@@TheSoCalledZoner1 Skylanders is probably the first trend in my life where I could tell it just wasn't for me. It's the first instance in my life of being too old for something. Glad I grew up in a time before Skylanders because it greatly accelerated the demise of gaming as a viable pastime.
They released 6 very expensive games in a row with real life products tied to them, and it was becoming a pain for parents to have to keep up with making sure little Timmy has every batch of $15 figures annually. Skylanders could have survived if Activision allowed the game to breathe. At least we got some great things as a result of Skylanders ending, like Crash and Spyro being brought back from the dead, and TFB separating from Activision. Hopefully they can make some more incredible games.
In my experience, having to buy new Portals (or sometimes new game consoles entirely!) just to play the new games was a HECK of a lot more limiting than buying the figurines. You can beat the entire Skylanders series with just one Skylander, but you CANNOT play every game with only one portal (at least until Trap Team on the 360 released).
Ya I was a big fan and asked my parents to buy them whenever they saw them. They'd do this for certain Hobby's when I was a kid but they Quickly stopped this. Maybe a Skylander a birthday and Christmas at max
I'd hardly call Spyro back from the dead considering it's been 6 years with no new game in sight. All of the studios that helmed the Crash and Spyro revivals have been stripped away, especially after the Microsoft merger
Pokemon's problem is more that they are holding onto a release schedule dreamed up when average game development time was only a fraction of what it is now. back in the 90s 2 years to make a game was plenty. Especailly for a game on Nintendo's handheld consoles which were lower power in exchange for being mobile back in the 90s. But games are bigger now and take longer but Pokemon still tries to maintain that same release schedule. Also gamefreak hasn't really expanded as a developer team compared to the scope of the games. People like to act like Pokemon has infinite budget and the games are obligated to be peak AAA quality. But while the franchise itself is big it's ownership and production is also split between three different companies with profits futher split into making cards, making anime, and making games. It's not ALL getting funneled into game development. So add lower than people might think game budget with a smaller than expected team ... it's honestly impressive the franchise had churned out as much as it has, especailly spin off titles, only some of which weren't made by gamefreak. I'm not saying Pokemon games haven't suffered in quality or that the release schedule isn't a problem, but the reason is a lot different than Activision just milking the franchise into the ground out of pure greed. Pokemon just needs to slow down and adapt more to the current market. On a personal note I'd also say that the tradtional games should focus less on open world and more engaging RPG gameplay while letting the legends games expand on the open world, rather than trying to make the traditional games do a bit of everything.
@@metazoxan2I feel like there are good reasons why people expect AAA quality from nintendo, first off, the price tag, 60$ is just a AAA price, second off, the company itself, Nintendo is a juggernaut of the industry, and ANYBODY who still cares even slightly about pokemon today, was probably moulded by nintendo games, so of course we expect so much from Nintendo.
I LOVE how the show had the creative guts to keep Spyro evil THROUGH THE ENTIRE THIRD SEASON, with him ever so slowly regaining his free-will and his love for his friends.
And then they cancelled it. I also like how they had a different voice for evil Spyro. I remember Justin Long did his voice I don't remember who did the other voice for him
Skylanders uses nfc as well..... They specifically use a Miifare classic 13.56Mhz 2k chipset, with unwritable sector 0, you can scan skylanders on your phone if you have an NFC phone, and an app (in this case, the miifare classic tools app)
Yep, I do like the reworked background to her being the daughter of Malefor in the skylanders continuity. Who in the legend of Spyro he was just an evil dragon.
Back in my day, we all simped over Elora! I remember it like it was yesterday, heading home from school to play more Ripto's Rage with an onion on my belt (which was the style at the time).
What’s funny is that I’ve heard theories about Cynder or Spyro during the LoS days being a descendant of Malefor before Cynder being Malefor’s daughter became canon in Skylanders.
As much as I realise this game was kind of a scam as an adult, (10-20€ for every character). i still treasure the memories I had collecting it, drawing the characters, and learning the lore behind them. I still have yet tonplay the actual Spyro games, but when I do, I will always remember that this was my introduction to Spyro.
@sunseed2752 that was what they cost when they were new. I'm guessing you got them at heavy discount. Normal characters were 10, specials like Giants were 20.
When I was a kid, I wasted my money on plastic miniatures that connected to video games. Now, as a responsible adult, I waste my money on plastic miniatures AND video games.
Skylanders was the first introduction to Spyro for many in 2011-2016, much like how Legend of Spyro was for those in 2006-2008. I played the original Spyro games, even through the Legend reboot. Spyro being in Skylanders was confusing to me at first, and it took a bit for me to get used to his redesign, but I was reeled in when I played the first Skylanders game and enjoyed it, even though it's a different genre. It's sad how Skylanders slowly crumbled. Activision didn't expect it to sell as well as it did when the first game was released in 2011, and when it did, they milked Skylandes to death like any other game that gave them big bucks. I think it could've lasted longer if Activision didn't have yearly releases made and gave Toys For Bob and Vicarious Visions time to develop the games. There were even some decisions that the devs didn't agree with, like Imaginators microtransactions, but Toys For Bob had to follow their parent company. A good nostalgic franchise for many with untapped potential ruined by company greed and game oversaturation.
Here's what needs to be done. A) No more Skylanders. B) Spyro 4. C) In Spyro 4, make references to Skylanders and basically talk shit about that era considering Spyro isn't from that excuse of a franchise.
@@CrystalBlazier "There were even some decisions that the devs didn't agree with, like Imaginators microtransactions, but Toys For Bob had to follow their parent company." At least Toys For Bob are independent now, so at least they can make their own decisions... I can't say the same for Vicarious Visions though.
Say whatever you want about Skylanders Spyro's old design, but you can't deny that at least Spyro's Academy redesign looks pretty dang good! In fact, I personally find it to be the most visually appealing of all of Spyro's designs. Don't get me wrong, classic Spyro is cute and menorable, but at the same time he always looked kinda wonky and awkward, with his stubby little wings/tail and that big bulbus Barney snout and whatnot. IMO Skylanders Academy Spyro is much more proportionately balanced, and maintains some of those "cute" elements that the classic Spyro had, alongside his more badass elements from Skylanders. But that's just me.
Yeah I like Spyro's Academy model out of all his other designs for the Skylanders franchise, it was cuter and more expressive. Makes me wish they used that model from the beginning.
I prefer the Skylanders design myself. The original ps1 design is simply too cutesy for me. I think they did a good job with the remake that came out a few years ago, I'm old enough to have played the original ps1 Spyro games but I wasn't interested. It was Skylanders that got my attention, as I liked the designs of the characters and I like isometric ARPG's.
Almost every Skylanders game they released required you to buy a brand-new Portal device just to make your Skylanders compatible with the new game. Seeing as I have most of them, it would have been nice if they had made a final Skylanders game that allowed you to daisy-chain the Portals together to summon and command a Skylanders army.
No actually, the first portal from the first game works for every following game, the only one that’s properly different outside of just design is the one for trap team, but even then you don’t need to because the gimmick is optional
@@Marshadow01 This is just wrong. It takes a basic Google search to prove it, the Spyro's Adventure Portal on ALL platforms is not forwards-compatible with any game besides Giants. Is there some cross-platform compatibility of peripherals between PlayStation and Nintendo systems, yes but that has zero relevance because their game compatibility is identical. The Swap Force portal would fair a little better in regards to your statement if it weren't exclusively incompatible with the IMMEDIATELY following installment in the series, Trap Team. TLDR, the existence of a universally-compatible Portal peripheral (as far as installments go, platform compatibility is its own can of worms) in the Skylanders series was not established until the release of Trap Team in 2014, THREE YEARS after the start of the franchise.
@@matthewmatthew981 "it would have been nice if they had made a final Skylanders game that allowed you to daisy-chain the Portals together to summon and command a Skylanders army." I guess you can place the portals next to each other in a chain, which allows them to all work, even if only one is being powered.
I had the unique pleasure of working in the ToysRUs R-zone during the heyday of the toys to life craze, I saw the first skylanders come out and got to see the entire thing unfold. At the peak of popularity the R-Zone was HALF toys to life figures, Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, and the Amiibos were the famous ones of course, but there were also also-rans and knock offs, like little 8-bit looking games that used like, ninja turtles minifigures, those Marvel electronic action figure things, and a couple others. It got really crowded there. Also, for a personal anecdote, the glue that held the blister bubbles on the cards for skylanders wasn't very strong, and they would often pop off and fall out. I remember every time I went to work I'd run through the skylanders looking for popped blisters and taping them closed to make sure customers wouldn't give into temptation and steal the opened ones (yes, that is a thing, if a box is opened people will be inclined to steal the contents, but almost never actually open packaging to steal things themselves, a weird foible of the populace in my area.)
Not only could they have saved the Bionicle franchise, but this would have let them tap into the older collector market that Skylanders wasn't grabbing. It could have been the perfect way to carve out part of the market without over saturating the same customers. But no ... instead they just went with Legofied Warner bros stuff ... sigh.
i got into this franchise around midway through its lifespan with trap team but i fell in love with it ever since the setting was intresting the lore was intriging and the sheer number of characters and the concepts that they were based on hooked me hard this might be an unpopular take but superchargers was my favorite i loved all the vehicle designs the story was in my opinion the best out of all the games and the fact they gave us DK AND BOWSWER as playable characters was just the cherry on top
13:59 Correction, the introduction of new "Gimmick" skylanders was NOT the primary gatekeeping tactic used to necessitate extra spending with each game that released, as you can technically beat every game with only 1 Core-series Skylander. Even Skylanders SuperChargers was programmed with a digital-only copy of the Hot Streak vehicle that you could summon if you didn't have a vehicle figure, and the other vehicle types were only needed for optional content. The PORTAL peripherals that came with each game were a LOT more restrictive to the play experience as you needed to spend $25 for a new one to play basically every game, as the compatibility system was stupid and convoluted. So by the time Trap Team finally released with its universal portal, parents had already wasted 50-75 extra dollars for no discernable reason.
Thinking about it for a moment, I'm surprised they didn't think about future proofing the portal of power by allowing its software to updated through the game (either storing the update in the game files or as midware to bridge connecting the portal to the internet to download a patch) and adding slots for installing additional hardware needed for the portal. Such hardware could be dressed up as statues or other architecture so your portal would look more grander as you got upgrades. I guess such thinking is only good in hindsight as they had no idea the IP would take off like it did.
@@ender01o66 The software on the portal. It's the main difference between the different portal as the RFID hardware would basically be identical. The software would likely state which RFID signals it accepts so instead of buying a completely new portal per expansion the player could instead just connect their portal to their console and install a patch to the portal via USB connection. The patch could be included in the game files or downloaded to the console then installed on the portal. It's basically the same way PS5 controllers are updated.
@@PlebNC "The software on the portal. It's the main difference between the different portal as the RFID hardware would basically be identical. The software would likely state which RFID signals it accepts so instead of buying a completely new portal per expansion" As they are now, different portals aren't required for the newer expansions, the game itself is. So, you'd just have to update the game like any other game that gets updates. Also, the Swap-Force requiring a new portal for their Swap mechanic is actually a myth, since they work perfectly fine on the older portals in the later games that don't have portal restrictions.
Saberspark: "What RUINED Skylanders?" Me: Company greed by releasing very expensive games yearly, with equally expensive micro-transactions, DLC level packs and in game paywalls disguised as toy figures.
I think my favorite part of the Skylanders games were the characters that you didn't even play as. Chaos and Glumshanks. Flynn, Callie, Hugo and Buzz. The Golden Queen, Wolfgang and even the Chompy Mage. The story and these characters were what made me keep coming back to this game.
@@toekneemart5597 Yeah, kinda. I personally never felt like the Trap Team Crystals were really like getting full new Skylanders characters unlike the actual main gimmick guys with the crystal weapons like Snap Shot(the Gator guy with the bow). The villains in that game were more Story Character than Skylander, you know? I do admit though that some of the villains did become official Skylanders later on in Skylanders Imaginators. Heck, I still have the Wolfgang and Kaos Imaginator Skylanders figures but they started out as non playable characters so that's how I most remember them.
as someone who has every single character that plays differently from each other, from all 6 games yeah i'm a fan and noticed that your SuperChargers sections was missing some detail as you described SuperChargers but the footage and the consoles you mentioned, are of SuperChargers Racing, a spin-off for the weaker hardware also LEGO Dimensions did do a follow-up, sort off, as LEGO Dimensions would go by the idea of updating the game, year after year with new packs (year 1 has blue toy tags and year 2 has orange toy tags)
When I clicked on this video I was literally thinking, I hope it's gonna be Tom this time. Been binging through old PCP episodes and always great seeing you're still active!
23:38 Short answer, yes she is... one of them... A little more detailed answer, Stealth Elf is one of the most popular Skylanders for a variety of reasons. Mainly because she's a total badass, but yes a lot of portal masters do find her pretty attractive as well, including myself. As a matter of fact, while Skylanders is not exactly the kind of game known for having a lot of "waifus" like Dead or Alive or anything like that, there are actually a fair amount of legitimately attractive female characters from the Skylanders series. Some portal masters probably didn't think or realize the attractiveness of certain Skylanders until they were much older, though a lot of formerly young portal masters did have a "childhood crush/waifu" that originated from Skylanders. For many of them it was Stealth Elf, though for me it was Ninjini who is easily the hottest Skylander in the whole franchise! If you don't know what she looks like, just look up Ninjini and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Call me a weirdo all you want, but you know it's true... Besides it's not uncommon for a "kids game" to have at least 1 legit waifu that many older gamers simp for. Like just look at Pauline from Mario or Rouge from Sonic for example, the intention behind their designs is pretty clear.
@@rottytopszombiewaifu5249 i mean,who would blame you tho(aside from boom bringer being an dick to you or something T-T), cuz I’m also attracted to them as well XD
Hey look it’s Skylanders, I like those. I thought this was a notif from one of my friends in the community and my jaw dropped when I saw it was actually Saberspark. I’m gonna make this comment and add edits as I go along. 1. From my knowledge, you kind of aren’t wrong on the Spyro not originally being a Spyro design. The original Spyro spinoff that eventually became Skylanders, Spyros Kingdom, had a Spyro design more in line with his later games, with another character simply named Red Dragon being the closest resemblance to Spyro as he appears in the official game. 2. This isn’t a game fun fact it’s been covered very well so far I just want to say that I wish to fight many Activision employees and I don’t think I need an explanation beyond that. 3. I am so sorry to Spyro fans they did you all so dirty. 4. Ah the gimmicks. They were always kind of a doubled edged sword, because yea, they were cool new guys that could interact with the game in a new way, but not only did they often make normal characters more obsolete, but locking a large chunk of your game behind characters that are even more expensive than your other characters when they aren’t even that special in the next game a year after is really scummy. Especially when they became as numerous as they did around 2014. 5. The Giants facts were a bit off so I’d like to just say them. For one, the giants were $15 I believe, rather than 20, but 5 buck difference isn’t crazy enough to blame you. There were 48 new figures released with giants, but 32 were either rereleases of older characters (with a new ability and pose to get you to buy them again), or versions of the figures that would light up for a slightly higher price. Giants only had 16 actually new characters. 6. While Swap Force was VVs first run with a console Skylanders game, they were actually heavily involved in the 3DS spin-offs, which were entirely different games to their console counterparts. They were even working on both versions of Swap Force simultaneously. 7. Trap Teams trap gimmick is still so pricy traps are so annoying. Also fun fact on top of the shiny paint jobs, the Elites were three times as powerful as their normal counterparts, so they were actually just busted. 8. Superchargers actually had a full 20 characters (8 of which were new movesets for older characters) and 20 vehicles, but this was reduced to 18 if you weren’t on Nintendo consoles (I assume that’ll be brought up in a moment). 9. The Wii and 3DS versions did have the Nintendo characters, but it was only the racing mode, as that was the 3DS spinoff for that game and they just also gave it to the Wii so people who couldn’t upgrade could still join (the same reason swap force and trap team have laughable Wii ports). The full game, with Bowser and DK, is playable on the Wii U though. Hey, it’s good for something at least. 10. Imaginators is such a disappointment in many of the communities eyes. It’s a fine game, mechanics wise, but it’s story and the way it’s randomly tied to the Netflix show that didn’t really follow canon at all while also not following the shows canon is annoying at best. Plus, there’s been a lot of content popping up here and there about a second year for Imaginators that would give us even more for the character creator, something I felt was desperately needed, even though I like what we got. Sorry this comment got so long, I’m just really passionate about these dumb plastic guys. These types of videos are always so fun to watch as a longtime fan, and I’m glad this series still gets some recognition, even if it’s just to look back on what once was. Very good video. Looking forward to what’s next.
There's also the thing about them saying that you're required to have a new portal for Superchargers, when that's not the case, using an older portal actually gives you the Instant characters, and, the new portal wasn't required for the Swap-Force feature, as you can use the older portals in later games, and the Swap-Force work just fine on those. I've heard that they load slightly slower, but it's barely any difference.
@@ender01o66you can use the SSA/Giants portals in later games?? I knew trap team required its own portal but assumed the other two could just use SSF and up. Neat. Needing new hardware for the swappers was the official reason we were given by the devs tho, which is probably where that info came from I forgot about the instants, but you are right, I did know about those
@@skybricksgaming8392 Yeah, all portals work after Trap-Team iIrc. "Needing new hardware for the swappers was the official reason we were given by the devs tho, which is probably where that info came from" Despite this, they work regardless. "I forgot about the instants, but you are right, I did know about those" Yeah, you can only really use them all on the mobile versions of Trap-Team and Superchargers, though Instant Spitfire and Instant Hotstreak work in the console versions of Superchargers, I'm not sure about the Wii version though.
4:14 After this, then came a demo called Spyro’s Kingdom. Which has been officially released a few years ago for Skylanders’ 10 year anniversary or whatever.
Honestly I think LEGO got the closest to doing this TtL thing in the most evergreen way. Unlike Skylanders and Disney, at least LEGO Dimensions came with _actual_ collectible minifigures. That was so smart, they don't _have_ to be used just for the game because they can seamlessly be integrated into every existing LEGO set collectors may already have. So even now that the game is long dead, these packs are still in _high_ demand because...they're still just rare minifigs. I never played any of these things, but I bought _tons_ of packs on clearance just to get those sweet, sweet figures. I regret nothing.
I’m not gonna lie, the early 2000s and early 2010s era of companies doing weird shit like this with their games was awesome. Is it an absolute money sink? yes. Is it a cool novel idea? Also yes. Would it survive in todays gaming market? Probably not but I’d think it’s cool
Skylanders was a big part of my childhood. I was always amazed with how the toys to life concept worked as a whole with transporting the figures into the game.
The thing that i liked about this series is where it was basicly a way to sell u dlc unlike litraly every other game when u payed for your dlc pack u actuly got a real figure. like it wasnt just a downlaod that u could only use in that single game it was a actual thing u could have and even use in all future games in the series. like honestly thats a soo much better way to have dlc cus you arnt just paying for a skin swap or a character unlock that can only be used once its a actual moddle that u can collect and display outside of the game. and hell if u collect all of them it makes for a really fun perma death of the entire series. like what i did once was lv all my skylanders up to max unlocked all there skills then played every game in the series from the start and if a character died then i couldnt use them again for all 6 games. makes for a really tense experience especially when u get to the 3rd game in and u only have a few characters left.
I'm scared for a Skylanders Reboot. There's like a 70% chance they do NFTs or something like that and I don't want to see that future... (the other 30% is split between doing figures or just having online unlockables)
What ruined Skylanders was saturation and greed. There didn't need to be 6 different versions of the same figure that all basically function the same way but only look a little bit different, there didn't need to be 50 different add on items that are barely useful and there didn't need to be friggin vehicles! Which is a shame because most of the games are pretty fun. Fortunately they are easy to emulate these days
2:28 The fate of shareholders never depends on how well a product does. Only the ones who worked on it are at risk and even if it does well they're at risk. Executives don't have to worry about a thing because they have golden parachutes and investors can just pull out.
I think that whilst Skylanders didn't invent the Toys to Life genre (as in the gaming style of physical figurines or toys being compatible with a digital game), it certainly gave it something of a rennaissance, and it seems that its final instalment was also the last big title for the golden age of the genre, the only thing to follow being Starlink. And I remember being super excited about each instalment, collecting the figures and finding my favourites, though I sort of lost interest from time to time - I only got the fifth instalment because I won it in a competition to design a Skylander (an tech element, inventor otter named "Ottermatic", just in case anyone was curious), and I didn't pick up the sixth, though I had some figures since Wolfgang was now a fully playable character, but I didn't get the game on any console, and now cannot find it on my console of choice. I really liked the concept of it, and the game wasn't half bad - it was passable, but when it was a turn off was when monetisation became too big a part of it. What I actually found really quite inspiring is how despite it being an original franchise, it still outperformed Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions, even with their rosters of established characters with nostalgic connections. Part of it can be attributed to how restrictive Disney Infinity is in allowing crossovers, as you can only have specific characters play in specific levels (so no Disney characters showing up in Star Wars for instance), where all figures could be played in Skylanders, and also how Lego Dimensions just released one title and various expansions, and then decided to call it a day after Season 2, whereas Skylanders kept coming up with no only new characters, but new gimmicks. The fact you see so many of the figures in second hand shops can be seen as an indictment to how mass produced it was, especially when you consider how some are really cheap now, but then again it could be seen as the franchise having such popularity that everyone played it, and some found their favourite characters.
I appreciate that you guys did a video on Skylanders, and I just wanted to add a few things. Regarding collecting figures, so my approach with each game was to usually get characters that either A. Unlocked more in-game content like elemental gates, ability zones, sensei shrines, or B. were just characters I found interesting and wanted to have. For example, Spyro was actually my favorite Skylander, and I ended up getting my hands on almost every variant of him that I could, even snagging the Eon's Elite Spyro. However, as several people have pointed out, some of the pricing stuff was a bit off. At least from Spyro's Adventure to Trap Team, core characters were around $10 USD, while gimmick characters (Giants, Trap Masters, Swap Force) were around $15. Also, Lego Dimensions was much worse, as they were priced as much as small Lego set at the time. You also left out how some games like Giants and Imaginators had Portal Owner's Pack, which included just the game and one character. Even then, I recall starter packs costing around $60-90 USD, which is usually as much as the average triple-A game now a days. That being said, Skylanders and other Toys to Life games were still expensive investments, as I admit to not really spending much on other games outside of the occasional Steam purchase due to the amount I invested in unlocking all the collectibles in Skylanders (exception being Wizard101). The same time I stopped buying Skylanders was around the time the Switch was released, so I was able to move on from Skylanders. And for anyone who are still trying to complete their collection, that is even harder because some figures such as Row Bow now going for more than $400. I would like to mention that one issue I had with Lego Dimensions was with the infamous Wii U version of the game, a version that was straight up unplayable and had glitches that barred players from hundred percent (such as one involving the tardis from the Doctor Who Level pack). To make matters worse, the characters were also fairly unbalanced in terms of abilities and powers, which became an even bigger issue with the Series 2 characters (Which had to be updated everytime you obtained one on the Wii U version). As for Disney Infinity, one issue that is fairly noticeable since the 1.0 was the choices of characters made the game feel like a cash grab, and were used as mostly tie ins for upcoming movies. This was mostly fixed in 2.0 and 3.0, but I still don't understand who thought that the Lone Ranger movie deserved it's own level in Disney Infinity. However, I can't really develop much of an opinion on Disney Infinity as I never played it. As for Toys for Bob, they would actually go on to make both the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash 4, and I recall hearing that they've gone indie. So for anyone who had issues with Spyro's design, just know that Toys for Bob was able to redeem themselves in that regard. I still have fond memories of this franchise, despite the financial toll on my allowance. They were my first ever Spyro games, and I still have my collection of figures, including some that belonged my friends. Also, in regards to crushes, I recall some of the female dragon characters including Cynder as well as Ninjini, Tuff Luck (thanks Robot Chicken), Roller Brawl, and a few others being relatively popular. Personally, Star Strike was my one of my first crushes, and later Splat.
I have to say, If I'm right here, right now, it's because of skylanders. I have to thank them for who I am. I wasn't originally interested I video games. I had a hacked DS, but it wasn't the peak of my interest. But those figures caught my eye. I wanted some, even thought I didn't have the game. And so, for my birthday I had my first figure, the series 2 version of Gill grunt. I started collecting figures even though I didn't had the games. I started watching the promotional trailers of giants and the near-to- realease swap force. And on those Christmas, I was gifted a Wii with skylanders swap force. This was what made me interested in other video games like Mario galaxy and to look deep into the industry. It gave me friends of which I still hold memories and keep in contact with. Most of my birthday and Christmas presents were the figurines, and without them I wouldn't have enjoyed those holidays as much. It has given me lots of joys, a lot of disappointments (ain't that right, Wii version of superchargers?), and I wouldn't have it any other way. So thanks to skylanders, for forming the teen, man, and person I am today.
My first job was at toys r us in 2016. We had 2 whole aisles next to the gaming counter filled with nothing but skylanders, being the majority and disney infinity figures. Then one day I notice people are buying alot of them. I wonder what's going on and a customer tells me that the games basically just died. It was so weird, I saw insane deals like buy one $20 skylander toy, get 4 free!! Never seen a store try to get rid of an item so fast. Next day there was like 10 figures left on shelves
Yeah dude same the first ever time I saw Spyro was in Skylanders. I never knew that he was from his own series of games, and eventually at one point I learned that he was from his series of games. So anyway, I’m glad that they did that with Spyro because for many people they wouldn’t know who Spyro was. I’m glad because it exposed a whole new generation to that character and I think that’s awesome.
Tip for creating a fantasy world: Actually create species rather then fill it with random monsters. I never liked how there was no consistency with the SL's species. There were a lot of interesting designs, but it made the whole world feel less real and random. It works in Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions because there toys are famous character.
Not just enemy designs either, as soon as Vicarious Visions came into the picture the idea of a consistent Skylanders design language flew out the window. Which sucks, because the design asthetic of the first two Skylanders games, especially the trailer for Adventure was the best in my opinion.
There are species. There's mabu, trolls, elves, ents, dirt sharks, gillmen and more. The reason why each species look so different is because they've evolved separately due to being isolated on the islands, like animals in real life.
For me it's the contrary. I love how almost anything could exist in Skylands, be it as an established species with various different kinds within the species, or isolated entities as a whole. There have been established species too. In a number of different variations. Elves and trolls, dragons, phoenixes, gryphons, robots, ghosts, vampires, skeletons, golems, treants, elves on skeletal ostriches, an ancient culture of mago-technical monstrosities by way of the Arkeyans which have at least three Skylanders tied to them (Drill Sergeant, Bouncer and Chop Chop), and probably some others. Every Skylander did in fact have a backstory to them too, a number of times describing places never seen in the games. On one hand, i can see that being a lot of bloat in worldbuilding, but on the other hand, it reinforced for me just how big Skylands was. Nigh any creature you can and cannot think of, could be alive in this immeasurably wide, ever-stretching world of childhood fantasy, where not even the sky is the limit. A more in-depth look at the *individual* skylanders would have been nice, because i want to see more of the individuals and not just the larger picture. External material didn't always supply that with the desired Skylanders. Still, though. Amidst all the impressive work in stories all around us, with the establishing of species, histories, families, countries and relations between them, on such grand and in-depth scales as seen in for example Elden Ring and Lies of P, I value worlds like the Megastructure from Cookie Cutter or Zenozoik from the Zeno Clash games no less. To clarify: In Cookie Cutter, there are mutants and robots powered by human souls, and both can take very different shapes even within their pseudo-species. Like tentacle people and a buff anthropomorfic seagull for the mutants, or a floating spiritual oracle shaped like a young woman, or a lounging metal skeleton with an afro for the robots. And the same goes for the Zenos from Zenozoik. A world of freaks, chimeras, monsters, pre-historic anthropomorfic animals, obese turkey men, creatures who willingly decide to simply go insane one day to pursue one single goal, no matter how absurd-- you never know what new abomination you may find next, and they're still all just Zenos. In essence, i don't think that Skylanders having different monsters and characters, and few specific species, was a weakness of it at all. A hard disagree from a random internet stranger like me on that front. At worst, i'll say that it's a double-edged sword, because it's not within the tastes of some people, like you, for reasons you describe. Or perhaps others. And the opposite for me for reasons i already described. But where it concerns the in-world lore, more attention and expression on the individual Skylanders' side might have been fun. Perhaps a bit of a messy comment, but i nevertheless hope that if one took the time to read it all through and take the words into consideration, it has proven interesting. Thank you for taking the time to read, and have a good one.
Wanna know something funny? Ubisoft also tried to jump on the toys-to-life bandwagon when it was already dying, and as a result they had to give up before their 2nd toy wave came out and made those toys digital-only
I think Lego Dimensions was the most creative and interesting out of all of the toys to life games. Not only did it offer a more interesting story (at a time multiverse stories weren't even a thing yet) but you could play with the toys *as toys* They were literally just lego figures you could pop out of their stands unlike Skylanders and Disney Infinity that were permanently stuck on which made them feel more like figurines than the 'toys' they were advertised as. What I thought was particularly fun about LD was you actually got to make the toys you bought because they were literally made of Lego, and with the vehicles they each had three alternatives designs you could mix around. Unfortunately it came out way too late, the trend was on its deathbed when the game hit shelves.
Yea, if you ask someone who didn't get into Skylanders to name a character that isn't Spyro (or Cynder) they'll likely give you nothing. If you ask someone who did get into Skylanders you'll either get whoever was their favorite character/figure (usually from the original game line-up) or you'll get Kaos (cause Zim VA playing Zim 2.0).
The issue was sometimes after week 3 or 4, most stores in certain states or counties didn’t get the figures or have enough of them. I remember seeing Blackout(who I bought thankfully)/Spotlight/Echo at ToysRus once and never again due to how low the supplies. Now they’re like $80-$90 each
As a HUGE fan, I'd say either by competence and concept relevancy decreasing [actually both] (I stood by the end of Imaginators, a year later, POOF, the franchise vanished)
I btw did name other Skylanders than just Spyro or Cynder. Sonic Boom, Flashwing, Whirlwind, Drobot, Camo, Sunburn, Zap, Pop Thorn, Chill, Hot Dog, Funny Bone, Trail Blazer, Flip Wreck, Echo and others are still among my favorite playable characters but yeah the yearly release was overkill. It was hard finding certain Skylanders because of that in local stores. They should have gone every 2-3 years instead. Also Kaos and Zim would get along so well
The worst part about the rare varents was that store employees would not put them on the shelf and bought them there selves for the extra profit from collectors who would be willing to pay scalper price for it
True, the worst one for me was Red Camo. It was only in Europe in a randomized starter pack where you got 2 figures(this was released in mid 2014). I’d love to get the figure until it’s minimum $600-$800
16:37 Skylanders Superchargers actually doesn't require you to use the new portal, in fact, using the older portals allows you to unlock an exclusive vehicle and character variant.
@@Ashurman666 Which is the only one they don't mention, funnily enough. If you have the Trap-Team portal, you can use it with any console game. And, the Swap-Force portal isn't required for Swappers either.
@@ender01o66 Never tried on those. I know RPCS3 has a full figure collection dump that is very easy to find, not sure if the same files can be used on other emulators.
I only got Skylanders because of the crossover with Bowser in the last 3 games: Superchargers racing, Superchargers, and imaginators. As a longtime huge Mario fan, and someone who's wanted Bowser to star in his own adventure, I was forced into finally buying the Skylanders. Also they made Bowser have handsome body armor!!!! 😍
The original Spyro was a million times better than Skylanders. There, I said it. IDGAF how old it gets, what Activision did to my purple boy was unforgivable. They graped my childhood. I'm 32 now, and even if everyone forgot him I will never let go of the fun times I had with the little dude in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Frankly, I’m more surprised that ANYONE believed that Skylanders was the introduction to the character. How no one knows about the original games by Insomniac Games, aka famous for the Ratchet & Clank series and Spider-Man..?
I honestly had no idea. This has really truly been my first moment of existential dread. I'm getting old and one day I'm going to die. And people 8 years younger than me don't know spyro... yikes.
To be fair, I was the same way, but that was mostly because of my age Having played Reignited (something, I note, I would never have played had it not been for Skylanders introducing me to the character in my childhood), I get it now. Those games are so damn good, and I get why fans were so upset seeing Spyro turned into a marketing tactic, even if it did effectively give him a lifeline until Reignited brought him back to his glory days.
I knew only one thing about Skylanders beyond the commercials, and that's the fact that Crash Bandicoot shows up in the show, with not just voice acting, but lines.
The thing that killed it for me was no competiive scene. There's the battle thing in the game. I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity to make it like pokemon vidoe game championships around it. Or at least online wifi pvp matches Outside the main story it was a game I'd finish and after have very little reason to play until a new chacter wqs released imo.
as an avid spyro fan I HATED skylanders for what they did to spyro, until like 6 years later when i found out about the canceled spyro movie and realized skylanders was actually heaven sent
I feel like superchargers would have been a good stopping point storywise if you ignore the cars You literally face off against the darkness and make the big bad join your team
Loved the hell outa the first 2 games,but the rest basically became "what if we did less for pushing out more figurines for money" it had a really good story but later the amount of skylanders that got really expensive was scummy and thats what made me not get any game after skylander giants
Funnily enough I had that exact same feeling when I was younger. First two games were incredible and then afterwards I didn't bother with the rest and that's even with several people saying that Swap Force was one of the best in the franchise
If you owned a Wii (Nintendo Wii?) when they games came out then I have a STRONG suspicious as to why only the first 2 games were appealing to you. (I say this as someone who owned a Wii at the time and struggled HARD to get through the rest of the series; Still haven't played Imaginators.)
@@matthewmatthew981 yeah,you are 100% percent correct.I owned a wii and this game was a HUGE appeal to me on that system.Tbh i saw it was on xbox too but it just felt odd to be on that system.Also tbh it started to become hella expensive to keep up with the figurines since i didnt grow up having so much money at all so i only had like 1 skylander per attribute sadly thats also the reason i became dulled out by the rest after the second one because even more apparent even for me when i was 10-12 around the time that it became more of a fast cash grab even though some of the new mechanics were game changing.
I felt it was scummy in the first game already. I can't access this entire gameplay mechanic or sometimes even area unless I buy more figurines? Seriously?! The game was already expensive, the nerve to force people to pay more otherwise you cannot access the entire game... Make me pay full price for a game, give me the full game. Not this weird set-up :/
I love Skylanders. I look back on it fondly to this day. I think the downfall really started after swap force. In my opinion, I believe they failed to grow with their audience. And they stayed very comfortable with what they were doing not really expanding out of their bubble. The gimmicks were cool, but overtime, my old characters that I really loved became more and more useless. And we’ve always wanted like a show, which was also very good. Happened to come a little too late. It came out of time. The audience was growing out of it, because it didn’t wanna grow with us. I’d love to make a return one day, but that’s the main reason I think it fell off at least for me personally
I used to love Skylanders when I was a kid. The whole “make your parents pay hundreds of dollars for plastic!” model is scummy but I will admit that some of the character designs went hard
I graduated highachool im 2011 so was a bit outside the target demographic by the time this came out. I do remember being like "wait new Spyro game?" My younger nephew was obsessed with the franchise tho, lol.
not a fan of Skylanders but I would not be opposed to a full-fledged Spyro video. the franchise has switched hands so many times and there's a surprising amount of lore behind the scenes
Say what you want about Spyro in Skylanders, but Skylanders helped Spyro stay in the public consciousness. Reignited would not exist if it weren’t for Skylanders being the lifeline he needed at the time.
Ledgends might be my favorite spyro games remake that and I'll buy it it's worth 60 dollars but the original spyro games are not worth 60 dollars there not worth 40 there not wieth 20 all together because it's all a character who glides and uses just fire it's boring and the gane has aged only slightly well but spyro ledgends knows it probably has aged well it had to of cause If it dosint cyder and malfore wouldn't be more know and popular than kripto or anyone else like gnastu nork should be also pathiect the games bosees are to easy maby it's cause mortal kombat tekken and shit are tryharding but either way I think spyro is boring along with skylanders apart from 6 unique characters spyro ledgends spyro is pretty much exactly hero at this point his power are great
@@SandwitchZebra and skylanders wouldn't exist without ledgends because that the reason the game had spyro in the first place spyro went the way of sonic for his last 4 games before ledgends re did the character arguably fir the better and skylanders wouldn't of used em if he wasn't popular again because ledgends revied the character did you know the last spyro game wasn't spyro orage before ledgends no it was a extremely sluggish slow boring top down rpg and that is why ledgends did more than skylanders could were dark spyro cyder and malfore come from and dark spyro even got featured in crash run so you can't argue spyro ledgends wasn't suppeair in every way
Skylanders Spyro isn't real he can't hurt you Skylanders Spyro: 👁️👄👁️ (word's cannot describe how much I hate that design) Also let's not forget they gave us TALKING CRASH BANDICOOT....yet another abomination that shouldn't exist
Though not the first time Crash talked (He did some in old commercials), it was really weird. Can't help but wonder why they didn't have Aku Aku talk for him like in the game...
@@WhirlyBeepBoops Now that I think about it he does talk even in the games but it's always as a joke and he's in character the entire time...like the ending of It's about time he pretty much narrates the entire thing but you can still tell it's him In Skylanders he's acting completely out of character, he's too proper nowhere near as hyperactive and chaotic and he just doesn't feel like Crash
The thing that got me was that they dropped this without at least trying a game without the figures. I do not know how well the IP it’s elf was doing as Imaginators came out, because it was still doing a decent amount of merch over its life past the games.
I remember going to buy the game for a kid I had to take care of. I was there thinking about it and see a guy buying all the stuff for it. I hear "ok your total is $457" and said "nope fuck that."
The only skylanders I think are worth a dam might be cynder spyro malfore as a villain chaos as a concept could work stealth elf erupted could be the son of the evil golem from spyro ledgends that spyro beates in the third installment and that's it even characters like hax triger happy and stuff there generic and boring and ines literally base ball iron giant
@@hunterculpepper1973Spyro was just sued to give the first game leverage. Every other character was original to Skylanders and the Skylands world so they don’t have to fit in with Spyros lore
What also didn’t help is that some of the characters (not variants, core characters) were also extremely hard to find! Wanted to play the game as Voodude or Whamshell? Guess your gonna have to start a scavenger hunt then because those 2 basically don’t exist! Also didn’t help that Trap Team added 2 new elements. So not only do you need to buy the new trap team figures, trap crystals, and a new portal, you also needed to buy 1 light and dark element skylander, and you’ll probably buy the trapper characters due to trappers being the only ones to open portals in that game, which are more expensive than the regular ones. Edit: I forgot this. Also the new games had newer versions of older characters that had new abilities. So you still had to buy characters you already owned if you wanted them to be as powerful as possible.
if skylanders does ever come back with a remake i don't think they're going to use the figures, especially since they have a valid way to actually replace them with an in game collectable that would just need to be reworked a bit. Soul gems were a collectible in every game that gave figures you had a special ability they wouldn't be able to get without it. what they could do is rework the soul gems from that to being able to just unlock the characters flat out while also still giving the option for players who still have a collection to use their figures to unlock them early. thankfully with TFB separating from activision they may get the chance to give skylanders a second chance, especially since it's clear they still respect it to this day with references in a lot of the games they do now like the hourglass trap in the spyro reignited trilogy and the eruptor balloon in crash 4
I played the first 2 games as a young teen and loved them, but after that, even my younger self realized they were pushing too hard for my money. I still love my collection though. Hot Dog was my favorite!
5:44 Oh yeah, Chaos was voiced by Zims voice actor, who also voiced Moxxie from Helluva Boss 23:42 I Mean... Yeah, Stealth Elf was, kinda hot? So was Hex, Skylanders was... Well, one of those games where kids tormented their Parents to get the sets
Every time this guy calls himself "ancient" after saying he is 19 years old hurts my soul... were you even alive when the first Spyro came out on Playstation!?😭
![ROSÉ (로제) - number one girl [더 시즌즈-이영지의 레인보우] | KBS 241129 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A9oByH9Ci24/mqdefault.jpg)
Ah, my childhood. My parent's bank accounts almost collapsed.
imagine enjoying a kids thing
@@TheSoCalledZoner1 Skylanders is probably the first trend in my life where I could tell it just wasn't for me. It's the first instance in my life of being too old for something. Glad I grew up in a time before Skylanders because it greatly accelerated the demise of gaming as a viable pastime.
@@TheSoCalledZoner1 Oh believe me, I have. _Many, many_ times. It's been great!
Lol 😭
I stole my figure
They released 6 very expensive games in a row with real life products tied to them, and it was becoming a pain for parents to have to keep up with making sure little Timmy has every batch of $15 figures annually. Skylanders could have survived if Activision allowed the game to breathe. At least we got some great things as a result of Skylanders ending, like Crash and Spyro being brought back from the dead, and TFB separating from Activision. Hopefully they can make some more incredible games.
In my experience, having to buy new Portals (or sometimes new game consoles entirely!) just to play the new games was a HECK of a lot more limiting than buying the figurines. You can beat the entire Skylanders series with just one Skylander, but you CANNOT play every game with only one portal (at least until Trap Team on the 360 released).
Timmy if your in the comment section, don't worry, we don't judge 😅😂🤣
Ya I was a big fan and asked my parents to buy them whenever they saw them. They'd do this for certain Hobby's when I was a kid but they Quickly stopped this. Maybe a Skylander a birthday and Christmas at max
I'd hardly call Spyro back from the dead considering it's been 6 years with no new game in sight. All of the studios that helmed the Crash and Spyro revivals have been stripped away, especially after the Microsoft merger
7?
It’s unfortunate skylanders fell into the yearly release trap. Something that has now been catching up with the Pokemon games.
Totally, I'd imagine if there was more time put into the games and they weren't on yearly deadlines they would've slapped harder ngl
Pokemon's problem is more that they are holding onto a release schedule dreamed up when average game development time was only a fraction of what it is now.
back in the 90s 2 years to make a game was plenty. Especailly for a game on Nintendo's handheld consoles which were lower power in exchange for being mobile back in the 90s.
But games are bigger now and take longer but Pokemon still tries to maintain that same release schedule. Also gamefreak hasn't really expanded as a developer team compared to the scope of the games.
People like to act like Pokemon has infinite budget and the games are obligated to be peak AAA quality. But while the franchise itself is big it's ownership and production is also split between three different companies with profits futher split into making cards, making anime, and making games. It's not ALL getting funneled into game development.
So add lower than people might think game budget with a smaller than expected team ... it's honestly impressive the franchise had churned out as much as it has, especailly spin off titles, only some of which weren't made by gamefreak.
I'm not saying Pokemon games haven't suffered in quality or that the release schedule isn't a problem, but the reason is a lot different than Activision just milking the franchise into the ground out of pure greed.
Pokemon just needs to slow down and adapt more to the current market.
On a personal note I'd also say that the tradtional games should focus less on open world and more engaging RPG gameplay while letting the legends games expand on the open world, rather than trying to make the traditional games do a bit of everything.
@@metazoxan2 the newest announced pokemon game breaks the cycle atleast
I'm actually super grateful I'm still waiting for a Spyro 4 announcement. So far, he hasn't been tossed back into the yearly release blender.
@@metazoxan2I feel like there are good reasons why people expect AAA quality from nintendo, first off, the price tag, 60$ is just a AAA price, second off, the company itself, Nintendo is a juggernaut of the industry, and ANYBODY who still cares even slightly about pokemon today, was probably moulded by nintendo games, so of course we expect so much from Nintendo.
I LOVE how the show had the creative guts to keep Spyro evil THROUGH THE ENTIRE THIRD SEASON, with him ever so slowly regaining his free-will and his love for his friends.
And then they cancelled it. I also like how they had a different voice for evil Spyro. I remember Justin Long did his voice I don't remember who did the other voice for him
As a classic Spyro fan......who didn't care for anything past A Hero's Tail........why tf was he evil????
@@Tentegen he was infused with dark energy from an evil grimoire, it was a pretty good arc
@@osets2117 it was the same guy who voiced dipper from gravity falls
@@osets2117 Jason Ritter
A Spyro game with a darker tone? I'm pretty sure that's what the legend of spyro was.
And Spyro's Kingdom. But Nope, can't have anything too good.
Maybe they should make a Spyro game with a baritone.
@@matthewmatthew981how about two ongoing universes with the serious spyro and then fun goofy Spyro
shoutout to my fellow 'The Legend of Spyro' Fans
@@Eye-Of-The-Beholder There's dozens of us!
17:15 Amiibo uses NFC, which is part of why Skylanders don't normally work as amiibo. These particular crossover figures had to have _both_ tags.
Skylanders uses nfc as well.....
They specifically use a Miifare classic 13.56Mhz 2k chipset, with unwritable sector 0, you can scan skylanders on your phone if you have an NFC phone, and an app (in this case, the miifare classic tools app)
Skylanders also use nfc chips
@@doomawsogaming Same as Infinity, they're just coded differently.
@@ender01o66 more like they are different models of NFC tags in each game
I have 3 tote boxes in my closet full of Skylander toys, every single one ever made...it was an obsession
3:54 Gotta love how Cynder keeps being the best part about Spyro
Yep, I do like the reworked background to her being the daughter of Malefor in the skylanders continuity. Who in the legend of Spyro he was just an evil dragon.
@@bearerofbadnews1375oh it was reworked? I thought that was the Spyro lore
It's always Cynder
Back in my day, we all simped over Elora! I remember it like it was yesterday, heading home from school to play more Ripto's Rage with an onion on my belt (which was the style at the time).
What’s funny is that I’ve heard theories about Cynder or Spyro during the LoS days being a descendant of Malefor before Cynder being Malefor’s daughter became canon in Skylanders.
Alternative title: what ruined the idea of Toys to life
Can’t wait for “The Rise & Fall of Amiibo”
As much as I realise this game was kind of a scam as an adult, (10-20€ for every character). i still treasure the memories I had collecting it, drawing the characters, and learning the lore behind them. I still have yet tonplay the actual Spyro games, but when I do, I will always remember that this was my introduction to Spyro.
WHAT, I could get a 3 pack of skylanders for 3$ [2.77€] at my local toys r us. 20€ is awful for a plastic figure
@sunseed2752 that was what they cost when they were new. I'm guessing you got them at heavy discount. Normal characters were 10, specials like Giants were 20.
Weird, i went at least once a month to buy em, just that one store i guess @CeHee123
When I was a kid, I wasted my money on plastic miniatures that connected to video games.
Now, as a responsible adult, I waste my money on plastic miniatures AND video games.
Truly the most responsible adult I ever know.
Skylanders was the first introduction to Spyro for many in 2011-2016, much like how Legend of Spyro was for those in 2006-2008. I played the original Spyro games, even through the Legend reboot. Spyro being in Skylanders was confusing to me at first, and it took a bit for me to get used to his redesign, but I was reeled in when I played the first Skylanders game and enjoyed it, even though it's a different genre.
It's sad how Skylanders slowly crumbled. Activision didn't expect it to sell as well as it did when the first game was released in 2011, and when it did, they milked Skylandes to death like any other game that gave them big bucks. I think it could've lasted longer if Activision didn't have yearly releases made and gave Toys For Bob and Vicarious Visions time to develop the games. There were even some decisions that the devs didn't agree with, like Imaginators microtransactions, but Toys For Bob had to follow their parent company. A good nostalgic franchise for many with untapped potential ruined by company greed and game oversaturation.
Here's what needs to be done.
A) No more Skylanders.
B) Spyro 4.
C) In Spyro 4, make references to Skylanders and basically talk shit about that era considering Spyro isn't from that excuse of a franchise.
@@cubechan1938Ok boomer
@@xaxos9273 Ok infant
@@cubechan1938Someone's a little edgy today over someone else's childhood.
@@CrystalBlazier "There were even some decisions that the devs didn't agree with, like Imaginators microtransactions, but Toys For Bob had to follow their parent company."
At least Toys For Bob are independent now, so at least they can make their own decisions... I can't say the same for Vicarious Visions though.
Say whatever you want about Skylanders Spyro's old design, but you can't deny that at least Spyro's Academy redesign looks pretty dang good! In fact, I personally find it to be the most visually appealing of all of Spyro's designs. Don't get me wrong, classic Spyro is cute and menorable, but at the same time he always looked kinda wonky and awkward, with his stubby little wings/tail and that big bulbus Barney snout and whatnot. IMO Skylanders Academy Spyro is much more proportionately balanced, and maintains some of those "cute" elements that the classic Spyro had, alongside his more badass elements from Skylanders. But that's just me.
👍🏻
Yeah I like Spyro's Academy model out of all his other designs for the Skylanders franchise, it was cuter and more expressive. Makes me wish they used that model from the beginning.
I prefer the Skylanders design myself. The original ps1 design is simply too cutesy for me. I think they did a good job with the remake that came out a few years ago, I'm old enough to have played the original ps1 Spyro games but I wasn't interested. It was Skylanders that got my attention, as I liked the designs of the characters and I like isometric ARPG's.
I swear companies all run on cargo cult logic, with no concept of saturation. Then get confused that interest and demand don’t exist in perpetuity.
Almost every Skylanders game they released required you to buy a brand-new Portal device just to make your Skylanders compatible with the new game. Seeing as I have most of them, it would have been nice if they had made a final Skylanders game that allowed you to daisy-chain the Portals together to summon and command a Skylanders army.
No actually, the first portal from the first game works for every following game, the only one that’s properly different outside of just design is the one for trap team, but even then you don’t need to because the gimmick is optional
@@Marshadow01 This is just wrong. It takes a basic Google search to prove it, the Spyro's Adventure Portal on ALL platforms is not forwards-compatible with any game besides Giants. Is there some cross-platform compatibility of peripherals between PlayStation and Nintendo systems, yes but that has zero relevance because their game compatibility is identical. The Swap Force portal would fair a little better in regards to your statement if it weren't exclusively incompatible with the IMMEDIATELY following installment in the series, Trap Team.
TLDR, the existence of a universally-compatible Portal peripheral (as far as installments go, platform compatibility is its own can of worms) in the Skylanders series was not established until the release of Trap Team in 2014, THREE YEARS after the start of the franchise.
@@matthewmatthew981 weird, given how I’ve used my Spyros adventure portal for all following games
@@matthewmatthew981 "it would have been nice if they had made a final Skylanders game that allowed you to daisy-chain the Portals together to summon and command a Skylanders army."
I guess you can place the portals next to each other in a chain, which allows them to all work, even if only one is being powered.
@@ender01o66 yeah.
I had the unique pleasure of working in the ToysRUs R-zone during the heyday of the toys to life craze, I saw the first skylanders come out and got to see the entire thing unfold. At the peak of popularity the R-Zone was HALF toys to life figures, Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, and the Amiibos were the famous ones of course, but there were also also-rans and knock offs, like little 8-bit looking games that used like, ninja turtles minifigures, those Marvel electronic action figure things, and a couple others. It got really crowded there.
Also, for a personal anecdote, the glue that held the blister bubbles on the cards for skylanders wasn't very strong, and they would often pop off and fall out. I remember every time I went to work I'd run through the skylanders looking for popped blisters and taping them closed to make sure customers wouldn't give into temptation and steal the opened ones (yes, that is a thing, if a box is opened people will be inclined to steal the contents, but almost never actually open packaging to steal things themselves, a weird foible of the populace in my area.)
given that Bionicle was literally on their way out, LEGO really missed an opportunity using Bionicle for the skylanders like imo
Yo, that would've been such an incredibly fire concept ngl
Not only could they have saved the Bionicle franchise, but this would have let them tap into the older collector market that Skylanders wasn't grabbing.
It could have been the perfect way to carve out part of the market without over saturating the same customers.
But no ... instead they just went with Legofied Warner bros stuff ... sigh.
Skylanders ruled
i got into this franchise around midway through its lifespan with trap team but i fell in love with it ever since the setting was intresting the lore was intriging and the sheer number of characters and the concepts that they were based on hooked me hard
this might be an unpopular take but superchargers was my favorite i loved all the vehicle designs the story was in my opinion the best out of all the games and the fact they gave us DK AND BOWSWER as playable characters was just the cherry on top
13:59 Correction, the introduction of new "Gimmick" skylanders was NOT the primary gatekeeping tactic used to necessitate extra spending with each game that released, as you can technically beat every game with only 1 Core-series Skylander. Even Skylanders SuperChargers was programmed with a digital-only copy of the Hot Streak vehicle that you could summon if you didn't have a vehicle figure, and the other vehicle types were only needed for optional content.
The PORTAL peripherals that came with each game were a LOT more restrictive to the play experience as you needed to spend $25 for a new one to play basically every game, as the compatibility system was stupid and convoluted.
So by the time Trap Team finally released with its universal portal, parents had already wasted 50-75 extra dollars for no discernable reason.
I'm pretty sure any portal works with any main game except trap team.
Thinking about it for a moment, I'm surprised they didn't think about future proofing the portal of power by allowing its software to updated through the game (either storing the update in the game files or as midware to bridge connecting the portal to the internet to download a patch) and adding slots for installing additional hardware needed for the portal. Such hardware could be dressed up as statues or other architecture so your portal would look more grander as you got upgrades.
I guess such thinking is only good in hindsight as they had no idea the IP would take off like it did.
@@PlebNC What software needed to be updated?
@@ender01o66 The software on the portal. It's the main difference between the different portal as the RFID hardware would basically be identical. The software would likely state which RFID signals it accepts so instead of buying a completely new portal per expansion the player could instead just connect their portal to their console and install a patch to the portal via USB connection. The patch could be included in the game files or downloaded to the console then installed on the portal.
It's basically the same way PS5 controllers are updated.
@@PlebNC "The software on the portal. It's the main difference between the different portal as the RFID hardware would basically be identical. The software would likely state which RFID signals it accepts so instead of buying a completely new portal per expansion"
As they are now, different portals aren't required for the newer expansions, the game itself is. So, you'd just have to update the game like any other game that gets updates.
Also, the Swap-Force requiring a new portal for their Swap mechanic is actually a myth, since they work perfectly fine on the older portals in the later games that don't have portal restrictions.
Saberspark: "What RUINED Skylanders?"
Me: Company greed by releasing very expensive games yearly, with equally expensive micro-transactions, DLC level packs and in game paywalls disguised as toy figures.
I’m a Skylanders fan but a lot of people know eruptor was put up as a giant balloon in real life and crash 4
I always felt like pop fizz was one of the most well known skylanders too
I think my favorite part of the Skylanders games were the characters that you didn't even play as. Chaos and Glumshanks. Flynn, Callie, Hugo and Buzz. The Golden Queen, Wolfgang and even the Chompy Mage. The story and these characters were what made me keep coming back to this game.
well I mean, in trap team you can play as a fair number of them
@@toekneemart5597 Yeah, kinda. I personally never felt like the Trap Team Crystals were really like getting full new Skylanders characters unlike the actual main gimmick guys with the crystal weapons like Snap Shot(the Gator guy with the bow). The villains in that game were more Story Character than Skylander, you know?
I do admit though that some of the villains did become official Skylanders later on in Skylanders Imaginators. Heck, I still have the Wolfgang and Kaos Imaginator Skylanders figures but they started out as non playable characters so that's how I most remember them.
Activision. The masters of milking franchises.
as someone who has every single character that plays differently from each other, from all 6 games
yeah i'm a fan
and noticed that your SuperChargers sections was missing some detail
as you described SuperChargers
but the footage and the consoles you mentioned, are of SuperChargers Racing, a spin-off for the weaker hardware
also LEGO Dimensions did do a follow-up, sort off, as LEGO Dimensions would go by the idea of updating the game, year after year with new packs (year 1 has blue toy tags and year 2 has orange toy tags)
When I clicked on this video I was literally thinking, I hope it's gonna be Tom this time. Been binging through old PCP episodes and always great seeing you're still active!
12:31 RIP Cynder I guess. Also DK, Diddy, Bowser, Crash and Neo Cortex (and Coco Bandicoot in the animated series).
Am I the only one who likes all three iterations of Spyro?
You are not alone, brother!
23:38 Short answer, yes she is... one of them...
A little more detailed answer, Stealth Elf is one of the most popular Skylanders for a variety of reasons. Mainly because she's a total badass, but yes a lot of portal masters do find her pretty attractive as well, including myself. As a matter of fact, while Skylanders is not exactly the kind of game known for having a lot of "waifus" like Dead or Alive or anything like that, there are actually a fair amount of legitimately attractive female characters from the Skylanders series. Some portal masters probably didn't think or realize the attractiveness of certain Skylanders until they were much older, though a lot of formerly young portal masters did have a "childhood crush/waifu" that originated from Skylanders. For many of them it was Stealth Elf, though for me it was Ninjini who is easily the hottest Skylander in the whole franchise! If you don't know what she looks like, just look up Ninjini and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Call me a weirdo all you want, but you know it's true... Besides it's not uncommon for a "kids game" to have at least 1 legit waifu that many older gamers simp for. Like just look at Pauline from Mario or Rouge from Sonic for example, the intention behind their designs is pretty clear.
you're sick
@@rottytopszombiewaifu5249
i mean,who would blame you tho(aside from boom bringer being an dick to you or something T-T),
cuz I’m also attracted to them as well XD
Excuse me
@@BoomBringer Well... I am a zombie, I guess bein' sick is just in my nature? XD
Hey look it’s Skylanders, I like those. I thought this was a notif from one of my friends in the community and my jaw dropped when I saw it was actually Saberspark. I’m gonna make this comment and add edits as I go along.
1. From my knowledge, you kind of aren’t wrong on the Spyro not originally being a Spyro design. The original Spyro spinoff that eventually became Skylanders, Spyros Kingdom, had a Spyro design more in line with his later games, with another character simply named Red Dragon being the closest resemblance to Spyro as he appears in the official game.
2. This isn’t a game fun fact it’s been covered very well so far I just want to say that I wish to fight many Activision employees and I don’t think I need an explanation beyond that.
3. I am so sorry to Spyro fans they did you all so dirty.
4. Ah the gimmicks. They were always kind of a doubled edged sword, because yea, they were cool new guys that could interact with the game in a new way, but not only did they often make normal characters more obsolete, but locking a large chunk of your game behind characters that are even more expensive than your other characters when they aren’t even that special in the next game a year after is really scummy. Especially when they became as numerous as they did around 2014.
5. The Giants facts were a bit off so I’d like to just say them. For one, the giants were $15 I believe, rather than 20, but 5 buck difference isn’t crazy enough to blame you. There were 48 new figures released with giants, but 32 were either rereleases of older characters (with a new ability and pose to get you to buy them again), or versions of the figures that would light up for a slightly higher price. Giants only had 16 actually new characters.
6. While Swap Force was VVs first run with a console Skylanders game, they were actually heavily involved in the 3DS spin-offs, which were entirely different games to their console counterparts. They were even working on both versions of Swap Force simultaneously.
7. Trap Teams trap gimmick is still so pricy traps are so annoying. Also fun fact on top of the shiny paint jobs, the Elites were three times as powerful as their normal counterparts, so they were actually just busted.
8. Superchargers actually had a full 20 characters (8 of which were new movesets for older characters) and 20 vehicles, but this was reduced to 18 if you weren’t on Nintendo consoles (I assume that’ll be brought up in a moment).
9. The Wii and 3DS versions did have the Nintendo characters, but it was only the racing mode, as that was the 3DS spinoff for that game and they just also gave it to the Wii so people who couldn’t upgrade could still join (the same reason swap force and trap team have laughable Wii ports). The full game, with Bowser and DK, is playable on the Wii U though. Hey, it’s good for something at least.
10. Imaginators is such a disappointment in many of the communities eyes. It’s a fine game, mechanics wise, but it’s story and the way it’s randomly tied to the Netflix show that didn’t really follow canon at all while also not following the shows canon is annoying at best. Plus, there’s been a lot of content popping up here and there about a second year for Imaginators that would give us even more for the character creator, something I felt was desperately needed, even though I like what we got.
Sorry this comment got so long, I’m just really passionate about these dumb plastic guys. These types of videos are always so fun to watch as a longtime fan, and I’m glad this series still gets some recognition, even if it’s just to look back on what once was. Very good video. Looking forward to what’s next.
There's also the thing about them saying that you're required to have a new portal for Superchargers, when that's not the case,
using an older portal actually gives you the Instant characters,
and, the new portal wasn't required for the Swap-Force feature, as you can use the older portals in later games, and the Swap-Force work just fine on those.
I've heard that they load slightly slower, but it's barely any difference.
@@ender01o66you can use the SSA/Giants portals in later games?? I knew trap team required its own portal but assumed the other two could just use SSF and up. Neat. Needing new hardware for the swappers was the official reason we were given by the devs tho, which is probably where that info came from
I forgot about the instants, but you are right, I did know about those
@@skybricksgaming8392 Yeah, all portals work after Trap-Team iIrc.
"Needing new hardware for the swappers was the official reason we were given by the devs tho, which is probably where that info came from"
Despite this, they work regardless.
"I forgot about the instants, but you are right, I did know about those"
Yeah, you can only really use them all on the mobile versions of Trap-Team and Superchargers, though Instant Spitfire and Instant Hotstreak work in the console versions of Superchargers, I'm not sure about the Wii version though.
4:14
After this, then came a demo called Spyro’s Kingdom. Which has been officially released a few years ago for Skylanders’ 10 year anniversary or whatever.
Huh, the demo was released? I thought it was just shown off in a video, not that it was available to play.
@@ender01o66 Either what I said, or I got something wrong.
Honestly I think LEGO got the closest to doing this TtL thing in the most evergreen way. Unlike Skylanders and Disney, at least LEGO Dimensions came with _actual_ collectible minifigures. That was so smart, they don't _have_ to be used just for the game because they can seamlessly be integrated into every existing LEGO set collectors may already have. So even now that the game is long dead, these packs are still in _high_ demand because...they're still just rare minifigs.
I never played any of these things, but I bought _tons_ of packs on clearance just to get those sweet, sweet figures. I regret nothing.
People complain about this too much is all I know. It was such a pointless complaint, like oooooh he looks ugly, WHO CARES it's still Spyro.
Finally someone gets it
21:27
Cinder, Stealth Elf, and Hex were some of the top Waifus lol.
Imagine if they had combined Heroes of the Storm and Skylanders in which Skylanders could have pulled from Blizzard's roster for the concept.
What's Heros of the Storm?
Never would've expected SaberSpark to make a Skylanders video
I’m not gonna lie, the early 2000s and early 2010s era of companies doing weird shit like this with their games was awesome. Is it an absolute money sink? yes. Is it a cool novel idea? Also yes. Would it survive in todays gaming market? Probably not but I’d think it’s cool
Skylanders was a big part of my childhood. I was always amazed with how the toys to life concept worked as a whole with transporting the figures into the game.
Im ngl I was eating this era of Toys-To-Life tf up 😭😭😭🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hope This thing comes back man would love to even see somebody else attempted in the modern day
The thing that i liked about this series is where it was basicly a way to sell u dlc unlike litraly every other game when u payed for your dlc pack u actuly got a real figure. like it wasnt just a downlaod that u could only use in that single game it was a actual thing u could have and even use in all future games in the series. like honestly thats a soo much better way to have dlc cus you arnt just paying for a skin swap or a character unlock that can only be used once its a actual moddle that u can collect and display outside of the game. and hell if u collect all of them it makes for a really fun perma death of the entire series. like what i did once was lv all my skylanders up to max unlocked all there skills then played every game in the series from the start and if a character died then i couldnt use them again for all 6 games. makes for a really tense experience especially when u get to the 3rd game in and u only have a few characters left.
That is so true and undertalked
12:30
Gill grunt
Trigger happy
Drill Sargent
Chop chop
Tree Rex
Eye Brawl
Bouncer
Stealth elf
Erupter
Pop fizz
Wrecking ball
Ninjinni
Sprocket
Hex
Fright rider
Gear shift
Bash
Dinno rang
ECT ect
salty prude
Can we all agree on this?
Kaos and Wolfgang were one of the best villains in the franchise
Their Trap-Team bosses were awesome
Spyro really needs to make a comeback with a new original game like what happened with Crash Bandicoot.
I'm scared for a Skylanders Reboot. There's like a 70% chance they do NFTs or something like that and I don't want to see that future... (the other 30% is split between doing figures or just having online unlockables)
What ruined Skylanders was saturation and greed. There didn't need to be 6 different versions of the same figure that all basically function the same way but only look a little bit different, there didn't need to be 50 different add on items that are barely useful and there didn't need to be friggin vehicles! Which is a shame because most of the games are pretty fun. Fortunately they are easy to emulate these days
2:28 The fate of shareholders never depends on how well a product does. Only the ones who worked on it are at risk and even if it does well they're at risk. Executives don't have to worry about a thing because they have golden parachutes and investors can just pull out.
Great video, surprised Nitendo's Ammiibo wasn't mentioned though. They don't have they're own standalone game but similar idea I think.
I think that whilst Skylanders didn't invent the Toys to Life genre (as in the gaming style of physical figurines or toys being compatible with a digital game), it certainly gave it something of a rennaissance, and it seems that its final instalment was also the last big title for the golden age of the genre, the only thing to follow being Starlink. And I remember being super excited about each instalment, collecting the figures and finding my favourites, though I sort of lost interest from time to time - I only got the fifth instalment because I won it in a competition to design a Skylander (an tech element, inventor otter named "Ottermatic", just in case anyone was curious), and I didn't pick up the sixth, though I had some figures since Wolfgang was now a fully playable character, but I didn't get the game on any console, and now cannot find it on my console of choice. I really liked the concept of it, and the game wasn't half bad - it was passable, but when it was a turn off was when monetisation became too big a part of it.
What I actually found really quite inspiring is how despite it being an original franchise, it still outperformed Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions, even with their rosters of established characters with nostalgic connections. Part of it can be attributed to how restrictive Disney Infinity is in allowing crossovers, as you can only have specific characters play in specific levels (so no Disney characters showing up in Star Wars for instance), where all figures could be played in Skylanders, and also how Lego Dimensions just released one title and various expansions, and then decided to call it a day after Season 2, whereas Skylanders kept coming up with no only new characters, but new gimmicks. The fact you see so many of the figures in second hand shops can be seen as an indictment to how mass produced it was, especially when you consider how some are really cheap now, but then again it could be seen as the franchise having such popularity that everyone played it, and some found their favourite characters.
Why couldn't they treat it like an MMO and just have one game with regular updates?
I appreciate that you guys did a video on Skylanders, and I just wanted to add a few things. Regarding collecting figures, so my approach with each game was to usually get characters that either A. Unlocked more in-game content like elemental gates, ability zones, sensei shrines, or B. were just characters I found interesting and wanted to have. For example, Spyro was actually my favorite Skylander, and I ended up getting my hands on almost every variant of him that I could, even snagging the Eon's Elite Spyro.
However, as several people have pointed out, some of the pricing stuff was a bit off. At least from Spyro's Adventure to Trap Team, core characters were around $10 USD, while gimmick characters (Giants, Trap Masters, Swap Force) were around $15. Also, Lego Dimensions was much worse, as they were priced as much as small Lego set at the time. You also left out how some games like Giants and Imaginators had Portal Owner's Pack, which included just the game and one character. Even then, I recall starter packs costing around $60-90 USD, which is usually as much as the average triple-A game now a days. That being said, Skylanders and other Toys to Life games were still expensive investments, as I admit to not really spending much on other games outside of the occasional Steam purchase due to the amount I invested in unlocking all the collectibles in Skylanders (exception being Wizard101). The same time I stopped buying Skylanders was around the time the Switch was released, so I was able to move on from Skylanders. And for anyone who are still trying to complete their collection, that is even harder because some figures such as Row Bow now going for more than $400.
I would like to mention that one issue I had with Lego Dimensions was with the infamous Wii U version of the game, a version that was straight up unplayable and had glitches that barred players from hundred percent (such as one involving the tardis from the Doctor Who Level pack). To make matters worse, the characters were also fairly unbalanced in terms of abilities and powers, which became an even bigger issue with the Series 2 characters (Which had to be updated everytime you obtained one on the Wii U version). As for Disney Infinity, one issue that is fairly noticeable since the 1.0 was the choices of characters made the game feel like a cash grab, and were used as mostly tie ins for upcoming movies. This was mostly fixed in 2.0 and 3.0, but I still don't understand who thought that the Lone Ranger movie deserved it's own level in Disney Infinity. However, I can't really develop much of an opinion on Disney Infinity as I never played it.
As for Toys for Bob, they would actually go on to make both the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash 4, and I recall hearing that they've gone indie. So for anyone who had issues with Spyro's design, just know that Toys for Bob was able to redeem themselves in that regard.
I still have fond memories of this franchise, despite the financial toll on my allowance. They were my first ever Spyro games, and I still have my collection of figures, including some that belonged my friends. Also, in regards to crushes, I recall some of the female dragon characters including Cynder as well as Ninjini, Tuff Luck (thanks Robot Chicken), Roller Brawl, and a few others being relatively popular. Personally, Star Strike was my one of my first crushes, and later Splat.
I have to say, If I'm right here, right now, it's because of skylanders. I have to thank them for who I am.
I wasn't originally interested I video games. I had a hacked DS, but it wasn't the peak of my interest. But those figures caught my eye. I wanted some, even thought I didn't have the game. And so, for my birthday I had my first figure, the series 2 version of Gill grunt. I started collecting figures even though I didn't had the games. I started watching the promotional trailers of giants and the near-to- realease swap force. And on those Christmas, I was gifted a Wii with skylanders swap force. This was what made me interested in other video games like Mario galaxy and to look deep into the industry. It gave me friends of which I still hold memories and keep in contact with. Most of my birthday and Christmas presents were the figurines, and without them I wouldn't have enjoyed those holidays as much.
It has given me lots of joys, a lot of disappointments (ain't that right, Wii version of superchargers?), and I wouldn't have it any other way.
So thanks to skylanders, for forming the teen, man, and person I am today.
Universal to Vivendi to Activision to Microsoft...
I think Spyro has grown accustomed to the sensation of being *absorbed* at this point.🙃
My first job was at toys r us in 2016. We had 2 whole aisles next to the gaming counter filled with nothing but skylanders, being the majority and disney infinity figures. Then one day I notice people are buying alot of them. I wonder what's going on and a customer tells me that the games basically just died. It was so weird, I saw insane deals like buy one $20 skylander toy, get 4 free!! Never seen a store try to get rid of an item so fast. Next day there was like 10 figures left on shelves
Yeah dude same the first ever time I saw Spyro was in Skylanders. I never knew that he was from his own series of games, and eventually at one point I learned that he was from his series of games. So anyway, I’m glad that they did that with Spyro because for many people they wouldn’t know who Spyro was. I’m glad because it exposed a whole new generation to that character and I think that’s awesome.
Tip for creating a fantasy world: Actually create species rather then fill it with random monsters.
I never liked how there was no consistency with the SL's species. There were a lot of interesting designs, but it made the whole world feel less real and random.
It works in Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions because there toys are famous character.
Not just enemy designs either, as soon as Vicarious Visions came into the picture the idea of a consistent Skylanders design language flew out the window.
Which sucks, because the design asthetic of the first two Skylanders games, especially the trailer for Adventure was the best in my opinion.
There are species. There's mabu, trolls, elves, ents, dirt sharks, gillmen and more. The reason why each species look so different is because they've evolved separately due to being isolated on the islands, like animals in real life.
For me it's the contrary. I love how almost anything could exist in Skylands, be it as an established species with various different kinds within the species, or isolated entities as a whole.
There have been established species too. In a number of different variations.
Elves and trolls, dragons, phoenixes, gryphons, robots, ghosts, vampires, skeletons, golems, treants, elves on skeletal ostriches, an ancient culture of mago-technical monstrosities by way of the Arkeyans which have at least three Skylanders tied to them (Drill Sergeant, Bouncer and Chop Chop), and probably some others.
Every Skylander did in fact have a backstory to them too, a number of times describing places never seen in the games. On one hand, i can see that being a lot of bloat in worldbuilding, but on the other hand, it reinforced for me just how big Skylands was.
Nigh any creature you can and cannot think of, could be alive in this immeasurably wide, ever-stretching world of childhood fantasy, where not even the sky is the limit.
A more in-depth look at the *individual* skylanders would have been nice, because i want to see more of the individuals and not just the larger picture. External material didn't always supply that with the desired Skylanders.
Still, though. Amidst all the impressive work in stories all around us, with the establishing of species, histories, families, countries and relations between them, on such grand and in-depth scales as seen in for example Elden Ring and Lies of P, I value worlds like the Megastructure from Cookie Cutter or Zenozoik from the Zeno Clash games no less.
To clarify: In Cookie Cutter, there are mutants and robots powered by human souls, and both can take very different shapes even within their pseudo-species. Like tentacle people and a buff anthropomorfic seagull for the mutants, or a floating spiritual oracle shaped like a young woman, or a lounging metal skeleton with an afro for the robots.
And the same goes for the Zenos from Zenozoik. A world of freaks, chimeras, monsters, pre-historic anthropomorfic animals, obese turkey men, creatures who willingly decide to simply go insane one day to pursue one single goal, no matter how absurd-- you never know what new abomination you may find next, and they're still all just Zenos.
In essence, i don't think that Skylanders having different monsters and characters, and few specific species, was a weakness of it at all. A hard disagree from a random internet stranger like me on that front.
At worst, i'll say that it's a double-edged sword, because it's not within the tastes of some people, like you, for reasons you describe. Or perhaps others. And the opposite for me for reasons i already described.
But where it concerns the in-world lore, more attention and expression on the individual Skylanders' side might have been fun.
Perhaps a bit of a messy comment, but i nevertheless hope that if one took the time to read it all through and take the words into consideration, it has proven interesting.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and have a good one.
Man how I missed this series. Swap Force was my first game which I played with my brother a long time ago.
Angry birds go and Star Wars pretty much copied what skylanders did later
Wanna know something funny? Ubisoft also tried to jump on the toys-to-life bandwagon when it was already dying, and as a result they had to give up before their 2nd toy wave came out and made those toys digital-only
I think Lego Dimensions was the most creative and interesting out of all of the toys to life games. Not only did it offer a more interesting story (at a time multiverse stories weren't even a thing yet) but you could play with the toys *as toys* They were literally just lego figures you could pop out of their stands unlike Skylanders and Disney Infinity that were permanently stuck on which made them feel more like figurines than the 'toys' they were advertised as. What I thought was particularly fun about LD was you actually got to make the toys you bought because they were literally made of Lego, and with the vehicles they each had three alternatives designs you could mix around. Unfortunately it came out way too late, the trend was on its deathbed when the game hit shelves.
Well, well, well. Looks like you're finally talking about the once iconic Skylanders (2011-2016 ). 😏 😔
Yea, if you ask someone who didn't get into Skylanders to name a character that isn't Spyro (or Cynder) they'll likely give you nothing. If you ask someone who did get into Skylanders you'll either get whoever was their favorite character/figure (usually from the original game line-up) or you'll get Kaos (cause Zim VA playing Zim 2.0).
Or they'll start listing out every character that ever existed, but they can't list all of the Disney or Lego characters.
The issue was sometimes after week 3 or 4, most stores in certain states or counties didn’t get the figures or have enough of them. I remember seeing Blackout(who I bought thankfully)/Spotlight/Echo at ToysRus once and never again due to how low the supplies. Now they’re like $80-$90 each
How is there not already a What Ruined Angry Birds video? I mean seriously it's like the King of things that were ruined.
One dream: a new Skylanders game without using toys to unlock characters.
As a HUGE fan, I'd say either by competence and concept relevancy decreasing [actually both] (I stood by the end of Imaginators, a year later, POOF, the franchise vanished)
Man, I miss Skylanders, its my childhood
I btw did name other Skylanders than just Spyro or Cynder. Sonic Boom, Flashwing, Whirlwind, Drobot, Camo, Sunburn, Zap, Pop Thorn, Chill, Hot Dog, Funny Bone, Trail Blazer, Flip Wreck, Echo and others are still among my favorite playable characters but yeah the yearly release was overkill. It was hard finding certain Skylanders because of that in local stores. They should have gone every 2-3 years instead. Also Kaos and Zim would get along so well
Skylanders was made to be a reboot (another one) OF Spyro
The worst part about the rare varents was that store employees would not put them on the shelf and bought them there selves for the extra profit from collectors who would be willing to pay scalper price for it
True, the worst one for me was Red Camo. It was only in Europe in a randomized starter pack where you got 2 figures(this was released in mid 2014). I’d love to get the figure until it’s minimum $600-$800
@phanpyken986 even the last play set was not released in the USA for what I know. The tree in the last game I think it was
@@phanpyken986 Plus, you could only get him if you bought a TV too
16:37 Skylanders Superchargers actually doesn't require you to use the new portal, in fact, using the older portals allows you to unlock an exclusive vehicle and character variant.
Pretty sure the only game that requires a specific portal is Trap Team
@@Ashurman666 Which is the only one they don't mention, funnily enough. If you have the Trap-Team portal, you can use it with any console game.
And, the Swap-Force portal isn't required for Swappers either.
@@ender01o66 Fortunately the games are easy to emulate on RPCS3 nowadays, even Trap Team which used to have some issues is now fully functional
@@Ashurman666 Yeah, and on Dolphin and Cemu too.
@@ender01o66 Never tried on those. I know RPCS3 has a full figure collection dump that is very easy to find, not sure if the same files can be used on other emulators.
I only got Skylanders because of the crossover with Bowser in the last 3 games: Superchargers racing, Superchargers, and imaginators. As a longtime huge Mario fan, and someone who's wanted Bowser to star in his own adventure, I was forced into finally buying the Skylanders. Also they made Bowser have handsome body armor!!!! 😍
I was definitely shocked when I found out that Spyro had his own game series before Skylanders
The original Spyro was a million times better than Skylanders. There, I said it. IDGAF how old it gets, what Activision did to my purple boy was unforgivable. They graped my childhood. I'm 32 now, and even if everyone forgot him I will never let go of the fun times I had with the little dude in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Frankly, I’m more surprised that ANYONE believed that Skylanders was the introduction to the character.
How no one knows about the original games by Insomniac Games, aka famous for the Ratchet & Clank series and Spider-Man..?
Wtf... wow.
I honestly had no idea.
This has really truly been my first moment of existential dread. I'm getting old and one day I'm going to die. And people 8 years younger than me don't know spyro...
yikes.
To be fair, I was the same way, but that was mostly because of my age
Having played Reignited (something, I note, I would never have played had it not been for Skylanders introducing me to the character in my childhood), I get it now. Those games are so damn good, and I get why fans were so upset seeing Spyro turned into a marketing tactic, even if it did effectively give him a lifeline until Reignited brought him back to his glory days.
I knew only one thing about Skylanders beyond the commercials, and that's the fact that Crash Bandicoot shows up in the show, with not just voice acting, but lines.
Skylanders's main gimmick was the toys came to life in the game and you need the toys to play the games.
i LOVED skylanders as a kid... my mom... did not
toys for bob just finalized an agreement with microsoft for their first independent game
12:30 Chill Bill, that's my answer
1:21 It was a red dragon design, actually
The thing that killed it for me was no competiive scene. There's the battle thing in the game. I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity to make it like pokemon vidoe game championships around it. Or at least online wifi pvp matches Outside the main story it was a game I'd finish and after have very little reason to play until a new chacter wqs released imo.
as an avid spyro fan I HATED skylanders for what they did to spyro, until like 6 years later when i found out about the canceled spyro movie and realized skylanders was actually heaven sent
lol
Wow if I had a Nickel for every game Franchise that was ruined thanks to company greed I would have enought nickes to buy a Car
Make that nickel a dime and you'd be a millionaire!
ea would like to make you a zillionare
imagine enjoying a kids thing
@@TheSoCalledZoner1 I'm imagining it
The games should've stopped at Trap Team, they had no interesting ideas after that.
I feel like superchargers would have been a good stopping point storywise if you ignore the cars
You literally face off against the darkness and make the big bad join your team
I got the games again and i need an xbox to play it again and im gonna have some fun
I DID RESPECT, and was also Interested in the Character Designs thou!
Loved the hell outa the first 2 games,but the rest basically became "what if we did less for pushing out more figurines for money" it had a really good story but later the amount of skylanders that got really expensive was scummy and thats what made me not get any game after skylander giants
Funnily enough I had that exact same feeling when I was younger. First two games were incredible and then afterwards I didn't bother with the rest and that's even with several people saying that Swap Force was one of the best in the franchise
If you owned a Wii (Nintendo Wii?) when they games came out then I have a STRONG suspicious as to why only the first 2 games were appealing to you. (I say this as someone who owned a Wii at the time and struggled HARD to get through the rest of the series; Still haven't played Imaginators.)
@@matthewmatthew981 yeah,you are 100% percent correct.I owned a wii and this game was a HUGE appeal to me on that system.Tbh i saw it was on xbox too but it just felt odd to be on that system.Also tbh it started to become hella expensive to keep up with the figurines since i didnt grow up having so much money at all so i only had like 1 skylander per attribute sadly thats also the reason i became dulled out by the rest after the second one because even more apparent even for me when i was 10-12 around the time that it became more of a fast cash grab even though some of the new mechanics were game changing.
I never even finished the first one cuz I refused to until I had all the Skylanders 😢
I felt it was scummy in the first game already. I can't access this entire gameplay mechanic or sometimes even area unless I buy more figurines? Seriously?! The game was already expensive, the nerve to force people to pay more otherwise you cannot access the entire game...
Make me pay full price for a game, give me the full game. Not this weird set-up :/
Skylanders was my first introduction to Spyro, and Justin Long will forever be my favourite voice actor for him
My justins long too ;)
What a horrible thing to say
@@christinabutterfield1801 No it isn’t
Same here
Oh hi didn’t expect to see you here
I love Skylanders. I look back on it fondly to this day. I think the downfall really started after swap force. In my opinion, I believe they failed to grow with their audience. And they stayed very comfortable with what they were doing not really expanding out of their bubble. The gimmicks were cool, but overtime, my old characters that I really loved became more and more useless. And we’ve always wanted like a show, which was also very good. Happened to come a little too late. It came out of time. The audience was growing out of it, because it didn’t wanna grow with us. I’d love to make a return one day, but that’s the main reason I think it fell off at least for me personally
I used to love Skylanders when I was a kid. The whole “make your parents pay hundreds of dollars for plastic!” model is scummy but I will admit that some of the character designs went hard
I graduated highachool im 2011 so was a bit outside the target demographic by the time this came out. I do remember being like "wait new Spyro game?" My younger nephew was obsessed with the franchise tho, lol.
not a fan of Skylanders but I would not be opposed to a full-fledged Spyro video. the franchise has switched hands so many times and there's a surprising amount of lore behind the scenes
Say what you want about Spyro in Skylanders, but Skylanders helped Spyro stay in the public consciousness. Reignited would not exist if it weren’t for Skylanders being the lifeline he needed at the time.
@@SandwitchZebranot at all....
@@FREGFAT You sound kind of biased. Spyro wasn’t that big, and the people who made the trilogy were the people who made Skylanders.
Ledgends might be my favorite spyro games remake that and I'll buy it it's worth 60 dollars but the original spyro games are not worth 60 dollars there not worth 40 there not wieth 20 all together because it's all a character who glides and uses just fire it's boring and the gane has aged only slightly well but spyro ledgends knows it probably has aged well it had to of cause If it dosint cyder and malfore wouldn't be more know and popular than kripto or anyone else like gnastu nork should be also pathiect the games bosees are to easy maby it's cause mortal kombat tekken and shit are tryharding but either way I think spyro is boring along with skylanders apart from 6 unique characters spyro ledgends spyro is pretty much exactly hero at this point his power are great
@@SandwitchZebra and skylanders wouldn't exist without ledgends because that the reason the game had spyro in the first place spyro went the way of sonic for his last 4 games before ledgends re did the character arguably fir the better and skylanders wouldn't of used em if he wasn't popular again because ledgends revied the character did you know the last spyro game wasn't spyro orage before ledgends no it was a extremely sluggish slow boring top down rpg and that is why ledgends did more than skylanders could were dark spyro cyder and malfore come from and dark spyro even got featured in crash run so you can't argue spyro ledgends wasn't suppeair in every way
Skylanders Spyro isn't real he can't hurt you
Skylanders Spyro: 👁️👄👁️ (word's cannot describe how much I hate that design)
Also let's not forget they gave us TALKING CRASH BANDICOOT....yet another abomination that shouldn't exist
Though not the first time Crash talked (He did some in old commercials), it was really weird. Can't help but wonder why they didn't have Aku Aku talk for him like in the game...
@@WhirlyBeepBoops Now that I think about it he does talk even in the games but it's always as a joke and he's in character the entire time...like the ending of It's about time he pretty much narrates the entire thing but you can still tell it's him
In Skylanders he's acting completely out of character, he's too proper nowhere near as hyperactive and chaotic and he just doesn't feel like Crash
The thing that got me was that they dropped this without at least trying a game without the figures. I do not know how well the IP it’s elf was doing as Imaginators came out, because it was still doing a decent amount of merch over its life past the games.
I remember going to buy the game for a kid I had to take care of. I was there thinking about it and see a guy buying all the stuff for it. I hear "ok your total is $457" and said "nope fuck that."
Skylanders got the mobile game treatment, ditching it's original toys gimmick and being sentenced to the same fate as 2010s Rayman:p
The only skylanders I think are worth a dam might be cynder spyro malfore as a villain chaos as a concept could work stealth elf erupted could be the son of the evil golem from spyro ledgends that spyro beates in the third installment and that's it even characters like hax triger happy and stuff there generic and boring and ines literally base ball iron giant
@@hunterculpepper1973Spyro was just sued to give the first game leverage. Every other character was original to Skylanders and the Skylands world so they don’t have to fit in with Spyros lore
Rip Skylanders… one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time
I still adore the first two games to this day no matter if they had any flaws ^-^
@@V3r0nicleI love Skylanders imaginators also Skylanders supercharger is available on the PlayStation store
@@animezilla4486woah it’s on xbox too
👍🏿
@@V3r0nicle I agree. The first two were perfect.
What also didn’t help is that some of the characters (not variants, core characters) were also extremely hard to find! Wanted to play the game as Voodude or Whamshell? Guess your gonna have to start a scavenger hunt then because those 2 basically don’t exist!
Also didn’t help that Trap Team added 2 new elements. So not only do you need to buy the new trap team figures, trap crystals, and a new portal, you also needed to buy 1 light and dark element skylander, and you’ll probably buy the trapper characters due to trappers being the only ones to open portals in that game, which are more expensive than the regular ones.
Edit: I forgot this. Also the new games had newer versions of older characters that had new abilities. So you still had to buy characters you already owned if you wanted them to be as powerful as possible.
How many what “happend to Skylanders” videos do we really need
- Yes
if skylanders does ever come back with a remake i don't think they're going to use the figures, especially since they have a valid way to actually replace them with an in game collectable that would just need to be reworked a bit. Soul gems were a collectible in every game that gave figures you had a special ability they wouldn't be able to get without it. what they could do is rework the soul gems from that to being able to just unlock the characters flat out while also still giving the option for players who still have a collection to use their figures to unlock them early. thankfully with TFB separating from activision they may get the chance to give skylanders a second chance, especially since it's clear they still respect it to this day with references in a lot of the games they do now like the hourglass trap in the spyro reignited trilogy and the eruptor balloon in crash 4
Yeah, replace the Soul Gems with statues of the Skylanders, and you can then free them by approaching them. It'd be just like the original Spyro game.
I played the first 2 games as a young teen and loved them, but after that, even my younger self realized they were pushing too hard for my money. I still love my collection though. Hot Dog was my favorite!
5:44
Oh yeah, Chaos was voiced by Zims voice actor, who also voiced Moxxie from Helluva Boss
23:42
I Mean... Yeah, Stealth Elf was, kinda hot? So was Hex, Skylanders was... Well, one of those games where kids tormented their Parents to get the sets
ARE YOU FUCKING?!!?
Every time this guy calls himself "ancient" after saying he is 19 years old hurts my soul... were you even alive when the first Spyro came out on Playstation!?😭