So, Skylanders is due out soon! I've decided I want to leap headfirst into it, and possibly even Let's Play it someday. It turns out this game has on-disc content unlocks, where you can only access certain areas if you purchase certain level unlocks and character elemental types. Therefore, if you want to experience all the content on the disc, you're going to have to drop some serious cash. Here's the breakdown, and how much it costs:

Let's assume you're starting with the Starter Pack for PS3, 360, Wii, or PC, which starts with Spyro and two characters. Total cost: $70.

There are two $20 Adventure Packs, which come with one character and one level each. Current total: $110.

At this point you should have five characters: Spyro, Trigger Happy, Gill Grunt, Terrafin, and Ghost Roaster. Each of these characters corresponds to a different element: Magic, Tech, Water, Earth, and Undead, respectively. This leaves the elements of Life, Wind, and Fire. You could try purchasing these elements individually at $8 apiece, but there are three character packs that give you three characters at $20 per pack -- so, why not, let's look at those first.

Three three-packs are due out at launch. Character Pack 1 features Tech, Fire, and Life elements. Character Pack 2 features Earth, Tech, and Magic. Character Pack 3 features Fire, Undead, and Earth. So, though it technically equates to a $4 savings versus buying them individually, you really shouldn't worry about it unless you're a toy collector and absolutely need every figurine. This means if you want to minimize the total cost of this on-disc content, picking-and-choosing the last three elements is probably the way to go. $134.

Alternatively, as it turns out, the 3DS version of Skylanders is a separate game from the console versions, and has the same content unlocking system! So, you could look at it as a way to crank as much value as possible out of all the figurines you've purchased so far. And look at that, it comes with two figurines aside from Spyro, which correspond to Life and Fire. That just leaves the Wind element, which you can purchase as this set's single standalone. If you go this route, the total cost is $178.

This isn't the way Activision wants you to think of it, of course! I'm only scowling at this $134 pricetag because I'm thinking of it in terms of a crazy spiteful Internet person. The game isn't targeted at people like me; instead, it's aimed at kids and toy collectors, who think of toys like these in different terms than people like me who are trained to think in terms of DLC and ingame value:

• Oh man, this is awesome! The starter pack characters are great, and there are so many other dudes I can collect! I want this one and this one and this one! Not this one, maybe this one, this one looks stupid (etc, etc.)
• I MUST HAVE ALL OF THESE. I WILL PLACE THEM ON MY SHELF, AND ONLY LOOK AT THEM WHEN THE TIME COMES TO DUST THEM.

In short: If this game functions anywhere near as well as intended, it is going to make Activision too much money.

i hope this gets sooo popular that Activision have to pull Treyarch from CoD so that can make annual iterations of Spyro.

I have never even heard if this game until now.

@xyzygy said:

I have never even heard if this game until now.

Yeah, I saw this in a really low-budget ad on gamefaqs when I searched Google for a question about Mass Effect 2. All it said was "Skylanders: Try the new game!" and I immediately thought it was some shitty in-browser MMO.

@xyzygy said:

I have never even heard if this game until now.

Same.

SPYRO! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU!!!!!

So were you saying the 3ds starter box has two characters different than the 360? I'm thinking the 360 is the best platform to play this with my 4 year old, however the 3ds game is by a different developer and it might actually be a better game. But it doesn't look like there is a game only sku, as the portal thingy is going to be specific to the 3ds.

Now that my kid is old enough to get into this collectible crap I'm finding myself super attracted to it (more than him in some cases). Probably living vicariously; if my star wars toys had somehow interacted with my 2600 games I probably would have lost my shit.

I continue to pretend Spyro ended on the PSone after Spyro 3.

@Hizang said:

I continue to pretend Spyro ended on the PSone after Spyro 3.

I'm with you on this, except i didn't think Spyro 3 was all that great.

Spyro hasn't been cool since the PS1 games. Why are you excited about this?

Everything about this product, right from the first time a picture of the new Spyro design "leaked", have looked like shit so I'm not surprised that the shit-fest continues...

I wish Ghost Roaster was in a different game. I'd buy any game with a character named Ghost Roaster... EXCEPT this.

Spyro is still a thing?

Sounds like a free to play game that forgot the free to play part.

@Hizang said:

I continue to pretend Spyro ended on the PSone after Spyro 3.

I'm with you on this, except i didn't think Spyro 3 was all that great.

So this is out today in the UK. Anyone planning on getting this? Looks kinda cool, at least from a mechanical standpoint (with the figurines and stuff), but I don't really feel like dropping £50 on it without seeing it in action.

I really like the concept, kids will love this.
 
Too bad I don't have kids so I ain't getting this (not until it's 20 bucks in the bargain bin anyway in a year's time).

New childrens fad is a scam? Big surprise there..

The problem is the cost of these things (and the fact the designs themselves aren't any good), I don't see this ever taking off. Pokemon tried something similar with collectible figures to be used in a game, and not even that was successful because of the cost of the darned things.

It's not a bad idea to sell kids DLC in form of figurines, too bad the character designs are TERRIBLE. They're almost like Ricky Gervais' Flanimals, which were ironically grotesque.

So this is actually getting good early reviews... Hmmm.

Poor Spryo, those PS1 games are still pretty fun.

Guh, Spyro looks like ass.

Is this the one where the Cynder model has unmistakable boobs? Creepy and aimed at children. Nice.

From what I can tell, unlike traditional DLC, this isn't designed so that most owners will have all of it. It feels more like a trading card game, where everyone has different stuff. I wouldnt call it a "scam" as it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't. Is it good, and is it worth it? Find a bunch of kids who all have the game and ask them.

Each version of the game comes with a poster that shows all 32 Skylanders, organized by element. Underneath each character's portrait is an area for you to place the character-name sticker included when you purchase each character. The implication is that kids are supposed to hang the poster up and try to fill it out, I guess? Whatever the case, the poster's going to be hanging up there and reinforcing the names/appearances of each character on them every time they see it.

Also, I was wrong in the estimate in the OP; the 3DS version contains content hooks for a total of four Adventure Packs, two of which haven't been released yet. (I assume they'll cost $20 each, bringing the total MSRP of on-disc content that much higher.)

Edit: After having played this a bit I should add that despite all this I don't think it's a scam, for the simple fact that the game itself is clearly meant to be looked at as added-value for Pokemon/Monster-In-My-Pocket-style figurines. If you weren't getting physical objects it would be absolutely terrible -- but similarly-sized/detailed Pokemon figurines cost as-much-as, if not more than these things do.

Yeah toys are expensive. A vinyl Mario figurine, about the size and quality of these toys goes for 6 bucks. Star Wars figures are 6-10 bucks now. Back in 97 when the Star Wars toys first came back I collected them. I couldn't keep up after the first couple waves. I feel sorry for anyone trying to collect them now, there are just millions of them.

I'm gonna get this god damn game.

I continue to pretend Spyro ended on the PSone after Spyro 3.

Does this game have Elijah Wood?

If not, consider a customer lost, Activison.

The Elijah Wood was a preorder bonus from 7-11. Sorry.

@niamahai: lol EPIC COMMENT

Corporation out to make a profit!!!  How fucking sinister that they make a kids product that involves collection!  Activision is surely the first and hopefully only company to come up with such a heinous business plan.

Anybody got a spare Chop Chop?

@niamahai said:

i hope this gets sooo popular that Activision have to pull Treyarch from CoD so that can make annual iterations of Spyro.

To all the people who say poor Spyro just remember this.  Crash Bandicoot and Jak are forced to perform sexual favors at rest stops in order to make a living.   Poor Daxter died of a heroin overdose 6 months ago and no one cared.

People calling this a scam have a weirdly naive outlook on the world. Is every company trying to make money scamming or something, I don't get it. I think most kids will get value for money, even with only the starter pack. I think it would've felt more like a scam if the starter pack would've been really cheap, and subsequent add-ons would've been relatively expensive. It seems like it's the other way around, I definately think the figurines are in impulse-buy territory.

And the moment people will stop thinking about a game as a physical product, not think what kind of bytes are on a disk but just consider the value proposition of the product (service) they purchased the happier they will be the next few years. Games/software are inherently not a physical thing so what is on a disk is irrelevant.

I wish I was a child again. My ten-year-old self would have loved this.

That spyro figure looks fucking terrifying, but not in the way you'd like.

Not going to lie. If they did the same game with pokemon during the 151 or digimon I be all over that shit.

Didn't Activision announce some sort of Call of Duty adventure game? By this time next year, you'll be putting your Captain Price action figure on a tank-based portal, mark my words.