I bought Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and I hated it :(

I watched the Quick Look, and it looked like a lot of fun. Costly, but still fun. So I went all in, bought the starter pack, one extra character (Whirlwind from Target), and three $19.99 packs (one character pack and two level packs). I was so excited about the game that I opened up the starter pack in the car to look at all of the pieces! It's been quite a while since I was so excited about a game.

As soon as we got home, we fired up the game, and we played 6 chapters in co-op, using only the three characters that came with the starter pack. I didn't open any of the other packs, just in case I didn't like the game and I needed to take them back. We were giddy with excitement at first; however, as we kept on playing, our excitement vanished. The game is easy. It's not just kind of easy -- it's really easy. It was so lacking of challenge that it was not fun at all. The layouts were linear; the game holds your hand to an annoying degree; you are constantly watching advertisements for characters you don't have; and the enemies are go down with 1-2 shots. I primarily used Gill Grunt, and he has an ability that sprays all enemies down with water, so if you just hold down spray and spin in a circle, everything will die. I looked for a difficulty slider, but I was unable to find one. Given that I had spent about $120, still needed to buy more to fully play the game (by having one character of each of the eight elements), and was not having fun, deciding to sell the game online and take back the unopened characters was an easy choice.

One thing that I found that was interesting was that your portal of power will detect the characters if they're still in the pack. I didn't use any of the characters that I didn't open (other than to see if it would work), but an unscrupulous gamer could take advantage of this -- especially with regard to the pirate ship and crypt levels.

With all of the above being said, I think that I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if I were playing it with my son, and if he were old enough to play games (He's eleven months old right now). I've seen several comments wondering why this game was not targeted to the gaming community, but rather is marketed as a children's toy would be marketed, but after playing the game, it's clear to me why this was done. I think that it would be totally awesome though to play a more challenging version of this game, perhaps with a different franchise such as Champions of Norrath or even something like Torchlight.

I bought Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and I hated it :(

I watched the Quick Look, and it looked like a lot of fun. Costly, but still fun. So I went all in, bought the starter pack, one extra character (Whirlwind from Target), and three $19.99 packs (one character pack and two level packs). I was so excited about the game that I opened up the starter pack in the car to look at all of the pieces! It's been quite a while since I was so excited about a game.

As soon as we got home, we fired up the game, and we played 6 chapters in co-op, using only the three characters that came with the starter pack. I didn't open any of the other packs, just in case I didn't like the game and I needed to take them back. We were giddy with excitement at first; however, as we kept on playing, our excitement vanished. The game is easy. It's not just kind of easy -- it's really easy. It was so lacking of challenge that it was not fun at all. The layouts were linear; the game holds your hand to an annoying degree; you are constantly watching advertisements for characters you don't have; and the enemies are go down with 1-2 shots. I primarily used Gill Grunt, and he has an ability that sprays all enemies down with water, so if you just hold down spray and spin in a circle, everything will die. I looked for a difficulty slider, but I was unable to find one. Given that I had spent about $120, still needed to buy more to fully play the game (by having one character of each of the eight elements), and was not having fun, deciding to sell the game online and take back the unopened characters was an easy choice.

One thing that I found that was interesting was that your portal of power will detect the characters if they're still in the pack. I didn't use any of the characters that I didn't open (other than to see if it would work), but an unscrupulous gamer could take advantage of this -- especially with regard to the pirate ship and crypt levels.

With all of the above being said, I think that I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if I were playing it with my son, and if he were old enough to play games (He's eleven months old right now). I've seen several comments wondering why this game was not targeted to the gaming community, but rather is marketed as a children's toy would be marketed, but after playing the game, it's clear to me why this was done. I think that it would be totally awesome though to play a more challenging version of this game, perhaps with a different franchise such as Champions of Norrath or even something like Torchlight.

Jeff has stated many times on the podcast that the game is way easy and is meant for kids.

It gets harder. The Kaos battles are a bit of a challenge as are the challenge levels. But yeah, it's a kids game. I can confirm that it is fun to play with a 4 year old.

@SethPhotopoulos said:

Jeff has stated many times on the podcast that the game is way easy and is meant for kids.

Yeah....

I kinda wish that the new Kirby game had a difficulty slider.

Also yeah, you got caught up in the hype, it happens, at least you could get some of your money back.

Yeah the entire business model for the game emphasises the fact that the demographic the game is aiming at is kids. It's like Pokemon was back when it first launched with games, cards, figurines and so forth.

@Hamz said:

Yeah the entire business model for the game emphasises the fact that the demographic the game is aiming at is kids. It's like Pokemon was back when it first launched with games, cards, figurines and so forth.

I would say Pokemon is meant for kids but is also fun for adults, I bought SoulSilver last year because I had fond memories of playing it when it first came out and it was still a blast to play where Skylanders looks like it couldn't be anything but boring for anyone over 10

I must say I'm surprised Activision decided to release something like this before Nintendo.

One of my local retailers says its sold out on Chop Chop figurines, though... the guys were right about getting in early on all that Chop Chop action!

Why can't you enjoy an easy game? The cinematics are clever and funny, with interesting characters. You are constantly off to some other type of level than the previous one. You are constantly switching characters - leveling them up to gain new abilities.

Can't people just sit down and have fun once in a while?

Can't people just sit down and have fun once in a while?

The best thing Skylanders has done was create the multiplatorm thing they have, where a figurine would work on all systems. So kid A has a PS3 and kid B has a 360, they can invite the black sheep kid C who has a PC and they can all play together.

As a nerd who is not afraid to buy small figures, seeing something like this - but as something I am interested in! - would be quite neat.

A fool and his money...

1. Get in touch with Jeff.

2. Sell your Skylanders to Jeff.

I assume you are over the age of 10 so why the fuck were you so excited about this game.

@Heltom92 said:

I assume you are over the age of 10 so why the fuck were you so excited about this game.

I wouldn't have believed it if my brother (24) hadn't told me about this game before even Giantbomb had any real coverage. I guess he likes the idea of collecting things? No idea, but he told me if he had a kid he would buy it with his kid as the excuse.

Even though this is an easy game, I'm still having fun with it. Anyway, the main reason I bought this is because I thought the tech side of it was pretty cool and I would like to see more companies do stuff like this in the future.

Judging from what you've written I think terrible may be the wrong word to use. 
 

ter·ri·ble /ˈterəbəl/

It's actually a genuinely good family game and saying it's terrible is just wrong.

You can say you had a terrible time PLAYING it, sure. But it's a well made product.

I would suggest that you keep playing, because 6 chapters in is not very far. The challenge does ramp up the further you get.

Also, do you find any enjoyment in leveling up your characters and unlocking new abilities?