Review: Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends

An alright Smash Brothers clone, but where’s the beef?

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Year: 2015

Played on: PS4

Also on: PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, WiiU, Windows, 3DS

Developer: Vicious Cycle Software

Publisher: Little Orbit

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Panda Express

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Date posted: November 7, 2017

PREMISE

See, I told you I would do reviews again!

Oh look, another Smash Brothers clone. This time, it comes with a Kung Fu Panda skin. I would ask who this was made for, but I know exactly who its made for- kids who like the movies or tv show.

If you don’t know the plot of Kung Fu Panda, it simple, actually. Long ago in a distant land, Po, the shapeshifting panda of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a foolish samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose Kung Fu Panda. Before the final blow was struck, Jack Black tore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future, where Kung Fu Panda is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, to undo the future that is Kung Fu! GOTTA GET BACK. BACK TO THE PAST. KUNG FU PANDA.

Actually its about a talking kangaroo or something. I don’t know- didn’t really pay attention.

Anyway, Kung Fu Panda was so popular that they decided some games based off of it, and this is one of them. Hooray I guess.

This review is actually part of a kind of new thing I’m doing where I review the “free” games that I get with my Play station Plus and Xbox Live Gold accounts. This month I was disappointed to hear that Playstation owners would be getting this title. Is Sony asleep at the wheel, or are they dirt cheap?

Anyway, lets talk about this “meh” smash clone, I guess. I don’t know.

PROS

It actually plays fine, believe it or not. Like Smash Bros., you have all sorts of different moves that are a combination of one button and a direction, which are different fro each character, which there is thankfully a lot to choose from. You also have charge moves that can be, you guessed it, charged for a more powerful attack, sometimes powerful enough to send your opponent flying.

I can already hear the “well at least its better then Brawl” comments coming a mile away.

Instead of a percentage that goes up, KFPSOLL has a sort of health system, which has a percentage that goes down. At 0, you can then pretty much annihilate your opponent with a simple charge attack, sending flying off screen. So, yeah, the gameplay works quite well- much better then that Cartoon Network smash clone, anyway!

You actually have a good variety of characters, like I mentioned before. You got like 3 or 4 different pandas, a monkey, a tiger, a crane,a  duck, a sheep, a wolf, a rhino- the list goes on and on! Everyone seems to have their own moves, including a “Final Smash” esque move that can be preformed by filling up a meter- no floating item required!

Hey, at least it has decent selection of crazy animal characters!

You also have a surprising amount of different modes. Other then your atypical “Stock” and “Timed” matches, you have a mode where dumplings fly out of your opponent, and you have to grab as many as you can. You also have a mode where you have to hold a crown longer then anyone else. Of course, you also have a good amount of different stages as well. Surprisingly great variety for a shovelware game!

All of the mentioned above is unlocked at start… wait, are there any unlock ables?

CONS

One of the things I loved about the Smash Bros series of games were all the cool stuff you can unlock. Remember unlocking Mewtwo in Melee, or the king’s bounty of content you can unlock in Brawl and Smash 4? Well, KFPSOLL has none of that- everything is unlocked at the start of the game.

That’s right- the only reason to play though the single player tournament is to unlock trophies- you pretty much have to play though the tournament with every character to get a platnium trophy. And no, each character does not have an ending- you just get a “Congratulations!” screen. Hooray.

In other words, this is NOT a good single player game- you either have to play with friends for the hell of it, or online- which actually has a ranking system, but again, nothing to unlock.

They took one of my favorite parts of the Smash bros games- all the unlockable s@#t, and they completely omitted it.

More outrageous is some of the games other achievements. For a platinum trophy, you have to play though the tournament 20 times, win 5 to 10 of each match type, win 200 matches, knockout 1000 opponents, and reach the rank of master panda online. Is it worth it though? You get nothing else but a trophy in the process.

I don’t think it is, personally!

FINAL VERDICT

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown in a no-man’s land, for the cowboy of the modern day is not a bad game- its just that there really isn’t much you can do to feel satisfied. Sure, the game plays fine, but the game simply does not give the player any reason to keep playing, even on-line. In other words, theres no carrot on the end of the stick.I can only recommend this to hardcore Kung Fu Panda fans, mostly children that love this series. Everyone else should just stick to Smash Brothers. Yes, even Brawl. I have some choice words for the Smash Brothers community.

Oh yes, there will be blood!

Agree? Disagree? Good! Leave a comment about how terrible my taste is in the comments below!

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