Skylanders question...

[WCP]

My kid got Skylanders Giants for the Xbox 360 as a Xmas gift. He told me that he really wants the first game, the Spyro one. So, now that he has the Giants version, what does he need to get to play the first game ? Does he just need the game disk for the Spyro game ? Does he need the special portal thing from the first game, or will the one from Giants work fine with the first game ? I'm assuming he would need characters from the first game ?


Basically, looking for the most economical way to get him the Spyro game so he can play that as well as "giants".


thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions.

[Spartacus]

To the best of my knowledge, none of the Skylander's Giants characters work with Skylander's Adventure. All of the Skylander's Adventure characters work in Skylander's Giants.

I honestly don't know if the portals are interchangeable, but he will need one character from each of the nine elements to complete Skylander's Adventures. With those nine characters plus the three included with Skylanders' Giants, he can complete Giants without buying any more characters. That probably won't help him much, but it was nice for those who started with Adventures first. The Skylanders Adventures characters are often heavily discounted now, so that should help somewhat, and he was going to need characters from all nine elements from either Adventures or Giants to complete Giants as well.

The Wii editions of the Skylanders games were well reviewed to I decided to add them to my Wii collection recently. Between the two games, the add on packs and the minimum number of characters to finish both games, I was chagrined at how much I spent in total. Plus I bought a bag to store the characters in as well!

I haven't played any of the games yet, but they look fun from the clips I watched on You Tube.

[Sailorneorune]

If you have the portal from either Skylanders game (Spyro's Adventure or Giants) for your console of choice, then you can use that for both games. If you can find Spyro's Adventure without the portal, pick it up. As for the Skylanders figures - characters introduced in Spyro's Adventure will work on both it and Giants. New characters (such as the Giant figures and new regular ones like Fright Rider) will only work on Giants. To help (my fiance noticed this and did a great job explaining it to me) the original Skylanders figures have green plastic bases. The Giants line have orange bases.

Green base figures work in both games.
Orange base figures for Skylanders introduced in Spyro's Adventure work in both games (example - series 2 Cynder, who comes with the 3DS Starter pack)
Orange base figures for Giants and new Skylanders only work in Giants.

Skylanders can get confusing, but I hope this helps.

[WCP]

he will need one character from each of the nine elements to complete Skylander's Adventures.

So, you're saying, for him to completely finish Spyro's Adventures (the first Skylanders), he needs 9 of those freaking things ? I thought you could still finish the game with the basic pack, but that most kids would just want to collect the other guys to use them in their game, but didn't know that it was absolutely mandatory to have 9 of them. Man, what a money-grubbing scheme this whole Skylanders thing is !

[Spartacus]

I was mistaken. There are 8 elements, not 9. ie:

Water
Tech
Earth
Magic
Fire
Undead
Life
Air

Three elements are included in the starter packs, and the game can be played with those three. However, you'll need at least five additional characters beyond the starter pack (one of each element) to unlock the hidden areas of the game. This is true for both games.

Skylanders Adventures also received 4 expansion packs creating new areas to explore in the game:

Empire of Ice
Darklight Crypt
Dragon's Peak
Pirates Seas

I suspect Giants will receive it's share of expansion packs as well.

With over 50 characters, store exclusives and rarities already - it's a great game for collectors not on a budget.

[Zthun]

So, you're saying, for him to completely finish Spyro's Adventures (the first Skylanders), he needs 9 of those freaking things ? I thought you could still finish the game with the basic pack, but that most kids would just want to collect the other guys to use them in their game, but didn't know that it was absolutely mandatory to have 9 of them. Man, what a money-grubbing scheme this whole Skylanders thing is !

No, you can compete the game with just the 3 starter skylanders. You don't need 8 figures. If you want to get 100% of the game, you will need at least 8 figures to access all areas, but if you just want to beat the last boss and experience the story, then the 3 starter ones are enough.

[dsullo]

Someone was a marketing genius with this game. I recently got into Skylanders as well , we received the Original Game, Portal and 1 figure as a gift. I have since bought about 7 figures. As you play - you will want to unlock all the areas to get all the goodies. It can get expensive.

[Az]

Skylanders can get confusing, but I hope this helps.

In the bottom corner of the packaging of the characters there's a square that says if they will work on the original game or the giants version.