Skylanders Giants Omnibus Review

Jason takes a look at all things Skylanders Giants. First up: the figures and the 3DS version of the game.

By Jason Nimer

As Gamers' Temple readers already know, I'm one of the vast number of ancient, serious lifelong gamers who fell hard for Activision's Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure last year. Though the game was clearly aimed at a younger demographic, its concept and execution were two factors too powerful for me to withstand. Both the portable (3DS, iOS) and console versions of the game provided me with hours upon hours of enjoyment, though the high from actually playing was dwarfed by that gained from hunting down each and every last Skylander toy and playset. The part of me that still loves 'catching 'em all' in Pokemon, along with the part that used to love collecting Spider-Man and Marvel Overpower cards, found the temptation to complete the collection overwhelming. I eventually did (without resorting to paying scalper prices on eBay, thank you very much) collect all the Skylanders' about five months before the sequel, Skylanders: Giants, came out and presented me with a whole new set of toys to collect. Sheesh.

Now the sequel is out there in even more varied forms than the original. We have Giants Mega Bloks sets (not LEGO, Mega Bloks' sigh), Giants Halloween costumes, Giants bed sheets, even a Frito-Lay Giants tie-in (though this last one actually showed up a few months prior to Giants' release). And all that is on top of the multi-console release (360, PS3, Wii), the portable releases (iOS, 3DS) and even the upcoming Wii U version. Activision isn't messing around when it comes to the Skylanders, and neither am I when it comes to bringing you, the reader, all the info you'll need to explore the myriad Giants experiences. So, just like I did with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, I'll be assembling a monster omnibus review of the entire Skylanders: Giants experience, along with a toy buying guide, over the next few months. Check back often for updates and I promise, we will get through this together. It's dangerous to go alone, take this (document) with you.

 

Skylanders: Giants - The Toys

For me, the Skylanders toys themselves are the franchise's real selling point, rather than the games you play with them. Activision must know there are plenty of us who feel the same way and they are capitalizing on our collective 'catch 'em all' weakness. In true sequel fashion, the toys of Skylanders: Giants are bigger (literally), better and more diverse. I'll be splitting this up into four different classifications: Series Two, New Characters, Lightcores, Giants and Variants, by the way.

Series Two: We will start here because the series two Skylanders are ones you already know and love, just posed differently. The more popular Skylanders characters have been redesigned for Giants, usually by adding a representation of what their fully maxed out form looks like. This means the new Slam Bam has his spikey shoulder pads, Trigger Happy has his stationary gun, Gill Grunt has his anchor blaster, you get the idea. The only differentiation between the series two Skylanders and the ones you already own is their ability to use a new, powerful wow pow attack. That won't be enough to justify a purchase for some, as the original Skylanders figures are compatible with the new Giants game. For the half-crazy collector, though, these will be just as sought after as the new characters. My only real complaint with these is the selection of which Skylanders got the series two treatment seems arbitrary at best. The ever-lame Stump Smash gets a new figure, as does Bash, a character collectors already have three or four times over. So why do Wham-Shell and Warnado get the shaft? I wish I could tell you.

New Characters: Here is where things get interesting. The Skylanders added to the mix are going to be big with fans, though some aren't quite as cool as they should be. New Skylanders like Shroom Boom, Jet Vac and Fright Rider are all cleverly designed and nice to look at, while Flashwing, Chill and Sprocket are at the same time lazy and off-putting. Some lame paint jobs across the lesser characters only serve to make them less desirable. The worst of the bunch is Flashwing, a little dragon with venetian blinds for wings. Flashy's design seems ripped from some untalented eighth-graders sketchbook, and the look on its face can only be described as 'derp-y.' Will a few uninspired designs turn anyone off? The hugely successful Pokemon Black/White featured Klink, a set of gears, and Solosis, a blob with a small skull inside, so I guess a few misses on new characters can't really hurt a game in the long run.

Lightcores: These are my personal favorite addition to the Skylanders equation. These figures feature all new poses and a special surprise ' they light up when placed on the Portal of Power. They also have a screen-clearing blast that triggers when the figure is placed on the portal, which can be really helpful in the game. The lights are good on some (Jet Vac) and lame on others (Drobot), but the cosmetic value of seeing your little guys glow is, for me anyway, unmatched by any of the other additions. Sadly, though, only a handful of Skylanders will have a Lightcore counterpart, and like the series two figures, the selection seems downright stupid. Chill gets a Lightcore but Fright Rider doesn't?! Also, take note of the fact that the single packs of these characters cost roughly two dollars more than their non-lighted counterparts. It is worth it to me, but probably not to everyone.

Giants: These are, as you can tell from the title, the driving force in the new Skylanders games. The supersized figures, like the Lightcores, light up when placed on the Portal of Power and have specific uses in the games. Each element has one giant Skylander on its team, and for the most part they are pretty cool. The Hot Head figurine shares Flashwing's 'derp-y' facial expression, but beyond that, the sculpts are excellent. Unfortunately, the two coolest-looking ones, Thumpback and Eye Brawl are not yet released, but patience will win out in the end.

Variants: If I've got one beef with the Skylanders sequel, it is the variant figures. I didn't take issue with the first game's Toys R Us Legendary figure line, but Activision has gone too far with Giants by making some of the figures nearly monetarily impossible to obtain. The Legendaries are back, as are a few store exclusives (check the buying guide for more info on these), but characters like Royal Double Trouble and Gnarly Tree Rex are simply repaints that most people won't have access to. Take Gnarly Tree Rex for example. To get ahold of this nearly identical to its counterpart figure (he has blue on him!), you'll need to buy a PS3 or Wii system bundled with Skylanders: Giants. What the hell? I've got to spend between $150-$250 to obtain this one character? The answer is yes, especially if you are looking to complete the 99 Skylander roster on the 3DS version of the game. Not cool.

Author's Note: Check back for more info and ratings on the new Skylanders as more are released into the wild.

 

Skylanders: Giants - The 3DS Game

The 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was something of a surprise. Coming along at a time when the 3DS library was, shall we say, lacking, the portable version of the Skylanders adventure was almost every bit as good as the console iterations. The run-and-jump gameplay was fun from start to finish, and the title provided Skylanders fans with yet another opportunity to play with and level up their tiny plastic army. After sacrificing nearly 40 hours of my life to the 3DS original, I was almost as thrilled to get the 3DS-exclusive sequel as I was the main game. Did Giants bring the same A game as the original? Or did it fall as flat as most console-to-handheld conversions?

I'm afraid the answer is somewhere in the middle. The first thing that must be mentioned is the game's presentation. Yuck. On both the regular 3DS and its XL-sized cousin, Skylanders: Giants looks like crap. Everything from the characters to the cutscenes to the environments are painfully pixelated, somehow looking less polished than its year-old predecessor. To make matters worse, even the slightest bit of on-screen action slows the game's framerate to a crawl, a phenomenon best described as what happens when you use a turbo controller with a start button switch ' starts and stops that make every bit of the game as herky-jerky as mashing the pause button over and over. As you can imagine, this wreaks havoc on the game's enhanced emphasis on platforming; even use of the 3D enhancement can't help you land on small platforms when everything is in slo-mo. I actually found myself waiting for the game to catch up to me on more than a few occasions; not exactly a great recipe for an action game.

Aside from the atrocious graphics and unforgivable frame rate, Skylanders: Giants does manage to one-up the original in a number of ways. This sequel offers more of nearly everything ' more hats to collect, more Skylanders to import (a staggering 99 different Skylanders and variants are represented), more challenges to overcome and more stars to earn. In a trait shared with all the other Giants games, your original Skylanders have had their level cap raised by 50 percent to 15, and, of course, all the new Skylanders and reposed originals follow suit. The most notable enhancement is that Giants on the 3DS feels more like its console big brothers with a jump button added. The first 3DS game had extremely linear levels of either Point A to Point B or arena challenges; Giants has more in the way of fully realized 3D landscapes with side paths to find and more stuff to discover. It's a step in the right direction, to be sure.

On the other hand, the 3DS version of Giants still leaves out some of the stuff from the console version, stuff that is pretty important. The hats scattered around each level still offer no real incentive other than completing the collection; the hats in the main game offer stat boosts and new powers to the Skylanders that wear them. Character upgrades are still set and determined by levels alone; the console games allow for choice of path on gained upgrades while this version's are set in stone. Both seemed like no-brainers coming from a 'sequels should add features' standpoint. Guess not.

Worst of all, though, is that Skylanders still cannot be changed out on the fly. I get this is a portable version and keeping the Portal of Power on you at all times isn't feasible, but the system still doesn't make sense. Like in the original, you can have two separate Skylanders and one item 'scanned into' your game at any given time. This is a smart idea and makes sense with the portability of the game, but to swap out your Skylanders, you must exit to the hub world and visit a special area. This can be really jarring, especially if you are used to popping your figures in and out multiple times per level. There isn't any reason as to why players can't swap heroes mid-level, activating the Portal with a button press or touch screen gesture and going to town. Being stuck with who you've got requires too much planning on the player's part (for elemental and giant gates in particular) and for all the problems 'scanning in' the Skylanders solves, it creates identical ones by not being able to switch at any time.

Sadly, the 3DS version of Skylanders: Giants is really only for the die-hard Skylander fan and/or completionist. It is still nice to have a different way to play with your horde of toys, but the game's technical problems are going to be too much to ignore for all but the biggest fans. It isn't often that a sequel ends up being worse than the game that spawned it, but when that does happen it is particularly unfortunate. Let's hope Activision gets things back on track for the inevitable Skylanders 3.

Final Rating: 50%

Author's Note: Check back for updates as I add the console game review (PS3, 360, Wii U), the iOS reviews, the buying guide and a few surprises. Happy hunting!