

Multiplayer: 6.5
I couldn't try the multicard play, but the download option allows players to play against one another in four different mini-style games.

Overall: 7.0
The game has its flaws, but admittedly I did have some fun playing this title. The developers should be happy that they made a game from a fairly popular cartoon network show that didn't fall all over itself.