Skylanders Giants Starter Kit

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List Price: $59.99
Sale Price: $39.99
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The new Skylanders Giants starter pack did not disappoint. We seriously considered getting a Portal Owner's Pack, since we did have the portal from the original Skylanders game, but the Starter pack comes with TWO new Skylanders characters in addition to the one Giant Skylander that comes with the Portal Owner's Pack. Given that the Starter Pack was only $15 more than the Portal Owner's Pack, and the price of individual figures has risen to $14.99, getting a spare portal AND another figure made getting the Starter Pack a bargain!

Oddly, the portal is wired. The original PS3 portal is wireless. I guess we can still play if we run out of AA batteries, so that's nice, but unless the original portal breaks, I can't see using the wired portal much.

The Giant included, Tree Rex, is a lightcore figure. This means that when you put him on the portal, portions of the character light up. In this case, his eyes, and his Chlorophyll cannon. We haven't gotten any of the other Giant Skylanders yet, but so far, we REALLY like the new direction. Gameplay provides ways of getting through each adventure with or without a Giant in play. You can use your old Skylanders characters, and they can now level up past level 10, but you won't get credit for any of the series one characters in the collections awards/accolades, unless they are brand new. We had a fair number of series 1 characters, but the only one that registers as a collected character is the new Drill Sergeant Wal-Mart exclusive I had recently obtained (before the price increase) and had not played in the old game. He does register as a series one Skylander though.

Don't get me wrong, all the old characters bring all their old levels and powers in, and that can be a big help in playing (especially if you had a lot of gold built up), but they don't appear in the collections, if you switch hats, the old hats are no longer available (unless you go back to the original game), and a significant number of the accolades are related to buying new characters. Brilliant marketing device, but a touch annoying to parents.

One new portion of the game that I quite like is the addition of the Skystones games. In game, in addition to the rotating lock puzzles, there is now a strategic game involving tiles you accumulate as you play the game. The games against in-game characters gets harder over time, and in some cases you need to choose your tiles, as well as their placement, wisely in order to win. I like that the game is encouraging more thinking of children. Kudos for that!

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I bought the starter pack instead of the portal pack, because the kids didn't have cynder and jet-vac. So the portal was free when you add all the pieces together and I wanted a backup portal anyway. The new portal is USB powered only, the previous one was battery and wifi, which is better. No more battery or connection problem when the battery is low. The game graphic looks the same as spyro adventure, pretty rough. I was hoping for a higher resolution for the game. So minus one star.

The Giants eyes and other parts lights when placed on the portal. As for the gameplay, I can't say much, but the kids love it... for now... I remember when I bought them the spyro adventure last thanksgiving, they played on the weekend for about couple of weeks and then it sat there collecting dust till the Giants came along. Almost a year! What I am saying is that you don't have to buy all the skylanders giants or the skyalanders, watch and see if they really like it or not.

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My just got this for his birthday and he loves it. The coolest feature I think is that the individual figurines get there levels, gold, and weapons "transferred" to the figurine and you can play your character on other people's systems whether it be PS3, Wii, XBox, etc. Know that you only need one portal as this is only a one or two person game and multiple Skylanders can go on one portal. You should also look into Sidekicks and add on "weapons" as they are fun additions.

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One of the things I hated most about the original was that the Portal was wireless and took batteries. This one is USB powered. We would run into problems with the wireless one with the original because they would need changed in the middle of the game and lock the game up and cause us to lose our progress even after we changed the batteries. The design of all the characters in this version of the game look better than the originals. The Giants are huge and the one that came with this lights up when you put them on the portal. Very nicely done I think. The down fall is that Activision Inc. is charging more for all the new series 2 figures. The series 2 figures seem to go up to 150 max stats instead of 100 max stats. My kids all loved playing this game.

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We bought this game for our four year old this past Christmas. She is pretty technologically-advanced for her age, but had not mastered the Playstation controller yet. Thanks to this game and her extremely patient father, she can now enjoy videogames just like him. It is a huge hit, and only three months later, she is able to turn on the console, load the game, and play at least three levels with no help at all. It is a great bonding experience for her and her dad. They have a blast upgrading the characters and picking new ones to try out. We now have a respectable collection, and buying new characters is an easy gift opportunity or reward. It can be a bit of an investment in the long run, but worth it for what she's gaining. It is also encouraging her to read so that she can tell what she needs to do.

I highly recommend this game. It is a great concept for a game, the gameplay is challenging but not so much so that it gets discouraging and the characters are hilarious. I highly doubt you will regret getting this game!