When Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was first released nearly two years ago, it became a mega hit with both gamers and children alike. It wasn’t uncommon for games to get toy lines to tie in with the latest releases, but making the toys essential to playing the game was the key to a new cash cow. A year later, Skylanders: Giants added new characters, including the huge Skylanders that the game was named for. But from a game play perspective, it took the safe route, with game play and level design that felt like a copy/paste from the original. I was expecting much of the same when I got to check out Swap Force, the upcoming third Skylanders sequel that promises to add characters with swappable parts. But once I was able to see the game in action, there are a lot of big changes coming to Skylands, which left me pleasantly surprised!
In Skylanders: Swap Force, portal masters are called upon to summon Spyro and friends once again to prevent the evil master, Kaos, from corrupting a volcano with magical powers. This time around, Vicarious Visions, developers of the 3DS versions of Skylanders, have been given lead development duties in the console department. As you would guess from the title, the main feature of Swap Force is the ability to swap parts between the newest set of characters, changing their attacks and elemental properties in the process. The new guys include Night Shift, an undead boxer, Free Ranger, a storm powered chicken and Stink Bomb, a ninja skunk. Swapping their top and bottom halves create new versions of these newcomers to play with, like Free Bomb or Night Ranger. Each half stores data separately, so the upgrades made to each half will be carried over if you mix and match parts with your friends. In addition, swapping is necessary to open new elemental doors that require two elements to open. If you don’t want to buy the new swappable characters, fear not! Playing two players and using one of each element will open the doors just as well.
What you DO need the new characters for however, are the recently added Swap Force Zones. Each bottom half is associated with a type of movement, ranging from climbing, teleport and rocket zones for example. Opening these doors triggers mini games that are unique to each type, which rewards players with bonuses for completing them. Speaking of rewards, in addition to the hidden treasures and hats from the previous games, new map pieces can be discovered, unlocking bonus areas in the process. It was confirmed that these maps will replace the level based figurines, so gone are the days where you would have to spend close to $30 on sets in order to play a half hour stage.
These are just one of the many positives that Swap Force promises to bring. Running on an all new engine, the game is a huge upgrade visually. The addition of jumping means more platforming elements rather than the previous games that were essentially dungeon crawlers, while combat seems to have more depth with the ability to mix and match attacks. I was largely impressed, but my only concern is how the 3DS version will be affected. With a new developer taking over the handheld version, (which I felt was the superior version of the previous games,) what changes if any would be made for portable Portal Masters? Unfortunately, the 3DS version wasn’t included in my demo, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
All of the previous figures, including the giants, are backwards compatible in addition to 16 Swap Force and 16 new standard Skylanders. Old favorites like Stealth Elf will be getting new redesigns, but aside from the Swap Force zones, the entire game can be played with your old favorites if you’re low on cash. With all the new figures coming our way, it looks like we’ll need lots of it!
Skylanders: Swap Force is scheduled for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One this fall.