darkSpyro

I've just finished Swap Force for the first time, and I'm pumped for Superchargers coming out! However, having my first taste of a 'VV Skylanders game' has got me thinking.

Swap Force certainly has a different flavour to SSA, Giants and Trap Team! I like both styles; it's nice to have variety. However, the one thing I didn't particularly enjoy in Swap Force was the greater focus on platforming. It's a personal thing, for sure; I've got other games I can play for some platforming goodness and I'd rather spend my Skylander time having battles and searching for hidden treasures.

Especially the Swap Zones. I gave up on those by the second level because they just felt so poooointless.

But Supercharges has vehicles, right? And from what I've seen in videos and stuff the devs are putting a lot of love into these sections, with heaps of variety including - thank the portals - exploration. I especially love how we can battle in our vehicles. Racing is ho-hum, but the battle sections like the water boss in that cloud level really have the potential of feeling like traditional Skylanders gameplay ~on motorcycles~.

If it was a TFB game introducing vehicles, I'd be a lot more wary. But from the impression I've got from SF, VV love that faster-paced gameplay. If they're going to put it in anyway, I'd much rather they did it using vehicle-based side levels than platform-based minigames.

(Of course, this is all completely ignoring the fact that I suck at racing games. But I don't mind sucking so long as I'm having fun!)

Honestly I agree. Swap Force is by far my favorite. Also I suck at racing games too

Same thing, OP. The MECHANICS of swappability zones are done with some love, but they feel tacked on like we were supposed to have minigames at the hub instead. Climb this vertical wall for some reason! Fly through these rings just to go back to where you were!Blow up these Kaos balloons(they're not even warships, why are the skylanders wasting time with it again)? The exception are Speed and Sneak zones which do feel like going through a new area of the level to attack the villains' defenses, and kinda obvious the vehicle sections took a page from the former(and thank Eon the Sky sections went for new mechanics over the rocket sections.)

Bifrost, you've just explained how I feel about Swap Zones much better than I did : )

I'm glad we've got confirmation that some of the optional vehicle zones have a purpose that ties into the rest of the level. Using the water section of the cloud level as an example again, I really like how completing the side quest removes one hazard type in the main path. That helps prevent the level from getting too long if you take the time to do the side quest, but if you want more of a challenge you can choose to skip the water section and keep the hazards up.

(I did like the one sneak zone I tried, but I never got around to checking out a speed zone. I'll have to give one a shot!)

Keep in mind I don't have the game tho, so the experience is just from watching LPs. Speed zones might be less exciting than they look.

And yes, the non-Land sections are all side missions, not minigames, and actually tie into the level even if loosely. Sure, you should focus at the task at hand, but why not help the locals a bit by destroying some troll airships or opening a dam for a few minutes. Hopefully it won't get repetitive, but it's truly a side activity and not some weird distraction that neets you a bonus mission but not anything that actually helps the mission.

I feel like one of the biggest problems with Swap Zones is that they don't actually involve swapping whatsoever. Yeah, you can swap if you want to, but that goes for any part of the game. And unlike the rest of the game there isn't really any incentive to swap since you can't use your normal abilities anyway.


I love that VV added platforming, though. But I also love kart-racing gameplay. So mixing platforming with some kart-racing styled gameplay is a win-win for me.

Quote: Muffin Man

I feel like one of the biggest problems with Swap Zones is that they don't actually involve swapping whatsoever. Yeah, you can swap if you want to, but that goes for any part of the game. And unlike the rest of the game there isn't really any incentive to swap since you can use your normal abilities anyway.


I that VV added platforming, though. But I also love kart-racing gameplay. So mixing platforming with some kart-racing styled gameplay is a win-win for me.

I agree 100%. Yeah, it was cool and had some strategic elements, but at the end of the day playing as either Night Shift or Fire Kraken was better than playing as either Fire Shift or Night Kraken.

Wow, I feel the complete opposite. I don't like how the vehicle sections look (hate how they're pushed so much, how they seem to break the pace, and besides some Sea ones the design just doesn't look fun) and I thought the SWAP Zones were great. I loved how they had so much variety and I thought they were a good bonus, and all worked good mechanically and design-wise. My only issues with them are how only a few characters can play them and the Spin zones (which just suck, and Stealth Zones could be boring too, but never frustrated me like Spin Zones with their slippery controls).

Anyway, welcome to the site TC, you seem cool

I personally loved the swap mechanic to make some characters move faster (I mean you and ). I'll give you that though Arc, the vehicle sections seem horribly forced and just stalling the story. Worse of all, most footage we got doesn't really seem to make the vehicles seem all that plot related with the exception of the sea vehicles to destroy Lord Stratosphere's machine.

'Destroy enemy airships' is still more plot related than 'blow up these harmless balloons'.

I have a completely different opinion. I'm kinda upset that Viechles can only be used in zones and not the actual lands making them kinda pointless but lucky for me the 3DS version is a racing game. I might even get the Dark Edition for the Wii and that's racing to.

Boy, I can scarcely relate to any of this:

Quote: Quid

I'd rather spend my Skylander time having battles and searching for hidden treasures.

Especially the Swap Zones. I gave up on those by the second level because they just felt so poooointless.

Combat is certainly nice, but it's nicer when you have more to do than look for hidden treasures and fight enemies. That's what I liked about the SWAP Zones--they let you take a break from combat and exploration and do something different. It helped keep the game fun and the objectives in each minigame gave you more to work for and keep playing them for, more to achieve in turn. After all, having more to do is better than less, right? Luckily for me, I like the looks of vehicles too, so I'm now satisfied with both.

But after having played all four games and watched the trailer for Skylanders Superchargers, I'm starting to see I'm liking what Vicarious Visions is doing.

For me, it feels like if it's a Toys for Bob game, it's going to be like 'How many times can we reinvent Skylanders Giants'? Because since then, we've seen gameplay that's heavily focused around combat, in the forms of levels and arena challenges--and we've even gotten 'gimmick' Skylanders in both Giants and Trap Team that are oversized and don't have any powers that really make them stand out compared to regular Skylanders. Usually, whatever else we get is more combat, like we got with the Kaos doom challenges, or something Skystones-related.

But Vicarious Visions introduced minigames (in the form of SWAP Zones) and now vehicle mechanics. Basically, it's starting to look like we get real gimmicks rather than oversized Skylanders and a ton of combat whenever Vicarious Visions makes a game, and I like that better.

Quote: Sworn2Skylands

Combat is certainly nice, but it's nicer when you have more to do than look for hidden treasures and fight enemies. That's what I liked about the SWAP Zones--they let you take a break from combat and exploration and do something different.

This is a very good point! Variety is always good (so long as it doesn't result in the developers spreading themselves too thin and compromising on quality, but I doubt that happened in SF). Just because the Swap Zones didn't do it for me doesn't mean that they weren't great for other people : )

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if I had to choose, I'd rather have vehicle sections than Swap Zones. Once again, it's purely a personal choice! I like how the vehicles are their own 'character', with modding and upgrade options - but a lot of other people have very good points as to why they don't like the vehicles.

Would I rather vehicles to a combat related gimmick, TfB style? You know, I think I would. While I prefer combat to racing, I'm really glad VV is pushing the series into new directions. Sure there will be misses as well as hits, but that's better then getting no changes at all. If I want to play more SSA, I can always pull it out and play it again (which I'm totally doing right now : P). Maybe I'll like the vehicle sections, maybe I'll haaate them (I sincerely hope it's the former!) but at least it'll be something I haven't done before.

I think they didn't take the best way possible but neither the worst.

Honestly I would have introduced them in a spin-off racing game but if I had to come up with a main series title...
I would have created an open world game like the LEGO ones which you still travel by feet but definitely encourages you to use vehicles to reach distant objectives or areas.

They choose to restrict the gimmick to specific areas... But at least they went quite creative with them: explorations, arenas, circuits, boss battles... All good things.

Not my idea of how they should have implemented vehicles but at least they didn't create simple racing tracks.
There are the Wii and 3DS for that I guess.

Quote: Quid

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if I had to choose, I'd rather have vehicle sections than Swap Zones.

And I guess I should have kept that in mind instead of going off on my tangent about comparing the developers. Sorry about that, Quid. Your points in your posts were very insightful as well. I guess what I was trying to say was that (in my opinion) both SWAP Zones and vehicles were good things. I should have just stopped there...

But when you said this: "Sure there will be misses as well as hits, but that's better then getting no changes at all.", I'd say that was a great point too.

And good points also, Drek95, contrasting the Wii and 3DS versions versus the [all other systems here] versions and their differences in gameplay.