Skylanders: Giants

Skylanders: Giants is a 2012 video game in the Skylanders series, a direct sequel to the 2011 game Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and features the voices of Kevin Michael Richardson, Greg Ellis, Peter Lurie, Steve Blum, Dave Wittenberg, Carlos Alazraqui, Kevin Sorbo, Bobcat Goldthwait, Patrick Seitz and Julie Nathanson. It is the game before Skylanders: Swap Force. As the title suggests, it features larger Skylanders known as "Giants", along with other new gameplay mechanics.

Skylanders: Giants
Developer(s)Toys for Bob
Vicarious Visions (Wii U)
n-Space (3DS)[1]
Publisher(s)Activision
Designer(s)Vince Castillo
Artist(s)Terry Falls
Writer(s)Alex Ness
Composer(s)Lorne Balfe[2]
SeriesSkylanders
Platform(s)Nintendo 3DS[3]
PlayStation 3
Wii[4]
Wii U
Xbox 360
ReleaseNintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
  • AU: 17 October 2012
  • EU: 19 October 2012[5]
  • NA: 21 October 2012
Wii U
  • NA: 18 November 2012
  • EU: 30 November 2012
  • AU: 30 November 2012
Genre(s)Toys-to-life, role-playing, platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

It was released for Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 on 17 October 2012 in Australia, on 19 October 2012 in Europe, on 21 October 2012 in North America,[6] and on 22 November 2012 in Brazil by Neoplay.[7] It has also been released on the Wii U as a launch title in North America, Europe and Australia.[8][9] This is the final Skylanders game to be owned by Vivendi before Activision became an independent company on 25 July 2013.

Gameplay

Skylanders: Giants builds upon the fundamentals of the first game, which merges a line of physical toy figures with a video game world.[10] The game introduced over 40 new toy figures, some of which are more than twice the size of the original Skylanders cast in both physical and virtual form.[11] The game involves connecting a physical toy to the video game console through a "Portal of Power"; whichever toy is used creates a respective character in the game.[11] Toy figures from the first game are also forward compatible with Giants,[11] although there are also new versions, called "Series 2", which have more powerful attributes than the originals. A new series of figurines called "LightCore" was also introduced, which glow when put on the Portal of Power and have a flash bomb attack in-game.[12] The game has a new and improved "Battle Mode" for head-to-head play, featuring more areas and gameplay options as well as offering a new variety of alter ego Skylanders.

Synopsis

Thousands of years ago, Tree Rex, Crusher, Bouncer, Swarm, Hot Head, Eye Brawl, Thumpback and Ninjini fought the Arkeyans, but the Iron Fist of Arkus used the last of its power to banish them to Earth. Now, with a new threat looming, Jet Vac, Cynder, Pop Fizz and the rest of the Skylanders must unearth and join forces with them to rebuild Flynn's new ship, the Dread-Yacht and get the Iron Fist before Kaos does in the ultimate battle to save Skylands.

Plot

The plot of this game is focused on how the history of the Skylands comes alive again in the present. The main villain from the last game, Kaos, finds himself shrunk and put on display in a toy store on Earth. He finds a Portal of Power, and goes back to the Skylands. The first level takes place 10,000 years ago to discover where the Skylanders and the Giants came from. 10,000 years ago, the Skylands were ruled by an evil race of giant robots called Arkeyans, until the Skylanders made a stand and began war with the Arkeyans. Eventually, the Giants, who were the first ever Skylanders, faces the king of the Arkeyans and removes the source of the Arkeyans' power, the Iron Fist of Arkus, but this victory also swept the Giants from Skylands to Earth, ready for the player to use them.

The first task of the Giants is to repair Flynn's ship (known as the Dread-Yacht), and get to the Lost City before Kaos. Multiple new characters show up throughout the levels, including Ermit the hermit and Brock the drow gladiator. Ermit reveals that Kaos has returned and has accidentally awakened an ancient Arkeyan Conquertron, which recruits Kaos as its new leader, and goes on the search for the Lost City of Arkus. Ermit also reveals that he has a giant robot of his own, however, while attempting to activate the robot, the player encounters a "machine ghost" which turns out to be the very soul of Ermit's robot, who also joins the Skylanders on their journey.

The Skylanders travel to an ancient vault which is said to contain a map to the city of Arkus, but Kaos arrives and attempts to crush the player with falling rocks. In an effort to save the player, Machine Ghost sacrifices himself by shielding the Skylanders from the falling rocks using his robotic body. Kaos and his robot travel into the vault to find the map, but the map is destroyed as a result when he accidentally pulled a mechanism. Glumshanks, Kaos' troll butler, remembers an image of the map, and with Kaos' help, finds the location of the lost city. Meanwhile, Machine Ghost tells the player to go after Kaos and find the lost City of Arkus, before disappearing, presumably dead.

Despite the Skylanders' efforts in reaching the Lost City of Arkus, Kaos manages to reach the Iron Fist of Arkus and transformed into a large Arkeyan robot, preparing his conquest over Skylands. The player soon reached Kaos within the City of Arkus, only to discover that the now robotic Portal Master was impossible to stop unless the Iron Fist of Arkus was removed from his grasp. With the help of Ermit and the revived Machine Ghost, the Skylander was able to remove the Fist of Arkus, returning Kaos to his normal form and stopping him from commanding his Arkeyan army. The Arkeyan Conquertron carries Glumshanks and Kaos out of the collapsing city and to the safety of an island before shutting down completely.

Post-credits, Kaos and Glumshanks are shown entering Kaos' Kastle. There they run into Kaos's mother, whose shadow is only shown, as we are left to wonder what happened next. If players complete Nightmare Mode, they are given a scene where Chompies dance and party around the deactivated Iron Fist of Arkus.

Characters

Starter Packs

Console Starter Pack

These Starter Pack accessories are:

  • Skylanders Giants disc
  • Poster of all the Skylanders from Skylanders Giants
  • Portal of Power
  • Trading cards (3)
  • Stickers and codes (3)
  • 3 Skylanders figures: Tree Rex (Giant - Life), Cynder (Series 2 - Undead), and Jet-Vac (Air)

3DS Starter Pack

The 3DS Starter Pack contains the portal, 3DS game card, and a Punch Pop Fizz figure instead of Jet-Vac.

Development

It was shown at E3 2012.[13] Despite not containing "Spyro" in the game's title, he is still playable in the game.[14]

Reception

This game was received with mostly positive reviews. Metacritic holds the Xbox 360 version an 82/100 score, with the PlayStation 3 version holding an 80/100 score.[15][16] IGN gave the game an 8 out of 10 score, calling it a "...a more polished but by-the-numbers sequel that’s really fun to play".[10] Cheat Code Central gave the game a 9.2 out of 10.0 saying: "With tons of new and exciting things to do, new figures to collect, and the ability to use your previous Skylanders, it feels like someone finally got everything right when creating a sequel."[17] PlayStation Lifestyle however, gave the game a lesser score with a 70/100, saying: "The reality is that Skylanders: Giants is age-appropriate fun that harkens back to the delight you had collecting Pokémon cards or mashing your way through a dungeon crawler. If you've got little ones, then you already know the verdict here."[18]

Sales

Skylanders: Giants generated over $195 million in U.S. sales in 2012.[19] In the first two weeks of sales, 500,000 Starter Packs and Portal Owner Packs were sold in the U.S. and Europe.[20] A few months after its release, Activision reported that they had generated a billion dollars in sales for the franchise overall, just 15 months after the first game.[21]

gollark: You've actually been in a coma for 13 years.
gollark: What an advanced Rust feature.
gollark: `what the fuck did you just fucking say about me YOU little bitch i ll have YoU know I graduated top of my class in tHe navy seals and i ve been involved In numerous secret raids on al_quaeda anD i_ haVE over three hundred confirmed kills i_ am trained in gorilla`, after all.
gollark: Really, spamming defines is *my* thing.
gollark: I use separate thumbs for thumbs up and down, for redundancy.

References
  1. "We're developing Skylanders Giants for Nintendo 3DS". n-Space.
  2. Greening, Chris (1 May 2013). "Lorne Balfe Interview: Scoring Assassin's Creed and Skylanders". Game Music Online. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  3. "Skylanders Giants Confirmed for 3DS, Vicarious Visions Developing". Activision.
  4. Nintendo Power, Volume 276, Page 42
  5. Ivan, Tom (26 July 2012). "Skylanders Giants release date October 19". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  6. "Skylanders Giants Release Information for Xbox 360". GameFAQs. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  7. "Skylanders Giants terá legendas em português do Brasil - Wii Brasil". Wii-Brasil.com. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  8. Ryan Fleming (13 September 2012). "Nintendo reveals the 51 Wii U launch titles". Digital Trends. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  9. "Nintendo: 23 games launching with Wii U console". Usatoday.com. 26 September 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  10. Lynch, Casey (18 October 2012). "Skylanders Giants Review". IGN. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  11. "Skylanders Giants™ Revealed at the 2012 American International Toy Fair". Activision.
  12. Petit, Carolyn. "Skylanders Giants: Too Much of a Good (But Expensive) Thing?". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012.
  13. Industry Happening: Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Was Top Selling Console Game - Game Industry News Archived 10 December 2012 at Archive.today
  14. "Wii Feature: Skylanders Giants interview - Spyro still has a role to play". Official Nintendo Magazine. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  15. "Skylanders Giants for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. 21 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  16. "Skylanders Giants for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. 21 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  17. "Skylanders: Giants Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3) - Cheat Code Central". Cheatcc.com. 21 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  18. "Skylanders Giants Review (PS3)". Playstationlifestyle.net. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  19. "Skylanders Franchise Reaches More Than $500 Million in U.S. Retail Sales". Investor.activision.com. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  20. "Skylanders Giants two-week sales exceed 500,000 copies - GameSpot.com". Uk.gamespot.com. 19 October 2012. Archived from the original on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  21. Brendan Sinclair (11 February 2013). "Skylanders tops $1 billion in sales". GamesIndustry.biz.
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