When I first caught wind of this Skylanders iOS game, I immediately thought it would ve nothing more than a crappy cash-in that preyed on fans of the console game. Instead of being a logical consumer and saving my money, I forked over the $0.99 to see if my assumptions were true. To my surprise, I will not be reporting to you that this is a bad game, cause it’s actually good.
While Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is a pretty fun game to play with the three figures that come with the starter pack, it’s the ability to drop in dozens of other unique characters through the toys that makes the game shine. At launch, I remember seeing displays full of additional characters for purchase. Nowadays, every Skylanders shelf I’ve seen has been virtually empty. Not too long ago, Steff and I were at a Wal-Mart looking at an empty Skylanders section, when a customer service rep came up to us to say that they received a shipment of 96 figures that morning, which all sold out before noon.
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is a pretty good game on its own. My brother and I played through it with only four toys, and we had a pretty good time with it. Say what you will about the evil and genius marketing ploy of tying the purchase of toys as in-game characters into the mix, but the overall package is fairly solid and enjoyable.
However, it’s not perfect. Particularly when your lack of toys impedes your progress through the game. My brother and I experienced the scummiest of these moments during the final boss fight.
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, at first glance, is not a game I should like for a number of reasons:
1) I was never a fan of any Spyro games
2) I’m close to 20 years older than the target audience this game was created for and marketed to
3) I’ve grown weary of video game peripherals and add-on purchases, which the entirety of this game is built around
4) I’m generally not a fan of the “Gauntlet-style” of game.
5) I don’t like the thought of going into a Toys R Us to buy myself action figures for my kiddie video game
As curious as I’ve been to play it, I’ve put up all sorts of mental barriers to stop myself from playing this game at all. Then I got it for Christmas and I played the heck out of it. I made up all the excuses in the world to not play it, but it ended up winning me over in a big way.
Hope your holidays were full of cheer, turkey and great gifts. At my age, Christmas is definitely more about giving than receiving, though I did receive some excellent gifts this year from the ones I love. Since this is a gaming blog most of the time, I thought I’d share with you what I found under my Christmas tree. I’d love to hear what you got for Christmas in the comments, too!
In Third Person 