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sharri21's Skylanders: Giants (Wii)
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| [November 5, 2012 08:27:05 AM]
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One of my favorite new Skylanders from the Skylanders: Giants series is named Pop Fizz. In fact, I thought he was so cool that I bought a color variant of him who is referred to as “Punch” Pop Fizz! Normally I wouldn’t buy any variants for collecting purposes, but because I found none of the other Skylanders as interesting as Pop Fizz, I decided to do it for this one figure.
Firstly, Pop Fizz is a Skylanders character who is referred to as a “thrower.” This is a basic mechanic that allows Pop Fizz and other “throwers” to simply lob character specific items at enemies in order to deal damage. In Pop Fizz’s case, he throws potions. At level one you are given the ability to throw a single yellow potion, which acts as his main source of damage (the way I play him). As you level up, you learn how to create two additional types of potions—a green potion that breaks upon landing and creates a damaging AoE pool effect, and a purple potion which does not break but instead sprouts legs as it lands and fires liquid shots at enemies. The purple potions are AI controlled but actually do a decent job whittling down enemies’ health points.
Now, the reason I like Pop Fizz so much (aside from his crazy looks) is because he can play the role of a “thrower” as I mentioned earlier, but also has the ability to become a kind of “berserker” or melee DPS type of character if you build him as such. In Skylanders, you begin with a few basic abilities which can be mildly upgraded. As you progress you can choose a single path that lets you specialize in one of the basic abilities, making them much stronger. As I now have two Pop Fizz figures, I can build each Pop Fizz differently and play them two totally different ways.
The mild character progression system in Skylanders is very easy to follow—it should be as it’s almost a kid version of Diablo, but I think that is definitely one of its strengths.
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| [October 27, 2012 09:50:00 AM]
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Skylanders Giants is the sequel to Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure which came out last year around this time. It is published by Activision and developed by a company called Toys for Bob for every platform available, plus PC. It became so popular that there was even a web version and an iOS version developed.
For those who don’t know, each game is based on the concept of collecting small figures which are then placed on something called the portal of power. Placing them on this portal literally brings them to life on your T.V. screen and allows you to control them as you play through the game.
Why throw all your money at Skylanders?
Well, you theoretically could just buy the game, the portal, and one or two Skylanders, but you’d be limiting yourself in a big way. First of all, if you die in-game your Skylander will need to rest until you finish the level or purchase an item with currency you collect in-game to instantly revive him so you can continue to play that particular character. If you only have one or two and both die, you’re out of luck and must restart the level. Secondly, having only a couple characters means you’ll never get 100% completion status as some areas require a different element Skylander to unlock them. For example, if I’m running through a level with a Magic element Skylander and I come across a Fire portion in that level where there may be some treasure or loot, I would have to switch to a Fire element character to unlock that area and go inside. So, let’s be serious, who doesn’t like loot?!
Skylanders Giants isn’t terribly different from its predecessor, but the changes that it did make certainly have the game running smoother and builds upon the first game. The HUD has been tweaked in a way that makes it easier for the player to know when they are about to level up, and the max level has been increased to fifteen from ten. This was a great improvement, because one of my only problems with Skylanders was that it lacks content—not in a qualitative kind of way, there’s simply just not enough levels in my opinion for dropping over one hundred dollars on all these shiny figures! Also, all the figures that were collected for the first game can now be brought into the second game and leveled to fifteen as well, so your money hasn’t gone to waste.
As for the giant figures they’ve introduced, their mechanics have added several new features to the game which I enjoy. There are spots throughout levels where a heavy object may be blocking the way or you’ll need to break through a bit of ground to find treasure or something. Only giants have the ability to move heavy objects and break ground! This was a cool addition to the game in my opinion, and the drop-in drop-out system makes it extremely easy to simply switch characters on the fly if needed. In terms of specific characters and their separate mechanics, I will probably write an entirely different review on those!
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sharri21's Skylanders: Giants (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 21 October, 2012
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