darkSpyro

Well, to this point our household has only played Skylanders on Wii/Wii U and the iphone ...but in the near future purchasing a Nintendo 3ds looks to be in the cards. Now, we have all the figures and have no real desire to get duplicates or variant duplicates, so we'll only need the portal(s) and games I believe and the used market is probably the best bet-as I have no desire to resell unwanted figures. But as I have many times before, I wanted to pick the darkspyro community's brains about this decision.

1. Are each of the 3ds games fun and different than what we've played already on wii/wii u? It looks like there is a whole new story based on the walkthroughs on this site but I just want to double check before dropping bucks on all 3 games.

2. Will we need all 3 portals for each game? Or can I just pull off buying the 3ds portal for swap force alone and using that one for all 3 games?

Any other tips or hints about what or what not to buy for the 3ds games would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

1. The 3DS games all have seperate stories from one another and the console games.

2. You can use the 3DS Portal from SWAP Force in all three games. You can use a Giants or SA Portal in either Giants or SA but I don't know if you can use them with SF.

I wrote a little of my thoughts about the 3DS SF specifically here and here, and a bit about SA in comparison to the other two here. SA is much faster-paced than the other games. I think SA is more well-built as well: more levels, Skylanders movesets are designed better, not glitchy. However, if that's not your thing, Giants and SF involve more exploration. Not as much as the console games, though. SA on the 3DS plays quite differently from the console games, while Giants and SF stay a lot closer to their formula. You can decide wether you think that's good or bad(I personally dislike it, because it just makes them feel like watered-down versions of the console games to me, but you might like just having it on the go). If you want 100% you'll probably be spending 11-15 hours on each- they're all about the same length.

I personally thought SA was by far the worst 3DS game of the three. I cannot stand the tactic of racing to the exit and the lame excuse of fleeing from the villain.

All three are separate stories to their console versions, and as said, The Swap Force portal will work with all three games, but a SA or Giants Portal will only work with the first two games.

My thoughts on each of the games so you can come to your own conclusions

Spyro's Adventure:
It feels the most solid and polished as a platformer, but becomes frustrating and hard with every quest being timed. It essentially means you'll have to go through each level four or five times in order to get everything. It is also very short, as it's length relies on your numerous play throughs of each level.

Giants:
Has a much slower pace than the first game, the levels are longer but it's less polished as a game. The camera feels too distant as well, everything is too small on the screen, so it's a bit weird for perspective. It does however get rid of the annoying timed quests, only giving you one timed quest per level, which you have to beat the level once in order to unlock. It's definitely easier than SA, but probably less fun.

Swap Force:
The most fun of the three games. It strikes a balance in pace from the first 2 games, and feels far less impossible than the other two. It also has a difficulty setting, and forgets the tedious two-characters-at-a-time playstyle and allows you to switch freely between your Skylanders whenever you want, which makes things far less infuriating. This can mean you get a bit spoilt for choice however. Collecting hats is fun, unlike the other games and all in all, it feels the best. Plus, it actually has voice acting, so that brings a new depth to the game (the voice acting makes it feel strikingly similar to the first 3 Spyro games on the PSOne)

I hope this helps.

Guys,

Thanks so much for the opinions and info.

That's nice that I only need to get 1 portal. I already have 2 extras from SSA and Giants that are basically just toys for play at this point.

It's exciting that there will be another way to enjoy all these figures in the household with the 3ds.

One more question about 3ds play:

Is 2 player an option? IE: Can you have 2 of the 3ds and play? Do you need 2 portals if that is the case? Or is it 1 player only possible?

No 2-player co-op or battle at all. The only "multiplayer" option is StreetPass, which is just for sharing a 1-time-use Skylander if you happen to StreetPass anyone else who has the game activated for StreetPass, so it's kinda useless... (The StreetPass is only in SF anyway)

I should also clarify about the timed quests in SA.

Each level has 5 challenges to do (collect items, smash chests, finish elemental challenges, avoid taking damage and more)
Once you beat one challenge in the level then beat the level you get awarded with a crystal for beating the challenge. You need more crystals to unlock new worlds.
Also, once you beat a challenge in a level then a timer activates and the villain, Hektore chases you down... If you fail to beat the level before the timer expires then he kills your Skylander and you fail the level, and you lose the crystal unless you re-do the challenge.
Also, once you finish four of the level's challenges, you unlock the fifth challenge which is to beat the level in a shorter timeframe. Unfortunately the level is permanently under the timer after unlocking the fifth challenge.

This is what makes the game so fast-paced. I can understand why people hate it but for what it's trying to do it works really well. If you want a fast-paced game SA is for you, otherwise you'll probably like the others better.

Quote: Arc of Archives

No 2-player co-op or battle at all. The only "multiplayer" option is StreetPass, which is just for sharing a 1-time-use Skylander if you happen to StreetPass anyone else who has the game activated for StreetPass, so it's kinda useless... (The StreetPass is only in SF anyway)

As cool as it would be to have multiplayer, I believe my wallet just breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of having to buy 2 3ds' not becoming a reality...Ha ha. Thanks so much for the help. The other thread was a good read. Thanks for sharing.

I'm glad that you found it helpful. I would say if you find them at a bargain price then it's worth buying all three games anyway. I found SSA on the 3DS sealed at my Target for $14 a couple of months ago! (I'm in Australia, and that's actually less than we pay for one Skylander here )

Giants has to be the absolute worst of the 3DS games. It's got a weak story (which is astounding considering how flimsy the core storylines are), a non-entity of a villain and pointless environments. Biggest waste of time IMHO.

Swap-Force is a bit better but nothing beats SA. That game had a well-rounded storyline and felt like it was an actual adventure instead of something to do with your figures.

Honestly, I would prefer if they switched it around: have Kaos on the 3DS and new villains for the Console. He's overstaying his welcome and it's really bringing the series down.

^ Don't forget about the glitches in Giants too. And the lag.

That game has crashed on me a few times. Also, my time records always reset to 0:00 on it.

Though that said, I've seen a pretty nasty glitch in SWAP Force too(and it's also crashed on me a few times, but not as much as Giants, though maybe that's simply because I haven't played it as much)...

Oh god this is bringing back such painful memories of the disappointment I had when I first played Giants. I can see how people would enjoy it but yeah by far it's the worst of the 3DS games imo. Worst villain, worst story, worst NPC characters, gameplay is basically just a worse version of SF, more bugs than the other two, even the graphics are worse. I actually can't think of anything where I think it trumps SF (which basically did everything Giants did but better) or is more objectively polished than SA(they're different games, but you can still compare them objectively, and I think Giants is definitely worse in that regard as it's pretty mediocre for what it's trying to do and less polished).

Honestly, though, I'd have a hard time recommending any of the 3DS games if you weren't already a Skylanders fan because replaying ANY Skylanders game with new characters- be it console or handheld- is the bulk of the replayability. Really, all you have to do on the 3DS games after 100%ing them is levelling and maybe beating your time records if you care about that, and the console games offer more in the main story besides just levelling and collecting a few hats/stars. Especially in the case of SF. (Replayability is another reason I like SSA 3DS, it's subjective if you'd enjoy it, but I think it makes replaying fun if you try to beat your time records on levels and SA is easily best for that. I have some pretty insane time records on my game...)