You made some good points GM, but some things about Skylanders bugs me, and makes me worry about the upcoming competition from Disney Infinity.
*Activision - Again, I know I harped on this in my "thoughts" on Spyro's Adventure, but Activision can and probably will run this into the ground without any redeeming qualities. One of the most concerning things I noticed about Spyro's Adventure was when I booted the game up, there was no update to download. I play on Xbox 360, and 99.9% of the games I play, even on launch day, have some sort of update to fix glitches caught at the very end of development, or in this game's case, it's been out a year now, to fix glitches.
To add to that point, I cannot 100% the game now because I encountered the Lightning Rod Heroic Challenge glitch where it doesn't provide you a way to finish the challenge, unless you're content with starting up a new game, which I am not, I have already gotten 90% of the game done, I am not starting a new save file for an error Activision has the power to fix, it's ridiculous, and shows once a product is out the gate, Activision doesn't care for it, and that spells doom for a franchise.
*Disney's name. That's the best thing Disney has going for it, it's name. Sure, the characters they selected for initial launch are not the best, but I'm sure they want to see how well it's received and if it is, they'll start releasing more popular characters in their franchise.
Throughout my playthrough of SA, I kept wondering why it was called Spyro's Adventure, the game has nothing to do with Spyro the Dragon, it doesn't mention him, he's just a brand they used to try and sell the product. To me, that feels cheap and a cop out, they wanted to associate a dying brand to try and give the product some familiarity, and now that it has it, Spyro is just "another character". I just don't like the way it's handled.
TLDR: I love Skylanders, but I hate Activision, and I have a feeling they will find a way to succomb Disney Infinity based on their history of ruining franchises and Disney's recognition.
But there is one thing that comes from the Disney name, when paired with videogames. Sucky games. I haven't seen Disney Interactive make one good game. If they published Epic Mickey, fine, I will give them 2 games. However, for the most part, they haven't made or published anything good.
I don't know about a couple of your suggestions GameMaster.
For one I don't mind the fact they don't have adventure packs this time around as those where some of the most annoying parts to get the first time around.
And I'm also glad they only had 16 new skylanders. With the price hike any more would simply be too expensive. Plus the added frustration on trying to find an entire 8 more would drive me insane.
If anything they need to fix distribution especially to other countries. It was nice with wave 1 when it had a set date but not knowing when you're going to get future waves just makes finding them a huge pain in the rear.
I just barely was able to find the new characters from wave 2 before Christmas because of how scarce they where in Canada. And even with wave 3 we still haven't gotten Hot dog at all yet.
The scary thing is I'm not even working full time and I was LUCKY to get them when I did which wouldn't be possible if I was working more.
There are some that may hate having to track down Adventure Packs, but some who wouldn't mind extending the life of each Skylander game, by at least giving the customer a new level bi-monthly, to make the wait for game 3 and the prospect of buying new waves of figures, an easier pill to swallow.
However, getting figures for Giants has been far easier than it was for Spyro's Adventure. Sure, I worry sometimes, but it's always put to bed, when I go to two stores, and see this -
Gamestop -
Walmart -
And this is coming from a heavily scalped city. These pics were taken days after those stores got those in. I went back days later, and they were still there. Again, in a heavily scalped city.
So, that's why I am not worried anymore, because it seems TFB is making good on their word to keep stock flowing. This time last year, you couldn't find jack. Now, this year, I am finding the newest stuff at most of my local stores and it's keeping scalpers hesitating if it's even worth hoarding.
But here's is how my playtime went with both Skylander games, which show why Adventure Packs are needed -
October 2011: Beat Spyro's Adventure in a week.
November 2011-April 2012: Buy new characters, register them on the games, press A and B to see their two moves, put the figures on a shelf to collect dust.
The only time I booted up Spyro's Adventure, was in January of 2012 to play Empire of Ice, which came out that month, and on March 21st, 2012, to play Dragon's Peak, when it came out.
Now then -
Mid April 2012-October 20th, 2012: Didn't ever touch Spyro's Adventure anymore. Figures just collect dust.
So, for what would normally (to people who don't have 3 of everything) be a 349 dollar investment -
8 Triple Packs at 22 dollars a piece (after tax)
4 Adventure Packs at 22 dollars a piece (after tax)
1 Single Pack Wham Shell at 10 dollars (after tax)
1 Starter Pack at 75 dollars (after tax)
Is an investment that many will put down after beating the final Adventure Pack.
But, back to how Giants is working for me so far.
October 21st 2012: Get Giants, beat it in 2 days.
October 23rd 2012-Last remaining figure release: Register new characters, press A and B to see their moves, put them on a shelf and take pictures of them.
Notice how I wouldn't be turning the game on again, to play it because of a new level? There is no new level, so why turn the game on and level my characters, when the game has been beaten?
This brings me to what someone mentioned about PVP not being tournament capable. This game, has way more depth than Smash Brothers, in my opinion, and people use it for tournament play. I have had a match I played against someone in Skylanders last nearly 20 minutes to decide a winner. Why? Because, it was two adults who injected strategy into the game, whereas kids can keep mashing buttons. It has that level of depth, where one can button mash like some do when playing as Batman in the Arkham games, or one can master the fighting system and make it look less like a button masher.
Boojoh mentioned 60-75 for a new game, plus 240 for characters, and 120 for Adventure Packs. That's 435, right? That's 86 dollars more than what getting all 32 Skylanders would cost for the first game.
My ideas to keep it around 435 would be this -
- NIX this Series 2, 3, 4, 1,000,000 stuff and give the customers unique Skylanders per game
- 6 Adventure Packs as previously stated
- Online
- A max of 24 Skylanders per game.
So, it would actually break down like this -
Starter: 75 (after tax)
18 Skylander Single Packs at 11 dollars a piece (after tax): 198
6 Adventure Packs at 27 dollars a piece (after tax): 162
However, what if we could drop the price just a tad, with just a little patience? How so?
Starter: 75 (after tax)
6 Triple Packs (18 of 24 Skylanders) at 27 a piece (after tax): 162
6 Adventure Packs (6 remaining Skylanders) at 27 a piece (after tax): 162
That totals up to what? 399 dollars, a mere 50 dollars more AND it's under 400 bucks. This would be to those who want to keep each game under 400 bucks, while some who don't mind spending over 400, could just get any new figures as they come, and go over 400. It's a win/win for ALL parties who don't mind investing in Skylanders.
I for one, am getting kind of frustrated at the fact I am spending hundreds on a game that didn't last me over 5 months for the first game, and 2 days on the second game.
I don't hate the series by a longshot, but it could do more for customers like me. Knowing I could boot up each new game for at least 1 hour every other month until a new game comes out, through new Adventure Packs, is way better than not booting it up at all.
