Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure - a surprisingly great game

[CRTGAMER]

@ "Zing" - My apologies upfront for the negatives about this game.

http://www.skylanders.com

For those that don't know, this is a Gauntlet-style game designed to be playable by younger players. The gimmick is that the game comes with a physical "portal" and figurines. The figures have RFID chips inside that store their stats and items as they level up. To play the game, you place a figure on the portal and the related character appears on the screen.

One thing that some people may hate, but I personally love, is that the game has zero online component. The characters are not downloadable DLC. They are all physical in the form of figures you place on the portal. Yes, this means you are actually just paying to unlock existing content already on the disc. I actually prefer this method as it means the game will work for the rest of my life, instead of ceasing to exist whenever the publisher shuts down or the platform is obsolete. It also means that character loading is instantaneous and not reliant on an internet connection.

Your OP had a hidden link in the pic that might be missed by some, fixed in the Quote
Thanks for the review! Got my curiosity and looked up more info on this game. I even played around with a Store Demo Kios which let me place different game pieces on the Portal. Now I understand the concept, a novel approach to access a different part of a game. Skylanders is getting a lot of shelf space in most of the stores, each store selling exclusive RFID game characters to cash in.

I do like Gauntlet style games, but question if the initial Starter Pack is really worth buying. A very slick marketing move, a form of local DLC in having to buy all the additional game characters.



Gamestop has a nice Skylanders custom display
A mini LCD screen inside a custom base unit Portal turned on just when I walked by it. Made me double look, I just want that mini LCD display Portal unit!

Skylander Gamestop Kios.jpg (244.01 KiB) Viewed 2183 times

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co. ... kylanders/

My concern is that if Skylanders sells a lot this Christmas, there'll be a Skylanders 2 with even more figures. And it may encourage other publishers to go down the same route. Imagine a Pokémon game where instead of catching them all, you had to spend a couple of quid on a toy to unlock them? Would you want all 500+ then?

I think this is a good read about how expensive it is just to see everything that is on the disc.

ACTIVISION puts this out, Thirty Two RFID figurines to buy!
This can really get very expensive! You have got to be kidding me??!!!

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=165085

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Exclusives

Whirlwind figure: Target online exclusive ($7.99, free S&H, not available in stores, currently out of stock).

Drill Sergeant figure: Exclusive to Walmart ($7.96) and Sam's Club ($9.88). Also available as part of a Sam's Club exclusive Drill Sergeant figure and Starter Pack bundle ($64.86).

Darklight Crypt Adventure Pack: Toys R Us exclusive ($19.99, exclusive until 11/15/2011) - includes Ghost Roaster figure, Crypt in-game world accessory, The Twister and Healing Elixer power-up accessories.

Legendary Character Pack: Toys R Us exclusive ($19.99) - includes Legendary Bash, Legendary Chop Chop, and Legendary Spyro figures.

Dark Spyro figure: Exclusive to the 3DS Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack. Available from Amazon ($69.99, free S&H), Walmart ($69.96, free site-to-store S&H), Best Buy ($69.99), Gamestop ($69.99), and other retailers.

Volcano Vault in-game arena accessory: Exclusively bundled with Best Buy Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Starter Packs (excluding 3DS version).

The must have toy of Christmas 2011?
It is an interesting game with a very unique concept of the portal instant go to your RFID game character. Activision might pull this off, parents will buy the additional pieces for their kids. The under ten bucks per additional RFID character is almost an impulse buy, but the total package of $300 is a lot of money for just one game!

A sad state of affairs, today's unaware or don't care video game buying public.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I wonder if those RFID chips can be read if you leave the figures in the packaging. Serious action figure collectors don't always like to open things. Then again, it'll probably be kids playing this and we know how kids like to demolish packaging... ask me how many of my old NES games still have a box.

[CRTGAMER]

I wonder if those RFID chips can be read if you leave the figures in the packaging. Serious action figure collectors don't always like to open things. Then again, it'll probably be kids playing this and we know how kids like to demolish packaging... ask me how many of my old NES games still have a box.

Yes the sealed RFID characters work. I tried the Demo Kios at Target, regular sealed packaged games worked on the Demo Portal. From looking at the game it looks like a pretty good Gauntlet style game, but at a price to unlock all the levels.

[Zing]

First I want to clarify something that I said in the OP. I said that you were paying to unlock DLC already on the disc. After many hours of enjoyment with my daughter just playing with the toys themselves, and the quality production of the toys, I'd like to rephrase this to say "you are paying for the toy, and it just happens to unlock the character on the disc".

But honestly, these "toys" are of probably the highest manufacture of any chinese made toy I have seen in a while. The paint jobs are very well done. The paint itself appears to be good quality and does not chip or crack despite the fact that it is painted on a rubbery figure that gets bent repeatedly by kids. The sculptures themselves are well done, and from what I understand, one man did them all. They are very consistent from an artistic viewpoint.

As for $330 being insane for the total collection, maybe. Honestly, kids are not going to be expected to own them all. Only adults will bother getting everything. The game actually encourages kids to only get a few characters and power them up, using co-op as the method to unlock the optional gates. There is an in-game experience boost if you own* every figure, but I actually find myself getting more experience than I need. What is scarce most of the time is gold to buy upgrades!

Toys R Us and Amazon both currently have a "buy 2 figures for $10" deal and the starters are on sale for only $50. So now is the time to jump in, if you haven't already.

* "own" in game terms means you have "taken ownership" of a figure. Ownership just adds the character to your collection and does not affect the true ownership of the figure. You and your friend can both "own" your friend's figure without detriment.

[Zing]

One more comment: I have played through the entire game and there is no reason why you cannot just use the three figures included in the starter pack. You only need the other elemental types if you want to explore the gates you find in each level. The gates add a bit to the game's play time, but the in game rewards are just hats and more gold. You won't miss out too much if you just skip them.

That said, it only costs an additional $40 (two three-packs) to get one of each element type. ~$100 total to experience the entire game is well worth it, in my opinion. This is a quality game inside and out. If you have a kid under the age of 10 who enjoys playing games with you, do not hesitate for a millisecond to give this a try.

[Zing]

I hope they can make the Wii portal work on the PC, that way I can buy the Wii version now and get the PC version on download later.

Activision support:
"We cannot guarantee 100% compatibility between platforms. However, the Wii and PS3 portal should work on the PC/MAC."

Not very committal, but from what I can tell, it should work. All of the portals work on the PC/Mac for their flash game, so it should work for the full game. The only difference is that the full PC/Mac version of the game probably installs the portal hardware driver automatically. But even without the disc, you can download and install the driver from the website.

[fastbilly1]

I hope they can make the Wii portal work on the PC, that way I can buy the Wii version now and get the PC version on download later.

Activision support:
"We cannot guarantee 100% compatibility between platforms. However, the Wii and PS3 portal should work on the PC/MAC."

Not very committal, but from what I can tell, it should work. All of the portals work on the PC/Mac for their flash game, so it should work for the full game. The only difference is that the full PC/Mac version of the game probably installs the portal hardware driver automatically. But even without the disc, you can download and install the driver from the website.

I talked to a buddy with the PC version and he confirmed the Wii portal works on it. I am going to try and find a copy of the Wii version in the near future. Sadly the PC version is not on Steam, yet.

[noiseredux]

I just heard about this from my wife oddly enough. I had no idea what it was. I admit it's intriguing in that it's ...different. But I'm not sure I get the appeal. Seems like a lot of $ to unlock new characters. It almost sounds like gamers are knowingly being bled and they're okay with it.

[Zing]

If someone feels it is just "paying to unlock characters", then yes, you are correct, they won't see the appeal. That seems like the same tone someone would take when talking about Gears of Wars DLC, or Farmville.

I would hesitate to recommend this game to someone who has no local friends that would be interested in playing on a regular basis. While playing through the game by yourself is very enjoyable, buying the collection for this purpose would feel a little excessive. I suppose if he just picked his favourite of each element type, a loner could maximize his value.

The game really shines in two situations:
1) Multiple people, each owning their own figures playing together
2) One person owning all the figures and multiple people sharing them

It doesn't need co-op to shine, but it does get a good boost from some sort of interaction with other humans. Imagine the difference between two people playing Pokemon on their own and occasionally linking up or having real-life conversations about the game, or one person playing it by himself.

The Pokemon reference is apt, as this game does have that feel. You aren't unlocking "skins" or "hats" (ironically, the game does have collectable hats), these are fully fleshed-out characters that are customized as you level them up, each being a particular element type with a particular set of skills. As a bonus, you get a great figurine to play with and display, with the figurine doubling as "the cloud" where it stores your characters progress and upgrades. This allows you to play with your customized character on literally any current video game platform you come across (assuming it has the software).

[Zing]

Amazon has a fresh and full stock of the figures now. They are selling for $4.99 each, which is a great deal considering most retail stores have raised the price to $9.99. Amazon also has the starter set for $53. Grab them while you can!