So just before BaD began, Mothman mentioned he was going to post a lot of Panda pics again this year. That put me into a kind of Panda fever and I started planning on playing every game with a Panda in it for BaD. Well, I decided, after buying a bunch of games, that maybe I was stealing Mothman's thunder a little bit, and so I ditched it. But, I was glad to have the games I got, and now I can do a little blog about them.
The Kung Fu Panda movies (a third one will come out this year) resulted in a lot of games. I always had Kung Fu Panda for Xbox 360 because i'd played the demo years ago and liked it's simple brawling mechanics. Then I started researching the other ones and picked them up for pretty cheap at Gamestop and Jay St. Video Games.
Kung Fu Panda 2 on consoles was a kinect only game for Xbox 360, but the PS3 version used a standard controller. It didn't get decent reviews like the first one, but from user reviews on Metacritic, it sounded like a simple fun game and a very easy game to get a Platinum trophy. I could use more of those.
Then I saw there were three DS games made. The first one, by Vicarious Visions, is a 2D platformer/brawler. Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors was next, and it's a 3D brawler. Then Kung Fu Panda 2 is a simple turn-based RPG. There's also a card game built into it. Of course, all of these have Wii versions. I guess I should get those too. Um, maybe.
The only other games with playable pandas (that weren't PC or phone games) were National Geographic: Pandas for DS, Tekken Tag Tournament on PS2 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for 360/PS3. Panda is the friend of Ling Xiaoyu in the Tekken games but only playable in the Tournament ones. I almost went and bought all these, but I came to my senses just after I finished the Kung Fu Panda games.
What's come out of all this is that I think I'll add a licensed game category to my Retro Game Encounter Table (RGET is a registered trademark of Why? Gaming). There are a lot of licensed games I'd love to play, and I probably wouldn't get to any without adding them to my table because they generally get middling to bad reviews.
Don't forget about Panda Pandamonium. It's an iOS game that's like a arcade style Mah Jongg challenge where you must free cute little pandas from being trapped between tiles!
Yea, I noticed a bunch of iOS and PC panda games, but I ignored those because I don't have a smart phone and don't play on PC much.
Yay Pandas!
It's perfectly alright to do panda games because I won't be covering any. Just panda pics and maybe the odd video.
I really want to play Kung Fu Panda too. I wanna lay some smack down with da panda, "SKADOOSH!"
My 360 came bundled with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda, but I never played Kung Fu Panda because I'm leery of licensed games like that because they're usually not very good. Maybe I'll give it a try now.
A few are decent. The first Kung Fu Panda game got decent reviews. I have that same dual disc box of Lego Indy and Kung Fu Panda.
I think it's an epidemic, so do I. I think I got it with my second 360 which was the arcade model. I just slapped the 20 GB drive on the side.
Maybe if I was 8 to 10 years old again I would have gotten any of those games since I used to be a schmuck that bought liscensed games. Of course, many of the ones based on animated movies are more average or bland than disastrous, so i'll give compliment to that.
Oddly enough, I wasn't a big fan of the first Kung-Fu Panda movie (even as a young one), but I really liked the sequel and it's one of my favorites that Dreamworks has done on the animation department.
I don't know why I haven't seen the movies yet. I've always wanted to.
Kung Fu Panda 2 made me well up when they were in the woods being chased in that flashback scene.
I gotta just go rent those movies. I've always wanted to.
If you don't mind watching some old school anime there's also Ranma 1/2. One of the characters turns into a panda when touched by cold water. I think it's on Hulu for free.
Ha! That sounds fun.