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Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack – Nintendo Wii
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Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack – Nintendo Wii
- Starter Pack includes: 1-Video Game, 1-Portal of Power, 3-Skylanders Figures, 1-Character Collector Poster, 3-Sticker Sheets with Secret Codes and 3-Trading Cards
- Warning: Choking Hazard – Small parts. Not for children low 3 yrs.
Embark on an elating newborn undertaking with the Skylanders and the SWAP Force. For generations, the SWAP Force fortified the cleft that replenishes Skylands’ magic. That is until an poem effort caught them in an activity that blamed them apart, dispatched them to Earth and gave them the knowledge switch powers. Only you can mix and correct their tops and bottoms, place them on the newborn Portal of Power and support spend Skylands.
List Price: $ 74.99
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Bmommy
March 23, 2014 at 9:46 pm
Tons of bang for your buck: months of play on console, plus ONLINE games, APPS, and more!,
We got a full year of play out of each of the previous Skylanders games, which is great compared to other games where we can zip through it in one or two months max. We are Skylanders veterans in our family, but you don’t need to have played any other Skylanders games to jump in and enjoy the heck out of this newest offering from Activision, Skylanders Swap Force. It’s called “Swap Force” because the “swappers” (not all characters are swappable, as there are regular characters and lightcore character that light up on the portal and in the game). But the “swappers” are characters where the top and bottom are connected by magnets, giving you the ability to make new combinations by taking any top and putting it on any bottom, for a new character! This aspect is SUPER-thrilling to the kids, and they have been counting down the days since last year when it was announced.
The game itself, if you have not played it, involves chapters (levels) which are in different areas of Skylands, a magical realm full of exciting characters, presents, magical keys, hats that give your character special abilities, amusing but tough enemies and bosses, puzzles and mini-games along the way, secret areas and beautiful scenery. In Swap Force, which is the third in the series of Skylanders games (Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure was the first, and then Skylanders Giants was the second), the Swap Force characters were tasked with protecting the magic in Skylands. Well, technically they protected the volcano that supplies the magic in Skylands, but one day a huge eruption from the volcano blasted them into two pieces! Now, as in all Skylanders games, you get to be the “Portal Master” and choose which Skylanders to put on the magical portal (that comes with the game and plugs into your game console) to save Skylands.
There are 16 swappers, giving you a total of 256 different combinations. But, at about 15 bucks each, you don’t have to worry about getting all 16. The starter kit comes with two swappers, Blast Zone and Wash Buckler (plus a new version of the character Stealth Elf, which is way cool too). We decided to buy only two more swappers, at least for now, and that gives us 4 swappers with a total of 16 combos. You can ignore the marketing and, well, call me frugal, but after going through two previous years of spending a small fortune trying to collect all of the Skylanders, we made a budget and decided we would get the starter kit and two additional swappers, plus one light core character. Everything else they want can go on Christmas wish lists. It is somewhat of a parental mini-game to track down highly sought-after and rare characters that are released in very limited edition, and even in limited stores (the big stores that carry the Skylanders characters have their own “exclusive” characters that are only available in their particular stores).
One thing that is really important to know for choosing which additional characters to get is that there are eight different “elements” in Skylands. An element is basically the area of specialty for that particular character, or for that particular geographical area of Skylands. The elements are: Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Air, Tech, Magic, and Undead. If you have a character for each of the 8 elements, then you can access special sections within the game that need that elemental character to enter.
A HUGE bonus to the Skylander line of games is that you can use any of your characters from the two previous Skylanders games and play them in the current Skylanders game, Swap Force. So if you’ve played Spyro’s Adventure or Giants, hang onto those characters because you can use them in this one, which helps with having the different elemental characters to access the special sections in the game.
Portal of Power? It’s a round pedestal connected by USB to your console. It lights up and looks really cool, and you can put your Skylanders on it to send them into Skylands to play. (ahem, I mean, to SAVE SKYLANDS!!) You can put up to 3 items (2 characters and a magical item) on the portal at a time, and it’s a lot of fun to watch them join the game, with their own amusing catchphrases. The Stink Bomb swapper says, “Clear the Air!” The swapper Grilla Drilla says, “If there’s a drill, there’s a way!”
We love to play it in two-player mode, it’s cooperative play, and a lot of fun. Adults and kids alike in our family enjoy it.
Difficulty setting: You can choose between Easy, Medium, Hard, and Nightmare levels of difficulty, which makes it adaptable to all ages. My youngest likes to go all the way through on Easy, then try the other difficulty levels for sections of the game. The Hard and Nightmare levels make it fun for the older kids and adults.
Experience: I can’t believe I didn’t mention this earlier, but one of the biggest perks…
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|Fun Times Mom "Hayley"
March 23, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Swap Force Is Tons Of Fun!! Welcome both “New” and “Old” fans alike!!!,
Swap Force is quite refreshing!!!! It has just enough “old” to make it familiar and lots of new to make it exciting again! It doesn’t matter if you are new to the franchise or an old fan, a young child or a parent playing along, you will enjoy SWAP FORCE!! I LOVE THE WAY THEY HAVE THEIR CAMERAS ANGLED FOR BATTLES, ESPECIALLY IN 2 PLAYER STORY MODE(THIS GAME IS A MAX OF 2 PLAYERS). You can see the “big” picture (it’s not a split screen view) and so you don’t hurt your partners in battle because you can see where they are.. Divide and Conquer!;)
OLD vs NEW:
The graphics are more colorful and some of the characters do have a little bit of a “cartoonish” appearance and the lip syncing to words is off(not a deal breaker, read the words you won’t notice). For instance, the Chompies are back but their eyes are longer which makes them a little more silly looking. Don’t let that deceive you into thinking that this game is a breeze. It has the ability to adjust the level of difficulty like it did in GIANTS. From Easy, to Nightmare Mode it has something to offer everyone. It still has hats, treasure chests, puzzles, Kaos and Glumshanks, Flynn, ability to buy upgrades, quests, battles, two players in story mode, and the same camera angles to attack from. You can use ALL of your older Skylander figures and in fact, if you are new to the franchise, make sure to buy a Giant if you enjoy being able to complete everything. I am early into the game and the first and second levels have an area where you need a giant to unlock a treasure chest worth coins. So it is not mandatory to have a giant, but don’t put them away if you already have them. The narrator reads the words on the screen, so a younger child could play it alone or you can play with the sound down.
WHAT’S NEW?
Ability to Swap the top/bottom half of the figures among the “swap-able” figures. The swap-able figures are well made with 2 little strong magnets that hold them together. Easy to swap, but don’t fall apart in storage. It’s the perfect balance of strength and function. The actual size of the swap-able figures is about the size of some of the Giants(Eye-Brawl), but in game they are not giant. All figures can jump now, even the older ones! This gives it a totally different feel. Now you can jump over enemies that are charging to attack you and get them from behind. There are tree slides that are a lot of fun to zip along and the movable stones have faces and groan when you jump on them..LOL The main community you are saving are fox people now and Flynn’s ship has wrecked near their home so the basic home base is different.
HOW MANY ARE OUT AND WHAT DO YOU NEED?
There are 16 of the swap-able figures available(eventually), two within each of the 8 elements and two each within the eight that have different abilities. The abilities are listed within the gold symbols at the base of the characters. These include; Bounce, Climb, Dig, Rocket, Sneak, Speed, Spin, and Teleport. There are two different types of ways the Swap-able figures complete the game. There are gates that require two elements to unlock so you would need a water top half with a fire bottom half to open it, for example or in two player mode you would just need both elements. Then there are specific ability challenges for each of the eight abilities that only the swap-able figures can do. The nice thing about this game is when you buy an upgrade, each half is bought separately. It’s like there are two “brains” in each swap-able figure. So,when you mix the legs of one figure with another all the upgrades bought for those legs go with it to the next creation. It is the same for the top halves too. The Starter pack comes with Wash Buckler(Water Element, Climb Ability) and Blast Zone(Fire Element, Rocket Ability) that are swap-able and Ninja Stealth Elf(Life Element, Series 3). There are 19 reposes from either of the older versions of the franchise to buy and 21 new characters, but five of the 21 are duplicated in a Lightcore version too. The minimum requirement to complete the game would be the other 5 elements (new or old) and a Giant. That is.. unless you feel the need to include the SWAP FORCE ONLY CHALLENGES which would mean the other SIX ABILITIES(BOUNCE, DIG, SPEED, SNEAK, SPIN, AND TELEPORT)OF THE SWAP FORCE CHARACTERS A FIGURE WITH AT LEAST ONE OF EACH OF THE EIGHT ELEMENTS (ROCK, ETC)AND A GIANT. THEIR ABILITIES ARE THE GOLD SYMBOLS ON THEIR BASES AND ARE UNRELATED TO THEIR ELEMENT! ROCKET AND CLIMB ABILITIES CAME WITH ALL STARTER PACKS(EXCEPT NINTENDO 3DS) WITH BLAST ZONE AND WASH BUCKLER. Don’t write off some of the new characters. I am really impressed with the battle action and creativity of the newer figures that aren’t swap-able. Don’t forget your friends can come over with their characters and unlock a challenge for you or you can try before you buy in a sense. If you purchase all 16 of the Swap-able figures there are over 250 “new”…
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|D. Hardaway "dhardawa"
March 23, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Swap Force is a hit,
Pros
1. The game comes with two swappable characters. I figured when I got the starter kit, I’d immediately have to go spend another $15 on another swappable character since that’s the fun of the game, but nope, it comes with Wash Buckler and Blast Zone, both of which are swappable.
2. The game is long (at least for a 6 year old) which means he feels like he can keep playing and playing. Also, as we add new characters, it’s kind of like a new game for him. He may go a few weeks and not play a lot (based on our experience with Giants), but as soon as a new character is added to the collection, there is a renewed interest.
3. The old characters work with the new game. This is big for us because we have so many Giants characters. At least I don’t feel like I’m starting over completely.
4. The swappable characters are pretty fun. There will eventually be 16 swappable ones and swapping allows the player to merge abilities and elements. I also like how they use magnets to hold them together so there are no pieces to break off.
5. The characters are pretty durable. In the past year, we’ve only had one character lose his head! Haha! A little super glue and he was as good as new and, I’ll admit, my kids aren’t easy on them. We also have the Disney Infinity game and the characters with that one are much less durable due to the design of them (ex. lots of long skinny pieces that easily snap off).
Cons
1. It’s a money pit. I found this out with the Giants game. You pay $75 for the starter kit and then are constantly buying characters. There’s a marketing genius behind this somewhere! Usually, you spend $30-$50 for a game and you’re done. Not here!
2. I really hate that they duplicate the characters in lightcore and non-lightcore versions. I didn’t realize this when we started buying the Giants and bought ones that we later re-bought in the lightcore variation. I won’t make that mistake again. How hard would it be to create another character instead?
3. This game has many new characters, but again, there are a lot of recycled ones too. I’m sure it’s cheaper to modify old characters than to create new ones, but for the price, I’d like to see all new ones.
Overall, it is a game I would recommend to parents. Yeah, it’s a money pit, but my son has been regularly playing the Giants game for about a year now. There aren’t many games that get that much regular play. Plus, you don’t need every character to play the game. It’s my own fault for buying as many as we have.
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