Like many people during the pandemic, I eventually got round to watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and later The Legend of Korra on Netflix. Needless to say they quickly become some of my favourites, probably my favourite animated shows of all time. After feeling a somewhat bittersweet feeling upon ending them I felt I should delve a bit more into some of the expanded material, including the large library of games that Nickelodeon released over the years. I was pretty saddened to find that most of the Avatar games were stuck on the PS2, and physical copies are pretty hard to come by. The only game version of this world to be released one the last generation of consoles was a Legend of Korra game by Platinum Games of all people. This sounded like a great experience, it would be a great-end cap to my Avatar/Korra experience. A fun character action game made by a fantastic developer, even if it looked particularly underdeveloped and budget compared to their best work.
Only playing the game was for more difficult than anticipated. Despite being released on both old and next-gen platforms in 2014, the game is virtually non-existent on all of them. After some digging it became apparent that the game had been delisted by its publisher Activision in late 2017, likely after their license to use the Korra IP expired. This is a common problem, but the issue was particularly aggravated in this case as the game was digital-only, with no retail release. The game could only be played ever again by people who had purchased it prior to this 2017 delisting date, to everyone else it may as well not exist. But I was adamant there must be some way around this – I wasn’t going to let the game’s apparent erasure stop me from finding it. So I began reading various Reddit and forum posts about the game. The vast majority of these were populated by people in the same boat as me –lamenting the loss of a game they could never play. Thankfully this search bore fruit. Various retailers were still selling digital downloads for the game. Despite the game’s delisting these codes do provide you with the right/license to own the game and therefore it will download despite not appearing on the store itself. This particular loophole has been used by many as their last resort to access delisted games. So I went ahead and tried to acquire one of these Korra codes for myself. However these codes are as impermanent as digital games themselves. Only a limited number of them exist, they are not a viable long-term option to access these games as there will one day be none left to activate. Not to mention that Sony has began to crack down on this workaround by officially pulling download codes from retail stores, meaning only a few remain scattered across the Internet. By the time I started my search all the Xbox codes for Korra were sold out and so was the PS4. My only option was to purchase a code for the PS3 which Amazon still, somewhat surprisingly, had in stock. So I dusted off my PS3, entered in the code and began to download this ‘lost’ game. There was something strangely exciting about it. Finding a way around PlayStation’s systems and being one of the last people to download something that was no longer meant to be. It felt like I was preserving the game in a way, doing my part to protect this insignificant little piece of video game history. The game itself is a short, fun, character-action romp. It was a large critical dud upon release with mainly mediocre reviews, and some particularly harsh ones from the bigger outlooks like IGN and GameSpot. Although I enjoyed it more than these critics, it certainly has many of the flaws of a below-average licensed game. The story is non-existent with virtually none of the characters from the show’s large ensemble besides Korra. In fact, apart from its faithful implementation of the bending systems and some of the music, the game feels almost nothing like the show it’s based on. The game clearly had a limited budget - with repeated use of enemies/assets - and feels undercooked compared to Platinum’s usual high quality fare. The game was derided for being exceptionally short, only clocking in at about 4 hours. Despite it’s small price tag and repayable nature, this length struck a nerve with many critics particularly with the large volume of content reuse within this short span. It’s only real saving grace is the combat system. Throughout the game you unlock Korra’s bending powers, each of which feels distinct and faithfully recreates the original bending and martial arts styles from the show. There is also a heavy focus on countering/parrying enemy attacks to deal large amounts of damage, similar to Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. The game can be quite challenging on its higher difficulties, meaning you need to utilize each of the bending powers and the counter system to full effect in order to survive. This creates a very satisfying combat loop of countering and switching between elements based on the situation at hand. I’m almost tempted to say its like the modern God Hand, which was similarly lambasted by critics upon release. Seriously the IGN review for that game is wild. Although this may be giving it too much credit – God Hand feels similarly underdeveloped in many ways but it has a level of quirky charm and combat depth that Korra doesn’t even scratch the surface of. Despite it’s major flaws, Korra’s combat loop kept me compelled to hop back in for many subsequent runs to go for higher ranks and get all of the collectibles from improved play. I even decided to Platinum the game. Platinuming a game is something that is usually reserved for only games I’m having a huge amount of fun with, but Korra kept me coming back, excited to unlock trophy after trophy. This may have been more so motivated by my ATLA obsession than the gameplay itself, but it still kept me engaged enough to dedicate this time to it. Yet above all, I think there was something else driving me. The game’s unavailable status gave it a certain aura that compelled me to complete it. That I’d be one of the last few people to ever download it, that when the final digital code is sold it will be gone, that one day when my PS3 powers off for the last time I would never be able to play it again. There is a bitter sweetness to how impermanent a digital game like this can be. Although the loss of this game may seem trivial to many, this issue of ‘lost games’ is one that has become increasingly prevalent in this digital age. Activision is a common culprit for delisting their games when the licenses run out – from Platinum’s TMNT game to scrubbing years of Transformers games off all digital platforms (e.g. Devastation and the critically acclaimed Cybertron series). Delisting was not as severe for these examples as the majority of them received retail releases and can still be acquired physically for varying prices – but Activision has set a clear precedent of doing this and I can see many ‘lost games’ in their future, particularly as the industry as a whole moves away from physical releases altogether. This is becoming a problem as we approach the digital only age. Although most of the examples I have cited are lesser-known licensed fair, there can be serious damage done to game history and preservation. Take P.T. for example. This is one of the best horror experiences ever released, so much so that I feel it is wrong to classify it even as a demo. Yet when Konami and Kojima had their big fall out, it was scrubbed from the PSN store. P.T. will only exist in its official state for as long as the last PS4 with it downloaded continues existing. Sure, hackers have mined the games files and took it away to cyber-heaven on the PC front, but it sets a horrible precedent that such an important piece of gaming history can be wiped out of existence. And I think a similar point applies to Platinum’s Korra game as well. Regardless of it’s quality, I think its sad that the old licensed Avatar games are still somewhat available in their physical form more than 10 years later on platforms like eBay (even though they’re from the PS2 generation), when a game like Korra has been lost forever simply due to it’s digital-only status. I feel its important to highlight and preserve a game like Korra, because it’s likely that no one else will. A game like P.T. will be remembered years from now, but what about all the games that don’t leave such a monumental impact before being delisted?
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authorSo this is weird. I’ve made a website, I’m not expecting anyone to read it (actually I’d rather they didn’t.) Basically I’ve been struggling to write creative things recently, every idea I come up with, no matter how much I think I believe in it, leads me nowhere. I guess you could call it writer’s block, but it’s more so that I tend to overthink and second-guess myself down to the smallest details, this means it takes me forever to make anything and once I have I’m incredibly demotivated to continue it. So, after being inspired by an Australian writer, Gabriel Bergmoser, who’s blog and podcasts I’ve been reading and listening to for the past few years I decided this would be an interesting experiment to try out. Basically I have no idea what I’m going to write, it’s unlikely to be creative or short stories, more-so this kind of string-of-consciousness opinion piece based on the things I’m thinking about at the moment. From films to television or maybe books and music. Anyway I hope you find some of this stuff interesting. Let’s hope I don’t say anything too incriminating considering my name is plastered all over this. Granted, this is something I will probably only update about four times in my life, unless I really enjoy it. It’s more so to help me be more creative and actually produce something for once.
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January 2021
CategoriesNot really sure? Opinions on the blog, mainly about entertainment. I'll also be posting some fiction or short stories eventually for your feedback and enjoyment.
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