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| The Cover for Skylanders Giants |
Publisher: Activision
Creator: Toys For Bob
Consoles: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS
ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
In the last Skylanders, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, your goal is to repair the core of light and stop an evil villain named Kaos from taking over Skylands. In Skylanders Giants your goal is to stop Kaos again, but this time he has an evil robot army on his side. The game starts off with Kaos trapped in a toy store on Earth. He wakes up from the paralyzed state he was in when the Portal Masters banished him from Skylands in the last game. He eventually finds a portal and uses it to send himself back to Skylands. This is where you, the Portal Master, find out an evil, ancient, robot civilization once ruled Skylads. They were called the Arkeyans but were eventually defeated by the Skylander Giants. The Giants victory came with a price though and they disappeared, until you found them. With over 45 Skylanders to collect and the ability to use Skylander figures from the previous game, you must defeat Kaos and the Arkeyans before it’s too late. In this game there are only 16 chapters unlike the previous game that had about 20. Playing on medium difficulty, not having a Skylander of every element and not trying to get 3 stars on every level, it took me roughly 13 hours total, give or take a few minutes, to beat the game. This is a reasonable amount of time because video games today are designed to give you between 40-75 hours of game play total. Playing this long only left the game 35% complete, still having a long way to go for 100% completion. Along with the main story players have arena challenges and heroic challenges to complete as well. Also they can replay parts of the story to complete levels fully. This leaves a lot more possible game time. This game will leave players of any age entertained.
In Skylanders you fly around Skylands defeating Kaos and other baddies. Therefore you go to different places that have different people, climate and sizes. Enemies in Skylanders follow a similar rule. They try and keep enemies similar to the climate depending on the location they are in. For example in Glacier Gully, a very snowy location, Chompies, a small pest of a creature, are covered in a layer of ice for extra defense. But over all enemies can vary from trolls that shoot guns, to Arkyean robot jousters. Depending on location though the amount you of enemies you face vary. If you’re in an earlier level there will be fewer enemies. Difficulty in the game can also affect enemies. There are 4 types of difficulties, Chompy Cuddler (Easy), Cyclops Crusher (Medium), Heavy Hitter (Hard), and Kaos Unleashed (Nightmare). Nightmare mode is unlocked after you beat the game. Playing on medium difficulty the game was exactly the difficulty as categorized. It primarily affected the enemies’ stats such as health, strength, and defense. It was not too hard but had enough of a challenge that you wouldn’t get bored of how simple it is.
Skylanders Giants has a great soundtrack that everyone can love. It has an instrumental soundtrack all the way through and even keeps the classic Skylanders theme song from the previous game, while adding new takes on it. It even at one points gives you a little music player that plays a rock and roll version of the theme song your Skylander will dance along to. Of course it’s only little twists to songs from the previous game that go together with the new ones giving this game a great soundtrack. Along with a great soundtrack, the controls were very simple, so easy to use. With three types of attacks, movement and an action button, you only use four buttons and a joy stick on the controller. Button layout was great but some button combinations, few there were, were difficult to work at first but easy to use after you get used to them.
With three dimensional animations Toys For Bob has really improved on the graphics from the previous game. Cut-Scenes have crisp, clear, and as realistic graphics as it can be. In game graphics are just as smooth and clear. However I did not enjoy in game conversations with NPCs. There was nothing wrong with dialog; it was the characters voice animations during an in level conversation. Their mouths would just open and close not looking like they’re actually saying the words and they would repeat the same action over and over again during the conversation. The game ran fairly smoothly, but at times things could get annoying. For example if you break an object and treasure comes out, sometimes the treasure would get stuck between two things and you wouldn’t be able to reach it. Also not having control of the camera view can screw you over when trying to get to a location.
Skylanders is a game geared towards kids, so with all the mysteries and risks of online there is no online play. However, there is a variety of two player options. Two Portal Masters can play story mode or one of the four battle modes. The four mini games in Battle Mode are Arena Rumble, where players fight with their Skylanders in a gladiator style battle, Skygoals, where players use Skylanders try and get the football to the end zone as many times as they can, Skygem Master, where the first Skylander to collect 5 gems wins, and Ringout, where Skylanders try and knock the other out of the ring. Two Player story mode is fun but when two players go opposite ways it is bothersome because each player has to stay on the same screen. Now each character in Skylanders Giants comes a specific way, so not all have weapons. However you do have a chance to upgrade their abilities. In the first game when you reached a certain point you meet Persephone the fairy. She would use her magic to upgrade your Skylander for a price. She returns again in Giants this time unlockable on the first chapter of the story. Characters can go on specific paths and even have a super ability that you must find in the game if you wish to unlock it.
How ever great this game may be there were some glitches. At certain points in the game when you enter a location it will freeze your character as it does a fly over of the new map to show you your destination. Sometimes when it does this enemies are nearby. The game doesn’t freeze them so if they are close enough to attack you they will and you won’t be able to fight back till the fly over of the map is complete. Also in Chapter 14 of the story there is one point where you can take a teleport pad to a treasure chest to get money. After you get the treasure you can take another teleport pad to the original spot you teleported. If you’re not careful the game will spam teleport you back and forth for a while.
When you buy the game, you can buy it alone or with a portal and 3 Skylanders. It’s good idea to have at least one Skylander of each element when you play if you wish to try and complete the game 100%. Skylanders can be bought at any store that sells video games such as Game Stop, Best Buy or Wal-Mart. There are eight new Skylanders, eight new Giants, and new variations on classic Skylanders from the first game. There isn’t really any customization for you Skylanders other than giving them nicknames and putting stat beneficial hats on them. This is a game that I would recommend for all ages but not something I suggest hard core gamers purchase. It is geared towards kids, so it is a game that would be enjoyed by more laid back gamers if an older gamer.
- BSFletch
8.5/10
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| Gameplay |
I like potatoes
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