darkSpyro

I really had to do it cuz... seriously, for now, I really don't apreciate the game... If it's not allowed to do topic like this, tell me I'm gonna close it. But me, if I was dark52, I would put this sticky... Anyway. Here's what I think...

-Pros-

-Jumping! With the jumping abilities, it unlock a way better gameplay then SSA and Giants!

-New arenas! I love the new arenas in Swap Force! And also you can do battle arena with your friend! I really love it!

-More achievement! I really enjoy the new achievement cuz there's some of them that are really harder then in the other games!

-Portal master rank! I love that cuz you can go see your friend and brag about your levels!

-The story! The story is SO awesome! I loved it!


-Cons-

-The graphics! I'm talking about the Wii... but it's really bad... Giants was better with the graphics...

-Where are my adventures packs? I don't know if I'm an idiot with that one but I searched for a long time and... I never found how to play with...

-The mouths! The mouths are not synchronized with the voices... That's really annoying!

-The last chest... For those who finished the game, there's a chest in WoodBurrow and there's a (Electric puzzle) to open it... But when I click *whatever button* to open the challenge, it freeze... It does nothing!

-Stats! The old way with Cali and the Heroic Challenge was way better cuz... you were able to evolve the stats of your skylander and bring them in your friend's console... but with Swap Force, you can't do that...

-Soul gems!It's bad that we can't see the old skylanders video!

-The legendarys!Some of their attack are like the normal version! like bouncer's lazer mines... They're gray instead of gold!

You can post your pros and cons here!

Ive been noticing a lot of posts about the wii version being bad. I was thinking about getting it too but I guess the con overthrows the pro. I wonder if the wii u is any better... oh, call me silly but what does "sticky" mean?

Quote: cbunny84

Ive been noticing a lot of posts about the wii version being bad. I was thinking about getting it too but I guess the con overthrows the pro. I wonder if the wii u is any better... oh, call me silly but what does "sticky" mean?

I never tried on the Wii U but... Way better graphics! And for *sticky*, look at the 2 first topic in the swap force thread... you'll see *sticky* in green color! That means that those 2 topic will always be in top.

Quote: LloydDXZX

-Stats! The old way with Cali and the Heroic Challenge was way better cuz... you were able to evolve the stats of your skylander and bring them in your friend's console... but with Swap Force, you can't do that...

I agree with this one. Heroics were good because by the time you finished them all you skylander was almost leveled and pretty much completed all their quests.

The rest of you cons seem to relate to the wii version. You may want to consider getting a new console (ie PS3, 360, Wii U ect.)

My con would be the Quest for each skylander, Tech ones have a quest to do 25 lock picking puzzles and there are only a few of them in levels and then the one that spawns when you load woodbury. Also the Dig one for earth skylanders you have dig 25 holes and there is only a couple of sections where you can dig a hole.

Quote:

My con would be the Quest for each skylander, Tech ones have a quest to do 25 lock picking puzzles and there are only a few of them in levels and then the one that spawns when you load woodbury. Also the Dig one for earth skylanders you have dig 25 holes and there is only a couple of sections where you can dig a hole.

I didin't even look at the new quests for now... I'll see them!

Quote: mantez

Quote: LloydDXZX

-Stats! The old way with Cali and the Heroic Challenge was way better cuz... you were able to evolve the stats of your skylander and bring them in your friend's console... but with Swap Force, you can't do that...

I agree with this one. Heroics were good because by the time you finished them all you skylander was almost leveled and pretty much completed all their quests.

The rest of you cons seem to relate to the wii version. You may want to consider getting a new console (ie PS3, 360, Wii U ect.)

My con would be the Quest for each skylander, Tech ones have a quest to do 25 lock picking puzzles and there are only a few of them in levels and then the one that spawns when you load woodbury. Also the Dig one for earth skylanders you have dig 25 holes and there is only a couple of sections where you can dig a hole.

Sorry for double post... But for the adventure packs... It's only for the Wii?

The old adventure pack ie darklight crypt only work as magic items in the game. Only the new adventure packs Tower of time and sheepwreck island will unlock levels.

Quote: mantez

The old adventure pack ie darklight crypt only work as magic items in the game. Only the new adventure packs Tower of time and sheepwreck island will unlock levels.

That's really bad!?

It's not really surprising that the game doesn't show the old Soul Gems or support the old Adventure Packs. The stores are going to be carrying the NEW content, after all, so there's no reason for them to keep advertising things from two years ago.

Likewise, the Heroic Challenges and Adventure Packs are available in two different games already - there's no reason to recycle that same content for a THIRD year. (It would have been nice to have something to replace the Heroic Challenges instead of the "Swaplander Challenges," though - climbing a wall just doesn't seem the same.)

The Adventure Packs in particular would need to have a lot of "creative editing" to even be possible, since many of the enemies in them don't exist in Swap Force.

Quote: Peridot Weapon

It's not really surprising that the game doesn't show the old Soul Gems or support the old Adventure Packs. The stores are going to be carrying the NEW content, after all, so there's no reason for them to keep advertising things from two years ago.

Likewise, the Heroic Challenges and Adventure Packs are available in two different games already - there's no reason to recycle that same content for a THIRD year. (It would have been nice to have something to replace the Heroic Challenges instead of the "Swaplander Challenges," though - climbing a wall just doesn't seem the same.)

The Adventure Packs in particular would need to have a lot of "creative editing" to even be possible, since many of the enemies in them don't exist in Swap Force.

Yeah... But it would be REALLY great to play those adventure packs with the swappable character!?

You can look at the soul gem videos again. For the Wii, just press 1

The old you can't

Oh, never mind then

Quote: LloydDXZX

Yeah... But it would be REALLY great to play those adventure packs with the swappable character!?

While I understand (and agree) that it might be fun to take the new characters through the old levels, I support leaving them out this time.

Giants was very close to SSA and they used the same engine. The process of ‘porting’ the add-on levels from SSA to Giants was pretty simple – they were able to import the SSA level into the Giants editor and then just take the time to make minor adjustments to the levels to make them fit Giants (change out enemies, move a few jump pads, etc).

That wasn’t possible this time. The Swapfoce engine is significantly different and getting the levels into Swapforce would require the developers to ecreate them from scratch.
Same with the heroic challenges – in Giants they were able to just import most of the challenges from SSA through to Giants, and then just tidy them up.

Developers only have a set amount of time to create a game and I’d rather they spend their time/money on whole new levels, not just recreating old ones.

You know, I keep seeing the lip synching complaint, but I checked on my game and the lips are just fine. Is this a Wii only problem?

^ Lip synching is correct during the CG cutscenes, but if you look at things like when Rufus greets you into Woodburrow, you can notice they're wrong, just repeated motions. I don't mind when the camera doesn't focus on the character's face but there were more than a few times that it did, I noticed, and it looked ugly. It sticks out when it is really bad since the rest of the game is animated with so much detail. Strange and annoying that they wouldn't make their lips move right. >.>

Still, I don't understand how so many people keep counting it as a big problem. It's not that hard to get over.

^Lip synch has never been this franchise's strengths...nor is it "really" that value add...that said--it is probably more noticeable due to increased detail all over and it probably stands out like a sore thumb.

Read my sig for opinion on Heroic Challanges. Those opposed to their going away are being short sighted IMO.

Even if lips were synchronized for English, they'd be off in every other language. Completely unneeded to match it up to only one language.

Quote: mantez

Quote: LloydDXZX

-Stats! The old way with Cali and the Heroic Challenge was way better cuz... you were able to evolve the stats of your skylander and bring them in your friend's console... but with Swap Force, you can't do that...

I agree with this one. Heroics were good because by the time you finished them all you skylander was almost leveled and pretty much completed all their quests.

The rest of you cons seem to relate to the wii version. You may want to consider getting a new console (ie PS3, 360, Wii U ect.)

My con would be the Quest for each skylander, Tech ones have a quest to do 25 lock picking puzzles and there are only a few of them in levels and then the one that spawns when you load woodbury. Also the Dig one for earth skylanders you have dig 25 holes and there is only a couple of sections where you can dig a hole.

I disagree, the Heroics were terrible and I am so glad they're gone, hopefully forever. They are unlocked buy obtaining certain figures and the starter pack only comes with 3 (4 more in Giants I think), they are locked on the disc until you buy that figure (series 1s won't unlock them in Giants, you have to buy the reposes to get them); not to mention they are all shallow, short-lasting and mostly involve defeating a certain amount of enemies or items. They also disable Multiplayer and the enemies are a lot weaker than in Story Mode (though they're still weak either way), you can't team up with or compete with your friends since Cali likes to be such a dick. Lastly, they provide very small and insignificant stat improvements and you still have to do more to truly get your character on its feet.


But let's take a look at how bad they really are: Each Challenge completion/victory is stored inside the figure on the portal instead of the game itself, part of the "Toys with Brains" gimmick where everyone remembers their boosts. Because of it, each challenge has to be done once by each figure you own. When you first get the game with only 3 figures and 3 challenges, they're pretty damn fun and you don't need to do them too much. But if you buy more figures progressively, you have to do it again, again, and.... AGAIN! with them if you want to boost their stats, as well as the challenges they come with. Some upgrades of certain characters (like Zap's bouncing Lightning) make specific challenges a LOT harder, frustsraingly hard. If your figure is fully upgraded before you got the challenge, you might have to reset your Skylander just so you can beat it and get the Stat Increase. I had to reset sooo many characters just to beat Drobot's Challenge, and even more for Zap's. I've been doing these horrible missions for eons and it was less than fun, it gets very old and repetitive after doing each challenge for like the 25th time. I don't think anyone could argue in opposition to me, at least not if they went through all the repetitive pain like I did.

After all that crap, I feel like grabbing Cali and sticking her head into a lawnmower.

I have leveled every one of my orange base figures and will eventually level all my blue base reposes. I actually found the challenges relaxing as I would off screen play on the wii U and put on a movie or TV show I liked and by the time the movie was finished I would have completed a skylander.

As opposed to what they have now has made Stats almost irrelevant and they may as well abolish any sort of leveling and quests and just have fixed stats for each figure just unlock them for play in game.

LightSpyro, well said.

Quote: mantez

I have leveled every one of my orange base figures and will eventually level all my blue base reposes. I actually found the challenges relaxing as I would off screen play on the wii U and put on a movie or TV show I liked and by the time the movie was finished I would have completed a skylander.

As opposed to what they have now has made Stats almost irrelevant and they may as well abolish any sort of leveling and quests and just have fixed stats for each figure just unlock them for play in game.

Stats were already insignificant even with Heroics, in my opinion at least The only ones worth doing are the speed ones, Armor and Critical Hits are based too much on Luck and should not be depended on (like in Pokémon, never rely on luck), Elemental Power only works in certain areas with certain Skylanders or against certain Opponents in PvP.

Quote: mantez

I have leveled every one of my orange base figures and will eventually level all my blue base reposes. I actually found the challenges relaxing as I would off screen play on the wii U and put on a movie or TV show I liked and by the time the movie was finished I would have completed a skylander.

As opposed to what they have now has made Stats almost irrelevant and they may as well abolish any sort of leveling and quests and just have fixed stats for each figure just unlock them for play in game.

Same I leveled up all my skylanders... not only orange base but all my green base too! And I didin't care... I know that some of them were pretty anoying like crusher's challenge and some other that I don't remember... But it was really great!

I personally like the ability to store challenges completed on the skylander that increases stats to achieve other quests/goals. The scalability of the task is indeed a problem, but they could re-design the HCs to limit the scalability problem with performing them.

My main beef is that I don't like to do things that are system/game wide, nor do I like hats...I like to juice up my skylanders on a personal basis. At least for speed and critical hit.

-Pros-

Fun new Skylanders to play with - There are some Skylanders that are really cool looking like Slobber Tooth
Jumping - Jumping was something i really missed in SSA and Giants and now its here!
Longer and more fun chapters - I really love every chapter so far, i only liked Rumbletown in Giants and they became long!
Better main hub - Woodburrow is just awesome i hated that stinking ship of Flynn
Some anoying NPC's gone - I'm glad that they got rid of Persephone and Cali they were anoying (my opinion)


-Cons-

Heroic stats gone - I worked so hard on some Skylanders in the old games with the heroics and now they don't count...
Loading times - When i put a Skylander on the portal it takes 2 seconds to read it (Wii version)
Bad sound quality - (just the Wii version) the sound quality is HORRIBLE.

So, with the Heroic Challanges gone how will older toys keep up with the power curve? Swap Force characters have stats in the hundreds... some up to 200. not a single S:SA character was above 100 on anything.

Does this mean that series 1 toys will slowly become weaker over the years? Is this another way to make me want to buy a series 4 version of Spyro?

Quote: Klepto

So, with the Heroic Challanges gone how will older toys keep up with the power curve? Swap Force characters have stats in the hundreds... some up to 200. not a single S:SA character was above 100 on anything.

Does this mean that series 1 toys will slowly become weaker over the years? Is this another way to make me want to buy a series 4 version of Spyro?

yes...

Quote: Klepto

So, with the Heroic Challanges gone how will older toys keep up with the power curve? Swap Force characters have stats in the hundreds... some up to 200. not a single S:SA character was above 100 on anything.

Does this mean that series 1 toys will slowly become weaker over the years? Is this another way to make me want to buy a series 4 version of Spyro?

From what I understand, as long as a repose is able to be loaded into SSA and SG, that character will be able to do the heroics and receive the minor stat boosts that port over. The stats are equal to a decent hat.

So unless they completely remove the heroic stat bumps altogether or not allow older characters in new games/not allow newer characters to go back, then that will always make the reposes slightly stronger.

I agree with those who are disappointed in the lack of heroic challenge boosts. Sure, they were repetitive and annoying at times, I'll very much agree with that statement. Hot Dog's goat challenge was the one I disliked the most for some reason. However, it was actually worth it to do some of these mind numbing challenges for the stat increases the characters got. I saw slow giants become much faster and better to use after doing all the speed heroics. As bothersome as they were to keep redoing for each character, I always felt they paid off.

Now, even if you take a repose back to do challenges in Giants, the boost is all but gone from these stats when it comes to Swap Force. Certainly, if there is any boost given for having done them then it's not significant enough to make a difference. I remember hearing an interview where it was said that if your character has a 90 speed from heroics in Giants, then that character would "feel" like a 90 speed in Swap Force even if it doesnt' say that same number anymore. NO, it doesn't. My Granite Crusher was very fast after all the speed challenges were completed. Now on this game, he's back to his old slow self. They should have found a new way to allow us to give increases like heroic challenges did to a single figure, that way it can carry over when I play that character at someone else's house. And basically wiping out the work that was done on those characters from Giants? Sure, they probably didn't want supercharged Giants characters that overshadowed the new Swap Force ones, but that was just lame for them to get rid of the boosts altogether.

Quote: Klepto

So, with the Heroic Challanges gone how will older toys keep up with the power curve? Swap Force characters have stats in the hundreds... some up to 200. not a single S:SA character was above 100 on anything.

Does this mean that series 1 toys will slowly become weaker over the years? Is this another way to make me want to buy a series 4 version of Spyro?

I believe they adjust and buff the older skylanders. The stat cards are nothing to go by when it comes to stats.

so, someone clarify for me since I don't own Swap Force yet... do the heroic challange stat boosts in SA and Giants carry over to SF? ... Is there any point to completing the Heroic challanges in Giants on my favorite characters?

Why is everyone so obsessed with the number....the old numbers don't matter since the rescaled the stat system. My Wham Shell has the 32 heroics from SSA and he hauls ass in SSF. Hell most of my slow guys move hella fast in SSF...even Stumpy. Use the hats and pedestals plus I think you actually get small stat gains from leveling and not just HP any more. I tested this with my lvl 11 Whammer with all 32 original heroics and my lvl 10 Whammer with no heroics and the stats were a little different in favor of the lvl 11.

Quote: Klepto

so, someone clarify for me since I don't own Swap Force yet... do the heroic challange stat boosts in SA and Giants carry over to SF? ... Is there any point to completing the Heroic challanges in Giants on my favorite characters?

//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=91548

I've finally took the time to open up and play my copy of SWAP Force. I've only played through the first level so far and it's absolutely amazing! First of all, being able to jump was something I was never aware of. I figured I was going to do an attack and then all of a sudden I noticed I'm jumping. I'm like, "Wait...I can jump now?! I...I can jump! Oh my God! Finally! Yes!" Only downside is that you can't jump and attack at the same time. Seems they didn't think about implementing that. Hopefully in Skylanders 4 we'll be able to do it. That's when the game will finally become hardcore, LOL.

I don't know about the other consoles but I'm playing on the Xbox 360 and I've noticed a significant difference in graphics. I didn't even expect the graphics to get an upgrade since Spyro's Adventure and Giants basically had the same graphics. I didn't think they would care to enhance it. But I did notice the older Skylanders looking smoother, and maybe shinier. I'm not sure how to explain it. Or how about this: Pop in Giants and put Tree Rex on the Portal; look at him. Now put in SWAP Force and look at Tree Rex. You should notice a huge difference. It's crazy-awesome how different it is.

Also, I guess we technically can't unlock everything in SWAP Force just yet as I'd noticed there's an area on the very first level that requires a SWAP Skylander with the "Climb" ability, which definitely doesn't exist yet because I own every figure and none of them have it, lol. Unless of course you own the game on PC and hack it I guess. There could possibly be other areas that none of us could unlock yet due to unreleased SWAP Skylanders. Great.

Oh, really?! Dang, see, I didn't know that 'cause I've been playing with my packaged SWAP Skylanders (since I never open them). My Dark Skylanders are still in their package as well so I didn't even think to use 'em, lol. Thanks. Now I'm gonna take out my Dark Swash Buckler and unlock that gate.

Quote: Victormaru

I've finally took the time to open up and play my copy of SWAP Force. I've only played through the first level so far and it's absolutely amazing! First of all, being able to jump was something I was never aware of. I figured I was going to do an attack and then all of a sudden I noticed I'm jumping. I'm like, "Wait...I can jump now?! I...I can jump! Oh my God! Finally! Yes!" Only downside is that you can't jump and attack at the same time. Seems they didn't think about implementing that. Hopefully in Skylanders 4 we'll be able to do it. That's when the game will finally become hardcore, LOL.

I don't know about the other consoles but I'm playing on the Xbox 360 and I've noticed a significant difference in graphics. I didn't even expect the graphics to get an upgrade since Spyro's Adventure and Giants basically had the same graphics. I didn't think they would care to enhance it. But I did notice the older Skylanders looking smoother, and maybe shinier. I'm not sure how to explain it. Or how about this: Pop in Giants and put Tree Rex on the Portal; look at him. Now put in SWAP Force and look at Tree Rex. You should notice a huge difference. It's crazy-awesome how different it is.

Also, I guess we technically can't unlock everything in SWAP Force just yet as I'd noticed there's an area on the very first level that requires a SWAP Skylander with the "Climb" ability, which definitely doesn't exist yet because I own every figure and none of them have it, lol. Unless of course you own the game on PC and hack it I guess. There could possibly be other areas that none of us could unlock yet due to unreleased SWAP Skylanders. Great.

Wash Buckler has CLIMB ability. He comes with the starter pack. The ability not yet seen is the SNEAK one which I believe I have read is coming in the next wave. After that happens, I think all abilities will be available.

Whoo boy,let's see.

Pros:
-Graphics. As I said several times already,graphics don't make the game,but that isn't going to stop certain people that gush over them regardless of the game's content and like to put it on a pedestal,and hey,the more fans the series gets,the better.
-Hex's Lightcore dress can't be laughed at now.I won't go into details since this is a Skylanders thread.
-Bosses on Adventure Packs. If I actually wanted the game,for once I'd probably go more after extra levels than characters.As great as levels like Darklight Crypt and Dragon's Peak were,the fact all of them built up to awesome fights that didn't ever happen(except Empire of Ice,which didn't have any buildup) makes them feel like you didn't really do anything but get new hats - like you just went for a trip,not saved villages/species/a kingdom.Now,you actually fight someone in the end,and it makes the APacks all the more worth it.
-By now,haters of the game can't get the upper hand using arguments that could stop some people. Well,if anyone was against a Diablo-lite,now it has the graphics and the jumping to push itself into an almost half-plataformer half-RPG.

Cons: BRACE FOR IMPACT.
-Needless hype for the game.Yes,it's about the fandom,but I've heard too much of 'this is like SSA,best game ever!','graphics are good,it's superior to all others','doesn't have Giants' hub,Giant sucks despite being SSA and improved' and mostly that the story is good.It's almost like Swap Force is the DOTD of the Skylanders series,and hopefully the way everyone seems to sneer at Giants when last year we all loved it will end soon.
-Not fixing the lip synching yet focusing on faces.One of the most obvious complaints from SSA and Giants are that the charaters just repeat speaking motions very quickly outside cutscenes. Instead of fixing it with the Beenox engine since they use it for cutscenes too,they proceed to make the motions even more repetitive,slower and put the camera pointing right at them. At least before it was so fast and hard to notice you could forget about it.Which takes us to...
-Breaking what's fixed.Skipping dialogue was slow in SSA.In Giants,you could skip entire sections with no problems. Now you have little to no way of skipping them,and the stuff I mentioned above to make you even angrier. Other thing that was almost starting to get perfect was the balancing - they made Chop Chop usable,some characters horribly OP were nerfed just slightly as other characters were given ways of getting a bit better. Now we have just HALF of a character that can get revived 3 times and the other half that can steal health,characters that play exactly like some old ones,and stats that surpass the average Giant.One could say the polished-but-small Dread-yacht wasn't good enough of a hub level and Woodburrow fixed it,but that's the exception and not the rule,unfortunately.
-Plot Holes.Portal of Power and Skylanders lore,Core of Light,Kaos' mom anything,old characters losing their importance immediately as obviously cooler characters take over.I get it takes place in somewhere far away from the Citadel,that it's a new group of developers.But no,you're doing it wrong.If you need to push away stuff that was stablished before to write(when it's not bad to begin with,of course),your story is NOT good.
-Character design.I insisted on this for several threads already.Probably everyone thinks it's cool because of the archetypes and not because of the effort put on it,so I'd be just throwing words at the wind by now.
-Overall laziness.Aside from the 'breaking what's fixed' I said before,the game itself feels like they worked on many points until there was no more perfecting it (graphics,swapping,etc) then rushed others.Some things could be the lack of time to work on,but things like the music shouldn't.Mesmerelda's battle phase theme is EXACTLY 19 SECONDS,looping over and over again(Fire Viper's themes have no more than 26,and that's because I counted little notes that are added between loops).That's not how you OST after great songs we had in this game and the previous ones.
And behold,awesome upgrade pictures that they totally worked on for more than 30 minutes:





I seriously wish I loved this game,but after a while I just couldn't let any of this pass.Sorry guys.


EDIT:I keep forgetting some fandom terms,whoops.

Pros

- New characters to play as

- Jumping, they now finally have it!

- NO MORE HEROICS!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I still wanna shove Cali's head into a Lawnmower though, as revenge for all that pain she caused me.

- Levels are much bigger and a tad longer

- Puzzles are less abundant and now they focus a little more on the action.

- Attacks of many characters have changed in damage, range, speed, and priority. Example, Warnado's Spin now does 51 damage and is no longer the useless piece of bull**** he used to be.


Cons:

- There are TOO MANY characters now! 80 Skylanders? NO WAY!!

- Figures have been reposed again and are still overpriced, they also lose their Series 2 Wow Pows in exchange for a different one (if they have one). If VV wasn't so stingy, they would've just given the Series 1 figures the Wow Pows from the very beginning.

- Jumping System was a great addition, but I was rather disappointed when I tried it.

1. You cannot attack while jumping, limiting the already shallow combat with low strategy value.

2. You can't jump very high either, you still need bounce pads just to get around in certain places.

3. Everyone jumps in the same fashion and they don't do it uniquely.
- Nobody can double or triple jump
- Nobody can use their "Fly" Upgrades (like most of the Dragon characters or Gill Grunt) to hover over the ground, Flying is still a useless move in this game. I wanted to fly over moving platforms to keep myself from falling.
- No one does damage just by jumping
- Nobody can glide slowly to reduce falling speed
- Nobody can Super Jump
- Nobody can Air Dash
etc.

4. Other Platforming Games like Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, or Sonic the Hedgehog have jumping too, and if you fall into an abyss you lose a life instantly. Unlike these games where falling to an abyss is a big deal, all you do is just teleport back the cliff you fell from unscathed without a penalty. What's the point of even having jumping if you don't have a penalty for falling?

Star Strike can attack while jumping. She can do her spin attack both as a stand alone and to continue bouncing a projectile. Not that she wasn't already amazing. She might be my favorite Corelander released so far....Haven't tried Skorp or Riptide.

Quote:

- No one does damage just by jumping

Fire Kraken does damage by jumping! He leaves flames on the ground for a couple of second! (See it in skylander dad's video)

Star Strike and Fire Kraken both have unique jumps that can do potential damage, seriously?! I haven't even used them yet. Now you guys got me excited. Also, I've just got my non-Lightcore Star Strike in the mail earlier this morning from Toys"R"Us. $7.99 shipping and took seven days to get here. Ouch. It ain't no Amazon but whatever, at least I don't have to bust my butt hunting for it now.

Potential pro, is it just me, or does armor actually offer genuine mitigation and damage reduction rather than "Chance to ignore damage"?