darkSpyro

Wow just wow. The straight up hate and misinformed opinion pieces are hilarious. Now I would like to add a little truth to this topic. I would also like to establish that I own most of the Disney Infinity pieces that have been released at this point. I would also like to point out that I still prefer Skylanders as my preferred franchise but I cannot stand it when people are just straight up wrong and spreading their misinformation. Let's straighten a few things out:

First off Back off of LightSpryo, right or wrong his opinions are just as valid as yours. Most of us have had our doubts about this franchise at one time or another. I was personally disappointed with Giants but Swap Force brought me back. He is simply voicing his concerns and was hoping for more mature conversation...I'm sure he's learned his lesson.

Second, GM stop even trying to imply that the Sega Genesis wasn't a piece of crap compared to the SNES. Brand loyalty is one thing but straight up denial is something else entirely. And while I'm on the topic of GM you yourself have said you're done with these forums in particular and yet you are still here. Don't get me wrong I felt that people were being unfair to you just as you are now being unfair to LightSpyro. Basically I'm saying back off man.

Thirdly (that always sounds funny) sf all the misinformation about D.I. The base adventure packs that come with the game have more alternate game play modes than both Skylanders combined. There is double jumping which for most of you platform gamers know there's a lot right there. There's vehicles, both ground and flying. The Pirate Ship combat alone out does any artillery mode from Skylanders by a lot. Building scaling and climbing. There are fetch quests, collect quests, kill quests not to mention the challenges spread out all throughout the levels. There are stealth mode attacks. So to some up D.I. has way more play styles than Skylanders.

Toy Box mode might not appeal to everyone out there but I myself really enjoy it and found myself playing through the play sets just to unlock something in the Toy Box. It really is a lot of fun but it's also a great deal of the implied value of the game....more on that in my gripe section.

This game is not and ongoing series of heroic challenges. You have your core quests and rinse and repeat quests outside of your main story quests that are lack luster but provide money for the unlockables. You also have challenge points throughout the level that have different difficulty settings. Each character also has their own version of a heroic challenge but only they can do it which is pretty lame.

Both games are vastly different and thus offer completely different play experiences but no body seems to want to talk about the differences just blindly state that D.I. sucks and Skylanders is better (see how generalizing hurts everyone).

Now here are my personal gripes with D.I.:

Frustrating difficulty. This is really the big kicker for me. D.I. has some legitly difficult moments in their aimed at the younger crowd game (I'm looking at you invincible paint ball gum bastard that never misses from Monsters University). My 8 year old daughter HATES some moments in the play sets. At least if she gets overwhelmed in the Toy Box she just turns into a crow and fly's away. Skylanders has always been accessible for that age group to simply button mash and have a since of accomplishment which D.I. rarely offers. So already my daughter prefers Skylanders in that regard.

Toy Box only characters. This is perhaps my most frustrating and unforgivable point to this game. There is no excuse as to why they have Toy Box only characters and it's frankly an insult. They cost just as much as a figure that has play set and toy box functionality. As much as I love the toy box mode I'm pretty much refusing to buy ANY toy box only characters. This hurts mainly for Wreck-it-Ralph and Vaniallope. How hard would it have been to make a Wreck-it-Ralph play set??? I mean it's a franchise that's already based on 3 different video games....SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!1111?!!?!?!11111!?!?!?!!?!?!!!1111. EVERY Skylander is usable in pretty much ever aspect of the game at any time other than when they get knocked out. D.I. already has limited access with the characters in the play sets but at least those characters have a play set.

Power Discs are too freaking expensive. $5 for two random discs that only work in part of the game or the character discs that proc. some of the time...please..../lame.

Characters levels...what do they actually do. I have to admit I'm a little lost on this point. Other than a spin in the vault I don't know if you even get more HP when you level so leveling a toon in D.I. is pretty pointless compared to Skylanders. When I level a D.I. character I don't gain extra power, have access to extra moves or gain anything of any real merit. In Skylanders I have a real connection as to the progress I make with the individual character. As I work them through their paces they become stronger.

All those points being said both franchises could learn from each other. D.I. needs to put more fun into the game along with a since of accomplishment and connectedness in their game like I get with Skylanders. They could also stand to make everything viable like in Skylanders. While Skylanders could make the game a little less linear and have more side quests give me a since of exploration while offering more alternate types of game play. A toy box mode equivalent would be nice but not expected....look how long it took to get jump lol.

Also people need to back off a little and calm down. Remember that both franchises are aimed at a younger demographic so it's kind of implied that lighter hearts and moods should prevail...unless you super pissed about something...like still missing reposes of some Skylanders from Spyro's Adv...now that rage worthy.

Ahem... YOU NEED A TARGET PRE-ORDER CARD OR OR TESCO PRE-ORDER CARD FOR THE UFO HAT IN SKYLANDERS! YOU NEED TO BUY MULTIPLE STARTER PACKS OR BUY LOOSE FIGURES IF YOU WANT EVERY VARIANT! And collecting variants in itself is a pain! To be blunt, either quit your whingeing about how many toys you need for Infinity, or stop acting like Skylanders hasn't done the same. As of now, if you want 100% and full accessibility in the three home console games, you're going to have to buy around 2-6 extra triple packs(depending on wether you want the adventure pack levels), and about 6 extra Swap figures(depending on which assorts end up in double packs). You're also going to need 4 battle packs and a magic card if you want every arena and hat. If you want all the Heroics to play- and this is the big one- you have to buy 48 toys to unlock them all. And isn't the current rumour that there won't be any Dig/Stealth Skylanders at Swap Force launch?

I have Infinity and even the content in the starter pack is fine- it places a lot of barriers, yes, but seriously Skylanders did the same thing with Heroics(Orange Base requirement says hi- it's locking you out from potentially hundreds of hours of extra playtime even if you bought every last original series figure), and now it's doing it with these pre-order cards you're going to need to get the last hat- and judging by how the amount of variants skyrocketed last game, I wouldn't be surprised if we see more and more similar cards and merchandise we need to get in the next game(... and I'm still waiting for them to come out here in Australia - I was lucky to trade for some ).

Power discs are really cheap on eBay too, no blind hunting, only really expensive ones are the exclusives that are only in AU for now.


I agree with Tigorus' post above. I love them both, do you guys have something against thinking that's possible? I like Infinity better as a game and it feels like it has more longevity and variety. But I also like how Skylanders' toys feel like they learn more in the game. Why do we have to fight over which is superior? It's good to be informed as a consumer to which you might prefer, but saying one is objectively "better" than the other is stupid... Some people will prefer Skylanders but some won't mind paying extra for Infinity.

Either way, both of them use slimy tactics.
Both of them are cash grabs.
The toys to life gimmick is not useful for anything else.

Good post Tigorus. That covers a lot.

I think the real difference is the Toy Box mode + Downloadable Content. In that area, DI slaughters Skylanders. When SF is released, it'll basically all be set. All the levels, areas, terrain, everything. We might have to wait a little for new adventure pack, but it's still set. Disney is releasing new content every week. They can always have new zones to play in. So we can talk about Giants heroics and challenges, but DI has the option of never running out of content. ever.

That being said, until my son is a little older, or they start releasing different types of play sets (Star Wars!!) our addiction is still not going to rival Skylanders. I think the basic game play is just funner in Skylanders.

The real question will be in 9-12 months. What game(s) will I be playing then.....