17 replies to this topic

[SoulBlazer]

Activision is trying something different to apeal to young kids: they licenced the character Spyro the dragon (from some PS games) and are bundling action figures with the game --

http://games.yahoo.c...-194524523.html

Interested idea in theory, unsuure how well it will work in pratice.

[Rex Dart]

Monster in My Pocket came with a Monster in My Pocket

[Spoon]

Hmmm...it's an interesting idea, although not one I'd expect to light the world on fire. Then again, I don't know how beloved the Spyro franchise is. I think if they tried this concept with a more established toy like My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, Transformers, or even Star Wars then I would bet on it being a bigger deal.

The way I look at it, I'm not interested in paying $2.50 - $5.00 for some DLC character pack. But if I could buy some cool G.I. Joes or He-Man figures for $8/pop AND use them in a video game, I could easily see myself investing in some figures after forking over $70 for the game.

[Shawn Sr.]

This isn't really new. There have been figures bundled with games for a long time. I really like the idea too cause normally
if I like a game alot I would buy a figure(s) of the main character(s) anyhow.

[moycon]

I saw a display for this last week at a Target and didn't pay too much attention. After seeing this thread and seeing another display this time at Wal-Mart, I decided to check it out closer. First of all, these are not action figures. Unlike say a newer GIJOE figure, these have zero articulation. They are what looks to be a molded PVC figure sitting on a base. Not sure how much action anyone could get out of the figure unless maybe they threw it through a window. So you place the figures on an included pedestal and it appears that it wirelessly reads data off the base of the figure and allows that character to be the character in the game as well as saves the progress for that character.

This isn't a bad concept I guess. Similar ones have been tried in the past. Eye of Judgement included cards that when shown to the PSEye would cause the character on the card to appear in the game. It was pretty hit and miss though as the conditions had to be just perfect to get it to work right. More often it was just frustrating. This is probably a more stable way of doing it for sure, but where as Eye of Judgement had 100's of cool cards you could summon, this comes with 3 and others are $8 a piece. Granted the style of game play is way different between these two games, I would think the only draw to something like this was the ability to summon a character and use them in the game, Having a few PVC figures you plop down on a pedestal to begin a video game just doesn't sound terribly interesting. I dunno. Time will tell I guess.

[Animan]

At first, I thought this was just a silly gimmick. I mean, if all the characters are programmed in the game, why do I need to pay $8 each for a piece of plastic so I can use the character?

Then I read further, and saw that it kept records of what the characters have done in the past, and that got me interested.

It sorta reminds me of the controller pak for the N64 and it's original intention: It was like a "profile" for each player. Your controller configuration, records, etc. could be saved onto it, and you'd bring it to a friends house and use it without having to adjust the controls or level up your character all over again.

Also judging from the news article, it seems a lot of care was put into the game so it won't just be gimmick-driven, and actually be a good game.

[moycon]

Animan, on Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:35 PM, said:

It was like a "profile" for each player.

Yep that's what I take from it. In some games you choose a character from a menu by pressing a button, it picks that character and all your previous data is loaded from a game save on the machine itself, in this case you physically place a PVC statue on a pedestal to choose that character and the game save is on the base of the PVC figure and it loads it from there. I dunno if that's all that interesting, but that does appear to be how it works.

One "downside" to this game I've seen mentioned and I'm sure others are going to bring it up as another example of a game company unleashing an incomplete game on gamers. Is that you're paying $70 for a game, but the only way you can experience the whole game is to invest in more little PVC figures at $8 a pop. You can beat the main quest with any one of the figures, but to get to every area in the game you'll need to play with every element type of which there are 8 total. You get 3 figures, and I'm assuming the are 3 different element types, so to get to all area's you would need to invest in 5 more figures or about another $40. I put the "downside" in quotes because in my opinion if you really are into the game and figures, it could be fun collecting them and wouldn't cost you any more than say a person who collects Gatcha balls, or Bakugan's or anything else. My understanding is there are over 30 actual figures. The success of this game will probably be determined by how people take to collecting the little Spyro statues and investing more money in the game, not just in how many initial units are sold.

Anyways, the reviews on Amazon for the most part so far seem very positive. There was a bitter consumer that posted a neg review on the PS3 version, however the majority of them seem decent.

[Video]

I saw that thing at walmart. What? No Spyro character? F(boop) that.

Anyhow, it strikes me as a variation of he Hyperscan from a few years back. Which struck me as a variation of the er...forget what they called it, the voice play back thing for certain starwars toys (put the toy close to the scanner and the scanner would talk in the appropriate characters voice) And that kind of reminded me of the old scanner toys that would scan barcodes from whatever to build characters.

They are all just evolutions of each other. The thing that I want to know, will this device be compatible with future games? I mean, it's gotta be basically just an RFID type reader, so I see no real reason why not. I guess we'll just have to see how well it sells and see later.

[moycon]

Video, on Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:49 PM, said:

I saw that thing at walmart. What? No Spyro character? F(boop) that.

Spyro is a figure you can buy, I suspect some might be harder to find than others. Check around.
I picked up a Whirl Wind figure a Target exclusive. Had to hit two Targets and the second one only had one Whirl Wind left.
Probably will hang on to it for now in case it becomes a hot item towards Xmas. If I can sell a $7.99 figure for $20+, by gumb I'll do it.

I also am hoping this takes off and they expand on the concept. A more adult game, maybe one closer to Eye of Judgement but with figures (instead of cards) you summon to fight for you could work a lot better with this type of device as opposed to the PSEye.

[moycon]

breakpack and I invested heavily in this game yesterday. We each picked up a starter kit. Spyro is included in the starter kit, which is the only way to purchase the game as far as as I know.

We also picked up the exclusive figures at Toys R Us, Wal Mart and Target as well as a few other figures we thought looked decent and filled in the gaps of elements needed to unlock stuff in the game. The games look kind of reminded us of Kameo, but not as good looking if you can believe that considering Kameo was a 360 launch title!! Still...the simplicity and colorful surroundings was fine for this type of cartoony game. Game play is reminiscent of the Gauntlet Legends game on the Dreamcast. Luckily that was a favorite of mine, so I warmed up quickly. I'm still wanting a more adult game using this same technology. Maybe a Magic the Gathering game.

[Mendon]

I've been thinking of buying the game but have held off because of the high initial price.... $70... and all the additional costs for the add-on characters. But after looking at my collection of guitars, drums, mic stands, etc etc etc for Rock Band, Skylanders might be the bargain of the year!!




Mendon

[davepesc]

I am kind of interested in the concept, as a novelty, but the price is a killer for me. I just can't pay well over $100 to play Spyro. I'm thinking bargain bins are full of the expansion packs and more than a few starter kits come January or February. I may try it out then.

[Mendon]

Do the extra characters you buy work with any system or do you have to buy the extra characters for a specific system?

Reason I ask is because I don't see "Wii" or "Xbox360" etc on any of the pictures of the characters (I haven't been to the store to see them in person) but I saw an ad that says Dark Spyro is exclusive to the 3DS.

So that makes me wonder: if I bought the 3DS Dark Spyro would the Wii or Xbox game recognize it?


Mendon

[moycon]

Mendon, The figures aren't tied to any of the systems.
You could use the figures on your 360 and then take them to your friends house and use them on his PS3 as far as I know.
Now I do know you would need the software for each particular system, not sure about the pedestal. The one that came with my 360 version was just USB so I assume it could be used on the PS3 as well. Have no way of verifying that though.

[Video]

I don't know, they aren't marked for any system, so they should work for any....but....I don't know if there is some sort of "save" feature built in or not (like the hyperscan cards, lots of those got corrupted because they wouldn't save and people just said fuck it and turned the system off so..)

Anybody got one, and a friend that got one? I haven't in a long while because all the spyro games I played after the PSX (with the exception of the GBA games) sucked.

[moycon]

Video, on Tue Nov 1, 2011 1:15 PM, said:

I don't know, they aren't marked for any system, so they should work for any....but....I don't know if there is some sort of "save" feature built in or not (like the hyperscan cards, lots of those got corrupted because they wouldn't save and people just said fuck it and turned the system off so..)

Taken from the offical Skylanders website....
It doesn't matter what gaming system your friends have at their house, the Skylanders work on and across all major video game systems. You can take your Skylanders over to your friend's house, drop them on their Portal of Power and your Skylanders will come to life in the game!

breakpack played with his figures at my house on my system with my portal and then went to his house and played on his system with his portal and they worked find and had saved all their data. If you find people complaining online about the issues you mentioned, be sure and update this thread with that information, but I hadn't heard anything like that.

[Reaperman]

I *really* love this idea, and have consistantly been a sucker for this technique in the past.
Some day I picture a physical replacement for the standard RPG equipment/skills screen where each item/card is chipped for individual level up.

It may be a stupid gimmick, but if they got D&D or Star Wars in on one of these, I would just be throwing money at it.
Pokemon wouldn't be a bad match either.

So in short, as 'this' game, I'm not too interested, but as a concept for the future I'm already signed up.

[moycon]

Reaperman, on Thu Nov 3, 2011 10:04 AM, said:

So in short, as 'this' game, I'm not too interested, but as a concept for the future I'm already signed up.

I think the bright colors and cutesy characters are going to turn a lot of folks off on here.

Still this a GREAT game for the people who complain that all games today are brown to add to the list of games like.... Viva Pinata, Tornado Outbreak Banjo-Kazooie, Create, Crash of the Titans, Beautiful Katamari, Eternal Sonata, etc....

I've been playing this a good bit in between Deus Ex and another aspect I think is cool is each figure has it's own Heroic Challenge stage that is unlocked when you use that figure. These "challenges" unlock upgrades and although mainly suited for the particular character, any character can complete and get the bonus (+8 speed, +5 critical hit, etc...) all saved to the figure for future use.

I would much rather this be tied to a kick ass RPG, heck even a Gauntlet game like I mentioned it resembles, maybe have more adult themes and powers and enemies (etc...) Imagine building your party but instead of pressing buttons you grab a few figure off the shelf and set them down on the portal. If you encounter a trap or door you need a particular member for, camp and then swap out figures. All the previous experience and items are tied to that figure. The concept is intriguing to say the least. One of the reason I'm supporting it now is in the hope it becomes worth their time to expand the concept.