The 'Skylanders Giants' |OT|

Dammit, I did it again... I was at Target tonight and we passed by the Giants display. I glanced, but kept walking. I turn to my wife and say in passing, "oh nice, they have the Target exclusive Granite Crusher" to which she reples, "wow, I'm surprised you didn't grab it."

Challenge accepted.

Yeah, I left Target the new owner of a Granite Crusher. It's like inverse reverse psychology... Woman is evil.
 
bumpkin said:
Dammit, I did it again... I was at Target tonight and we passed by the Giants display. I glanced, but kept walking. I turn to my wife and say in passing, "oh nice, they have the Target exclusive Granite Crusher" to which she reples, "wow, I'm surprised you didn't grab it."

Challenge accepted.

Yeah, I left Target the new owner of a Granite Crusher. It's like inverse reverse psychology... Woman is evil.
Click to expand...

Nice, i can't wait to get mine :)
 
I'm having a really odd problem with my 3DS PoP it won't let in the newer Skylanders unless I hover them off the platform. Series 1 and Giants will work just fine, but characters like Pop Fizz and Sprocket require me to hover them about an inch off the PoP. Is it dying? I'd have a big problem playing the 3DS game without it.
 
I have every figure released so far aside from Dark Spyro and Punch Pop Fizz (excluding the Blue Bash category of figures). I only have the 360 version of each game. Do you guys think $100 is worth dropping on the 3DS starter packs of each? Thinking of picking them both up at Toys R Us tomorrow to take advantage of the last day of the sale. I know the gameplay is different but the main reason I see is that I'll have more use for more of my figures. I am in SO deep I don't know if going deeper is the best choice or not!
 
Found most of the Wave 2 Series 2 Skylanders, making my collection complete until wave 3. Got Bash and Hex for their cool reposes and useful Wow Pows.

Does anybody else feel like Series 2 Hex and Lightcore Hex were switched at some point during development? Having the spirits glow a seafoam green would have been ghoulishly amazing. It also makes more sense than...that.

giantshexd.png


It can't just be me, can it?
 
Diggeh said:
Found most of the Wave 2 Series 2 Skylanders, making my collection complete until wave 3. Got Bash and Hex for their cool reposes and useful Wow Pows.

Does anybody else feel like Series 2 Hex and Lightcore Hex were switched at some point during development? Having the spirits glow a seafoam green would have been ghoulishly amazing. It also makes more sense than...that.

giantshexd.png


It can't just be me, can it?
Click to expand...

Weird. That may be more disappointing than Lightcore Drobot.
 
Excited and not excited for when all the other "alt deco" skylanders mentioned in the guide start showing up.
 
U2NUMB said:
My local wal mart had a ton of Lightcore Jet-Vacs yesterday. First time I had seen them on the shelf.
Click to expand...

Totally can't wait for him to come over here.

I traded in a bunch of duplicate Skylanders today and got the three Series 1 Lightcores. Am happy.
 
picked up flashwing at walmart yesterday, also glad to see they raised the level caps on all the series 1 figures. Also do these lighcore characters use batterys, I figured it used some sort of fiber optics that got light from the portal, but realized the portal wasnt lighting up but the characters were still displaying light. Also why didnt they have light cores on bouncers fingers?
 
Outtrigger888 said:
picked up flashwing at walmart yesterday, also glad to see they raised the level caps on all the series 1 figures. Also do these lighcore characters use batterys, I figured it used some sort of fiber optics that got light from the portal, but realized the portal wasnt lighting up but the characters were still displaying light. Also why didnt they have light cores on bouncers fingers?
Click to expand...

I dunno exactly how it works, but it does feed energy off the portal of power. I think that whatever frequency used in the PoP to detect the figures is enough to light up the led's in the light cores as well. They have already stated that battery operated PoP's would get a bit more energy drained because of the lightcore's.

One thing that's cool. Although series 2 Bash is not a lightcore, the rocks around him glow on the base because natural light is reflecting through them.
 
My daughter and me can't help ourselves! We got more skylanders today getting: Swarm, Pop Fizz, Legendary tigger happy, and Stealth Elf. I have also seen series two character everywhere today at walmart, gamestop, and tru.

What are some of the best characters to use in the game?
 
Finished the main campaign today on hard. Actually died quite a few times and made good use of the items from the last game. Looking forward to getting all the stars and playing through nightmare mode. Wilikin Village and Drill-X were definite highlights of the campaign for me.

Characters/paths I played through the game with:
Pop Fizz - Mad Scientist
Fright Rider - Jousting
Jet Vac - air gun
Swarm - Barbs
Bouncer - I-Beam

I tried out both paths for Pop Fizz, Fright Rider, and Swarm and ultimately stuck with the paths listed above.
 
SFGamer said:
My daughter and me can't help ourselves! We got more skylanders today getting: Swarm, Pop Fizz, Legendary tigger happy, and Stealth Elf. I have also seen series two character everywhere today at walmart, gamestop, and tru.

What are some of the best characters to use in the game?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the party, I also bought this for my daughter and got sucked into the collecting. As for what characters are the best, sonic boom and max level flameslinger are my favorites, they all are fun to play as though, they did a good job at making every character unique.
 
After one play session, I switched back to the original portal. The new portal is just so light and flimsy, it moves around and tips over just from swapping characters. I thought the cable version would be fine, since my portal sits on a small table with all the figures, and I just slide the table in front of the sofa when playing. This just makes it worse, since, although the cable is long enough, the weight of the cable alone can make the portal tip when there are no figures on top. I own Eneloops, so using batteries means nothing to me.

I played up through chapter 4 with my daughter. I was expecting the levels to be significantly longer, especially considering there are only 16 this time around, compared to the 26 in the first game. Getting 1/5 of the way through the game in just a couple hours, even when we did a lot of dicking around on the ship and such, does not bode well.

I was actually considering getting into the series 2 figures, but if the game is this short, then what's the point.

I also thought there were further character upgrades added to the game, but I see the upgrades are the exact same as before. I assumed the higher level cap also meant a few extra upgrades.

One last comment: the framerate in the Wii version is as bad as reported. 15fps is being generous. It is 15fps about half the time. The other half, I would say it drops below 10. This is without anything even moving on the screen. It's just from the world geometry. I'm going to be very tempted to get the Wii U version if it manages to keep a constant 30+.
 
Yeah I wish the main game was longer, but there still is a lot of content here. Was there DLC for the first one with more levels? Also can you buy the first game by itself anywhere?
 
SFGamer said:
Yeah I wish the main game was longer, but there still is a lot of content here. Was there DLC for the first one with more levels? Also can you buy the first game by itself anywhere?
Click to expand...

4 Adventure Packs for the first game that also work in Giants. Not DLC, but rather packs including a single character and some themed items to go along with it, that when placed on the portal unlock the level. (Pirate Seas Adv. Pack had Terrafin, with a Pirate Ship, Hidden Treasure, and Ghost Swords)

Empire of Ice, Dragon's Peak, Pirate Seas, Darklight Crypt.

I don't believe they are doing adventure packs w/ levels for this game.
 
CrashPrime said:
4 Adventure Packs for the first game that also work in Giants. Not DLC, but rather packs including a single character and some themed items to go along with it, that when placed on the portal unlock the level. (Pirate Seas Adv. Pack had Terrafin, with a Pirate Ship, Hidden Treasure, and Ghost Swords)

Empire of Ice, Dragon's Peak, Pirate Seas, Darklight Crypt.

I don't believe they are doing adventure packs w/ levels for this game.
Click to expand...

Some DLC levels would be nice though. I know they don't plan on making adventure packs, but they should of thought to use DLC for more levels. I am glad that the old advneture packs work though and they are using the newer engine so they do look a bit better, but still would love some lengthy DLC for this game.
 
So I had Giants for the kids and was going to keep it for them to open until Christmas. ( I know I'm a monster) And then I realized, 60 some days is an awful long time. Now they are all playing and having a jolly old time. By the way, why Flashwing is not lightcore is beyond me.
 
Drobot's lightcore version is not very good. At first I thought it was defective because you can barely see it light up. The giants all look good when they light up and so do some of the other lightcores, but drobot is a stinker.
 
Diggeh said:
Amazon has the Wave 2 Series 2 Skylanders up. No Hot Head, Sprocket, or Flashwing yet, but they do have Gill Grunt (who seems to be the hardest S2 to find in this wave).

Series 2 - $9.99
Gill Grunt
Hex (One of the coolest S2 figures; should've been Lightcore)
Bash (Another really cool new sculpt with a great Wow Pow)
Drill Sergeant
Double Trouble
Stump Smash
Sonic Boom
Flameslinger

Lightcore - $11.99
Jet-Vac (Goes in and out of stock, keep checking)
Click to expand...

huge thanks but still no 3 packs in stock? :(
 
Not yet, but I'll keep you posted. I was thinking of making an availability post using my original Mega Bloks post (before I moved it up to post #2).
 
Diggeh said:
Amazon has the Wave 2 Series 2 Skylanders up. No 3-packs, Hot Head, Sprocket, or Flashwing yet, but they do have Gill Grunt (who seems to be the hardest S2 to find in this wave).

Series 2 - $9.99
Gill Grunt
Hex (One of the coolest S2 figures; should've been Lightcore)
Bash (Another really cool new sculpt with a great Wow Pow)
Drill Sergeant
Double Trouble
Stump Smash
Sonic Boom
Flameslinger

Lightcore - $11.99
Jet-Vac (Goes in and out of stock, keep checking)
Click to expand...

Is there a calender or something of future releases? Also agree, it would've been cooler if the Hex on the left lit up.
 
Hawk269 said:
Some DLC levels would be nice though. I know they don't plan on making adventure packs, but they should of thought to use DLC for more levels. I am glad that the old advneture packs work though and they are using the newer engine so they do look a bit better, but still would love some lengthy DLC for this game.
Click to expand...
I am very thankful they have not done anything digital for this series. I vastly prefer to have a quick turnaround on a stand-alone sequel then have some digital expansion pack that will disappear when the servers are turned off in the future.


hitmon said:
Is there a calender or something of future releases? Also agree, it would've been cooler if the Hex on the left lit up.
Click to expand...
There is currently no info on any future releases.
 
Diggeh said:
DarkSpyro has a very helpful list of current wave distributions and variants.

In a nutshell, the most popular Skylanders (Thumpback and Hot Dog) may not be out by Christmas. Or maybe TRU will send out another "We open at 8! Come get wave 3!" email. We'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...

Didn't want to double dip, but that Hex looks too cool. Might even triple dip for the lightcore Hex... I along with my budget hate me. Thumpback looks cool. Thanks for the link.

Can someone explain what a wow pow upgrade is/does?
 
Zulithe said:
hmm Gold Flameslinger (amazon variant)... hope that shows up soon

*edit*
most wave 2 linked above on amazon sold out.
Click to expand...

I was surprised how well the Series 2 figures are selling. People are willing to repurchase figures if you make cool new sculpts with mild stat benefits, a new attack, and the ability to change paths. I'm definitely in that camp. :D

Keep checking back for wave 2--Amazon restocks at random times.

Also, Gold Flameslinger has gone up on Amazon twice before for less than an hour each, the second time being a link from your cart to directly purchase it. I was able to get one, but it's supposed to be purchased in the Kindle Fire version of Cloud Patrol between now and 2013. (One per person)

The first wave of preorders was canceled but Amazon will supposedly be honoring the second wave. Expect crazy scalper variant prices until it becomes available.
 
Zing said:
One last comment: the framerate in the Wii version is as bad as reported. 15fps is being generous. It is 15fps about half the time. The other half, I would say it drops below 10. This is without anything even moving on the screen. It's just from the world geometry. I'm going to be very tempted to get the Wii U version if it manages to keep a constant 30+.
Click to expand...
Yep. Is this being talked about much? I mentioned it early on in the thread but I haven't been keeping up since everybody is just talking about toy collecting rather than the game itself. The framerate on the Wii is terrible. It's a great thing they let you skip cutscenes now because the introductory cinematics for levels where they pan around the level are an eyesore.

I've finished the game now and it did indeed seem much shorter and much more lazy. They mentioned on the Bombcast that this time the team handled the ports of all versions of the game (rather than working on the Wii version alone), so they might have been spread a little thin.
 
Krabboss said:
Yep. Is this being talked about much? I mentioned it early on in the thread but I haven't been keeping up since everybody is just talking about toy collecting rather than the game itself. The framerate on the Wii is terrible. It's a great thing they let you skip cutscenes now because the introductory cinematics for levels where they pan around the level are an eyesore.

I've finished the game now and it did indeed seem much shorter and much more lazy. They mentioned on the Bombcast that this time the team handled the ports of all versions of the game (rather than working on the Wii version alone), so they might have been spread a little thin.
Click to expand...

I've noticed framerate seems to be bad on the 3DS version. Don't know if anybody else has experienced the same. I've been playing without 3D.
 
We just completed chapter 5 and the game is still feels like a tutorial. The first game was in "full game" mode by chapter 3.

The elemental gates are very disappointing so far. Almost all of them are literally one room/island with a hat sitting out in the open. It is a vast difference from the first game's intricate elemental gates.

The level-up notification is virtually non-existant. I have only actually noticed it once and I've had a level-up at least six times so far.

The Giants render all bombs useless. You can just skip all bomb puzzles and blast through the blockade. This was a rather odd design decision given that every owner of the game has at least one giant.

Also, the Giants "feats of strength" are disappointing. It's just pressing the C button and waggling for a couple seconds. I thought it would actually be a mini-game of sorts.

The script is inferior to the first by a huge margin. The first game got you into the plot rather quickly, with Kaos making an constant, and humorous, appearance. The script felt like something out of Toy Story, which makes sense since it was written by some of the same folks. I'm not sure who wrote the script here, but it feels hurried and all of the humour is gone. The overall plot itself is moving at a snails pace, with Kaos only making a rather weak appearance.

It was odd to be forced to play through a "pirate game" level. I feel this is a good example of developer laziness or a shortage of development time. The pirate level should have been unlocked with the Pirate Seas expansion. Skystones could have been introduced there. I don't understand why they made it so prominent within the plot. All of the adventure packs could have been given a new level. Chapter 4 was basically "Pirate Seas", and Chapter 5 was "Empire of Ice". I'm fully expecting some sort of undead "Darklight Crypt" and "Dragon's Peak" type levels that should have been assigned to the expansion packs, but were shoehorned into the main game.
 
Zing said:
After one play session, I switched back to the original portal. The new portal is just so light and flimsy, it moves around and tips over just from swapping characters. I thought the cable version would be fine, since my portal sits on a small table with all the figures, and I just slide the table in front of the sofa when playing. This just makes it worse, since, although the cable is long enough, the weight of the cable alone can make the portal tip when there are no figures on top. I own Eneloops, so using batteries means nothing to me.
Click to expand...

Seriously?

I'm glad I didn't go for the pack with the portal now. I picked up a battery pack for mine and it works a charm.

Hawk269 said:
Drobot's lightcore version is not very good. At first I thought it was defective because you can barely see it light up. The giants all look good when they light up and so do some of the other lightcores, but drobot is a stinker.
Click to expand...

Definitely know what you mean, although I was disappointed that only one of Swarm's arms lit up. Prism Break's LightCore is by far my favourite thus far.
 
Katzii said:
Seriously?

I'm glad I didn't go for the pack with the portal now. I picked up a battery pack for mine and it works a charm.



Definitely know what you mean, although I was disappointed that only one of Swarm's arms lit up. Prism Break's LightCore is by far my favourite thus far.
Click to expand...

Only one of his arms light up.
 
darkjedi187 said:
I took ownership of all the original character in Giants and didn't get any new heroic challenges.
Click to expand...
That's expected.

Series 1 figures can only play series 1 challenges.
Series 2 figures can only play series 2 challenges.

Series 1 challenges are "bought" in-game.
Series 2 challenges are awarded when you own the series 2 figure.
 
Zing said:
That's expected.

Series 1 figures can only play series 1 challenges.
Series 2 figures can only play series 2 challenges.

Series 1 challenges are "bought" in-game.
Series 2 challenges are awarded when you own the series 2 figure.
Click to expand...

Well at least I can buy them. When do they become available.
 
Well I've finally caved, and have given into Skylanders Giants. I wasn't sure that I was going to, because when the original Skylanders came out, I was really into, and I liked the game and figures...but it got to a point where I needed money, and had to sell my game and all the figures. That shouldn't happen again, because things are better now, but I had to start over getting any of the Skylanders.

So I went to the gamestop, and spent about $120 trying to get at least one of every element. This is what I walked away with.

IMAG0279.jpg
Click to expand...

Just got home, so I haven't opened any of them. What do you guys thing, open the skylanders or keep em in the packaging? When I bought them for the original game, I kept them packaged because you could still play with them sealed. However that might be difficult with this triple pack I got here.

How is this game compared to the first by the way? Jeff from Giantbomb seemed real down on it, which is sad because he was so into the first one.
 
Louis0nFire said:
Only one of his arms light up.
Click to expand...

That's what I said. It was a disappointment because they made both of the clear material so it would have been nice if both did. At least with Crusher you know only three green parts are going to light up since the rest are painted.

Yuripaw said:
How is this game compared to the first by the way? Jeff from Giantbomb seemed real down on it, which is sad because he was so into the first one.
Click to expand...

The production values are a lot better, and the glitches a lot less (non-existent? I've not encountered any in the PS3 one), but I'm not quite sure I dig the story so much. There seem to be some really creepy NPCs (no spoilers) and some really inane writing which is blatantly aimed at kids (yes, I know this is viewed as a kids game, but I don't recall such instances in the first one). I'm still enjoying it though.

I think in terms of the second one, they know now that they're safe with the franchise and it perhaps has lost a little bit of the personality and charm that the first one had. For instance, when you shoot and it hits an NPC, they don't react. Characters only say their "catchphrase" when on the portal (including ones that didn't talk in the first game!), as opposed to a variety of things.

That being said, despite the "snowing" I seem to have on the 3DS version (is anyone else having this where there are white specks on the screen?), I'm enjoying it more than the first one, which I found quite enjoyable.
 
I'm planning to buy the game for the family this xmas and I'd like to grab a Skylander of each element so that the kids can complete the game.
We're getting the starter pack, so we'll have :
-Tree-Rex
-Cynder
-Jet-Vac

Which ones would you suggest for the remaining elemental types (including giants and lightcores) ?
 
Zakkath said:
I'm planning to buy the game for the family this xmas and I'd like to grab a Skylander of each element so that the kids can complete the game.
We're getting the starter pack, so we'll have :
-Tree-Rex
-Cynder
-Jet-Vac

Which ones would you suggest for the remaining elemental types (including giants and lightcores) ?
Click to expand...

Well if you look up at my previous post, you can see all the ones I got, and I have every element type. When I think about it, I didn't really need to get that triple pack, because I already had a Life type with the game, and Ignitor and Chill were sold separately. However there are a couple different directions you can go. If you want a different tech type besides Drobot (although I think Drobot is easily one of the coolest skylanders out there), there's Bouncer who's a giant tech type. There is also flameslinger out there for a different fire type. Flashwing I thought was the coolest rock type out right now, but you can also get a series 2 Bash, who does look a lot cooler than his series 1 version. It's all about personal preference really, which skylanders you think are the coolest.
 
Yuripaw said:
How is this game compared to the first by the way? Jeff from Giantbomb seemed real down on it, which is sad because he was so into the first one.
Click to expand...
It's very similar to the first, but overall a nice improvement.
- Levels are bigger and have more collectables (but there are fewer chapters).
- Arena battles
- Difficulty levels
- Characters and writing are more interesting.
- Skystones is a fun diversion
- Money is actually useful beyond upgrades
 
I have to strongly disagree with two points there. The levels feel smaller and are definitely less interesting. The elemental gate areas are epecially lame. The writing also feels much more tame and less coherent.
 
sn00zer said:
I dont get this....this game is like the worst possible situation in terms of DLC...and people are eating it up
Click to expand...

You're right, and I agree...but it's also still cool. I dunno, you're buying toys which have pretty cool designs. I think it'd be better if they were more than statues so kids could actually play with them.

Since I'm an adult and have no interest in playing with them, I still find them pretty cool. Each character is unique, and most have clever names. The part of putting them on the portal and playing them in the game is a novelty but isn't the only appeal of the different skylanders to me. It's about collecting, when I was a kid, I would buy and collect so many useless things, and this scratches that same type of itch. When I was in middle school, in my circle of friends it was star wars figures. Skylanders capitalizes on that same type of obsessive shopping/collecting habits, but at least puts it together with a pretty fun adventure game.

I think a part of it is you're getting something physical out of it. With on disc DLC (which this basically is), you're paying extra to get something on the disc..but you don't feel like you're getting anything new. With the Skylanders figures, the game is about switching the characters on the portal. You got the dude sitting on your shelf. You didn't pay $10 to have that on disc DLC, you paid $10 to have that dude on your shelf...and play him in the game.

I do think the video game part could be greatly expanded on...they should be working to make these games a more multiplayer experience. Whether it's online, or local only...I feel like this should be one of those 4 player dungeon crawlers, where you could go up to level 50 with each character, and work towards getting better loot. Because it's a "kids" game, they are really not realizing the potential of this thing. Keep it for kids...but kids aren't stupid. Look at Pokemon...kids can handle characters that go up to level 100 and can do more.
 
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