Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game — Overview
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is a hand-drawn 2D fighter from Gameplay Group International, published by PM Studios (in collaboration with Paramount Games Studio and Skydance Games), bringing characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra into 1v1 combat. Originally announced under a different developer in February 2024 and later cancelled, the project was revived by Gameplay Group International -- a studio founded specifically to resurrect cancelled games -- and re-announced at NYCC 2025. It launched July 23, 2026 (delayed from an original July 2 target) on Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, with a physical release for Switch 2 and original Switch planned later.
A Genuinely Unusual Story Mode
This isn't a typical fighting-game story about a tournament. Co-written by series co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino and longtime series writer Tim Hedrick, the story opens with Aang waking up in an unfamiliar version of his world -- his friends don't recognize him, and past Avatar Kyoshi is somehow still alive alongside him, breaking the series' own one-Avatar-at-a-time rule. Nothing is as it should be: Toph is bent on world domination, non-bender Sokka wields power that rivals bending masters, and Fire Lord Ozai -- now calling himself the Phoenix King -- is earnestly trying to keep peace between kingdoms for the sake of his children Zuko and Azula.
Combat: Flow, Energy Points, and Support Characters
The Flow System is the movement backbone of combat -- a momentum-and-positioning mechanic for dashing, evading, and repositioning at high speed. Landing hits builds Energy Points, spent on enhanced special moves and cinematic Super Arts capable of swinging a match. Before each fight, every fighter selects one of three Support Characters, each altering that fighter's kit in a specific way -- for example, Toph can call in a support to add extra properties to her stone-pillar special for longer combos.
A Genuinely Rocky Launch, Worth Knowing About
Early Steam Community feedback has been candid: some character animations are unfinished, combo trials don't function correctly, there are graphical bugs on Intel graphics drivers, and several expected features -- ranked play, multi-person lobbies, spectating, and basic display options like windowed mode or resolution scaling -- were missing at launch. Reviewers have generally still recommended the game for its fighting system and cast, while being clear it launched in a rushed, unfinished state.
Ratings and Reception
The game's ESRB rating was lowered from an initially planned Teen rating down to Everyone 10+ ahead of release. As of this writing it sits at Very Positive on Steam (80% of over 1,675 reviews).