Skylanders Swap Force: Wash Buckler is one of the starting characters in the game – each has its own special skillset.
In the early 2000s, a hugely entertaining new game genre emerged. Taking elements of the platformer and the old arcade adventure, titles like Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter brought humour, imagination and structural innovation to the usually dire family gaming sector. And while the previous Skylander titles no doubt drew plenty of inspiration from these legendary releases (the series has its roots in the old Spyro the Dragon adventure platformers after all), it is Swap Force that really re-captures the magic.
Admittedly, the formula of the series has not exactly been revolutionised here. You still control a selection of bizarre fantasy superheroes, battling to save the floating Skylands from an evil portal master named Kaos. In the style of all great cartoon villains, he is an ineffectual bully surrounded by clottish henchmen, though this time around he has help from a new super enemy, hinted at in the final moments of Skylanders Giants. The story mode, then, is a parade of missions that build toward thwarting Kaos' latest plan – to find the ancient guardians of Skylands' magical powers and turn them evil, thereby ruling the kingdom.
The major new gameplay addition is the ability to jump, which sounds trivial, but instantly opens up a range of new level design challenges. Suddenly the world becomes more interactive, more multi-layered, more interesting to explore. Every location in Swap Force is richly painted and extravagantly structured, filled with hidden alcoves, branching lanes and secret pathways that lead over, under and beside the main routes. From Wild West-themed canyons to misty, glistening tundras, the surreal landscapes are loaded with treasure chests, smashable objects, and collectable items. And like the best 3D platformers – like Super Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure – these floating islands are structured so that the player can often glimpse coming hazards or concealed treats from much earlier in the level, building suspense and bringing a sense of depth and complexity to each realm.
The RPG elements of the game are back and similarly expanded. Each Skylander can be upgraded as the adventure goes on, adding greater force to their key combat moves, or enhancing defensive capabilities. The starter pack comes with two of the new Swap Force characters, which can be split in half and their parts exchanged, allowing players to experiment with new combinations.
Blast Zone is a hulking furnace knight who throws bombs and draws flaming lines in the sand, while Wash Buckler is a sort of pirate octopus, with a cutlass and a bubble gun. While weapons are governed by each figure's top half, specific motion skills are provided by their lower portions: some have jets, some are climbers, some can spin. Naturally, there are areas of each mission that can only be opened by Swap Force figures with these specific skills; add in the fact that there are also still elemental gates (only accessible to Skylanders with the correct element icon), and you'll be continually reminded about the figures that your collection lacks.
Go figure
This, of course, is the major criticism of the series, especially when you add in the Soul Gem collectables that provide you with little preview videos of forthcoming Swap Force figures. In an increasingly familiar post-modern twist, the game is effectively an interactive advert for itself. How much we should yield to this is a call every parent is going to have to make. If you want to get 100% completion in this game, you're going to have to buy more figures than the starter pack provides. But of course, the innate love of collecting is something toys have exploited for many years. Skylanders is no more cynical in its exploitation of this than trading cards or Lego City sets. The important thing is, with the starter pack's three figures (you also get a new standard Skylander, Ninja Stealth Elf), I saw all of the narrative content of the story mode; plus, my sons have been able to use their old figures to open up many of the other elemental gates. There's plenty of game here – and lots of replay potential – even if you don't have a vast collection of figures.
And while, by now, this game could easily have been a cynical exercise in brand reaffirmment, it is actually a carefully crafted adventure, filled with fun, and driven by a very decent script. One minute you may be plummeting down a mine track as it whirls through rocky island mountains, the next you are doing some first-person blasting on a bobsleigh run, or beating giant Fire Viper bosses by shooting sink plungers at their heads. What I love about this series is its kleptomaniac approach to childhood fascinations. Kids love cowboys, they love pirates, so what the heck, let's have a Western level where cowboy critters are being terrorised by sky pirates. Within the fantastical logic of the Skylanders universe, it all makes sense.
Amid the colour, the sound, the ridiculous fanfares every time a collectable object is discovered (a motivational trick developer Vicarious Visions has clearly learned from Peggle-creator, Popcap), the mechanical intricacies can get lost. For most players at the two lower skill settings, the differences in abilities between the characters will be of negligible importance – enemies go down pretty fast. Deciding on upgrade paths and kitting your characters out with different hats allows you to develop your own approach to play, but it isn't an intrinsic requirement of progress. I ended up maxing out Blast Force because I like his ranged combat approach, but then Wash Buckler comes into his own later in his upgrade tree when his squelchy forward roll 'octolash' move becomes weaponised with an ink spray.
All the time, the player also ranks up as a portal master, bringing an extra dimension to the process. It's hidden a little too well at first, but there is a decent action RPG in here, disguised as a kid-friendly platformer. And once the story mode is completed, the Nightmare mode opens up where, players really will need to master the different abilities of the Swap Force warriors.
We are the modes
Elsewhere, there is a range of Arena modes including Solo, Team and Rival Survival options, which are essentially kid-friendly takes on the familiar Horde mode from shooters like Gears of War. Participants must fight off infinite waves of enemy troops, either helping each other or competing for the best scores and items. There's also a Battle Arena, which offers straight-up combat action within trap-filled environments. All good fun, especially when your children have a few friends around, allowing you to arrange epic gladiatorial tournaments (it's fine, honestly – as long as you don't bet on them).
Swap Force is the best Skylanders game yet, and a good entry point for newcomers. There is enough entertainment in the basic package for most players, and more opens up with only a couple of extra purchases. There are plenty of game stores selling second-hand Skylanders now, as my own sons have discovered to my relief, so you don't have to play the collecting game by Activision's rules. The co-op capabilities of the game allow kids to play together, even if it's not quite as well implemented as the masterful Lego titles – the lack of split-screen means characters are tethered together causing some vicious arguments in our house. But then, we've also had days of enjoyment, fighting over characters, swapping bits, figuring stuff out, exploring together.
Outside of Nintendo (and Sega in its early 90s pomp), it has often been almost impossible to find children's games that aren't soulless movie tie-ins or half-witted edutainment bore-fests. Now we have Skylanders and Lego Marvel Superheroes – games of craft and guile that believe in themselves and their players.
• Click here to see the video trailer for Skylanders Swap Force
Source: Theguardian. comReadmore: Games News: Skylanders: Swap Force – review
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