darkSpyro

Don't know the best place to put this, so to general it goes.

So, the other day I was playing Skylanders Swap Force, alternating playing story levels on hard to get the trophy and Survival levels to get the stars. I was playing as Spyro the entire time, since that's my default when I'm doing things for percentage after the game's complete.

Anyway, I was in Survival and got to the level where you're battling on a flying ship over a snowy landscape. That's normal: this is Skylanders, flying ships are everywhere. But then I got the the challenge where Spell Punks that can make other enemies invisible pop up. Again, I had seen those before, so those in and of themselves were normal.

But the combination - playing as Spyro, battling on a ship in the sky, and invisible enemies - brought back flashbacks from The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night. Suddenly I was reliving battling those apes on those flying pirate ships (specifically that one ship with 20 or so on it). Those apes later in the game that turned invisible that made me rage-quit for years.

And then I realized: I was having fun. It was really satisfying moving around this small battlefield, maneuvering around enemy attacks and attacking when I could. I was playing a very similar game to TEN (minus the cheap death hounds), and yet, impossibly, it was enjoyable.

Maybe I should give TEN a second chance. Really, I haven't played it all that often because of the bad experiences the first time. I was in Middle School then, and TLOS was my first experience with an "action game." Since TEN was much, much harder than ANB, I believed it to be unfair and unfun.

Years later, when I decided to 100% all my Spyro games, I just went in with the Dark Spyro cheat and a guide and blasted my way through the game, only having fun at the Elemental Dragon and Gaul. (Guess where you can't use Dark Spyro?) I didn't touch Dragon Challenges, though. I wouldn't be able to use Dark Spyro in those.

But now, I know I'm better at video games, specifically action games, than I used to be. It's been years, and I'm no longer bitter that Classic Spyro isn't coming back. I might actually be good at it. After I finish getting the trophies and Portal Master Rank in Swap Force, I should give TEN a revisit. Who knows? It might be (*gasp*) fun.

[/end personal rant]

TL;DR Survival Mode in Swap Force made me realize that I might actually have fun playing The Eternal Night.

Anyone else have experiences like this where something in one game made you realize you might enjoy another that you didn't before? Or perhaps you revisited a Spyro game and found yourself having more fun than the first time?

Or maybe just tips for when I go tackle TEN. I know it's definitely not an easy game, and I generally don't play hard games.

With TEN, just be patient, get as many gems as you possibly can to upgrade, and keep at it. The game kind of cheats with its difficulty curve, but it's not impossible and many parts of it are fun.

Why does it sound like those ships are rehashed and re-skinned, like many Call of Duty maps?

Skylanders Giants, Aerial Attack. It's pretty much The Fellmuth except you're getting attacked airbone and the smaller ships go after you first. Aaaand that they're all ghost ships that are creepy as heck.

And on that subject, I could never replay TEN since my copy stopped working(and I sold my PS2 long ago), but I still have a blast every time I go play the GBA version again. It's a metroidvania with all the traits, but it's really short and fun so backtracking never feels like a chore. The console version is definately harder and punishes every little mistake, but if you enjoy the game as a whole that's *almost* part of the fun. Sadly it wasn't meant to be a hard game, meaning that's more frustrating than challenging unlike say Platinum Games anything.

I also feel like I'm having more fun than usual when replaying Skylanders Giants but that's kind of cheating, I skipped Swap Force because of the plot holes. But every time I go play a level like Troll Home Security or the final two, I just can't wait for Trap Team to try and top that.