E3 06: Xiaolin Showdown Hands-On

LOS ANGELES--At Konami's booth here at E3, one of the games that they have available in playable form is Xiaolin Showdown, based on the Kids' WB animated television show. This Powerstone-esque brawler seems fairly simplistic, but also seems to offer the potential for a good amount of fun for those fond of fast-paced action games.

As mentioned, the game's primary gameplay seems to be somewhat redolent of Powerstone, the often-praised brawler for Sega's Dreamcast. In Xiaolin Showdown, you take on the role of one of the game's many characters and enter into a large arena, in which you have the ability to attack, guard, jump, and activate one of your Shen-Gong-Wu powers, of which you'll be able to choose three before entering a mission. The Shen-Gong-Wu powers have a cost, measured in Chi, so it's a good thing that all of the other enemies in the game who are fighting you will be dropping chi energy for you to collect. Of course, you'll also drop chi energy yourself when you're whacked, so you'll have to one-up them in combat if you hope to get enough power to pull off your magical attacks.

After fighting for a little while in our arena, which featured two huge jets of flame that we could knock enemies into for extra damage, a small artifact appeared on the screen. After we jumped onto it, we were shunted into a minigame called "Tag You're It." In this mode, which is apparently an updated version of Hide and Seek, one player is "It" and has to strike any of the other players to tag them. The longer you remain It, the further down the flagpole your flag goes; when it hits the bottom, you lose. The computer characters here did a good job of avoiding us as we desperately tried to hit them, so you can expect a little challenge here.

Overall, Xiaolin Showdown is looking like it'll be a fun and easy-to-get-into fighter for fans of the show, or anyone who's interested in a upbeat fighting game. We'll have more details on the game as they become available, so stay tuned to GameSpot.