Kung Fu Panda 2 (video game)

Kinect Version

Before the game starts, Po (who is now the Dragon Warrior and a Kung Fu master) has a short Kung Fu tutorial with the player, teaching the player some basic moves, like punching and kicking. Then the story of the game starts.

The story of the game happens after the events of the 2011 movie of the same name. Master Po, the rest of the Furious Five, and the villagers celebrate after defeating Lord Shen. However, remnants of Shen's Wolf and gorillas arrive, create chaos, and capture various villagers. Unknown to Po, the Five and the Villagers, two Komodo dragon mercenaries planned to use Shen's thugs to distract Po and the Five, and with them out of the way, they plan to take over Gongmen City. Shifu holds a meeting with Master Storming Ox and Master Croc.

Master Storming Ox says that they can't let the thugs take over the city, so Shifu, Storming Ox and Croc decide to split up and go around the city to stop the thugs. Po, with nothing to do, decides to tag along with Master Storming Ox, too. Po and Storming Ox have to attack and defeat all the Komodo dragons' minions and Shen's thugs at the same time. They track down the thugs to the Undercity, an underground city, and find Komodo dragons lurking there, and realize that the Komodo dragons were behind this, and get to the place where the Komodo dragons are lurking and fight some of them and continue to fight more and more Komodo dragons, before they fight the final boss.

Throughout the game, there are other short Kung Fu tutorials with Po. However, these tutorials are different from the first, because in the tutorials, there is usually a minion of Shen or the Komodo dragons for Po to fight to show an example for the player.

PlayStation 3 version

The plot of the PlayStation 3 version is the same as the Kinect version. During the game, all tutorials are excluded. The game skips straight to the start of the story, as the villagers of the Valley of Peace celebrate the defeat of Lord Shen. However, Lord Shen's goons appear and attack the villagers. Unknown to Po and the Five, two Komodo dragons plan to use the goons to distract Po and the Furious Five and take over Gongmen City.

Po runs to tell Master Shifu, Master Storming Ox and Master Croc, who are having a meeting. Po accidentally interrupts them, and tells them about the news. Shifu and the two Master already know about the news, and have been discussing about it. Master Storming Ox implies that the goons will ruin the spirits of the villagers, and the three Master agree to split up and drive away the thugs, with Shifu going uptown, Ox going North, and Croc going to the Docks at the South. Po, with nothing to do, decides to go with one of the Masters. Unlike the Kinect version, the player can choose which Master to go with.

Gameplay

The gameplays of the Kung Fu Panda 2 game platforms are different from each other. In the Kinect version of the video game, the player use his or her body to move Po's body parts, and is able to perform basic kung fu moves, like basic punches, kicks and blocks. There is also a jump and double-kick ability. If the player jumps, Po will jump AND double-kick. The player can use these moves to wear out enemies. To finish the enemy, the player can use several kinds of kung fu techniques, like the flowing form and other forms. Because the player can only use his or her body to move Po, the player is not able to move around.

In the PlayStation 3 version of the game, the player can move Po around, and they can use moves similar from the game based on the original film to defeat enemies. However, the PlayStation 3 version received negative reviews.

Reception

Unlike the first game, the Kung Fu Panda 2 video game received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. Metacritic calculated a score of 50 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version based on 18 reviews. It did a little bit better in the reception department for the DS version, scoring a rating of 59. The game fared worse with a rating of 31/100 for the PS3 version from 7 critics. On GameSpot, the game received an even negative rating score, receiving only 3.5 out of 10 points. The game received a slightly more positive score on IGN, receiving 6.5 out 10 points. However, IGN gave the PlayStation 3 version of the game a negative score, giving it only 3.5 points.