James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Updated Hands-On

Nintendo should probably be thanking Ubisoft these days. After all, the publisher has seemingly done more for the Wii Balance Board accessory than nearly any other third-party company out there; more, even, than Nintendo itself. Not all of those balance board attempts have been home runs (butt control in Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party stands out as a particular lowlight), but at least Ubi is trying to give you a reason to pull your balance board out of your closet. Its latest attempt is with the upcoming Wii version of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, which we had a chance to check out at a recent Ubisoft press event in San Francisco.

Unlike the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, Avatar for the Wii won't be giving Wii owners the full 3D treatment. What they will be getting is an entirely new story centered on the blue-skinned Na'vi, which is the alien race that plays a major role in the upcoming sci-fi film upon which the Avatar games are based. You play as a Na'vi warrior who starts off the game trying to reclaim some important tribal artifacts that have been stolen by the humans who are also inhabiting the world.

There were four playable levels in the game demo we played of Avatar. The first level introduced the main game mechanics used when your character is on foot. Your Na'vi is a powerful warrior--much taller and stronger than a human--but he's also greatly outnumbered in the game. To even the odds, Avatar's opening levels include a healthy dose of stealth gameplay as you guide your warrior through the tall grass that makes up much of the jungle floor, looking to spring an attack on an unsuspecting guard.

While the lush jungle environments are impressively rendered on the Wii, the stealth mechanics don't always seem to measure up to the environments. For example, you can only really hide in the aforementioned tall grass, which seems to abruptly begin and end at seemingly arbitrary spots. Hiding in the grass is as simple as pressing the Z button: Once you creep close enough to an enemy, you can engage in a sneak attack by pressing the B button and then slamming the Wii Remote down in a chopping motion. If you're not careful, you'll alert nearby enemy units to your attack; however, all you need to do to distract them once again is find a patch of tall grass and crouch again. Eventually, the enemy units will be so confused by your "disappearance" that they'll call off the search. If you do manage to alert enemies to your presence, you can wipe them out by using your staff and heal yourself with some conveniently located giant orange plants strewn throughout the level.

When you aren't sneak attacking humans, you'll be climbing and jumping your way through the game's environments. There's the lightest amount of platforming in some sections, and you sometimes have two paths you can tread through a level. A lower path typically involves fighting bad guys and an upper path will sometimes let you avoid combat altogether. Your goal in both the tutorial level and the level that follows is to reclaim some tribal belongings, one of which is your bow that--along with your staff--becomes your main weapon in the game. As you make your way through the game, you'll earn points you can use to upgrade your character and weapons, such as your ability to hide or your resistance to enemy fire.

By the end of the second mission we played, we were sneaking our way through a human encampment to free a captive banshee--a huge pterodactyl-like creature that had been captured by humans. After eliminating its captors, you mount the banshee and take off into the air, which is an effective setup for the following pair of missions that take place in midair as you pilot the banshee through danger. The first flying mission is designed to get you used to maneuvering the creature in midair, and it's here that you can use the Wii Balance Board to control the banshee by shifting your body weight in different directions on the board. The first flight level has some interesting perspective shifts as you dive deep into caverns or fly up and around trees. Along the way, you'll be firing your bow at targets hanging in midair in order to prepare you for the midair combat ahead.

Eventually your banshee will be pursued by a futuristic helicopter driven by people with bad intent in mind for you and your Banshee. The ensuing pursuit and combat takes up most of the second flying level as you look to dodge the copter's missile fire, as well as do as much damage as you can with your bow and arrow. Once you damage the helicopter enough, you'll enter a sequence where you can attack the helicopter directly with you banshee. By moving the Wii Remote in various directions, your banshee will strike and bash the copter until, eventually, it crash-lands and the level is over.

While the flying levels in Avatar add some variety to the gameplay, it can be a challenge to maintain control of your banshee and aim your arrows effectively. That's where the game's drop-in, drop-out cooperative play comes in handy. You and a friend can play any level in the game cooperatively. On foot, you'll be joined by another Na'vi warrior, and during flying missions, one person will steer the banshee while the other fires the bow and arrow.

In addition to the balance board support, Ubioft Montreal has added support for the Wii MotionPlus control accessory--with it, you'll be able to take temporary control of so-called fire wasps found in certain areas of a level. You control the wasp's movement with the MotionPlus-enhanced Wii Remote and can use the giant insect to scout new areas of a level, as well as stun opponents temporarily. If your fire wasp is killed, however, control reverts back to your Na'vi, and you'll have to go it alone.

We'll have to see if Ubi has any more accessory-based tricks up its sleeve with Avatar for the Wii. By focusing entirely on the Na'vi, it seems that the team is looking to build the backstory that is fueling the highly anticipated film, but we'll have to play more of the game to see if it lives up to the hype surrounding the entire Avatar franchise. As with the other versions of the game, Avatar is set to be released on the Wii on December 1.