All things Skylanders

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
Post Reply
Ghost World

All things Skylanders

Post by Ghost World »

Hi guys

This Saturday 13th December we will be recording a podcast about the entire Skylanders series of games (Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force, Trap Team)

If you have any thoughts or opinions about one or all four games then please jot them down here and i'll do my best to included them on the show.
User avatar
AndyKurosaki
Member
Posts: 968
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 10:43 pm
Location: Scunthorpe, UK

Re: Our next podcast recording: Skylanders

Post by AndyKurosaki »

I've played and enjoyed this series up until Trap Team. It combines two of my favourite things, games and action figures. Oh ok, toys. It's not a cheap series to get into. But with each new release, there's always several figures I look at and go "want one".
It helps that the games themselves are a lot of fun to play. "Hardcore" gamers may look down on it as just for kids. But I've completed 3 of them, and had a great time.

However, Activision are starting to annoy me now. At £50/60 a go it's not a cheap game to buy. When Giants came out, they provided a cheaper "stand-alone" game for people with a Portal from the previous game. But then Swap Force came out with a new portal. And yet again with Trap Team. Ok, it features new tech. But i'm pissed off with being expected to pay full whack again and again. So I'm not buying Trap Team.
User avatar
RoboticMonk3y
Member
Posts: 844
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 3:25 pm
Location: Bristol

Re: Our next podcast recording: Skylanders

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

I have mixed feelings about skylanders.

On the positive, it's a well made game. The puzzles are simple enough for kids to get without too much effort, but there's enough challenge that the game isn't done with in a day. The figures themselves are well made, and I've had relatively few issues with the game and portal. I got the original for my daughter as a Christmas gift, so the music in the game will always remind me of time off work, sat on the floor and enjoying playing.

On the negative side, it's impossible to fully complete the game with buying at least a few extra figures, being on a very tight budget, it's difficult to explain to a child why there are parts of the game that she's not allowed to play and this makes the whole concept of skylanders change from a fun toy into a cynical cash grab.
This only seems to get worse when you fall down the rabbit hole of collecting. figures that are only obtainable as part of a 3 pack, or worse, only available at certain retailers. Thankfully my daughter isn't an obsessive collector, but even so I shudder to think how much one single game has cost me over the years.
Given that this game is aimed squarely at kids, I can't really shake of how exploitative that seems
LogicSword

Re: Our next podcast recording: Skylanders

Post by LogicSword »

The Skylanders games, or at least the collection of characters that's slowly building up, are going to be the end of my marriage, and I'm not entirely sure why I've let it get to that point.

I've played the first three and while the puzzles are clever and the individual characters fun to play as, the writing is extremely poor, even for a kids' game. I played the first one coming off the back of Lego City: Undercover, which certainly didn't help its cause, but I get the feeling that the main problem is that you are even less to the story than a silent protagonist, given that you could be any one of what must be coming up to 100 possible characters. The story therefore has to be based on the "secondary" characters such as Flynn, who is infuriatingly dull (Oh, you fancy Cali and are utterly incompetent, wonderful. Why should I like you?) Or Kaos, who reminds me of over the top Lets Players and Glumshanks, who at least has the decency to inject some snark into proceedings.

So why do I keep playing them? Partly the puzzles, partly because, apologies to my wife, collecting the little figures and swapping them about during play is inexplicably fun, but also because they have the tendency to completely throw a curve ball at you. The main moment I'm talking about is in Skylanders Giants where you encounter the world of the Wilikin, swapping between a version of the world where they are puppets to where they come to life and is one of the creepiest things I've come across.

It's hard to recommend them though, the cost to actually see all of the game is high, with it just becoming more and more expensive the longer the series goes on.
Post Reply