Avatar Fighter Online (XBLIG): "A Solid Avatar Based Fighting Game With An Unfortunate Downside"

I absolutely love Xbox 360 avatars! Since I first got my Xbox 360 earlier this year I've had a lot of fun spending time making my avatar a personal reflection of myself. When I first began doing XBLIG game reviews here on my review blog I noticed that there were quite a number of avatar based indie games available. You could find FPS versions, games that involve aerial combat, and even a game based on hackey sack (which I reviewed not too long ago). When I noticed that 'Bwoot Games' was going to release an avatar based fighting game I knew I had to get this game for review. I not only wanted to see how it stacked up against mainstream fighters for myself, but I also wanted to let (you) my readers know as well. I have quite a few readers/friends who enjoy fighting games just as much as I do, and I'm pretty sure they're probably just curious as I was.

Avatar Fighter Online is a really solid fighting game experience offline. They're aren't many customization options, but the core gameplay is surprisingly very responsive. I found for the most part that a lot of the game's features seem to be inspired by 'Mortal Kombat'. The control scheme for example is very much like that of the Mortal Kombat titles. You have a light punch (X)/hard punch (Y), and a light kick (A)/hard kick (B). The blocking is like 'Street Fighter' though. In order to block you simply press back on either the (D.Pad), or the (Left Thumbstick). I found that your special, and ultimate moves in the game are performed by using familiar 'Street Fighter', and 'King of the Fighter' inputs. A lot of the move's visual appearances seem to be inspired by 'Mortal Kombat', but there are some 'Street Fighter' oriented ones as well. In this game you can choose from a decent number of specials, and ultimates which you can assingn to your own avatar. You can even change your avatar's stance to one of the initial 8 characters' (Ryan, Bill, Alex, Sid, Jimmy, Mike, Cyndi, Jill). The stances feature very unique fighting styles that greatly effect how you fight.


Avatar Fighter Online features two main modes of gameplay. You have an 'Offline' mode that features single player, and versus for local matches. The offline mode puts you up against 8 of the games own fighters, or against a friend according to which match type you choose (single player, versus). Single player is presented in a ladder match style that pays homage to the classic/modern Mortal Kombat titles. You face 8 of the game's own avatars assuming you decide to play as your own. You do have the option of playing as one of the game's original avatars though. As you defeat a character in single player mode you will advance up the ladder of characters to the next fight. Each fight does gradually get more difficult, and I even found the last fighter to be quite a challenging opponent. The AI in this game is pretty impressive. In my playthrough I found that the AI opponents actually pull of some pretty cool combos. In fact I found pulling of combos in this game is fairly easy even for the human player. Linking specials/ultimates to your combos is very effective as well.

Avatar Fighter Online features an Xbox Live mode just as the title suggests. You have quite a few match types to choose from in the Xbox Live (online) mode, and they include 'Quick Match', 'Custom Match', 'Create Match', and 'Private Match'. The quick match is the one I always go for, but if you have friends who own the game you can send them an invite in the other three match types. I did find that the Custom, and Create match types only had options for invite which was unusual. This made sense for the Private Match option though. I didn't actually see any customization options that you would expect from a mainstream online fighting game available. To be honest though there's not many options available in match settings. You can change the timer, and rounds in the main option menu, and that's about it. When I started playing against other players in the game (via Xbox Live) I noticed a horrible trend of spamming. It was actually very irritating. The top 3 players on the leaderboard actually got to where they are by spamming their way to that spot. I know this, because I actually played against some of them. If there is a downside to this game it would be the spamming. I honestly cannot stand spamming in fighting games. It's what has turned so many players against the genre. I realize that this isn't really the developer's fault, but if they would start using anti-spamming systems like the 'SkullGirls' developer is going to apply then the fighting game genre might actually be good for a change. If you're curious about the lag I did encounter some, but it didn't seem that bad. The lag actually seemed kind of smooth, if that even makes sense?

In the end I found 'Avatar Fighting Online' to be well designed in the areas of fighting. The special, and ultimate moves were easily executed. In fact I'd be so bold as to say that the controls are more responsive in this game than some of the mainstream fighting games that I play. The ability to play as your own personal avatar is a huge plus as well. I loved seeing my avatar fight. It was a really cool experience. The only real downside to the game is that the online is already populated by some serious spamming players. The sad thing about this is that the online mode is what gamers will really be interested in. I seriously hate it when other gamers ruin fighting games with their cheap tactics just to make a name for themselves. This is in no way the developers fault, but it does seriously effect the replay value of the game. If developers don't start adding anti-spamming systems I can honestly see this genre failing in the future. As for 'Avatar Fighter Online' the gameplay is solid, but the online fails due to the spamming players that populate it's lobbies.