Kinda surprised no one on here has posted about this already...

I read a bunch about it, bought way more of the figures than I should have, and tried it this past weekend.

The game is more difficult than I thought it would be, and feels a lot like Toontown did to me in that it's marketed to kids and the intention seems to be that parents get it for their kids, play it with their kids, and then notice that there's plenty for adults to like too.

...or in my case, I notice it for one reason or another, look into it out of curiosity, realize it looks like fun, buy it for myself, play it, and enjoy it!

Anyway, if you're thinking about it, I recommend it. If this is the first you're hearing about it, I apologize for making you aware (sort of).

Was looking at this the other day. So how is it? Thinking of getting it and a bunch of the "figures" for the Nintendo Wii. I notice they arent really marketing it as a Spiro the Dragon game in the TV commercials, I have noticed most the commercials I have seen only advertises it as Skylanders. Now I have played some of the previous Spiro the Dragon games and enjoyed those.

I haven't played any of the other Spyro games, but from what little I know of them, this is very different...

The main gameplay is a lot like Gauntlet: Legends... 3/4 view, and you move your character around and hit buttons to attack. Your characters can get experience and gold which opens up ways to augment your characters, and you can augment them further with hats you can find.

There are also minigames that come up... I've only seen two so far, one where you point and shoot (like Duck Hunt or something similar) and a rotation puzzle game.

While you can't jump, there are platforming elements... There are points on the ground that launch your character into the air, and you have to maneuver well enough to land on the next chunk of ground. The difficulty is pretty varied, but the stakes are low - you won't ever die because you miss a jump.

There's a lot of incentive to own at least one character from each element (there are 8)... Certain areas are tied to an element, and characters of that element are more powerful in those areas. Also there are areas you can't get to unless you have the right element. For instance, a gate will come up that only a magic guy can unlock... Fortunately, you only need one of each (though I'd recommend two water guys if you're planning to play with someone else). And you can unlock abilities for specific characters by finding gems, and it'll show you a little cut scene (essentially an advertisement, showing you how awesome that guy is and daring you to not own it (and continuing to live a meaningless existence... GO BUY THE CHARACTER!!! (not all of them are available yet, so some of them you can't...))).

If you want a look at what combat is like, the gameplay videos easily found around online are good at showing it. The one thing I'd say is that they don't get across the difficulty of the game. It's not all THAT hard, but it's harder than I was expecting it to be (which is good). ...with one exception... There are special levels tied to each character that are very hard. I only played one of them once so far, but I failed pretty badly and it was clear I'd need to try at least a couple of times before I was going to beat it.

Thanks for the additional info on the game. I am just wondering how long its going to be before you have stores like Walmart and Kmart putting the "figures" on clearance in order to move the stock they have on hand, or how easy it will be to find the additional "figures" a couple months from now (short of ordering them online).

I did notice the other day when I was in Walmart that they were advertising and Exclusive Skylanders figure, yet they did not have a single one of it in stock. That makes me wonder if there are other exclusives for places like Best buy and Gamestop now.