Earlier this year we posted some news indicating the Skylanders franchise of games and toys sold more than $1 billion sales worldwide. When I visited the Toys for Bob studio a couple of years ago, I knew Activision had a potential hit on their hands but I don’t think many saw the $1 billion in sales coming. I sure as heck didn’t. Skylanders has become a household name and is showing no signs of slowing down. Last year’s Skylanders Giants pushed the franchise forward and in the process sold a boat load of new Skylanders toys. Almost every gamer I know who has kids, has a bunch of Skylanders toys at home to go along with either the Spyro’s Adventure game, Giants game or both. So it comes as no surprise that for the third year in a row we see a new Skylanders game on the horizon. Recently at a Pre-E3 event in Santa Monica, I had a chance to get some hands-on time with that new Skylanders game titled “Skylanders SWAP Force” and a nutshell the future remains bright for the franchise.
So how does this Skylanders game differ from the other ones? The big new feature this time around is “swapability”. This is where you swap the top and bottom halves of the Skylanders toys thus creating an all new character. It is a pretty innovative idea as this allows you to reconfigure 16 SWAP Force characters into more than 250 unique combinations. You can now mix and match your SWAP Force characters powers and moves. Then bring them to life in the game by simply placing your character on the game portal. Just like magic, your unique Skylanders character appears on screen.
Fortunately, SWAP Force includes the ability to play with your all of your Skylanders characters from the previous games which comes as a welcome relief to parents who are not too keen on forking over big bucks for SWAP Force’s new collection of figures. Not only are all your characters playable in SWAP Force but also all of their abilities, upgrades and what they have already earned in previous Skylanders games carries over. Your Skylanders can now physically jump in the game whch is a big deal considering the development team had to go back and tinker with all the characters animations. Last but not least they have increased their skill level to 20. But this year it is all about customization and seeing your unique combinations come to life on the screen – yes like magic.
Skylanders SWAP Force features a new storyline and an all new adventure that takes place in the Cloudbreak Islands. The Islands happen to be home to a mystical volcano that erupts every hundred years replenishing the magic in Skylands. During an epic battle, a pack of Skylanders were caught in the middle of the volcano’s eruption. This eruption blasted those Skylanders apart and launched them to earth. Fortunately, the magic of the earth gave these Skylanders a new power which included, as you would guess, swapping powers. These Skylanders who have the ability to swap halves are now part of a special team known as the SWAP Force. The evil Kaos returns again and he has managed to hatch himself a new evil plan as he has discovered the secret of the Cloudbreak Islands. Your objective in the game is to reassemble the SWAP Force, send them back to the Cloudbreak and save the Skylands.
The story is clearly aimed at kids and so it should be as this is the games target audience. The story serves as a nice backdrop for a game that appears to play out like the other Skylanders game. You will have a basic story mode featuring several missions, bonus missions, player versus player arenas and survival arenas. The graphics have received an upgrade and there are certainly plenty of new wrinkles in the mix. Yet at the end of the day, you get a game that looks and still feels like a Skylanders game. Taking a page from the Call of Duty franchise, Activision is doing enough to keep things fresh but Vicarious Visions have not completely overhauled the successful Skylanders formula.
During my hands-on time with the game, I had to chance to give the swapable characters a spin and once again the figures are of high quality. They are wonderfully crafted and incredibly detailed. Skylanders SWAP Force features 16-new SWAP Force characters to go along with 32 core Skylanders characters. Out of those 32 characters, 16 of them will be completely new and 16 will be new versions of previous fan favourite characters. There will also be eight new LightCore characters. As for the new SWAP Force characters, tiny magnets keep the bottom and top halves together. I picked one up and was surprised with how easy it was to swap the characters halves. I was equally impressed with how the portal was able to detect which characters I mixed and matched. Again, that “like magic” theme kept running through my head when tinkering with the different combinations of the new SWAP Force characters.
The neat thing about using these swappable characters is how you can mix and match the powers. You can take Freeze Blade’s ice attacks and combine them with another Stink Bomb’s invisible gas attacks. It is this ability to mix and match which makes this Skylanders game a little more unique and gives SWAP Force more replay ability.
As I mentioned, gameplay feels similar but in SWAP Force the Skylanders can jump. I can’t count how many times in previous Skylanders games I wished my characters had that ability. Well now they do and it is a little, but fantastic, addition. Seeing my Giant Skylander leap was a hoot and the way the ground moved when the Giant pounded on the ground was a slick little visual.
Speaking of visuals, SWAP Force features a new graphics engine and new special effects. During my time spent with the game, SWAP Force certainly looked sharp and stays true to the Skylanders brand. Sound wise, SWAP Force also stays true to the games familiar whimsical sounds and all the characters voices you have come to love return again.
If you or your kids are fans of the franchise, Skylanders SWAP Force will likely be on radar and at this stage in the game it looks promising. Do not expect any sweeping changes when it comes to the gameplay as Skylanders SWAP Force will still play and control like previous Skylanders game. Yet this is not a bad thing as kids and parents will enjoy being able to pick up the game and play without any kind of learning curve. The addition of swappable characters, being able to jump, new missions, new storyline, new upgrades and of course new toys, makes SWAP Force a game your kids will want and heck maybe some big kids too. So start saving up!
Skylanders SWAP Force is set to release in North America on October 13, Australia on October 16 and Europe on October 18.
