After almost 13 years of waiting, Avatar: The Way of Water has finally been released. The long anticipated sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time comes after over a decade of delays and finally brings viewers back to the world of Avatar's Pandora and its continued fight against the Resources Development Administration (RDA).
Since its release in 2009, Avatar's Pandora has been conceived as the center of an entire sci-fi universe akin to Star Wars or the MCU, and a key element in the lofty ambitions to bring this world to life was to allow players to experience it through a video game. Since before the film's release, Avatar has used video games to bring Pandora to life, so here's a breakdown of the video games based on Avatar, both of past and future.
Avatar: The Game (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The first of three distinct video games to be titled Avatar: The Game, or James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 version is the most well known video game adaptation of the film. It's arguable if this even is an adaptation, however, as this game released on December 1st, 2009, two weeks before the movie, and is a prequel to Avatar's events that tells an entirely original story.
The PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 version of Avatar: The Game allows players to choose between two distinct campaigns following either an RDA soldier or a Na'vi warrior, both of which feature distinct locations, weapons, and characters. The game plays like a third-person shooter and was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the studio behind Assassin's Creed 2, Watch Dogs, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This version of Avatar: The Game released to mixed reviews, with many reviewers criticizing the game for bad combat and bizarre, MMO-like progression.
Avatar: The Game (Wii, PSP)
As was common of the era, while Avatar: The Game featured the same name across more than six platforms, there were three unique video games developed entirely to suit the hardware. Arguably the best of these was the Wii version of Avatar: The Game, which featured level-based stealth gameplay over the HD consoles' third-person shooting.
This version of the game follows a Na'vi warrior named Rai'uk, the last survivor of a massacre of his clan conducted by humans while attempting to colonize Pandora. The game follows the story of Rai'uk's revenge while attempting to stop the humans that killed his family from transporting their artifacts off-world. The game is set across linear levels where the player must use stealth to take down the RDA soldiers, only relying on melee combat as a last resort.
This Avatar: The Game was received somewhat more positively than its HD console counterpart, but while its visuals and presentation were some of the best on the Nintendo Wii, much of the criticism was aimed at the forced use of the Wiimote controller, mainly the forced motion controls. Thankfully, this was remedied by the PSP release shortly after, though this came at the cost of the game's impressive visuals.
Avatar: The Game (Nintendo DS)
The final unique console game to be titled Avatar: The Game is probably the most surprising of the bunch. The Nintendo DS version of Ubisoft's many Avatar adaptations is a game inspired by The Legend of Zelda, particularly the Nintendo DS titles Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass. Like those games, this title is played entirely through the touch screen and features puzzle-solving gameplay mixed with light combat that is performed by swiping on the touch screen.
This game follows Nok, a Na'vi member of the Tawkami Clan, as he and his family fight back against an RDA scientist who is harvesting parts of Pandora's forests to find a cure for his daughter's comatose state. This game is yet another prequel to the original movie.
This version, while definitely the most unique of the console titles, released to mixed reception, with many of the puzzles being criticized for being too simplistic and the overall presentation feeling a bit cheap. Still, its story is the most unique among all of the Avatar video games, and it features a soundtrack composed by Fallout, Starfield, and Syberia composer Inon Zur, giving it some distinct value among the other movie tie-in games.
Avatar: Reckoning (iOS/ Android)
While there have been many mobile games inspired by Avatar, most of which are not noteworthy enough to mention here (especially considering they have all been delisted), Avatar: Reckoning will be the first to arrive following the franchise's revival with The Way of Water. This third-person shooter MMO title allows players to create their own Na'vi character and play single-player missions or PVP where they face off against hordes of RDA soldiers.
Avatar: Reckoning promises to feature new, unexplored parts of Pandora in a story that will be canon to the Avatar universe while also being distinct from the narrative of the films. The game is being developed by Archosaur Games for release in 2023, and is being created with Unreal Engine 4.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)
Finally, there is the game many Avatar fans are waiting with bated breath for: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This AAA open-world action-adventure game is being developed by Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment, the developer behind The Division, and is set to be a major player in the world-building of Pandora through expanded media outside of the Avatar film series.
While not much is known about the exact narrative, Frontiers of Pandora will be set on the Western Frontier and, once again, follows a Na'vi soldier fighting back against invading RDA forces. It was recently revealed however that Frontiers of Pandora is canon, and it takes place during the one-year time skip seen in The Way of Water after RDA forces have returned to Pandora, meaning that the game has a direct tie-in to the timeline of the films.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is set to be a huge open-world game, bringing the world of Pandora to life unlike any other video game based on the Avatar universe yet. Massive claims that the game will feature a "living and reactive world", and the studio has been receiving direct oversight from James Cameron himself. This Avatar game was first revealed at Ubisoft's E3 2021 showcase, where it was announced that the title would only be coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was originally slated for release in 2022 but was delayed to Ubisoft's next fiscal year, which sets it for release sometime between April 1st, 2023, and March 31st, 2024.