Skylanders Swap Force

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Skylander’s Swap Force is the latest instalment from one of the most played games by youngsters today.  This is my family’s first taste of Skylanders, so we were very excited to find out what it’s all about.  As I’m not entirely familiar with the previous two games or their back stories, I would guess that Skylanders Swap Force is a dream come true for fans of the series already.  There’s a fantastic new story to play and new characters to collect and swap (a first for the series), meaning that abilities can be chopped and changed to make something different.  You can mix and match the tops and bottoms of your Swap Force characters and upgrade their abilities independently.  Simply stick together a different top and bottom and place your figure on the portal to activate the character in game.

This game is very rewarding as you get an epic adventure with lots of beautifully designed levels, more enemies than you can shake a stick at and tons of upgrades to achieve for your old and new Skylander characters.  Oh I forgot to mention that anyone who already owns a collection of Skylander figures will be able to use those characters in this new game.  As a newbie to the series I was really impressed to find out that xp data is saved to the actual figure, so you can take your figures round to your friend’s house and save the experience points you earn to level up when you return home.

There are some challengers that require Swap Force characters to walk up walls or fly through obstacles, so this is where your choice of Skylander ability comes into consideration.  If you’re wondering what holds them together it’s strong magnets (really strong!).  The controls during combat aren’t too difficult to master, which meant that my two little girls were able to play the game without asking for my help too often.  Ideally it would be nice if we had some Skylander Giant figures in our house so we could open up the treasure chests.  I’m seriously considering buying one from CEX just to complete that part of the game.  The series has been around for many years so there are lots and lots of figures to choose from, which means that you can enjoy the game in many different ways.

As I said at the beginning, Skylanders Swap Force is the biggest game to date with larger levels and lots of secrets to discover, so you’ll not only upgrade your Skylanders but increase the Portal Master power obtained from playing the previous titles.  In turn this will open up even more in game secrets.  I would highly recommend this game to any parent whose child already collects Skylanders.  To play the Swap Force game though you will need the new portal, so it’s advisable to purchase the starter pack to get you going.  In this pack you will receive the game, the new portal, two swappable characters and one normal figure.