Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure was met with hesitation when the game was announced earlier this year coming out of developer Toys For Bob and Activision.  Long time Spyro fans have witness the decay of this franchise from sub-par games over the years.  Hardcore gamers looked at Skylanders as a gimmick and feared that Activision was ‘up to their old tricks again’ after the last couple of years littered their living rooms with plastic instruments.

We had a chance to interview the developers of both the console version (Toys for Bob) and also the developers of the Nintendo 3DS version (Vicarious Visions) – both videos and trailers for the game were met with mixed feelings.  Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is out now for multiple platforms and hand-helds.  Most of our time spent pre-release on the game was for the Nintendo Wii but this time around I had the Xbox 360 version in hand with about 6 Skylander toys at my disposal.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is a platformer game with co-op abilities and tons of bad guys and adventuring.  The game uses an interface called the ‘Portal of Power’ to allow you to switch characters during gameplay by simply setting a new figurine onto the portal.  Each character contains unique abilities and personalities as well as special abilities.  For instance, Trigger Happy is a technology specialist and is powered up when used in specific areas (as shown by an on-screen icon) while Gill Grunt is a water creature who can get into certain areas that land creatures cannot.  The ability to jump in and jump out with a friend works well and using the ‘Portal of Power’ to swap characters is simple and quick — all things important for the targeted gaming youth.

All the things I’m telling you factor into a fun experience and rewarding video game.  For gamers who enjoy the history – they’ll most likely just have to forget that the word ‘Spyro’ is in the title at all and just accept the game as a complete revamp.  Skylanders is targeted to young gamers who weren’t even born when the last good Spyro game was released.  Other things an experienced gamer will have to get over is the fact that you cannot jump (this is intentional) and Spyro cannot fly.  Jumping and flying can be done in the Nintendo 3DS version of the game which is a completely different experience (also using the same toys/figures).  As a gamer looking for a fun time and well made game I was pleasantly surprised — some things like poor lip syncing from the NPC characters took away from the fantasy realism but overall I found myself bashing away at bad guys and wanting to swap characters in and out along the way.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is out now and is 10x more fun then the majority of video games in 2011 geared towards kids.  Parents be warned that there are over 30+ Skylanders to ‘collect’ and use for the game and these toys will be sold out going into the Holiday Season!  (We’ve provided some gameplay commentary of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure)