I figured I would start doing some video game reviews as well. I am actually not that big of a gamer, but I do like to play them from time to time. The first one that I'm going to start with is Skylanders: Giants, the sequel to the popular Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure game. This is a very unique video game because there are a series of toys attached to it that come alive in the video game when put on the Portal of Power. The first game did interest me, but we didn't end up getting it. This past Christmas, we were able to get Giants for our son. That's why I'm starting with the second game in the series instead of the first. Here's my thoughts on the game.
Things that I liked:
The game itself has some very cool stuff going on. The storyline is not very complex but still entertaining. I really liked the villain in the game, Kaos. He had a cooky personality that made the game appealing to kids. The thing that drew me to this game, of course, was the fact that it had these toy characters attached to them. Already, the fact that this is so unique to video games impressed me. The characters (or at least most of them) were all really cool with relatively awesome abilities. The other thing that I liked about it was that you could upgrade each character's abilities and make them stronger. This gave us other goals that would make playing the game even funner. On top of that, you can also work to level up each character to make them stronger. On top of that, you had what they called Heroic Challenges that could further improve your characters stats. Not only do you have the storyline part of the game but you also have the battles where you can face your Skylander characters off against each other. This really prolongs the game for not only my son but for me as well. It makes it more entertaining for a lot longer. I've probably played Skylanders Giants with him well over two hundred times (and that is guessing on the low side). The other thing that I did like about this game was collecting the characters themselves. Although it is irritating when you can't find the one you want, it is also really fun to get a new character and see what they do.
Things that I don't like:
Although the story to Giants is pretty well-thought out, I wasn't overly fond of some of the chapters in it. I felt like they were a little on the boring side and I wasn't really looking forward to playing some of them again when my son and I would start a new game. There are some highly annoying Heroic Challenges (like Drobot's purple chompy one). The biggest thing that I wasn't a fan of was the fact that some of the characters couldn't change their paths in the second game, like the Giants themselves, the new characters, and any Lightcore. I didn't really see why these characters couldn't switch paths especially because all the Series 2 characters from the first game could. I also hate that there are characters out there that you just can't get anymore unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for them. Then there's the Magic Giant, Ninjini. Where is she? She's been out for I don't know how long and I haven't even seen her in a store yet. We only need her to complete the Giants set and there's been no sign of her. I think that if you're going to make a game with toys attached to it you should make them readily available for purchase, that's all I'm saying. If you want to make some of them harder to get, fine. Make the variants harder to get. I don't care if I ever see Scarlett Ninjini in a store as long as I can get regular Ninjini without any problems. That about covers my dislikes of the game.
Overall, Skylanders (1&2) are an awesome concept. I know you might have to pay extra for the toys but having them makes the game more fun. I am definitely looking forward to the new one coming out this fall and I know my son is too.