Last year, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure captured the hearts of kids and the wallets in their parents, with its figurines that come to life inside the game. Today at E3 2012, we got a glance at Skylanders Giants, the impending sequel that introduces some new elements and, for sure, a slew of recent toys to gather. It should also put an undue strain on parents’ purse strings and lead a number of them to forestall indulging their children’s Skylanders habit.
Because the demo began, a brand new Skylander figurine named Jet-Vac was put on the Portal of Power peripheral, and the birdlike character then appeared within the game with a rousing cry of “Hawk and awe!” The terrain wherein Jet-Vac began his journey looked just like the inviting grasslands of early Skylanders levels, and the gameplay pretty corresponding to that of the primary game. Pushing a block aside revealed a previously hidden tunnel, and we were told that Giants introduces most of these secret areas, encouraging exploration and giving players more reason to go back to levels.
Soon, we got a glance at some of the new “light core” Skylanders; a variation of Prism Break from the unique game. As this special version of Prism Break was brought on the subject of the portal, crystals within the figurine’s arms started to glow. It was a neat visual touch which is certain to enchant many children, and it doesn’t require batteries; the ability comes from the portal. As well as this nifty figurine feature, light core characters may also have powers unique to them within the game.
After advancing slightly, the player placed another new Skylander named Pop Fizz at the portal, bringing the demented goblin-like creature into the sport. Pop Fizz was described as an alchemist, and at one point he drank from a flask, temporarily mutating himself right into a bigger, more powerful version of himself that was described as a berzerker. Pop Fizz was clearly able to going through foes, but if he stumbled on a space that was particularly crowded with enemies, the player took the chance to modify to at least one of the titular giants, placing a significantly larger figurine at the portal. The giant’s name was Tree Rex, and he resembled a mech that were built from large living pieces of wood.
Like his figurine counterpart, the in-game Tree Rex was much larger than a standard Skylander, and his size enabled him to yank boulders off the bottom and toss them at enemies. We initially wondered if the added physical power of giants wouldn’t essentially make smaller Skylanders obsolete, but both Tree Rex and Bouncer, a robotic giant we saw a piece later, gave the impression to move more slowly than normal Skylanders, which may be disadvantageous in some situations.
We learned that Skylanders Giants raises the extent cap for characters from 10 to fifteen and that this is applicable both to new Skylanders and to these you have got utilized in the unique game. The upgrade system was tweaked a little; whereas before, you reached some extent where you needed to make a choice from one path of upgrades or another for every Skylander, in Giants you could switch backwards and forwards between upgrades. And although Skylanders is obviously designed primarily with teenagers in mind, Giants will add various difficulty levels in an try to accommodate those players who might want more of a challenge.
But what concerning the toys? Having physical figurines that store the progress of your characters is a part of Skylanders’ allure, but Giants may push things a bit too far. The sport will introduce eight giants (one for every element), eight new Skylanders, and 24 “series two” characters, which can be new figurines of characters who appeared within the first game. Obviously, you will use your existing Skylanders, but series two characters could have powered-up upgrades, that is bound to make children long for the brand new versions. Additionally, there’ll be eight light core characters, four of so one can be variants of series-two characters (like Prism Break), and 4 of that allows you to be variants of recent Skylanders.
In fact, variations on existing characters are nothing new to the toy industry. There are any choice of versions of characters like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in Star Wars toy lines, and having the unique He-Man toy didn’t make most Masters of the Universe fans want Battle Armor He-Man any less. So in a way, putting out new versions of characters players have already grown attached to seems like good business sense.
Nevertheless it also seems a chunk crass, and the indisputable fact that series-two characters have more powerful upgrades than their predecessors sounds designed to get kids to ignore their existing toys and inspire their parents to shop for an entire new set of Skylanders for them. We won’t help but wonder whether parents would be willing to buy new assortments of Skylanders so soon after sinking considerable amounts of cash into building their children’s collections for the primary game, and if those many adults who also fell under the 1st game’s spell will feel a similar impulse to gather ’em all that they did the primary time around.