Quote: Muffin ManVV scores major brownie points with me simply because it added jumping and platforming elements to Skylanders and brought the series closer to its classic Spyro roots. TfB seems to want to go in a strictly dungeon crawler sort of direction with the series, whereas VV wants it to be more of a platforming/adventure game with all sorts of gimmicky variations to the gameplay (And classic Spyro had plenty of gimmicky variations...flying stages, anyone? Skateboarding stages? Tank stages? First Person shooter stages?).
Granted, not everyone wants Skylanders to become more like classic Spyro, and obviously no one type of gameplay is superior to another, it's all just a matter of taste.
Except those were always side-functions not the focus of the games.
The "main big innovation" (there were too may big and small ones to actually point out the most important) in Spyro 2 was the introduction of the different abilities (swimming, climbing, head bashing and spitting) along with the power ups.
With the third game they introduced the possibility to play as multiple characters.
Vehicles or other different gameplays were just part of a bigger classic gameplay.
I don't feel the same with SuperChargers but from what I heard I may very easily be wrong.
However you are right about Skylanders becoming more and more similar to a classic old-schooled platforming game (up to now at least): I kinda liked its dungeon crawling nature, it really made it feel unique but now I like it even more.
That's my entire point: Spyro never needed big game changing gimmicks to never feel old or reheated, just small tweaks here and there and cleverly thought addictions which ultimately truly innovated the gameplay without altering.
To put it simple, more functions like jumping, jump-attacking and such and less gimmicks such as Trap Masters and SuperChargers; items such as traps and vehicles are welcomed as long as they don't alter the game too much.