Kung Fu Panda (Wii and Xbox 360)

Kung Fu Panda is a game released along with the hit movie Kung Fu Panda in 2008. It is mostly based on the movie as well, but it has a slightly different plot, with Tai Lung being a gang leader of troops surrounding the Valley of Peace (exact plot found by clicking this ).

I first played this game on my half-sister's Xbox 360, because it was in a double pack with LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures that came with it. I enjoyed the Xbox 360 version to a greater degree, which I'll explain later, but my sister actually traded in the double pack to get me the (somewhat worse) version of the game available on the Wii.

First let's discuss the gameplay. In both games, it's actually really, really good. The level design was the same in both versions, and both versions are amazing games. Although they are a very strong deviation from the real movie, they are fun nonetheless and end with the same air as the movie, which is good. Above all, the levels are like beat 'em ups and platformers, with some variation in the way that you progress through levels. The balance they struck with the levels is great, but I just kind of wish that there wer some more levels in the game, as it sort of felt universally short. However, this does not have much of an impact on my final opinion.

So now let's talk about the controls. I find them to be much better on the Xbox 360 version, not necessarily because the 360 controls were set up better, but because the controls for the Wii version are just way too tedious. The reason for this is that the have you use the motion controls part of the time; they have you hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk in a certain way to charge up the strong attack, or you can just shake the Wiimote to perform a normal strong attack. Meanwhile, you press the "B" button to do a quick attack. The game would have been way better if you could shake the Wiimote or Nunchuk to do a quick attack and use the "B" button for a strong attack. The way it was actually designed was just way to difficult and a bit loose.

This issue was not with the 360 version, because you just pressed "X" for a quick attack and used "Y" for a strong attack. This made combos much easier and let you control more easily the pattern of your attacks. Plus, there were some more powerful attacks, like continuous rolling, that the motion controls were applied to and they made it close to impossible to actually use them. As such, it took way longer to play the Wii version and the lasting experience was far less pleasant, because the controls were just so broken for the Wii.

That's the only real problem I have with the Wii version aside from the fact that the Wii version has no alternate costumes you can put on, which I thought were cool on the Xbox 360 and which I really miss. It would have been nice if they could have made the games exactly the same for both consoles.

So what's my conculsion here? The game itself is amazing, well-designed, and just all out fun. However, the Xbox 360 version is way better than the Wii version, so if you have a 360, absolutely get the game, but if not, rent the game first to make sure it works for you. Otherwise, you might not enjoy it as much.