As the title to this, my inaugural blog post, strongly suggests, I have a last succumbed to the siren song of mass-produced plastic toys merged with electronic entertainment. Yes friends, I went out and bought Skylanders: Giants for my 360 over the holiday.

A few notes before I begin. I have two kids (7 and 4) and for Christmas, my wife and I got our daughter (the elder) Skylanders for her 3DS. She and her brother had both gawked at the figures at Target before and I had toyed with the idea of picking the game up, but never really got around to it primarily because I didn't think that either of them were quite old enough to really enjoy the game. Over the past year though, my daughter's interest and skill in gaming has gotten to the point where I thought that the game wouldn't just frustrate her, so we grabbed the 3DS starter pack and wrapped it up under the tree. As a bonus, my sister and brother-in-law picked her up a couple of 3-packs for Christmas as well.

She was excited/intrigued when she opened the box up on Christmas morning, but there were other more exciting things that needed her immediate attention, so we didn't crack the game open until later last week. She and I both tried out the game on our respective 3DS machines and agreed that it was fun. I was a bit bummed with some of the design choices on the 3DS, however. i.e. game is much more "platformy," which is fine for me, but which I was concerned might frustrate her as she has not played a lot of 3D platformers; inability to swap Skylanders in and out on the fly (something that I just assumed was part of the charm of the game; and finally the portal itself was kind of finicky to get working. You have to hold the figure just so above the portal in order for it to read. Despite all of this, my interest in the game was piqued.

I recalled that the esteemed Mr. Gerstmann was quite taken by the original Skylanders, so I bopped over to Giant Bomb and did some digging on the series. The more I saw of it, the more my interest grew to the point that I was printing out checklists and plotting out with my children (my 4 year old son just digs the figures and was happy to join his sister and I in our scheming) which figures we would buy next. Clearly though, if we were going to step off this ledge, we needed the full version of the game though, right? Of course we did! So, gift card in hand, my daughter and I took an outing on New Year's Day to pick up the full game on 360 and whatever figures struck our fancy.

Those of you who have played Skylanders are no doubt familiar with the scenario that I am about to describe. You go out planning to buy the game and maybe a figure or two and you return home with the game, a figure or two, and about 10 or so other figures that you hadn't intended to buy at first, but hot damn that guy looks pretty cool and HOLY SHIT he lights up as well and we really do need to have at least one figure for each element...You know how this ends. We visited three stores and came home with the game and way more figures than we needed (all elements are represented and in some cases, over-represented). I continued to justify the purchases with the rationale that this is something the kids and I can enjoy together. They both enjoy games and what kid doesn't like toys, right? It was kind of late when we got home, so all we had time to do that night was open all of the figures up while my wife just stared at me with a mixture of incredulity and pity in her eyes as I controlled Jet-Vac and made him talk smack to Crusher (my son's choice) and Hex (the one my daughter thought was "cute").

I told the kids we would have more time to play with the figures and the game this weekend. Naturally, being the responsible father that I am, I felt that I should try the game out (it was my gift card after all) so I hooked up the portal that night, spread the figures all over the coffee table in the basement and got down to business. I was tired and didn't have much time to play, but I enjoyed my first taste of the game. On the surface the game is certainly simple enough for younger kids to play and the absence of platforming elements should allow both of my brood to be able to enjoy the game even if they need a bit of help with some of the block puzzles. The shameless marketing cash-grab of the locked areas really should annoy and/or infuriate me, but for some reason it just doesn't. Maybe this is what a cult is like. It seems normal and ok once you have entered. I doubt that I can be objective about this any more. There also appear to be enough bits and bobs bolted onto the core game to make it worth spending time on. The heroic challenges in particular seem like they are designed to offer some gameplay for folks that find the base game a tad too easy. I liked the game and was looking forward to putting some more time into it. I discovered just how seductive it could be the following (last) night, however. I sat down around 8:30 or so intending to play through a few levels and try out a few more things. I didn't really intend to stay up until nearly midnight but BAM, the time just flew away while I was happily swapping figures out, matching elements, and gleefully finding and trying on hats. Let me tell you, you don't want to mess with a vacuum armed anthropomorphic eagle wearing a turban. He will mess you up big-time.

Needless to say, Skylanders: Giants is now consuming nearly all of my waking thoughts. I have even gotten my wife to admit that Thumpback looks "pretty cool" and that we need to be on the lookout for him when he launches because these things are hard to find. I have lots of other games to play in my backlog. Right now, all I want to do is play Skylanders. Once I get my kids fully hooked into the game (isn't that the opposite of what most parents would want?), I can only see this obsession deepening.

I didn't understand the Skylanders phenomenon before but now I think I am starting to get it. It helps that the base game beneath the crass commercialism is actually pretty cool and fun. I am excited by the fact that this appears to be a game & toy ecology that I can really play with my kids and that we can both enjoy. I just worry about how deep this rabbit hole goes and how long my wife will tolerate our children and I debating the relative merits of various Skylanders over dinner.

Sorry for the length of this post and thanks to anyone who actually read it. Bonus points for making it to the end.

As the title to this, my inaugural blog post, strongly suggests, I have a last succumbed to the siren song of mass-produced plastic toys merged with electronic entertainment. Yes friends, I went out and bought Skylanders: Giants for my 360 over the holiday.

A few notes before I begin. I have two kids (7 and 4) and for Christmas, my wife and I got our daughter (the elder) Skylanders for her 3DS. She and her brother had both gawked at the figures at Target before and I had toyed with the idea of picking the game up, but never really got around to it primarily because I didn't think that either of them were quite old enough to really enjoy the game. Over the past year though, my daughter's interest and skill in gaming has gotten to the point where I thought that the game wouldn't just frustrate her, so we grabbed the 3DS starter pack and wrapped it up under the tree. As a bonus, my sister and brother-in-law picked her up a couple of 3-packs for Christmas as well.

She was excited/intrigued when she opened the box up on Christmas morning, but there were other more exciting things that needed her immediate attention, so we didn't crack the game open until later last week. She and I both tried out the game on our respective 3DS machines and agreed that it was fun. I was a bit bummed with some of the design choices on the 3DS, however. i.e. game is much more "platformy," which is fine for me, but which I was concerned might frustrate her as she has not played a lot of 3D platformers; inability to swap Skylanders in and out on the fly (something that I just assumed was part of the charm of the game; and finally the portal itself was kind of finicky to get working. You have to hold the figure just so above the portal in order for it to read. Despite all of this, my interest in the game was piqued.

I recalled that the esteemed Mr. Gerstmann was quite taken by the original Skylanders, so I bopped over to Giant Bomb and did some digging on the series. The more I saw of it, the more my interest grew to the point that I was printing out checklists and plotting out with my children (my 4 year old son just digs the figures and was happy to join his sister and I in our scheming) which figures we would buy next. Clearly though, if we were going to step off this ledge, we needed the full version of the game though, right? Of course we did! So, gift card in hand, my daughter and I took an outing on New Year's Day to pick up the full game on 360 and whatever figures struck our fancy.

Those of you who have played Skylanders are no doubt familiar with the scenario that I am about to describe. You go out planning to buy the game and maybe a figure or two and you return home with the game, a figure or two, and about 10 or so other figures that you hadn't intended to buy at first, but hot damn that guy looks pretty cool and HOLY SHIT he lights up as well and we really do need to have at least one figure for each element...You know how this ends. We visited three stores and came home with the game and way more figures than we needed (all elements are represented and in some cases, over-represented). I continued to justify the purchases with the rationale that this is something the kids and I can enjoy together. They both enjoy games and what kid doesn't like toys, right? It was kind of late when we got home, so all we had time to do that night was open all of the figures up while my wife just stared at me with a mixture of incredulity and pity in her eyes as I controlled Jet-Vac and made him talk smack to Crusher (my son's choice) and Hex (the one my daughter thought was "cute").

I told the kids we would have more time to play with the figures and the game this weekend. Naturally, being the responsible father that I am, I felt that I should try the game out (it was my gift card after all) so I hooked up the portal that night, spread the figures all over the coffee table in the basement and got down to business. I was tired and didn't have much time to play, but I enjoyed my first taste of the game. On the surface the game is certainly simple enough for younger kids to play and the absence of platforming elements should allow both of my brood to be able to enjoy the game even if they need a bit of help with some of the block puzzles. The shameless marketing cash-grab of the locked areas really should annoy and/or infuriate me, but for some reason it just doesn't. Maybe this is what a cult is like. It seems normal and ok once you have entered. I doubt that I can be objective about this any more. There also appear to be enough bits and bobs bolted onto the core game to make it worth spending time on. The heroic challenges in particular seem like they are designed to offer some gameplay for folks that find the base game a tad too easy. I liked the game and was looking forward to putting some more time into it. I discovered just how seductive it could be the following (last) night, however. I sat down around 8:30 or so intending to play through a few levels and try out a few more things. I didn't really intend to stay up until nearly midnight but BAM, the time just flew away while I was happily swapping figures out, matching elements, and gleefully finding and trying on hats. Let me tell you, you don't want to mess with a vacuum armed anthropomorphic eagle wearing a turban. He will mess you up big-time.

Needless to say, Skylanders: Giants is now consuming nearly all of my waking thoughts. I have even gotten my wife to admit that Thumpback looks "pretty cool" and that we need to be on the lookout for him when he launches because these things are hard to find. I have lots of other games to play in my backlog. Right now, all I want to do is play Skylanders. Once I get my kids fully hooked into the game (isn't that the opposite of what most parents would want?), I can only see this obsession deepening.

I didn't understand the Skylanders phenomenon before but now I think I am starting to get it. It helps that the base game beneath the crass commercialism is actually pretty cool and fun. I am excited by the fact that this appears to be a game & toy ecology that I can really play with my kids and that we can both enjoy. I just worry about how deep this rabbit hole goes and how long my wife will tolerate our children and I debating the relative merits of various Skylanders over dinner.

Sorry for the length of this post and thanks to anyone who actually read it. Bonus points for making it to the end.

Glad to hear that your family is enjoying it! I've been on the fence for this game for a while, on the one hand the whole portal/action figure concept is pretty freaking sweet but I'm worried that the "game" portion is going to be too simple to hold the interest of myself or the other family members I would force to play with me.

Definitely still on the fence about Giants but after getting the core set of the first one (along with the pirate ship addition & one of each type of Skylander), the first one was a bit of a kids game similar to the Lego games but as long as you were in the mindset to play something like that, it works well & doesn't try to make a kids game where they dumb it down so much it's not worth playing. Hard to say for people to get both Giants & the original but it seems if you pick either one, it's not a bad choice though I still only played through the original once & got some of the other collectibles I missed then never went back to it to the crazy 100% finish of it.

The game part is simple but still fun. It will suck you in. Just a good old formula. I have a 6 year old who loves it and I enjoy it too. Playing two players with an impatient kid can be a pain at times but it is still pretty enjoyable all around young or old. We have both of the games. You cant go wrong with it if you like playing games in general. My little guy is lucky he has a geek for a Dad.

@fox01313: @Ducksworth:

I agree that game definitely skews towards a younger audience and if you are not interested in really poking around and trying to collect the various doodads in the game that it might have a relatively short lifespan. I think the analogy to the Lego games is a really good one, actually. That's what it feels like in many respects though I have found it to be more engaging than the average Lego title. Perhaps that is because it requires sweet little plastic toys to play. If Lego released a game where you could scan minifigs into the game and play with them my kids and I would probably never leave the house again (as we are deeply into Lego right now).

I wonder if I would be as excited/interested in Giants if I had played the original last year. It seems that some folks who were smitten with the first game are a bit cooler on this one because the underlying game mechanics do not seem to have changed all that much.

That said, even as I sit here typing this I am wondering if I have time during my lunch hour to go to Toys R Us and see if they have any of the figures I'm looking for.

@gunninkr: That's awesome. I'm enjoying passing my geeky sensibilities on to my kids.

@Deakor: Same here. We bought this back in April for my 4 year old. I collected Skylanders like crazy even to the point of standing in line on sunday morning at my local

Toys R Us store to get the next wave/expansion. It fell of for some months to the point where this Christmas I had the dragon's peak expansion, 3 three packs, and a few singles. That is aside from the Skylanders that Santa brought which included 3-4 series 2 figures and all currently released giants. Now that my son is nearing his 5th birthday it's fun to play with him and he is quickly becoming more and more capable of playing with me on the 360.

Good to know that you found an excuse to finally get into skylanders.

@pigmartyr:That's fantastic. It is encouraging to hear that your little one can handle playing it some. I'm hopeful that both of my kids will enjoy it and that it will be a good activity to help give their mom a break on the weekends. They both already play Wii and Wii U games with me, but this will be a step up especially for my younger one.

Most of the novelty flavors of Kool-Aid that don't mention the flavor are usually just cherry. Is Skylanders Giant cherry Kool-Aid?

@bartok: I see what you did there.

But to call Skylanders Giants mere cherry Kool-Aid does a disservice to both Kool-Aid and Skylanders Giants.