darkSpyro

I went and looked back at some on my posts, from the giants era. back when we all were speculating who would be coming back, and scrambling to find the full poster. We got hyped over so many characters.. some guy even wanted to use a microscope to analyze a tiny-ass picture of the giants poster.


We were so.. happy back then...

Now everybody is just complaining about "the end of the franchise" and stuff. I just hope skylanders 6 is announced soon, with thrillipede and buzz wing releasing next month. I'll be over the moon when sky6 is announced/leaked and we can go back to happier times.

Same here. Giants to SF were the best times. TT had some great moments too but that's when everything started to get negative..

Fandom drought man, fandom drought. We did the same to Smash Hit though,and because of that for the longest time we thought he was a snake or lizard. I recall people trying to see Ninjini and swearing on their names that she was a tiny fairy with a lot of smoke as support - the silver of the swords made it look like shiny wings.

Quote: Bifrost

Fandom drought man, fandom drought. We did the same to Smash Hit though,and because of that for the longest time we thought he was a snake or lizard. I recall people trying to see Ninjini and swearing on their names that she was a tiny fairy with a lot of smoke as support - the silver of the swords made it look like shiny wings.

I remember someone thought Eye Brawl was a Minotaur.


A Minotaur...

A black bull minotaur would've definately been an odd but awesome choice, though chances are we'd see one in Dark nowadays.

Ahhhh the time when i was still excited for a new character

Quote: Drawdler

I thought Eye-Brawl could've been a headless centaur. At least we did end up getting a centaur in Knight Mare.

Wasn't around for SA, but from the 4/5 I've been around for, Giants and SF were the best. Giants was definitely the most fun. Lots of memes and joking around, speculation, discussion felt chill.
Things started going downhill when people started repeating criticisms around the end of SF's release schedule. Before SF released, when we were just getting trailers, it felt like the game was really mysterious and people were really curious about it. When it actually released, it felt really fresh and it was fun to talk about the changes. The criticism was a lot more detailed than previous games and I think parttaking in some of that helped me grow as a person, although like I said, it started repeating itself eventually.

The Light/Dark stuff with TT was very fun and I personally have fond memories of trying to gather news for it, but besides that, TT and SC felt really whiney and it felt like the discussion about their gameplay and story died off pretty fast.

I don't think it was whiney until TT was revealed - sure, at the end of SF reactions were very much split,but it was still mostly in good fun or just the usual. New portal plus Villain Timers were what started the needless bickering, even more so than the traps. There was also very little of the feeling that people want the franchise to end so they have an excuse to quit their obsession until TT came out(not questioning those that think Skylanders shouldn't overstay its welcome, I mean those who literally say 'please end so I don't have to buy more toys'), at that point people whose collecting got out of hand showed up a lot.

I remember the SF days, when I first joined. Happy days!

But we can't just dwell on the past. We have plenty of things to look forward to!

Quote:

New portal plus Villain Timers were what started the needless bickering

Bickering or legitimate criticism? As a design mechanic it's still basically a random thing introduced that actually wasn't explained in the game. At least with the vehicles it's blatantly obvious where/how long you can use them.

My critiques go back to the lack of enhancing and exploring heroics in a more improved format...which is where I got the biggest bang with the game and really felt this could've integrated the TTL concept on a future level that never transpired.

For me, we expect more from the franchise, in terms of more thoughtful integration / enhancements. Re-heated simple story romps are basically going to be met with "no thanks".

I love the franchise, but it hasn't loved me back lately. Hope this changes.

Villain timers were NO big deal considering the villains are supposed to be meat shields and 'I Win' buttons. Having no upgrades or anything but quests means there was no point to make them unlimited and OP even for that game's standards. You can bring up Kaos but imagine unlimited Cuckoo Clocker who's pretty much unstoppable even with a health bar, or Threatpack whose range means you just need to walk circles around an enemy? Literally nothing would be a challenge unless you purposefully stopped using villains which kills the point of having them around in the first place.

But my point isn't 'was that a good idea?' or 'could they find a better solution?'. It's, people took that WAY out of proportion and the forum was an unbearable mess the week this was discovered.

Were they that powerful? I thought the villains looked pretty boring/weak from watching some gameplay videos.

Also, is it true that you needed so many traps and figures to beat the game? I wanna buy it but everything is so expensive!

You can beat the game with the starter pack and nothing else. Same with every Skylanders game so far.

For 100%....Yeees but I'm actually not sure about one. Kaos doesn't have a villain quest in a story mode levels,so is he needed for stars at all?

The villains are very OP though. Some like Chill Bill and Slobber Trap not so much and are weaker than the unpopular Skylanders,but most end of chapter bosses and the Doom Raiders easily mow through enemies if they didn't lose time when hit or had the ability to eat food.

Quote: UncleBob

You can beat the game with the starter pack and nothing else. Same with every Skylanders game so far.

Of course! I feel so stupid now!

Quote: Bifrost

For 100%....Yeees but I'm actually not sure about one. Kaos doesn't have a villain quest in a story mode levels, so is he needed for stars at all?

The villains are very OP though. Some like Chill Bill and Slobber Trap not so much and are weaker than the unpopular Skylanders, but most end of chapter bosses and the Doom Raiders easily mow through enemies if they didn't lose time when hit or had the ability to eat food.

So why are there two Kaos traps?

Quote: Bifrost

Villain timers were NO big deal considering the villains are supposed to be meat shields and 'I Win' buttons. Having no upgrades or anything but quests means there was no point to make them unlimited and OP even for that game's standards. You can bring up Kaos but imagine unlimited Cuckoo Clocker who's pretty much unstoppable even with a health bar, or Threatpack whose range means you just need to walk circles around an enemy? Literally nothing would be a challenge unless you purposefully stopped using villains which kills the point of having them around in the first place.

But my point isn't 'was that a good idea?' or 'could they find a better solution?'. It's, people took that WAY out of proportion and the forum was an unbearable mess the week this was discovered.

In my opinion, people were vocal because there really wasn't a good design answer to this. The chosen design makes sense for the reasons you mention, but I totally get why people were putt off by a "timer based solution"--especially given there's no dialog given to account for why that's the case. Add to it the fact that they were waffling on the design choices right in front of our eyes. Add to it the fact that I'm paying $6 for a character that's virtual and on a timer--not good value. (Again, from a game perspective made sense--but these negative impacts occurred). Boats sailed on that trip anyway. I literally dont have the energy to debate this.

The Kaos Trap changes are just cosmetic. The Ultimate trap is bigger and fancier, but they both do the same with no changes.

Sigh times sure have changed from the simpler times and I actually wish we could go back to 2011 when the line began and just have that thrill of hunting them all down. I gotta say that getting all the Skylanders was the most fun experience in my life and will always remember the days of hunting down all of the fascinating and unique characters.

I still loved the original SSA times. Nobody quite knew exactly how the releases worked yet. New figures built up so much anticipation before being released. I remember looking at the poster and wondering if I would ever get a Camo or Cynder. Eventually, the golden day comes when you find them on the shelves.

I didn't come around until we were in the Swap Force hype. The hype for that game was real, man. And the game was great. I still remember the excitement of picking it up. TT and SC, I wasn't as excited anymore because I was older and didn't get as excited for things anymore. Or maybe they were just subconsciously worse.

I wish I had been around in the SSA and SG times. I only found out about SG when I was looking online on some site looking at Skylander toys they had in stock and saw a section called Giants.

What you're saying is true, Zap... All this negativity isn't needed. I mean come on, most of them are acting like the game doesn't have any positive vibes at all! It's rediculous, of course this game has some good things about it! In my opinion, the gimmick was fun and I wanted to try every vehicle zone due to being so fun... And I don't even like cars! But the way they integrated it into the lore was really nice and on the subject of lore, this game was the most lore based one out of all of it... And I loved it. Superchargers was a nice edition to me, I don't give a crap about what GameMaster and CountMoneyBone had to say and I never will. This game was awesome and I loved it and I'm sure Sky 6 will be all the more amazing!

Quote: Starlight_Shine

What you're saying is true, Zap... All this negativity isn't needed. I mean come on, most of them are acting like the game doesn't have any positive vibes at all! It's rediculous, of course this game has some good things about it! In my opinion, the gimmick was fun and I wanted to try every vehicle zone due to being so fun... And I don't even like cars! But the way they integrated it into the lore was really nice and on the subject of lore, this game was the most lore based one out of all of it... And I loved it. Superchargers was a nice edition to me, I don't give a crap about what GameMaster and CountMoneyBone had to say and I never will. This game was awesome and I loved it and I'm sure Sky 6 will be all the more amazing!

Preach! One of the reasons I hardly come to this forum anymore is because of all the negativity. Sure the games aren't perfect, and Activision could do a better job. But it's been a great series so far, and is still great, I'd even go so far as to say it's getting slowly better. The lore in SC was a MAJOR step in the right direction. And though I not crazy about the gimmick, VV did a great job with the vehicles.

I think the reason everyone was so happy/positive back then was because basically everything that came out back then was new. Now people have bucket loads of figures, and the magic has worn off a bit. I still love Skylanders as much as I did back then, if not more. And I'm still excited to see what the future holds.

-Rov

Mmmmh... Ok, I still consider SuperChargers to be the weakest entry of the series under many points of view, but after thinking about it for a while, maybe it's not because it is bad per se but because it is basically the exact opposite of my favorite game, Trap Team.

Let me do a short comparison list:
- Trap Team had lots of new and different Skylanders, SuperChargers has the smallest cast of new faces ever and the rest is reposes or guest-stars, all of them being humanoids;
- traps were a gimmick which improved the regular gameplay by making it more "strategic" and potentially creating even more gameplay possibilities, vehicles are a gimmick which create a parallel way to play and limit the use of previous figures;
- Trap Team focused a lot on what the Skylanders could do, SuperChargers is mostly about vehicles
- Trap Team managed to keep all the various Gimmicklanders unique, SuperChargers "nerfed" Giants, Trap Masters and traps.

You see, it's really difficult for me to like a game when it's more or less the negative of my favorite one.

That being said I will never say SuperChargers was a bad game or that it left me indifferent.
It had the best plot in the series, with a fantastic character development and some truly intense moments.
Almost all the levels were unique both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay and they all improved the exsisting lore.
Even the vehicles were surprisingly fun to ride, for the first playthrough.

I think what this community needs is a game which can reconcile a great cast of new Skylanders and an awesome plot with all sorts of gameplay innovation and possibilities, while keeping in mind that the the protagonists of the series are the characters themselves.
Hope the sixth entry will achieve this seemingly hard task.

You said it, Drek! Swap force is my favourite game, (since I haven't played TT) but I can already see that Superchargers has the better plot. SF is kinda a re-hash of SA - 'Go find the element thingys all around Skylands' but SC is already surprising me!

I can say, though, that it lacks other areas.
Like, where did the elemental gates go?
What happened to all the collectables in each level?
And where's my Skylanders' individual quests?

I was SO tempted to set up a 'Skylanders 6 ideas' topic, but we've done that to death on this site. I am really interested in finding out about a new focus for the next game, though. And for once, I'll be glad if I never have to do anything to do with vehicles again.

Quote: yelvy

You said it, Drek! Swap force is my favourite game, (since I haven't played TT) but I can already see that Superchargers has the better plot. SF is kinda a re-hash of SA - 'Go find the element thingys all around Skylands' but SC is already surprising me!

I can say, though, that it lacks other areas.
Like, where did the elemental gates go?
What happened to all the collectables in each level?
And where's my Skylanders' individual quests?

I was SO tempted to set up a 'Skylanders 6 ideas' topic, but we've done that to death on this site. I am really interested in finding out about a new focus for the next game, though. And for once, I'll be glad if I never have to do anything to do with vehicles again.

Vehicles were fun to me for a while, but I want Skylanders 6 to try something even better. At the same time, I really hope they don't just make vehicles into some dumb trophy or elemental bullets. It's understandable for traps since they were like 6 bucks, but these are $15 articulated vehicles. The worst part is, knowing how much TfB probably loathes the vehicles, they will almost definitely become useless in the next game. If they're smart though, I really want Pandergast to return for an online racing side mode. It doesn't even have to have new tracks or even have to tie into the main story or anything, it can just be there in the hub as a side mode where you can use your vehicles. As for my other idea, I know it probably won't happen, but what would be 2 times as better would be if levels were much more open and explorable, meaning you could use your vehicles to get around and beat enemies faster.

I've always wanted more open levels! Imagine areas that only open up for giants/swappers/trap masters/vehicles but don't affect the rest of the level and are invisible to players who haven't got these figures in their collection. And the return of collectables! Repeatability should be considered when designing the levels.

Or something more extreme: Ditch the hub. It probably wouldn't work, since there's so many things you need to access all the time (Upgrades, static characters, etc.) but it would really shake things up a little.

Lack of hub was LoS' staple and it just didn't work. The boring level select just removed you from an adventuring experience, when you didn't straight up have to replay the entire thing to get collectibles.
Hubs are fine for side activities, and you can have both a rest area and an exploring area if free roam/open world was needed - just put the Academy or wherever we'll go in city walls, and it only loads more once you leave it.

That's what I meant - a hub that was somehow built into an open world! Heck, I'd be happy with just a bigger hub to explore since the Academy is smaller than I thought it would be.

Quote: yelvy

That's what I meant - a hub that was somehow built into an open world! Heck, I'd be happy with just a bigger hub to explore since the Academy is smaller than I thought it would be.

Trap Team overdid it with Hub size. SC hub was a bit too tight for my tastes. In my opinion Swap Force was just right. I'd love random generated areas, smart villain placement according to how well you play and/or difficulty....anything but the current ramp up HP requirements. Imagine villains prone to appear based on cosmetic area features, which are random. It would introduce some unpredictability which along with real exploration requirements (hopefully more than just what we've been doing) would very much make more purchases needed/wanted.

It's the dead horse topic we've all explored, just prior to each entry. I fully expect none of my items to be fulfilled. Cause I'm THAT kind of guy.

I haven't been on in a few months

I feel SF was the strongest game, just because of it's production, it lived up to expectations in every reguard and just was generally a very coherent story.

I feel we still need a hub, but add a hub to the center of each world, and allow you to explore that worlds levels from there.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Quote: yelvy

That's what I meant - a hub that was somehow built into an open world! Heck, I'd be happy with just a bigger hub to explore since the Academy is smaller than I thought it would be.

Trap Team overdid it with Hub size. SC hub was a bit too tight for my tastes. In my opinion Swap Force was just right. I'd love random generated areas, smart villain placement according to how well you play and/or difficulty....anything but the current ramp up HP requirements. Imagine villains prone to appear based on cosmetic area features, which are random. It would introduce some unpredictability which along with real exploration requirements (hopefully more than just what we've been doing) would very much make more purchases needed/wanted.

It's the dead horse topic we've all explored, just prior to each entry. I fully expect none of my items to be fulfilled. Cause I'm THAT kind of guy.

Hmm... So the hub was bigger in TT? I feel pretty confined in SC. As you said, SF was perfect in that aspect.

And I like your ideas! It's a shame that you think you'll never see them in-game

Quote: Blink182Bouncer

I feel SF was the strongest game, just because of it's production, it lived up to expectations in every regard and just was generally a very coherent story.

I feel we still need a hub, but add a hub to the center of each world, and allow you to explore that worlds levels from there.

You say it! I totally agree with you!

And with the hub - that sounds like a good compromise!

From a technical point of view, SWAP Force was most likely objectively the best.
It had a great combat system, polished controls and graphics (only topped by SuperChargers, as of now), really few bugs and glitches and many extra modes.

But to me it simply didn't felt like I was playing a Skylanders game (unlike SuperChargers, as strange as it may sound) but rather a good fantasy game with Skylanders in it.
Subjective opinion but I couldn't ignore it.

Not to mention that from a story, lore and character's point of view it was quite a step dow.
You can be the best from a technical point of view but I won't be interested in you if you don't put your heart and soul in what you create.

I'm all for a central open-world "hub" a la LEGO games, I think it would suit this series perfectly!

What's the Lego hub like--you can pick and choose where you go? Yeah, a ton of games have done that (Super Mario Galaxy) that open up other worlds for you to explore as you progress during the game. And where you can go back to them if need be. For SMG, it was about getting more stars, but some other achievement can be implemented to require it...and the area can have a new spin / difficulty setting when you do it. All wrapped around a constantly evolving story (which need not be deep but to continue the immersion and goals as you push further).

the lego hub actually is two different ones. there's the story mode hub and then there's the portals of each world, and it does a fine job at it. the only difference is here with lego is to access each world separately you need atleast 1 figure for that world to enter it, but when you do it's exactly that. you enter an entire world not just a level. stepping through to ninjago for the first time is a real eye opener on just how beautiful it can be, so is chima. my eyes had to adjust simply how it felt more like skylanders than seeing how the others looked.

games need a hub that's more than menus and the system that works best is portal type where the effort works at immersion for the player to be drawn into it. if i wanted to navigate menus for a game i wouldn't buy a toys to life game. if superchargers is nothing but menu loading that's another reason why it's bad.

^ Hmm... I think Drek meant hubs from other lego games, not necessarily dimensions.

And SC does have a hub, just a pretty small one.

They could do it like,uh classic Spyro comes to mind but I'm sure there's more recent. Normal hub, with sub hubs for each area. They can just be a circle(Gnasty's place?) with levels around it, or a world of its own with collectibes you get as you find the level entrances inside it.

Would also allow for Flynn to be more useful than just story asks for a pilot, since some worlds in the first Spyro needed transport between the islands via balloon(which I think is the original inspiration for him) and not just by land.

Though, at this point, might as well turn it into 3D collectathon, my bias is showing.

Yeah, I meant an open-world like big hub from which you can (and have to, if it's the first time) access to the different levels and special areas.

Another good example would be the way the game world was handled in Crash Mind Over Mutants; there are loading times but it generally feels like you are roaming around in a single huge space.
Then you access the various "levels" which are detached from the main world but feel like a natural continuation of them.

The PS2 version of Rayman 2, called Revolution, is also a similar concept.
They could also decide a faster way to travel to each location depending on how the big the world would be: the point is that you would potentially miss secret areas, quests, enemies to farm experience and gold.
Again, to me the key is making everything desirable but not mandatory.

I would love to reach, let's say, a caste ruled by drows by actually having to phisically walk to that place before entering it and starting the level.

It would also serve like a perfect occasion to show more of Skylands' geography and finally give our vehicles a proper use except for pointless races and "excuse me but I really felt like riding my car in the middle of my mission to save all dimensions".

Vehicles really need a use in the next game - right now I can imagine them becoming 'magic items' or 'legendary treasures' that have some kind of bonus. At the most, putting them on the portal would open a racing area copy-and-pasted from SC.

But hey, if you could actually use them in certain areas to travel faster, then I'm game!

Just don't let everything else in a on-foot zone be compromised to include them.

Another great example of that are the 3D Mario games.

The problem with physically travelling all the time would be that, well, it's Skylands - unless the story is confined to a region(like the Radiant Isles,Scalos and friends), it'd make no sense since continents seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Airships and balloons took over instead of cars for a reason, unlike what VV wants to think by having more Land vehicles than Sky.

That's very true, Bifrost, but they could actually find some temporary soluctions for that.

Limiting the whole game to a single island would be quite restrictive in terms of locations' design but they could justify a bigger landmass with the game's plot; I imagined Kaos using some kind of gravity altering device able to pull all the minor islands together and causing the different elemental realm's balance to break.

Or they could put inside the Starter Pack three characters with specific exploration-related abilities: one could be able to swim, the other to fly and the last one would be a common walker.

It's all up to the developers but the possibilities are there.

I think an Epic Mickey-style world would be the best.

There is a hub you go to between each world, but from there you can go to each world, and explore different areas and find secret levels, or alternate pathways and stuff, without starting the level all over again.

I have very fond memories from the first games, but I still love what they are doing with skylanders franchise. I am not an racer, but Superchargers is a great game.
I understanding that people get negative if not all traps are released or the dark and light element trap masters were rare. They try to improve and keep changing the game. It is hard to keep everybody happy, but I is better to try and keep searching for improvements.
I still get exited with new skylander figures, but I can understand that somebody gets less exited with a lot of skylander (disney infinity or lego dinensions or amiibo) figures. I still think activision is ahead and on the right track.
Too bad they stopped updating Skylanders Lost Islands....

I began playing three years ago when it was all Giants. I really loved the organization of the line of figures and how they were sorted into elements, etc. I managed to get all the giants in the preceding summer and was proud of it. But with later games, it just seemed to fade away. It's not the same anymore.

On the bright side, I can get all the figures I tried to find easier than before now that I'm into preowned now. There are a lot of SSA and SG ones out there.

I liked giants thou the game felt short and some parts were rehashs from SSA (heroics), swap force i liked the swaping and game itself. Trap team i enjoyed the concept, but felt villains took away from using skylanders some along with the amount of traps and minis etc, it felt overwhelming to get everything. Supercharges scaled things back but forced one into vehicles and took away from the walking around doing puzzles and smashing things. I like skylanders cause it reminds me of diablo and older games.

I am hoping Sky6 is more like swap force mixed with SSA. I want heroic challenges, i want levels that are long but not to long, I want a really nightmare mode geared towards older players (yes we exist) and I want true DLC and not ones that exist on day one and are blocked until u buy a skylander or adventure pack. Since we have moved away from the wii I think at this point true DLC and season passes could work here. I also feel we need to drop portals every year and even starter figures. Sell portals alone and the game alone. Id rather get the game for $40-50 and just play with my older figures and portal then pay for figures i might not want or like. Im not saying to stop making new figures but stop forcing ppl to get 2-3 figures they may not even want. Now they could still release a complete set, think like star wars disney infinity with boba fett. Set could have portal, figures and some timed exclusive.

I'm sincerely curious, don't want to sound polemical but... How did trappable villains took away time from using Skylanders?
Except for their quests there is never a single moment where you are forced to use them and they never interrupt the flow of the gameplay.

Even from a collection point of view I agree TrapnTeam had waaaay too many figures but none of them influenced the main Skylanders cast.
You still had 36 brand new characters to collect.

I think in fact the villains had a lot of use together with Skylanders, because of the instant switch. If more had lasting effect like the mages and Golden Queen, there'd be probably a more seamless connection since they'd still encourage going back to your Skylander and back into villain and so on.

Quote: Drek95

I'm sincerely curious, don't want to sound polemical but... How did trappable villains took away time from using Skylanders?
Except for their quests there is never a single moment where you are forced to use them and they never interrupt the flow of the gameplay.

Even from a collection point of view I agree TrapnTeam had waaaay too many figures but none of them influenced the main Skylanders cast.
You still had 36 brand new characters to collect.

I was just pointing out that the change in focus from a "toy to life" to playing a villains u caught in the game and took into our world. Thats pretty much it. I enjoyed trap team, but I liked playing the skylanders more then the villains. then you have my son that turned the game into Kaos kills everything over and over.

Oh, I see.

Well I can see why you would think so but I disagree.
I think it's really a matter of personal tastes: I feel like traps are a much better way of allowing Portal Masters to play as villains instead of having another set of full fledged figures, for a number of reasons.

Traps have generic designs so that they can work with any villain from that specific Element and because they work more like strategic Magic Items than true playable characters; I think they also work well with the whole Traptanium theme.
But yes, personal tastes is what matters in the end.

Thanks for clarifying it.

Greetings Programs!!!

It's been a while. For me the best game for overall satisfaction would be Swap Force. It was simply the most robust hub and gameplay experience of the franchise. Leg. Treasures, Time Challenges, Swap Zones, Arenas, etc. It really had it all and plenty to do post game. Super Chargers I think had an amazing Story and one of the most unique (if not the most) campaigns of any entry. It just lost a lot of appeal if you're not into racing. Trap Team was a real misstep for me and put a sour taste in my mouth. Super Chargers brought me back full force (I loved the story and lol'd more than I have in a while)...until it was over...now what??? Also I think for myself, and others, it's simply apathy setting in at this point. Skylander sales seem to be down and they seem to be getting further from what the hardcores (us) really want. I don't think this approach of trying to attract newcomers instead of keeping existing fans above all else is working. Then again I see full pegs for Infinity, Lego Dimensions and Amiibos as well as Skylanders...maybe the Toys to Life market needs a shot of adrenaline.

Personally I don't know what they could do to bring it back. I know what I'd like them to do but I doubt it will ever happen. I'd love to see a return to more RPG elements (not heroics though). Story based personal missions for the Skylanders. We need more of a personal connection to our Skylanders and less of a since of dread needing to level them up. It will be interesting to see what they do this year with Lego not needing a new box version this year (or next) along Infinity. It would be nice to see a game they plan on supporting instead of getting a soft reset every year. Time will tell..../end of line.