Observations: Controller Shake

We upgraded to the WiiU from the Wii in preparation for Swap Force, and in general as the Wii is an older system. One thing we've noticed is the change in opening treasure chests and doors. Without my prompting, my son commented that he misses the Wii remote shake used to open these items in Giants and SSA. I have to agree! It was fun, adding some energy to the game. I really had a smooth and efficient wrist twist and flip to insert and turn the keys to open doors. Come to think of it, I really miss that!! Lol.

Anyway, I understand keeping that feature would likely have been responsible for countless WiiU Gamepads hurling through the air, impacting the skulls of many a younger brother, sister or parent!! Not to mention the cost of replacement Gamepads. However, we have played Swap Force on WiiU with the standard controllers and, sadly, they have removed the feature when using those too-:(

I have an idea...why not give you the option for both ?!? Yeah! 

With the recent announcement of "Skylanders 4" in development, hope springs eternal!!!

Dark Washbuckler arrives via the WiiU Gamepad

Have a Holly Jolly Bumble Blast!

Stopped into GameStop on my way into work this evening and Jolly Bumble Blast was out on the pegs! Technically not out until tomorrow, it was an unexpected surprise! Making it an even better deal was the Free Skylander Coupon I had from doing the GS Skylander Club. One stocking stuffer for my son in the bag!!!

Here's a pic collage I put together and an early Merry Christmas from us!

Swap Force Observations

As we play the game, I am noticing certain differences, both good and bad, in the game play from the previous versions. I wanted to keep a running commentary on them as I notice them because frankly, if I don't write them down fairly quickly, they get lost in the moment. I will try to tag them as "Observations" so they can be searched on the blog under that tag and reviewed as a group.

So anyway: The one I'm noticing at the moment is with Chill, or Blizzard Chill I should say. She looks great, as I think so far all have, in Swap Force. However, I am noticing a difference in the "feel" in the way she knocks the ice blocks around. They used to slide around fairly energetically. Now they are slower...which is too bad but not a major concern. The difference can be explained perhaps that VV (Vicarious Visions) have weighted them as more massive in the computer modeling. As I said, not a major concern but a diminishment to me. More importantly to me is her ice bashing them with her shield to get them moving in the first place. In the past, once she deployed the blocks, she could rapid hit them in sequence pretty quickly to send them off smoothly. Now she gets the first hit and the line moves forward slightly, taking the shield bash offline. She has to advance a step to continue hitting them. For me, this is annoying and takes away from her utility. I wonder if anyone else notices it...? It's too bad because I was just getting the hang of her in Giants.

A second observation is with Flashwing. Her Lightcore figure is brilliant!!!! ( nod to the British there) Upon observation, her proportions have changed: more stubby. Especially the wings . This, I'm sure is an attempt to make her more sturdy to encapsulate the LED and better propagate the light through her body (something they really achieved with her-she ranks up there with Lightcore Prism Break IMO). For sheer interest, if you have a Series 1 Flaswing, put them side by side and compare them. The most obvious difference can be seen in the size of her head....noticeably larger on the Lightcore version. As I stated earlier, the Lightcore is great and I'm on board with the potential reasons for the proportion change... I just hope it's for the Lightcore only and that if she ever gets a Series 3 or Series 2 (non-Lightcore) pose, that they go back to her original proportions. I think she was pretty well perfect in her first iteration.

More rumblings as I notice...I just wanted to get the ball rolling on recording the things we are noticing as we play....Enjoy all!

The Lightcore posters and collages:

Here is quick update of the Artisan Earth Island showing a bit of wear and tear and Skylanders. The text is on the picture...

The agony and the ecstasy continues....or should I say, the ecstasy and the agony: the Frito-Lay Fight Rider is a Done Deal!! Woo-Hoo! The Frito-Lay Rattle Shake...D'oh!!
Actually, this apparently happened to a lot of people on the first day. Which they have corrected...BUT....The system they seem to be using confounds the senses...codes on the outside of the packaging (haven't they ever heard of cellphone cameras?!? In 2 minutes a person can photograph every code on a wall full of packages. To boot, if they disabled their "This code has already been used" function...does that mean I can enter the same code everyday? Worse still, they diable the code after several uses by the same user and Don't bother to let you know!?! The jury is still out on this one.....

Addition: As of 11/17, we seem to have won a Rattleshake!!! They emailed a confirmation to us. Which is great and curious. Curious because we did not receive any confirmation yet via email about the Fright Rider we won....hmmm.

Here are some shots for all the Hot Dog fans out there. While he's not one of my "go to" Skylanders, He is fun and a lot of people like him. This is him on the Artisan Earth Island (hanging on our wall to display all of our Earth Element Skylanders and the first in what I hope to be a series of 8, one for each element. I'm presently working on the Artisan Air Island)
On an interesting note (at least to me!), the background skyscape is from the Dark Edition Swap Force Starter Pack we got from GameStop. It looks great and is a really handy portable backdrop for any Skylander pics. I plan to paint the wall where we are putting up our islands. I'm not master painter but I am going to give it a try. There are a lot of help videos on YouTube as examples. Believe it or not, Bob Ross is one of the best for this kind of project: encouraging, detailed, simplified as much as possible....And let's face it...Very Relaxing!,,,lol.

Here are some un-watermarked versions for anybody that wants to play with them. Use it in any way that you wish-Enjoy!