Did the promoters of Skylanders ever hit their target demographic when they approached me with an offer to send me a free Spyro Skylanders review copy. I have a 7 year old son who loves these types of games and who loves action figures as well. The integration of the game and the external game pieces plus the addition of internet play makes for a perfect combination for my son. Skylanders does deliver when they say they let kids “Bring their toys to life”.  (I‘m giving away a copy, too. Keep reading. If you don’t want to read a review and want to buy Skylanders accessories, Amazon has a great selection of figurines and Skylanders carrying cases: Skylanders accessories)

 

I can see why this is considered one of the hottest toys for Christmas 2011!

Leading up to receiving our review copy:

I wrote a pre-review of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure by Activision when I was asked to do the review. My son was ecstatic. He asked me, daily, if it had arrived. He spent time on the Skylanders game website almost daily as well. I almost wished I hadn’t told him as he was driving me a bit batty He was very anxious to act out his duties as Jr. Video game Reviewer.

Initial Skylanders Feedback:

The day it arrived was like Christmas morning for him.  The Starter Kit includes the portal of power and three Skylanders. It hooks up wirelessly to your game system and by putting the action figure on the portal, you add that action figure into play in your game. You can switch characters by moving your Skylander off the portal and putting another character on. Your  action figure has a chip that retains info about your game play.

Between visiting the website daily, seeing the commercials on tv, and then seeing display in our local Gamespot ,  Wee boy  was tickled pink the day it arrived. He commandeered the TV from his Dad (if Dad had resisted, I’m sure there would have been a mutiny!)

Mom’s First Impressions of Skylanders:

• It was easy to assemble with step by step instructions. There was a great deal of excitement when things got started as the portal illuminates in multiple colours.

• Accessories are good quality. The action figures are sturdy with good detail.

• Great graphics in the game! And the Portal of Power is tres cool It lights up and colours transition.

• Tonnes of excitement from my 7 year old and momentarily, even for my 15 year old (who’s usually more interested in COD  or Left for Dead type games)

• Great interaction  to let you know what’s happening in the game and to make recommendations for how to progress, including telling you about other potential characters that could help you by suggesting their category (such as a water Skylander or a tech Skylander)  Quick reactions when you change characters (up to two figures can be on the portal of the power at the same time).

• Great sound! the character, Flynn, is the voice of Patrick Warburton. (AKA: David Putty. What a great voice!)

• Good inserts, such as character cards, and a poster with all available characters

My son loves the game and was immediately anxious to buy some Skylanders accessories. I wanted him to play for a bit with the starter kit alone. I saw accessories in our local Game Stop and figurines were $7.99 and some other accessories (such as the ship and a few other pieces) came in sets for $20.00. After a week or so with the game, we invested in Chop Chop. My son wants the pirate ship set next.

I think it’s great for problem solving development and almost 2 weeks later and he’s still interested. I’ve often spent $50-60 on a game and seen him bored within a week. This starter kit is $69.99 at most retail stores.

A 7-Year Old’s Gamer’s Opinion on Skylanders:

The Skylanders Starter Kit Includes the following characters (in brackets is what my son said about them:)

• Spryo – The Dragon. (My son said ” He’s purple, he’s magical, he’s  awesome.”)
• Trigger Happy (Trigger Happy is funny. He’s got a great laugh.)
• Gil Grunt  ( He’s awesome and can do a spin attack.)

 

He says he loves the medieval look of everything. The portal of power is a great invention and has a great design. He also said,

The Best Game I Ever Had.

He really likes that different Skylander figures can be on different levels simultaneously and because he is an imaginative kid who likes to think of his toys as real, he likes the idea that they have ‘brains’ (aka their memory chip)

He did get temporarily frustrated, thinking he needed figures that weren’t included with the starter kit but quickly realised that he could build up strengths in different areas to overcome roadblocks with the existing figures. I’ve often seen him get frustrated with games quickly when he can’t beat a level but I think the multiple characters and great guidance throughout the game makes a difference in keeping him interested as he doesn’t seem to get deadlocked like he does with many other games.

Play Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure Online

Another plus for my son was the ability to play online. When he didn’t have access to the Playstation he could log on to the website. He was able to input codes from his action figures into the game so that his characters had the same strengths. (We tried to get the portal to work as it appeared we could use the portal in conjunction with the website but had problems so manually entered their codes. We’ll probably re-visit this later to see what the problem was.)

All in all, I recommend this and my Jr. Videogame Reviewer (aka: young portal master)  loved the game and the idea of being able to review a new product. (He’s open to additional review offers and invitations!)

Between the fact that there is an interactive element, encouraging and empowering direction  narration throughout the game, great age-appropriate content for 6-10 year olds, and the ability to add onto the game, it’s a good buy. If your child takes his Skylanders action figures to someone else’s house, the chip in the game characters retain your character’s specific attributes. A great thing is that this is platform independent. This means that if my son goes to a friends’ house where they have Skylanders on a Wii, my son’s characters will still work and have their levels in tact despite the fact that he earned those levels on a PS3.

Mom’s review grade: A+

Jr. Video Game Reviewer  Aka Young Portal Master’s grade: A+++

 

Good News! Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure Starter Kit Giveaway:

In addition to giving me a review copy of Skylanders, I’ve been invited to give a free copy to a reader.

How to win:

One random winner will be chosen at  5: pm EST Thursday, Nov 17 2011. Winners need to be in Canada or the USA. If you’re chosen,I’ll be sending you an email and cc’ing the company who will find out whether you’d like it for the Xbox, the Wii, or PS3 (you need to have one of these systems of your own of course) and will arrange to ship it directly to you.

To qualify, please:
- Link to this post from your Twitter account, mentioning the review
- Put a comment here and be sure to include your email address and link to your Twitter name so we can validate your ballot.

Please cc: me on your Twitter post ( @danaprince)

The winner will be hearing from me on Thursday evening or early Friday after the contest so be sure to check here for announcements and if you win, check your spam folder if you haven’t heard from me by mid-day friday).