Preview of Skylanders Giants
Skylanders Giants
by Brent RobertsOctober 4, 2012
If you have children, or have been a die-hard collector of a series, then you know about the unbelievable demand to find that "one character". You scour the stores, you hunt online, you even call your friends to try and help you complete your collection. All this is what the world experienced when Skylanders originally launched, and now the craze has returned and once again store displays around the world will look like mini war zones with parents and kids fighting it out as Skylanders Giants sets to take off.
Originally when Skylanders launched the game included scrolls of a past story where tales of giants roamed the lands, well in Skylanders Giants, you now have the ability to transcend time itself and live out an ancient adventure and tale as you come to realize that even here, Kaos is back. XboxAddict has recently been invited to a firsthand look at what this new game is all about as well as some of the new giant figures and more. So let's power up our portals and jump right into some of what we can expect when Skylanders Giants take flight.
If you have played the original there is a high probability that you have started your own collection of miniature figurines, well get ready because more are on the way, and this time there are some that are literally giants compared to the rest. One of the characters that we got to experience was a giant named Tree Rex. This giant not only towered above almost everything, but had enormous strength and dealt out massive amounts of damage. Granted he did move slower than other figures but that is only due to is overwhelmingly large size. One neat feature is that now some of the Skylanders figures (including Tree Rex) will now light up and glow when placed on the portal. This is due to some "magic lighting" but provides a neat artistic touch to the already detailed figures.
One of the most promising aspects of Skylanders Giants is that the game itself will acknowledge that you have other figures from the past game, and will allow you to level up your older characters to level 15. What this means is that your characters that you already own and have played with can be used in this upcoming sequel, so hopefully this will by some time and save some sanity for the parents whose children "have to have these new figures" or the world will apparently collapse. Another surprise is that now the figures of Skylanders Giants speak actual words instead of gibberish. To do all these voices, there is a wide range of actors/actresses/voice actors and more that help bring this new world to life like never before. There's even a boss battle with a mighty drill that does dub step, and is effectively known as "Drillerex" and even the legendary George Takai has his voice thrown into the mix as well.
In terms of a sequel, Skylanders Giants takes the role above and beyond what most companies consider a sequel. There are new puzzles that will test your mental abilities, side quest areas that are just as big, if not bigger, than the main quest levels. If that weren't enough, Skylanders Giants also includes the introduction of flying levels and tons of mini games built into each and every level you play. So when you combine all of that with the stellar audio work with the various voices, soundtrack, and environment, you get one absolutely brilliant game. So parents, collector crazies and more, consider this your warning because when the portal opens and Skylanders Giants hit the shelves, the battle will be on again, not just to stop Kaos, but to make sure you get all the figures!
