Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack - Nintendo Wii

This was a Christmas present for my son who is going on 9. He had been begging for it as soon as he saw the first Skylanders set. So on Christmas morning when he opened this present he was besides himself. Didn't want to finish opening his other presents because he HAD to play it right then. Of course being the mean parents we are we made him open the rest first. :) The concept of the game itself is really amazing. The graphics are great and it's a game that kids can figure out on their own which as any parents can attest to is wonderful. Last thing you want is a game that you end up playing half of it because they are confused. This particular starter pack comes with the game, three figures (Which are your players in the game) and the portal of power. The portal of power is a stand that reads which figure you are going to use and transports them into the game. A small USB device comes with the game which you plug into the back of the wii system which allows the portal and the game system to communicate. Each figure or "player" brings a specific talent to the game. They can be switched out at anytime if one is more suitable to get through a challenge then another. Which I will warn parents of more then one child that a sibling will find it funny to switch out a player while the other one plays to hear them get angry. There are TONS of different figures or "players" out there which you can buy for things as treats for good grades or birthday's which opens more games and brings new talents. So while your child might play through the game with say Spyro they can play a different game or the same game again with a different figure. One added thing I love about the game is that the characters get tire. They will come on the screen and tell the player they need a rest which means it's time to turn off the game. Which forces your child to take a break for a while. Now I am sure you can just turn off the game system and turn it back on and they are ready to go again but my son has not thought of that yet so it works great for us. So if you are trying to decide to pay this much for a game or even if this is the game for you I would give my recommendation and would assure you that you will not be disappointed.

Let me just say this, I am a 38 year old father. My son got this for Christmas. We started playing it together and I think I am more hoooked on it than he is. The three characters it comes with a great to start, but a warning you or your children will quickly want or need more. You can get through the early levels with the ones included. But as you get further and further along the levels get harder and harder. If all your Skylander's are killed, you must restart the level. Thus the more you have, the easier it is to get through the levels. ALSO, you can complete the level without doing so, but in order to get full credit for finishing the level you must find everything in the level/chapter. Similar to the Lego games where you need to go back as free play to find certain things. You need certain Skylander's to open certain gates within the level. GREAT MARKETING PLOY!!! But luckily the extra Skylander's aren't that expensive. $8 each or a three pack for like $20 most places. Right now they are really expensive because no stores have restocked since Christmas and everyone wants them so they are paying too much. Just wait. Really what you need is one Skylander from each "relm" but it is not necessary. I am playing with my 7 year old and he can get through most of the early levels by himself. One other great aspect of the game for younger players is they don't have to read. It does display the words on the screen but a narrator also reads it and tells you what you need to do. Big help so that a parent doesn't have to sit there and tell him what to do. Overall great game but beware, if you even like video games a little bit, you will quickly get hooked. It's a kids game but has enough "fun" for adults. Ask my wife, she has a hard time getting both of us to come to the dinner table once we start playing!!!

I bought this without doing much research on Skylanders. After buying, I was told we should have bought the Giants game first, but as a gamer myself, I wanted to start the series from the start. It is a little more difficult to find characters that are compatible with Spyro's Adventure (SA) in retail stores. The figures are not backwards compatible, so the majority of Giants characters do not work with SA. However, it is easy to find them at a good price here or on local buy sell trade type sites. This game reminds me of an old PS2 game called Champions. Each character represents an element, and has different strengths and weaknesses. You can collect coins to upgrade powers or play mini-games that boost things like armor, speed, and critical hit. I bought this game for my 5 year old. I like that it isn't gory in anyway. The characters don't die, they are told they "need to rest" and you can switch out for another figure at any time. This is where having a large collection comes in handy. With at least one of each element, it is fairly easy to get through the levels with a young child. But there are certain criteria on each level to collect stars. Playing with my 5 year old, we always get the first star for completion. But as a gamer, my husband and I often find ourselves playing after the kids go to sleep to play each level again for all 3 stars. Overall, I highly recommend. I know Swap Force is out, but I find it easier to take kids from the start and move them forward. This way, I can wait for all the bugs to be worked out of the newer games and give people a chance to get tired of it so I can buy their action figures :)

This was a Christmas present for my 9 year old (girl) and 7 year old (boy). In addition to the basic game pack, I bought them separate figures. The basic game pack includes 3 characters, but there are over dozens of other characters that can be purchased separately or in packs of 3. My order on amazon.com was processed quickly, and the game arrived in 4 days using standard shipping to Florida. The game is very fun, and allows 2 players to select their character of choice and place on the portal (which is connected to the Wii using a wireless USB antenna that is included with the portal), at which time they are transported into the game. However, if the character dies during the game, you have to swap them off the portal with another character. Each character has an element that they represent, so some areas of the game are inaccessible unless my kids are using the correct character. In addition, each character has different strenght, defense, speed, and powers...making each character unique in their own way. So far, my kids have had a great time playing the game. I would highly recommend buying a few more characters, as my kids have really enjoyed the ability to swap out the characters for those with different powers or attributes. ***UPDATE*** Based on continued gameplay, my 9 years old had the following comments: I think Skylanders is a realy fun game. You can collect differnt skylanders and trade them with your friends.In this game you can colloct mony and upgrade your skylanders.Skylanders can move up levels by defetting foes. You also can use a skylander on any game system. If you have a Wii but your friends have a Playstation or XBox, the characters will work on any of them. But the thing is when a skylander dies on a level you can't play that skylander again until you either start the level again or you quit the level. Other then that I think skylanders is a great game.

This is one great game! I keep seeing how the game and all of its parts are so expensive! Let me tell you.. all you really need is one character from every group so in reality you need 6 or 7 monsters, now if you get the starter pack that gives you three, so a few more is all that is needed. If you have a person (child or adult) that likes to play or is just started video gaming this game is great for them. The graphics are wonderful and the voices are good, Patrick Warburton who did the voice for Kronc is the voice of Flynn and he really does a fine job. I was intrigued by this whole concept from the moment I saw it in the stores before Christmas (when the shelves were loaded with characters) and I really wanted to give it a go, so I bought two of them for Valentines Day, one for me and one for my honey.... he really is enjoying it, first he said the game is entertaining, second he loves us spending time together, and third he loves being able to change out the character when he chooses.. of course this leads to "honey who ya got over there" as he takes out all of his people. This would be a great birthday gift especially if others are in on it and can get the other figures.. you could make it a Skylander Birthday party!! I think this game is a great way to connect with your kids, boys and girls alike would enjoy this game and if you learn which characters do what in the game and why they are so important your kids would talk to you endlessly. So if you are looking for something for family time or a special gift ... give this one a go!

Before I say anything, I would just like to point out that I am a 26 year old male. I have been playing games since the days of Atari and in that time have enjoyed more games than I could hope to name. My rule is: if it's fun, then I will play it. I play many mature rated games (e.g. Resident Evil, Gears of War, etc.), but am never scared or ashamed to pick up (and admit when I love) an E rated game. When I first saw the videos of this game in action I knew it was going to be a blast. It also looked like the perfect kind of game I could play with my girlfriend. Since she isn't a gamer to the same degree as me, she often quits playing any time a game frustrates her. I figured since this game was "for kids," it wouldn't just be something that she could enjoy in her free time (did I mention she likes Spyro :P), but also something we could enjoy together. So far so good! Load times are quick. The game has excellent quality as far as graphics go. They are very colorful and detailed. The music blends in with the worlds. I haven't caught myself tapping my foot to the tunes yet, but haven't exactly been muting the TV either. The voice acting is excellent and the humor is very well delivered. We have chuckled a few times already. Kids will enjoy it too :) The controls are easy to pick up. You can perform pretty much all of your actions with just a couple buttons. They might frustrate on occasion as they lack some things that some might be accustomed to. The ability to strafe is not present and you would think just by glancing at the game that you'd be able to jump, but that too is not a function to be found. These things don't hurt the game, they would have just improved it is all :) My only real gripe is that the Portal of Power takes batteries. Normally I could let this slide, except that this particular add-on is lit up like a Christmas tree during game-play. I haven't played enough yet to suck the life out of the 3 AA batteries that came with the game, but I do not expect them to last long. I imagine that constant wireless communications with your system are enough work on just 3 AA batteries alone, so it really kind of annoyed me that they had to line the darn with all kinds of pretty lights. Kids probably won't get annoyed like the adults who actually have to buy the batteries. They didn't have to include an AC adapter in the box, but a port for one you could purchase separately would have been nice.

This game made my kid cry on his birthday, so I'm starting from that. I'm very grateful for Amazon customer service and returns. Activision, I'm not so happy with. It reminds me of Webkinz - their entire focus is on roping kids in to make big profits on collectibles, with no quality control or customer service. The portal wouldn't recognize the figures. No trouble setting it up or synching it to the Wii, but when the game asks you to put a figure on the portal, we got no response. We searched online and found a lot of complaints about the functioning of the portal. We moved it around the room, completely reset everything many times, tried everything an intelligent person who has been working with a Wii and wireless devices for years could think of, and nothing. I bought a replacement kit at Target today (for speed) and it fired right up, no problem. So if it doesn't work, don't waste hours thinking you can fix it. Activision's quality control is garbage. And if you're getting it as a gift, open it up and try to make it work before you wrap it.

What an excellent game for kids. My 9yr old immediately fell in love with the characters that I bought in addition to the package here. Honestly I had no idea what I was buying, thought it was just a basic Wii game with a few toys. The concept of changing characters and gadgets with the wireless platform stand is genius, especially if you want to make a load of money! Your kids can "collect them all"! At your expense of course. I am okay with this, because it is a great toy that brings hours of pleasure for my girl. Much better than a game that costed 50 bucks, then it's over in 3 days because she won it. This game continues on with the adventure much longer.She is looking forward to getting more of the Skylanders. Your child can go online to play there with the platform/characters as well. Each character comes with a code card for the internet game, best to use that to save battery power for the platform, don't throw it away , it's in the packaging, I almost did and had to dig out of the garbage. It's a great value.

Disc doesn't work everything in good condition but won't read the disc

El juego llegó rápido en 4 días ya que viene desde Estados Unidos, no sabía en qué condiciones iba a llegar el juego y la verdad me sorprendió porque estaba nuevo, las pilas originales ahí venían y obviamente ya sulfatadas por el tiempo pero no afecta ningún componente ya que vienen en un plástico y aparte, ya tenía el juego y los skylanders iniciales pero me faltaba el portal, así que fue una buena compra y lo compré en oferta, ya puedo usar todos mis skylanders, buen juego y buena compra

Came in perfect condition and brings back nostalgia. Perfect for those memories

Gift for grandson and he was happy with it.

Batteries were Corrupted when recieved and had exploded.