Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack - Xbox 360

I am 32 years old and consider myself a huge fan of the first two Skylander games and now the 3rd release "Swap Force". I enjoy the playing the games with my kids, they also love it and it has been enjoyable to do something together as a family. I will gear my review toward veteran players of the Skylander series. So far so good, at first I was slightly disapointed because I put Flameslinger (series 2) on the portal and the Xbox controller buttons are different from Giants. Now that there is the ability to Jump (A), they reconfigured all the buttons. Instead they could have just just utilized (Y) for jump since it was not used in Giants. My gripe is that Flameslinger's Wow Pow speed boost has to be used by pressing my index (X) and middle finger (B), hardly manageable. On Giants I could just use my thumb (X,A) for speed boost. I imagine this same issue will reoccur with older figures, especially ones with abilities that require multiple button pressing. It is a minor quibble but slightly frusrating since Flameslinger is my character of choice. **update**Problem somewhat solved: The right upper trigger button will work for speed, then I hold (X) for super speed. There are a few other disapointments and I'll get those out of the way. - No more Heroic Challenges. But this is also kind of good considering I don't have to go through 32 heroic challenges to ugrade my character's stats any more. Which makes resetting my character to change alternate "paths" easier, or less painful. **update** There are similar challenges to Heroic Challenges called "bonus missions" which are fun and very challenging. The main difference is you do not have to purchase more characters to unlock these, you only have to earn them in the game by completing "Swap Zone" challenges and other side missions. - No areas for swimming for water element characters or fire areas that require a fire element character (lava world), like we saw on a few levels in Spyro's Adventure (as I have played so far). I was hoping Swap Force would return to and expand upon this! - Old Adventure Packs (Dragon's Peak, Empire of Ice etc.) will not give you an extra level like they did before, only can be used as a majic item. I am not sure yet if they will give you an extra battle arena or not either, I don't think they do. - Graphics/ resolution seemed fuzzy at first. So I purchased a 6$ HDMI cable from Amazon, problem solved. Now for the positives- - Excellent resolution, lighting, graphics with my new HDMI cable. -Tons of variety and new gamplay. Every level so far there has been a "WOW" moment. The levels are a lot longer than Giants, like at least twice as long. -Multiple difficulty levels and some more challenging content for older gamers. - New stuff includes: fishing; new mini games, river rafting, really cool side-scrolling bonus areas. -Tons of elemental zones, brand new Swap Zones for Swap Force characters only- such as climbing, flying, and racing, and secret areas a plenty. - New survival mode battles - they are kind of like the arena battles in "Giants" but longer and more challenging. - The new characters are AWESOME! In particular LightCore Smolderdash- She looks great as a figure, you set her on the portal and her eyes and fire hair glow red. In the game she's even more awesome, she powers up by catching on fire which then makes all of her other attacks more devastaing (whip attack, firey explosions etc.). She has short downtime after powering up, where she then "Smolders", in which the flame dims and smoke rolls off her dark figure, very cool. My kids also love the new ability to swap halves to make new characters. In Summary: It's hard to imagine that Activision can continually come up with new and unique characters that differ from the many others already made but they continually do just that, it's amazing. Overall, Swap Force is a beautifully mastered work of art with stunning visuals, breathtaking landscapes, a great soundtrack bending from new age classical to a bit darker edgey electronica. It's gameplay is witty, challenging and addictive, which makes me conclude it should be the Game of the Year if not Game of the Century! Enjoy, Portal Masters!

Bought this on sale, half price, here on Amazon for Christmas. The game has worked fine. It arrived quickly in its original packaging. Haven't had any issues with it yet and we are three months in. Great little game for younger and older kids. I like that it doesn't split screen to play. My son loves being able to swap guys out at anytime. I thought this would be a nightmare to keep all the pieces together but it hasn't been because my son wants all the pieces right there while he is playing so that he can use different guys. This has helped him to keep them picked up and together. The only thing I don't like… and this isn't the manufacturer or designers fault (which is why I didn't ding the stars) is that it is a 'collector' type game. If you buy an older version and want to buy the guys… they stop making them and the collectors charge stupid ungodly amounts of money for the old discontinued characters. I understand why the company discontinues and all, but it would also be nice for something to not be a money grab. Again… not the companies fault, per se. But it would just be nice. That is what made us not buy any of the older versions. But all in all… this was worth every penny :)

This is absolutely the best game in the series so far! There is way more to do in the game outside of the story mode, so it gives you more involvement and adds incredibly to replay value. It finally added a jump feature so now it has more of a platforming/adventure feel to it. It makes it feel less linear. Also, and this is a small but nice thing, the various lands you go to are inhabited by different races, some of them similar to the Skylanders themselves, so it makes it look more like the Skylanders are just the best of the existing races, and not some strange mysterious mystical god-like creatures that appeared from nowhere. The new characters also don't seem too forced or dumb: they are just as creative and original as the first and second series (something that can't be said for a lot of games, e.g., Pokemon) and you can still use all your old Skylanders as well. One downside; you do have to buy a pack with the new Portal as the old one won't read the Swapables, but the new portal should work with your old games so you shouldn't have to worry about switching between hardware all the time (I haven't tried that myself yet, but I've read multiple times that it is the case and if it's on the internet it must be true! Right?)

Missing poster and cards

I bought this game for my 5 year old, who has been frustrated with other video games, and he loves it. Our Eye Doctor told us that our son needed to wear a patch with his glasses several hours a day to strengthen his left eye (+6) as his right is near perfect. The Doctor recommended playing Video games while "patch training." The first few games I bought were very frustrating for Him AND me, as he is not used to using his weaker eye or using a video game controller, and it was hard to get him to play for long. He is really excited to play this game. The controls are fairly forgiving and easy to learn. Even our three and a half year old has started to play it. Still some parts are too challenging for both of them, but overall they love it. and I like the game too. Very Kid friendly. The "Heroes" don't die, they just get tired and when one player picks up the gold/treasure/special item, both players get it too (one player can't hoard it all).

My 5 year old plays and both her and I (age 28) enjoy the game. great for everyone!

Great fun game mind you there is a lot of other parts to buy. But it's still a fun game for anyone

I bought this for my daughter as a christmas present and she loves it. she has been playing it non stop

Great price and was delivered well before the estimated shipping date!