Avatar: The Last Airbender coming to PSP

The idea of a licensed game is that as a customer, you salivate the moment you hear the name of your favourite TV show, movie or brand of sweets mentioned, irrespective of whether the game version is the best thing since Hovis sliced bread, or the worst since Turkey Twizzlers (the game licences for both of which are still available, incidentally).

But the idea backfires somewhat when you haven't heard of the licence in question, even if it is based on 'Nickelodeon's hottest new boys property'.

Yes we could go to the Wikipedia entry for Nickleodeans' Avatar: The Last Airbender and bluff, but the truth is we've never seen the American animated television series airing on Nickelodeon since February 21, 2005, which has recently also become available on iTunes and runs for 23 minutes approx.

So it'd sound kind of false.

Rather, let's look at the few facts about the game that accompanied these PSP screenshots. What we face is a single-player action/adventure game featuring martial arts style combat, embellished with some customisable 'bending powers' which see you master the four elements of Water, Air, Earth and Fire using magic.

That's about it for the gameplay details revealed so far. So what follows is a public service for Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, with excerpts from the press release.

Attention, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans!

Bring to life an adventure of intrigue, deceit and revelation in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Play as Aang, Katara, Haru and Sokka as you grow your team into an unstoppable force making discoveries in a thrilling blend of magic and martial arts combat. Use your fully customizable bending powers to master the four elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire and explore the beautifully detailed environments of the Avatar nations.

This ends the public announcement for Avatar fans.

We hope that's got any fans as excited as we're sure we'd be if we'd seen Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which we haven't.

The game is coming to DS and GBA as well as PSP. There's no word yet on a release date. We promise to watch more telly.