The Skylanders Giants Starter Kit is designed for the new-comers to the Skylanders games, or I guess those that want to continue the adventure on a different system than the one they played Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure on. For those fans who already invested in the previous version of the game, there is another pack that just comes with the game and the giant, Tree Rex. It’s not far from the price of the Starter Pack though, at least not at the time of this writing.

Skylanders Giants keeps to the same look and feel of its predecessor. The cartoony environments and characters really work well with each other to create an interesting world of floating islands, ancient robots, mole-people and a megalomaniac with a Napoleonic Complex bent on taking over the world.

While the style of the new game still fits what was laid out in Spyro’s Adventure, there is a noticeable increase in the level of detail. Previously, there were quite a few places that looked like other areas of the game, and while there is still some of that in Giants, its to a much smaller degree. Also of note is the added level of detail to a lot of the textures, especially on the walls and floors.

Skylanders Giants’s audio keeps to the broad sweeping musical numbers that really help to set the ambience of the levels, but a lot of what sells the game in this department are the character voices. Voice actors from the previous non-Skylander characters like Kaos, Flynn and Cali all seem to reprise their roles in this game, but that’s not all. Where the first title had only a few characters that could talk, this time around, everyone has voice actors. Oddly enough, I felt that there were a couple of characters that seemed like they should have stayed the way they were. Specifically Boomer and Whiplash. In the first game, my friends and I enjoyed Boomer’s limited vocabulary almost as much as I enjoyed Whiplash’s Japanese schoolgirl sounding voice.

The Skylanders Giants Starter Kit not only comes with a Portal of Power, but also three characters. These characters help to give the player a feel for what they can expect. Of course, the big draw with this game are the giants. These double-sized characters pack more of a punch than the rest of the roster, and there is one for each of the eight elements.

The Starter Kit comes with the Life giant named Tree Rex and besides having a few powerful attacks, he can pick up rocks or large bombs to throw at enemies, as well as bust down barricades that it would require a normal-sized character to hunt and grab a bomb to clear out. That being said, I found myself not really using Tree Rex all that much, at least not when compared to the other characters. It seemed like the only real times I would drop him into the game were to get into one of the side areas in the level that either requires a giant to perform a Feat of Strength or a specific element type. It’s a shame, and I don’t know if I just don’t like Tree Rex in particular, or if the giants themselves just feel like more trouble than simply putting a normal-sized character on the portal, if that is a viable opportunity. Granted, I’ve only had a chance to play with Tree Rex, but hopefully I will feel differently about the non-starter giants.

As for the rest of the game. Basically, Kaos has found a way back into Skylands, but in doing so, he has awakened an ancient robot that decides Kaos is going to be the next emperor and is going to help him by bringing him to an army of dormant robots waiting for someone to take command again.

The game’s 16 story levels (you can drop the Adventure Pack levels into the new game and get access to them), puts you on Flynn’s new airship with Cali. This ship becomes the hub area, much like the main island in the first game. Here, you and the crew will try and hunt down Kaos and stop him before his latest plan comes to fruition.

Just like the first game, there are items you can find in the levels that can help you in various ways, but put simply, Giants raises the bar quite a lot. Each of the levels seem to contain even more restricted areas that house new hats (that modify your stats), treasure chests or more legendary treasure. While both the chests and the treasure will grant you more in-game money, Giants has themed all of the treasures as items you can put on Flynn’s ship. This includes mastheads, paint jobs and engines. On a similar note, the number of hats that you can buy, find or unlock in Skylanders Giants is huge, and it’s no wonder since there are various opportunities to buy hats from a merchant, so they aren’t simply contained in a level like they used to be.

Overall, even though there are fewer levels this time around, the levels themselves are a lot bigger and more complicated. Where the first game had speed run goals that were less than four minutes, you will be hard pressed to find speed run goals in Giants that are under 10 minutes. Basically, that means that even if you know exactly where you are going and what you need to do and you don’t attempt to pick up any of the extra items, the levels are still big and offer a lot of playtime.

Outside of the game’s Story Mode, Skylanders Giants offers head-to-head multiplayer games that seem to be direct ports from the previous game. While they can offer some amusing distractions when you want to take a break from the Story Mode, I never found myself spending too much time in this area for either versions of the game. That being said, I can see siblings who play Skylanders together jumping in this mode for some quick competitions.

The Skylanders Giants Starter Kit grants you more starter characters than the Portal Owners version, and if there is one thing that makes Skylanders easier, it’s having more characters. Basically, if your character takes too much damage, you can keep throwing more figures at the game until you get to the end of the level where all health is restored.

Skylanders Giants also offers difficulty settings, something missing from Spyro’s Adventure. When you first launch the game, there are only three settings available, but after beating the story, you will unlock Nightmare Mode which is a tough, uphill battle against enemies that are levels above your own.

In the last game, enemies in early levels were far weaker than those in later ones. As a result, you could take a high level character through an early level and deal out some heavy, and fast, damage. This was great for the speed run goals in each of the levels. This time around though, it seems like the game scales the enemies’ strengths to respect the current character’s level. So, if you drop an early level guy on the field and find you are having trouble, you won’t find yourself in too much better a situation if you decide to swap that character out for something that is further along. The only real benefit I would say you get from swapping out the characters comes in leveled-up attacks and any experience gained by playing that higher level character.

It’s not hard to discern what Skylanders’s biggest game mechanic is. If it wasn’t for the figures that you go out and buy and place on the portal, Skylanders would still be fun, but it wouldn’t have that something special that really makes it stand out. So, what does the latest version of the game have in the way of toys?

Both the Skylanders Giants Starter Kit and the Portal Owner’s version come with Tree Rex, but the Starter Pack also comes with a new Air type character named Jet-Vac, as well as a re-posed version of Cynder.

While Giants will be released with 48 characters, many of them will be re-poses of the first round of characters. Basically, this newest run of toys includes eight giants, one for each element, eight brand new characters, again one for each element, and then 32 characters that are re-poses, some of which also have the new LightCore feature. This last added feature means that the Skylander will light up when it approaches the portal, and when it is used, it creates a shockwave of destruction that deals out massive damage right away.

We were lucky enough to try out one of the new LightCore characters with our copy of the game, and it allowed me to satisfy some of my curiosities concerning the backwards and forwards compatibility of the characters. In particular, I was happy to see that the LightCore Eruptor will glow regardless of which version of the game you are playing in, but as far as how it appears to Spyro’s Adventure, it is no different than a standard Eruptor.

One of the big features of Skylanders Giants is the fact that all of your old figures, including the four Adventure Pack locations and their magic items, can be brought into and used in the new game. Giants also ups the level cap on the characters from 10 to 15, so you have a reason to bring in those older characters, even if you had maxed them out already.

Below is a high level chart of which versions of the figures work in which games. Basically, it comes down to whether or not the character existed in the first game, regardless of the character’s pose or ability. We’ve done a bit more testing on exactly how the games, portals and figures react and hope to provide a more indepth article on the topic soon.

Skylanders Compatibility Chart

The only real technical issue I had with the game was when I used the old portal in Giants. For the most part, everything worked fine. There was the occasional hiccup where the older portal simply would not recognize the character I was trying to play. It was easy to resolve, I just had to take it off and put it back on the portal and everything was good. As soon as I switched to the new portal through, a wired one, mind you, all of those issues were resolved. I don’t know if there is any difference between the two, or if it just had a harder time sending the new version of the data to the Wii via the bluetooth connection. Either way, I found myself preferring the wired one in the end.

So, the big question remains, is Skylanders Giants worth it? Well, I pretty much dove into the last game head first and enjoyed every minute of it. I didn’t have too many complaints about the game, and based on how much better Giants is over Spyro’s Adventure, I am glad the developers found a lot of ways to stretch their legs and make for a better experience. I will say, for those parents out there, much like the first game, there is going to be a lot of additional cost involved. While there are only 16 new characters, Activision and Toys for Bob know how to push the idea of getting all of the figures, even the ones that are just re-releases of the previous round of toys. So, yes, I highly recommend Skylanders Giant, but as far as which version you should buy, it all depends on what you have already and if you feel like you are going to pick up Jet-Vac and Cynder anyway. The difference in price between the two versions isn’t too far apart.