darkSpyro

Vicarious Visions were called in to develop the 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adenture, and it was well received, noted for being influenced from their work on the Crash Bandicoot franchise.
Vicarious Visions did a good job on the 3DS version and the iOS game Cloud Patrol, but now they're focusing on different projects and Activision has hired n-Space to replace them for the sequel. Now, I haven't seen footage of the game yet, so it's unfair for me to knock it, but I've looked through n-Space's catalog of games and they don't seem to have much experience with platformers, nor do many of their games have high scores on metacritic. This leads to my worry that Skylanders: Giants 3DS could be a potential downgrade or disappointment compared to what made last years game on the 3DS so enjoyable.

Please note that this is just my opinion at the moment, and I could very well be proven wrong when the game is released. I'd like to hear any thoughts or opinions on the matter.

heard about that, not sure what to say...
but don't get your hopes down, there is always somehow a miracle at the end!

Theres a bit of footage for the 3DS version on the Nintendo Direct where they announced the 3DS XL. Looks pretty much the same as the other but I don't know about things like a plot or anything.

I'm sorry. I like the first 3DS game and all, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too simple.

The platforming was very lite, and it felt like I was doing the same thing in each level, with only environmental changes.

This game looks far more fun and challenging. It looks like a TRUE platformer now. It looks like it has some challenge now. The platforming looks more varied, and I cannot wait to play it.

Based on that first trailer from Nintendo Direct, it made me think of what the first 3DS game should have been. I am a huge platforming genre lover, and this game looks to be right up my alley.

Thanks, I now watched the gameplay footage on Nintendo Direct. The platforming does look more varied than Spyro's Adventure and, I admit, looks better than I was expecting, although it looks like it's missing the Crash Bandicoot elements from the last game. Of course, I'm going to hold my final opinion for when the game comes out, but it doesn't look too bad so far.

I'm a bit worried about it.

See Heroes of Ruin.
A mediocre dungeon crawler n-Space released a couple of months ago.

That is why I am extremely worried about the version this time. Heroes of Ruin is a decent game, but nothing more. Skylanders on 3DS was excellent and nothing less. And I don't hear much special about n-Space's other games.
But we'll see if they can do better than usual with this... Who knows?

Heroes of ruin has online. Hint hint

Quote: Dmcrocks

Heroes of ruin has online. Hint hint

Because a single player platforming game totally needs online.

Quote: Dmcrocks

Heroes of ruin has online. Hint hint

The gameplay still isn't that great, though. It's admirably ambitious, but it fell flat.

Quote: D-Rex

Quote: Dmcrocks

Heroes of ruin has online. Hint hint

Because a single player platforming game totally needs online.

I think he was trying to say "play the online".

I saw my friend playing and i almost passed out when i found out the moves weren't the same in the 3ds!
tried my camo on it and i couldn't go under-ground and shoot water-melons!!! Maybe you should just get the wii or xboxor something else :I

Heroes of Ruin is actually a pretty awesome game. I don't know where you're getting your info on it (for example, to say it came out "a couple of months ago" is a bit of a reach - it came out 53 days ago in the EU and 21 days ago in the US...)

Is it perfect? By no means. It has some issues - but it's well worth the purchase price and, if you enjoy dungeon crawlers, you'll enjoy this one if you're wanting a chance to play online (even more so if you want to see what the 3DS is capable of doing online... No other 3DS game pushes the systems limits like this one does).

But no, it's not perfect. But neither was Skylanders 3DS. I enjoyed it a lot more than the console version, but comeon... The complete lack of any exploration made the levels feel completely linear. The radiance challenges were pointless filler that added nothing to the game except a repetitive mini-game that you're forced to play over and over. The forced time limit on the levels once you cleared them, prohibiting you from replaying any of the specific challenges without resetting your save file? WTF is this crap?

Game had some issues.

n-Space's biggest problem when it comes to review scores is that they're making a lot of niche and licensed products. The Call of Duty and 007 tiles on the DS are a great example. The number of FPS titles on the DS could probably be counted on two hands and over half of them were made by n-Space. FPS isn't niche, but the players of FPS games on the DS are. Other FPS players are used to the graphical powerhouses of the 360/PS3 that when they see the graphics that the DS is capable of, they automatically write the game off without giving it a run through.

As for the licenses games like Toy Story 3 and Hannah Montana... I'm not going to do too much defending there. I will point out, however, that licensed games tend to exist in a different world where publishers award the license to a developer last minute and the developer has a strict deadline (in order to meet a movie release date, for instance) and that's that.

In the case of TS3 - the tower defense game in it is pretty darn awesome.... but I'm a fan of Tower Defense games.

I haven't played any n-Space games other than Heroes of Ruin.

53 days... Close enough. It felt like two months anyway.

I played Heroes of Ruin and although it is enjoyable in very small bouts, playing for anything more than half an hour makes it very boring. The visuals are lackluster, the enemies are way too easy to kill, there are few quests for a game of the genre... I could go on about how disappointing it was. To be fair, I haven't tried the online, but the game just hasn't motivated me to do it.

And I admit Skylanders 3DS could have been more magnificent, but you seem to be nitpicking a bit.

Nitpicking?

You could argue that my lack of exploration complaint is nitpicking, I suppose. I mean, not all platformers have exploration elements. It's just something that I come to expect from a full platform game that's been developed in the last ten years or so.

However, I disagree, completely, that I'm nitpicking when I say the radiance challenge levels were lame mini-games forced onto the player to pad the game. 14 Radiance Challenge levels.. out of, what? 34 levels?

Second - again, disagree that it's nitpicking to complain about the forced time limit when you've completed the level. Granted, there isn't much exploring to be done, but this KILLS your ability to explore what little there is. At this point, it becomes a twitch platformer, trying to get to the end of the level before time runs out. Granted, it was never very difficult - but that's not what I look for in a platformer. A few levels like this? Sure. EVERY SINGLE ONE? Bleh.

Heroes of Ruin is arse and if n-space only have this to show for. then rest assured that 3ds giants are gonna suck hard... better save the money and buy the giant ps3 version, it's gonna be awesome!

I would like to point out, by the way...

Heroes of Ruin - Metacritic User Review Score - 8.1
Skylanders 3DS - Metacritic User Review Score - 4.9

Now, I'm not saying that HoR is a "better" game that Skylanders 3DS - they're two totally different genres that are both doing different things. I'm just pointing out that, to folks who went into HoR with reasonable expectations of what they were going to get, we're MORE than happy with it.


And for another game where n-Space shines - http://www.metacritic.com/game/gamecube/geist

They do some awesome work. That's not to say there isn't a few duds (show me a developer without that that isn't a Nintendo 1st party), but all-in-all, they're top notch.

As for Vicarious Visions - they're a great studio, no doubt... but let's not pretend they don't have some bombs in their recent past.

Guitar Hero DS anyone? (although, to be fair, the first does have an 8.9 on Metacritic, which beats out both the above titles)

I'd like to point out VV's other works on the 3DS... but they have NOTHING. The closest I can come up with is Mixed Messages DSiWare... which doesn't even have a MC score.

A developer making a crappy game, thus all games from then on out, will be crappy, is failed logic.

Bungie made a crappy shooter (Marathon) and crappy 3rd person action game (Oni). Both games weren't well received at all. Look what happened to them. They made Halo.

Before Skylanders, I had no idea who Toys for Bob was. That was until I checked them out on the Wiki. They have made some games that not only gamers probably thought were *** at the time, but probably weren't well received by critics as well.

102 Dalmations? Really? Game of the year there, let me tell you. However, they went on to make a very good game with Skylanders.

Point is, developers don't always make crappy games, just because the first few weren't good.

Giants on 3DS, based on a 17-30 second trailer, already looks more fun than the entirety of Skylanders on 3DS, which I keep trying to play, but can't bring myself to beat, because the platforming feels so stale. The game is waaaaaaay to easy, while at the same time, it is full of the same old stuff every level, with just different changes in scenery.

I don't know where all this doubt is coming from. If you watch the video, the gameplay itself doesn't look different from the existing 3DS version. Chances are that n-Space isn't even being allowed to deviate too much from the existing game and I wouldn't be surprised if they are simply building on top of the Vicarious Visions engine from the first game. Why would they waste the time and resources building from the ground up when all the groundwork and assets are already there to make a new game? I think some of you are worrying over nothing.

Quote: kappapopm

Heroes of Ruin is arse and if n-space only have this to show for. then rest assured that 3ds giants are gonna suck hard... better save the money and buy the giant ps3 version, it's gonna be awesome!

Just because one of n-Space's games is bad, to you, it doesn't mean all of the games they'll make, including Giants, will be bad, Kappa.

Quote: UncleBob

I would like to point out, by the way...

Heroes of Ruin - Metacritic User Review Score - 8.1
Skylanders 3DS - Metacritic User Review Score - 4.9

You actually trust reviewer scores? I thought people stopped doing that after the whole Mass Effect 3 debacle and Diablo 3.

Judging games by reviews? Really? Those reviews are other people's opinions of the game they had played.

I've watched videos of Heroes of Ruin and I think that if n-Space and Activision wanted to instead replicate the console versions of Skylanders on the 3DS, the use of the Heroes of Ruin engine would work perfectly.

Quote: sykotek

I've watched videos of Heroes of Ruin and I think that if n-Space and Activision wanted to instead replicate the console versions of Skylanders on the 3DS, the use of the Heroes of Ruin engine would work perfectly.

No, thank you! I don't need the console versions for the 3DS! The 3DS version is unique and I love that it is a 3D Platformer! Many people favor the 3DS version because it is a 3D Platformer. A standalone version is always better for handhelds.

Quote: XSparxX

No, thank you! I don't need the console versions for the 3DS! The 3DS version is unique and I love that it is a 3D Platformer! Many people favor the 3DS version because it is a 3D Platformer. A standalone version is always better for handhelds.

Oh, I agree with you, I like the existing 3DS version and I'm pretty sure Giants will be more of the same. I'm just saying, if they wanted to replicate the console versions, the Heroes of Ruin engine would be a good fit.

Quote: D-Rex

Quote: UncleBob

I would like to point out, by the way...

Heroes of Ruin - Metacritic User Review Score - 8.1
Skylanders 3DS - Metacritic User Review Score - 4.9

You actually trust reviewer scores? I thought people stopped doing that after the whole Mass Effect 3 debacle and Diablo 3.

Exactly. READ the reviews, most of them complain about it not being a true Spyro game and Spyro looking ugly... Most probably haven't even played the game.

You say you're upset about the levels becoming timed. Bam easy fix: Don't collect Radience Crystals if you want to explore. PLUS, most people complain the main game on 3DS is too short, starting a new file to play the levels is not that difficult.
If you don't enjoy Radience Challenge levels, play them once to unlock the next. Bam. They take four minutes each at most.

GameMaster, you say you dislike how simple the 3DS version is, but if anything it's the console version that's botchedly so. The hardest to notice puzzle involves bringing one of four characters to a cliff and all the characters feel the same, tearing through in Story.

The thing is, I'm absolutely fine with it being the same as the original 3DS version. However, if it DOES turn into an exploration Platformer 64-esque(Yeah... I think it was meant to resemble Crash Bandicoot), it would take a lot of the charm the original game had out of it. The original is fun because you can just pick any character and play through a level fast.
But the thing is, IF Heroes of Ruin IS any indicator, n-Space are no good with making a good ol' game you can just play, which like I said is what the original was. That's why I'm worried, that they will take the charm out wether or not they copy the original.
If they try to add exploration, it will take away the point of just leveling up, and if they don't, I just have a dreadful feeling that they will fail at it.

By the way, for the zero people who think this might have more exploration, I doubt it- you can see different paths in these videos, but watch the first ones of the original and you see the branching isn't that differently implemented.

Regarding anyone who takes issue with me posting the MetaCritic scores, two things:
A) I've played both titles. A lot. I'm not someone who looks at the review score and dismisses it and I'm not someone who craps on a game when I haven't even accessed some of the most flaunted features of the game. Like some folks.
If you have a problem with someone bringing up Metacritic scores, please bring it up with the OP.

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You say you're upset about the levels becoming timed. Bam easy fix: Don't collect Radience Crystals if you want to explore.

Awesome plan. "If you want to enjoy the game, don't complete it." Sounds good.

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PLUS, most people complain the main game on 3DS is too short, starting a new file to play the levels is not that difficult.

Are you the guy who complained that HoR didn't have enough quests? By your own logic, you could just start a new save file so you have more quests. It's not that difficult. And HoR even has a 4th save file, so you can do it more. Oh, and HoR has new daily and weekly quests via DLC.

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If you don't enjoy Radience Challenge levels, play them once to unlock the next. Bam. They take four minutes each at most.

It's not that I *hated* Radiance Challenge levels. It's that I hated how repetitious they were and how many there were. Seriously, they were virtually the same thing, over and over. But to your point "If you dislike that part of the game, skip it." - to an extent, I can understand, but we're not talking about a small part of the game. There are 36 levels and 14 of them are Radiance Challenges. That's more than 1/3rd of the game being nothing but filler. The same thing, reskinned over and over to pad the game.

Going by your direction on how to play the game, I should just rush through the Radiance Challenges, so I'd get 14 out of 70 Crystals. Then, on the other 21 levels, I shouldn't complete at least one of the goals and not do the timed mission. 63 out of 105 crystals.

77 crystals. I should only complete roughly 50% of the game because the rest needs improvement. That's a good plan.

Look, I'm not saying Skylanders 3DS is a bad game. It's great. I love it. I beat it before I finished the console version - it was the first game I played every expansion on when I got them, and it's the #4 most-played game on my 3DS (the first two being Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros, both of which are highly inflated due to the amount of multi-player I play though on these two games) out of 277 titles that I've played on my 3DS. But it's got some flaws. There's only one perfect game out there (not counting the various re-releases of it), so I'm okay with flaws. I expect I won't be 100% happy with Giants 3DS... but I have absolutely no fears about the quality of the title and WILL be getting it on launch day. No questions asked.

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If you have a problem with someone bringing up Metacritic scores, please bring it up with the OP.

I never said I have an issue with it, and YOU'RE the one who bought it up, not the TC.

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Awesome plan. "If you want to enjoy the game, don't complete it." Sounds good.

Yeah, how about you make a file just for it? Complain about lack of exploration. Then complete tasks instead of exploring like you want to. And it's easy to finish the levels later if you DO want to complete it.

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Are you the guy who complained that HoR didn't have enough quests? By your own logic, you could just start a new save file so you have more quests. It's not that difficult. And HoR even has a 4th save file, so you can do it more. Oh, and HoR has new daily and weekly quests via DLC.

Doesn't change the gameplay, though.
Prepare for a personal opinion and not a fact: I like 3DSlanders' gameplay. But I think that Heroes has botched gameplay, boring quests, and poor graphics, and starting new files won't fix it. P.S. I am a girl, not a guy.

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It's not that I *hated* Radiance Challenge levels. It's that I hated how repetitious they were and how many there were. Seriously, they were virtually the same thing, over and over. But to your point "If you dislike that part of the game, skip it." - to an extent, I can understand, but we're not talking about a small part of the game. There are 36 levels and 14 of them are Radiance Challenges. That's more than 1/3rd of the game being nothing but filler. The same thing, reskinned over and over to pad the game.

I guess you have that right.

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77 crystals. I should only complete roughly 50% of the game because the rest needs improvement. That's a good plan.

Sarcasm Level OVER 9000! I'm not trying to say "don't finish the game". Just... You are TOOOTALLY not a brick wall.

Chaos sandwhiches for all. I'm done with this topic, I don't want to argue all day.

Quote: Nibelilt

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If you have a problem with someone bringing up Metacritic scores, please bring it up with the OP.

I never said I have an issue with it, and YOU'RE the one who bought it up, not the TC.

No. I'm not. Please make sure you take time to actually read the thread before you comment on it. It saves everyone time.

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I'm not trying to say "don't finish the game".

Yes, you are. You're saying "Don't do X, Y, Z" - which are things you have to do to complete the game 100% (which, to me, is how you finish a game).

When I talk about "100%", I don't mean what's shown on the level select or such.

That feel when I enjoyed the Heroes of Ruin demo.

Eh, just from the little bit of gameplay, I'm getting some high hopes. Honestly, that 4.9 score is in my opinion WAAAAAYY to low for 3DS Skylanders. Now I don't mean to say that it was the best game every by any standard, but..sheesh. That's kind of harsh.

One thing I know for sure: disregard pretty much ALL review sites. I'd have my doubts if ANY of the ones out there aren't getting paid off from at least some company for higher scores.

personally to all of you who are unsure whether you want it or not.. wait chances are that in 2-3 months SOMEONE will do a let's play of it which you can dertermine whther it is indded a good game and you want it---Or a bad game and thus it is to be ignored.

personally I liked the 3Ds version of skylanders as it had a great deal of elements from crash bandicoot and vicarious visions did a good job on the two GBA crash games: The huge adventure and N-tranced(personally a sidescroller skylanders like the GBA eternal night sounds amazing) so the developers already had experience with a similar franchise.

but N-space is a bit of a wild card in terms of games and so the best thing to do is wait for the fan reivews to come in.

he is right you know

Quote: D-Rex

Quote: UncleBob

I would like to point out, by the way...

Heroes of Ruin - Metacritic User Review Score - 8.1
Skylanders 3DS - Metacritic User Review Score - 4.9

You actually trust reviewer scores? I thought people stopped doing that after the whole Mass Effect 3 debacle and Diablo 3.

So you are one of 5 people who didn't like Mass Effect 3 and so it was a debacle? The ending blew, but there was a lot more to it then just an ending

Quote: Earth-Dragon

So you are one of 5 people who didn't like Mass Effect 3 and so it was a debacle? The ending blew, but there was a lot more to it then just an ending

5 people? There was tons of people disappointed in Mass Effect 3. What I mean by debacle was that it was made blatantly obvious that the quality of ME3 didn't reflect the scores it was getting. People were realizing that they werenot playing a 9/10, 10/10, 5 star game like IGN and other review sites have been saying. Didn't you hear about the massive return rate that the retail version of ME 3 got? Or how it was put on sale not even a month after release? Or what about how the sales rate ended up floundering within a week of release if you want to go that far? Objectively, it just wasn't as good as the first two. The ending wasn't the only thing disappointing about it. The gameplay was watered down from an action RPG to a shooter, the dialogue choices aren't as meaningful, and some of the character derailment for the sake of romance was ridiculous. And don't get me started on the absolute laziness that BioWare showed with some of the models and scenery.

This quite famous gentleman will go further in details as to one of the reasons as why ME3 just fell flat on its face.

Go to CrystalBlazier's channel on youtube for gameplay. I'm pretty sure he is on this site and goes by Aura24.

^Yes, SHE is. It's in her signature.

that video about mass effect 3... wow... people on youtube talk to themselves for hours dont they

I think since they don't have to change much it will probably be good.

AS LONG AS THERE IS NO STINKING RADIANCE IM HAPPY.

Quote: SparCrux1101

AS LONG AS THERE IS NO STINKING RADIANCE IM HAPPY.

This 100%

I'd like there to not be a time limit thing like with Hektor, especially if he comes back in this game. I really liked exploring the levels but it's very hard to do so if you're being chased through every single level.

This is especially frustrating if you're trying to do so after beating his Time Challenge thing where you STILL have to run even though you got the crystal....

^ This