darkSpyro

Well, to this point our household has only played Skylanders on Wii/Wii U and the iphone ...but in the near future purchasing a Nintendo 3ds looks to be in the cards. Now, we have all the figures and have no real desire to get duplicates or variant duplicates, so we'll only need the portal(s) and games I believe and the used market is probably the best bet-as I have no desire to resell unwanted figures. But as I have many times before, I wanted to pick the darkspyro community's brains about this decision.

1. Are each of the 3ds games fun and different than what we've played already on wii/wii u? It looks like there is a whole new story based on the walkthroughs on this site but I just want to double check before dropping bucks on all 3 games.

2. Will we need all 3 portals for each game? Or can I just pull off buying the 3ds portal for swap force alone and using that one for all 3 games?

Any other tips or hints about what or what not to buy for the 3ds games would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I personally thought SA was by far the worst 3DS game of the three. I cannot stand the tactic of racing to the exit and the lame excuse of fleeing from the villain.

All three are separate stories to their console versions, and as said, The Swap Force portal will work with all three games, but a SA or Giants Portal will only work with the first two games.

My thoughts on each of the games so you can come to your own conclusions

Spyro's Adventure:
It feels the most solid and polished as a platformer, but becomes frustrating and hard with every quest being timed. It essentially means you'll have to go through each level four or five times in order to get everything. It is also very short, as it's length relies on your numerous play throughs of each level.

Giants:
Has a much slower pace than the first game, the levels are longer but it's less polished as a game. The camera feels too distant as well, everything is too small on the screen, so it's a bit weird for perspective. It does however get rid of the annoying timed quests, only giving you one timed quest per level, which you have to beat the level once in order to unlock. It's definitely easier than SA, but probably less fun.

Swap Force:
The most fun of the three games. It strikes a balance in pace from the first 2 games, and feels far less impossible than the other two. It also has a difficulty setting, and forgets the tedious two-characters-at-a-time playstyle and allows you to switch freely between your Skylanders whenever you want, which makes things far less infuriating. This can mean you get a bit spoilt for choice however. Collecting hats is fun, unlike the other games and all in all, it feels the best. Plus, it actually has voice acting, so that brings a new depth to the game (the voice acting makes it feel strikingly similar to the first 3 Spyro games on the PSOne)

I hope this helps.

Guys,

Thanks so much for the opinions and info.

That's nice that I only need to get 1 portal. I already have 2 extras from SSA and Giants that are basically just toys for play at this point.

It's exciting that there will be another way to enjoy all these figures in the household with the 3ds.

One more question about 3ds play:

Is 2 player an option? IE: Can you have 2 of the 3ds and play? Do you need 2 portals if that is the case? Or is it 1 player only possible?

Quote: Arc of Archives

No 2-player co-op or battle at all. The only "multiplayer" option is StreetPass, which is just for sharing a 1-time-use Skylander if you happen to StreetPass anyone else who has the game activated for StreetPass, so it's kinda useless... (The StreetPass is only in SF anyway)

As cool as it would be to have multiplayer, I believe my wallet just breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of having to buy 2 3ds' not becoming a reality...Ha ha. Thanks so much for the help. The other thread was a good read. Thanks for sharing.

Giants has to be the absolute worst of the 3DS games. It's got a weak story (which is astounding considering how flimsy the core storylines are), a non-entity of a villain and pointless environments. Biggest waste of time IMHO.

Swap-Force is a bit better but nothing beats SA. That game had a well-rounded storyline and felt like it was an actual adventure instead of something to do with your figures.

Honestly, I would prefer if they switched it around: have Kaos on the 3DS and new villains for the Console. He's overstaying his welcome and it's really bringing the series down.