darkSpyro

Is it that great? I really need Rattle Shake, and I can't seem to find singles of him, so I was hoping to get the starter for 3ds soon-ish. Although, IDK, maybe I may not like it.. (Btw, If anyone wants one, Best Buy has them and the console starters all at $40)

Its...meh. My motivation to play my copy is minimal. It has cool features like being able to preload your figures, but its a completely different game that's WAY more platform based.
- Unreall

Quote: Unreallystic

Its...meh. My motivation to play my copy is minimal. It has cool features like being able to preload your figures, but its a completely different game that's WAY more platform based.
- Unreall

I'd have to agree with you. It's a step-up from Giants 3DS though but not as great as SA 3DS.

There is one perk.... Its beyond easy to get your Skylanders to level 20 grinding the last few levels.

i like the more platform based games, this makes me more likely to play it.

Quote: Unreallystic

Its...meh. My motivation to play my copy is minimal.

Quote: Hexin_Wishes

I'd have to agree with you. It's a step-up from Giants 3DS though but not as great as SA 3DS.

Pretty much sums up the game. What I think: nice to play through the first time just because it offers something new in the different worlds, but I didn't return to it very much. Nothing really great, but at the very worst, it's still playable.

The combat actually plays a lot like the console version, but obviously the 3DS can't handle everything the console version can, so that just some Skylanders feeling like a watered-down version of their console selves, for instance Magna Charge and Wash Buckler and Fryno. Others- namely Punk Shock and Scorp- play differently enough that isn't an issue, and Zoo Lou basically has the same basic abilities as he does on the console game, but nicely adjusted for the sprinting and jumping you can do on the 3DS which makes him feel fresh.

The platforming is good enough but besides a couple of hidden items there isn't really anything to write home about. Also, the game has more puzzles than the last two 3DS games, but many of the puzzles in the game are painfully obvious anyway. There are no real headscratchers, besides a couple of hidden items, like I said. The SWAP Zones are okay, they aren't broken or anything, but aside from the Spin and Rocket and Climb Zones (and the Climb ones are slow-paced and feel clunky anyway, quite boring imo) they don't feel like they couldn't have been part of the main game. There's about an even mix of platforming, combat and puzzles in the game. Sometimes you'll fight enemies while platforming or doing a puzzle, sometimes you'll have to beat enemies to unlock gates. Fairly standard stuff for the series.

Some of the environment design actually looks great(the second "samurai" level had the best one in my opinion, I like the story behind it and it has so many cool-looking things, and everything there blends together so well- special mention to Undead Fiesta levels and that one part where you platform on leaves in a tornado in an Air Gate), in other parts it looks kind of flat(Clockwork Castle is just boring, IMO, just standard Steampunk-ish castle, Tower of Time as a whole just feels bland and empty for some reason). However, there's nothing really bad about it besides a couple of boring bits, and in my opinion it's the one of the best things about the game. The good outweighs the bad here by far and I think some of the level themes were really memorable.

The story is good enough but the only memorable original character is Moneybones, and that's because you keep encountering him in boss battles. Most of the other characters just don't stand out or only appear once or twice. The story is just generic "save the day", you go into different worlds to stop bad stuff from happening, and that's basically it. It's not terrible, but nothing particularly exciting happens either. The writing itself is okay, although I can't really think of anything I remembered either.

I hate to say that the game is so meh after recently speaking to devs on this very forum, I almost feel guilty since hearing about development makes me appreciate it much more, but that's honestly what I think about it. I am trying to judge the end product itself based on how it plays, because that is what people playing it who don't know about or don't care for the development behind it will see. Appreciate the work, does not make a game fun to play itself.

At $40, I'd recommend you get it if you want at least two of the characters in the starter pack, but otherwise I wouldn't unless the gameplay style seems to appeal to your tastes.

^Relatively good reasoning, I think I will get it thanks! Now to see if I can save up 40 bucks.....