Hands-on with Po the Kung Fu Panda

You probably wouldn't expect the cuddly mascot for the World Wildlife Fund to take to martial arts in expressing its angst over the deforestation of its native bamboo habitat. But that's the premise of the latest Jack Black-voiced animation due this June.

Kicking its way from the silver screen to the dual screen, Kung Fu Panda brings the deadly action of Po the Panda to DS and our experience with the game at Nintendo's Media Summit in San Francisco has us eager for the its summer release.

Although the graphics are three dimensional, Kung Fu Panda actually plays out like a 2D side-scrolling action game. The top display shows the layout of your current level, which is divided into a series of individual rooms. All of the action takes places on the touchscreen though. Either the directional pad or face buttons can be used to move Po through the game with the face buttons mirroring the up, down, left, and right directions on the pad - both being mapped to the same functions in the game. Hold down left or right and Po moves in that direction. Tap up to jump; a second time for a mid-air double jump. Lastly, pressing down causes Po to curl up into a defensive ball.

Splitting use of the directional pad and face buttons worked well during our play through one of the game's earliest levels. We used the D-pad to move Po through the side-scrolling levels, opting for the X button to jump instead of pressing up on the D-pad. This afforded great precision in jumping, which is important when tackling the platform challenges peppered throughout the game.

One simple platform sequence had us double jumping to grab onto hovering vultures in order to access a high ledge. By quickly hitting the X button twice in succession, we gained enough height to then grab one of the vultures with a tap of the stylus. One down, two to go. With Po hanging off the first vulture, we performed the same double jump-grab two more times on two additional vultures before landing on the platform successfully. It was a close call mind, as Po almost missed the ledge and had to pull himself up with his paws from the edge.

While platforming definitely plays a part in the game, it wouldn't live up to its name if there wasn't some kung fu action involved. Combat makes exclusive use of the touchscreen with grabs and attacks triggered solely with the stylus. Tap an enemy and Po quickly grabs them, at which point you can flick the stylus in any direction to throw their body. Slide the stylus through a foe and Po executes a martial arts blow. Naturally, new touch-enabled attacks become available as you progress through the game's approximately dozen levels.

The fighting is often also tied to puzzles and platforming. It's not uncommon to have to clear a room of enemies before a door opens or item appears. In one area, conjuring a switch to unlock a nearby door required skinning a trio of standing crocodiles. A few swipes and a couple of slashes made luggage of the foes, opening the way to the rest of the level. Another puzzle had Po activating a series of switches in order to clear a path. One switch opened access to a second switch that fired a spear. That spear conveniently killed a crocodile standing on a third switch. With the scaly dude dead, the switch was released and the door lifted.

Kung Fu Panda won't revolutionise handheld action of course, yet it's shaping up to provide a solid mix of combat and platforming. We're interested in playing more, as the early levels we played didn't give us an indication of the full range of abilities Po supposedly comes into later on. But as far as the basics go, Kung Fu Panda is one of the most promising movie tie-ins we've seen for some time.