darkSpyro

I just got the time to finish up Swap Force through the past few days, and I must say, I liked a lot about it. Very long levels, none are bores or chores, bit difficult, fun bosses, great new villain, hub that isn't overly small like the boat, likable new characters, looks great, most of all, it's fun. It's more of a worthy successor to the original game than Giants in a few ways. There are some things I don't like, such as the FMVs stuttering(PS3 Ver), Bonus Missions seemingly replacing Heroics, however; it has a huge flaw. A really infuriating flaw. Not a game breaker, but a potential future deal breaker.

The Swap Force Itself.

Let's just look back at the first game for a sec. Between triple packs, expansion packs and what have you, you aren't expected to buy terribly much. Just 5 extra characters.

Second game; if you have the first one, nothing at all. If you don't, same deal, 5 extra characters. No extra Giants at all are needed.

This opens up the desire to buy more quite considerably, as one doesn't feel 'fleeced' as it were. It becomes enjoyable collecting newer characters, furthering your character pool and such. Along with the novelty, the sheer likability and lack of push by Activision beyond the managable initial investment helped make the games a hit.

Then there is the Swap Force.

Let's look at this in the eyes of both a new player and a veteran.

To spend as less money as possible as a newbie, you are expected to buy the initial pack and 6 Swap Force. 5 of which, are specific. Hoot Loop, Rattle Shake, Magna Charge, Free Ranger, Stink Bomb and Rumble Rouser are what you should buy. No choice, you are told. This is a huge initial investment.

This is also relevant if a player hasn't been following terribly closely and doesn't know that Dual Gates can be opened in 2P, which doesn't seem to be common knowledge between people I've asked. If the player does know, Stink Bomb is no longer forced, as you have Stealth Elf.

Now for a veteran, still 6 characters, but provided you know about the dual gates 2P issue, you have choice, but are still forced into buying 6 Skylanders, each from a choice of 2, you may or may not even want.

Then you get the game, and then what? The Swap Force are barely even in it. An early cut scene, 1P dual gates that are easily circumvented and their silly minigames. Not mentioned again till the end. Never seen again. That's it. More money for Activision aside, what was the point?

It's pure revenue raising. And I don't know about other people, but I've taken notice, the normal Skylanders sell better, confirming basically what anyone with a brain would think, bring back fan favorites with new skills, a long with great new characters, it prints money. It never needed Swap Force. The Giants were never Revenue Raising like this. You got 1. They were not individualised beyond there elements. Not even the original Skylanders was this bad. What hurts even worse is that the Swap Force is some of the weakest Skylanders design wise and a some of them don't even feel 'new', Blast Zone and Magna Charge in particular feel generic for their types.

The Swap Force themselves brings down Swap Force from a great, toy based game, to a Sleezey, Money Making Scheme. This is really sad, because the game itself was great and neither Skylanders game warranted this label.

I really love Skylanders, it's a wholesome, likeable, fun time. I want to play more games in the series, I just don't want to see Activision proposing something as pointless, wasteful and downright crappy as the Swap Force again.

You say that the Swap Force are only in the first cut scene of the game, at that's it... But... The same could have been said for the Giants - and even in SSA, where the Skylanders were only actually seen outside of gameplay at the beginning and the end of the game. The whole point is that the characters appear as much as possible.

Also, if they just released a game with 16 cores, 16 reposes and 8 lightcores you would be complaining that they didn't do anything new and it was just a quick cash grab - and everyone else would think so too and they'd have the right to. The challenge that Activision/TFB/VV have now is that every year they have to raise the bar even higher than the previous year otherwise people will get bored and not bother with it.

But, this all stems down to the conversation from the very first game, no one is forcing you to buy all the Swap Force characters or even enough to access all the Swap Zones. The game still has a ton of content to last you much longer than the first two games. If the game is enjoyable, then I don't understand why people think the characters are an issue. Buying more characters doesn't make the game anymore fun, but it does mean that you have a larger choice.1

The Swap Force is something people had been asking to have for awhile - Skylanders with "Equipment" more elaborate than just hats. The top half is the actual 'lander, the bottom half is the "suit of armor" they put on to augment their abilities.

Most Skylanders have at least one move or aspect that you wish you could customize or swap out in some way. The Swap Force doesn't QUITE give that degree of customization, but you're finally not stuck with a character with low mobility or a third attack that just doesn't work for you. Imagine how much more ridiculous Drobot's lasers would be if you could attach them onto Shift's legs. Ridiculous rate of fire, the ability to "dash" behind your opposition AND revive twice?

Many players just use the Skylanders they enjoy, and don't view the game as a "what's the absolute minimum I need to buy to be able to access the entire game" idea. I don't use Bouncer and Ignitor because of their Tech and Fire status, I use them because I like the characters.

One could argue that Skylanders has ALWAYS been a money-making game, since the entire game is on-disk from the beginning and you're expected to spend another $100+ to access content that is already on an item that you own, blocked off by blatant "You need to spend MONEY to unlock THIS zone!" barriers. I try not to think of it that way, though.

In the end, I like the Swap Force because it reminds me a lot of the old "Mega Man X" Maverick characters, and makes me think of how much cooler THOSE game could have been if they had a "swappable" feature for your enemies. Which makes me think we need a 2D side-scrolling action Skylanders shooting game so I can pretend it's the 90s all over again.

What I find annoying is you can't complete some level's unless you have a stealth swaplander or digging swaplander. Still waiting for the stealth one to be released. I think they should have released one in wave 2 along with a life swaplander instead of another rocket or another death swaplander.

Another thing I find annoying is the damn cut scenes. I know you can end them short of them finishing when you've completed the game....but really....do I need to see the cut scene for another chompy for the 15th time? Gee, thank's Rufus....I didn't know about the time trials.....or Eon's area....I really appreciate you letting me know for the 80th time. And do we really need to have the skill up trainer talk to use every time we want to get skills?

One more annoying thing...hehe...seems harder to level up this time around. Seems like there is a lot of walking around, time wasted between fights....which starts off with a cut scene....again.

Other than those few minor annoyances....I like the game. Collecting the Skylander's is half the fun of the game. Bringing a new Magic Skylander home and seeing how their skills are. "Hunting" for hard to find skylanders in the store.

I agree that it's much harder to level up in the Story Mode part of Swap Force, compared to the previous Skylanders games. To me, it seems like there are way fewer enemies to engage in Story Mode ... probably because the Story Mode has a larger emphasis now on jumping/platforming. I was sort of annoyed by this at first ... until I tried the Solo Survival arena mode. LOTS of enemies there ... and I mean LOTS. That's where I would recommend leveling up.

Interesting to hear everyone's complaints!

@SomeGamerDude: I mostly agree. I feel like I'm obligated to get one of each swap character, more than I WANT to collect them. But, based on your original analysis, there are 6 more to buy this time, rather than the 5 you would have needed if you'd been collecting for SSA or Giants. Only one more character you're obligated to buy.

My biggest annoyance is the character stats and heroic challenges. I enjoyed these levels that unlocked every time I added a new character. I feel less compelled to buy them all if they don't unlock something new in game.

And it seems like the characters that I upgraded are not as tough any more. Their stats have been nerfed?!

How can I permanently train up my characters now? I am not as concerned with their level. That just buffs their max health. WHat about all the characters who need to be faster or have better armor or whatever?

I'm just not feeling this. Like bionicle said, they have to keep raising the bar. I think Swap Force was quite creative. Way more engaging than the idea of giant figures. But in both cases highly appealing to little kids. And older people too, but the little kids I know that play also play with the toys like action figures and they are delighted with the swapping. I'm glad they're finally coming out with playsets for the figures, the kids will love it.

I also can't agree that the character designs are not good for the Swap Force. I really love a lot of them. Wash Buckler, Fire Kraken, Hoot Loop, Night Shift and Boom Jet are some of my new favorite Skylanders.

With every game they have to walk a line between making the game playable if you can't afford many figures, and inspiring the people who can afford them to want to buy more all while giving you value for your money. I think they walked this line better for this game than the last, because they give you more reasons to want more swappers while still letting you play thorough the whole main game plus the arenas without owning any at all. With the heroic challenges you needed everyone you lock them all. So even if you want to be able to unlock everything you still only need 6 beyond what comes in the starter. In one hand you say they aren't in enough of the game and not integral, and then say they are forcing you to buy too many. But really you don't HAVE to have any, and if they were more required in the game you WOULD have to buy more.
I do think the set overall is too large, though I kinda see the logic. 32 new characters (same as number as the first game) for those that have all the old characters, and all the others for those that missed the old ones or want to see new versions of their favorites or whatever.
All in all I think they offer a very good product that makes me want to buy more figures, and I don't feel at all cheated when I do. If they made a crappy game and tried to shovel all these figures onto us, I think THAT would be a money grab. How many lousy video games have there been that have been rushed out the door just to capitalize on a movie. But so far I think the quality has gone up not down. With the exception MAYBE of the painting of the figures. I'm finding more with sloppier paint this time around.

Gotta disagree with you there on great new villain,which actually goes to the whole story ;I'd discuss on the matter of swapping but it's obvious you have to play the game to feel how it was - though of course,they didn't appeal to older players at all with the 'omg you can make a octopus chinese dragon' thing,specially those iffy with the character desgin in general like me.But back to what I was saying; gameplay aside,the story wasn't good at all unlike what everyone says,specially because of Kaos' mom.
This was pretty much the 3DS Spyro's Adventure,with some bells and whistles thrown in. The story is pretty much rescuing some magic guys,stop Kaos,OMG PLOT TWIST THAT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER,THE NEW VILLAIN IS POWERFUL - but no matter you saved the world,no one cares anyway. SSA went there,did this. Giants gave a nice twist to it and gave depth that SF just pushed away - worse,seemed like it was for the better(Upgrading the Dread-Yacht for example,regardless of how cluttered it was for a hub,it's killing the joke of Flynn having a ship that fits his personality as looking incredible but not having much else and replacing it with shiny primary colored overpowered fulfillment).Last year,it wasn't just about saving the world,you were going where no one has touched for years,found out a lot about Kaos and the land,and you actually had to go for a last resort fight because he had pretty much won,even worse than when it happened on SSA.
Now? You're talking to NPCs you probably won't remember in the next minutes - or be extremely annoyed. That awesome villain and accidental genius that Kaos was? Now a bumbling fool which needs his mommy to seem dangerous. His mom?! A Villain Sue which breathed the story's need to 'upgrade' from Giants - she was mean,didn't act until the very end,and actually said and did some stupid stuff even Kaos would notice it's bad. He's always about attacking and she acts indirectly - except she also recklessly attacks and no one ever seems to notice that. She's soo powerful and a Portal Master better than all others - who somehow thought staying stuck between Skylands and kids that could punch her right back in into Skylander beatdown was smart,meanwhile opening a Plot Hole on how she somehow uses the Portal on herself without nothing ever happening;of course it doesn't,she's so smart and powerful she floats over her portal without ever summoning Shadowlanders like her son.

So....yeah. Swapping is the biggest problem,but the whole game had its fair share of doing it wrong in other places too.

Only thing I agree with is it would be great to show the characters in more cutscenes / commercials / video shorts like the Fryno counseling session.

Totally disagree with everything else. Swap Force figures are so superior in make, look, and feel that it makes all others pale. I subconsciously tug at the other ones expecting/hoping that they'll come apart in two pieces as well.

Leveling up is slower? I'm half way through EASY mode first time through and my Free Ranger is level 12. I don't even have a level 12 from Giants after beating easy and hard.

As far as the cost of getting in, the perspective to have is basically all toy collecting has shot up in price compared to the 80s, if you are an 80s kid like me. It's a big investment to be into virtually anything but air & water.

Edit: My 1,000th gem, yay.

Quote: Toleroh

Only thing I agree with is it would be great to show the characters in more cutscenes / commercials / video shorts like the Fryno counseling session.

Totally disagree with everything else. Swap Force figures are so superior in make, look, and feel that it makes all others pale. I subconsciously tug at the other ones expecting/hoping that they'll come apart in two pieces as well.

Leveling up is slower? I'm half way through EASY mode first time through and my Free Ranger is level 12. I don't even have a level 12 from Giants after beating easy and hard.

As far as the cost of getting in, the perspective to have is basically all toy collecting has shot up in price compared to the 80s, if you are an 80s kid like me. It's a big investment to be into virtually anything but air & water.

Edit: My 1,000th gem, yay.

Thing is, the Swaplanders are not characters at all, they have no personallity, no interesting technical features, and because of the swapping feature, their design can't be too much different from the other ones. There's no unique character or design, all of them are pretty much the same, you have Magna Charge, he's cool, but Rattle Shake has pretty much the same features on his design, same with most of the characters with the same special ability, Grilla Drilla, Doom Stone, both have the same design, and thats not speaking of all the characters that are pretty much looking the same design-wise, only with a different color and species.
The Swap Force are not characters, they are pretty much gimmicks, other than that, most of them have no character at all, no personallity, no unique trait that makes them different from eachother, I know that Spyro is a cocky dragon because his lines and his backstory make him look like that, I know Trigger Happy is a crazy gremlin that can't stop shooting everyone, because his lines give it away, Stealth Elf, you can feel some arrogance and amusement in her lines, showing that even she is impressed with her own powers sometimes, Wash Buckler... Well... He's a pirate... He makes jokes about being pirate... And that's that.
The Swap Force are not superior in design or feel, they're only superior on the fact that they give more choice to the player, but that's it, you're playing with a character that shows no emotion other than jokes and jokes about what he is, and making your own character just take away even more of the minimal unique traits they already have, since now the new combo has no backstory, and the only unique thing is a sense of satisfaction for creating him, which will stop given some time.

Just started playing the game. Game is great but i find that i tend to use the core characters more than the swappers. The swap mechanic looked promising on paper but i dunno why I dont use it often. I guess it's becoz its unnecessary. With Giants I was using the Giants charcters often for their raw power.

Quote: SkylandCitizen

Just started playing the game. Game is great but i find that i tend to use the core characters more than the swappers. The swap mechanic looked promising on paper but i dunno why I dont use it often. I guess it's becoz its unnecessary. With Giants I was using the Giants charcters often for their raw power.

Ive been doing similar or when i do play the swap guys i tend to use them as they came. I only swaped bottoms with boom jet cause i like fire krakan riding a rocket .