darkSpyro

This game upsets me...

• I'm upset that Trap Masters cost as much as Giants or Swappers, yet don't have any unique tech to justify it. They don't light up (and aren't quite as big) like the Giants did, and they don't have fancy part-swapping magnets or anything else that makes them special. They really are just slightly larger Cores with a clear plastic piece (which many cores also have). How does that make them worth $17 us compared to $10 for a core? They should be $12 at most.
  


• I'm upset that Elemental Gates now require these over-priced Trap Masters. There was no indication of this for most of the marketing of the game, and it feels like a decision made late in development as a pure money grab. It is, in my opinion, the worst pay wall yet, and the first to make me really feel that it had nothing to do with adding fun and value.
  


• I'm upset that the Trap Masters are all big and mostly slow, making them unappealing to me after already dealing with the Giants. This probably wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the above point though, meaning that even cost aside, I can't even find at least one Trap Master of each element that even looks fun to play to me.
  


• I'm upset that I can't reset my traps' data, so once I evolve a villain they are evolved forever. If I want to reset them for a challenge or to show to friends or just because I'm willing to sacrifice their power increase for their look, I don't have the option (short of buying another trap).
  


• I'm upset about the lack of extras that were present in previous games, particularly ways to improve your individual Skylanders beyond hats, but also just as extra things to do. No Heroic Challenges, no personal Quests, no Bonus Missions, no Luck-O'-Tron wheels, no stat boosting Legendary Treasures. Not even character bios in the collections screen or Story Scrolls with any actual story in them. I'm not sure Kaos Mode makes up for all the lack in extra content.
  


• I'm upset about how buggy the game is. The Activision Support page on bugs and workarounds in the game is embarrassing in how many issues they mention, and I personally have encountered additional bugs not even mentioned there despite only having the game for 2 days. A game many of us are sinking hundreds of dollars really shouldn't have this many bugs.
  


• I'm upset that the cord for the portal is even shorter this time, a foot shorter than last time. I originally had a wireless one with the Wii, which sucked batteries like mad but I could use it wherever, now I had to buy a USB extension cable to get the portal close enough to where I sit to play. I'm sure this is just Activision trying to save money by shaving manufacturing costs (trust me that extra foot of cord on every single portal manufactured probably adds up to a huge savings for them overall).
  

But, all that said...

• I'm thrilled with the new portal (other than the shorter cord). It looks so much cooler than the previous SF one to me, and it has a nice tall border so toys don't tip off of it so easily, making it usable on a couch or whatever. Even the trap vault thing with the voice and light and stuff is pretty cool. I like how the trap slot is a hexagon and the trap bottoms are too with a pointed end - it makes it so you can get a trap into the slot easily even in the dark, but at the same time once the trap is in it won't rotate around or anything it locks into place (and it doesn't matter which way its facing it will get read properly regardless).
  


• I'm VERY thrilled with the villain focus for this game. I've always felt Skylanders was lacking in bosses, and now we get 50 of them? YES PLEASE! Oh, and you can capture them and play as them and they each have their own theme music and they give humorous commentary on your actions even when not being played? AMAZING! Way cooler gimmick, in terms of gameplay at least, than Swap Force or Giants!
  


• I'm thrilled with the villain capturing mechanic. You only need a single trap of each element to capture and get every villain in the game, and can swap them in and out whenever you want at the Hub world! They could have done another money grab here and forced you to have a different trap for every villain, but instead it feels like every trap is getting like 6 characters for less than the cost of a single Skylander - excellent!! Capturing villains and trying them out feels very satisfying to me.
  


• I'm also thrilled with the villain designs and personalities - just the kind of thing that makes me love Toys for Bob as a company. They really nailed the villain design I feel (not so much the Trap Master designs...). The villains have way more personality than the Swap Force characters did in the previous game, that's for sure.
  


• I'm thrilled with the return to the previous art style - yes I know that technically speaking, Swap Force had "better" graphics, but I like the art style here much more personally. I could never put my finger on why, but Swap Force's art style just bugged me. It just seemed to have less personality, had kind of a platic-y feel, yet was harder to see what was going on (to me anyway). I also hated the chompy design in particular...
  


• I'm thrilled with the level design, so far. I know some reviewers said the opposite, but so far I like these levels a lot more than Swap Force's. They are shorter and more interesting to me. Playing through them again to get something I missed doesn't feel like a big chore like it did in Swap Force.
  


• I'm thrilled that the SSA and Giants Skylanders now play more like they originally were supposed to, and don't feel nerfed like they did in Swap Force. For example Voodood got his huge AoE back on the third hit of his combo when on the Elemantalist path, and Tree Rex has his awesome range on his charged smash attack. I'm starting to feel like the best bet is to treat the Toys for Bob games and VV games as separate series each with their own line of toys, since TfB's toys seem nerfed on VV's side, yet VV's toys seem buggy (like the controls bug I reported with Wind-Up) or less effective (like Dune Bug's dune balls not working on as many enemies and knockback/juggle attacks in general being less effective) on TfB's side. I expect TfB's toys to be nerfed again and VV's toys to work well again on the next VV game...
  

What about you others that have the game? Are you leaning strong one way or the other, or do you have truly mixed feelings about it so far like I do?

I'm leaning towards the thrilled end of the spectrum. Of your upset points, the only one that really bothers me is the lack of extras, particularly figure quests.

I'm fine with the cost of the Trap Masters, $16 vs a Core's $12(in Australia). i walk around the toy section a little bit here looking and there really is nothing in the less than $20 category that is of any really quality.

Fully articulated action figures of the same size are either ridiculously hideous looking and simple, or $25+, stuff like ben 10, avengers, ninja turtles. i dunno if thats just australian overpricing, but it makes these seem a reasonable price.

I have no issue with the elemental gates, as i plan on getting all figures, but i can appreciate how someone who wasn't wanting to spend an extra $84 would not be impressed, the fact that there are some soul gems behind is not nice either.

I've yet to come across any bug or glitch(knock on wood), i think i got trapped under a platform once, but swapping to the villain fixed that.
i've had the game for nearly almost 6 days now, have finished the story and am half way through a nightmare play through.

I agree with all your thrilled points, with the addition of the actual physical figures and the traps.
i saw a couple with bad paint jobs, but no-where near as bad as others have seen, so was able to get a set of really nice looking ones.
the traps have really won me over. i was adamant i was only getting one of each trap sculpture. but actually seeing them and holding them in my hands i've decided to get them all.

I can understand how people who place more importance on the gameplay over the "pieces of plastic" would be disappointed or upset, but me personally, the game is pretty much what i expected, minus a feature or two(like figure quests) so i am pleased.

I too have mixed feelings about this game, for many of the reasons you express above.
I quite like the villains and many of the new Skylanders, the trapping mechanism is fun, and the art design of the worlds is very pretty.

However, for me, the lack of quests/heroics is a feature I will miss. I know some people don't like them, and never do them, which is completely fine. But for me, it makes me feel like I am getting more for my money, in terms of figure cost. I was also disappointed that quest medals from Giants and Swap Force no longer register on the character. Seriously, some of those quests took a long time to complete (Undead spell punks/Ice Golems, etc), and it would have been nice of them to recognize a fan's dedication to completing the features in past games.
Finally, I was surprised that the Swap Force characters had nothing to do in the game (no zones), nor new 'Wow Pow' skills, etc. I can understand not giving anything new for SSA and Giants, as I do feel like I got my money's worth out of those characters across the 3 earlier games. However, the Swap Force line had a lot of figures (70+ individual figures, not including the treasure hunt/employee figures), and they are pretty much worthless now, especially for completionists like me who levelled them up, did their quests, and unlocked all of their powers. Yes, yes, you can still play them in the game, but they have nothing really to 'do.'

This lack of new content for Swap Force figures (only released a short year ago) has made me adjust my purchasing for the game. If the trend is to not add new content for past game figures, then there is a good chance that all of the (more expensive) TT figures will have nothing to do in the next game.

Overall, my opinion is that Trap Team is geared towards new fans just starting out in the series, who benefit because they don't need to go buy older figures like Giants to unlock zones or gather certain figures for the accolades, such as in Swap Force. Older fans of Skylanders do not really have any perks, since their collections of figures essentially have nothing to do except level up, if they aren't already at 20.

Quote: Zauron

This game upsets me...

I'm upset that Trap Masters cost as much as Giants or Swappers, yet don't have any unique tech to justify it. They don't light up (and aren't quite as big) like the Giants did, and they don't have fancy part-swapping magnets or anything else that makes them special. They really are just slightly larger Cores with a clear plastic piece (which many cores also have). How does that make them worth $17 us compared to $10 for a core? They should be $12 at most.

Um, Krypt King Is bigger than some of the giants....

Quote: Medicus

Quote: Zauron

This game upsets me...

I'm upset that Trap Masters cost as much as Giants or Swappers, yet don't have any unique tech to justify it. They don't light up (and aren't quite as big) like the Giants did, and they don't have fancy part-swapping magnets or anything else that makes them special. They really are just slightly larger Cores with a clear plastic piece (which many cores also have). How does that make them worth $17 us compared to $10 for a core? They should be $12 at most.

Um, Krypt King Is bigger than some of the giants....

Krypt King is not every trap masters.

And a thing that makes me upset is that like in Spyro's adventure is that we can't swim with your skylanders which was great. They removed it in Swap force which is quite sad!

I am pretty disappointed they didn't raise the level cap to 25.

They need to get online co-op and pvp play enabled- that being said, online multiplayer raids or 4 player would be very fun. Even the new kaos event would be fun with 4 players.

I agree they should allow more character building. Heroics were very fun, or allow permanent purchasable upgrades. Ex: 1 armor point for 30,000 gold. Something to allow us to build our favorites.
Otherwise I've been pretty happy with the game. I'm not sure I'm going to get the replay value out of this game as much as I did giants, but I'm glad they brought many characters back to former glory with this game.

Edit:

Also disappointed MANY of the enemies look so similar. Particularly the wooden robot looking guys.

Quote: LloydDXZX

Quote: Medicus

Quote: Zauron

This game upsets me...

I'm upset that Trap Masters cost as much as Giants or Swappers, yet don't have any unique tech to justify it. They don't light up (and aren't quite as big) like the Giants did, and they don't have fancy part-swapping magnets or anything else that makes them special. They really are just slightly larger Cores with a clear plastic piece (which many cores also have). How does that make them worth $17 us compared to $10 for a core? They should be $12 at most.

Um, Krypt King Is bigger than some of the giants....

Krypt King is not every trap masters.

And a thing that makes me upset is that like in Spyro's adventure is that we can't swim with your skylanders which was great. They removed it in Swap force which is quite sad!

Lob Star and Head Rush are friggin' HUGE. I'm already wondering about storage issues with them. I love how those two look though, Head Rush is a really nice looking figure (in fact I think they outdid themselves on ALL Trap Masters, they look great).

I'm surprised people are complaining about the prices of Trap Masters but I think it is more of a kick in the butt that the mini packs cost the exact same price of $17 and even if you combine the two together they still don't compare in size to the trap masters in plastic used alone. And the Traps? $8 bucks they should be around $5 imho even a microchip inside them doesn't really add up. But I suppose the harder paint jobs could justify a slightly harder price. Especially metallic or shiny paint.

$8 bucks for these none painted sculpts??, its day light robbery...

Even though I don't have the actual game yet, most of your thoughts about the game are the same as mine. I don't really care about the Trap Masters being slow; I'm not in any sort of hurry to finish a level, or anything. Everything else though, I agree with.

While its true that some Trap Masters are as big as Giants, they still don't light up or have special technology in them like the Swap Force guys, so it still doesn't make any sense that they cost 70% more. The clear plastic doesn't cost more, we know that from characters like Slam Bam, and we know that they can afford to use that much plastic AND put lights in them, because we know that from the Giants. So the extra cost for the toy is pure profit for them with no justification.

You can't even honestly say that the extra cost is to make up for the extra effort put into them on the software or portal side, which you could with the past expensive models. Giants had a bunch of extra work put into the game to support them - the levels had to be carefully arranged to account for their size, they had specialized features like doing damage just by walking around and smashing bomb-requiring gates directly (which still works in TT, by the way) and they had these scripted sequences they had to make of pulling islands and smashing through floors and picking up heavy rocks and throwing them. Swap Force obviously had a bunch of extra work done to make their tech even work, and the game software had to account for their dual element natures and such, and then there was the Swap Zones, some of which were awesome (Sneak) and some sucked (Spin, Teleport), but each requiring specialized unique code and design effort to support them, and they obviously couldn't just be made to work generically with every figure, they would only really work with the characters that they were made to work with.

Therefore paying extra for one of these other gimmick figures felt like it was still reasonable because you both got extra tech (lighting up, extra size, swappability) and extra gameplay that you could tell was especially programmed for those gimmick figures (Giants sequences, Swap Zones).

For Trap Masters, all they had to do on the game side was a one-line bit of code that says "if (isTrapMaster) and (isAttackingTrappableVillain) then (damageDealt *= kBonusTrapMasterDamagePercent)" for one of their features, and for the other they just had to add an extra flag to the Crystals that says "if (notATrapmaster) then "(ignore attack)" and finally a quick check on the gates to make sure that only Trap Masters can open them. The only even remotely tricky thing was making the weapons glow when near Traptanium or a Villain. All said, speaking as a programmer and game developer myself, it would have taken one coder less than a day to implement everything unique the Trap Masters add to the game by being Trap Masters and not just Cores, and not even extra time needed from an animator AT ALL!

So you can't even justify the price by the extra work put into the software, is my point here. Its just more expensive to be more profit, and done in such a way as to minimize cost to them while maximizing how necessary they feel in the simplest and most blatant way possible. THAT'S why I consider it the worst pay wall they've done yet. If you want me to pay a bunch of extra money to get to certain content, at least make me feel like you had to put some work into making that content work with your unique figures (like the Swap Zones), not just flipped a switch to block it off when otherwise it would have worked fine with existing core figures.

I agree with all of the disappointments in the OP.

I agree with most of the thrills, except:

The fact that the games focuses so much on the villains doesn't appeal to me. The skylanders I've played with so far feel dry and lifeless, I would prefer that SKYLANDERS be about SKYLANDERS. The trap mechanic is cool, but thematically I don't understand why they would fight for you now. I don't like that the villains are vastly more powerful, interesting, and more fun to play.

Not sure about the play of previous characters either. Since they can't open any doors or break any crystals, its a hassle to play with them. Get up / switch fig / get up / switch back etc. Without PVP, I don't have a good reason to break out the classics.

Not feeling the level design. There are parts that are pretty and large, but also lots of parts that are devoid of action. I have spent way to much time taking a scenic stroll from one battle arena to the next without a bad guys in sight (on hard mode). So far all the places where I've fought have been pretty flat. No platforms or environmental hazards I can think of. The levels seem like something you walk through until you get to the next wide open, flat, round, arena like part of the level where some baddies will drop in. If the Swap Force levels where split in half, there wouldn't even be a debate on which game had better level design.

Quote: Zauron

While its true that some Trap Masters are as big as Giants, they still don't light up or have special technology in them like the Swap Force guys, so it still doesn't make any sense that they cost 70% more. The clear plastic doesn't cost more, we know that from characters like Slam Bam, and we know that they can afford to use that much plastic AND put lights in them, because we know that from the Giants. So the extra cost for the toy is pure profit for them with no justification.

You can't even honestly say that the extra cost is to make up for the extra effort put into them on the software or portal side, which you could with the past expensive models. Giants had a bunch of extra work put into the game to support them - the levels had to be carefully arranged to account for their size, they had specialized features like doing damage just by walking around and smashing bomb-requiring gates directly (which still works in TT, by the way) and they had these scripted sequences they had to make of pulling islands and smashing through floors and picking up heavy rocks and throwing them. Swap Force obviously had a bunch of extra work done to make their tech even work, and the game software had to account for their dual element natures and such, and then there was the Swap Zones, some of which were awesome (Sneak) and some sucked (Spin, Teleport), but each requiring specialized unique code and design effort to support them, and they obviously couldn't just be made to work generically with every figure, they would only really work with the characters that they were made to work with.

Therefore paying extra for one of these other gimmick figures felt like it was still reasonable because you both got extra tech (lighting up, extra size, swappability) and extra gameplay that you could tell was especially programmed for those gimmick figures (Giants sequences, Swap Zones).

For Trap Masters, all they had to do on the game side was a one-line bit of code that says "if (isTrapMaster) and (isAttackingTrappableVillain) then (damageDealt *= kBonusTrapMasterDamagePercent)" for one of their features, and for the other they just had to add an extra flag to the Crystals that says "if (notATrapmaster) then "(ignore attack)" and finally a quick check on the gates to make sure that only Trap Masters can open them. The only even remotely tricky thing was making the weapons glow when near Traptanium or a Villain. All said, speaking as a programmer and game developer myself, it would have taken one coder less than a day to implement everything unique the Trap Masters add to the game by being Trap Masters and not just Cores, and not even extra time needed from an animator AT ALL!

So you can't even justify the price by the extra work put into the software, is my point here. Its just more expensive to be more profit, and done in such a way as to minimize cost to them while maximizing how necessary they feel in the simplest and most blatant way possible. THAT'S why I consider it the worst pay wall they've done yet. If you want me to pay a bunch of extra money to get to certain content, at least make me feel like you had to put some work into making that content work with your unique figures (like the Swap Zones), not just flipped a switch to block it off when otherwise it would have worked fine with existing core figures.

also another thing is all the bugs and glitches that is now in the game, its so bad it needed a day one patch(and for a game that cost you around 250-300 to unlock everything, this is really bad). the game on disc wasn't finished before it was send to the pressing factory... sloppy work all the way... and you said from an coders view it only would have taken a day to finish everything trap masters.... its shocking how careless they have been when they have had 2 years on finishing this thing.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

also another thing is all the bugs and glitches that is now in the game, its so bad it needed a day one patch(and for a game that cost you around 250-300 to unlock everything, this is really bad). the game on disc wasn't finished before it was send to the pressing factory... sloppy work all the way... and you said from an coders view it only would have taken a day to finish everything trap masters.... its shocking how careless they have been when they have had 2 years on finishing this thing.

Just to be clear, I only meant that it would take a day and a single coder to code the extra stuff that Trap Masters, as a whole, offer to the gameplay (extra damage to villains, smashing traptanium, and opening elemental gates). Of course each individual Trap Master would take much more than that to program their moves, but a single Trap Master would not take any longer than a single Core character (unlike, say, a Swap Force character where for every 2 of them they had to do the art and animation and sounds and design for special Swap Zones just for those 2 characters - whether you liked Swap Zones or not, there's no question that they were a huge amount of effort to give a value-add for owning one with a travel power you didn't have yet).

Quote: DaMadNes

Not sure about the play of previous characters either. Since they can't open any doors or break any crystals, its a hassle to play with them. Get up / switch fig / get up / switch back etc.

I get your point and agree that's annoying but how is that any different than the games have always been? You've always had to get up and switch figures to open elemental gates, in Giants you kept having to swap back to Giant for various tasks, in SF you had to switch to a Swapper for a Swap Zone and either bring in a dummy second player or swap your swapper parts around to open Dual Gates. Having to swap in a Trap Master to smash Traptanium now and then just seems par for the course to me.

If elemental gates could be opened by anybody of the right element, I'd have no real complaints here as its no different than in the past games, but even if they could, you'd still be swapping figures all the time to collect everything (and technically you never have to, because Traptanium never blocks forward progress, just blocks off hidden extra side stuff).

i bought a usb extension cable so i could have the portal right before me anywhere in the room... that will fix this problem.

Quote: Bankes102

I am pretty disappointed they didn't raise the level cap to 25.

They need to get online co-op and pvp play enabled- that being said, online multiplayer raids or 4 player would be very fun. Even the new kaos event would be fun with 4 players.

I agree they should allow more character building. Heroics were very fun, or allow permanent purchasable upgrades. Ex: 1 armor point for 30,000 gold. Something to allow us to build our favorites.
Otherwise I've been pretty happy with the game. I'm not sure I'm going to get the replay value out of this game as much as I did giants, but I'm glad they brought many characters back to former glory with this game.

Edit:

Also disappointed MANY of the enemies look so similar. Particularly the wooden robot looking guys.

Without a doubt, not a dime from me next time without online/PvP. I have confidence VV can deliver, looking like TfB's development team needs to look into the mirror of mystery.

I'm sorry I didn't bring up PvP, I forgot about that. Its just that it doesn't matter to me either way since I hardly ever played PvP and neither did the others I played the game with, we always preferred co-op stuff. Besides that I honestly never thought Skylanders was a particularly good PvP game - the balance was terrible, there was too much randomness for my tastes, many characters powers didn't make any sense for PvP because of immunities players have that enemies don't (like Dune Bug's main mechanic for example...).

I can totally understand being upset that its gone, but on the other hand I can kinda see why they'd remove it - I bet they had troubles figuring out how to incorporate the villain mechanic into PvP (since you can only have one trap at a time) and continuing to try to make PvP remotely balanced or workable with so many different figures and multiple gimmicks was probably starting to get unfeasible.

I do feel they should have tried to add more to replace it than just Kaos Mode though, especially since Kaos Mode is already the only replacement for so many other missing things like Heroic Challenges, Bonus Maps, Swap Zones, and personal Quests.

Quote: Zauron

Quote: DaMadNes

Not sure about the play of previous characters either. Since they can't open any doors or break any crystals, its a hassle to play with them. Get up / switch fig / get up / switch back etc.

I get your point and agree that's annoying but how is that any different than the games have always been? You've always had to get up and switch figures to open elemental gates, in Giants you kept having to swap back to Giant for various tasks, in SF you had to switch to a Swapper for a Swap Zone and either bring in a dummy second player or swap your swapper parts around to open Dual Gates. Having to swap in a Trap Master to smash Traptanium now and then just seems par for the course to me.

If elemental gates could be opened by anybody of the right element, I'd have no real complaints here as its no different than in the past games, but even if they could, you'd still be swapping figures all the time to collect everything (and technically you never have to, because Traptanium never blocks forward progress, just blocks off hidden extra side stuff).

My point is, you can't open ANYTHING with them. It was a hassle before, but now its not worth the hassle of switching figs to use one of them. In swap force there were elemental gates AND dual gates AND swap zones. At least your corelanders could do SOMETHING. As is, there is no real reason to put previous gen skylanders on the portal IMO. They are fully leveled, they have all their upgrades, I can't battle them against the new guys, there are no quests or heroic quests, and they can't open any gates. Why would I use them when there is ZERO content for them? In my mind, this is the first step toward the discontinuation of backward compatibility.

On a side note, Has TFB or Activision stated their reason for the design choice? If not, maybe Family Gamer TV or Skylander Dad could do us a favor and hold their feet to the fire. It would be nice to hear some BS rationalization to the contrary of "we wanted to MAKE you buy Trap Masters".

Quote: DaMadNes

On a side note, Has TFB or Activision stated their reason for the design choice? If not, maybe Family Gamer TV or Skylander Dad could do us a favor and hold their feet to the fire. It would be nice to hear some BS rationalization to the contrary of "we wanted to MAKE you buy Trap Masters".

LOL yeah I'd love to hear the PR spin on this....

Actually, no, now that I think about it, they'd probably just say "we wanted people that purchased a Trap Master to feel like they got extra value from them by being able to open gates they couldn't before!" Its the classic turn-around PR response to just consider a "pay wall" to be a "value-add purchase".

Anyway...

Quote: DaMadNes

My point is, you can't open ANYTHING with them. It was a hassle before, but now its not worth the hassle of switching figs to use one of them. In swap force there were elemental gates AND dual gates AND swap zones. At least your corelanders could do SOMETHING. As is, there is no real reason to put previous gen skylanders on the portal IMO. They are fully leveled, they have all their upgrades, I can't battle them against the new guys, there are no quests or heroic quests, and they can't open any gates. Why would I use them when there is ZERO content for them? In my mind, this is the first step toward the discontinuation of backward compatibility.

I see what you mean for the most part, about the old Skylanders not having anything NEW to do. I guess I can see how it would seem like its just not worth the normal hassle of swapping all the time to swap to a character that you feel has nothing to offer...

Honestly though in some ways I felt Swap Force was worse about it... Yes there was a raised level cap, but I don't find grinding for XP terribly exciting (max health is the least interesting stat boost to me), and as I mentioned I don't play PvP. The other stuff was all present in the previous game (like the personal Quests started with Giants) so those weren't technically anything new to do, and of course there was no new Heroic Challenges. So for me, in Swap Force it was like, why swap in in old Skylander when I'm going to have to switch to a swapper anyway all the time for Swap Zones and Dual Gates?

But the reason it felt even worse than TT for this, is that Swap Force severely nerfed many of the older Skylanders making them feel completely worthless to play compared to the new figures, and this game has restored their former glory, so I personally feel like I have more reason to play my old figures again in this one (just for the pure enjoyment of fighting new boss fights with characters I loved from the past, if nothing else). In point of fact, I have Tree Rex in my current rotation of figures I'm playing through the game with, which I switch to for smashing through a gate when I'm too lazy to go fetch the bomb for it, but also I use him in fights as well and he's quite effective in several battles (I even reset him and haven't used him in so long he almost feels like a new guy again!). In Swap Force I kept a Giant around for opening Giant-only treasure chests, but they were so nerfed (at least the ones I own) that I would swap them right back out again after opening the chest. I eventually just played as almost entirely the Swappers in that game anyway (but the swappers at least felt like they had something unique to offer unlike the Trap Masters).

Also the old Skylanders all have at least one attack while jumping now, so that's kinda sorta something new heh (not really though, its not a unique attack or anything).


In any case we are mostly in agreement here, with the core point being that they took away extra stuff to do with your old Skylanders, and they shouldn't have made quite so much content exclusive to Trap Masters that don't really even offer anything FUN and NEW for their gimmick, but instead their gimmick is to just be gate keys...

I personally think they should have just made 32 new Core Skylanders, dropped the lame smashable Traptanium/bonus damage/traptanium gate idea altogether, and just focused on the Traps as being the new gimmick. The game didn't need 2 new gimmicks!

I love the game so far!

BUT, I am not happy that we cannot easily play as any figure we have. I hate these limitations. Some stuff is ok, but I feel the elemental gates is going too far. Throwing some traptanium accents on these gates doesn't cut it to make them Trap Master exclusives. They already have the crystal sculpture things to break open. Or at the very least, make it a double sided type of gate? One for the Masters and one for the cores, giants, swappers, etc.

I also do not like that you can't reset your villains.

And most of all, all the bugs. Giving a response like they have for some...."just use that move less often" is absolutely disgraceful. PATCH your game Activision/TFB! There is no excuses here. We are paying more for your game than probably any game out there....a lot more than your toys-to-life competitors out there. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Don't give us despicable answers and excuses. FIX and PATCH your game out of respect for yourselves and us.

Has anyone tried 2 player mode yet? The tether they put on you is TERRIBLY SHORT! In the chef level for example it's a small arena, the tether is equal to about the radius of the circle that makes up the arena. Basically when they throw those chainsaw swinging vehicles in there you can't have a skylander on each side of it because one person will tether the other person into the path of the blade.

Having just come from two cooperative games I have enjoyed playing with my son: The Lego Movie Video Game, and Hyrule Warriors, this co-op mechanic is plain bad. In those other games you can have someone play entirely on the Wii U pad while the other person is on the TV giving freedom of movement to each. Or, in the lego movie video game, and all recent lego titles in the past 3-4 years, when you wander apart the screen goes into split screen in a dynamic way that lets you each go where you want while simultaneously showing the relative position of each player. Being tethered to a 3 year old, or any less skilled gamer, makes co-op play rather tedious. The tether in swap force was much longer.

The other step backwards from swap force in co-op play is the falling mechanic. Whenever one of you decides to jump off a ledge you get teleported back the the beginning of the zone. In swap force they frequently teleported you to the other player. This has made playing with a player of lesser skill very frustrating to say the least. Oh and it seems most of the guard rails on the islands have been taken off so you can fall off just about everywhere!

I still like the feel and a lot about the skylanders franchise but the engine they used with this game has glaring shortcomings when compared with other co-op games released recently.

(All of the above is from the Wii U version)

Quote: TOlofter

I love the game so far!

BUT, I am not happy that we cannot easily play as any figure we have. I hate these limitations. Some stuff is ok, but I feel the elemental gates is going too far. Throwing some traptanium accents on these gates doesn't cut it to make them Trap Master exclusives. They already have the crystal sculpture things to break open. Or at the very least, make it a double sided type of gate? One for the Masters and one for the cores, giants, swappers, etc.

I also do not like that you can't reset your villains.

And most of all, all the bugs. Giving a response like they have for some...."just use that move less often" is absolutely disgraceful. PATCH your game Activision/TFB! There is no excuses here. We are paying more for your game than probably any game out there....a lot more than your toys-to-life competitors out there. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Don't give us despicable answers and excuses. FIX and PATCH your game out of respect for yourselves and us.

the thing is a patch dont fix the content on the disc. the day the patch is gone from the servers, your left with a broken game. so what they should have done from day one, is to take the time and test the game properly and fix the bugs before release... we are paying so much for the game, i thought they at least did their part to give us a quality product. but this is not the case, its like they dont give a damn anymore. the sloppy list of trap team is so long it could be a 300 pages book by now.

Quote: Verrous

Or, in the lego movie video game, and all recent lego titles in the past 3-4 years, when you wander apart the screen goes into split screen in a dynamic way that lets you each go where you want while simultaneously showing the relative position of each player.

Off-topic, but just wanted to say, I was VERY impressed with how the Lego Movie Video Game handled the dynamic split screen that re-merged when you got closer to each other. I didn't even play the game myself but watched a short video of someone playing it and I thought that was very slick, extremely well done, and something that TfB and VV should seriously considering ripping off for future Skylanders games. If anyone reading this hasn't seen it, go watch a video of co-op play in that game, its the best handling I've ever seen for dealing with players moving far apart from each other.

Quote: Zauron

Quote: Verrous

Or, in the lego movie video game, and all recent lego titles in the past 3-4 years, when you wander apart the screen goes into split screen in a dynamic way that lets you each go where you want while simultaneously showing the relative position of each player.

Off-topic, but just wanted to say, I was VERY impressed with how the Lego Movie Video Game handled the dynamic split screen that re-merged when you got closer to each other. I didn't even play the game myself but watched a short video of someone playing it and I thought that was very slick, extremely well done, and something that TfB and VV should seriously considering ripping off for future Skylanders games. If anyone reading this hasn't seen it, go watch a video of co-op play in that game, its the best handling I've ever seen for dealing with players moving far apart from each other.

I couldn't agree with you more. I first saw it in the Lego movie harry potter game years 4-7 and was blown away at how much freedom it provided. (Incidentally if you don't like the dynamic split screen they offer a traditional horizontal or vertical mode depending on the game.) I know with 7-8 platforms target asking for a special controller only mode on the wii u may be a stretch, but all versions would benefit from the split screen lego has been using for at least 4 years. I can only hope someone at VV or Toys for Bob does something about it.

My personal guess as to why there's no PvP arenas is that you'd have to be tethered too close to your opponent to make it any fun.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

Quote: TOlofter

I love the game so far!

BUT, I am not happy that we cannot easily play as any figure we have. I hate these limitations. Some stuff is ok, but I feel the elemental gates is going too far. Throwing some traptanium accents on these gates doesn't cut it to make them Trap Master exclusives. They already have the crystal sculpture things to break open. Or at the very least, make it a double sided type of gate? One for the Masters and one for the cores, giants, swappers, etc.

I also do not like that you can't reset your villains.

And most of all, all the bugs. Giving a response like they have for some...."just use that move less often" is absolutely disgraceful. PATCH your game Activision/TFB! There is no excuses here. We are paying more for your game than probably any game out there....a lot more than your toys-to-life competitors out there. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Don't give us despicable answers and excuses. FIX and PATCH your game out of respect for yourselves and us.

the thing is a patch dont fix the content on the disc. the day the patch is gone from the servers, your left with a broken game. so what they should have done from day one, is to take the time and test the game properly and fix the bugs before release... we are paying so much for the game, i thought they at least did their part to give us a quality product. but this is not the case, its like they dont give a damn anymore. the sloppy list of trap team is so long it could be a 300 pages book by now.

Not really...right? As long as you have the patch downloaded and saved on your console, you keep the patch for life. If your console breaks, well then you are screwed.

Quote: TOlofter

Quote: CountMoneyBone

Quote: TOlofter

I love the game so far!

BUT, I am not happy that we cannot easily play as any figure we have. I hate these limitations. Some stuff is ok, but I feel the elemental gates is going too far. Throwing some traptanium accents on these gates doesn't cut it to make them Trap Master exclusives. They already have the crystal sculpture things to break open. Or at the very least, make it a double sided type of gate? One for the Masters and one for the cores, giants, swappers, etc.

I also do not like that you can't reset your villains.

And most of all, all the bugs. Giving a response like they have for some...."just use that move less often" is absolutely disgraceful. PATCH your game Activision/TFB! There is no excuses here. We are paying more for your game than probably any game out there....a lot more than your toys-to-life competitors out there. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Don't give us despicable answers and excuses. FIX and PATCH your game out of respect for yourselves and us.

the thing is a patch dont fix the content on the disc. the day the patch is gone from the servers, your left with a broken game. so what they should have done from day one, is to take the time and test the game properly and fix the bugs before release... we are paying so much for the game, i thought they at least did their part to give us a quality product. but this is not the case, its like they dont give a damn anymore. the sloppy list of trap team is so long it could be a 300 pages book by now.

Not really...right? As long as you have the patch downloaded and saved on your console, you keep the patch for life. If your console breaks, well then you are screwed.

the console dont have to break you can screw up the patch if you lose the power or console freeze and you cant turn off or save properly etc... as it is today you have no control over the patches, so when its not on the disc then i see it as a unfinished product... skylanders isnt a 60 dollar game only, its a 250-300+ dollar game if you want to see everything in it. so when they release the game with a patch on day one i dont like it, because its pointless collecting something that dont work as it should, its broken and will be less valuable as a collector item. have i at least had the opportunity to back up the patch on a usb stick, then i at least could have the patch. i could be in control of it and not be depended on servers, that will go down in the future and lose the patch.

Every once in a while game publishers will do a second run of a popular game with the patch already on the disc, maybe they'll do that CountMoneyBone and if you wait long enough you'll have a nice already-patched-on-disc version of the game .

Quote: Zauron

Every once in a while game publishers will do a second run of a popular game with the patch already on the disc, maybe they'll do that CountMoneyBone and if you wait long enough you'll have a nice already-patched-on-disc version of the game .

that would be a dream come through.... but its activision they dont do rerun(goty/complete editions) where they remaster the disc again with the patch etc. sometimes i really wish innovative and creative developers never sign contracts with these big publishers. a lot of great games get ruined....

It's almost like they rush so much these days and don't take the care like they used to. Back with SNES, PS1, etc there were no such things as patches. If the game was bugged....RECALL!

I am enjoying the game overall, even though I am not a huge fan of playing as the villain I have enjoyed playing as Chef Pepper Jack a couple of times. And I do like all the new villains to fight I think that's great.

But I dislike the lack of upgrade options for my characters. No Heroic Challenges is very disappointing. There's not point in putting any real time into any one single character.

I am also disappointed that there is no longer a completion tick for completing a chapter in under a certain time. Sure this has driven me close to the point of insanity in some chapters in previous games, but it also gives a real sense of achievement once you have finally got through the chapter under the set time. This is really missing for me in this game.

Quote: Zauron

Every once in a while game publishers will do a second run of a popular game with the patch already on the disc, maybe they'll do that CountMoneyBone and if you wait long enough you'll have a nice already-patched-on-disc version of the game .

Another $75... lol, what a joke.

Quote: DaMadNes

Quote: Zauron

Every once in a while game publishers will do a second run of a popular game with the patch already on the disc, maybe they'll do that CountMoneyBone and if you wait long enough you'll have a nice already-patched-on-disc version of the game .

Another $75... lol, what a joke.

Well he hasn't bought the game yet, I was saying if the patch thing bothered him that much, its possible that a later run of the game will have the patch already on the disc, so if he waits long enough to buy the game he might be able to get a pre-patched copy. Its not that unusual, though I can't say for sure if its something Activision does.

Quote: kaosmumishot

I am enjoying the game overall, even though I am not a huge fan of playing as the villain I have enjoyed playing as Chef Pepper Jack a couple of times. And I do like all the new villains to fight I think that's great.

But I dislike the lack of upgrade options for my characters. No Heroic Challenges is very disappointing. There's not point in putting any real time into any one single character.

I am also disappointed that there is no longer a completion tick for completing a chapter in under a certain time. Sure this has driven me close to the point of insanity in some chapters in previous games, but it also gives a real sense of achievement once you have finally got through the chapter under the set time. This is really missing for me in this game.

have you checked during a second run through a level? it is there

Quote:

have you checked during a second run through a level? it is there

Really? So for example when I finish playing in Hard mode and switch to Nightmare mode it will have a time limit tick? That would be nice.

no need to increase difficulty, just go back to an already completed level. there is a 4th star available named "Difficult Dares" (Nightmare mode needs a completely separate save file as well, annoyingly)

Quote: min8or

no need to increase difficulty, just go back to an already completed level. there is a 4th star available named "Difficult Dares" (Nightmare mode needs a completely separate save file as well, annoyingly)

I've replayed several levels and don't have that option. Are you sure you don't need to beat the entire game once first, and not just a single level?

Quote: Verrous

Has anyone tried 2 player mode yet? The tether they put on you is TERRIBLY SHORT! In the chef level for example it's a small arena, the tether is equal to about the radius of the circle that makes up the arena. Basically when they throw those chainsaw swinging vehicles in there you can't have a skylander on each side of it because one person will tether the other person into the path of the blade.

Having just come from two cooperative games I have enjoyed playing with my son: The Lego Movie Video Game, and Hyrule Warriors, this co-op mechanic is plain bad. In those other games you can have someone play entirely on the Wii U pad while the other person is on the TV giving freedom of movement to each. Or, in the lego movie video game, and all recent lego titles in the past 3-4 years, when you wander apart the screen goes into split screen in a dynamic way that lets you each go where you want while simultaneously showing the relative position of each player. Being tethered to a 3 year old, or any less skilled gamer, makes co-op play rather tedious. The tether in swap force was much longer.

The other step backwards from swap force in co-op play is the falling mechanic. Whenever one of you decides to jump off a ledge you get teleported back the the beginning of the zone. In swap force they frequently teleported you to the other player. This has made playing with a player of lesser skill very frustrating to say the least. Oh and it seems most of the guard rails on the islands have been taken off so you can fall off just about everywhere!

I still like the feel and a lot about the skylanders franchise but the engine they used with this game has glaring shortcomings when compared with other co-op games released recently.

(All of the above is from the Wii U version)

Thank you for bringing this up! I play solely on co-op with my partner and siblings, and the shorter tether is incredibly annoying (especially when it sometimes bugs out and I can't even see it). I'm sure in SF they adjusted the length of it for certain areas as well?

The bounce pads are even worse, one of the players just has to be slightly off (easy to do when they can't clip through each other anymore, and frequently push each other out of the way). Frequently the camera will pop around really sharply for a few seconds before it settles, but it's enough to make my sis and I feel enough motion sickness to have to take a break (I play a heck of a lot of genres of games, only ever get ill from certain types of cameras in a select few FPS's, but I can't remember ever getting motion sickness this bad.)

TT does not seem very co-op friendly, especially when compared to how seamless SF felt, but even compared to Giants. I want to like this game. I want to like it so bad, but all the little things that keep occurring during gameplay jolt me away from simply enjoying the game.


EDIT:
Quote:

My personal guess as to why there's no PvP arenas is that you'd have to be tethered too close to your opponent to make it any fun.

I pretty sure in PvP arenas of past games the tether is entirely removed. The reason the tether exists in the first place is to stop one of the players from getting too far ahead in the level and leaving the other player in the dust, and there's no risk of that happening in an enclosed arena.

I've thought about it a bit more (and played a bit more) and I think I can better explain why I like the level designs so much more in TT than in Swap Force (besides my art style preference).

NOTE: This post is all ignoring pay-wall blocked content (adventure packs, elemental gates, etc).

In Swap Force, I spent nearly a third of the game in a desert-themed area, then another third of the game in a ice/snow themed area, and finally a third in typical Skylands terrain (light forest, grasslands, rivers, etc). The rest included single-level visits to a jungle (first level), a treetop village, and then the final level. That's it.

In Trap Team I've seen more variety of environments than that even though I'm only about 1/3rd through the game, including:



I can't wait to see what other interesting locales this game takes place in! Every level feels like something new, no "oh goody more snow... *sigh*" in this game.


One of my biggest beefs with Skylanders games is "mixing up the gameplay" by including stuff where the Skylander you are playing as has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the sequence. I'm sure some people love this stuff for the sake of variety, but to me this game is all about its characters, and playing through the same content again as a different character feeling different, and that's what makes buying all these figures worthwhile. Any content where the character I'm using doesn't mean anything is a waste of time and especially boring on subsequent play-throughs. This includes stuff like turret segments and rail grinding. For some reason puzzle-solving segments don't bother me (pushing blocks around, opening locks) but action sequences where my Skylander choice doesn't help any bug me (Giants was particularly bad at this with the giant robot driving sequences - I HATED those).

Trap Team is also guilty of this kind of thing, though I've so far only had two turret sequences and one of them was literally about 5 seconds long, and then there was a crane game sequence but it was also short. There's also Skystones again, which I know people love but I never cared about, but it so far hasn't been forced on me as much as it was in Giants.

Anyway, the one way the games "mix things up" from just fighting the same enemies all the time, yet have it so the character you are using DOES make a difference, is boss fights. However, I've always considered it a weakness in the past games that they had very few boss fights, and many that didn't really feel much like bosses at all. Well, now that's changed with this one. Again, in Swap Force there were, what, like, 5 boss fights? In this game I'm again about a 3rd the way through it and have already fought 19 bosses!

All these boss fights are awesome because they not only mix things up, AND make your Skylander choice make an actual difference, but they can even be seen as true tests of your Skylanders' abilities, and different Skylanders work better or worse against different bosses (and I'm not talking about the Trap Master bonus damage, that's just lame, I mean the boss fights have different tactics that work better against different Skylander abilities). This is MUCH better than turret sequences or rail grinding sequences. Add to it the fact that beating a boss rewards you with capturing that boss, who then is a playable character with their own theme music and a ton of hilarious things they can say while you are adventuring just makes these fights all that much more rewarding.


So, in conclusion.. In TT I have been in more totally unique environments by Chapter 7 than the entire game of Swap Force. There are also 40-50 boss fights to mix things up, compared to 5 or so, which is much more interesting and worthwhile breaks in the normal gameplay than the sequences where your character choice doesn't matter. That's why I say that the levels in this game are much better than Swap Force's. I'm sorry, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me, longer levels do not even remotely mean "better level designs", and I haven't really heard any other reasons why Swap Force's level designs are supposedly better.

Over all I'm very happy with the game, it's definitely my favorite Skylanders game. But as much as I love it, I do have gripes. I'll start with what I like first.

The new characters are fantastic: Blades, Chopper, Snap Shot, Wallop and Funny Bone are my favorites.

The villains: My Nicolas Cage they're good. I'm loving Wolfgang, Scrap Shooter, Cross Crow and Hood Sickle.

The Villains and Skylanders actually have personalities: I'll use Blades as an example. When I first saw Blades' cameo in the TT anouncment trailer, I thought he'd be like a crappy loner, Devianart OC character who'd look at the night sky an wonder where his lost father is. I has completely wrong. In game, he seems very calm, friendly and over a happy character and I love his Irish/Scottish accent.

The older TfB Skylanders have new animations: When I first put Spyro in TT I noticed his walking animation was different, along with his jump and it looks SO much better than his SF one. Also, ALL Skylanders have idle animations now.

The level design: There's so much more variety in them then Swap Force. So far my favorites are Soda Springs, Know-It-All Island Monster Marsh, Time Town, The Future of Skylands, Troll Rocket Steal, and the Ultimate Weapon.

The Hub: I love it, best one so far.

The return of MANY NPCs: A thing that I liked about the TfB Skylander games is that a lot of the NPCs are recurring, instead of new ones every game. We see Arbo, Rizzo, Blobbers, Snukles, Quigley (Btw, Quigley wants to be a Skylander! Hmmm, perhaps a hint at the future?) and more

Gripes.

Only Trap Masters can open Elemental Gates: Obviously Acti, (not TfB) was behind this. Such a bad idea. Clearly a money grab that was put in LATE into development completely gets rid of the use of your Non-trap master Skylanders. Also there's no expliantion on WHY it's only Trap Masters this time. Is it their weapons?

Repetitive at times: The over use of Lock Puzzles, Airship raids and Sky Stones can get tedious and gets old fast.

Lack of heroics, quests, time attack, score mode and other such customizations. TfB and VV are being VERY inconsistent with stuff like this. heroics and in the first and second games, along quests in Giants then missions in the third with quests returning and now in TT , ALL are gone. What the hell happened? Is there ANYWAY to up your Skylanders stats besides hats now?

Lock of Area mode. I never used it but I played some times and I am disappointed that it's gone. It'll probably be back the next game or.......maybe not.

Quote: Verrous

Has anyone tried 2 player mode yet? The tether they put on you is TERRIBLY SHORT! In the chef level for example it's a small arena, the tether is equal to about the radius of the circle that makes up the arena. Basically when they throw those chainsaw swinging vehicles in there you can't have a skylander on each side of it because one person will tether the other person into the path of the blade.

Having just come from two cooperative games I have enjoyed playing with my son: The Lego Movie Video Game, and Hyrule Warriors, this co-op mechanic is plain bad. In those other games you can have someone play entirely on the Wii U pad while the other person is on the TV giving freedom of movement to each. Or, in the lego movie video game, and all recent lego titles in the past 3-4 years, when you wander apart the screen goes into split screen in a dynamic way that lets you each go where you want while simultaneously showing the relative position of each player. Being tethered to a 3 year old, or any less skilled gamer, makes co-op play rather tedious. The tether in swap force was much longer.

The other step backwards from swap force in co-op play is the falling mechanic. Whenever one of you decides to jump off a ledge you get teleported back the the beginning of the zone. In swap force they frequently teleported you to the other player. This has made playing with a player of lesser skill very frustrating to say the least. Oh and it seems most of the guard rails on the islands have been taken off so you can fall off just about everywhere!

I still like the feel and a lot about the skylanders franchise but the engine they used with this game has glaring shortcomings when compared with other co-op games released recently.

(All of the above is from the Wii U version)

Oh great... I have to play with my little brother, who SUCKS horribly At skylanders, and normally makes it so I can't move, and then get killed (like in SF in the glumshanks battle)

He seriously plays like he is banging his head on the controller. So this sucky 2 player mode is going to take a LOT out of this gamr for mr

Quote: HeyitsHotDog

When I first saw Blades' cameo in the TT anouncment trailer, I thought he'd be like a crappy loner, Devianart OC character who'd look at the night sky an wonder where his lost father is

Nah that's the job of Enigma and quite possibly every future Dark Element Skylander going forward.

One huge gripe I have with the game is how lazy they got with the story scrolls. It's just the devs trying to push Flynn as some sort of Chuck Norris expy. Where's the lore? This could've been a good way to really go into the back story of the Doom Raiders and all that and instead we get to hear "Boom!" for the gajilionth time every time we get a story scroll.