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| Skylanders: Giants: The Enchanted Tiki Studio |
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There’s a bit of magic happening right outside San Francisco. Tucked away in a otherwise nondescript hangar, under thatched roofs and surrounded by Tiki themed décor, Toys for Bob – a passionate gathering of artists, programmers, sound designers and engineers – have just finished work on Skylanders: Giants, the second installment of the Skylanders series.
You probably wouldn’t guess it based on most videogame message board chatter, but Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was, and continues to be one of the industry’s major success stories. Combining solid, action RPG gameplay with an innovative system allowing you to drop physical figures into the game, Skylanders has proven to be a big hit. The game received praise from critics, but the figures have exploded. They were hard to find when the game first shipped and have gone on to inspire a rabid collector’s market. Even now, some figures are hard to find while a couple of special figures, like a Toy Fair exclusive version of Cynder, can fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay. Just how many figures are out there? Try the population of England (minus Scotland).
With such success, Toys for Bob could have tossed out a quick update and a couple of new figures and probably found success. However, the team at Toys for Bob wasn’t content to just push out another game; they wanted to give fans something new to look forward to and address some of the original’s problems.
The end result is Skylanders: Giants, a brand new adventure that continues where the original left off. After his ejection from the Skylands, Kaos finds himself trapped in toy form on the shelves of a toy store. In mind-bendingly meta fashion, Kaos figures out how to get back into the Skylands by hitching a ride on a portal in the store’s Skylanders game display. Upon his return, he discovers an ancient robot, which he uses to attack the Skylands.
As a Portal Master, you are once again called upon to protect the realm from Kaos, though this time you’ll have to reach into the past and call upon the power of the ancient Skylanders, the Giants. |
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Skylanders: Giants builds on the original's action RPG roots and should be instantly familiar to veteran Portal Masters. You, and a friend, can swap characters out at any time in order to ferret out the numerous secret pathways and treasures hidden in the snaking, puzzle-filled levels.
Giants adds a few new challenges, such as a few flying missions where you guide a hovering, jet-powered gyrocopter through canyons and tunnels. You’ll also challenge NPCs to Skystones, a capture-the-territory style card game. Between levels, you can use money to upgrade your airship or buy other upgrades, like new hats.
Giants are the –- eh-hem – big addition to Skylanders: Giants, though lore-minded players have already encountered the titanic champions. When it came time to develop a story for Giants, the team knew they wanted to do something that fit within the already existing mythos. The answer came in the form of a single story scroll, which players could find while exploring the first game. The scroll mentioned the race of ancient giants. These giants became the new giant-sized Skylanders.
Both the in-game and toy versions of the Giants are roughly two-three times the size of the original figures. However, even with the added size, you can easily fit two Giants on one portal with room to spare. In-game, Giants are usually the biggest things on the screen, allowing you to easily plow through any enemies that come your way. They’re not indestructible, but it takes a lot to bring one down. Giants also come with the unique ability to knock down doors that would usually require bombs. They can also use their strength to bust through weak floors or pull on ropes to draw distant objects (like islands) closer to shore. The trade-off is Giants are slow, so while survivable in most combat situations, getting around the level is a bit of a slog.
The Starter Pack will come with one Giant, Tree Rex, a Life Skylander made entirely out of wood. I was also able to check out Swarm, a giant wasp with stingers on his hands; Boomer, a robot who looks like a cross between Gizmoduk and Clank; and my personal favorite, Crusher, a rocky giant with armor and a giant hammer.
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Giant Skylanders won’t be the only additions to your collection; several new regular-sized Skylanders are also on the way, including a few returning figures with new powers. Each element is receiving at least one new Skylander, such as Jet-Vac, an eagle with a powerful vacuum cannon, and Fright Rider, a spear-wielding elf riding a skeletal ostrich.
Several familiar Skylanders are coming back with either Series 2 designations or as LightCore characters. Series two figures feature new molds, showing off the character’s "evolved" form, and have new powers called "Wow Pow" attacks. These are incredibly powerful attacks unique to the character. You can also change their upgrade paths. Series 2 characters are compatible with the original game, but without their Wow-Pow ability.
LightCore Skylanders are some of the flashier figures to hit your portal. Once activated, parts of the figure – such as Prism Break’s hands – light up. Though not much different from their non-LightCore counterparts, the illuminated figures drop into play with an area-of-attack spell damaging anything near it.
Alternately, all of your original Skylanders can make their way into Giants. The level cap has been upped from ten to fifteen, allowing a little more breathing room. Before playing, I was concerned bringing in already leveled Skylanders would create a balance issue, though Toys for Bob has completely avoided any potential balance issues by implementing difficulty settings. Based on your chosen setting (Easy, Medium, Hard), enemy HP and their damage output will scale to match your Skylander’s level. The harder the setting, the more they scale.
Once you complete the game, a new Nightmare difficulty mode becomes available. Developers swapped stories of in-office competitions to see who could get the furthest in Nightmare with only one Skylander. The mode scales enemies to powerful levels, making smart use of your collect’s abilities paramount. According to several team members, every piece of food you can find is incredibly important. |
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Of the changes made to Skylanders, I am the most excited about Nightmare. As much as I loved Skylanders, once I’d completed the game, I had a hard time finding reasons to go back. Heroic Challenges were fun, but lacked holding power and, frankly, some were a bit unreasonable. Nightmare, on the other hand, directly addresses some of my biggest complaints about the original. Not only is it harder, but also it will probably give me a more practical, non-collector, reason to beef up my army of Skylanders.
Speaking of Heroic Challenges, they make a return as well. You can expect a couple of new challenges geared towards new characters and abilities, though a few favorites (and, depending on your perspective, not-so-favorites) will make a return. A new PvP Mode, Ring Out, will make its debut in Giants.
I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to predict Santa will get several requests for Skylanders: Giants this holiday season. Even if you overlooked the first game, Skylanders: Giants should receive – and deserves – a lot of attention.
You’ll be able to pick up Skylanders: Giants for all major consoles October 21 and will be available as a Starter Pack, which includes a portal, and Portal Owners Pack. Each pack ships with a Giant Skylander, Tree Rex. |
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-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker |
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