"Bodacity" might not be a real word, but it certainly helps make an intro hilarious. And it gets even better with excellent voice acting for Po, the game’s protagonist and unofficial narrator (not to mention he’s a panda), as well as witty writing that highlights Po’s distinctly unpolished nature. Seriously, this game will probably make you smile about five seconds after it starts.
What’s more, Kung Fu Panda performs decently in terms of gameplay. It’s essentially a hybrid between the beat-’em-up and platforming genres. There’s a fairly wide variety of moves you can perform with Po: There’s the regular attack and strong attack, and then you can take it up into the air for flying spinning kicks. Additionally, moving the Wii controller in certain directions will make Po use certain special moves that are more effective for disposing of tougher opponents or groups of enemies. Po moves pretty fluidly for a large panda, so the game’s fight sequences are consistently enjoyable. Where Kung Fu Panda moves into platforming territory is when Po needs to scale buildings or jump on clouds or lotus leaves, and here the game is a mix of Prince of Persia-esque action and standard platforming staples like jumping across platforms.
The platforming, however, can be awkward. The game’s controls aren’t particularly well-suited for platforming, and the camera frequently gets so close that you are unsure where you’re supposed to jump to next. Depth perception can be tough in certain areas; at times it seems you had jumped onto a lotus leaf, but then Po floats in the air in some glitchy manner and then falls into the water and dies. Furthermore, the game often makes it unclear what you’re supposed to do for a certain area or what the consequences will be of performing a certain action, which can make the platforming even more tedious.
But although the game has clear deficiencies in its platforming, its versatility is impressive. The game incorporates many concepts that make other games fun while never becoming formulaic. In a fight in which you’re controlling Tigress, for example (the game occasionally lets you step into the shoes of different characters), there’s a slow-mo fight sequence that is reminiscent of God of War in which you press appropriate buttons at the correct moments to defeat a boss.
Where the game falters, though, is in execution. The adventure is marred by frequently unclear instructions, which often makes pulling off special moves or certain actions confusing. The platforming is tougher to bear when the game makes you perform the same actions over again: Jumping from lotus leaf to lotus leaf gets dry with the shaky controls and also because it’s easy to get lost in an environment that looks uniform throughout. And the game’s habit of imposing inane objectives such as "Rescue four villagers" before letting you move on puts a damper on the flow of the game.
Kung Fu Panda’s multiplayer component is unremarkable but solid. In variations such as the standard brawl, you fend off intruders or fight another player. There are other quirky variations such as the ballista game, in which you shoot targets to gain points, and the memory game, which is a different execution of the classic "match the pictures" game. Overall, Kung Fu Panda’s multiplayer games are nothing spectacular, but they’re designed fairly well and are pretty decent.
Kung Fu Panda is a solid beat-’em-up that’s brought down by clumsy platforming and questionable design elements. It can be enjoyable at times, but at other times it can be dull and tedious. But for what it’s worth, it’s interesting at the very least -- and for that you can thank a panda who uses the word "bodacity." Bodacious indeed.
