Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (2011)

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure

Game number 36 was Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. This is an action/adventure game, where you go through levels beating up enemies and solving puzzles as a myriad of creatures called Skylanders. This is a toys to life game, which means that real toys are sold in order to add content to the game. You are only able to play Skylanders that you actually own a little figurine of.

While he may be in the name, Spyro really has no purpose in the story here. He is only there for name recognition and because he was one of the Skylanders sold in the original bundle. The actual story of this game is about this paradise island, called the Core of Light, which is attacked by this evil guy named Kaos. After the attack, the island is left in shambles and it is up to you to utilize all your Skylanders to fix it.

Gameplay is actually pretty satisfying and the levels are pretty fun. The game is mainly a beat-em-up. You will walk into a room, fight some baddies, walk to the next room, and fight some more. The thing is that the combat is pretty simple, but fun. It is way better than a game sold to children as a cash grab has any right to be. Each of the Skylanders has different skills and attacks, leading to a strong level of diversity in play.

Just when you start having fun, the game starts teasing you with special routes and prizes that can only be unlocked with a certain type of Skylander (that you probably do not have). I find these extra routes to be really annoying… but they are inherently extra and I was never blocked from continuing the main story because of not having enough Skylanders.

The final boss in this game is super cool and very difficult. I don’t know why they cranked up the difficulty here, but Kaos is 10x harder than literally every other encounter in the game. He repeatedly brings out 3 shadow Skylanders to attack you and then sends you into a bullet hell encounter. You have to dodge hundreds of projectiles in this fight and kill dozens of Skylanders. It was super cool and an amazing fight!

Overall, I think that Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is a good video game, but it would have been nice to have a version that did not require me to do any BS with the portal and physical figurines. I think that this game is actually fun and may be worth playing if you have a child in your life who is looking to game. (7/10)

I spent 8 hours, 29 minutes, and 15 seconds playing Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure.

I have spent a total of 368 hours and 14 minutes on the Road to 360 challenge so far.

Next Game: Minecraft