Review: Skylanders Swap Force (PS4)

It was last August that I had first played Skylanders. I was at the Call of Duty Multiplayer Reveal Event and on the last day of the event I received an invite to see the Playstation 4 version in action. The portal, the multiple characters and the colour, brought out of the little kid inside me. How had I not heard of Skylanders sooner?

Review: Skylanders - SWAP Force (PS3)

As a series, Skylanders has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide and presumably multimillions in additional toy sales.

Skylanders can be best described as a toy-game crossover that at first glance seems like it's primarily aimed at children, However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll quickly learn that Skylanders offers something cool to players of all ages.

Feature Preview: Skylanders Swap Force (Part III)

Last week, Sidd was in Albany, New York to take a tour of developer Vicarious Visions studio. During the trip he got a chance to talk to the developers and get some hands on time with the game. In our first two feature articles (Part I, Part II, we took a behind the scenes look at the game talking about everything from the character creation to how the story was crafted. In this third and final article gives us some hands-on impressions of Swap Force for the Xbox 360.

The Skylanders series has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide, which is to say nothing of the number of toy sales that has generated.

Feature Preview: Skylanders - Swap Force (Part II)

Check Part I of Sidd's Skylanders: Swap Force.

Part 4: The Audio Behind Swap Force
We met with one of the sound designers who took us inside his studio where the walls are covered with soundproofing foam and a really cool audio board, full of computers and dials.

The designer revealed that the sound offered a challenge when you add the "swapability" elements to the characters, since the two characters might have different personalities. As a rule of thumb the developers would play up the more aggressive side of a character, but they would also have to strike a fine balance between something that is cool and not scary to kids.

One of the characters we were shown was Wash Buckler who features tentacles. The audio team wasn't really sure how to make an octopus sound when walking on land. The team came up with an idea like using a bath tub, bath mat and laundry detergent to create Wash Buckler's sound. It seems like inspiration can come from the strangest places.

Feature Preview: Skylanders - Swap Force (Part I)

On September 17th, Sidd was in Albany, New York visiting Vicarious Visions Studio where he was given a tour of the studio, spoke with members of the development team and got some more hands on time with the game. In the next few days we will be featuring some articles taking a behind the scenes look at the next game in the series and have some more hands on impressions. This article will cover how the concept of Swap Force came about, the game's technology, and the process of how the writers create an engaging story.

Part 1: How The New (Swapping) Feature Comes About
Skylanders Swap Force still supports all the old Skylander figures/characters, but introduces sixteen new characters. These new characters have top and bottom halves that can be separated from each other and recombined with the halves from other characters. This allows for 256 total combinations.

The top half controls how you fight, while the bottom half controls how you move. This was an idea that was presented early on to Activision CEO of Publishing Eric Hirschberg. Immediately he latched on to the idea and loved what it could mean for the third iteration of the game. As the developers described it, it was their "Aha!" moment.

Hands-on Preview: Skylanders SWAP Force

The day after the Call of Duty reveal event, Activision invited us to see a preview of their upcoming platformer title, Skylanders: Swap Force. In addition to revealing several new Skylanders , the preview also offered a chance to get some brief hands-on time with the game.

Skylanders is a series that has garnered a cult like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide, which is to say nothing of the number of toy sales that has generated. Skylanders can be best described as a toy-game crossover that at first glance seems like it's primarily aimed at children, However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll quickly learn that Skylanders offers something cool to players of all ages.