The Nicktoons are coming, the Nicktoons are coming! This fall the Nickelodeon-licensed games are everywhere, with new releases starring your favorite characters – including a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea.

Avatar: The Last Airbender proved to be a hit when it was released last fall, leading to the inevitable: a multi-platform sequel. Titled The Burning Earth, this game sticks to the isometric view of last year's release. The rest is predictable: similar combat style, additional story elements, and new attack and item retrieval missions.

The Avatar Still Burns

Those who are up-to-date with the television series will be glad to learn that the game begins at the start of Season 2. Aang, Toph, Katara, and Sokka are the main characters, and each comes with a differentiating set of Bending (special) moves that are performed in the exact same way. As such, The Burning Earth is familiar in this regard. The combat hasn't changed much, with consecutive weapon strikes and strong, single-hit attacks leading the pack.

Aang brings his air blast (ground and aerial), tornado, and blowback moves to the game. Bending moves are executed with the X button, press and hold the A button to defend, and tap the Y button for a regular attack. The Y button is also used to examine certain objects and communicate with others, which you'll be a doing a lot of in between missions.

Katara's moves are a bit more varied: water, freeze, heal, and ice spikes. Heal is integral to your success, almost so much that you should choose to play as her exclusively whenever possible. When comrades are down, the heal move can bring them back to the game. But if she's the one who's down, you'll have to find another solution.

Toph has a well-rounded move set of rock launch, rock armor, ridge wave, and pillar of earth. These moves incorporate his world manipulation powers, pushing and pulling rocks to damage enemies. Sokka is a little more traditional, opting for things like hot poppers and a boomerang to injure foes. Stink bombs and a swift machete are used for further enemy annihilation.

The touch screen has three primary uses: character selection, Bending move selection, and item dispersion. As you can imagine, the first two are as easy as tapping the screen; the latter works by dragging and dropping items onto your allies. It’s a very quick process, and since the developers have dedicated a high level of responsiveness to the touch screen, you won’t have to hit the screen more than once for any action.

I also like that I don’t have to take my hands off the face buttons in a dangerous situation. Playable characters may be switched at any time that more than one is available. But it’s not something you have to worry about while in the middle of a combo, or executing a special move. And items are only accessible while the game is paused, preventing the agonizing trauma that comes after being hit while trying to heal yourself (as experienced in other games). That won’t happen in Avatar.

Role Playing. Role Something.

The Burning Earth gets many things right. However, it doesn’t quite nail the action gameplay aspect. It could be labeled an RPG, but without a great story and cinematic presentation to keep players engaged in the dialogue, the game’s quality drops 50%. Avatar (the series) has a good story – better than most modern cartoons.

But while voice-overs could be used in console versions, where multi-gigabyte discs are available, they do not appear in this DS sequel. Thus, you’re forced to read through several text boxes before any mission can begin. At the same time you have to worry about confusing camera angles, and wonder if the last character you spoke to was the only character you need to see before leaving. Great games like Zelda and Final Fantasy could be criticized for doing this. But Final Fantasy rewards the player with original storytelling every time, not rehashed plots from the show, and Zelda provides clear explanations and straightforward (but not linear) level designs.

On the camera side, The Burning Earth’s angles are disappointingly stiff. The tall, polygon-filled building look great and are certainly a step above the average DS action game (or the average DS RPG for that matter), they are also a hindrance to player success. The camera moves automatically with the player, leading to some confusion when the path you're supposed to take is not clear. You won’t be able to see certain locations because the camera perspective makes it appear that you can’t go any further.

Avatar: The Burning Earth isn’t a total burnout, but it’s far from the earth-shattering masterpiece it could have been. Before it can achieve true greatness, the game needs to decide if it wants to be a straight action game or an RPG. Unless the story presentation improves, it can’t be both.

Gameplay: 6.6
An action/RPG that isn’t action-packed and lacks great role-playing elements, Avatar: The Burning Earth is a bit stagnant. It achieves all that last year’s game did and not much else.

Graphics: 6.0
Avatar’s cel-shaded, semi-3D visuals return for another game. However, this time the camera perspectives are a bit more confusing.

Sound: 6.5
Bare bones sound. There isn’t much space on a DS game card to use for voice-overs, but while the music is good, the sound effects are seriously lacking.

Difficulty: Easy
The Burning Earth’s combat can be reduced to little more than repeated button taps.

Concept: 6.9
There isn’t much variety from the gameplay, or much originality. The game is a fair update to The Last Airbender but doesn’t enter a new direction, nor does it add enough spectacular elements to keep the game above “more of the same” status.

Overall: 6.6
If you enjoyed Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Burning Earth is likely to provide the kind of entertainment you’ve been seeking. But don’t buy this game on license alone. While many Nicktoons games have been successful in their genre of choice, The Burning Earth is stuck between action and RPG purgatory.