Dragging on my “complete” Avatar playthrough series project thing, we pick up with the PSP version of the first game. You’ll recall that the first released game (except for the PC version), despite its generic title and boxart, features a unique story set in between Books 1 and 2, wherein the Gaang picks up Haru and scoots all over the four corners of the world to confront a new mechanical menace.

The PSP game was made by TOSE, as was the DS one. The two share much in common, most notably having identical maps for all areas; the PSP version has the edge though in that the clumsy screen-rotating shoulder buttons are cut, and it’s therefore much easier to navigate. It lacks the charming 2D sprites, but makes up for it with nice dialogue portraits, and the simple 3D models are sweet in their own way as long as the camera doesn’t zoom in too much.

There’s more though, much more. On the PSP the game is souped up mightily compared to the DS outing, with equipment, upgrades, and sidequests fleshing out the experience much more. A seamless game world, and most importantly regular save points that restore your health (or “honor points”) for free are essential features bafflingly missing from DS. In terms of features and presentation it falls in between the main console version and the DS edition, although the GBA’s purity and polish still give it superior appeal and playability.

The DS game can boast one or two things for itself: a fun variety of food items, a full party of four, and brief voiced cutscenes; I felt the absence of these on PSP, especially when certain characters are required, forcing the player to backtrack for swaps. But on balance it’s no contest. On PSP you get gameplay that’s at times challenging but fair, also a useful minimap! It’s a mediocre action RPG but as a fan of the series I loved experiencing this story once again, and the different elemental machines make for great villains with cool designs whose attributes also inform the gameplay.

Speaking of which, as is customary, let’s look at unique elements this game contributes to Avatar lore. Full portraits of all NPCs is a good way to show off the dress of the different cultures you encounter, as well as a good look at Lian’s design. The plot and script are nothing new over the other versions (making the same gaffes as the other versions of this game, such as mistaking Omashu for Ba Sing Se), but as before I appreciated seeing the occupied port town, the earthbender training camp, the village in the shadow of the Southern Air Temple, etc.

As always I also noted animals not seen elsewhere. These include the new mouse/squirrel-cat hybrid, and a blue-ish kind of chicken; as well as the blue armadillo(?) wolves and odd deer seen in other versions. There’s ordinary cats in the village adjacent to the Air Temple, but the show already had one of those. There’s a few spirits too, with the familiar horned bear in chapter 3, but also a new six-legged tortoise in chapter 5 and a blue tiger/wolf in chapter 6. These little tidbits are so exciting to me! Anyway thanks for indulging me.

PS. One final bafflingly stupid piece of trivia: a formatting error on the printing of the game’s UMD disc displays the spaces that should be there in the title as question marks, as you can see in this picture I took.