darkSpyro

Not making a troll topic here, but seriously asking something. The game is okay at best, I'll give it that much, but a lot of the "fun" in the original Skylanders or Giants isn't here.
-The game doesn't read all toys correctly. We know there's a check for the Platinum Chest, but the item itself shows up as Hidden Treasure; there was no proper test to make sure it'd count properly and as a result, you're stuck with an item on your inventory screen you can never have.
-Graphical polish. There just seems some parts where the game could've used more touchup, but didn't get it. It looks pretty for the most part, but things like the Volcanic Vault appearing silver sticks out like a sore thumb in my mind all too readily.
-Lip Synching. If we're going to focus on the characters' faces, can the movements and their lips at least match the words coming out of their mouths instead of using an animation loop?
-The swap character feel like a gimmick because they are. That's pretty much the truth, they're bigger skylanders that lose a lot of their identity as a character because they're designed to swap parts around, not be their own character. It sounds really weird for Wash Buckler to exclaim having "eight legs and no pegs" when he has Blast Zone for a posterior.

I ended up just having to stop because...this wasn't fun. Yeah we have jumping now, YAY...but a lot of the puzzle elements are gone because of that. The game feels less cerebral as a result, and more a "go from point A to point B, defeat enemies in way" than Gauntlet. It doesn't feel like it has the same amount of heart even...am I the only one feeling any of this?

I dont have the game yet,but I watched a lot videos back at e3 gamescom.... and I'm afraid that it doesnt have the "Skylander feeling"
Mabey a sign that the series is going downhill? Idk but ill wait till I get it too tell if its good or bad.

I mean I suppose it's not for everyone, but my son and I have been playing it since 10:00 this morning. After almost 6 hours, we've finished the first 2 chapters and the tower of time adventure pack - none of them are 100% yet. We've opted to use only the new characters we have until finishing the game. we started on the hard level, wii version. Both of us are very happy with it. My only issue - I can't get use to the jump button being where my primary attack button was before.

I am really disappointed in the Wii version. I hope it gets better...

I'm disappointed.

Yeah. So disappionted

The swap guys has absolute positives and negatives. My son, who is getting the game at Christmas, absolutely HAD to have a swap guy today to do nothing but to try out the swapping. Without the game, he's taking them around the house and admiring them. He NEVER did this with the previous 100+ characters.

I agree that a degree of a character's personality gets lost because of the swapping, as well as making all of the characters fit the required mold to allow the hips of all characters nicely fit. There's a good reason why most of them have belts

I can't answer to the graphical aspect. I suspect this would be a standard romp. I am VERY impressed (looking at the guide, I've yet to put the disk in the system) with the amount of "stuff" you have to do to get completion, but the customization of the character is a huge minus.

Outside of the elemental bonus you get as you add to your army by element, and health bonuses you get from completing quests...it's either hats or legendary treasures that give you stat changes. Not even the bonus missions increase your stats...they just add to your stars which are used to increase portal master rank (That information was different when originally presented to me).

Quote: awesomerockets

I am really disappointed in the Wii version. I hope it gets better...

I'd like any elaboration you can give.

Quote: GhostRoaster

The swap guys has absolute positives and negatives. My son, who is getting the game at Christmas, absolutely HAD to have a swap guy today to do nothing but to try out the swapping. Without the game, he's taking them around the house and admiring them. He NEVER did this with the previous 100+ characters.

I agree that a degree of a character's personality gets lost because of the swapping, as well as making all of the characters fit the required mold to allow the hips of all characters nicely fit. There's a good reason why most of them have belts

I can't answer to the graphical aspect. I suspect this would be a standard romp. I am VERY impressed (looking at the guide, I've yet to put the disk in the system) with the amount of "stuff" you have to do to get completion, but the customization of the character is a huge minus.

Outside of the elemental bonus you get as you add to your army by element, and health bonuses you get from completing quests...it's either hats or legendary treasures that give you stat changes. Not even the bonus missions increase your stats...they just add to your stars which are used to increase portal master rank (That information was different when originally presented to me).

Quote: awesomerockets

I am really disappointed in the Wii version. I hope it gets better...

I'd like any elaboration you can give.

Actually, as I play on, it's growing on me. The graphics are very different, maybe even a little worse. I wasn't enjoying it at first, but as I get more upgrades it's getting better.

enjoying the game but I agree that the lip sync should match!

What system are the people playing on that are seeing graphics issues? Looks great on the WiiU. Much better graphics. Yes, stylistically a little different. That might not be everyone's cups of tea, but that's not the same as the graphics. I'm very impressed so far. Been playing for hours and only finished two levels, which I see as a positive. I was thinking this one may be the best of the three. The lock puzzles are a lot more enjoyable in my opinion than the turning variety the other games had. I know a lot of people won't agree , but I didn't like grinding all those heroic challenges for each character. And the more characters there are, the more of a grind it would become. I like the new way of doing things. I'm enjoying the swappers more than I enjoy playing Giants. They might loose some character when they swap, but I think the individual characters are great. Some of the characters I was kinda ambivalent about have turned out to be a lot of fun. Literally the only real quibble co have so far is that some of the old hats that I liked on my old character look different now and look stupid on some of the guys. Mainly some of the hats are just too big now on some smaller characters. Stealth Elf look like the Pirate hat could snap her neck. Hot Dog doesn't hold the bone in his mouth, but I get why they did that.

There are a lot of little improvements that I like, but it's irritating to type on my phone so I won't get into that now.

All I can say is; The game gets better after the first 4 chapters. The first level is almost completely barren, no enemies except for the occasional Greeble and Chompy, NO gold whatsoever, and it's just SO damn boring!

Even though it gets off on a very rough start, Motleyville, Chapter 7, is actually where the game gets better.


The graphics are very bad at first, but they get better. Flynn looks awful up-close as an NPC.

The cutscenes are the true highlight of the game. They're fun to watch.

The audio... Don't get me started. It gave me a headache.

It's so stupid that the only time you preview characters is when you get the Soul Gem.


Overall, the game could've been improved, but it's fun nonetheless. You just gotta get past the first few drab levels.

The thing is Kung Fu Man, a lot of the things you've mentioned were present in the previous two games. SSA only managed your collection of the main 32 characters. The lack of lip syncing has existed in all the games but that's not really an uncommon thing, games have done it for years because it's a lot cheaper/easier/less time consuming than to have animations for individual lines of dialogue of which there might be thousands - they've kind of made up for it with a lot more pre-rendered cut scenes.

I guess the other two are just personal preference, though from what I've seen Swap Force looks a lot better than most kids games do and even if there are parts that could look better I personally don't think it ruins the experience. I went through GTAV with texture popping and 3D models appearing out of nowhere, so I think I'll manage Skylanders.

The case of the Swap Force characters does kind of bug me that they don't look right - but then I remember that there are characters who I don't really like the look of in the previous two games who function really well as characters in the game and then characters that look really good but are a pain to play as; so in the end I prefer functionality of a character over how it looks.

Quote: Matteomax

All I can say is; The game gets better after the first 4 chapters. The first level is almost completely barren, no enemies except for the occasional Greeble and Chompy, NO gold whatsoever, and it's just SO damn boring!

Even though it gets off on a very rough start, Motleyville, Chapter 7, is actually where the game gets better.


The graphics are very bad at first, but they get better. Flynn looks awful up-close as an NPC.

The cutscenes are the true highlight of the game. They're fun to watch.

The audio... Don't get me started. It gave me a headache.

It's so stupid that the only time you preview characters is when you get the Soul Gem.


Overall, the game could've been improved, but it's fun nonetheless. You just gotta get past the first few drab levels.

Oh gosh, the amount of enemies in story mode was always something I wanted more of. Are there any levels that have an amount of enemies/fighting that compares to The lost city of Arkus?

I'm enjoying it so far as is my son. I'm playing the Easy level with him and will probably play the harder level with my teenager later on. We play on the Wii and it seems like the load times are little longer than I'd like. My Wii also makes a ton of noise while we wait for the game to load and we have had the subtitles and graphics freeze up. Anyone else have this problem? Other than that my son is in love with it. We picked up the Dark Starter Pack from Gamestop.

While we were putting all the old characters on the portal to get stars, we noticed that Thumpback doesn't work at all. The portal doesn't recognize him. Tried bringing out Giants and the old portal and still nothing. It seems like the game doesn't recognize variants of the Giants as individuals as it is telling me I have 7/8 of Giants in my collection even though we have more.

From what I heard, the game got a lot of big improvements since Giants. But I miss a lot of "small" things from SSA and Giants: Combos, Level Up animations, Upgrade animations, Skystones, Cali and Heroics (not small at all).

As I kept playing, I began love this game! I've gotten used to the graphics and having a lot of fun

Wait, combos, Skystones, AND LevelUp Animations are gone?

Combos should be present on the figure's path...not sure what that means.

Skystones is unique to Giants.

When leveling up, the character in SSA/SG would get bigger and would destroy nearby enemies. Now, I see some floaty magic dust floating around and the figure remains playable; the vidoes I saw didn't show enemies getting damaged.

All the reviews seem more positive, so YMMV.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Combos should be present on the figure's path...not sure what that means.

Skystones is unique to Giants.

When leveling up, the character in SSA/SG would get bigger and would destroy nearby enemies. Now, I see some floaty magic dust floating around and the figure remains playable; the vidoes I saw didn't show enemies getting damaged.

With no Combos I mean that I havent seen a new charackter with combos but Rubble Rouser who only got 1.

The Level Up animations is no biggy, but Skystones

I'm liking it a ton. Fat neckbeard Flynn is awesome. Stump Smash (my fav) jumping is awesome. New NPCs and enemies are both awesome. The new cinematics and cutscenes look SO much better. Some areas of graphics are messed up but I figure my old school Wii and old tube TV are not showing the effects that are supposed to be there. I like that they mixed in traditional painting / art. That's crazy cool.

Swapping is awesome: first of all the new characters all look amazing
My kids can't get enough of the combos... SO much cooler than static non-swappers. They are almost totally boring now!
UPGRADE PATHS FOR EACH HALF OF THE SWAPPERS!! Jealous Stump Smash!! Plus, if you don't want to switch your character's top to take advantage of an elemental zone, just switch the bottom and you get the bonus!! Elemental bonus OP!!!

My only disappointment is: Having to wait for more figures!! Never felt this way before with SSA or Giants. Okay, I hated waiting for Wham-Shell like everyone else but now I am anticipating every character.

Don't miss Skystones. Every NPC in Giants who wanted to play seemed so creepy about it and after you got the full deck it was way too easy.

The new lock puzzles are awesome.

Quote: Kung Fu Man

"There was no proper test to make sure it'd count properly and as a result, you're stuck with an item on your inventory screen you can never have"

How can you assume that? Maybe the issue is just with your toy and/or game disk.

Quote: Matteomax

"It's so stupid that the only time you preview characters is when you get the Soul Gem"

Pause > Collection > Skylanders > Highlight the desired Skylander > Play Movie

Unless what you meant is that we can't see the movie before collecting the Soul Gem, but this was the case in Giants also no?

Quote: GhostRoaster

The swap guys has absolute positives and negatives. My son, who is getting the game at Christmas, absolutely HAD to have a swap guy today to do nothing but to try out the swapping. Without the game, he's taking them around the house and admiring them. He NEVER did this with the previous 100+ characters.

I agree that a degree of a character's personality gets lost because of the swapping, as well as making all of the characters fit the required mold to allow the hips of all characters nicely fit. There's a good reason why most of them have belts

I can't answer to the graphical aspect. I suspect this would be a standard romp. I am VERY impressed (looking at the guide, I've yet to put the disk in the system) with the amount of "stuff" you have to do to get completion, but the customization of the character is a huge minus.

Outside of the elemental bonus you get as you add to your army by element, and health bonuses you get from completing quests...it's either hats or legendary treasures that give you stat changes. Not even the bonus missions increase your stats...they just add to your stars which are used to increase portal master rank (That information was different when originally presented to me).

Quote: awesomerockets

I am really disappointed in the Wii version. I hope it gets better...

I'd like any elaboration you can give.

We got some figures last night and the rest this morning all my son has been doing all day is playing with the swap figures in the car and at home, he's more into them then wanting to start the game. He been using the kaos from the mcdonalds toys and yelling "swap force assemble" .
The other reason is we picking up the 5 dark editions at 2ish and i got to open his and show him, then i had to go to work which Im at now till 7am. So at 7am it's getting him, taking him out for bagels and playing swap force till i pass out from lack of sleep, thank god tomorrow is Columbus day and i'm off from my 1st job and not due back at the 2nd till 11pm. i want to play so bad......!!!!

I got the game today and it's SO MUCH BETTER THAN GIANTS, It looks amazing, and is much more fun there is much more diversity in the minigames and no more skystones or lock imps. Have you guys tried using the directional pad to make the skylanders do facial expressions? It doesn't work with all of them though but I do know it works with slobber tooth and grim creeper.

TLR Best game so far!

Look, I know I sound like a cynic by this point, but I honestly agree with a lot of your points. The lip sync doesn't actually bother me, though. I think that they had that in this series as a little throwback to how NPCs in Spyro 2 & 3 would flap their mouth when they gave you non-cutscene dialog.

I hear a bunch of issues about the game not reading toys properly, which is worrying me. Full stop.

I also agree with you on graphics- they're technically superior, and in a lot of areas they seem to have leaped forward tremendously, but I feel like they didn't get quite as much attention as they should have and it sort of lacks heart. They definetly are better, but I really hate the stylistic choice with them.
Chompies and Sheep. Argh. Those were two average design ideas in the series that I felt were memorable because of how they moved and how they leaped around in the first two games, but here. Ehh. Chompies move kinda similar, but they exaggerated their movements too much- it just looks like they dislocated their skulls and they're flapping off of their bodies, and sheep are just......
Also, I feel like everything just looks less like actual characters, you know? I mean, somehow, I just feel like they overdid too much stuff. I've bought up how everything feels more goofy several times which I think is adding to that problem(I realise they have some dark environments and undertones, but they've had that throughout the series and I feel like they did it better back then... go watch The Beginning trailer, go read Sonic Boom's backstory and go to The Ruins when it's nearly swallowed by darkness, again).

Jumping is a neg in my opinion. It'll be fun for a while but I think jump pads seem more comfortable, it looks like the jumping is really strange and hasn't really been polished and hasn't been used in very clever ways. And it doesn't even have consequences- you just get teleported back onto ground if you fall. So what's the point? How is it adding to the experience? It really looks... Lame. All I'll ever use it for is avoiding some hits. You can't jump while attacking, either, which actually would have been cool because it would change up the strategy and give you more reason for jumping than just to dodge attacks.

And yes, I agree with you on the SWAP Force characters. Something continually bothered me about that gimmick, and that's just why... They don't feel like actual characters, just like gimmicks. None of the personality chucked on any of them interest me. They seem pretty fun to play with IRL, though. I think this is my biggest problem with the series right now, besides the dumbing down of on-figure content. Everything looks more generic and feels less magical. I hope when I get the actual game to try it that my opinions change, but the impressions I'm getting so far are very disappointing.

You should look at Slam bam in the new engine, he's gonna steal your soul with that lifeless stare of his, and ofc sunburn looks BOSS >

Wii-U version is awesomely beautiful! no problems so far...

Really enjoying the game. Levels seem longer, some area's you can only unlock with either a swap force combo or single character combo's. Specific challenges in the level for certain types of swap force guys depending on the symbol on their base.

Lots of fun. Daughter has been using mostly swap force guys....I've been playing with LC Smolderdash.

Quote: Pirg

Really enjoying the game. Levels seem longer, some area's you can only unlock with either a swap force combo or single character combo's. Specific challenges in the level for certain types of swap force guys depending on the symbol on their base.

Lots of fun. Daughter has been using mostly swap force guys....I've been playing with LC Smolderdash.

I've only done the first level and my wife and I had a BLAST. We got all of the new characters in wave one and haven't touched most of em yet, they are all just fun to play as. The only disappointment I found so far was when we came across a "Dig" zone...SAD FACE

Sorry about off topicness, but put hot head on the portal, and look at his eyes

On topic...
Lip syncing is ok.
Graphics...Im am just shocked on the new graphics. Amazing. True graohic engine on the wiiu
True,Wash Zone dosen't tie in with wash but oh well.
I think the NPCs are very creative and awesome.

Guys,the lip syncing wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have an extreme close up of the character faces.Before they just repeated the mouth flaps quickly for the duration of the line,now they do so not only slowly,but even a kid could see they're not even close to saying the whole thing. Can't really say anything else about the game(though I'm really disappointed with the majority of it) since I won't buy it,but that's a thing you can see in every gameplay video and it makes me cringe e_e

Well I only played level 1 and noticed how silly the chompies look. Did a bunch of parents complain about how SCARY they were and wanted them more.... kid friendly? They look dopey. Lol

My Platinum Chest did the same thing as Kung Fu Man's so I would say game glitch...

My thoughts:

Pros: Graphics - incredible (playing Wii-U) grass blades move when chars walk across them, chars are fleshed out graphically, everything is *smooth* and fluid as far as motion goes. Very nicely done. Bravo on the engine. Jumping - nice addition, glad you don't lose health/money when jump goes badly. Swapping is a nice addition, but I am finding myself stuck on a particular swap figure set (Magna-Zone) and only swapping bottom for particular gates. Nice that you can open gates with 1st player being one element and 2nd player being the other element on dual element gates. Upgrade pods throughout game levels!, 2nd player actually can "enhance" SF gate mini-games, lock puzzles are *awesome*, *seems* like it might actually take a while to get through the game, much unlike S:G, Level cap increased again (at 20 now?)

Cons:dopey chompies, dopey enemy names (ala Pokemon, running out of names guys?), Upgrade pod guy spiel - can't hit Z/X fast enough!, Where is Cali?, Arena enemies seem OP (for lvl 1-5 arena games, esp the rain!)

I will add/edit as I find more things, but that is my list after 3 levels and some arena action.

-VM

Quote: alliedanielle89

My Platinum Chest did the same thing as Kung Fu Man's so I would say game glitch...

Its not a game glitch, its a glitch with the Platinum Chest toy itself. They where expecting it to have a tag in the coding of the toy, but the toy is missing this tag (the Platinum Chest has the exact same chip in it as the regular chest) So there is no way the game can tell them apart. The only way this could be fixed is if they recall all Platinum Chest toys and send every one that had one a new fixed toy.

I noticed that in the first cutscene before the first level starts the graphics are not in hd.

I haven't actually played my copy of the game yet (my wife and I actually still need to finish off the last few chapters of Giants), but I got the Dark Edition and one HUGE thing that disappointed me right out of the box was the "mega character poster." It was way bigger than it had to be, it wasted a lot of space, it didn't include most of the basic variant figures (only had the dark ones, no Scarlet, Molten, Legendary, etc.), and worst of all the spaces for the stickers were too small!! It doesn't even properly function as a checklist poster! I really hope they might redo the poster or at least make the standard Swap Force poster available to people who want it after getting this failure of a poster from the Dark Edition.

Dark Edition Poster

Sticker Comparison

I've been playing on the PS3 and I haven't had any lip syncing issues. Please the game TOTALLY has that Skylander feel. It's way better than Giants and dare I say more fun than SSA. It looks and plays great. No screen tearing, no frame rate dips that I've seen...the new graphics are SICK!!!!

A gamestop poster is not going to include other stores exclusives, as there prob is some copyright issue etc. It will exclude all gamestop sold if they choose to ad it or not.

Another thing that's making skylanders go downhill is nothing really to do with the game it's self its with the TOYS

when SSA was released bringing toys into a game alone was amazing but it's kind of died down. the only thing really keeping it alive is the giants and the swap force at least it something new but not that different

But still a good Game.

I'm actually thrilled with the game! I think it plays better than the previous games and the jumping ability makes it much more realistic. I do agree with the dislike of the gimmicky Swap Force figures though. I have 4 of them and I don't swap them. I'm currently playing on hard and it is way more difficult than the same setting on Giants.

I was really really really for Disney Infinity and have been really disappointed aside from the play sets, so Skylanders seems to have my heart lol

Something I'm actually noticing here quickly is honestly how *useless* the swap figures are in terms of interacting with the game. The mechanic is there certainly, but they're wasted for mini-games within the levels and not a form of transportation or some sort. Granted you could play through Giants without a Giant, but at least there they had something to do in the game and could interact differently with the surrounding areas.

Kinda sucks more they're regulated to just opening specific treasure chests in this game too. Even things like the innate Water ability to walk over water seems tossed aside. I'm currently past stage 10, but finding I have to go at it in bursts to keep playing.

...sadly enough even with all this said, I do like the toys. Swapping is a useless gimmick sure, but they do feel fun and display nicely. At least we have that.

I think it's pretty awesome.

I think the swapping of the characters is nice. Instead of playing 2 different guys, I get 4. Or in my case I have 6 of them thus far, so it's way more combos.

I was surprised how comfortable the jumping became. I wasn't even thinking about it when I started jumping back and forth right away. I'm more inclined to think this was a feature missing in Giants, than just something added for SF.


I also didn't really think much about gameplay before it came out so I had no set expectations.

Quote: SlayerX11

A gamestop poster is not going to include other stores exclusives, as there prob is some copyright issue etc. It will exclude all gamestop sold if they choose to ad it or not.

That could possibly be true at least for the Legendary figures, but a lot of the variants aren't exclusive to other stores, not for long anyway. I found listings for Scarlet Ninjini, Polar Whirlwind, and Gnarly Tree Rex on Gamestop's website and Punch Pop Fizz is part of the Giants starter set for 3DS. Also, this was made by Activision and was included in the game box. Just because it was a version exclusive to Gamestop shouldn't really mean that much. And I highly doubt there would be any kind of copyright issue as the only copyright holder is, again, Activision. They can give exclusive rights to sell figures to specific stores (and sometimes only for limited time), but that doesn't mean that another store can't include an image of said figure on a poster. On Gamestop's side, if they had any control over what was on the poster, the only real issue would be, "do we want to promote figures that can only be bought at other stores?"

Anyway, that wasn't that big of an issue for me as I had someone low hopes of them including all of the main variants anyway. The biggest issue is easily the fact that the poster doesn't function as a real checklist like the others since the spaces for the stickers are too small. The spaces aren't even dimmed like they are in the other posters. It's just a really crappy poster in my opinion.

Havent actually gotten to seriously play it, been too busy. But my son has and ive had to help him

a few times with things. But i have also been reading the Game Guide and noticed some stuff i

disliked. There is definately a lot more content etc. I think its going to be a decent game, however

a few things i didnt like off the bat.

1.) The portal doesnt work as good, i had to move characters around several times to get them to scan.

2.) The collecting part of it includes sypros adventure characters, up to 32 characters i think it was. Now for everyone that started out in the begining that is probably fine but how are people that are new to skylanders suposed to get all 32 original characters? Unless they plan on spitting them out again which is going to make them worthless.

Quote: [url=http://forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=90940&post=4700221

Even things like the innate Water ability to walk over water seems tossed aside.

I was wondering about that.
Shame - particularly because some figures have skill specifically for that - and every starter pack has come with at least one swimming/flying character, so it's not like anyone would be missing out.

As we started the Wii version, my first "woohoo" moment was the length of the cord. Now we can sit on our bean bags at a reasonable distance and swap without having get up.

My first "what the..." moment HAS to be the loading screens. Holy crap those take forever vs. previous games.

And yeah... Jumping is suck. I could do without it. I get it, I just don't like it.

Quote: Tel Prydain

Quote: [url=http://forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=90940&post=4700221

Even things like the innate Water ability to walk over water seems tossed aside.

I was wondering about that.
Shame - particularly because some figures have skill specifically for that - and every starter pack has come with at least one swimming/flying character, so it's not like anyone would be missing out.

Not sure if you guys have noticed subtle changes to some of the Quests...

I'm guessing there's no birds in this game right? Check out Hot Dog and Jet Vac in my Quests thread...they originally had quests related to the NPC birds...now changed (name remains the same though which makes it obvious and ridiculous).

Love the game and new characters. Only gripe is wishing the special variant characters from SSA and Giants without an ingame variant graphics were programmed into SF e.g. Pumpkin Eyebrawl....