NYCC 2013: Skylanders: SWAP Force

For four days, people came to the Javits Center in New York City to experience one of the largest conventions on the east coast: New York Comic Con 2013!  Fans of comics, movies, television shows, and toys came together to revel in their hobbies, and with them came video game companies to show off their wares for the upcoming holiday season and beyond.  We here at 3RM attended a few of those days, and we have impressions and video to provide from our experience!

-----

In Nintendo's booth, Activision was present to show off the latest portable adventure in the Skylanders franchise, Skylanders SWAP Force.  Playable only on the Nintendo 2DS at the show, I got to try out a bit of the demo's swamp forest level while discussing the game with a representative from the company.  From my brief experiences, I can see that Skylanders on handhelds is faithful to the series, even with a few rough edges noticeable from my playtime.

Skylanders: SWAP Force is the third iteration of the Skylanders franchise, a series of games in which players place figurines of Skylander warriors onto a physical portal device to bring the character to life in a humorous, epic adventure.  Introduced in 2011 by Toys for Bob, the series has since added giant and glowing (lightcore) Skylander figurines with its sequel Skylanders Giants.  SWAP Force changes the gameplay up even more this time around, with Vicarious Visions now at the helm of the series.  The handheld iterations started with Vicarious Visions, but since Giants the 3DS versions have been handled by N-Space.

In SWAP Force, the series introduces swappable characters.  At the hip, these sixteen new Skylanders can be separated and reattached, allowing characters to share types and swap special moves between one another.  For instance, I was able to use Wash Buckler (a pirate octopus) and swap out his tentacle legs for the rolling lower-half of Magna Charge (a robotic magnet being).  The resulting Skylander had the attack powers of Wash Buckler but the speed of Magna Charge, which would help out in particular scenarios I encountered in the demo.  These swappable Skylanders help create even more character variety than before (and that is saying something with over forty other Skylanders already present in the series).

Unlike the console versions of the series, Skylanders on the 3DS could not use the portal in real-time, instead "absorbing" the Skylanders into the game and redepositing them when necessary, with a maximum of two at a time.  SWAP Force, however, allows up to four Skylanders per type to be stored, including swappable Skylanders.  With the touch screen I was able to quickly switch into a different Skylander with relative ease, although there was some additional loading involved when using the swappable Skylanders, for good reason.

Graphically, the game resembled the first iteration of the game on handhelds, with slightly lower polygon counts and a lower-than-optimal framerate compared to the console versions.  The framerate did not falter too much from the norm, however, and there was a good amount of activity going on the screen at once.  The camera is panned out, much like Giants and the console iterations of all of the games, and that allows for more exploration to be possible.  Even so, the camera started to play games with me, panning around the character for no reason.  This ended up causing me to lose track of where I was going, and it delayed my progress more than I would have liked.  It felt awkward having to make near leaps-of-faith toward the camera with my character, when it would have been easier for the camera to just say behind me.

Meanwhile, the gameplay was as standard as the series goes.  Characters fight enemies to gain experience, and at first, the attacks are fairly basic, but as you progress, the Skylander gains more abilities to assist.  The special challenge areas are still present in the game, requiring specific types of Skylanders to open specific doorways in order to obtain gifts to be used in-game.  There will be additional requirements for certain doorways in this game, specific to powers held be particular swappable Skylanders.  This adds another layer of character requirements for the challenge areas, so do not expect to just get away with just one Skylander per type this time around!

Regardless of the little issues, Skylanders SWAP Force felt pretty much like a handheld edition of the console titles, especially now that the console games introduce jumping mechanics that the handheld games have had since the beginning.  The ability to swap between so many Skylanders now sounds like a welcome change, even if it still requires "absorbing" Skylanders and redepositing them when desiring to play the console versions.  It did have some little issues here and there, but nothing that should deter the audience away if they were looking for a decent Skylander experience on the go.

Skylanders SWAP Force is out now for 3DS/2DS, Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

NYCC 2011: Skylanders: Spyro's Big Adventure

Our adventure into this year's New York Comic Con was not exactly as peachy as we would have liked, but when is a convention not stressful? We were only able to attend the Thursday and Friday events for both economical and physical reasons, but we got a handful of videos and impressions to make for you all.

---

When it was announced earlier this year, Skylanders: Spyro's Big Adventure was met with a mixed reaction, mostly toward the cash-grab mentality the concept reflected. Essentially, Skylanders is a toy and game combination aimed toward children, all while rebooting the Spyro franchise and introducing a myriad of new characters for marketability. Using a portal device, players input characters to the game via individual toy statues; the games each come with three figurines, and there are over thirty in total. Consequently, not only do you have to purchase the games, but you also have to purchase additional toys to play as every character.

While this negativity toward Activision is understandable, that negativity does not necessarily outdo the fact that the game is pretty darn fun.

At New York Comic Con, I got my hands on the 3DS version of the game, and a developer from Vicarious Visions was there to answer my questions and help relay information on the titles. While we chatted about the game and its features (as we talk about in the below video), I played through the first few areas the game had to offer, and overall I was pretty impressed.

A scene from the console version, when it was first announced.

Unlike the console versions in which the portal needs to be activated at all times for character swapping, the handheld edition allows players to store two heroes in the game at one time, but to change characters outside of the stored ones, the portal will need to be used. Also unlike the console version, the 3DS version of the game is more platform-intensive, and from what I played, that is certainly true. In the last Spyro series, the games were more focused on beat-em-up scenarios; this rendition puts more emphasis on quick battles and unique character abilities. According to the developer, the handheld version is more fast-paced than the console version, and while I cannot confirm that, the game did feel well-paced.

The Portal, not just a display for your Skylanders figurines.

Swapping characters was quick and easy, and as I played, they did have their little differences. Dark Spyro, for instance, glided across gaps while Ignitor, the other character in the demo, provided a double jump for platforming. As the game progresses, each character gains experience and, subsequently, abilities as they venture through each level of the game. While there are no extreme RPG elements in here, the leveling concept does make replaying the game more acceptable; having so many characters to choose from helps that as well.

Perhaps my biggest fault with the game from my hands-on time was the framerate. Seeing as this demo was probably a very complete version of the game, the framerate was disappointing. Sitting at roughly 20 fps, the game felt occasionally stilted. Thankfully, the 3D effect is greatly utilized, with large towers and drops which make good use of the 3DS display. The graphics are bright and do not show much of the faults a number of third party games on the 3DS did before. It certainly does not feel like an up-port, thank goodness!

The handheld game accepts all characters from the console versions, too.

We were told that there will be at least 30 characters, of which two are exclusively included in Starter Packs: Spyro with the console game and Dark Spyro with the handheld edition. This does make the game initially expensive. Thankfully, the game seems very solid and certainly welcoming to younger gamers. Will it be brought to the same height as the original Spyro series? Well, perhaps that depends on your perception of the original series. At the very least, this is a unique take on the franchise, and it is certainly not a bad one.

Skylanders is out now, but if you want some quick impressions over Comic Con footage, look no further!

Spyro Returns, Brings Friends, Toys

Shortly after its conference call this past week regarding the future of the company, Activision announced Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, a new experience in which players use toy figurines to import unique characters into the game.

Skylanders is an action adventure style game, but unlike previous games in the Spyro series, the game makes use of toys, or interaction figures, which are imported into the game via a special portal platform. Players put the figures onto the portal, and the game then puts that character into the game. If a player wants to switch characters, it's as easy as changing which figure is on the portal. Each figure also saves the character level data, allowing people to keep their progress as they switch characters or travel to play with a friend elsewhere.

The game will feature a total of 32 characters to choose from, all with their own interaction figure. Skylanders will come with 3 figures, trading cards, and the portal itself. Sounds like a franchise using these figures could arise in the future.

Not only is the game using a unique set of interactivity, but it is getting a number of big names helping from around the animation industry. The character design was done by Shrek character designer Tom Hester, whereas the music is being composed by Inception composer Hans Zimmer. The duo of Toy Story writers, Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, are writing the story.

The game's developer, Toys for Bob, was formed in 1986, and before being purchased by Activision had been known for the Star Control series on PC and Pandemonium games on Playstation. Since its acquisition, the company has largely worked on licensed games such as Madagascar.

Spyro the Dragon was created by Universal Studios (now Vivendi, which controls Activision-Blizzard) and developed into a three-game series on Playstation with Insomniac Games. Insomniac stayed a Sony-exclusive developer with the Ratchet and Clank series, so Universal gave the game to multiple developers since. The first two console non-Insomniac titles were Year of the Dragonfly, made by what is now Backbone Entertainment, and Hero's Tail, produced by Eurocom. Since then, Krome Studios produced a trilogy of titles, known as the Legend of Spyro franchise. Skylanders brings the Spyro series into its second reboot since its inception in 1998.

No specific platform has been unveiled for the title, although the trailer states that the game would expand to console, mobile, and computer-based releases. It is expected to release this fall.

TRAILER

SOURCE: Gamespot