Xbox

Xiaolin Showdown

Surprisingly, Konami's licensed TV game, which rips off Nintendo's Smash Bros. wholesale, does a good job of replicating it. Unlike Activision's Shrek, which also "borrows" Nintendo's game, Xiaolin Showdown content matches the game style it takes, so it's a good combination.

On top of the adventure mode, you can also go back and play any showdown that you've previously played in a showdown mode. There's not much replay value to these showdowns though, as they all seem a little too similar to party games I've seen in the Mario Party series or its clones, and there aren't that many of them. Still, this mode is a nice touch. In short, though, this game is repetitive, not overly lengthy, and lacks much replay value, although the ability for four-player multi-player in the adventure mode redeems it somewhat. However, unless you're a significantly big fan of the cartoon on which this game is based, I'd recommend against it.

Things get even worse on the PSP version of the game. Not because it's different in any noticeable way, but because the characters are pretty tiny on the PS2 to begin with, and no one thought to zoom the camera in a bit on the portable system. The result is that it's very difficult to even see what's happening on the screen most of the time, especially when a crowd of combatants forms. Xiaolin Showdown has the elements of a good game, but the execution is so sloppy and shallow that it ends up falling flat.

Xiaolin Showdown relies on its multiplayer to facilitate replay value. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t have any. The monotonous and all-too-easy button-mashing combat is so been there, done that it’s not even remotely interesting. There are ways to make these kinds of games fun (see Power Stone for more). Xiaolin Showdown doesn’t use any of them. You won’t believe how easy and below average the objectives are. It’s like playing a game from 1995 – minus the fun and technological advancements that made ‘95 a year to remember.

Licensed video games often sell regardless of their quality, but few are as uninspired as Xiaolin Showdown. The gameplay is fundamentally broken, the presentation is average at best and there is never a challenge; in fact, I don't think I've ever played an easier game. If you absolutely love the TV show to an obsessive degree then you might be able to scrape some enjoyment from the game, but everyone else should adopt an offensive stance as soon as the game is spotted on a store shelf.

Licensed video games often sell regardless of their quality, but few are as uninspired as Xiaolin Showdown. The gameplay is fundamentally broken, the presentation is average at best and there is never a challenge; in fact, I don't think I've ever played an easier game. If you absolutely love the TV show to an obsessive degree then you might be able to scrape some enjoyment from the game, but everyone else should adopt an offensive stance as soon as the game is spotted on a store shelf.

Some of the ideas are nice, and the combat could be fun if there was a little more variety. Sadly, most of the ideas are stuck inside a boring game. If you're a big fan of Xiaolin Showdown, then maybe think about renting this game, since it works well for up to four players. If anything, the game is better if you play with all four players instead of having AI teammates. Though to be honest, you'll probably be quite disappointed and bored after a couple hours of playing the game, anyway.

There's something really condescending about Xiaolin Showdown. Whenever a new objective appears, the game comes to a screeching halt, and even if you've seen this type of objective a dozen times before, the game still explains what you're supposed to do, in painstaking detail, every single time. Additionally, it seems to be impossible to run out of health in Xiaolin Showdown, a suspicion that's backed up by the fact that there are no meters of any kind onscreen as you play. The game's disrespect for the intelligence of the player and its stale gameplay are sufficient reasons to avoid what is essentially a cynical marketing product.

Xiaolin Showdown is a bad game, plain and simple. In a genre where speed and chaos is an important part of gameplay, Xiaolin Showdown’s fights are out and outright tedious. Even the parts that had potential, like the character strength building and the bonus minigames, are poorly implemented.

Xiaolin Showdown had some potential, I'm sure, but almost every aspect of the game seems so poorly thought out that it's hard to find much positive to say about it. The presentation is passable, but the gameplay itself is an exercise in pure tedium. The pervasive sense of overwhelming boredom is what really kills it, since a competitive, group-oriented game should ideally be the exact opposite of digital Ambien. I'd imagine that even the younguns that this title is aimed towards would get sick of it very quickly -- a familiar license can only go so far, after all. If this game were an actual party, it'd be a shindig thrown by your high school pre-calculus teacher. Avoid.

In the end, Xiaolin Showdown borrows some of the concepts of the best party games and action beat 'em ups but doesn't deliver anything compelling or exciting - even for kids. For what its worth, the game does deserve some credit for its nice presentation and for using the voice acting cast from the show. If your kids are asking for this game give it a rental first - chances are they'll get their fill in that short span of exposure to the game and will want to move onto something else.

Whoever, wherever, whatever you are, there is absolutely zero reason to own this atrocious excuse for a video game. Fans should be offended at the butchery of their beloved series while the rest of the world will just look on in bewilderment that such terrible games are still being released in 2007. Everything about it is just wrong. To be able to put out a title this broken with so many great modern and retro games from which to draw influence is a hell of an achievement. Albeit in a sick Jackass staple-a-chair-to-your-manhood kind of way - not the kind of achievement you want to have anything at all to do with. Ever.