Unlike some of my colleagues who have older kids at home, my son is just past 11-months, I’ve yet to fall prey to the Skylanders craze, a game that needs little introduction. Released last fall on all major consoles and touting a line of interactive figurines, Skylanders has quickly become an incredibly strong and profitable franchise. Now the Skylanders franchise finally comes to iOS and I’ve just spent the Easter long weekend playing it and it is a pretty darn fun game.
With several members of our editorial staff having children, our coverage of the Skylanders franchise has been frequent and not without considerable praise. Activision is not a company that is going to overlook making a buck or two so I guess it was inevitable that Skylanders would find its way onto the iOS platform as the number of Apple devices out there is just too large to ignore. For $0.99, most people won’t bat an eyelash at the sticker price. I’ve played my share of crap games that have cost me way more than that, so I think the $0.99 is well spent here. For the sake of context and comparison, the bulk of my playtime for this review was on my iPad 2. I also played the game on my iPhone 4.
The gameplay in Skylanders Cloud Patrol is simple and feels like a blend between Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and those games are two pretty darn good pedigrees if you ask me. The action revolves around your Skylander of choice defending an airship as you navigate through levels upon levels of trolls. You shoot the trolls by simply tapping the touchscreen or you can create combos of up to 6x by dragging your finger around the screen to tag targets. It sounds easy enough but these trolls move, shoot things at you, and there are several mines that explode if you touch them, which ends your game. One might think this is the type of game that you frantically shoot anything that moves, and in some cases it is. If you exercise a bit of patience though and work on combos you can really rack up some big scores. There’s no shortage of targets either. You can target not only the trolls but also the stuff they shoot at you such as their hats, crates, barrels and the occasional bonus item that might come floating onto the screen.
This probably goes without saying but I found the screen size of the iPad offers a greater degree of forgiveness versus the 3 ½” screen on the iPhone. I’m sure that same goes for any game that works on both pieces of hardware, but due to the nature of the controls and the need for precision I thought it worth noting.
So that’s the Fruit Ninja part. The Jetpack Joyride reference comes from Cloud Patrol’s system of levelling up based on accumulating total points and meeting objectives. Levelling up earns you gems which can be spent on magical items that can enhance your abilities or new Skylanders. If you or your kids own any Skylanders figurine you can use the codes that come with the figures to unlock the characters in this game too. That’s a nice tie in for the franchise that adds value to Skylanders figures that you may have already purchased for your home console. This system of levelling is also the addicting part to the game. Cloud Patrol is one of those games where you will say, “just one more game,” over and over again when playing. I didn’t realize it myself until my wife asked if I was still playing that game. I sure was.
If you don’t want to spend the time playing the game and levelling up to earn coins and gems there is the option to purchase coin and gem packs for real money. Thankfully the game makes it very clear that you are spending real cash on these things if you choose to do so but parents beware regardless. Earning enough coins and gems can be a long process simply by levelling up. One might look at this as an exercise in patience while another might consider this good longevity since it offers reward for continuing to play.
At first, I didn’t think that much of how Skylanders Cloud Patrol looks. It is bright, colourful and crisp, but it appeared to lack a lot of detail. This concern went away after getting into the game and seeing everything going on on-screen. On the iPad 2 the action is perfectly smooth. I noticed some slight hiccups when playing on the iPhone 4 but these aren’t significant enough to affect your enjoyment if the iPhone 4 is what you’re playing this game on. The actual Skylander characters take a bit of a back seat to the rest of the action as they sit in the turret of your airship and occasionally animate when you perform longer combos.
Skylanders Cloud Patrol’s soundtrack is catchy enough not to get boring or grating on the ears. You’ll be playing this game over and over again so I think that’s important. There’s not much voice acting to comment on apart from the quick tutorial (it’s fine though) but trolls say the occasional, understandable taunt and speak a sort of fun jibberish. Overall there is plenty of the detail when it comes to sound, which I found impressive for a game that is just $0.99.
The best compliment I can give this game is that my two nine-year-old nephews both said they’d give the game “a ten out of ten”. I am not going to go as far as to give it our highest score myself, but it is an excellent game that is well worth the whopping 99 cents. It really doesn’t do anything original but gameplay counts and I had a hard time putting this one down. The best thing about this game is that it compels you to keep on playing thanks to its system of unlocks through levelling up. Put this together with a franchise that is soaring in popularity and you have a winner. Kids and fans of the series alike will absolutely enjoy Skylanders Cloud Patrol.
