Posted by Sir Four at 10:18am Jul 21 '13This is a really cool game, especially if you have kids.
For those who haven't heard of it, it's a fantasy adventure game where you control various creature characters, each with their own look, voice and powers. The main boss villains are giant robots. The cool thing, though, is that the characters are, physically, small figurine [private]s. You grab the figurine of the character you want to play in the game and place it on a "power portal" (a glowing base that attaches to your game console). When your character is placed onto the portal, he gets sucked into the game with a cool transition effect. Pick him up and he's sucked out of the game. You can swap characters at any time, with the new one replacing the old one right where you left off.
Of course, this is marketing genius. The game comes with three characters, but you can collect up to like 40 of them in total ($10-$15 each). We've currently got ten of them.
One interesting thing--and I don't understand how it works--is that your character's level-ups are stored on the figurine, meaning you can bring it to your friend's house and retain the upgrades. Some of the characters also light up when on the portal. You can also have multiple characters on the portal at the same time for battles. It's all magic to me.
The game itself is very well-crafted. I read that the team was given unusual creative freedom, and it shows. One aspect I especially love is the voice acting. My son likes playing games like Paper Mario, but there is so much text to read (and he can't read it), so a game that actually talks is fantastic for him.
Here's a clip of a boss battle against a trash-talking, singing robot. Seriously, games should incorporate song more often!
Skylanders Giants - Sir Four